A Different Kind of Basketball

“I got odds”.

“I got evens”.

“Once, twice, three, shoot!”

“Evens. I got Billy.”

“I got Tom”.

“I got Freddy.”

“I got Jim.”

“Um, I got Herbert, you can have Eugene.”

Growing up in Brooklyn, that was how we chose up sides for a basketball game. The best players got picked first, the worst, last.

It’s likely that if we were choosing sides for a debating team, Herbert and Eugene would have been tops on the list, but not for basketball. (And chances are someone else would have been doing the choosing).

The Jews have been called the Chosen People. Does that mean that we’re better than everyone else? Are we racist, superior to all the other nations?

Well, that depends on what “game” we’re playing and who was doing the choosing.

God was looking for a nation who would accept His Bible and bring the message of goodness to the world. He offered it to the children of Ishmael. He offered it to the children of Esau. They said, sorry, that’s not our game. The children of Israel said – we will do and we will listen.

And so we became God’s Bible players. We’re the centers, the forwards and the guards. It’s a big responsibility because we have to show the world how the game is supposed to be played. We can hit the 3-pointers but we might also commit the fouls.

But unlike a Brooklyn choose-up game, anybody can join. And over the millennia, many have – blacks, whites, Asians and Hispanics. Unfortunately, over the same millennia, many have quit and joined other teams.

Wanna play? All are welcome – even those who have temporarily left. But there are rules – no running down the court without dribbling, no standing in the lane for more than 3 seconds, no eating meat and milk together and a whole lot more. They’re all written up in the rule book. Grab a copy and join the team. But you gotta play hard and you gotta play right.

Are you game?

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