A Team Sport
One of the big team sports all three of my sons played while they were in school was basketball. I do declare, there were a few years when I would attend 40 games a year! I think learning how to play on a team is an important experience in life. My middle son had particularly strong skills for the game. He was fast and very agile. He was so fast that the referees would mistakenly call fouls on him, just because they couldn’t imagine someone could move that fast without making a foul! It was always fun to watch him play. He played every game with great passion!
Learning how to play on a team takes a lot of practice. The teammates must learn to trust each other and to rely on each other for assists in order to make plays. When one person tries to go it alone, it usually ends up disastrous. Besides poor performance by the team as a whole, low morale and hard feelings are some of the consequences.
Our Spiritual friends are like a team that accompanies each other on the journey of faith. It is easy to have casual relationships with people whom we see once in a while, but it takes practice to be in close relationship and “in step” with another person – anticipating each others responses, questions, and actions. Trust is necessary. So is respect and love. Sensitivity to the other is important so we don’t get ahead of them, or lag behind them. Practicing our faith together is a team sport. And in my opinion, it is a very important experience in life.
In his letter to the church in Corinth, Paul wrote about this reliance on each other in the church, when he spoke about the body of Christ having many parts, each with a different but equally important function to keep the church body healthy and strong. (I don’t think he mentioned the gall bladder however!).
“But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.” (1 Cor 12:18-19).
I think Paul was saying that we are at our best as Spiritual friends when we work together as a team. Only then will we be able to build each other up and help each other find a closer relationship with God. Only then can we learn what is in each others hearts. Only then can we trust that someone will be there to provide an assist when we make our plays, or take our next steps to know God’s grace and mercy and love.
This is what the church of Jesus Christ is. And this is why it matters in a culture which seems to always be looking for the church’s “relevance.” Paul names the blessings of being a church team in this way: “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” (1 Cor 12:26)
In this season of Easter, I don’t think I am going to worry about trying to prove Jesus Christ is important to the world. His life, death, and resurrection have already done that and the world has been changed because of Him.
I think I’ll just keep going to practice to become a better player!
Blessings for the Easter Season!
Yours in Christ’s Service,
Reverend Linda C. Hey, Interim Pastor