Gotta Love Those JOY Spreading Knicks!

OK, you don't have to love them, but I found it hard not to, especially since the Celtics weren't in the NBA Finals. Every game was a toss up until the final buzzer. Anything seemed possible. And, after each win, joy erupted and spread like a longed-for virus throughout NYC and wherever Knicks fans gathered.

But so did some damage after the championship game ended. Crowds can be fickle and dangerous. I never understood the crazy stuff that often happens after some games, like setting cars on fire,etc. It's like we don't know how to win. Or how to lose, after betting on the wrong team and losing money or worse. Drunkenness explains some, but not all.

But crowds remind me about yesterday's sermon. It was the final Sunday for our Bridge Priest, Rev. Dr. Ali Lutz. Coffee hour turned into a thank you party for her ministry among us. If you took a look at the decorated cake, a yellow school bus with CCHW on the side of it, you'd have thought it celebrated the end of the school year. Not so. It was a visual reminder that when Ali came to us, four months ago, she likened this transition to a bus. The goal was to keep the tires inflated, and move the bus down the road. Ali did that and so much more. She listened, learned and loved us.

Which is why it's not as odd, as it appears, to link the Knicks and The Church together. Both draw crowds. And crowds are a mix of folks. Crowds vary in size, age, ethnicity, color, education, status and personal worth, when measured by wealth. And crowds are capable of doing good or harm. So is the Church.

So, back to yesterday's sermon. The Gospel lesson was from Matthew 9:35-10:8. It seems that where Jesus went, crowds gathered. The Bible reminds us that "When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd." (v.36) How did he know that? Well, like now, Jesus sees, hears, and cares. For instance, individuals came to advocate for a dying child, to heal a paralytic friend, or beg him to cast out demons.

Those crowds were not a blob, a human roadblock, keeping Jesus from getting where he wanted to go. They were why he came. And, for us, too. Our hurts and helplessness are not blobs blocking his way, but beats expanding his heart. Love stops and stoops to listen, learn and love.

Well, as often happens, Ali's sermon keeps coming back to me with two phrases. When it comes to relationships and our church in transition, "Move at the speed of trust." And when it comes to crowds and folks or ideas we're uncomfortable with, "Be compassionately curious." Both are important to carry over to help heal marriages, families and other relationships in and outside The Church.

One of the gifts that came from the attack on 9/11 was how we came together as a country. We've lost much of that in these highly politicized and divisive times. For a few hours Knicks fans in NYC felt some of that unity. It's my hope and prayer, like many of you, that The Church can step up and lead. And that the mission will be to love like Jesus loves, to speak truth to power. To see the crowds, not as the enemy, but as individuals who are hurting and hungry for what Jesus came to bring. So the Church must open its doors, heart and hands to the least likely, the lonely, and sometimes the least lovable. Just like Jesus did and does. That's what winning looks like in God's upside down kingdom of grace and mercy.

Game on!

Only it's not a game.

It's life.

Their lives, as well as yours and mine.

Oh, and like the Knicks impossible run and championship win, don't stop believing.

With God, "anything's possible." (Matthew 19:26)

Remember, hope, like joy, is contagious.

The Church is to be a Super Spreader.

That's us.