CHONGLAND

The final round of the summer competition this week and we were up against And Far Away. We were down James and Nima.

Geoff lined up for the jump, tipping down to John to run the ball up, missing his layup, but Geoff stepped in to pick up the scraps and pocketing the two points. In our defensive end, we were pretty average. We managed to keep them out for the most part on the zone, forcing a number of outside shots, but hardly covering those shots so quite a few of them went in. When they did manage to get a player through with the ball, our zone tended to fall apart or cave in if you will…
As the first half continued, they seemed to have plenty of fouls called on them, the total getting up to 11 or 12, with free throws kicking in from 8. This hindered our game quite alot as the physical & mental frustration of being fouled affected our free throw shooting, sinking only about 15% across the whole game, and our ‘retaliation’ against such fouls by trying the same or similar fouls, and of course being picked up on them… Towards the end of the first half Garth pushed himself too hard on the dribble against one guy down the right hand side, straining his hamstring and putting himself out of the game.

The second half played out much the same as the tail end of the first with defense resulting in unnecessary fouls being given away, but less fouls being called at our offensive end, giving us the opportunity to score, but our repetition in plays resulted in And Far Away getting the ball and running away with the win 27 vs 20.

I managed to throw out my knee in practice before the game and played injured. It’s still my meniscus and is very annoying as it is hard to tell how long before it’ll recover, could be a week or 2, could be a month or more…

Next week is semi-finals. We’ll be playing at either 9:30 or 10:15 since we finished in the bottom half of the ladder. Come on down for the final game of The Mighty Kites as we now know them, as there will be a new look team next season.

This week we changed up the location to Jason‘s flat on account of the family von Everett down and out with gastro or some variation thereof.
This week we met Rach and Alfie before gender splitting and reading Luke 16 – 18.
We men discussed the following points, mainly questions, in this section:

• Does this mean that we should throw child molesters into the sea? When referring to Jesus said to his disciples, “It is inevitable that stumbling blocks should come, but woe to the person through whom they come. It would be better for him to have a mill-stone tied round his neck and be thrown into the sea than to cause one of these little ones to stumble. Watch yourselves closely. …”

An intense and surprising question to kick us off, I think it caught us all out for a second or two. It was a misinterpretation of the passage taking “little ones” to literally mean children in the sense of kids. This term could mean any number of things but is more likely referring to children of God, young Christians or those Christians being led astray.

• What is the meaning behind this parable of the manager? (Ch 16)

Summary of the parable is the manager does wrong to his master/rich man and is fired, he decides to set himself up by reducing customers’ debts so that they will help him out in the future. Jesus finishes the parable with this: “Now the master commended the unrighteous manager because he had acted cleverly, because the sons of this age are more cunning than the sons of light when it comes to dealing with their own kind. And so I tell you, make friends for yourselves with unrighteous wealth so that when it fails, they will welcome you into eternal dwellings.”
This is definitely a confusing and hard to interpret part of the bible. We came up with a few different ways that this could have been applied, all of which more or less fit, but nothing solid, the most prominent one being supported by D.A. Carson, telling us that the manager used resources under his control to prepare for his future. Another interesting action was to befriend those that posess this unrighteous wealth, in the hope that when it falls away/fails, they will turn to God and may be the ones welcoming you into heaven… I think it seems to fit in a little better overall, not brilliantly or neatly, but better…

• “Watch yourselves closely. If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. Even if he sins against you seven times in a single day, and seven times turns back to you and says, ‘I repent’, then you must forgive him.”

This was something that we were sorry for not doing, and we were challenged to do so.

• In the parable of the 10 lepers (Ch 17), when is the one leper ‘rescued’ by his faith?? And what of the other nine?

The parable reads: On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus was passing through the border region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered one particular town, they met ten lepers, standing at a distance. The lepers called out, “Jesus, Master, be merciful to us!”
And when Jesus saw them, he replied, “Go and show yourselves to the priests”. And while they were going, they were made whole.
When one of them realised tat he had been healed, he came back, honouring and praising God in a loud voice. He fell on his face at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan.
Jesus responded, “Weren’t there ten who were made clean? Where are the other nine? Did none come back and give honour and praise to God except this foreigner?” And he said to him, “Stand up, and go on your way. Your faith has rescued you.”

There is a distinction between rescued and healed, which was the confusion behind the question. There are a few important points to pick up on :

1. That this leper that returns is a Samaritan, a sworn enemy of the Jews.
2. That he responds with praise and honour.
• It is interesting how the Kingdom of God is described throughout these chapters

it is announced, difficult to enter and not able to be closely observed as to it’s arrival, but is in the midst of us.

• A certain leader asked him, “Good teachers, what should I do to inherit eternal life?”. Jesus said to him, “Why do you speak of me as ‘good’? No-one is good except God alone. …”

An interesting way for Jesus to subtly explain his oneness with God, He doesn’t doubt his being good, only diverts the focus to God.

In the second last round we went up against Bruins. We almost had a full complement this week; I was able to make it back on court, albeit not 100%, but Nima was out due to the Iranian New Year.

As we jumped off, Gareth took the centre, winning and tapping out to John who ran the ball down only to miss the layup in mild traffic. Bruins recovered the the ball to take it up to their offensive end, only to lose it to miscommunication, giving us the opportunity for a fast break to open up the scoring. The game kept up a to and fro for the first quarter with some good steals and clumsy turnovers on both teams, but after that Bruins started to kick into higher gear, sinking plenty of three point shots and opening up the key for easier baskets, culminating in a ~10 point lead at half time.

The second half seemed abysmal with shots not dropping despite our best efforts and a lack of patience for a good shot. Selfish plays seemed to dominate our second half. Bruins were able to extend their lead to a final score of 32 v 54.

Ethan is developing well as a player, although he still lacks the confidence in offence, and Gareth continued to powerhouse through everything. I felt a bit useless, playing at half-strength, and not getting the ball to take up a lot of the time was on court. I do need to step up to that and start making some plays and calling the shots.

Next week is the final official round of summer comp. We take on And Far Away at 7:15.