CAN YOU WORSHIP GOD ON THE GOLF COURSE?
Most of us preacher-types have encountered guys who say something like, “I don’t think you have to attend church to worship. I can worship God just as well on the golf course.” Can you really worship God on the golf course? Well, I hear the name of God and Jesus invoked quite often when I’m playing with guys who don’t know who I am!
I was playing with a guy several years ago who didn’t know (yet) that I was a pastor. He kept saying, “Jesus Christ!” whenever he missed a putt (which was often). Finally, I had enough. He had just uttered, “Jesus Christ!” and I looked up to the sky and shouted, “WHERE?” He looked at me like I was crazy, and I said, “Jesus said He would come back some day, do you see Him?” He didn’t use the Lord’s name again that round … but his putting didn’t improve either.
Folks in our church probably get tired of hearing me say that “I grew up in LA (lower Alabama).” But it usually gets a laugh from the new folks, and I like to get people laughing when I’m teaching. While their mouths are open laughing, I try to stick some truth in there for them to chew on.
So, when I grew up in LA, I played every kind of sport there was (and we made up some of our own). I can’t even remember hearing about golf before I was in high school, and there wasn’t a golf course in our little town. I never really had the opportunity to start playing golf until until I was in college and seminary in the 70’s.
At Southern Seminary in Louisville, there were no classes on Monday (a throwback to the time when pastors had to ride the train back from their churches). My buddy, Mike Northcutt and I started playing golf on Mondays at Crescent Hill Golf Course, a short little 9 hole municipal course where you could play all day for $4.
It was ugly. Real ugly. Of course, we didn’t take lessons. We were both pretty good at all other sports, so we thought we could figure this game out. After all, nobody was throwing the ball at you, it was sitting there on the tee! You didn’t have to run or catch the ball .. how hard could that be? Pretty hard. If we had finished every hole and kept score, I’m certain neither one of us would have broken 60 for nine holes that first year. But we stuck with it, and the time came when we were occasionally making scores on a hole that actually had names like “double bogey” or “bogey.” A par was reason for celebrating and a birdie was as rare as a pork chop at a Hebrew picnic.
That started my love/hate relationship with golf that has lasted for the past 32 years. Sometimes it’s still ugly. But for those of you who play golf, you’ll understand it when I say that there is nothing quite like the feeling when you nail a drive on the sweet spot and the ball flies high, far, and straight. That’s what keeps me coming back for more … that and the fellowship with the guys who play golf. I used to play with one old gentleman who often made poor shots, but he would smile and say, "I'm just thankful to be on the topside of the grass."
Teeing off early in the morning with the sun reflecting on the dew like a million sunrises can be a religious experience in itself. Even the most hardened, non-religious golfers often pause and stand in awe at the beauty of God’s Creation. Of course you can worship God on the golf course. You can worship God anywhere.
But should a person substitute worshipping on the golf course (or at the lake, ballpark, or the flea market) for gathering with God’s people in corporate worship? Not according to Hebrews 10:22-25: “Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
Seeing the beauty of God’s creation on a golf course, or on a mountain top, or seashore stimulates the wonder to ask the question, “WHO made all this?” The only place where that question can be answered is in God’s Word, and God's Word is taught to God's people in God's house. See you in amen corner, Sunday!
Most of us preacher-types have encountered guys who say something like, “I don’t think you have to attend church to worship. I can worship God just as well on the golf course.” Can you really worship God on the golf course? Well, I hear the name of God and Jesus invoked quite often when I’m playing with guys who don’t know who I am!
I was playing with a guy several years ago who didn’t know (yet) that I was a pastor. He kept saying, “Jesus Christ!” whenever he missed a putt (which was often). Finally, I had enough. He had just uttered, “Jesus Christ!” and I looked up to the sky and shouted, “WHERE?” He looked at me like I was crazy, and I said, “Jesus said He would come back some day, do you see Him?” He didn’t use the Lord’s name again that round … but his putting didn’t improve either.
Folks in our church probably get tired of hearing me say that “I grew up in LA (lower Alabama).” But it usually gets a laugh from the new folks, and I like to get people laughing when I’m teaching. While their mouths are open laughing, I try to stick some truth in there for them to chew on.
So, when I grew up in LA, I played every kind of sport there was (and we made up some of our own). I can’t even remember hearing about golf before I was in high school, and there wasn’t a golf course in our little town. I never really had the opportunity to start playing golf until until I was in college and seminary in the 70’s.
At Southern Seminary in Louisville, there were no classes on Monday (a throwback to the time when pastors had to ride the train back from their churches). My buddy, Mike Northcutt and I started playing golf on Mondays at Crescent Hill Golf Course, a short little 9 hole municipal course where you could play all day for $4.
It was ugly. Real ugly. Of course, we didn’t take lessons. We were both pretty good at all other sports, so we thought we could figure this game out. After all, nobody was throwing the ball at you, it was sitting there on the tee! You didn’t have to run or catch the ball .. how hard could that be? Pretty hard. If we had finished every hole and kept score, I’m certain neither one of us would have broken 60 for nine holes that first year. But we stuck with it, and the time came when we were occasionally making scores on a hole that actually had names like “double bogey” or “bogey.” A par was reason for celebrating and a birdie was as rare as a pork chop at a Hebrew picnic.
That started my love/hate relationship with golf that has lasted for the past 32 years. Sometimes it’s still ugly. But for those of you who play golf, you’ll understand it when I say that there is nothing quite like the feeling when you nail a drive on the sweet spot and the ball flies high, far, and straight. That’s what keeps me coming back for more … that and the fellowship with the guys who play golf. I used to play with one old gentleman who often made poor shots, but he would smile and say, "I'm just thankful to be on the topside of the grass."
Teeing off early in the morning with the sun reflecting on the dew like a million sunrises can be a religious experience in itself. Even the most hardened, non-religious golfers often pause and stand in awe at the beauty of God’s Creation. Of course you can worship God on the golf course. You can worship God anywhere.
But should a person substitute worshipping on the golf course (or at the lake, ballpark, or the flea market) for gathering with God’s people in corporate worship? Not according to Hebrews 10:22-25: “Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
Seeing the beauty of God’s creation on a golf course, or on a mountain top, or seashore stimulates the wonder to ask the question, “WHO made all this?” The only place where that question can be answered is in God’s Word, and God's Word is taught to God's people in God's house. See you in amen corner, Sunday!
