WHOSE?

“Come together, right now, over me.” — The Beatles, “Come Together”

1 Corinthians 3:1-9
Luke 9:46-50
John 17:20-26

“Remember the Titans” contains a scene that elicits laughs while illustrating a point.

Herman Boone is the newly hired black football coach at T.C. Williams High in Alexandria, Virginia, during the racially tense seventies. Before he takes his new and epidermally varied team to camp before the season, he has a small exchange with his All-American linebacker, Gary.

“Once you step on that bus you ain’t got your mama no more. You got your brothers on the team and you got your daddy. Gary, if you want to play on this football team, you answer me when I ask you who is your daddy? Who’s your daddy, Gary?”

“You.”

“And whose team is this, Gary? Is this your team? Or is this your daddy’s team?”

“Yours.”

Boone had the unenviable task of building a team out of players who had considerable enmity for each other. Skin, background and a slew of prejudices divided them.

Does Jesus not face the same issues with us? Could he not have a conversation with each of us similar to Coach Boone’s?

“You have no organization. You have your brothers and sisters. And who is your teacher? Who’s your leader?”

Jesus might then ask, “And whose plan is it? Whose world is it? Is it yours, or is it mine? Is it your good news, or is it mine? Do you have the trademark to this good news? Do you lead me? Or does the message instruct you? Do I lead you? Whose teachings are these? Whose team are you on?”

Sadly, we have need of these questions. We receive the charge of loving our brothers and working with them as we work with Jesus, and we immediately divide. Bureaucracy and office politics rule the day. Like fiery and territorial John, we say, “Those folks can’t work for Jesus because they don’t follow with us. Let’s shut ‘em down. They don’t do this right, they say that wrong, and they’re too fluffy or stodgy.”

And still he asks, “Whose team is this? Whose plan is this?”

He leads. We follow. We co-labor with him. If we want others to look at Jesus as a leader, teacher and someone worthy of listening to, we should listen to him ourselves.

“Come together. Right now. Over me.”

Do we think about the agenda of Jesus or our own more?
What is his agenda?
How do I carry it out?

Adam