Georgia fans have a right to complain over the penalty their football team was given last Saturday afternoon as their guy scored with about a minute left in the game with our LSU Tigers.

Following the Georgia TD, the fans were ecstatic and the players were jubilant, running around hugging one another.

That’s when the referee threw the flag and penalized Georgia for a weird infraction (only added to the football rules in recent years) known as “excessive celebration.”

This meant the ensuing kickoff to LSU would take place from deep in Georgia territory (can’t recall the exact numbers here, but that’s irrelevant) and would give LSU an extra advantage. If you watched the game, you know what happened: a few plays later, LSU crossed the goal line with a TD of their own, and ended up winning the game.

Incidentally, the LSU team was likewise flagged for excessive celebration. By then, however, the clock had almost wound down, making it meaningless.

Now, LSU fans–responding to their Georgia friends’ complaint that that penalty might have turned the game around–respond that when running back Charles Scott made the final 20 (or so) yard TD run, he could have just as easily have trotted another 20 or 30 yards. It appears no one could have stopped him and he could easily have still been running a week later.

But that does not ease Georgia’s pain. To its credit, the Southeast Conference has issued apologies this week. The commissioner promises to caution their referees not to be over-zealous in enforcing a rule intended to stop taunting.

Some of us had a little fun with the “excessive celebration” thing. On Facebook, I wrote something like: “I think I’ve figured out what happened with that penalty. After all, who are the most phobic on the subject of ‘excessive celebrations?’ Clearly, the referees were Episcopalians! (Or maybe members of some First Baptist churches we know.)” I added, “Anyone smiling?” in an attempt to keep anyone from taking it all too seriously.

Among the interesting comments was this: “We know the referees were not Baptists because in the end zone they were raising both hands.”

Raising both hands. Saying ‘amen’ or ‘praise the Lord.’ Applauding. Hugging.

What goes under the label of ‘excessive celebration’ in worship depends entirely on the particular church.

To many liturgical churches, if you brought your own Bible and actually sing the hymns, you’re edging uncomfortably close to that dreaded line.

To some churches with unstructured services and high noise levels, one would have to go pretty far to even find the line into excessive celebration, let alone cross it. Maybe handle snakes? Shoot off a firearm? Hoist the preacher onto their shoulders and carry him around the room? Do the wave? (anyone smiling yet?)

I’m thinking of a church in our city that is about as mainline Southern Baptist as they come. By that, I mean I can point you to a dozen local SBC congregations that go in for more shouting, dancing, clapping, hand-raising, and such visible demonstrations than it does. Likewise, I can take you to an equal number that are more traditional and less lively, shall we say.

For good or bad, this particular church seems to be spaced at equal distances from each pole. Now, if you’re familiar with SBC polity, you know the shepherd in a Southern Baptist church pretty well establishes the norm he desires.

Someone told me recently that they had seen the pastor of that church “raising both hands” during a chorus the congregation was singing. I smiled. “So?” The individual thought it was just fine for the isolated member of the congregation to do that, but “when the pastor does it, it establishes that as how the rest of the church should be worshiping.”

To me, it was about as silly a complaint as I had heard in years of hearing complaints. To the one speaking, it was serious. So, I bit my tongue and didn’t laugh. I said, “Why does this bother you?”

To her credit, she said, “I’m not sure. It just does.”

I said something like, “Could I suggest you relax and let him worship however he pleases? After all, the matter of raising one’s hands is something just between him and the Lord.”

“Do you do it?” she asked.

I admitted, “I have a few times, but I don’t any more.”

“Why?”

“Because it was completely meaningless to me. It felt no different than if I had held my arms out horizontally or stood on tiptoes. Clearly, it means something special to those who do it, and I’m glad for them.”

“So why did you do it?” she persisted.

“I was trying it out. I want everything in worship I can get, and I want to give the Lord all of me. The one thing I definitely did not want was to say to my Lord, ‘I refuse to get emotional in my worship.’ I wanted to say to Him that I’m willing to humble myself in any way and every way to give Him all the praise He is due.”

“Okay,” she said. “I suppose that’s what the pastor is doing.”

I said, “I don’t know what his hand-raising means to him. But it doesn’t matter. He doesn’t do it for me or for you either.”

“Here’s how the Apostle Paul put it: ‘Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls.’ That’s Romans 14:4.”

She said, “So you don’t think it’s possible for people to go overboard in the way they worship?”

I said, “Oh, I do think that. I just don’t know what it is. You’d have to know their hearts to make that determination and I’m not able to do that.”

Later, reflecting on my friend’s concern over her pastor’s worship, it occurred to me that Heaven is going to be such a mold-busting (mind-blowing?) experience for so many of God’s children who have insisted that all worship conform to a rigid little set of rules.

In Heaven, the millions of redeemed from African countries will show the rest of the celestial host what true joy means. I can hear their kettle drums (we’re talking steel drums now!) and rhythmic singing, I can see their dancing and clapping and hugging, I can feel the pulsating and throbbing of the beat.

We expect that. But something else will go on in Heaven completely unexpected to most of us….

The Episcopalians and strait-laced Baptists will be joining the celebration. They too will be singing and shouting and dancing and, yes, raising arms and clapping hands and hugging.

They will be loving and crying and singing.

“We shall be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye….”

My question to all my brothers and sisters in the Lord is a simple one: why wait?

Quit throwing flags on your friends for excessive celebrating. Instead, go to the Father and ask Him to help you get what they have.