Up until 1917 it was illegal in the United States for baseball games to be played on Sundays. Blue laws were in place across the country preventing teams, both professional and amateur, to be played on the Sabbath citing a potential for disturbance of peace and opportunity for meditation if games were played on the Lord’s Day. In 1917 The New York Giants and the Cincinnati Reds played the first Sunday baseball game in New York’s Polo Grounds. The game was played as a benefit to support dependents of a military regiment in World War I. Both managers were arrested for breaking the blue laws but they were later found not guilty and praised for being patriotic. The following year, 1918, several teams began scheduling games on Sundays. Except for one. The Philadelphia Athletics. The city and the Pennsylvania State Legislature voted repeatedly to prevent games from being played on Sunday. It wasn’t until 1933 that the state permitted Sunday games. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Sunday baseball, and Sunday sports in general have now become a mainstay in American culture. In Chicago, Bears football games typically start at noon on Sundays. During the football season, when the Bears play at home, attendance at the early masses tended to spike. Even youth sports began to be scheduled on Sundays in the early to mid 20th century as blue laws were repealed. Today in the United
States it is common to see youth soccer games, football and baseball taking place on Sunday mornings.
In today’s reading from the 1st book of Kings we see the King of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, Jeroboam, maneuvering to protect his place on the throne. God had promised him that he would be King over the 10 tribes of Israel. If you recall, the unified Kingdom that was based in Jerusalem under King David fractured with the tribe of Judah remaining in the south and the 10 tribes forming the northern kingdom in the north. Rehoboam, the king of the southern kingdom of Judah had alienated the north with his repressive policies, and drifting away from his relationship with the Lord, that led to the breakup. The two kingdoms, and the two kings, became enemies. But while the north had the larger number of tribes, the south still had Solomon’s temple. And the people, from both the south and the north, continued to stream to Jerusalem on the major feasts to worship there. The Southern Kingdom of Judah, and therefore Rehoboam its King, retained the prestige that the north and Jeroboam lacked.
In today’s portion from 1st Kings, we see Jeroboam taking action to neutralize the advantage that Rehoboam and Judah had. First he had two golden calves forged and placed in the two major population centers of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Bethel in the north and Dan in the south of Israel. He exclaimed to his people,
“Here is your God, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.”
Sound familiar? Aaron proclaims the same words to the Israelites in the desert after forging the golden calf. “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” (Exodus 32:4)
Jeroboam then constructs high altars throughout Israel as places to sacrifice and worship pagan gods and idols. He then appoints priests to minister at these altars. Priests not from the tribe of Levi as was commanded by the Lord while the Israelites were traveling in the desert. And, finally, Jeroboam creates feast days to compete with those pilgrim feasts that mandated travel to Jerusalem. In this way, Jeroboam was undermining worship to the one true God in Jerusalem and, thereby, undermining the legitimacy of Rehoboam as king. It is partly this reason that all the subsequent kings of the Northern Kingdom of Israel no longer followed the precepts, statutes and commands of the Lord. And took their people with them.
It was the fear and insecurity of Jeroboam, of losing the throne that God had promised him, that fueled his need to take matters into his own hands. To save himself rather than relying on God. As a consequence, he led his people down a path of idolatry and lawlessness.
Now I am not saying that if you have children who play a soccer game on a Sunday afternoon you are all practicing idolatry. Or if you take in a game at Wrigley Field your soul is doomed. Although some do refer to the friendly confines of Wrigley as the Cathedral of Baseball. But just as Jeroboam established calves and altars and false priests and feasts to compete with the days of worship prescribed by God, we too can have, and HAVE had, our time to worship God eroded by secular activities which interfere with the Lord’s Day. Or do we allow fear and insecurity to guide our actions as did Jeroboam’s concern of losing the kingship God promised him. Maybe you are invited by your boss to play golf on Sunday morning and you see this as your chance to score some points (literally and figuratively) for your career. Or maybe you are working on a project at home over the weekend and need just a little bit more time to finish so you send your spouse and children to Mass while you take that time to get a bit more done.
I would render to guess that no one out there is forging golden calves or creating new feast days. But we do create idols and find distractions from developing our relationship with God. And we do develop the notion that salvation rests with ourselves and our efforts rather than giving that job over to the one that made us and knows us.
“This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad”
