Jesus said
"The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath"
Mark 2 v 27
Those who honour me, I will honour
James Wood, Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire
Before my dad became a pastor, he was a P.E. teacher and my mum, along with the netball she played to county level, was always involved in sporting activity. Thus, as soon as I could walk, there was a ball at my feet or a racket or bat put in hand!
If there is some doubt as to whether Henry Ford really did decree that the newly-produced Model T Ford could be painted any colour as long as it was black, there is no disputing the fact that my dad said we could support any football team we wanted, so long as it was Chelsea! So Chelsea it was, whom I have followed from many years before the Abramovich era!
For my brother and me, football, tennis and cricket became an integral part of our lives. Like many boys of our age, we could never get enough sport. My brother and I would spend hours outside hitting a ball against the garage wall or playing football and having penalty shootouts, pretending each kick would win the cup final! At the age of seven, I joined a local football team, whose matches we played on Saturdays.
When, at the age of nine, the family moved from Edinburgh to Whittlesey just outside Peterborough, my immediate concern was as to whether there would be a football club to join (though we could now go and watch our beloved Chelsea more often!). I would often say to my mum, ‘I bet there won’t be any teams to play for.’ My mum taught us that, even in such things, we can trust God completely—and she was right.
I had plans—and a Scottish accent to get rid of! But God was very gracious to us, and it wasn’t long before we were settled into local teams, which also played, at this stage, all their matches on a Saturday. In my remaining primary school years I played matches for the club on a Saturday; however this stopped once I turned secondary school age. So when I was eleven, I stopped playing for a football team, which was a great disappointed to me. Even at that age, it had become part of the way we thought that we would not play matches on a Sunday, but would keep it different. Having lived in Edinburgh and having watched the movie Chariots of Fire, the Eric Liddell story was told and became meaningful, knowing locally some of the places he had both trained and competed at. My brother, Samuel, continued to train with his club in the midweek, after they turned to Sunday matches, but it became very hard for him when the other boys picked up on why he wasn’t going to play competitively the following Sunday—it certainly became a kind of persecution for ‘church-boy’ as he became known (all made worse due to dad’s job!)
Before I went to secondary school, my dad had introduced us to the delights of rugby. But that had not extended beyond watching it and playing it with him in the garden, or a one-on-one with my brother...which usually just ended up with us fighting for the ball with no rules!
When I started secondary school, aged eleven, at The King’s School, Peterborough, I continued to play some football, albeit not as much, captaining my year group and I began to learn the game of rugby, playing the occasional match for the school; this continued for a couple of years. After three years or so, as far as sport goes, rugby was becoming my main passion.
I wanted to play more—and the pressure was on. Some of my school friends were constantly saying, ‘Come on, Woody, join the rugby club in Peterborough. You’ll love it!’ I wanted to, but knew I couldn’t! The thought of playing junior rugby at the various age-groups was more than appealing. When I got to year ten, one of the Peterborough club coaches used to watch our school games and would ask me to join, even promising to have me back in time for church. I then knew the pressure was really on, as after all it is not just about missing church, it is about the day as a whole, which would be another thing I would have to explain to them, gaining myself more comments such as ‘bible basher’!
On top of this, dad would tell of a good family friend, Glyn Blaize, who had played top-class rugby. He was a Christian and wouldn’t play on Sundays! When we got to have Lions’ prop forward, Euan Murray, in our home recently, I found this great! Fine Christian men who also played rugby with zeal.
But I just knew that I couldn’t play! I had been taught from an early age about the Lord’s Day and in early days it could be said I didn’t have a choice whether to play, but by now it had become my own conviction. What I knew was right. Mind you, I would be lying if I said that I didn’t still continue to struggle with the whole issue. All sorts of things would go through my mind, especially the fear that actually I would probably never get to play rugby to the same standard as many of my friends.
I wasn’t the only one facing this issue in the family; my brother and sisters were also having to address treatment of a Sunday. My youngest sister is mad keen on gymnastics and was soon finding that most competitions for her club were on a Sunday. My parents always saw Sunday in a positive light—it was never just matter of what we couldn’t do. There was always plenty for us to enjoy both as a family and within the church family itself.
But there was some light at the end of the tunnel as far as rugby was concerned. I knew, when I reached the age of seventeen, that I would be able to play for the Peterborough Colts’ team, who played their matches on Saturdays. I would be able to start playing sport again on a weekly basis. A few of my friends from school played for the team, but I was very nervous when asked to join pre-season training. Would I fit in with a group of players who had played together for a number of years? Would I be able to keep up? How would the coaches view this lad who suddenly said that he could now play? And, most importantly, would I get selected?!
I worked particularly hard in training and hit the gym! I also made this a matter of special prayer, knowing that others were praying for me, too. God has been very gracious to me—more so than I could ever have imagined. I found that I was being put into my favoured inside centre position and being picked for the pre-season friendlies. I knew I was being watched!
Apart from a few weeks out when I broke my finger (a relatively minor rugby accident!), I have kept my place in the team and have loved scoring tries! I was amazed to find a headline with my name and picture in the Peterborough Evening Telegraph after a four-try haul against Luton back in September. (It was just after this that I broke my finger and learnt the ways in which we are taught Christian humility!)
I am not an England international (though I harbour dreams!)—just an ordinary seventeen-year-old Christian who loves sport, yet who does not want to dishonour the Lord who has done so much for me. One day a week is nothing, when you consider that he gave up his only Son! It sounds like a success story, doesn’t it? But there are still difficulties—I have to be clear about the drinking culture often associated with rugby, for example.
After being asked to write this article, I agreed to, not because everyone who doesn’t play on Sundays will automatically receive a starting place in the next team that comes around the corner who play on Saturdays, or that you will receive a job on double the wage because you didn’t accept that other one that was on a Sunday. But what I am saying is that it says very clearly in 1 Samuel 2:30 ‘Those who honour me I will honour’.
My siblings still can’t do some of the sporting things they would otherwise have done, had they not been on a Sunday. But I have learnt that the right thing is always the right thing! I may still have to face up to games being played on a Sunday. What shall I do then? I trust that I shall continue to remember that God never mocks us—and when we venture all for him, we never lose out.
I am grateful for the likes of Dan Walker who set people like me such a good example when it comes to the Lords Day. I just hope this can be of encouragement to some youngster somewhere, not to mention the parents, as they are confronted with the increased pressure to play sport, and other activities, on a Sunday.
James Wood, Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire
Editor:
Euan Murray is a Scottish International who has also taken a stand for the Lord's Day. To read an article about him on the Christian Institute website, click here.