Stop The Celebration
For the past several weeks, I have been watching a documentary on HBOMax entitled “Celtics City.” The documentary explores the history, culture, and contributions that the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) have made to professional sports, their city, and to the larger world.
I should hasten to add that I was quite reluctant to watch the documentary. This reluctance stems from the fact while I like the Celtics, I don’t care too much for Boston. Boston is the Athens of America: highly educated, highly snobbish, and highly segregated. The Robinsons have roots there. My Father led a church there; my brother Jason was born there, and I attended elementary school there. I also attended graduate school and worked there as adult. My roots notwithstanding, Boston isn’t one of my favorite cities.
However, the Celtics are one of my favorite teams. My affection for the Celtics used to begin and end with the fact that they have won more NBA Championships than any other team (they have won 18, one more than the Fakers. Ahem, excuse me, I mean the Lakers lol). Anything or anybody that has been so successful for so long deserves admiration and study.
Bonus track: I even worked in the arena where the Celtics now play (I worked the night shift as security guard. But I got fired after two days for sleeping in one the bleachers).
But even after only watching the first few episodes of the documentary, my affection for the Celtics organization has grown. I have learned that although Boston is a notoriously racist city, the Celtics have consistently provided moral leadership to the city and the larger sport. They were the first team in the NBA to draft an African American player; they were the first team in the NBA to start five African American players; and after being challenged by the legendary Bill Russel, they removed the named “Boston” from their uniforms, leading Russell to say that he did not play for Boston, but that he played for the Celtics. All of this may not be virtuous, but it was courageous. They wanted to win. And wining was more important to them than accepting or adopting the larger culture’s axioms on race.
But beyond their leadership, it is the culture of the organization that has most impressed me. That culture was brilliantly summarized in an experience that former Celtics ML Carr shared in Episode 4 of the series, dubbed Great Hope, Period. After several losing seasons, the team finally won the Conference Finals and were feverishly celebrating. Carr was the ringleader. Red Auerbach (the long-time General Manager) came into the Locker Room and demanded that he stop. When asked why, Mr. Auerbach told him that in the Celtics Locker Room, they only celebrate Championships!
That phrase has been running laps around my the race-track of my mind: “We only celebrate championships.” That phrase has caused me to look deeply into myself to try and figure out what I celebrate and why. It’s a question worth asking and answering. Who and what do you celebrate?
Some of us celebrate too much. Some of us celebrate too little. And some of us celebrate the wrong thing. There is nothing wrong with celebrating if you win the Conference Finals. But after you have won Championships, celebrating anything less than that seems treasonous. And poisonous. The takeaway that is tucked in that phrase is to make sure that your standards are sufficiently high that you what celebrate is worth celebrating. As Sir Francis Drake once lyricized:
Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves, When our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little, when we arrived safely because we sailed too close to the shore.
Sometimes we have dreamed too little, prayed too little, risked too little, studied too little, prepared too little, saved too little, planned too little, helped too little, exercised too little, and reached for too little. And even though we won, the victory is unsatisfying because it did not require all of us. The celebration should stop when what we are celebrating is less than the true measure of our ability or potential.
That’s what Queen Vashti did. Her husband Xerxes was one of the wealthiest and powerful kings of antiquity. According to the scriptures, he decided to host a party for six months. The objective of the celebration was to display the opulence of his kingdom. The food and the wine flowed freely. At the height of the celebration, when Xerxes and his guests were in a drunken stupor, Xerxes summoned his wife. According to Esther 1:11-12,
The queen was a beautiful woman, and the king wanted to show off her beauty to the officials and all his guests. But when the servants told Queen Vashti of the king's command, she refused to come.
Vashti refused to be a participant in her own objectification. She stopped the celebration, even though the celebration was presumably for her. Whatever her rationale, it was clear that she didn’t want to participate in whatever it was about her that they were celebrating. So she stopped it. Vashti did lose her role as queen. But she gained the respect of all of history, and a place in the eternal word of God.
There are some celebrations you need to stop.
The stakes are too small.
The prize is too little.
You are too valuable.
And God is too great.