Few tales inspire me more than sports movies which portray some individual or some team overcoming overwhelming odds to glory. In many ways that is the American tale. In the movie “Hoosiers”, (based loosely on a real story), a coach with a questionable past, coaches a small town team all the way to the state championships and wins. Of course the beauty of the story is not just the win at the end, but the journey along the way. In the movie the coach has to get his players to play the game the right way, which is relying on each other in passing the ball, setting screens for each other, looking at each other as a unit and not just individual pieces. Early on they are skeptical, and in one scene the point guard ignores his coach and does not pass the ball 5 times before shooting. After a few minutes of this behavior, the coach takes him out of the game and finishes with four players. When the referee questions him he responds with, “My team is on the court”. The coach is trying to make the point to his players that in order to win they have to follow the plan to share the ball. The coach knew that was the only way forward to winning against the overwhelming challenges they would face.

In Luke chapter 6 Jesus gathers His disciples and appoints 12 apostles. He then tells all those disciples who were following Him the plan for His Kingdom. Up to this point Jesus had done the ministry of preaching, healing, and ministering to those who came to Him. Now, Jesus was going to send out disciples to do ministry. Jesus, God’s Son and King, does not keep ministry to Himself! He gives US a role in His Kingdom! He gives Us a ministry. What kind of shape does this Kingdom have, or how is this ministry to look? How are we to function as one unit in His Kingdom? This Sunday we will look at how this Kingdom is to take shape and what kind of blessings come with living out His Kingdom ethic. It is only by following and obeying Jesus in this world that we will over come our natural tendency to live only for ourselves. We are His team, let’s get with the plan.

Ben Melli