Practice

“Practice! We’re not talking about the game. 

We’re talking about practice! 

Practice!! Not a game! Not THE game! Practice!!!”

                          — Ted Lasso

In the critically and popularly acclaimed streaming series, Ted Lasso, there is a moment when American Football Coach turned British Premier League Football Manager, Ted Lasso, played by Jason Sudeikis admonishes the team’s franchise player for faking an injury in order to skip practice. For the wording of Lasso’s admonishment, the show’s writers quote NBA Superstar, Allen Iverson, verbatim. However, the writers use Iverson’s words to make the opposite point altogether. You see Iverson was trying to justify his truancy from practice by saying it’s “Practice. Not the game.” For Iverson the game is the most important thing he could be doing. Practice is, well, just practice.  Whereas Ted Lasso is trying to convince his franchise player that practice is also important. Practice prepares you for the game. Besides, as Lasso says, “We’re talkin’ about practice with your team, your teammates. The only place we’ve got to play together…” 

There are various ways in which Christians can show up for practice. One especially important way is the practice of communal worship. Every Sunday morning we, Trinity Lutheran Church, N. Bethesda, gather together on site or online and practice. We make confession, remember our baptisms, offer lament, hear a word of good news which the preacher connects to daily life, we pray for the lives of others, share a greeting of peace (thus, forgive one another), we share a meal together, and receive further instructions before being sent back into the game. Sundays are the time we are given to gather with our team and teammates, our beloved community to play together and…to practice.

Sundays aren’t the game. They’re practice! Practice prepares us for the game. The game is the rest of the week. 

On Sundays we practice the language, ethic, faith and love we will need to apply in our daily life.  When we show up for Sunday worship we develop the spiritual flexibility and strength to continue applying our practice to the needs of the world; and we do so as we follow Jesus on the way.  And that, just that…is… abundant life.

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Photo by arh Lee on Unsplash

Dialog from Ted Lasso, Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Copyright 2021.