We're in the month of March, so you know it must be time for Madness: The NCAA basketball tournament. College teams from across the country are battling through the brackets to reach the Sweet Sixteen, the Elite Eight, the Final Four, and then the National Championship Game.

Naturally, I'm hoping that my Duke Blue Devils will go all the way.

But this particular March, our nation is facing another fierce contest, one that is played with bombs instead of basketballs. Participants are members of the 101st Airborne Division, not Division 1 athletes. Rather than trying to reach New Orleans to win a championship, our troops are attempting to make it to Baghdad to topple a tyrant.

It's a very different kind of March Madness.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm not passing judgment on the political and military strategy of the day. I know that Christians in our country are deeply divided about the morality of invasion, making theological arguments both for and against a preemptive strike against Iraq. Some say that our troops are doing the divinely sanctioned work of liberation, using their weapons to free the oppressed, protect the innocent and punish the guilty. Others argue that our Lord Jesus would take a stand against the war, since he opposed the use of violence and stressed the importance of peacemaking. You know that I myself have been calling for restraint and diplomacy over the last six months.

But regardless of where we stand, we're now all feeling the insanity of instability. Our sense of well-being and personal balance is being thrown off by terrorist threats, Code Orange alerts, and official instructions about putting duct-tape on doorways and water bottles in the bathrooms. Anxiety is eating us up as we worry about how to protect ourselves and our loved ones in the event of an attack by a dirty bomb or a chemical or biological weapon.

This is a time of March Madness, for each and every one of us.

But in times of instability, it is important to remember that Jesus was never a passive or powerless victim of events. When he faced challenges, he rose up to meet them, with the skill and confidence and energy of a college athlete. In fact, he played a game much more extreme than the basketball being played all this month in arenas across the country.

Jesus played SlamBall.

Have you ever heard of it? This extreme sport really exists, and it has been described as basketball for the attention-deficit generation, with action that looks like one extended highlight clip. It's full of instant hops, instant air, and instant gratification. The secret: Trampolines imbedded in the court, in front of the hoops.

I kid you not.

According to The New York Times, SlamBall is played on a custom-made spring-loaded court, with baskets 10 feet high and four rectangular trampolines in the court in front of the baskets. Players wear soft helmets and body padding, since football-and-hockey-style body contact is allowed, and they concentrate their efforts on bouncing, leaping, hitting and dunking. (Liz Robbins, "Are You Ready for Some SlamBall? Basketball Just Got Extreme," The New York Times, July 31, 2002, C14)

By talking about SlamBall here, I'm not trying to be corny or intellectually insulting. Rather, I want to give you a visual image of an active, energetic, passionate Jesus Christ. And I don't even think that there is anything wrong with talking about sports in the middle of a war. I understand that soldiers really look forward to listening to basketball games being broadcast on the American Forces Network. A naval officer aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln recently wrote an email to The Washington Post which said, "there is no greater support the NCAA could provide than holding March Madness as scheduled. Sports are a great escape for many, and a connection to home for all."

In today's passage from John, Jesus steps onto a court that is every bit as action-packed as a SlamBall stadium. He enters the Jerusalem temple during the Passover of the Jews -- a religious festival that must feel like March Madness to the residents of that city. The historian Josephus estimates that as many as 2.7 million pilgrims congregate in Jerusalem for the festival -- an absolutely immense crowd. And since animal sacrifice is an important part of the Passover celebration, huge numbers of cattle, sheep and doves have to be made available to the faithful.

Passover is a slam-dunk, spiritually speaking. It's a fantastic festival, commemorating God's liberation of Israel from Egypt, the most awesome event in its history. For faithful Jews, both then and now, it's nothing less than a religious adrenaline-rush.

But Jesus is pumped about something else when he enters the temple. Finding some folks selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others changing money at their tables, he gets as fired up as a SlamBall player hitting the trampoline and performing an 8-foot vertical leap. Making a whip of cords, he drives the sheep and the cattle out of the temple. He also pours out the coins of the moneychangers and overturns their tables, before saying to the people selling the doves, "Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!" (John 2:13-16).

He's never passive, never powerless -- even in the face of daunting challenges. This is the SlamBall Jesus.

But what's his beef with the animal-sellers and moneychangers? At first it's hard to tell. Some Christians believe that Jesus is angry at them for cheating -- cheating the out-of-towners when they come and buy animals for sacrifice, and when they change their Greek and Roman coinage into local currency.

Strange thing is, Jesus says nothing about cheating. Instead, he shouts at the dove-sellers, "Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!" (v. 16). Jesus wants the whole enterprise to be shut down, not just the crooked vendors. He knows full well that pious pilgrims have no choice but to purchase cattle, sheep and doves when they arrive in Jerusalem. It's Standard Operating Procedure. They can't be expected to bring their livestock over all the rugged miles from their distant homes. Still, Jesus insists, "Shut down the marketplace! Scrap the whole system!"

Jesus wants to play a whole new ballgame, a brand-new spiritual sport. He's offering something different. Something new. Something truly radical.

You could call it "SaviorBall." In one sweeping move, Jesus performs a 360-degree, through-the-legs, windmill jam -- right over the heads of the temple authorities. He shouts, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (v. 19). He is speaking of the temple of his own body, which will be destroyed on the cross and then raised in three days.

For followers of Jesus, the name of the game is SaviorBall. We are challenged to focus our attention not on traditional practices, but on a radical SlamBall Jesus. And if we put our time and energy and enthusiasm into playing this sport, we'll find that we don't feel quite so powerless in this time of March Madness.

The question for us is: Have we "got game"?

If we do, it means that our Sanctuary is going to be a house of prayer, not a place for political pronouncements. A church should be a place where people encounter the living God and experience transformation through that encounter, a place where the power and the presence of the Lord is felt in preaching and prayer and song and congregational spirit. If our focus is on politics, we're going to get slammed. But if we concentrate on connecting people to the Lord God Almighty, we're going to soar.

Playing the game of SaviorBall also means that we are going to translate our faith into action, and show the same kind of zeal that Jesus does when he drives out the livestock, pours out the coins, and turns over the tables in the temple. This is slam-dunking behavior, for sure, and it seems uncharacteristic for a kind and loving religious leader, but it stands as a powerful reminder that Jesus Christ is a man on a mission, a mission that he is determined to perform with every ounce of energy available to him. He is never powerless, never passive.

Can we be any less, if we claim to be his disciples? The game of SaviorBall is no mere intellectual exercise, but is an extreme sport that demands strenuous leaping and scoring: Leaping into situations of spiritual and physical need, and hitting the goals of bringing food to the hungry, shelter to the homeless, good news to the downtrodden, and direction to the lost. It can be an exhausting sport, but also a true adrenaline-rush. There is nothing more thrilling than throwing ourselves into the mission of the church, and playing on the same team as our powerful Messiah -- the one who gave us everything he had, including his own life on the cross.

As disciples of Christ, we make a leap when we stand up for our beliefs, contacting our elected representatives with our convictions about the pursuit of peace and security throughout the world.

We make a leap when we lift prayers to God, gathering together as we will tonight, right here at 6:00 p.m., for a "Service for our Soldiers and the Pursuit of Peace."

We make a leap when we reach out to the poor and the vulnerable, both here at home and around the world, giving generously through our special One Great Hour of Sharing offering.

As for 360-degree, through-the-legs, windmill jams -- we can let SlamBall pros take care of that.

Our goal will be leaping with Jesus, and finding peace in this energetic activity, until the madness ends. Amen.

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