How Not to Get Arrested At Your Grandson’s Game

Guest column from Rev. Michael Brooks of Siluria Baptist Church, Alabaster AL

Our middle grandson, 16, enrolled in soccer referee training and has been officiating this year. 

I don’t remember our having soccer when I was his age. Soccer must’ve been invented later and smuggled into America when we weren’t paying attention. 

I grew up playing baseball and still enjoy watching it. When our son moved to Denver a few years ago I got to take in a Rockies game at Coors Field, and a Red Sox game at Fenway Park when the college sent me to a conference at Harvard in 2011. 

Nonetheless, Read, new at this enterprise, says he’s been accosted by a few angry parents and even one angry coach who challenged a call. I suppose I’ve grumbled at a few referees and umpires along the way, but I think I’d have to restrain myself from confronting anyone who yelled at my grandson. It would be a terrible headline: “Baptist pastor arrested after melee on soccer field.”

I wouldn’t allow criticism of the referee because he’s my flesh and blood. I’ll always be on his side, even if he made a bad call.

God gave us families because we need safe space for unconditional love. Sometimes we need gentle correction, but we’re on the same team, no matter what. And we learn generosity, denying things for ourselves to give to our families.

It occurred to me this is true as well in God’s family. 

The Bible calls us “adelphoi”—brothers in the Lord. 

Modern translations take the liberty of writing “brothers and sisters” since this is the obvious meaning, and women weren’t often included in first-century writing. (Neither in much 20th century writing, either, since JFK and Dr. King spoke about “men” and “mankind,” rather than “men and women” or “humanity” as we do today.)

If we’re brothers and sisters in Christ, shouldn’t we find ourselves loving one another always and defending one another when necessary?

I’ve seen a number of disputes in churches. We sometimes joke about people getting upset over the paint on the walls or the color of the carpet. Worship styles, too, can be divisive. A friend told me about a woman who came to him weeping after a morning worship because the congregation didn’t sing “The Doxology.” Not sure why they didn’t—maybe it was just an oversight. But surely they sang something else that honored the Lord.

Christian brothers and sisters stick together. They support one another. They lovingly correct one another when necessary. And they make love their aim in every circumstance. 

Aristides the Athenian in the second century A.D. said those outside the early church remarked of them, “Behold, how they love one another!”  

Surely this remains among our finest aspirations.

Michael J. Brooks, pastor of Siluria Baptist Church in Alabaster, Alabama and former Judson College faculty member, writes a weekly faith column. Visit siluriabaptist.com for more information. Rev. Brooks has graciously given ALPolitics.com permission to repost his regular pastoral column here.

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