Introduction
I had the
delightful experience this week of watching a dozen 5 year old children get a
tennis lesson. They were asked by their instructor to simply run forward and
then backward over a 10 foot span. They did far more than run. Skipping,
leaping, bounding, hopping, spinning, laughing, imitating animals, running with
closed eyes, dramatically falling, jumping up again, and purposely crashing
into one another, all became part of the lesson. When the instructor armed the
children with racquets, the fun really began. The racquets quickly became
guitars, swords, canes, horses, trombones, rifles and fishing poles. The lesson
continually bordered on becoming “unproductive” and utter chaos because playing
was as instinctual to the children as breathing. The teacher was successful
because he appreciated the children’s insatiable need to play, and allowed for
copious amounts of it within his instruction. This week I also read of a father
who went to jail for 8 years for unintentionally killing one of his son’s
tennis opponents after drugging the opponent with medication that causes
drowsiness. The father, who was doing all he could to insure the athletic
“success” of his son and daughter, had similarly spiked the water bottles of 27
other rivals over a three year period.1 The difference between the fun loving
instructor and the winning obsessed father could not be more pronounced. And
their differences highlight drastically different ways of viewing sport in
Western Culture. One has preserved within sport the healthy, joyful expression
of the deep human inclination to play, the other has locked into a utilitarian
understanding of sport that squelches play and the perspective-giving power of
sport. One appreciates the actual process of playing a sport; the other has
sadly turned sport into an ugly expression of human pride, insecurity, envy,
and malice. What will keep us from turning sport into something ugly rather
than beautiful? A robust appreciation of play is sure to help.
Among the
many factors we could consider in answering the question of what it means for
Christians to play the way God intends, in this chapter I want to us to think
about the necessity of keeping play in sport for the glory of God. The main
question I want to answer is “how does play help us to fulfill our intended,
created purpose in this beautiful yet tragically fallen world?” First we will
briefly define play. We will then look at play in the Bible, and we will then
consider play in light of God’s purpose in creation, humanity, and salvation
history.
A Personal Quest
My interest
in play is deeply personal. I write as one who cherishes play and as one who
has struggled throughout my life to know when my play is godly and when it is
not. God has used play in my life, especially within sport, to maintain at
least some of my sanity and to quell bitterness and anger. I’ve had difficult
challenges to overcome in my life, and as a minister have sought to bear the
burdens of others, and I have seen clearly in my life that the ability to play
is one of God’s greatest gifts for coping with the difficulty of life in a
fallen world. As long as I can remember, play, grounded in knowledge that God
loved me, has often kept me from despair and resentment. Being able to play,
especially in the face of hard times, has been among the greatest blessings of
God in my life. So, my interest in play is far more than just academic. And I
hope yours is too.
A Fear
In some ways
play defies explanation and definition. As Johan Huzinga observed, “the fun of
playing, resists all analysis, all logical interpretation.”2 Play’s
resistance to being exegeted seems to be part of its magic. I fear that in
studying play, this wonderful source of solace, freedom, and perspective may
lose its power. As soon as you have to start explaining a joke you pronounce it
dead. I suspect that what E.B. White thought about humor is also true of play
when he said: "Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but like a frog, the
thing dies in the process and the innards are disgusting to anyone but the
scientific mind."3 I don’t want to kill play in the process of
seeking to understand it. But understand it we must. Jürgen Moltmann, in his
book on a theology of play; warns of this danger when he says, “All the
theories about play make the point that a game is meaningful within itself but
that is must appear useless and purposeless from an outside point of view. Just
asking for the purpose of a game makes a person a spoilsport.”4 But
I need to risk being a spoil sport for at least 5 reasons:
Why We Must Appreciate & Understand
Play
1) Play is a unique, God-given,
universal, human experience.
One of the first things a baby does to express her humanity is to play and
laugh. That first game of peek-a-boo not only melts a parent’s heart, it
establishes a uniquely human connection. Play is basic to being human. As Ice
says; Man is the only animal that weeps and laughs and knows that he weeps and
laughs, and wonders why. He is the only creature that weeps over the fact that
he weeps, and laughs over the fact that he laughs. He is the most play seeking,
play making and play giving species that has walked the earth, ever ready to
provoke or be provoked with play; even in the midst of fear and pain he is
capable of incongruously ameliorating his misery by a smile, pun, or joke. He
is the jester in the courts of creation.5
2) Play is a vital part of most meaningful, healthy human
relationships
The ability to play well with others is one of the first social
expressions we look for in human development. Although we tend to forget how to
play as we “mature,” it remains a vital quality in the most edifying
relationships.
3) Play tends to be seen as either
frivolous or an end in itself.
Play, especially within sport, tends to be dismissed as meaningless, worldly,
and contrary to sober Christian living. On the other hand, Christians can be
pulled into the idolatry of sport and leisure as an end in itself to be sought
at all costs. A biblical understanding of play as given by God for his glory
and our good, but never an end itself, will help coaches, athletes, and soccer
moms appreciate play and use it as a conduit of glorifying God. Such a
re-orientation will give perspective to our lives as intended.
4) Christian maturity should develop a
godly sense of play
As all other areas of our lives, play should fall under the sanctifying
effects of the Holy Spirit’s work.
5) Ministers should help people play
well
A Christian who takes his role as a minister seriously must be able to lead
people in godly play. As a pastor of a dear flock of growing saints and teacher
of college students who generally have a deep hunger to know God, I’m convinced
that helping God’s people survive in a very broken world requires a well-developed
ability to play. A minister of the gospel must be able to cry and mourn, laugh
and play with godly gusto, and lead others in these as well. So, for at least
these 5 reasons we must play well, and with understanding.
Defining Play
Play is a
fun, imaginative, non-compulsory, non-utilitarian activity filled with creative
spontaneity and humor, which gives perspective, diversion, and rest from
necessary work of daily life.6 In light of God’s sovereignty and
faithful love, play for the Christian should demonstrate and encourage hope,
delight, gratitude, and celebration. Play and fun go hand in hand. One cannot
truly play without a sense of good natured humor and fun that at times invokes
deep laughter. Fun at the heart of play has the potential to totally absorb the
player. However, fun need not be merely frivolous. Although fun is a necessary
part of the definition of play, play is not the opposite of seriousness and can
be very serious indeed.7 Without a seriousness about life, play
losses its real power to be an “interlude or intermezzo into our daily lives.”
Play becomes a “complement or accompaniment” to the serious work of life,8
and “may rise to heights of beauty and sublimity that leave seriousness far
beneath.”9
Another
aspect of definition of play is that it is non-compulsory. Play must express
freedom and therefore cannot be imposed. As theologian Fred Sanders points out,
“The commandment “Thou shalt play” is an incoherent one; it is internally
contradictory. We have God’s permission to play. We may play.”10 The
natural human inclination to be free may be “suppressed but not completely
abolished.” 11 Often in the most serious, strict, compulsory
activities play nevertheless seeps out, often uncontrollably. The more formal,
restrained, controlled, and mandatory a situation, the more likely a rising
need to play and laugh will be felt. Humans are created to be free, and imposed
circumstances often spark playful expressions of freedom. Following Sarte and
Shiller, Moltmann says, “if man knows himself to be free and desires to use his
freedom, then his activity is play,”12
Play is also
fundamentally non-utilitarian. The pragmatic results of play must necessarily
fade to the background, to an almost subconscious level, lest the pure
playfulness of play be lost. Play “does not depend on successes and
accomplishments, although it does not preclude these,”13 and it most
certainly has the potential of accomplishing much if it is allowed to be more
than merely a means to an end. The value of play is elusive in that as soon as
you dwell on the pragmatics of it, it ceases to be play. As Moltmann concludes,
“all the theories about play make the point that a game is meaningful within
itself but that is must appear useless and purposeless from an outside point of
view.”14
True play
includes imaginative, creative, spontaneity. To play means entering a world of
make-believe where the players act as if the agreed upon rules, boundaries, and
goals really matter and exist. The Oxford English Dictionary includes in it
definition of play; “to pretend or make believe, for sport or amusement.” This
has direct implication for the Christian in that the exercise of faith and hope
require a kind of imagination. While the faith of the Christian is not based in
a fictitious world of make believe, it does require creatively imagining
something God has promised in order to trust in it. Living with faith and hope
leads to the kind of joyful discipleship God requires of his people. Again,
Moltmann offers helpful insight when he says that “without the free play of
imagination and songs of praise the new obedience deteriorates into
legalism.”15
Finally, play
provides needed perspective, diversion and rest. Like the arts, play can afford
“counter-environments”16 that provide freedom from dwelling on the
daily difficulties of life in a fallen world. “We find pleasure in games and
enjoy the suspended state of playing when the game affords us critical
perspectives for change in our otherwise burdensome world.”17 Play
should not serve to anesthetize the Christian to life’s burdens preventing him
from engaging them wholeheartedly, but rather to provide a needed hopeful
Sabbath from their relentless presence.
Play and Competition
The inherent
tension between competition and play does not mean they are unable to co-exist.
Competition can increase the potential for true play, and play has the
potential to heighten the enjoyment of competition. Sport requires a commitment
to an imaginary world where the participants agree to act as though the made up
parameters of space, time, and rules of the game really exist and matter. This
is why we despise a spoil-sport more than a cheat. At least the cheat acts like
the rules exist, even though he is trying to break them. Whereas the
spoil-sport breaks out of the commitment to the imaginary world of play by
scoffing at the very existence of the world the game requires. Competition
intensifies the participants commitment to the world of make believe where play
thrives. Play keeps the competitor from losing perspective and seeing the final
score as more important than playing the game.
Serious Play
For a
Christian, play should never have a trivializing impact on life. God and life
are not to be trifled with, and play in this sense has no place in the
Christian life. If play serves as merely a diversion rather than giving hopeful
perspective it can actually prevent serious transformative engagement with a
world badly in need of redemption. “Games become hopeless and witless if they
serve only to help us forget for a while what we cannot change anyway.”18
Those who most recognize the difficulty of life in a fallen world are often
able to play and laugh best. Paradoxically, there is a vital connection between
suffering and play. As Moltmann explains; “Games, jokes, caricatures, parodies,
imitations, and intentional misunderstandings may be regarded as a means of
emancipation for those who are burdened and heavy-laden.”19 These
moments of emancipation can remind the faithful of the ultimate liberation
coming when Jesus makes all things new (Rev 21:5).
Play in the Bible
The Bible never
explicitly addresses play per se, and it is safe to say that it is a mostly
serious book that seeks to pull the reader from his sinful God-ignoring sloth
and distraction to an earnest pursuit of his Creator and then to holy living.
But the seriousness in the Bible often sets the stage for the unbridled joy of
knowing God that is often expressed in playful exuberance. Most of the elements
of our working definition of play, activity that is fun, free, spontaneous,
creative, non-utilitarian, are found throughout Scripture, especially in
response to the liberating, saving presence of God himself. This seems to
indicate that this sense of play has its origin in God himself.
Biblical
words translated as a variation of “play” (sachaq, shaa, raqad, (OT), paizo (NT))
can also carry meanings of amusement, merrymaking, celebration, laughter,
sport, delight, mocking, dancing, frolicking, leaping, and skipping about. The
most common kind of play in the Bible is the playing of instruments. Music,
depending on the kind, can be a profoundly playful expression. Humans, animals
and creation itself are portrayed as having an indelible playfulness woven into
them. To understand play in the Bible, as we shall see, we also need to
appreciate related concepts such as laughter, Sabbath, feasts, festivals,
childlikeness, dancing, leaping, and music. These are impossible to do well
apart from serious play. So our study of play in the Bible will not be limited
to passages where words translated “play” occur. Rather, we will focus on
examples where main components of play are present. These occur most often when
God’s presence, grace, and glory are most evident to his covenant people.
A Playful God
God created
the universe with amazing order. He also guides our lives in his wise providence
which provides assurance that nothing happens apart from his careful perfect
plan which culminates in his glory and our good (Rom 8:28). But in the midst of
God’s wise ordering of the universe and perfectly executing his purposes, he is
at the same time working with a creative, playful, extravagance. This is
evident in both the creation itself and God’s interaction with it. The
description of God’s creative activity in Ps 104, for instance, gives us a
picture of not only God’s awesome power and wisdom, but his abundant
playfulness in his creative work-- springs gushing, birds singing from among
the branches, wine gladdening the heart, trees watered abundantly, all point to
a fabulous display of lavish divine activity. In describing the immense and powerful
sea, the greatest sea creature of all, Leviathan, is said to have been formed
by God to “play in it” (Ps 104:26). This verse may even be implying that it is
God who is at play with Leviathan in the seas he has created.20 This
seems to be the same idea we find in Job 41:5 where, to put Job in his place,
God ironically asks him if he will play with the great Leviathan. “Will you
play with him as with a bird, or will you put him on a leash for your girls?
The point is, Job is obviously incapable of doing something God certainly can.
The very creature that strikes terror in humans has a toy-like quality from
God’s perspective. Also in Job, the mountains God made are portrayed as not
only yielding food for Behemoth, but also as a place where “all the wild beasts
play” (Job 40:20). God’s creative provision includes playgrounds for his
inherently playful creatures.
The
overwhelming artistic variety we see in creation indicates that there is not
only an intelligent designer behind it but also a playful artist. The sheer
variety of tastes, colors, sounds, textures, and shapes in creation indicate
anything but pure utilitarian motivation by its creator. God is both skillful
architect and creative artist. God does nothing based in need (Acts 17:24-25;
Ps 50:9-12; Job 4:11), so creation, like play, is “meaningful but not
necessary.”21 In creating and sustaining everything, and in
accomplishing redemption, God’s pleasure and glory, are his primary motives
(Isa 43:7; Matt 10:26; Lk 11:21; Eph 1: 5, 9, 11-12). Creation is God at play,
“a play of his groundless and inscrutable wisdom. It is the real in which God
displays his glory.”22 Creation, and life itself, become a source of
pleasure and delight for those who delight in the Creator and the work of his
hands.
We get glimpses
of the playfulness of God in Christ in his teaching which often included verbal
sparring with his opponents and at times his own disciples. Jesus’ parables
frequently contain humorous exaggeration, (the hypocrites beam in his eye of
Matt 7:5), word play (Peter’s new nickname, Matt 16:18), and irony (asking
whether the people who went to see John the Baptist had gone out to see someone
“in soft clothing,” Matt 112:8).
Play and the Coming Kingdom
The most
stirring images of play in the Bible occur in attempts to express the joy and
freedom experienced in the coming Kingdom of God. The most vivid of these
images is Zechariah 8:5: “And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and
girls playing in its streets. God gives his people a beautiful scene of the eschaton
to look forward to; children playing with uninhibited, unhindered, freedom. We
get a similar picture of the freedom to be found in the heavenly city in Isaiah
11:8-9; “The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned
child shall put his hand on the adder's den. They shall not hurt or destroy in
all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea.” Fearless childlike play, no longer inhibited by
the effects of sin and the curse is a key metaphor of Christ’s Kingdom. Similar
images of playful celebration and “merrymaking” abound in other prophetic
glimpses of what the New Jerusalem brings (cf. Jer 30:18–19; 31:4 , 13–14).
One of the
tenderest pictures of God’s deep care for his people is found in his promise of
a restored Jerusalem. He likens it to the care of a compassionate mother for a
little baby which will provide the care a little baby receives from her
compassionate mother. Speaking of the fulfilled covenant, Yahweh says of
Jerusalem, "Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory
of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you shall nurse, you shall be
carried upon her hip, and bounced upon her knees” (Isa 66:12). In the
restoration, God provides the security and freedom a child experiences while
playfully dandled on her mother’s knee.
These images
call to mind Jesus holding up a child as the prototype of the kind of person to
whom belongs the Kingdom of God (Matt 19:14). Jesus calls his followers to an
attitude of childlike dependence and trust in God, but this kind of trust
invariably leads to childlike play as we see God’s fulfilled covenant promises.
Playful,
spontaneous, exuberance sparked by God’s presence and blessing is vividly
displayed in David’s joyful worship when the Ark of the Covenant was returned
from the Philistines. David looks downright childlike as he celebrates the
symbol of God’s abiding presence upon re-entering Jerusalem.
“And David and all the house of Israel
were making merry before the LORD, with songs and lyres and harps and
tambourines and castanets and cymbals” (2 Sam 6:5).
“And David danced before the LORD with all
his might . . . 2 Sam 6:14).
His playful uninhibited exuberance was so
expressive, it offended to his wife.
“And David returned to bless his
household. But Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said,
"How the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today
before the eyes of his servants' female servants, as one of the vulgar fellows
shamelessly uncovers himself!" As the ark of the LORD came into the city
of David, Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King
David leaping and dancing before the LORD, and she despised him in her heart”
(2 Sam 6:20).
David is
unapologetic due to his deep gratitude for God’s gracious favor. "And
David said to Michal, "It was before the LORD, who chose me above your
father and above all his house, to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people
of the LORD- and I will make merry before the LORD. I will make myself yet more
contemptible than this, and I will be abased in your eyes. But by the female
servants of whom you have spoken, by them I shall be held in honor." (2
Sam 6:21-22).
Michal was
unable to appreciate the magnitude of God’s grace and therefore had no category
for David’s joyful response. Her highest value seemed to be royal dignity. For
David, God’s glory returning to his people far surpassed the need to maintain
royal decorum.23 David’s celebration epitomizes key elements of our
definition of play. His enthusiastic, exuberant, dancing and leaping was, free,
creative, fun, non-utilitarian and demonstrated and encouraged hope, delight,
gratitude, and celebration. Michal “despised him for the very qualities that made
him great, namely devotion to the Lord and spontaneity in worship.”24
Her failure to grasp God’s grace, and consequently playful exuberance resulted
in barrenness for the remainder of her life (2 Sam 6:23). Perhaps Michal’s
bareness gives us a warning about the poverty of a life bereft of exuberant
childlike freedom in worship.
David’s
playful dancing and leaping mirrors other responses of the joy over God’s
restoring, power and presence.
• “Singers and dancers alike say, "All my springs are in you."” (Ps
87:7)
• “The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs.” (Ps 114:4)
• “Again I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin Israel! Again you
shall adorn yourself with tambourines and shall go forth in the dance of the
merrymakers (or “the chorus of the playful,” (YLT)) (Jer 31:4)
• “Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the
old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy; I will comfort them,
and give them gladness for sorrow.” (Jer 31:13)
• “. . . then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute
sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the
desert;” (Isa 35:6)
• “But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with
healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.”
(Mal 4:2)
• “For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my
womb leaped for joy.” (Lk 1:44)
• “Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in
heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.” (Lk 6:23)
• “And leaping up he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them,
walking and leaping and praising God.” (Acts 3:8)
One would be
hard pressed to think of a less practical, less constrained, less mandatory,
less boring activity than leaping and dancing. This is the exuberant response
of pardoned prisoners. Those who fail to understand God’s astounding grace have
no category for this sort of impractical unrestrained worship. The woman in
Luke 7 dismissed pharisaical decorum and kissed Jesus’ feet and used her tears
and hair to anoint his feet with oil. She stands as a vivid and powerful
picture of a sinner who understood grace (Luke 7:36-50). This same disposition
was displayed by the woman who “wasted” expensive ointment anointing Jesus. She
did a “beautiful thing” to Jesus in preparation for his burial and realized
that unrestrained appreciation was warranted. His disciples failed to have her
perspective at this moment, but most of them would once the author of life left
an empty tomb behind.
Sabbath
Beyond
explicit play oriented passages, Sabbath observance in the Bible helps us
understand the value of play. Sabbath-keeping forced God’s people to disengage
from providing for themselves and remember the ultimate source of their daily
bread. The Creator and Sustainer built a mandatory rest into each week to get
his people to put their efforts at survival into perspective. Even more
radically, Yahweh institutes the Sabbath when his people are in the wilderness
where failure to fend for yourself could cost you your life. Rest in God’s
sufficiency and power wars against an anthropocentric view of life and demands
we surrender any vestige of self-sufficiency. Fred Sanders, offers excellent insight
along these lines.
Productive
work is an intoxicating thing. The temptation to base one’s identity and esteem
on what one produces is all but irresistible. . . The command to rest and
remember God is a challenge to human productivity. It arrests and relativizes
even the most demanding and consuming work, for anything which can be
interrupted is not ultimate in importance. Self-important people cannot
tolerate this undercutting of their significance. . . . The fundamental
realization that “it is God with whom I have to do” (Calvin) is what allows the
play ethic to be liberating.25
Sanders leans
on Barth’s discussion of creation in his Dogmatics. Barth’s treatment of
Sabbath in light of God’s sovereign work is worth quoting at length due to its
import for our discussion on play:
Outward and
inward work will be done with more rather than less seriousness once a man
realizes that what he desires and does and achieves thereby, when measured by
the work of God which it may attest, cannot be anything but play, i.e., a
childlike imitation and reflection of the fatherly action of God which as such
is true and proper action. When children play properly, of course, they do so
with supreme seriousness and devotion. Even in play, if a man does not really
play properly he is a spoil-sport. We are summoned to play properly. But we
must not imagine that what we desire and are able to do is more than play.
Human work would certainly not be worse done, but both individually and as a
whole it would be done much better, if it were done with the frightful
seriousness which is so often bestowed upon it just because fundamentally we do
not think that we have to take God seriously, and therefore we must take
ourselves the more terribly seriously, this usually being the surest way to
invoke the spirit of idleness and sloth by way of compensation. We may
confidently affirm that not by a long chalk can work be done with genuine
earnestness in these circumstances—and for this the simple reason that we will
not admit that in it, even at best, we cannot be more than children engaged in
serious and true play. No type of work is exempt from this rule. It may be seen
clearly in the work of the artist, since there it belongs to the very heart of
the matter. Yet we might just as well be prepared frankly to admit its validity
in scientific work as well.26
Barth
beautifully attacks any hint of human-centeredness or self-sufficiency. Lack of
play, rest, and leisure can be a sign of profound hubris.
Similarly,
Isaiah rebukes Israel and seeks to free them from thinking their efforts were
the ultimate source of their protection. “For I, the LORD your God, hold your
right hand; it is I who say to you, "Fear not, I am the one who helps you.
Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel! I am the one who helps you,
declares the LORD; your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.” (Isa 41:13-14).
Jesus’ also seeks to quell the pride that leads to anxiety about our provision
in his Sermon on the Mount.
Therefore I
tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will
drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food,
and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow
nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are
you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a
single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing?
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,
yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of
these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and
tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of
little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or
'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all
these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek
first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added
to you. (Matt 6:25-33)
In a sense,
Jesus is saying, how dare you worry? Who do you think you are, the sovereign
God? James corrects a heightened view of human planning by comparing it to
God’s comprehensive sovereignty.
Come now, you
who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend
a year there and trade and make a profit"- yet you do not know what
tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a
little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord
wills, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast in your
arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do
and fails to do it, for him it is sin. (Jas 4:13-17)
None of this
is intended to undercut human effort, attentiveness, passion, diligence, or
responsibility. Isaiah, Jesus, James, and Karl Barth for that matter, all
worked extremely hard and took their human decisions and activity very
seriously. However, human activity must always be subservient to the
overarching plan and power of God. While best selling self-help books are
telling us that the universe will rearrange itself to give you whatever you
want if you exercise the power of positive thoughts, God condemns this blasphemous
lie and frees us from the impossible role of playing God. Rather, he calls us
to the freedom and Sabbath rest that lead to childlike dependence, trust, and
play. Again, Barth’s words are apt:
Man has
neither to repeat, emulate, nor augment this work of God. He has simply to
attest to it. . . [Man] has not been commissioned to exercise the initiating
and consummating function of God. He can and should leave this wholly to God.
The demanded rest from all his labour is that he should do his work with diligence
but also with the recollection that God is Lord, Master, Provider, Warrior,
Victor, Author and Finisher, and therefore with the relief and relaxation which
spring from this recognition. . . Rest is temporary release and liberation from
some other activity. This other activity may also be work. In most cases it
will be. But it will be work undertaken voluntarily and therefore with
particular joy. It will be work which demands very different interests and
exertions. To this extent it will be re-creative, refreshing and beneficial,
like a secondary play supporting the main one enacted on the decisive stage.
Obviously, by way of games of sport, this may easily pass over into play in the
stricter sense.27
Hopeful Play
How can we
ever justify playing when poverty kills millions of children every year and
wars rage around the globe? Without sober acknowledgment of sin, play can
become a mere distraction or obsession. But the Christian can play with
reckless abandon because all is certain for God. Because of God’s sovereign
power to bring a wonderful conclusion to all of the ambiguities and suffering
in life, the Christian has hope and can truly play. A clear definitive result
in a game is part of their appeal. Our newspapers reveal never ending
political, national, international, interpersonal, and religious conflicts. It
is no wonder many readers turn first to the sports section to discover
yesterday’s results. While the clear resolution sport offers is part of its
draw, ironically, interest in play and sport rests largely on the uncertainty
of the final outcome. We lose interest in games if the outcome is assured
before the game starts. This is why parity in sports leagues is vital to
maintaining interest. There must be a good measure of uncertainty as to what will
transpire and what the end result will be. The more tension created by this
uncertainty, the more engaged we become with the game. This creative
spontaneous uncertainty is central to the definition of play and at the heart
of the intrigue of sport. I believe this mirrors the tension at the heart of
the drama of human history. The spontaneous uncertainty inherent in play with
an eventual ending reflects the unfolding story of our lives. Like games, our
lives are filled with smaller uncertainties which lead to one final result also
fraught with uncertainty. Play can equip a person to deal with uncertainties on
the way to the conclusion. For a Christian, the promised good conclusion to the
difficulty of life in a fallen world brings a deep enjoyment of play as is
dramatizes a life that ends well.
The Hope of The Cross
God’s
redeeming power that evokes play and laughter from believers is seen most
powerfully in the “folly” of the redemptive work of Christ (1 Cor 1-2). The
juxtaposing ironies in his life are many; the glorious Creator becomes a baby;
the Creator of all that is beautiful has nothing in his appearance to attract
us to him; the Source of all joy becomes the Man of Sorrows; the cursed and
crucified Holy One sustaining the universe as he rides a donkey to his
triumphal entry and who will return as a wrathful--Lamb. His life conjures
images of Don Quixote chasing windmills and dreaming the impossible dream,
except Jesus doesn’t die at the end--and all our hopes and dreams come true in
Him.
The gospel
leads to play, for it expresses our ability to transcend the brokenness of our
world. We momentarily see the human predicament as not only daunting but
fixable. We should never get used to the relentless difficulty of our cursed
cosmos. “The creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of
him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from
its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of
God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the
pains of childbirth until now.” (Rom 8:20-22). The Christian world view
recognizes the relentless difficulty of life in our dysfunctional world, but
also that it is being redeemed by the one who created, and cursed it. So, we
have hope, and play, in the midst of our brokenness. “He suffered that we may
laugh again. . . In the cross of Christ God is taking man dead-seriously so
that he may open up for him the happy freedom of Easter.”28 Without
hope, play becomes merely a diversion from the life’s troubles rather than a
hopeful expression of the freedom to come in the Eschaton. When it is an end in
itself, play can become a frivolous idol that keeps us from dealing with the
human predicament. When grounded in the hope of the Gospel, play can become one
of life’s greatest and most encouraging pleasures.
Heaven: The Play of Eternity
Christian
play is the response of those who know God as their father, and know he has
overcome the world, and that he loves to abundantly share the spoils of this
victory with his children. God’s saving power leads to great joy among God’s
people. “Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of
joy; then they said among the nations, ‘The LORD has done great things for
them.’” (Ps 126:2). This joy is possible even when life is brutal.
"Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.
"Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.” (Lk 6:21). Empty
stomachs and tears are not the whole story. God will bring ultimate healing one
day.
There are a
few times in life when our souls and bodies are overtaken by our hearts. In
sexual expression, sobbing, uncontrollable laughter, or in the freedom of
childlike play, we get a glimpse of what it will be like to be done with this
sin sick world, and in the presence of God-- lost in wonder love and praise.29
As Douglas Jones helpfully (and playfully) states, “[S]cripture commends
self-control but not forever, not for the eschatologically mature. Self-control
is more like training wheels for the eschatologically challenged. The whole
direction of the New Covenant moves away from external controls toward the
law-made-instincts on the heart (Jer 31:33-34), a move away from training
wheels to instinctive wheelies.”30
The
paradoxical nature of Jesus’ Kingdom teaching demands an imaginative sense of
wonder and play. The loss of wonder is often mistaken for Christian maturity.
As Conrad Hyers rightly observed, “[T]rue maturity involves a resurrection of
childlikeness.”31 As Job’s understanding of God took off and his
faith matured, so did his wonder—“Therefore I have uttered what I did not
understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.” (Job 4:6).
Christian play should see suffering for what it is, but always through the eyes
of cross-centered hope. Following Jesus turns pain into glory, confusion into
wonder, sin into redemption, Good Friday into Easter Sunday morning.
Conclusions
So, what is a
Christian understanding of play--how should a Christian play? Well,
fundamentally we should play the way we do everything else--for the glory of
God and the good of others. God tells us that every part of human experience
has the potential to be glorifying, or dishonoring to him,
“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever
you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Cor 10:31).
“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do
everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father
through him” (Col 3:17).
So, if I can
eat a peach or drink a root beer float to the glory of God, I must be able to
play to his glory as well. When we play as hopeful forgiven children of the
King of Kings, that hopeful play glorifies God and gives a glimpse of things to
come.
Play is not a major emphasis in the Bible and it can be unhelpful to encourage play in a
culture that so often and easily trivializes God and life itself. Yet, I do
believe that a sense of play is necessary for a healthy Christian perspective
on life. The failure to appreciate play in the Christian life could easily turn
piety into sanctimony, reverence into rigidity, and sanctification into
stuffiness. We must take God as seriously as we can, but never ourselves.
God invites
us to approach him as his free, forgiven, secure children. We are to approach
our holy God with healthy fear and hearts broken by our broken world. But God’s
people are also called to rejoice, sing, play, and laugh because we know that
the owner of all things is working out his perfect plan that ends with a
wedding banquet and perfect resolution and rest. This sure hope in God’s
sovereign power and loving-kindness enables us to play with reckless abandon,
even before the Great Wedding Banquet begins.
Notes:
1 http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1705760
2 Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture, (London:
Hunt Barnard and Co., 1949), 3.
3 E.B. White, “Introduction.” Some Remarks on Humor, 1994,
http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/984.html.
4 Jürgen Moltmann, Theology of Play, (New York: Harper and Row, 1972), 5.
5 Jackson Lee Ice, "Notes Toward a Theology of Humor," Religion in
Life: A Christian Quarterly of Opinion and Discussion, XLII, 3 (Autumn 1973),
392.
6 This definition is based primarily on the help of the Oxford English Dictionary,
and the seminal works on play by Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens, Roger Caillois,
Man Play and Games, trans. Meyer Barash, (Glencoe: The Free Press of Glencoe,
1961), and Jürgen Moltmann, Theology of Play (New York: Harper and Row, 1972).
7 For an excellent discussion of the potential seriousness of play see
Huizinga, 5-6.
8 Huizinga, 9.
9 Huizinga, 8. 16
10 Fred Sanders, Torrey Honors Institute, Biola University, “A Play Ethic: Play
Studies in Psychology and Theology,” Unpublished essay, 1992, 15.
11 Moltmann 13.
12 Moltmann 21.
13 Moltmann 22.
14 Moltmann 5.
15 Moltmann 43.
16 This term and idea is following the thoughts of Marshall McLuhan,
“Introduction,” Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, 2nd ed, (New York:
MIT
Press, 1994).
17 Moltmann 12.
18 Moltmann 12.
19 Moltmann 13.
20 A possible reading of this verse is “which you formed to play with.”
21 Moltmann 17.
22 Moltmann 17.
23 Mary J. Evans, The Message of Samuel, (Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press,
2004), 195.
24 Joyce G. Baldwin, 1 and 2 Samuel: an Introduction and Commentary,
(Leicester: Inter-Varsity, 1988), 209.
25 Sanders 15-16.
26 Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, III, 4, trans. A.T. Mackay, et. Al.
(Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1961), 553-554.
27 Barth 552.
28 Moltmann 32-33.
29 Douglas Jones, "Ironies of Laughter," Credenda Agenda (Moscow, Id.
2004), 4.
30 Jones 4.
31 Conrad Hyers, And God Created Play (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1987), 20.