"To be a priest is to set your life aside." In the fourth episode of the series "Robes, Candles, Smells and Bells," Robert talks about the purpose of God's people in the world, the expansive mission of God's kingdom, and our holy, peculiar, passionate, particular calling to be priests, unified by one Spirit.

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Alright, today we have been in a sermon series about what it means for us to be a royal priesthood in a holy nation and today we're going to dive into the history of basketball who's ready for it. Here we go. Um they're just real quick there. If you look in the 19 sixties, in the N. B. A. There were two players that dominated everybody's imagination. They were the only figures that everybody in the country knew about. Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell wilt Chamberlain, it's probably the greatest pure scorer of all time. He was seven ft one. He had, he had one game, the only game in NBA history where somebody scored 100 points in one game, Kobe Bryant went out to try to do it and he only got to 80 200 is incredibly difficult in 81. Sorry, thank you. Gosh, Getting fact checked real time. Thank you Snopes. Alright, so, Well, chamberlain was just incredible. Um he regularly scored in the 50s and 60s. In fact, in 1961, his scoring average per game Was 50 points. Just to give you some context today. If you average 32 points, you're likely the m. v. p. of the league. He scored 50 points per game that year. But you know who won the league Mvp that year. It was Bill Russell. Bill Russell. He Played for the Boston Celtics. He regularly average about 15 points a game, But he averaged 24 rebounds per game and his team, Even though it was less skilled, it had less star power. He won 11 NBA championships in the 13 years that he was playing basketball. Like just think about that level of excellence and dominance. And when you think about the contrast between the two, Wilt won two titles in a 20 year career. Bill 1 11 and 13 years, what it really came down to is that Bill Russell was the ultimate team player and wilt. Chamberlain played for the name on the back of his jersey instead of the name on the front of his jersey. It was all about stats, it was all about his individual contribution, his endorsements, making money for himself. But what we all know, I think from the history of not just sport but the history of the world is that players can't win on their own. It requires teams to win. Players can contribute, but even in a sport with just five people on the court, If you have the greatest player of all time Playing regularly, 40 minutes a game, The Lakers in 2022, you still can't even get to the playoffs if you don't have a team that's playing with you. And of course I think that this metaphor is what our world needs right now more than ever. You look at our globe and you look at the interconnected ways that we are all affected by something that happens on the other side of the world. And you start to think maybe it's not just about my own individual choices, maybe it's not about who I am or what I'm pursuing. One guy, he goes and just has to have some bat meat in china and millions of people die from Covid. One guy says, I want to invade Ukraine and the entire world is facing grain shortages and oil shortages. All of us are deeply connected with one another and until we recognize that we have responsibility to one another, not just in our families and not just in our community, but in the world. All of us are going to live with the repercussions of the cost of other people's sin on us and God knew that. So he built his people as a relief valve valve. He built the people of Israel and then his people, the kingdom...