A Theology of Footy Jumpers

Well it's the last week of September and the rapidly approaching last Saturday in September means only one thing in the city of Melbourne - the Australian Football Grand Final. This year the two combatants who will contest for Australian footballs greatest prize are Collingwood and St Kilda. And again, this white man has mused at how this major event that Australians observe every year transcends from the sporting green grass of physical endeavour into the spiritual hearts of football devotees in a manner truly of religious proportions.

The AFL premiership cup, often referred to as the "holy grail" of ultimate attainment will be wheeled out again today or tomorrow and symbolically blessed in a church service. Tomorrow a Grand Final parade will bring the heart of Melbourne city's CDB to a standstill as thousands of club supporters line the streets to cheer on a motorcade of their footballing stars in a manner similar of the kind of worship Jesus Christ encountered on His entry into Jerusalem on a donkey. They will repeat over and over the clubsongs of their cherished club - hymn-like anthems that fill a space of deep longing somewhere in the soul of the football fan. When people in Australia flippantly say that Australian football is kind of like a religion I'm not sure they realise how close to the truth they really are. The eerie parallels between the celebration of a game to the worship of God are uncanny indeed.

Which brings this white man to the two teams who will etch their mark this Staurday into AFL immortality in this year's Grand Final. Collingwood, the team universally hated by all except their own fanatical followers and St Kilda, a perennial underdog team bereft of success over their history. Collingwood, symbolised by the Magpie and wearing the 'non-colours' of black and white and St Kilda, the Saints also in black and white but with a red strip as well.

The guernseys are symbolic in a deeper spiritual sense than many would realise. Black and white represents absolutes...polarity...extreme this and that. In a Biblical sense this clearly equates with the Law, for it clearly divided right from wrong...worthiness from unworthiness...holiness from the depravity of sin. And it was only through Jesus Christ that in the realm of spirit, the Law could be forever rendered obsolete and done away with. For He ushered in a new spiritual reality, a dimension of forgiveness and freedom, a new covenant of Grace. It came from the Law but was made perfect in and through the blood of Christ, much like a black and white reality now stained with that saving staining crimson flow. Much like the jumpers of Collingwood and St Kilda - similar in every way but differentiated by a strip of red.

Interesting that the St Kilda club are called the Saints...Interesting that their guernsey takes the colours it does...Maybe there really is a deeper spirituality behind all the rough and tumble of Aussie Rules Football...May the best team win!