Brothers and sisters,
Last night (Monday), I watched the second half of Game 5 of the NBA Finals between the Dallas Mavericks and the Boston Celtics. And, to be honest, it was not a particularly compelling half of basketball. To be even more honest, these Finals were not particularly compelling. Boston quickly took a 3-0 lead in the series (you have to win 4 games to win the Finals), with Dallas avoiding the sweep by winning Game 4 in Dallas. But teams that fall down 0-3 in a seven-game series in the NBA are now 0-157. Boston’s victory was never really in doubt
The part of the series that was more compelling came in the world of sports media. See, Boston has two high-level superstars that sports talk show hosts love to pit against each other. They are Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. The narrative you usually hear is something like, “Tatum is obviously the best scorer and the overall best player, but Brown is the leader and on any given night, he can be Boston’s best.” If Tatum has a great game, you’ll hear breathless segments about how that affects Brown’s overall value to the Celtics. Or if Brown has a great streak of games, hosts will ask questions like, “Does this negatively impact Tatum’s basketball legacy?”
Well, last night, a tremendous amount of fuel was about to be added to the fire. During the Finals, an award is given out for “Finals MVP”—the most valuable player in the Finals. Finals MVPs are a big deal and so players really do want to win it. Leading up to last night’s game, pundits were arguing over who should win it—Brown or Tatum. They were arguing over whether or not this would cause a rift in Boston. Should Jaylen Brown get it because he’s been better in the Finals or should Tatum get it because he’s been better throughout the season? They were ready, regardless of who won, to use it as a talking point come Tuesday morning.
Jaylen Brown won Finals MVP. And when he won, he smiled a moment, looked over at Jayson Tatum, and, when given a microphone, immediately said, “It was a full team effort and I share this with my brothers and my partner in crime, Jayson Tatum. He was with me the whole way, we share this [award] together.” Brown knew what others would do with his award—use it against his teammate—if he didn’t nip it in the bud.
It honestly reminded me of the many times that Paul counseled early churches that the only ways they should be competing with each other was in building each other up. He despised the way the Corinthians tried to weaponize the name of the person who had baptized them, as if Christians are divided into teams. He pushed back hard against Peter’s hypocrisy when Peter was willing to eat with one group of Galatians until a different group showed up. Paul understood that the mission of God’s church is accomplished when everyone works together. It was never about which disciple gained more glory. It was always meant to be about people hearing that God loved them. That’s it. Church is meant to be a full team effort, shared by brothers and sisters in Christ who are with each other the whole way.
Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben