Sometimes the most important people are the people we most take for granted. I was reminded of this recently in the Eastern Conference Finals of the NBA Playoffs. The Cleveland Cavaliers are facing off against the Toronto Raptors. In the first two games of the series, things looked decidedly one-sided. Cleveland won Game 1 by 31 points and Game 2 by 19 points. Get out the brooms. A sweep is coming. I totally expected it myself. But then something happened. Something changed. In Game 3, the Raptors win by 15 and then in Game 4, last night, the Raptors pulled off a 6 point victory.  Suddenly, a boring series turned into a must-watch. How did this happen?

Well, I think it would be easy to look at the stellar play of the Raptors’ guards, Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, and chalk it all up to prolific scoring. After all, DeRozen dropped 32 points in Game 3 and Lowry had 35 points in Game 4. These are clutch, big-time numbers by excellent players. They deserve the credit they get.

But if you look a little deeper in the box score, another name jumps out at you: Bismack Biyombo. A 6’9″ 23-year old center from the Congo, Biyombo has never been an elite offensive player. In fact, a recent SB Nation article argued he has a “rather rudimentary offensive skill set” even after being in the league for a few years. He’s scored a whopping 27 points in the 4 games of the Eastern Conference Finals so far. Biyombo is definitely not the kind of player that will blow you away with his deft dribbling or pretty jumper or deep range. So, what does he do well? All the “little things.” Things like rebounds, blocking shots and switching on defense.

For instance, in a pivotal and must-win Game 3, the feisty Biyombo snatched down 26 rebounds (including 8 offensive rebounds!) and made 4 blocks. In Game 4, he scarfed up 14 more rebounds and sent 3 shots packing. Biyombo also grabbed a key offensive rebound toward the end of the game to seal the Raptors’ victory.

All in all, Biyombo, an under-sized NBA center has been an essential ingredient in the Raptors’ recipe for victory in the last two games. And yet he’s done it in a relatively ordinary way. He’s good at playing defense. He’s good at grabbing the ball after a missed shot. He’s good at playing with energy. Sometimes the most important people are the people we most take for granted.

And I think this is true in the church as well. This past Saturday, my church held a “Volunteer Celebration” for a variety of lay-people who serve on Sunday mornings. Volunteers like children’s ministry workers, greeters, communion servers, bookstore workers were invited. The meeting was simple and straightforward. Amidst the food, fellowship and fun games, the goal of the event was to communicate one main message to people often taken for granted in the life of the church: Thank-you. Even though wiping baby’s noses or filling communion cups or holding a door open may not be the most glamorous way to serve, it’s important. It’s an essential ingredient in making our church’s family gatherings on Sundays so rich. It’s a small, but vital part of accomplishing the mission of our church. And this is exactly the way God designed it.

Passages like 1 Cor. 12 and 1 Peter 4:10-11 remind us of God’s masterful design of the church. We all play a different parts in the body of Christ. Some prominent. And some less prominent. And yet we need each other. We need to work together in love to accomplish the mission that Christ has for us. To use an NBA analogy, some of us are the Lowry’s and DeRozen’s of the church. We are seen, we are heard – often. But others are the Bismack Biyombo’s of the church. We do the “little things.” We serve behind the scenes. And we do it year after year after year.

In the end, the church needs both. We need preachers and nursery workers. We need worship leaders and janitors. We need the elders and greeters. And we most of all, we need the Lord who can use anyone, yes, anyone, to accomplish His glorious purposes in the church.

 

 

 

 

As I try to do every year, I took a little time to fill out my March Madness bracket yesterday. I’ve never been one to fill out multiple brackets with different picks, so my one bracket is my one shot at tourney pick ’em glory. I try to do my best to pick those teams who I sincerely believe to have the best shot at winning the title. So, no picking based on color or mascot or state with the best food. No, as a basketball fan, I want my bracket to accurately reflect what I think the reality on the hardwood will be.

And yet, as seems to happen every year, the main tourney is not a day old and my bracket is already imploding. Who would have thought Yale would upset Baylor? Who would have guessed that Arkansas Little Rock from the Sunbelt would take down Purdue University from the Big Ten (in double over-time no less!)? I certainly didn’t! I never do! And yet, every year I join millions of Americans in this futile exercise of trying to predict the future, knowing full well as I make my picks that nothing will go quite as planned. If you think about it too much (and care too much!), it’s all a little maddening! Maybe that’s why they call it, “March Madness.” And maybe that’s why I love it so much.

The upsets.  The buzzer-beaters. The Cinderellas. The relentless potential for “I never saw that coming!” March Madness is pure, delicious drama unfolding before our very eyes. And I love it. Who cares if my bracket becomes a mess? The “madness” of March is way better than any plan I could have conjured up in my mind.

And yet this March, as a Christian, I believe the greatest and most beautiful “madness” is not happening on the court. No, it’s happening in every church building, in every Bible study, on every street corner, in every coffee shop, in every home where Easter is truly remembered and celebrated.

The Apostle Paul said in 1 Cor. 1:18:”For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

Though there is certainly “madness” in the NCAA tournament, it is infinitely microscopic compared to the”madness” of the Cross. Who would have guessed that God’s great drama of redemption would have unfolded like it did? Who could have fathomed that the one to crush the Serpent’s head would have come through the seed of the rebellious woman? Who would have guessed that God would save His people by having them wipe the blood of a lamb on their doorposts? Who could have imagined that the Lord would defeat blasphemous Goliath through sling & stone of a scrawny shepherd boy? Who would have ever dreamed that God Himself would enter the story as a baby boy, conceived of the Holy Spirit and born to a poor unwed couple in a back-woods town? Who could have foreseen that the very Son of God, the champion of Heaven, would willingly and undeservedly endure the agony of the Cross to the point of death? And who in their wildest dreams would have ever surmised that three days later the tomb would lie empty, the linen cloths folded and death defeated?

The answer is no-one.  No mortal man crafts a drama that surprising, that remarkable, that good. No-one but God alone.

And yet for many people, even to this day, the word of the Cross, the glorious story of Easter is simply folly. It’s madness. It’s a nice-sounding myth no better than childish tales of the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy.

And yet for those who believe, for those whose faith rests on the historical resurrection of Jesus Christ, the word of the Cross, the story of Easter is beautiful “madness.” It is the great buzzer-beater of history. It is the glorious upsetting of human efforts and expectations. It is the very wisdom and power of God.  And it is worth celebrating again and again.

So, move over March Madness. Easter is coming! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recently the news of Maria Sharapova’s failed drug test at the Australian Open has rocked the tennis world. Sharapova, a five-time Grand Slam title champion and currently the #7 ranked women’s tennis player in the world, has been accused of taking the blood-flow promoting drug, meldonium which was recently banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in December. From what I can gather, the drug is supposed to improve “oxygen uptake and endurance” something which might aide a professional tennis player during a rigorous match.

However, Sharapova who first held a press conference on Monday, March 7th, to share the news about her failed drug test, has indicated that she didn’t realize she was taking a banned substance (meldonium also goes by the name “mildronate”). Rather, she says she’s been simply following doctor’s orders for the last 10 years and taking the drug to “address a number of health issues, including low magnesium levels.”

Interestingly, while taking full responsibility for not looking more closely at the new banned substance list, Sharapova has admitted that she sincerely didn’t know meldonium was illegal. Moreover, in a recent letter to her fans posted on Facebook, Sharapova stridently denies the claim that she was warned five times about meldonium being banned. In fact, from her perspective, it sounds like WADA didn’t make the banned substance information very accessible – yet Sharapova still admits she should have been more careful.

All in all, the consequences for Sharapova could be severe. Already, three of her major sponsors, Nike, Tag Heuer and Porsche are pulling away, and that’s to say nothing of the lengthy ban she might receive from the International Tennis Federation (ITF).

So, what are we to make of all of this? Well, I think Proverbs 18:13 is important to recall: “If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame.” At this point, we don’t know all the facts. We haven’t seen Maria’s medical records. We don’t know if or how this drug may have been helping her on the court. And in the end, we really don’t know whether it was an honest mistake on Maria’s part or blatant violation of the rules to get a little bit of an edge. We just don’t know – and we may never know. So, I think it’s important to judge charitably here and wait for more evidence to come forth. Yes, Maria should face a fair suspension, because she technically did violate the rules. And yet, in the often-brutal court of public opinion, I hope Sharapova will be given the benefit of the doubt. Just because she comes from Russia doesn’t mean she’s guilty. Just because she was taking this drug for 10 years (while it was legal!) doesn’t mean her whole career is a sham. She is innocent until proven guilty – not the other way around.

And yet, even though I want to give Sharapova the benefit of the doubt, the fact remains that her reputation has been tarnished, maybe irreparably so. In fact, because she is one of its most talented and marketable stars, professional tennis will be undeniably impacted. What always seemed like a clean, pristine, gentleman’s (and gentle-women’s!) game is now showing some of its ugly under-belly. Sadly, doping’s deadening tentacles seem to know no bounds. Even tennis, a sport which I love, has been tainted by cursed PED’s.

And yet, sadly, I shouldn’t be surprised as either a fan or a Christian. First, as a fan of professional sports, I should have seen this coming. Bonnie Ford put it well in a recent ESPN article when she said, “It has always defied belief that one population of elite athletes would be significantly more ethical and less prone to cheating than another. Tennis skated under the radar for a long time, benefiting from its genteel roots and etiquette and true-believer following, even as prize money and endorsement income potential soared, and with them, the temptation to cheat. None of this means Maria Sharapova is guilty of anything other than following a doctor’s orders or being careless about reading WADA emails …” 

But second, as a Christian fan, I definitely shouldn’t have been surprised by the tainting of tennis. Jeremy R. Treat, in his Themelios article entitled, “More than a Game: A Theology of Sport,” helpfully reminds us that all of life, including sports is fallen. He states, “In a world ravished by sin, sports are not outside of its devastating effects. Sin not only fractures our relationship with God, it shatters the goodness of God’s created order, including God’s design for play and sports.” Treat goes on to argue that the effects of the fall on sports can be seen through the “destructive behavior of athletes” where sports can become a “playground for violence (bench-clearing brawls), cheating (corked bats, deflated footballs, etc.), injury (especially life-threatening and brain-damaging injuries), and performance-enhancing drugs (haunting whole sports such as baseball, cycling, and track).” Sadly, Treat contends that sin can even contort sport culture in systemic ways shown in the “win-at-all-costs mentality that leaves in its wake broken families, compromised integrity, and wounded friendships.”

Sadly, Maria Sharapova’s recent scandal and the reminder of doping’s presence in tennis is yet another sad reminder of the fact that all of “creation was subjected to futility” (Rom. 8:20). No part of human existence, not even sports, not even my beloved tennis, is yet free from “bondage to corruption” which Paul speaks of. Even in tennis, people cheat or get punished because other people cheat. Truly, the world, tennis included, is not the way its supposed to be.

And so, as I reflect on Maria Sharapova’s recent fall (whether by intention or mistake), I think it’s only right to ache. To ache over the fact that the world is broken. To ache over the fact that even the brightest stars can be dimmed. To ache over the fact that there is no square inch of human existence which has not been corrupted by the Fall. And finally, to ache for the day when “the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Rom. 8:20). Yes, this is a time for aching. Aching over what is not – and aching for what will be!