Common Bonds

Last Thursday saw the much anticipated return of the (self-titled former) king of sorts as Lebron James and the Miami Heat went to the Q to play the Cleveland Cavaliers. The reaction was actually more mild than I was expecting (I DVRed it in case a riot/murder occurred during the game. Seriously, I stopped watching the recording about 2 minutes into the first quarter), but still vicious with various taunting signs and, of course, thunderous boos aimed at Lebron the entire time.

It reminded me of the incident that happened shortly after Lebron's ill-fated Decision when a James fan and his girlfriend went to an Indians game. Nothing unusual, except he was wearing a Lebron Heat jersey.

The scene was ugly and security had to escort the couple out.

I remember when I first saw/heard about that incident, one of the things that stood out to me for whatever reason was that that guy's girlfriend was wearing an Indians jersey. If she's a big enough Cleveland fan to be wearing a jersey (and trust me, to rep any Cleveland team you have to love your city), shouldn't she have been able to have anticipated the reaction they'd receive? In fact, shouldn't she too have been disgusted by her boyfriend wearing the new uniform of the man who had stabbed the city's back on a national tv special?

Cleveland sports fans are a passionate bunch. They are extremely devoted to their teams despite the bleak outlook for all of them. They're probably more fatalistic and consistently, constantly depressed than any other fan base of any team, in any city, in any sport. Like, it is so bad. It is really bad. For real. Honestly, I can't imagine what they must have felt for their hometown hero to abandon them on live television.

The minute he uttered the words "take my talents to South Beach" there was a rift that separated him from the city of Cleveland. You simply cannot be a Lebron fan and a Cleveland fan because the two have been so fundamentally different post-Decision.

Maybe you think you can. Maybe you do enjoy watching the Indians play baseball every now and again. You could go to a sports bar and chat up the local fans there. But if you're a Lebron fan, you've aligned yourself with someone who (at least in their mind) has done that city so wrong that mentioning that fact about yourself will cause those you just met to shun you. At this point, Lebron and Cleveland are in complete opposition. To identify with both is to be confused and have a basic misunderstanding of either Lebron, Cleveland, the relationship between the two, or all of the above.

This whole thing made me think of 2 Corinthians 6:14-16a. It reads:

¹⁴ Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? ¹⁵ What harmony is there between Christ and Belial^b]">[b]? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? ¹⁶ What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols?

Lebron and Cleveland. The world and Christ. Yeah, you might think that you can have a foot in both, but that's simply not possible. If you say you're a Lebron and Cleveland fan, you're just a Lebron fan. True Cleveland fans won't want anything to do with you. Likewise, if you think you can be of this world and of Christ, sorry to say, you're mistaken. At some point, something's got to give.

And for those of us who are followers of Christ, we do have to be careful about who we associate ourselves with. I'm not trying to come off as a snob saying we shouldn't hang out with non-believers. That's definitely not what I'm trying to say and not an accurate statement at all. But we do have to have an idea of the difference between pursuing friendship and ministry and just being absorbed and completely conforming.

It makes sense if you think about it. Our relationship with God should be the center of our existence, driving everything we do. For non-believers, their center is something else. Whether it's the pursuit of success, a desire for sensual satisfaction, or even an attitude of philanthropy, if it's not God-centered, it's going to lead them to a completely different place from us. The "equally yoked" phrasing of course brings to mind the image of beasts of burden plowing a field. Two animals can't be yoked together and headed in different directions. Again, at some point, something's to give.