Football and Faith
[Applause]
two football mad
elderly gentlemen named clive and bobby
were debating a profound philosophical
question
is there football in heaven
they made a pact and they agreed that if
one of them were to die he would visit
the other man in a dream and reveal the
truth
once and for all
very sadly some weeks later
bobby died but he came in clive’s dream
clive looks up bobby
tell me
is there football in heaven
bobby says
well i have some good news and some bad
news
the good news is there is football in
heaven
the bad news is you are playing in
midfield up here next sunday
i’m here to talk to you
about football
and faith now don’t judge a book by its
cover i wasn’t always an orthodox rabbi
looking quite like this
in fact i grew up as an atheist
my mother is jewish and my father isn’t
i had zero jewish identity
and
things began to change although
when i was growing up in reading the uh
the holy city off the m4 near slough
i was actually
a footballer
i was first signed by swindon town and
then by reading any reading fans
and i was soon playing football on a
weekly basis
once i was playing for reading against
southampton
i scored a couple of goals
and then i was fouled in the penalty
area and we were awarded a penalty
this was my chance to score what would
be a very rare hat trick
one of the management staff at reading
in those days was a man who went on to
become the manager of my beloved
liverpool football club
brendan rodgers
and as i was about to take this penalty
and i’m standing there apparently
brendan said to my dad in the stands
your son’s on a hat trick here
i was freaking out i was petrified with
all these people staring at me in the
stadium
i took my breath
took a run up
and took aim
when i took that penalty
i was 16
a party animal
without a care in the world
what happened
well i always felt there was something
missing
deep inside and it kept bugging me like
a hole in the soul
i was
jack the lad i’d go out clubbing and
after sobering up from say 24 double
vodka and red bulls i would feel
empty
and crestfallen
i would ask
is there more to life than this
what could life be about
for some reason
i had an unquenchable thirst
for meaning and a couple of years later
at university
i completely changed my lifestyle
i only ate kosher food
giving up
my bacon sanis in the process
i punctiliously observed the jewish
sabbath and all of the religious
festivals i even learnt ancient hebrew
and aramaic in order to be able to study
the talmud which is judaism’s religious
texts
and i continued those studies full time
for eight years in jerusalem before
returning to the uk to be a community
rabbi
looking back
i have found that my footballing
experiences have left an enduring
relevance
in particular
those experiences taught me two lessons
that would inform my faith
the first is about passion
when i was younger
football was the single path to
transcendence
in a godless universe
the late great legendary liverpool
football manager bill shankly may his
name be praised once famously said
some people believe that football is a
matter of life and death
i’m very disappointed with that attitude
i can assure you
it’s much much more important than that
you see
for the football fan
the game is more than mere entertainment
it cuts at the core of who and what you
are
it can determine your mood for an entire
week
it can affect your relationships even
influence academic performance
when football fans
travel the length and breadth of the
country
to scream their hearts out
for their club
it’s born out of an insatiable love
when they queue outside the club shop
for hours on end
to be the first to buy the new football
kit
it reflects a single-minded dedication
to the cause
and when they spend more money than they
can afford
on a season ticket
it’s because it genuinely matters to
them
for many football fans
football is a religious pursuit the
stadium
is a house of worship
the chants are the hymns
i realized
that if i would apply this same fervor
and dedication to my faith
then my religious growth and spiritual
focus
would be greatly enhanced to put it in
hr terms passion is the transferable
skill
the second lesson
that my faith
gained from the beautiful game
was the notion of team
football
can unify
according to football’s governing body
fifa the 2018 world cup final between
france and croatia
was watched by a live television
audience of 1.1 billion people
football can bring entire continents
together finding common ground
between nations making the world into
more of a team and giving some shared
identity
this is something that
communities and faith communities must
be able to grasp if they are to flourish
further
a team
transcends its constituent elements
when footballers sacrifice for one
another and play their hearts out for
each other on the pitch
their synchronized efforts
create something greater than the sum of
their individual parts
so too
faith communities must be able to
harness individual talent for the
benefit of the group as a whole if they
are to maximize their impact
actually i think of this every time mo
salah
bangs one into the net after some fancy
footwork from bobby firmino and a
cracking cross from trent alexander
arnold
but in turn
my faith
has taught me two lessons
about football and by that i mean life
in general
the first
is to never give up
i had a friend
who had a special talent
he was a juggler and he would go to his
friend’s jewish weddings
and mesmerize the crowd he could keep
five balls in the air at any one given
time
and
he would go there not for money
but to make the bride and groom happy on
their special day
but tragedy struck
when
he was involved in a freak accident
which caused him to lose
the use of one of his hands
we didn’t know how he would carry on
but 18 months later
he turned up at a wedding
and we didn’t know was going to happen
suddenly he took stent for stage
and began juggling those five balls
with only one
hand
tears rolled down my cheeks i was in awe
later he explained
that through his faith
he found the courage
to face his fear
and beat it
similarly
jim thorpe
was an athlete and a devout catholic jim
represented the united states in track
and field at the 1912 olympic games
the problem was
jim woke up
on the day of his competitions and he
discovered that his running shoes had
been stolen
luckily for jim
he found two old shoes that had been
thrown away in a rubbish bin the problem
was that one of the shoes was too big so
he had to wear an extra sock in order
for it to fit
jim was put at a huge disadvantage
because of his makeshift footwear
but through his belief and conviction in
a higher power
he was inspired to win two gold medals
that day
jim’s belief was underpinned by the
notion
that we don’t have to be resigned to the
excuses that have held us back
so what if life hasn’t been fair
what are we going to do about it today
jim’s faith
gave him that power
whatever you woke up with this morning
ill health failed relationships
stolen shoes
don’t let it stop you from running your
race
faith
is the bridge
between
the worlds of i can’t and i can
faith
gives us the hope that we can find that
common language of connection and
inspiration
but further
my faith has taught me about the power
of the human spirit
most of us
are aware
of what happened on the 1st of december
1955
when rosa parks
famously refused to give up her seat on
a segregated montgomery bus
and changed history
and the civil rights movement in america
what fewer people are aware of
is that rosa parks attributed her
courage
to her methodist faith
referring to her resistance
rosa parks once said
i felt that god would give me the
strength to endure whatever would happen
next
god’s peace flooded my soul
and my fear melted away
all people were created equal in the
eyes of god
and i was going to live like a free
person
some years ago
the directors of starbucks the coffee
chain
had an audience with a rabbi
called nassenzvi finkel
this rabbi suffered acutely with
parkinson’s disease
but he was still able
to engage the businessman
he asked them one question
what is the main lesson of the holocaust
one starbucks guy piped up and said
we will never forget
the rabbi said
that’s important
but it’s not the main lesson
another starbucks
businessman said
the lesson is we will never be victims
or bystanders again
and the rabbi said
it’s great but it’s it’s not the right
answer as to what the most important
lesson is
the rabbi went on to explain
that during the holocaust
the prisoners
arrived at the concentration camps
in rail cars
in horrific conditions
the doors were flung
open husbands were separated from wives
parents from children
and when the prisoners went to the
bunkers
only one out of every six prisoners
was given
a blanket
to somehow survive the freezing winter
cold
later that evening
that person had to decide
do i keep that blanket for myself
or do i share it with the five others
who didn’t receive one
the rabbi told them
do you know what the main lesson of the
holocaust is
you’ve got to share the blanket
it was during that defining moment
that those prisoners
realized the power of the human spirit
because they did share their blanket
with the others
we must share ours as well
so my faith
and its practitioners
have taught me that they can take
everything from you
but not the power of your spirit
we must stay true to the divine spark
and humanity
within us
so
i have been a disciple in football
and a player at faith
from the former i learned about passion
and teamwork
and from the latter persistence
and the indomitable strength of the
human spirit
and if anyone was still wondering
i did score that penalty got the hat
trick back of the net
but anyway
in life
and faith like football we face many
challenges
i believe
firmly
that if we can incorporate some of these
values
and these lessons into who we are
and how we behave
then we can surely leave this world
after a long and meaningful life
with a legacy that truly inspires
good luck on your journey thank you