Tiger back on the course, but is he on the right course?

Well it’s not hard to know that Tiger Woods is back on the course and this is big news. According to the Telegraph.com.uk, 18th March 2010, “Tiger Woods’s comeback at the Masters is being billed as a ratings winner on par with inauguration of President Barack Obama.” It looks as if everyone has forgiven Woods for his sex scandals. What is obviously upper most in the minds of everyone is that the master is  back on the course and displaying his magic.

Reflecting on this it’s sad to see how perverted and twisted our values are. It seems that to have a sex scandal, while bad can be quickly and simply atoned for if the person can get’s back on his feet and plays well. I guess most people have forgotten about Shane Warne’s sexual flings that cost him his marriage, yet once he was back with the ball in hand taking wickets for Australia, everything was forgiven. Similarly with Woods. Once he hits magic on the Masters tournament, people will be “wowed” and everything is forgiven.

In this it’s worth noting that the one thing that people won’t tolerate is sports enhancing drugs. Therefore while his sex scandal was wrong, at least it didn’t affect his hitting. On the other hand I can imagine that if, hypothetically, the reason for his great golfing was because he was taking some sort of sports enhancing drugs or whatever to help his golfing, then that would totally be the end, not only of his golfing career, but of Woods himself.

Strange that we can put up with unfaithfulness in marriage but not in sports. Maybe this highlights how much golf, and indeed sport has become so much of a god to all of us.

“Thou shalt not worship any other god except sport.” is the motto of our world.

We need to take seriously the words of Paul the apostle in Romans 3:25,26

They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator–who is for ever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts.

Preaching on Leviticus 1 at a wedding?

It’s not that I’m a masochist but I’ve always wondered how I would approach it. As a pastor and preacher I’ve been to tons of them and the wedding sermon usually covers the following passages

• Gen 2:18-25
• 1 Cor 13:4-13
• Ephesians 5:21-33
• 1 John 4:10-19
• Revelation 21:1-7

There are some odds one here and there but in the main the above passages are, to a large degree the set text for preaching at a wedding

Now I’ve got nothing against preaching on these passages. I use them as well but one wonders whether there is more we can say at a wedding than just these passages. Besides if you are in a marrying congregations as I have been, I think your congregation can only stomach so many rounds of 1 Cor 13. As well as this, not only will they get a dose of what you have to say, more than likely they’ll be invited by others, and the pastor will undoubtedly choose one of these passages.

So why these passages? We need to remember that they were never originally written for weddings, but for churches facing a lot of relational problems. In Corinth they were trying to out do the other person in spirituality. In the church John was writing to they also had relational problems. Sure enough Genesis 2, John 2, Ephesians and Revelation are more directly related, but apart from these it seems we have very little more to say. Of course time is a major problem. When you only have 10-15 minutes you can only say so much. So it’s understandable that we zoom in on passages which speaks more directly and pointedly about core issues related to marriage. But there in lies the problem. Doesn’t the WHOLE bible have something to say, directly or indirectly about marriage and not just these few passages?  In fact as I said, even the passages we commonly turn to are not really directly related to marriage. If we can make the connection between these passages and marriage could we not make the connection between marriage and the more “obscure”, if not seemingly unrelated passages? Undoubtedly the whole of scripture touches on the key issues of life that is relevant to all of us irrespective of our station in life.

OK so here is the challenge; What does Leviticus 1 have to say to a married couple if anything? Here’s my stab at it for what it’s worth in simple point form;

• God rescues his bride to be and brings her to himself (ie the exodus) but can they live happily ever after?
  
• It depends on whether they can own up and deal with the dark side of their relationship that will invariably tear them apart i.e. the problem of sin.  Instead, we only think of marriage in terms of kisses, flowers and romantics walks at sunset but never face the dark side of sin
  
• The sacrificing of animals regularly and daily is an extremely powerful and painful reminder of this dark side. The every day activity of slicing the animals throat, ripping out its insides, washing it and then burning it – the sight, sounds and smells tells us that sin cannot be ignored nor  is it a small matter. It is something that will destroy all relationships  – God/man and man/woman
  
• Sin cannot be ignored. It has to be dealt with, but dealing with sin is both costly and painfully yet very necessary.
• How do we deal with sin in marriage? God has dealt with our sin and the sin of our spouse. We need to therefore forgive.

Hmmm? Well it all comes back to Jesus doesn’t it but imagine talking about all the blood and gore at a romantic wedding. But instead of  jumping straight to 1John 4:10-19 we start with Leviticus 1.  It would really make an impact and graphically show the reality of sin and the need to deal with it. But when you think about it that’s what it was intended for in the beginning.

OK what do you think? Yes? No? Try a different angle? Or maybe I should just stick with 1 John 4:10-19 for the next 10 wedding sermons?