The NCAA Men's Division
I Basketball Championship is a single-elimination tournament
played each spring featuring 68 college basketball teams. The tournament,
organized by the National Collegiate Athletic
Association (NCAA), was created in 1939 by
the National Association of Basketball
Coaches, and was the idea of Ohio State University coach Harold
Olsen. Played mostly during March, it is known as March Madness, and has
become one of the most famous annual sporting events in the US.
The tournament teams include champions from 32 Division I
conferences, and 36 teams which are awarded at-large
berths. The 68 teams are divided into four regions and organized
into a single elimination "bracket", which predetermines, when a team
wins a game, which team it will face next. Each weekend eliminates three
quarters of the teams, from a round of 64, to a "Sweet Sixteen", and
for the last weekend of the Tournament a Final Four. These four teams, one from
each region, then compete for the national championship.
THAT…is what
most people know as March Madness…not so here! (insert + love)
A basketball in my hands is worth about $19. A basketball in the hands of Las Angeles
Laker’s Kobe
Bryant is worth $30 million, the next closest to him is Dirk Nowitzki
of the Dallas
Mavericks at $22 million. There are
a lot of players in the 15-22 million dollar range; only one at 30 million. It
depends on whose hands it’s in.
Two fish and 5 loaves of
bread in my hands is a couple of fish sandwiches. Two fish and 5 loaves of
bread in Jesus’ hands will feed thousands. It depends whose hands it’s in.
Nails in my hands might produce a few pictures hung
on a wall. Nails in Jesus Christ’s hands
will produce a savior hung on a cross and salvation for the entire world. It
depends whose hands it’s in.
OR, Luke 5:12-13 While
Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy.
When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean."
Jesus reached out his hand
and touched the man. "I am willing,"
he said. "Be clean!" And immediately
the leprosy left him.
How did God’s hands
become real? Flesh? Visible? Able to heal and to bleed? How did the God who’s
divine-heavenly-eternal-timeless-incorruptible being become one of us?
John 1:1-14
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God. 2 He
was with God in the beginning. 3
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, but the
darkness has not understood
it. Λόγος is from the root
λεγω, meaning to lay: then, pick up: hence to gather or put words together…to
speak. λόγος is, first of all, a collecting or collection both of things in the
mind, and of words by which they are expressed. It signifies both the outward
form by which the inward thought is expressed.
The word here points directly to Genesis 1 (In the beginning...God
said…), where the act of creation is effected by God speaking (Psalms 33:6 By the word of the LORD the heavens were
made). The idea of God, who is in his own nature hidden, revealing himself
in creation, is the root of the Logos-idea.
Skip to vs 10
He (the logos = the word) was in the
world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize
him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave
the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a
husband's will, but born of God.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling
among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and
truth.
The decision of the Nicene Council made a choice
between two words that differed by a mere letter but in meaning implied a
profound theological difference; namely, homoousion (same substance), and
homoiousion (like substance). The Council declared that the Father and the Son
are homoousion and co-eternal.
The Nicene Council decided that, because the triune
Godhead is fully present in Jesus, the reality of God’s love for humanity is
demonstrated. Incarnation implied not retreat from an impure world but a
sacrificial commitment to its healing. The incarnation is a Giant invitation to
Live in the Love of God. Like a GIANT greeting card.
The Chalcedon Council also taught that Jesus Christ
is of the same substance as the Father and the same substance as us; and
although possessing two natures, divine and human, these are united in the one
person.
Chalcedonian Creed
We then,
following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one and
the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also
perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a [rational] soul and body;
[coessential] with the Father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial with
us according to the Manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin; begotten
before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter
days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God,
according to the Manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, to be acknowledged
in two natures; inconfusedly,
unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably;
the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but
rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one
Person and one Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and
the same Son, and only begotten God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ...
Now that we have some
idea of how God became a person with healing/bleeding hands, we must ask WHY? He is word, creator, life, light, Father’s
glory, full of grace and truth! Grace = giving someone what they don’t
deserve. Truth = reality of being
true.
caris / grace. alhqeia / truth. These terms are based on the
OT concepts of grace and truth related to God’s loyalty and faithfulness to His
covenant and His covenant people.
One and Only - unique - no one else
would do what he has done. Other hands
bleed like his but no other hands heel or save people from their sins like his.
The incarnation is Jesus getting dunked all the way
from the glory of heaven into a manger in Bethlehem and a cross in
Jerusalem. The first chapter of john
goes on to describe Jesus baptism, where he was dunked in the Jordan river as
an example for us to follow. The
Christian life misses the mark if all we do is follow his example and not
understand how his Holy Spirit becomes incarnated in us when we are born
again. The hidden heart of God, the very
love of God in Christ is made known through his church, his people, his
children…you and me. That is huge. Let’s do something, not just think something
to make this more real to us. Right –
the word must become flesh. So sit close
enough to at least one other person so that you would be able to reach out and
join hands in a few minutes.
Hand
Meditation
Edward J.
Farrell
Put your hands in your lap and close your eyes. Get
as comfortable as you can and relax . . . Become aware of your hands . . . the
air at your fingertips . . . between your fingers . . . on the palm of your
hand. Think of your hands. Think of the hands of your father or mother or
grandparents. Remember the oldest hands that have rested in your hands. Think
of the hands of a newborn child of the incredible beauty, perfection, and
delicacy in the hands of a child . . . Once upon a time your hands were the same
size . . . Think of all that your hands have done since then . . . Think of all
the learning your hands have done, how many activities they have mastered and
things they have made. Our hands are not just for ourselves . . . but for
others. How often were they given to help another? Remember all the kinds of
work they have done, the tiredness, the coldness and aching, the heat, the
soreness, the bruises. Remember the tears they have wiped away, your own or
another’s, the blood they have bled, the healing they have experienced . . .
How much hurt, anger, even violence they have expressed and how much
gentleness, tenderness and love they have given . . . How often they have been
folded in prayer . . . a sign of both their
powerlessness and their power . . . There is a great mystery which we
discover in the hands of the man or woman we love . . . There are hands of
doctors, nurses, and pastors . . . Now raise your hands slowly and gently and
place them over your heart . . . press more firmly until your hand picks up the
beat of your heart and then raise your hand just a fraction above your clothing
. . . experience the warmth between your hand and your heart . . . Now as if
carrying your heart, lower your hand to your lap . . . When you extend your
hand to another, it is not just bone and skin . . . it is you heart . . . Now,
without opening your eyes, extend both hands to either side and find another
hand . . . Do not simply hold it . . . sense the history and mystery of this
hand . . . Let your hand speak to it and let it listen to the other . . . Bring
your hands back again to your lap. Experience the presence of that hand lingering
on your hand . . . Whose hand was that?? ? It could have been any hand . .
. It could have been God’s hand . .
. IT WAS ! ! ! . . . HE has no other
hands but our hands on this earth. If the work is to be done we must do it with
Him . . . with our hands linked together we must be HIS working force of love
in the world.
The value of a basketball in our hands, of some fish and loaves of bread, of nails…not much. The
value of our hands being a visible, flesh extension of the hidden heart of God
to the world is worth knowing that the love of God the father is revealed to
one more person just like it was to you and me.
EXTRA NOT FULY SHARED DURING MESSAGE:
The Nicene Creed
We believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and
of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of
the Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God,
begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father by whom all things
were made; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and
was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man, and was
crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried, and the
third day he rose again according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven,
and sitteth on the right hand of the Father. And he shall come again with glory
to judge both the quick and the dead, whose kingdom shall have no end.
And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, who proceedeth
from the Father and
the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and
glorified, who spoke by the prophets. And we believe one holy catholic and
apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins. And we
look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
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