Have you been watching the World Cup? I can’t get enough of it. Clearly, I’m not the only one. Every host stadium of every World Cup game is packed to the rafters with loud and proud fans who seem intent on outdoing one another with their brash and bold displays of national pride. And that is only the tip of a very big, very noisy and very colourful iceberg. Similar displays of pride are filling pubs, living rooms, halls, schools, coffee shops, and community gathering places around the globe. Best guesses are that over 2 billion people on planet earth will tune in to at least one game during the World Cup.
There is nothing like a world-class spectacle of sport to fire up patriotism and give people a reason to feel proud of the place they call home. Who are you cheering for? Your country of origin and ancestry, or the country you call home. I’m all in for Canada, but I am keeping an England flag in my back pocket, just in case Canada comes up short.
I find it fascinating that for a month, every four years, a significant segment of the world’s population, who may agree on little else, seems to find common ground in the idea that putting a round ball into a 24-foot-wide net is their nation’s highest aspiration. And if your nation’s young soccer superstars can do that more often than any of the others, then you have every right to declare yourself to be the best country on earth. At least until the next World Cup.
There is no question that the World Cup stokes in many of us a heightened pride of place, but some have argued that it goes even deeper than that.
In a recent article in the McMaster News, a brave and insightful young journalist called Hanna Tervanotko has suggested that sport may be far more than a game, but it may be taking over the role previously carved out by organized religion. Her article, entitled “Soccer And Religion May Have More In Common Than You Might Think”, is a good read. At first, her claim seems absurd, but she makes some very valid points. She begins the article by noting that the Ancient Olympic Games were played in honour of Zeus and Olympia. The fields of play were interspersed with temples where the gods could be worshipped. In other words, from day one, sport and religious observance were one and the same.
But it goes beyond that.
When religion is at its best, it brings people together, gives its participants a sense of unity and sparks strong and positive emotions. Does that sound like something else? I’m pretty sure if you were at the Rogers Centre for the World Series run of the Toronto Blue Jays, or had a seat in the rink for the final between Canada and the US in the Four Nations Cup hockey tournament, you felt more excitement, energy, unity and shared purpose than on an average Sunday at church.
I’m not bashing church, but I am pointing out that there is something deep and impactful about identifying with a sports team when everyone around you is doing the same. Sports scholars (yes, that’s a thing) have coined the term “collective effervescence” to describe the near-transcendent and transformational energy that can be felt and even harnessed when like-minded sports fans coalesce around a team, particularly when that team is on the brink of a significant win.
We all want to feel we are part of something greater than ourselves. I feel it every Sunday when I gather with our community for Sunday worship. I would never want to give that up. It fills me. But I can also recognize that for many people who may never step foot in a church, sports can offer something valuable: a sense of unity, an emotional release, or that wonderful feeling of “we’re all in this together”. Are you still not buying it? Let me ask you this: do you remember how you felt after the sermon three weeks ago? No? Do you remember how you felt when Sidney Crosby scored the Golden Goal wayyyyyyyyy back in the 2010 Olympics? 😊
We live in a divided world, where common ground seems so elusive. But for a few weeks at least, we seem to find it. Dress boldly. Cheer loudly. Gather readily. It is The Beautiful Game.
