Winners and Losers

Bore da and welcome to this morning's Sunday Worship, which comes to you this week from Cardiff.

I'm originally from Llanelli, but it was as a youngster at Cardiff City that I began my journey in football, before moving to Cambridge and making my professional debut for Cambridge United, where I'm now a board member.

If that sounds rather football-focused, I make no apology. Unless you've been asleep for the last five or six weeks – or perhaps on another planet – you'll know that today sees the culmination of the FIFA World Cup in the USA.

The tournament has brought moments of great sporting triumph, and real sadness. Particularly after England, who’d performed so valiantly, exited in the semi-final.  But as Argentina and Spain prepare to meet in this evening's final, millions of people around the world will be watching with eager anticipation. For one team there will be a trophy and winners' medals. For the other, disappointment and tears. And then what?

In this service I want to explore the theme of winning and losing, not only in sport but in the Christian faith. What comes after victory and defeat on the pitch? What remains when the final whistle blows? Along the way I'll be talking to Christians involved in sport, and we'll be hearing what the New Testament says – not so much about sport, but about what matters most. It's a message not about standing tall in our achievements, but about standing secure in the love of God.

But first, at a time when the World Cup has the power to draw people together across the world in admiration of extraordinary skill, let's hear our opening hymn. Set to words by the Welsh poet George Herbert: Let All the World in Every Corner Sing.

HYMN 1:           LET ALL THE WORLD IN EVERY CORNER SING.                                       

Heavenly Father

We thank you for the gifts of skill, teamwork, determination and joy that bring so many people together through sport. As millions turn their attention to today's World Cup Final, remind us that every good gift comes from you.

Lift our eyes beyond victory and defeat to the Lord Jesus Christ, who endured the race set before him and whose love for us does not depend on our success or failure. Open our hearts to hear your word today, strengthen our faith, and teach us to find our deepest hope not in what we achieve, but in your grace freely given.

We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

We come now to our first reading.

Lloyd Thomas, who leads the work of Christians in Sport in Wales, reads our first lesson.

On a day when so many people will be thinking about competition, victory and defeat, these words from Hebrews chapter 12 offer a different perspective. The Christian life is pictured as a race to be run with perseverance, with our eyes fixed on Jesus Christ.                                                                              

READING 1     Hebrews 12: 1-3                                                                                                  

Lloyd Thomas [Heb. 12:1-3]* Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart.

The writer to the Hebrews speaks of life as a race to be run with perseverance.

That's a quality every athlete understands. Training can be hard. Defeats can be painful. Progress is rarely straightforward. The temptation to lose heart is never far away.

Yet this reading points us beyond determination alone. We’re encouraged to look to Jesus himself: the one who endured, who remained faithful, and who finished the race set before him.

As we reflect on that example, and on the hope he offers, let’s hear our second hymn, Yet not I but Christ in Me                                                               

HYMN 2: YET NOT I BUT CHRIST IN ME

We come now to our second reading, and this is given by Tasha Morton. Tasha is strength and conditioning coach at Glamorgan Cricket.

In a world that celebrates success, achievement and performance, these words from Paul's letter to the Ephesians point us to something very different: the grace of God, freely given and freely received.

Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 to 10.                                                   

READING 2                                                                                                                            

[Eph. 2:8-10]*

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God – not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

"The gift of God—not the result of works." Those are striking words, and we'll come back to them shortly.

At first hearing, they might suggest that effort, service and good works have no place in the Christian life. Yet Paul goes on to say that we are "created in Christ Jesus for good works". The question is not whether good works matter, but where they belong. God's grace comes first, and good works follow in response.

Perhaps there is a lesson there for sport as well. Professional athletes know all about discipline, sacrifice and hard work. But sport can also be a force for good beyond the boundaries of the pitch, track or stadium.

We're here at Cardiff City Stadium, where I'm talking to Zak Lyndon Jones about his role as CEO of the Cardiff City Foundation. It's part of a wider story that often goes unnoticed: the contribution that football clubs and their players make to the communities they serve.

Well, here we are, Cardiff City Stadium, beautiful summer’s day! If you can hear something in the background, yes we’re prepping the stadium, and too there’s a game of football tennis going on right behind us, so it could be quite noisy.

Zak, tell us the aim of the Cardiff City Foundation.

Yeah, thanks, Graham. Our aim is for people to achieve their full potential. We do that through a hat-trick of goals. We do that through supporting people with their health and well-being. supporting them with their education, learning and skills. And then we'd love to help people build stronger communities.

A hat-trick of goals is great. Give us a feel of stories that are appropriate to help us to understand what that looks like in a young person's life.

Yeah, definitely. So we're super fortunate to be able to use the official badge of Cardiff City Football Club and take that into our communities across not just Cardiff, the whole of South Wales, working across eight different local authorities. So some examples of stories there could be Sarah down in our Whitchurch [Cardiff] session who attends on a Friday night at the Power League, takes part in our inclusive disability session. She walks around there with her frame and takes part in the football opportunities that are free for her and her family to attend. So without that sort of activity and Cardiff City Community Foundation going into that session on a Friday evening, she wouldn't have the opportunity, I guess, to take part in the football. That's helping the health and well-being.

As you explain that, it's striking that the reach, I mean, we're in Cardiff, but that reach of the work is quite distant then. From the football club's point of view, why is it so important as a club that this foundation exists?

So for the club, we know that Cardiff City supporters are based all over Wales and probably internationally as well. So, you know, the recognition of that club history, we recently celebrated 125 years of the football club itself and this year coming up will be 100 years since Cardiff City won the FA Cup. So to be able to go into Merthyr, Ebbw Vale, old mining towns across South Wales, the history of the Bluebird goes far and taking that to communities is super important. Whereas sometimes, today it's hard for people to get around and coming to Cardiff is not always the easy option.

And Zak, sometimes you'll know this very well, there's a cynicism about professional football, the money, the power involved in the game. What would you say to people who might Just have that angle that says, yeah, but you're just really doing this for the club's sake.

Yeah, I think that's one of the big misleading things across football, is every football club, no matter who you support, from Cardiff City to Shrewsbury to Plymouth, all the way up to Middlesbrough or Newcastle, we've all got a football club charity. They'll have similar goals as to us. We're all out there to achieve the same thing. Yes, it's great to watch the team play on on a Saturday for 90 minutes, but actually, what about the rest of the days in that week? That's where the football club charities come to their own. Recent studies show that we've engaged over 1,000,000 people in the last year with a social value figure of over 1.4 billion pounds.

You, like some others leading foundations in this country, across the UK, would have a Christian faith. How does your faith impact your role as chief executive of the foundation?

So for me, I see this as far more than a job. For me, this is my purpose in life, is to, having football, faith and family is some of the three key connections for myself. it says for us to go and be the hands and feet in our communities, and I actually see that as a role I'm able to do.

We've just heard about serving a community through football. Christians believe that such service begins not with our example, but with Christ's. Jesus came not to be served, but to serve. and Christians seek to follow in his footsteps. So, time now for our next hymn, The Servant King.

HYMN 3: THE SERVANT KING                                                                      

SERMON 

Today, all around the globe, millions of people will be arranging their day around a football match. The World Cup final is one of those rare occasions when the whole world seems to stop for ninety minutes. Nations hold their breath. Families gather. Players walk out carrying not only their own hopes but the expectations of millions. And by the end of the evening, one image will dominate our screens: a captain lifting a trophy. It’s one of the most powerful images in sport. For years, perhaps decades, athletes dream of that moment. Endless training sessions. Sacrifices. Injuries. Setbacks. All for the possibility of standing on the biggest stage and hearing the final whistle with your team ahead.

 But I've often wondered whether the most interesting moment in sport comes not before the final whistle but after it. The celebrations are extraordinary. The confetti falls. Medals are handed out. Photographs are taken. And yet many athletes have spoken about a surprising experience. They reach the summit and discover that the summit cannot answer the deepest questions of life.

The former tennis champion Andre Agassi once wrote something remarkable after achieving everything he thought he wanted. He said simply: "Winning changes nothing." Now of course winning changes many things. Careers change. Opportunities change. History books change. But it cannot finally answer the question every human being carries. Am I enough?

Sport simply reveals a question that all of us face. For some people the scoreboard matters. For others it’s exam results. Career success. Financial security. Social status. Recognition. Approval. The comparisons change, but the temptation remains the same. That is, to believe that achievement can tell us who we are.

The Christian faith offers a different starting point. The apostle Paul writes in Ephesians: "It is by grace you have been saved ... not by works." In other words, before we achieve anything, we are loved. Before we perform, we are valued. Before we succeed or fail, our worth is received rather than earned. Human dignity does not begin with accomplishment. It begins with a gift. Or to put it another way: human worth is received, not achieved. That's not just good news for footballers tonight. It's good news for all of us. Because sooner or later every trophy tarnishes, every career changes, every success fades. The question is whether there’s something deeper that remains when the cheering stops. And Christianity says there is: the love of God in Christ - which no victory can increase and no defeat can diminish.                                                                           

And so we hear one of the great modern hymns of Christian confidence and assurance: In Christ Alone

HYMN 4             IN CHRIST ALON

SERMON PART 2 

As the final whistle sounds tonight, one team will celebrate. The other will probably (if they follow precedent) sit on the pitch in tears.

Nobody likes losing. Yet sport teaches us something important about being human. There’s a profound difference between saying, "I failed" and saying, "I am a failure." The first describes an event. The second describes an identity. And confusion between those two things causes enormous damage, not only in sport but throughout life. Because life contains loss. Applications fail. Relationships break down. Businesses struggle. Dreams disappoint. At some point all of us discover that we cannot always win. The Christian faith never denies the pain of that reality.

The Bible is full of people who knew disappointment, uncertainty and defeat. Think of the apostle Peter. On the night Jesus was arrested, Peter failed spectacularly. The man who’d promised unwavering loyalty denied even knowing him. Three times. Yet the remarkable thing is that Peter's failure didn’t become his identity. The risen Jesus sought him out, restored him, and entrusted him with responsibility once again. Peter could honestly say, "I failed." But he didn’t have to conclude, "I am a failure.” That distinction lies at the heart of the Christian faith. Our mistakes, our disappointments and even our deepest regrets are real. But they don’t have the final word. They don’t have the authority to define us.

One of the passages I often return to is the one we heard earlier from Ephesians, where Paul describes Christians as ‘God's handiwork, created for good works’. Notice the order. We are God's handiwork first. Then we do good works. Identity comes before achievement. Grace comes before performance. "I've sometimes put it like this: sport belongs in Ephesians 2 verse 10, not Ephesians 2 verses 8 and 9.” Achievement matters. Excellence matters. Competition matters. But they are expressions of identity, not sources of identity. That insight changes everything. It means we can celebrate success without worshipping it.

We can pursue excellence without being enslaved by it. We can lose without being destroyed by it. And perhaps that’s one of the hidden gifts of sport. Every four years the World Cup reminds us that human beings long for glory. The Christian story says that longing points beyond any stadium, beyond any trophy, beyond any final whistle. It points towards the God whose verdict on our lives does not depend on the score. So whether tonight brings celebration or disappointment to ____ and _____ and their fans, and whether you're watching football or simply listening from home, remember this: God's love isn’t revealed on the scoreboard. It’s revealed in Jesus Christ. And because of that, the deepest truth about us isn’t what we have achieved. It’s what we have received. Amen

We turn now to God in prayer.

In a world of pressure, competition, joy and disappointment, we bring before God our own lives, the needs of others, and the hopes and burdens of the wider world.

Our prayers are led by Laura Murdoch, who leads Christians in Sport's ministry among elite female athletes, some of whom will be playing in next year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil.                                            

Prayers

Father God, creator of all things, we thank you today for the gift of football - for the joy it brings many, for the friendships it creates, and for the remarkable way it unites people across cultures, languages and generations.

As we consider the acute pressure many in professional sport are under, we thank you God, that in Jesus Christ our value and our worth is not found in our achievements or performance, but in your great love for us, shown in Jesus and His gift of grace through which we stand eternally safe and secure.

We thank you today for the work and witness of so many Christians in football, especially for the bold public displays of faith which many players have made this World Cup. Strengthen and keep them by your grace, especially those playing the final tonight, and draw many to yourself through the testimony and gospel witness of your people in the world of sport.

Heavenly Father, sovereign over all things, as we look beyond the football pitch, we see a world marked by pain, conflict and injustice. Lord, please bring relief to those who are suffering because of natural disaster, war or disease. Give endurance to those in trial and comfort for the weary.

We pray for those entrusted with leadership across the nations, and for those in sport with influence and power. Grant them wisdom, compassion, integrity and justice in all they do.

And finally, Lord, we pray for your church throughout the world. Unite us in faith, strengthen us in gospel hope that we might run in perseverance,  fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.

We ask all this in the name of Jesus Christ, and for His glory.

And let us pray as He taught us,

Our Father in Heaven...

We join all our prayers together in the one Jesus taught us to pray…

Our Father…

Today, one team will leave the World Cup final as champions. Another will leave disappointed. In time, both victory and defeat will become part of history. New tournaments will be played, new champions crowned, and new stories told.

But throughout this service we've been considering a deeper question: what remains when the cheering fades, when the medals are put away, and when life's achievements can no longer sustain us?

The Christian answer is not a trophy, an accomplishment, or even our best efforts. It is a person: Jesus Christ.

Our hope in life and in death, in success and in failure, in this world and the next, is found in him alone.

So we conclude with a hymn that lifts our eyes beyond every earthly prize, and fixes them on the lasting hope of the gospel: Christ Our Hope in Life and Death.

HYMN 5            CHRIST OUR HOPE IN LIFE AND DEATH                                                

This morning we began by asking what comes after victory and defeat, what remains when the final whistle blows. The Christian gospel answers: the steadfast love of God in Jesus Christ, a love that no success can increase and no failure can take away.

So now for the blessing: As you go into the week ahead, may you know the steadfast love of God, which no success can increase and no failure can take away.

And may the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always.

Amen.