Does God Take Delight in the Kansas City Chiefs?

Listen: “Learn to Fly” by Foo Fighters

I’m writing this blog a few days before the Chiefs play in their back-to-back Super Bowl appearance. I’m thinking about how much fun my family and I have had watching this Chiefs team play football. And I’m asking a question: Does God take delight in the way Patrick Mahomes can throw a football? Or the way Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill can run routes and make catches? The bigger question is: In what does God take delight?

It’s actually an important question that can inform and enhance our spirituality, if we answer it correctly. Let me give some context. I grew up in a conservative, evangelical faith tradition. As a young teen, I got involved in the recreational drug scene for a brief time, but then came to experience a life-changing encounter with Jesus and felt called to be a pastor. As I grew in my faith in high school and college, I remember a movement among church youth groups which tried to encourage young evangelical students to separate themselves from the evil world around them. I remember passionate messages from youth leaders who challenged us to get rid of all secular influences like rock and roll music and television. One youth leader even talked about the dangers of backmasking (messages on a record when played backwards) on rock and roll records. In essence, to be really spiritual and holy you had to basically go to church, read the Bible, hang out with Christians only, and separate yourself from mainstream American culture; otherwise, you would be corrupted. I got rid of my entire rock and roll collection (crapola).

Is this true spirituality, even from a biblical perspective? Does God take delight in the study of psychology, philosophy, astronomy, anthropology, science, geology, literature, or history, even if you don’t put “Christian” in front of all these academic disciplines? Does God take delight in a couple that falls in love? Does God take delight in the birth of a child born into the Hindu faith and culture in India? Does God take delight in a good brew of coffee, the preparation of a gourmet meal, a beautiful painting, a modern sculpture, or a well written piece of literature? Does God take delight in a rock and roll concert like U2, a Netflix series like The Queen’s Gambit, or a movie like Shawshank Redemption?

Certainly we need to be mindful of negative influences on our mental health and behavior, but shouldn’t we take delight in the same things in which God delights? In Christian theology (a discipline in which I have studied a great deal), theologians typically speak of two realms of revelation or truth: natural theology and revealed theology. Natural theology is the study of wisdom and knowledge that comes from the original goodness of creation, or what we can learn from nature and reason. Revealed theology in the Christian tradition is the study of the Bible and Jesus (most faith traditions have sacred texts or sacred stories which have been transmitted through written and oral traditions). One Christian tradition describes this distinction as common grace (natural theology or God’s grace bestowed on all people) and saving grace (revealed theology or God’s grace bestowed upon believers). One of my favorite books on common grace was written by Richard Mouw, President of Fuller Theological Seminary where I earned a doctoral degree, entitled He Shines in All That’s Fair.

Another way to talk about natural theology is to embrace the idea that “all truth is God’s truth” no matter who says it or where you find it. Or another way to say it is that “all goodness is God’s goodness.” In the creation story of Genesis, God takes delight in all that he creates and says: “it’s good.” When he creates humanity, he says: “it’s very good!” All of creation and all knowledge and all wisdom and all gifts are good. They can be misused, but their source is good. “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights…” (James 1:17; NIV).

All things in this world can be aglow with the presence and numinous of God and can be experienced with awe and wonder and delight. “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it” (Psalm 24:1). All faith traditions throughout human history contain a story of the pursuit of meaning and purpose and ultimate reality. We can learn from all people and cultures created in the image of God. As Shakespeare wrote: “The world is mine oyster.” Judaism and some Christian traditions have always assessed the world in this fashion. (Read a brilliant study by Matthew Fox entitled Original Blessing.) In a certain sense, this is what Spirituality Adventures is exploring.

There are social injustices and hurtful behaviors that need to be courageously confronted and restored to wholeness in our world. However, this needs to be balanced with original goodness and the irradicable image of God. It seems that the largely negative assessment of the world taught to me in my conservative, evangelical upbringing is adrift from its own sacred scriptures. Listen to Richard Rohr’s accurate reflection:

Ironically enough, our own Scripture contains ample examples of appreciative appraisal of elements of neighboring faiths, whether it’s Eastern pagan astrologers accurately divining the birth of the Christ child and worshipping him (Matthew 2:1-12), syncretistic-heterodox Samaritans being the heroes of parable and encounter (Luke 10:25-37; John 4:4-41), Greek philosophy offering us its concept of logos (John 1:1-5), or approving citations of neo-Platonic poetry as pointing to the all-in-all nature of the one true God (Acts 17:16-34)! 

So, in what does God take delight? I’m guessing that he takes great delight in the way Patrick Mahomes throws a football. I can hear God saying over Patrick Mahomes and over you: “For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs” (Zephaniah 3:17; NLT). Go Chiefs!

Shalom

©realfredherron 2021