Ritual, Tradition, Worship, and Football

I became curious this morning sitting in church and thinking about a good weekend of college football. I thought about a frequent repulsion on the part of some worshipers when it comes to ritual and tradition. Many people don't like the idea of falling into a pattern of tradition and ritual when it comes to worship. The thought is, I think, that people feel that tradition and worship lead to a lack of heart and soul being poured into the worship experience and they understandably fear being in the position of just going through the motions of worship without the worship itself carrying any meaning. But, after thinking about football (yes, that's right), I'm not sure that sort of reasoning actually carries much weight.

Think about it for a minute from the perspective of an SEC football game. The ritual and tradition that surround a home game begins a day or two before with people arriving for the game in an RV. People park in the same location every Saturday, eat generally the same food, and usually with the same people. The method of wearing clothes becomes somewhat of a superstition as people prefer the shirts and hats that helped the team win the last 2 games straight. In the stadium, the program follows ultimate predictability. The team comes out to warm up following the same warm up pattern they have followed every weekend under the current coach. Videos are shown on the jumbo tron in a certain order and at a specified time. The band marches around the field the same as they have done for the past several decades playing the same songs in the same order as they march around. The teams break from their warm up and go into the locker rooms. The cheerleaders lead the entire crowd in the same cheers and in the same order as they always do. The national anthem is played. The same videos show up on the screen again and the team storms out through the dry ice all to the sound of the school's fight song. All of this is only a fraction of the tradition and ritual that occur on any given Saturday.

College football is the ultimate experience of ritual, tradition, and in many instances downright superstition that would make the ancient pagans blush. But even in the midst of all of this pure tradition and ritual, people still have their emotions running through the clouds. People are still screaming their heads off at full volume as the climactic moment of kick-off rolls around. And people still come back week after week eager and ready to repeat the process yet again.

But when it comes to our worship, many people seem to think that ritual and tradition have no place as it leads to dead worship where people just go through the motions. I disagree with that sort of thinking and say that college football (or many of the other sports where the same things occur) falsifies this sort of rationality. The problem with tradition and ritual worship is not the tradition and ritual itself. I think in many cases the problem lies with the worshiper themselves and with their own heart, desires, and expectations.

Maybe those against tradition and ritual need to "get their heads in the game"?