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It all started when they flashed back to the coin toss at the beginning of the first Super Bowl.\u00a0 The participants were the head referee, and two captains from each team.\u00a0 This year, 56 years later, there was a crowd that included four captains from each team, and a host of other \u201ccelebrities\u201d; probably 25-30 people.\u00a0 That comparison struck me as a reflection of our changing culture.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sports Gluttony<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Regarding the game, in addition to the coin toss extravaganza, there are two weeks of hype between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl. On game day, the official pregame show goes for about 6 hours, not including all of the other coverage over two weeks. The halftime show goes for 45-50 minutes, compared to 12-15 in a normal NFL game. There are jet flyovers (at taxpayer expense), countless interviews and stories about players and others, and many related features and special programming. And there is the cost. In 1967, you could go to the game in person for $12 ($105 adjusted for inflation). In 2023, tickets averaged over $5,500! The rising ticket and ad prices are needed to fill the owners’ coffers, who have to pay the millionaires who play the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All of this \u201cexcess\u201d really provoked me. The game itself was a good game, close and down to the wire. And although I didn\u2019t watch the long pregame or halftime show, I still felt like this game and everything associated with it was, to use a food analogy, like gluttony in the extreme! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our Cultural Excesses<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Our culture has embraced many other excesses since that first Super Bowl. The national debt in 1967 was about 326 billion (about 2.8 trillion adjusted for inflation). Today, it is about 31 trillion. Social media has exploded to give us way too much information. We have excesses in the areas of sexuality, materialism, and in just about every part of life. We have been clamoring for, and getting, more of everything the world has to offer. Our ears are constantly being tickled with new products to buy, new experiences, new initials in the gender\/sexual category acronyms, etc., etc. etc.! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our Cultural Scarcity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
But we are experiencing scarcity in the most important thing: God\u2019s Word and his ways. Amos was a prophet in Israel during the 700s B.C., which had some of the same issues that we have today in our country. He said this: \u201cThe days are coming,\u201d declares the Sovereign Lord, \u201cwhen I will send a famine through the land\u2014not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.\u201d (chapter 8, verse 11<\/a>).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The government and media are becoming increasingly hostile to God and believers in Jesus. We have not, as a culture, paid attention to the timeless words of the Creator of the universe! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Hosea was a prophet and contemporary of Amos. Hosea wrote of Israel: \u201cShe has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished on her the silver and gold\u2014which they used for Baal. (chapter 2, verse 8<\/a>).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Like Israel, we have been blessed by God with so many material things. But instead of acknowledging that everything we have is from God, we have bowed to Baal,<\/a> the ancient \u201cgod\u201d of prosperity and materialism<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat To Do<\/h2>\n\n\n\n