In the world of football Christmas is referred to as a defining point in the season.
For example, in the Premier League the team that is bottom at Christmas virtually always gets relegated.
According to most of the media, hope disappears at Christmas if you are at the foot of the league!
At the top of each league things are beginning to shape up in a way that reveals which team is likely to be successful with either a Championship or at least promotion.
Christmas signals the ‘business’ end of the season. And then the transfer window re-opens again…
The Royals are once again competing for promotion back to the Premier League and, with a little more consistency, we have good reason to look forward to an exciting end of season.
The Christmas period will also be a significant marker as to how things are developing.
I have recently attended Sports Chaplaincy UK’s Annual Conference and it’s exciting to see how the impact and appreciation of chaplaincy is growing across so many sports in the UK and beyond.
Despite being told that we are living in an increasingly secular society that has less and less time for God and spiritual life, there is significant evidence that the approach of sports chaplains across the nation is working to provide invaluable support to people working in sport. Chaplains aim to be good news in our respective ‘worlds.’
Thinking of good news, this is what Christmas is about. For the history of mankind, it is certainly defining! The point at which God becomes flesh and blood, and enters our world and provides a way of our restoration into relationship with Him, as well as freeing us from the effects of living in a corrupted world.
By receiving Jesus and identifying with Him, we can then be good news to others by loving in the same way God loves us. There is a sense in which every Christian can live and serve as chaplains in our communities.
A chaplain is usually identified and given credibility and authority to act in their designated roles but the heart and vision for chaplaincy is to try and represent God in the specific world we are called to work and serve in. Is this not the heart of our mission as Christians?
May this Christmas be a defining moment for you because of Jesus. I hope that it’s certainly defining for the Royals as we move into 2014.
Come on URZ!!
Steve Prince is Reading FC Chaplain and the Pastor of Brookside Church
Last modified on Monday, 16 December 2013 18:38
