A clip making the Internet sports rounds shows a pastor cutting his Sunday sermon short to watch an NFL playoff game, but it was just a joke.
The clip shows pastor Tim Christensen of Gold Hill Lutheran Church in Butte, Mont., give a ridiculously truncated Sunday sermon because had important places to be — namely, a television set to watch his beloved San Francisco 49ers play in the NFL playoffs.
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"Would you all like to be forgiven for your sins? OK, that's great, you are," he tells his congregation in the video above, before adding, "There's some bread and some wine up here on the table. You all feel free to help yourself if you'd like to."
Pastor Tim's abbreviated talk began gathering attention online after Gold Hill posted the clip to its Facebook page on Sunday evening, describing it as "not exactly a TYPICAL Sunday morning." Some commenters have taken him to task for shirking his religious duties to watch football.
The entire ordeal, however, was just a prank.
"It was just a little bit of a joke," a parish secretary who only identified as Mariam told Mashable on Monday. "The entire congregation knows he's a big 49ers fan, so they were in on it and he held a full service right after that."
Image: John Christensen, YouTube