Working On and Working In . . . Like the Lexus Commercial

In the past few weeks I witnessed the same remarkable transformation in two different places, at different times, with two different teams, in two different sports. My alma mater's men's basketball team, the University of Kentucky Wildcats, were down 13 points at half time and had suffered a beating by Mississippi State throughout the first half. This was the most they had been down at half time all season. I confess I had my doubts that they could come back. Mississippi State seemed to have great momentum on their home court. I wish I could have the video clip of what coach Calipari said to the team between halves. The Cats came roaring back to beat Mississippi State by nine points. The team became their old selves: focused, disciplined, together, committed to each other and the end game. It struck me that each player can work on their foul shots, on their conditioning, and their execution, but it takes more than just working on the skills and basics. There has to be an individual and collective working in and rising up from within of spirit, heart, desire, and will that is then disciplined and sacrificed on behalf of others. In this case it means mutual support and sacrifice on behalf of the team together. The expression of character shows forth from within when it has been working within.

This is what I witnessed recently with the Trinity Western University Spartan men's volleyball team. In the final game for the Canada West Conference championship, TWU was down two sets to one. The U of Manitoba had momentum. The TWU Spartans had struggled throughout the third game having placed six serves into the net. Then WOW! The come back. The character. The discipline. The rise from the ashes. TWU won the fourth set 25 to 14 and the fifth set 15 to 9. It was a remarkable ending. All the preseason conditioning and all the working on skills paid-off. TWU won the Canada West Conference championship with players receiving the conference gold medals for 2012. Then they went on to the national championship ranked #1 nationally and brought home the national championship for a second year in a row.

The UK Wildcats (27-1)and the TWU Spartans (21-1) have this wonderful thing in common: the experience of winning all season, knowing what it means to lose, but also knowing how to come back by reaching down and pulling-up that which has be working-in: Character, discipline, sacrifice for the other. This is why sport is such a good metaphor for life. In the Bible (Hebrews 13:20, and 21) it says - "Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus ... through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever."

What was evident in TWU winning both the Canada West Conference Championship and the Canada National championship was the obvious competence of the team, but more importantly the character of the players who showed what had been working in them all along - confidence, courage and humility. As they continued to improve and reach down deep inside themselves to win they continued being "perfected" by continuous improvement as players, as a team, and as people whose character is increasingly after the likeness of Christ ... like the Lexus commercial, "in pursuit of perfection!"

Divine Hospitality: A Christian Tradition

"Though part of everyday life, hospitality is never removed from its divine connections." - Christine D. Pohl, Professor of Christian Social Ethics, Asbury Theological Seminary

I remember a line in an old movie - "The meal was divine!" After more than four decades, I can testify that the meals prepared by my wife (and me: I am the sous chef) often seem truly divine as Irene has developed over the years into a world class master of the culinary arts (my opinion though no certification). What often makes our dining time together divine, however, is not the fabulous provocation of our taste buds, but rather the sharing of the meal with others and the fellowship around the table. This is because of what Christine Pohl says in her classic work - Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition (Eerdmans, 1999). On page 30, Professor Pohl states -

"Especially in the context of shared meals, the presence of God's Kingdom is prefigured, revealed, and reflected. Jesus as gracious host feeds over five thousand people on a hillside, and later explains to the crowd that he is the bread of life, living bread for them from heaven. He offers living water to any who are thirsty (John 6-7). He is himself both host and meal - the very source of life."

Dr. Pohl goes on to ponder the divine hospitality of the Eucharist and how closely a shared meal is to that divine act. . .

"In the last supper with his disciples, Jesus fills the basic elements of a meal with richest symbolic meaning - the bread is his body, the wine, his blood. Eating together, ritualized in the Lord's Supper, continually reenacts the center of the gospel. As we remember the cost of our welcome, Christ's broken body and shed blood, we also celebrate the reconciliation and relationship available to us because of his sacrifice and through his hospitality. The Eucharist most fundamentally connects hospitality with God because it anticipates and reveals the "heavenly table of the Lord." In that sacrament, we are nourished on our journey towards God's banquet table, even as we experience the present joy and welcome associated with sharing in that table. A shared meal is the activity most closely tied to the reality of God's Kingdom, just as it is the most basic expression of hospitality."

What a blessing it is to remember the last sentence of the quote above each time we sit down with others who respond to our invitation to dine together. When we do so in Jesus' name and say that the meal was "divine" we may be confessing a "double entendre" and absolutely the truth!