Meaning no offense to those who are, I confess that I’m not much of a fan of stock car racing. It’s just too complicated. Oh, I understand the idea of seeing who can go round in circles fastest. That, I get. It’s the names that confuse me.
In football, a player’s name is sewn onto the back of his Jersey. You see him on the field and you know: his name is Smith. In racing, you see a driver and he has a hundred names on his jumpsuit. Apparently, his name is Winston Maxwell House Goody’s Coors Lite Johnson Evinrude.
The race names aren’t much easier to follow. Recently, I think they were running the Alltel Nextel Haul Tail Pray Tell 500.
It’s not just racing. The sponsorship thing is spreading. I went online for some research to understand racing better. What I found were more ads. They kept popping up all over. If I could just hit the monkey, I’d win enough money to sponsor my own race car. Even some church web sites now have sponsor ads on them.
It makes me wonder if church services are next. I can almost hear the silky smooth voice over on the church broadcast: “Today’s worship hour is brought to you by Gideon Bibles: You stole our Bible from Holiday Inn; the least you can do is give us this hour in church.”
Or maybe, “Welcome to the Vick’s Throat Lozenge choir hour, with sound provided by the Master’s Blaster Audio. We’ll blast you to kingdom come.”
Lighting is by Georgia Power: “Christ is the light of the world, but you’d be in the dark without us!”
Seating provided by Providential Pew Company: “We make it possible for you to not only stand on the promises, but also to sit comfortably on the premises.”
And then, of course, there would be the No-Doz sermon followed by the offering sponsored by Give It Up Finance Company which says, “Hey, collection is what we do best.”
The truth is, of course, that church already has a sponsor. His name is Jesus. He paid an amazingly high price for exclusive rights to his church: “who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. (Galatians 1:4-5).
Let’s thank our sponsor.