Who’s team are you on?

(I preached this sermon on Sunday, April 26, 2020. The Gospel reading for the day was Luke 24:13–35 — you can find the full recording of the service on our website — www.ststephenlc.org)

Recently we watched the movie Miracle. It’s the retelling of the 1980 USA Mens Olympic Hockey Team and the game that would come to be called the Miracle on Ice. The Miracle was that they beat the Soviet Olympic Team — a team that hadn’t lost a match in years and won Olympic gold in the four previous Olympics — 1964, 68, 72, and 76. All while the US team had struggled through the opening rounds year after year — only once securing a medal in those four Olympics. The Soviets where the best and everyone knew it.

The US team was a rag tag grouping of amateur hockey players — college players — who were brought together to make a team. The team struggles to come together — often because their loyalty to their college team got in the way of playing together as a team. Their eyes were kept closed to seeing the goal. What’s a coach to do in that situation?

After one friendly match, he makes the team stay on the ice after the game. He makes them line up on the goal line and sprint across the rink to the blue line and back to the goal, then the red line, and back to the goal. Over and over, all the while yelling at them, berating them. Red line, goal, blue line, goal. Yelling. Again. Again. Red line, goal, blue line, goal. Again. Again. The manager of the rink turns the lights out after a while. And the coach keeps pushing them. Again. Again. The…