I love Basketball.  It has been so much a part of my life.  I spent one third of my childhood on the full court Don Parks poured in the middle of the field across the fence.  I shot and shot and shot…and continued that tradition in high school and college.  In God’s kindness, my efforts were met with some success.  I have always found basketball exciting, reactive, and alive.  It is a great game.  I watched today as UK went down three at the end of regulation with three seconds left on the clock…only to throw up a shot from half court…which banked in to send them to over time.  They eventually got the “W” in the extra period, beating Santa Clara.

March used to consume me as a player and fan.  As a player, you worked all year to have a season that would bring your team to be playing well.  One bellwether for a good season is how deep you play into March.  If you keep winning, you keep playing.  All of March’s games are important. 

When I was a boy Dad and Mom bought me a bedspread that was an inlaid basketball game with a deck of cards.  As you flipped the cards, the game would proceed.  I only played approximately four million games of basketball on that bedspread.  I hosted the NCIATA Tournament, which was a combination of the old NIT tournament with all the teams from the NCAA.  I announced all of the games as I turned the cards over to get to the outcome of the games.  Of course, the highlight reels were played back on the Parks’ outdoor court as soon as the bedspread games were over.  Hey, when you do not have a brother, you have to use your imagination and improvise. 

Now that I am a few years older, March isn’t quite as mad.  Sure, I still enjoy a good game.  Watching Kentucky today was my first game this year.  But my wife and children are a bit more alluring.  Grandchildren bring “March Madness” twelve months a year!  It’s exciting!

We all have a finite quantity of passion.  We each decide into what we shall pour our passion.  One great fault of western culture’s current habits is that we make leisurely joys and our interests ultimate things.  We get our axles wrapped around our pursuits, which momentarily can seem so important.  But then, we cannot avoid the inevitable disappointment when we the pursuits can never deliver on what we thought was promised to us in our allegiance (read idols here). 

Maybe the bright lights have been turned down on these “one shining moments” because I am serving at a funeral tonight.  There is nothing like a funeral and reminders of our mortality that bring you back to what is really important in life.  The preacher in Ecclesiastes (7:1) said this, “Better to spend your time at funerals than at parties.  After all, everyone dies-so the living should take this to heart.” 

My buddy grew up with some ruffian brothers who schooled him in the arts of indulgence.  He got really good at it.  So good, he lost his freedom for almost fifteen years of his life.  Sure, he knew the gospel.  He had grown up in church.  But he liked the edge and substances grabbed a hold of him.  Then, at the bottom, one night in the county jail, God awakened him to His great love for him and his heart was changed.  He was a man made new.  He did not change overnight, but inexorably God began to work.  His best years were his last years.  He got married.  He became our facilities manager here at Calvary.  We all love him very much.  His is such a wonderful story of grace.  Jesus came to rescue us from our indulgence and by taking up our sin’s punishment on Good Friday, and by being raised from the dead on Easter morning, He brought everyone who believes to a certain hope in life and in death. We’ll celebrate tonight at Shawn’s funeral.

There is an old gospel hymn inviting us to Turn Our Eyes Upon Jesus.  The lyrics make the argument that things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of his glory and grace.  Enduring and eternal things are vivid and sustained treasures.  Investments in friendship are worth it.  Love is so rich and worthy of each selfless investment, so important in life. 

So here I am at another funeral.  Reality hitting me in the face again.  The world is broken.  We too shall die.  And, knowing Jesus Christ in life and in death makes an eternal difference. 

“And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”  John 17:3

A focus on eternal realities has a way of tamping down over zealous preoccupations with temporal things that alas, do not matter.  Someone will win the NCAA tournament this year.  There will be some more exciting games for us fans.  We’ll get excited…and forget who won by Mother’s Day. 

I still love the fun of March Madness.  But its epic peaks have nothing on the glory of knowing Jesus Christ and sharing Him with others…which will be my privilege again tonight.  Knowing Jesus Christ is a joy to savor that grows greater as our relationship with Him is deepened over time.  It is a sustained joy that will last…forever.