URC Weekly 11/13/2011: Chargers Suck



Hi Everyone!

Thank you once again for all your wedding wishes! Our wedding really showed us what it means to be a part of a loving community. Thank you for making our day special.

On the Thursday before the wedding, my groomsmen treated me to a NFL game between the San Diego Chargers and the Oakland Raiders. Although I have been to many college football games, this was my first time experiencing professional football. And let me tell you, it was a BLAST. The game was great it not only because I watched it live with some of my good friends, but also because my favorite team, the Raiders (I see some of you shaking your heads already), won. Furthermore, the Raiders won with their new quarterback Carson Palmer, who started for USC during my freshman and sophmore years.

But the biggest factor that made the game such an enjoyable experience was the crowd. The enviornment was electrifying, appropriately fitting the home team Chargers. Yet the Raider fans were crazier. Filling about a third of the stadium, we were so loud that the home team had a hard time organizing on the field for offense. Even the Raider players knew of our heavy presence, and raised their hands up repeatedly throughout the game asking for our support.

We also had an instant connection to one another. The guy in front of me was standing on top of his seat most of the time (no one in our section sat down during the game, but on the floor). At a point in the fourth quarter, a Charger-fan lady tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I can have the guy stand on the floor like everyone else. Before I could have reached out to the guy, however, a Raider-fan lady right next to me turned around and viciously yelled, “You ask him to sit down yourself! Don’t have him do what you need!” I know that came just because we were wearing the shirts with the same team logo.

As we walked out of the tunnel to exit the stadium, all the raider fans chanted together “Chargers suck! Chargers suck! Chargers suck!” while giving each other high fives. It didn’t matter whether you were white, Latino, black, Asian, men, women, old, young; we were united under the silver and black (Raider team colors).

My sisters and brothers, this passionate unification is what the church is supposed to have, for we are united by Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Jesus says in John 15:6, “I am the vine, you are the branches.” We are related to one another in a way that the branches of a vine are connected. In fact, I do not know which of the random Raider fans that I had enjoyed the game with are my Christian siblings – but I know that you are. As Christians, we are to enjoy unity of a group life that constantly encourages, always strengthens, and fiercely loves.

Yet often, this is not the case. Why? I think a part of the reason is because of our consumerist mentality, hidden or not. I have referred to President Kennedy’s famous line “Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country” several weeks ago during a sermon. I think we can greatly benefit from asking ourselves the same question every time we see each other. My brothers, and my sisters, church life can be more exciting then any sports game or jazz concert that you can attend. Church life can be more rejuvenating than your favorite video game or spa treatment. But it does take each branch to recognize his or her connection to the whole vine to be that way.

So I encourage you. Will you make this church a community so deeply loving that people’s souls are refreshed? We already have what it takes, for what we really is people – regular people like you and me. Let us remember that Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. Let us be unified under Jesus so that we may love one another in an exhilarating way that the world cannot.

• Thank you once again for coming to Hyonroh & Hannah’s Wedding
• MPR: Monthly Prayer Request submission for the end of the year is this Sunday
• Thanksgiving Dinner: 11/27 (Sun) @ 5pm with OKEC at Union; sign-up to help this Sunday
• James & Elise Wedding: 12/3 (Sat)…CONGRATULATIONS!
• Winter Retreat: 12/18 (Sun) – 12/20 (Tue); details coming soon