I have a friend who had the misfortune to be born in Melbourne. He is therefore an AFL fanatic.

His devotion to the North Melbourne Club knows no bounds. He speaks with zeal about his club, the game, and little else. Frankly, its a little over the top.

I’m happy for him to follow his game but I don’t want him trying to convert me. Thankfully, Sydney is a city with more football choice than Melbourne. There are other codes.

My kids will play the world game, thanks very much.

For most Sydneysiders, what’s true in sport is true for religion too. Most Sydneysiders are very happy for Christianity to be your code of choice. You love it, you take your kids along - that’s great. Just don’t get fanatical about it. Don’t say it should be the only game in town. Don’t rubbish the other codes.

Too often we are soft at this point. We meekly speak of Jesus as our Lord but not the Lord. We play Christianity. We happily follow our church. We send our kids through the juniors. We might hand out friendly invites to see if people would like to join our code. We can even work at planting new franchises to see the game grow in new places.

The challenge is to recover our Christian convictions. To say that salvation is found in no other name but Jesus. To truly believe that all will one day stand before the judgement seat of Christ. To pray for our great city. To show it the compassion God showed Nineveh. To weep for it like Jesus wept for Jerusalem. To ask for His Spirit to be poured out upon it.

The Archbishop has called a prayer meeting for this Friday at St Andrew’s Cathedral from 10am-2.30pm. There will be a CBD slot to pray for CBDs across our Diocese from 1pm-1.30pm. It would be great to pray with you there.