Who Ya Rootin' For?

The battle lines have been drawn. Sunday afternoon my friend from across the street texted me. He was already beginning the trash-talk about the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament. We’re both Tiger fans. The problem is that he is routing for the Missouri Tigers and I for the Memphis Tigers. Being in the same regional bracket, the two teams may very well face one another sooner than later. I only hope that we don’t have a full-scale war in our neighborhood.

Actually, routing for your basketball team is good-natured fun compared to some of the other fracases we experience being partisans of our particular teams. We’ve seen the irate parents at little league ballparks. The mob-mentality fights at soccer and rugby games in Europe are legendary. Professional hockey is known for its brawling. Who among us Missourians will ever forget the “pine tar incident” with Kansas City Royals third baseman George Brett in 1983.

But while Jesus wants us to have a team mentality – to work together to accomplish his goals, sometimes we don’t see the whole picture. We forget that God’s team is bigger than the group that meets with us in our building in our little corner of Marshfield, Missouri. We forget that, on Sunday morning, members of God’s team are meeting all over Marshfield – and yes, all over the world!

I’m glad to be a part of a group of preachers in our town who are trying to remember to see the big picture and are encouraging our churches to see it too. Our community New Year’s service was wonderful. People from different congregations came together as God’s church – God’s team – to worship and celebrate His work in their lives together.

It was such a blessing that we are going to do it again. Good Friday evening, April 10, at 7 p.m., at the Marshfield Church of the Nazarene, God’s team here in Marshfield will meet for worship and prayer – remembering the sacrifice of our team leader, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
I’m glad to be a part of the Son-Rise congregation, but I’m even more happy to be a part of God’s team in Marshfield and around the world. Let’s work together to accomplish Jesus’ mission.