Why Is It Called The "world" Series?
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
Dear Fellow Preacher:
Baseball fever is in the air, and this issue of The Immediate Word, sometimes whimsically and sometimes more seriously, relates the religious fervor of the national pastime to basic issues of faith and ethics.
Does God care who wins the World Series? Should athletic teams pray for victory? What about the biblical preference for the underdog? These and other questions are raised by lead writer Carter Shelley, who draws links to the first reading, Job 42:1-6, 10-17, and Psalm 126, from the lectionary for October 26.
Team comments, illustrations, and worship materials also relate to the baseball theme, while the children's sermon is based on the Gospel lection, Mark 10:46-52.
Why Is It Called the World Series? Which Team Is God Rooting For, the Marlins or the Yankees? and Other Pressing Issues It Never Occurred to the Biblical Authors to Discuss
by Carter Shelley
When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
we were like those who dream.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongues with shouts of joy;
then it was said among the nations,
The Lord has done great things for them.
The Lord has done great things for us,
And we rejoiced.
-Psalm 126:1-3, NRSV
In the big inning God created the heavens and the earth.
-Anonymous
Many powerful symbols and metaphors become so much a part of our daily lives that we barely notice them or are not consciously aware of them. The Star-Spangled Banner, sung prior to every baseball game, reminds fans and teams alike of how fortunate we are to live in a free and democratic country, one that many people in the past and still today have fought and died to protect.
Hot dogs and a beer or Coke suggest the informality and fun to be had by enthusiasts in the bleachers. Work is over for the day or the weekend. One can socialize, relax, have a good time, and do so without donning coat and tie or pantyhose. At baseball games what you see is pretty much what you get: Americans engaged in that most American of pastimes, baseball.
Were you to invite members of your congregation to discuss What baseball means to you, the answers they provide might sound very much like those given when asked, What does the church mean to you? Community ... fellowship ... give a little cash and get entertained for an hour or two ... being oneself among friends who accept you as you are: unpretentious, enthusiastic, excited, engaged in all that takes place. We can apply all of those words to baseball, but to the church? That's more of a stretch. (Not the seventh-inning stretch, but one of ecclesiology.) So is the link between baseball and the church too broad to breach? I don't think so.
Most likely you'll be preaching to three different groups of people this week. (1) There will be the avid baseball fans who've watched as many of the games as possible in the past three weeks. (2) There will be less enthusiastic, but still interested and knowledgeable individuals who've watched some of the games and know quite a bit about it, but they are not fanatics whose life, work, or day will be ruined if their team doesn't win. (3) There will be people who don't know anything about baseball, may not know or care who's playing, or at all be concerned about who will win. You, the minister, may even identify with one of these groups.
For people who fit into the third category, some basic information may be essential. There are two baseball leagues, the American and the National. They played each other in the first World Series for the first time in 1903 and have done so regularly ever since. Prior to playing each other in the World Series this past week, each team had to play a series of games against a strong competitor from their own league. The reason today's sermon title is Why is it Called the World Series/ Which Team Is God Rooting For, the Marlins or the Yankees? and Other Pressing Issues It Never Occurred to the Biblical Authors to Discuss is in part to acknowledge the fact that biblical authors may have known a lot about games and sports of their own time and place. They certainly knew about war and the importance of leadership and strength and faith in oneself, something athletes and Christians both also need. But the biblical authors didn't know about baseball, which came into existence in the United States in the 1880s. Baseball is a singularly American sport. Both team cooperation and individual heroism occur at regular intervals. It's a paean to democracy, because a poor guy from the sticks (which now include Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Japan) can become rich and famous as a baseball player. A person doesn't have to have a high falutin' education or rich parents or special clothes and contacts to become a baseball hero. Just work hard, practice hard, just be yourself, and you may fulfill your dream.
Psalm 126:1-3 could have been the victory cheer of the National League and American League winners after the Marlins had trounced the Chicago Cubs and the New York Yankees had felled the Boston Red Sox. Alas, victory for one team means defeat and disappointment-even grief-for the other. While some of the fans of the often beleaguered Cubs and Red Sox may have found elements of the patience and suffering of Job a fitting response to coming oh so close to winning, once again they would not be playing in the World Series. Equally fitting despair comes to mind from the prophet Jeremiah's first confession, Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all who are treacherous thrive? You plant them, and they take root; they grow and bring forth fruit; you are near their mouths yet far from their hearts. God's reply sounds much like that which Pat Conroy's basketball coach at The Citadel in A Losing Season might have supplied. If you have raced with foot-runners and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses? (Jeremiah 12:1-2, 5ab). Sad it may be for the Cubs and the Red Sox, but their experience more aptly resembles the later verses of Psalm 126, verses 4 and 5.
The piety of the psalmist, of Jeremiah, and of Job is uttered in the contexts of prolonged suffering. Yet, accompanying that heartache is the intense belief that God can alter their situation and bring them vindication and blessing. In an athletic competition the whole physical as well as the emotional self is called upon by competitors and fans alike. The same is true of the psalmist and of Job, who express both in their words to God. Such emotionalism, which was perfectly natural in ancient culture, can get in the way of a baseball player who can't afford to clutch under pressure. Ironically, for baseball players and other athletes, it is often a lack of emotion that is required. Calmness and steady emotions are required to continue to excel in the face of pressure.
Before the congregation starts to wonder which team you root for, you may wish to explain that for contemporary ministers like yourself, sermons as a rule start with biblical study of a biblical text and not time spent in front of the television or at the ballpark alternately cheering and booing the different contenders. At this point you can educate your congregation by explaining that biblical study today is very different from that of previous centuries where allegory, typology, or a right word or phrase was considered sufficient inspiration to produce a sermon more about the congregation and culture than about the Word and will of God. Pious examples of such homileticians include John Donne and Bishop Andrewes of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. And satiric versions of the same methodology can be found in Laurence Sterne's sermon The Abuses of Conscience in the novel Tristran Shandy.
That technique calls for the preacher to light upon a particular word in a biblical verse and to develop a sermon based upon the meaning and implications of that particular word or isolated verse with little thought or concern about the text's original context. It might be a word such as conscience or sin. In Jonathan Edward's famous sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, it's a single verse, Deuteronomy 32:35, Their foot shall slide in due time. Come to think of it, that's a great verse to use in a sermon about God and baseball. Since it's not one of our lectionary texts for October 26, I'm going to take the lead instead from the Christian Science Monitor article, Does God Care Who Wins the World Series? While I provide a few comments, each minister must answer these question in his or her own way:
Do Americans have more reverence for ballgames than they do for God?
Not every American will have been glued to ESPN this week, but a large enough number will be tuning in to make us minister types jealous. Would that our congregations evinced equal enthusiasm for adult Sunday School and our sermons! More people will be found attending sports events this coming weekend than will be found in churches in the United States of America. More enthusiasm, more emotional energy, and more money will be spent to cheer on one's favorite team. It is in this context that I invite you to ask and answer the following searching questions which, I hope, you will answer from your own theological tradition and beliefs. While the questions may seem trite or frivolous, they actually reach the soul of Americans who can cite years' worth of baseball statistics but not one line from Psalm 100.
Should ministers pray at sports events and, if so, what should they pray? Does God hear such entreaties?
We are told that the hairs on our head are known and numbered by our God. With such teachings from Jesus and the many, many pleas and prayers uttered by women and men in the Old Testament, it seems likely God does hear prayers uttered by two opposing teams asking for a win. To flesh this question out, please consider and share with the congregation how you as a minister handle requests for prayer at high school athletic events, etc. How you deal with such instances reveals how you view it.
Does God have the best seat in the house at baseball games?
If God is all knowing, all seeing, all present, how could God not see and know-and perhaps even enjoy-watching a baseball game from on high? As with the President of the United States in the film Air Force One, the suspense might be spoiled by knowing the outcome before any mere mortals do.
Does God have a favorite team?
Probably God's favorite is always the underdog team, a quirky characteristic that God continually displays. Given a choice between triumphalism and the cross, God chooses Job when he's down, Israel when there's little hope of happiness to be found, and Jesus the Son who eats with tax collectors and sinners.
Why is it called the World Series?
Only Canadians, Americans, and imported star players from other countries play. It's not at all as inclusive as the World Cup soccer tournament which takes place every four years. Perhaps that title reveals more about us as Americans and how now, more than ever, we view ourselves in relation to the rest of the world. We are the number one political and military power in the world. We are the center of the world. Or are we?
Finally, some miscellaneous reflections and notes:
The loser in an athletic event, the one who drops the ball, fouls out, or makes some other error is in danger of becoming a social pariah like Job, with inordinate blame heaped upon his or her head.
Baseball is a metaphor for the American Dream. Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, For Love of the Game, The Natural, Bang the Drum Slowly, Eight Men Out, A League of Their Own, Damn Yankees, and The Jackie Robinson Story are all baseball movies evoking the dreams and ambitions of players throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
If the Yankees don't wreck it, the devil will in the musical Damn Yankees (1958 and revival 1994).
Baseball as well as other competitive sports allow the primarily male part of our population to dream dreams, have hopes and fears, identify with and cheer for .... It's a place where it's OK for men to show their feelings.
Job's false comforters are squelched by God. Job isn't exactly victorious himself, but after God's appearance, after God is through with him, God is a whirlwind of a coach in the locker room speech.
Abuses, cheating, gambling, beer consumed in large quantities reveal the potential dark side of baseball.
Does God care who wins and who loses in baseball games? In the musical and movie Damn Yankees it is suggested that Satan finds in baseball an irresistible opportunity to encourage sin and corruption. The exit clause protects the player Joe whom the devil turns back into an old man in order to prevent Joe's team from winning the pennant.
Proof positive that I am of the female gender. A number of years ago I was invited by a male friend to attend a baseball game involving Philadelphia, the home team. On a hunch, I took a book to a baseball game only to discover that if someone hasn't won by the end of the ninth inning they just keep playing! 2:00 A.M. and it still wasn't done.
Team Comments
George Murphy responds: I'm more a football than a baseball guy and in fact football has overtaken baseball in popularity in the United States, becoming our de facto national pastime. But there is something distinctively American about baseball. Maybe it is arrogant for us to call our baseball championship the World Series, but it's an American kind of arrogance. Our teams don't have to play teams from Japan or South Korea but if they did they'd probably beat them because we've gotten some of their best players.
The World Series tells us who's Number One, which is important for Americans.
We see the world in terms of good versus evil-patriots against the tyrant King George, God-fearing people against atheistic communists, decent folk versus terrorists. God versus the devil.
Or my team against the New York Yankees. Carter mentioned the musical Damn Yankees, which is based on a novel of the 1950s titled The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant. Back then that would have seemed like the end of the world as we knew it-an end devoutly wished for by fans of all the other American League teams who almost every year saw the Yankees in the World Series. It's not a lot different now. In the book the devil is ... a Yankees fan! Of course. You hear people say, My favorite teams are the Indians (or Red Sox, or whatever)-and any team that plays the Yankees. The Yankees represent the forces of evil, powerful and arrogant.
(Of course, I know there are a lot of Yankees fans. We have to see them in the stands at Yankee Stadium for the World Series almost every year! But indulge me. This is a morality play.)
And fate is supposed to play a big role in baseball, almost like a Greek tragedy. The sins of the fathers will be visited on the children. The Boston Red Sox missed the World Series this year by five outs because of The Curse of the Bambino: They sold Babe Ruth's contract to the Yankees-in 1918! And they haven't won a Series since. The Cubs lost to the Marlins because of The Curse of the Billy Goat-a goat who was refused admission with his owner to a Series game the last time the Cubs were in it in 1945. My own team, Cleveland, hasn't won a the World Series in forty-five years (although we were within two outs in 1997) because of The Curse of Rocky Colavito. There's even a book with that title by Akron sportswriter Terry Pluto (who also writes for the Akron Beacon Journal's religion page).
It's all very neat. Baseball represents the way we think of world in quasi-religious terms. But ....
The Cubs and Red Sox lost in the seventh games of their respective playoffs because of long-ago curses? Really? Most people knowledgeable about baseball think that the main reason is that both the Chicago and Boston managers left their starting pitchers in a little too long. Kerry Wood and Pedro Martinez are both great pitchers but they ran out of gas and should have been pulled one or two batters earlier.
The Bible does have that sins of the fathers language, but in Ezekiel 18 God says that's not how it's going to work. Each person is responsible for his or her own acts. If you make a mistake, it has consequences-maybe a disastrous one. But there is no curse working itself out inexorably. With all due regard to the earlier strata of the biblical tradition, God is not a cursing God. If something bad happens, it isn't just because it was meant to be.
Or, if we must use that sort of language, remember Galatians 3:13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.'
And the battle of good versus evil? There are evil powers, and we are called to fight against them. In the baptismal liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer, we are called to Renounce Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God. And it makes good theater to picture the Yankees as the powers of darkness. (I suspect that even many Yankees fans take some pleasure in the fact that partisans of other teams see them this way.)
But two years ago in the playoffs, when Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter came out of nowhere for a defensive play that I can only describe as miraculous, you couldn't help but admire it. And in the climactic game of the American League playoffs this year, when the Red Sox got to Yankee pitcher Roger Clemens in what could have been the last game of his career and knocked him out of the box-sure, you were glad if you wanted the Red Sox to win. But it was still moving to see the whole stadium come to its feet and cheer him as he left the field. And you don't applaud the devil.
In real life, seeing our opponents as demons is dangerous.
So what about being Number One? That's OK in baseball or football, but it becomes a problem when we try to carry it over to life, and especially to our relationship with God. In our Gospel for last week Jesus spoke to James and John who wanted the top positions in the Kingdom of God: Whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. The point is not that there are no winners in life, but that the real winners are those who come in second for the sake of others.
(And on my earlier point about being responsible for our own actions: The American League could take a big step in that direction by getting rid of the wretched designated hitter. Don't get me started ....)
Related Illustrations
from Carlos Wilton
The Baseball Prayer
Almighty God,
you who are called the Mighty Umpire in this game of life,
we are not sure what uniforms we should wear.
While we may be Angels in spirit,
in reality we are Giants in pride,
Dodgers of responsibility
and Tigers in ambition.
When it comes to faith,
we find ourselves in the minor leagues.
When it comes to good works,
we strike out.
When it comes to knowledge of your Word,
we are not even sure of the ground rules.
Therefore, we are thankful for your mercy
when we find ourselves in foul territory;
for your forgiveness
when we commit one error after another;
for your uplifting spirit
when we find ourselves in the pitfalls of a slump.
Dear God, may our game plan be your will,
and our response a sellout crowd with standing room only.
And, when our number is retired here on earth,
my we rejoice to hear you call out,
SAFE,
in Christ's name,
who gives final victory to all who believe.
Amen.
-Author Unknown
* * *
Jesus said, 'I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.' (John 10.14-15a)
I can get you anyplace, says the ticket seller. How about behind home plate?
Two sons and I equip ourselves with dubious food and settle into Section 200, Row S, just up from the field.
We have a perfect vantage point for offering counsel to the plate umpire. When he misses a call, a groan goes up in 200. We don't doubt that the umpire, now chastened, will do better next inning.
We also know when the field umpires blow it. In fact, one call at third is so wrong-headed that fans go beyond groaning in voicing their certainty.
The joy of minor league baseball, of course, is that it doesn't matter much. The players are passing through. The point of our outing isn't nine innings of intense baseball, but seven innings of sitting contentedly within earshot of the train tracks on a balmy spring night.
There is a larger truth, you see, than what is happening on the field. In our case, that truth is about family, brothers connecting, allowing the mournful train whistle to come inside.
I see another father-and-sons quartet knowing the same truth. Beyond them, a woman watches wearily as her husband gets drunk and starts to bellow. Behind us a mother gives her son the great gift of listening.
If you look around, you see all kinds of truth-knowing. Some cheerful, some grim, all of it worthy, even if the other's truth-knowing is different from your own. The baseball game is the occasion, not ultimate truth itself.
Jesus didn't know baseball, of course. (In the Big Inning, of John 1:1, probably doesn't refer to baseball.) But he did see into the lives of people around him. At that point they had neither creed nor institution. They were just his own, a flock of strangers whom he was binding into oneness.
Jesus knew them. Even as they engaged in trivial posturing-arguing about power, privilege, and right opinion-he knew larger truths about them. He knew capabilities that they hadn't seen yet. He knew their hungers and agonies. He heard questions that they hadn't dared to voice. He knew what following him would do to their lives. He knew his betrayer. He knew Simon's weakness. He knew Mary Magdalene as a person and his mother as soon to be childless. He knew the isolation that accompanies being the first to love. He knew the mournful train whistles of their lives.
And he begged them to know him-to know him as deeply as he knew them. Not to stop at first impressions, at the easy knowing of appearance, but to look at him deeply, to know him as a parent knows a child, as a brother knows a brother, as a lover knows her beloved.
Could it ever happen that we turn away from the baseball-game of religion-with its rules, folkways, heroes, and team records-and actually know something worth knowing? Could we turn to each other and come closer to knowing what Jesus knows? Could we know the sweet taste of forgiveness, rather than the acid of judgment? Could we know the weary apprehension, the gift of listening, the leaning of brother to brother, the welter of feelings that come from sitting with one's sons in the latter half of my life and the early half of theirs?
Could we ever hear the mournful train whistles and just allow them to reverberate-no filtering, no judging-just to touch a chord? Could we ever see the field of combat, even religious combat, as unimportant, as merely an occasion for doing what Jesus begged his friends to do: know him, know God, know each other?
-From On a Journey: Meditations on God in Daily Life
by Tom Ehrich
May 8, 2003
* * *
In Joyce Carol Oates' review of The Picador Book of Sportswriting, she commented, Decades ago, when the distinguished American philosopher George Santayana observed, 'Another world to live in is what we mean by religion,' he could not have anticipated how, for many millions of his countrymen, as for yet more millions throughout the world, what he meant by 'religion' would one day be displaced in the most immediate, existential, and emotional sense by spectator sports.
-Times Literary Supplement, July 12, 1996
* * *
Comedian George Carlin has compared the nature of baseball and football:
Baseball is played in a park-a baseball park.
Football is played in a stadium-often called Soldier's Field or War Memorial Stadium.
Baseball begins in the spring, the season of new life.
Football begins in the fall, when everything is dying.
Football is concerned with downs. What down is it?
Baseball is concerned with ups. I'm not up. Is he up? You're up!
In football, you receive a penalty.
In baseball, you make an error. Oops!
In football, the specialist comes in to kick something.
In baseball, the specialist comes in to relieve someone.
Football has hitting, clipping, piling on, spearing, personal fouls and unnecessary roughness.
Baseball has the sacrifice.
In football the objective is for the quarterback, sometimes called the field general, to be on target with his aerial assault, riddling the defense, hitting his receivers with deadly accuracy, in spite of the blitz, even if he has to use the shotgun, with short bullet passes and long bombs, he marches his troops into enemy territory, balancing this aerial attack with a sustained ground attack, which punches holes in the front line of the defense.
In baseball the objective is to go home and be safe.
* * *
Erma Bombeck tells the story of Ralph Corlis. He was the coach who played to lose. He was an enigma in Little League baseball. Ralph went to ball games and invited the kids who always sat on the bench to be on his team. He had one rule, Everyone plays. One season Ralph managed to muster together enough underdog little leaguers to create five teams. They played in a farm yard with car seat cushions as bases.
Ralph's games had no spectators and he didn't care about winning. But one thing became evident to the other coaches in the town. All the young boys were having fun. A few coaches approached Ralph to find out what his game was. He responded by telling them that they played to have fun and didn't care about winning or having spectators. Besides, Ralph told them, no one ever teaches kids how to lose. It's important to know how to lose because you do a lot of it when you grow up.
The other coaches invited Ralph's teams to compete in their league. His team lost eighty-one straight games. And they did it without uniforms, parents, lighted scoreboards and press coverage. In spite of all their losses, Ralph Corlis became the most loved coach in little league baseball.
One season, Ralph's team acquired a boy who had fairly good pitching skills. Then the impossible happened. After years of losing his team won. After the game the boys were strangely quiet and Ralph sat in his car for the longest time thinking about what had just happened. See you next week coach, one of his players said as he passed by the car. But, Ralph had to retire. He couldn't stand the pressure.
I believe that our obsession with winning and keeping score takes all the fun out of life. With more cooperation and less competition there wouldn't have to be any underdogs.
-From a sermon by Keith Wagner, posted on the web at Deacon Sil's Homiletic Resource Center
Worship Materials
by George E. Reed
OPENING
I suppose a rewrite of Take Me Out to the Ball Game would have been appropriate for this week's offering. After several attempts I have decided instead to include only the words of the chorus. You may wish to adapt them for worship or just sing them. You can find both versions of the song at: www.baseball-almanac.com/poetry/po_stmo.shtml
Take Me Out to the Ball Game
Take me out to the ball game, Take me out with the crowd. Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack, I don't care if I never get back, Let me root, root, root for the home team, If they don't win it's a shame. For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out, At the old ball game.
Author: Jack Norworth Composer: Albert Von Tilzer Published in 1908, 1927 by York Music Company
MUSIC
Hymns
Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty. Words: Reginald Heber, 1826; music: John B. Dykes, 1861. Public domain.
Holy God, We Praise Thy Name. Words: Sts. 1-4, Ignaz Franz, 18th century; trans. Clarence Walworth, 1853; sts. 5-7, F. Bland Tucker, 1982; music: Katholisches Gesangbuch, ca. 1774. Sts. 5-7 (c) 1985 The Church Pension Fund.
Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee. Words: Henry Van Dyke, 1907, st. 4 alt., 1989; music: Ludwig van Beethoven, 1824; arr. Edward Hodges, 1864. Public domain.
A Mighty Fortress Is Our God. Words: Martin Luther, ca. 1529; trans. Frederick H. Hedge, 1853; music: Martin Luther, ca. 1529; harm. from The New Hymnal for American Youth, 1930. Public domain.
Songs
We Worship and Adore You. Words and music: traditional. (c) 1987 Maranatha! Music
I Will Call upon the Lord. Words and music: Michael O'Shields. (c) 1981 Sound III and All Nations Music.
CALL TO WORSHP
Leader:
I will bless God at all times;
People:
God's praise will be continually in my mouth.
Leader:
My soul makes its boast in God.
People:
Let the humble hear and be glad.
Leader:
O magnify God with me,
People:
And let us exalt God's name together.
or
Leader:
God has done great things for us.
People:
Let us rejoice in God's blessings.
Leader:
Those who go out weeping
People:
Shall return with shouts of joy.
Leader:
Those who bear the work of sowing
People:
Will reap a bountiful harvest.
COLLECT/OPENING PRAYER
O God, who comes and speaks face to face with Job and who answers the cry of Bartimaeus: Grant us the wisdom to see that you love all your children with a never ending love; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
or
God, we call on you to be among us today as we worship. We know you are already here and that you are also where you have not been called. You are seeking your children, the rich and the poor, the good and the bad. Help us to worship you this morning and to serve you in the least of your people this week. Amen.
RESPONSE MUSIC
Hymns
I Surrender All. Words: J. W. Van Deventer, 1896; music: W. S. Weeden, 1896. Public domain.
Dear Lord and Father of Mankind. Words: John Greenleaf Whittier, 1872; music: Frederick C. Maker, 1887. Public domain.
God of Grace and God of Glory. Words: Harry Emerson Fosdick, 1930; music: John Hughes, 1907. (c)Words, by permission of Elinor Fosdick Downs.
Songs
God, You Are My God. Words and music: Rich Mullins and Beaker. (c) 1992 BMG Songs, Inc.
Great Is the Lord. Words and music: Michael W. Smith & Deborah D. Smith. (c) 1982 Meadowgreen Music Co.
Humble Yourself in the Sight of the Lord. Words and music: Bob Hudson. (c) 1978 Maranatha! Music
PRAYERS OF CONFESSION / PARDON
Leader: We come to worship the God of all, the One who is beyond naming. We present ourselves this day before the One who created all that was, is, and will be. Yet we also pray to this Almighty One to take sides in baseball games, political elections, with our stock picks and our lottery numbers. We say we worship God, but we often treat God as our personal genie. Let us confess our sins of arrogance and impiety.
People: We confess to you, Almighty God, that we often are more interested in using your power to further our aims than your goal for creation. We are more likely to implore you to take our side in meaningless activities than we are to join your side in redeeming your creation. Forgive us and by the power of your Holy Spirit call us once again to follow Jesus in hearing the cries of the lost and needy and in offering them your grace. Amen.
Leader: God, who loves all creation, loves you and offers you grace and peace that you may offer it to others.
GENERAL PRAYERS AND LITANIES
We worship and adore you, O God, for you are the Almighty. You hold us in your loving hands and keep us as the apple of your eye. You are the creative force of all that ever was, is now, or ever shall come into being. Your majesty is beyond our telling. You, indeed, are God the Almighty.
(The following paragraph is most suitable if a prayer of confession will not be used elsewhere.)
We confess this day that we have tried to use you to accomplish our ends. We have invoked your presence to bless our sporting events and other pastimes not because we wanted to worship you but because we wanted you to ensure the outcome would suit us. Forgive our selfishness and our misuse of your Name. By the power of your Spirit direct us once again to be your people who seek your will and direction instead of our own.
We thank you for all the blessings of creation. We thank you for the joy of sharing in games and pastimes. We thank you for the beauty of athleticism. We thank you for the joy of movement in running, walking, dancing. We thank you for the ability to share in laughter and fun with one another.
(Other specific thanksgiving may be offered.)
We are aware that not all people share completely in these blessings. There are those whose circumstances of life make sports and games seem ludicrous. There are those who do not have the ability to move as they desire. There are those who are too weak from hunger or illness to dance. There are those who have lost the joy of their lives. As you reach out to care for these your children, help us to share in your loving care for them. Help us to use our blessings to be a blessing to others.
(Other petitions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of Jesus, our Lord, who taught us to pray, saying:
Our Father ....
A Children's Sermon
by Wesley T. Runk
Mark 10:46-52
Text: They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. (v. 46)
Object: a tin cup or a small bell
Good morning, boys and girls. Have you ever heard of the word beggar? (let them answer) Maybe you have seen beggars with signs asking for food or work, but there are not many people doing things like that today.
A long time ago beggars used to sit in front of churches or on very busy corners and they would have a tin cup, something like this one, and they would ask people to put money in their cups. Some beggars would ring a bell and hold out their cup. At the end of the day if everything went well, the beggar would have enough money to buy food or pay for a place to stay. It was and is a very hard way to live.
When Jesus lived on earth, many of the beggars were people who were blind or had something wrong with their hands or feet. They could not work and there was no one to take care of them. Lots of people tried to avoid them. They would walk on the other side of the road or pretend that they did not see them.
But not Jesus! He would look for these kinds of people and stop and talk with them. Today in our lesson we meet one of those beggars. His name was Bartimaeus and he was blind. On this day, Jesus was leaving the city of Jericho when he heard a voice in the crowd. It was Bartimaeus. The poor beggar kept yelling at the top of his voice, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! People kept telling him to be quiet because he was only a beggar. But Jesus heard the voice and he asked his disciples to call him out of the crowd that had gathered and come and see him. Bartimaeus was thrilled that Jesus would call his name and he jumped up and threw off his coat and began stumbling and walking toward Jesus. Jesus asked the beggar, What do you want me to do for you?
Bartimaeus didn't want money or gold or jewels. He didn't want a brand new house or a pair of fine donkeys. He didn't ask for a great farm or a wonderful business. He asked Jesus to give him sight. He wanted to see again. Jesus healed him on the spot and told him to go because he believed. Bartimaeus was so grateful that he immediately began to be a follower of Jesus.
This is one of the great stories of Jesus and his care for the poor. He healed a beggar and gave him back his sight. Bartimaeus was so happy that he gave his life to Jesus.
The Immediate Word, October 26, 2003, issue.
Copyright 2003 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
Baseball fever is in the air, and this issue of The Immediate Word, sometimes whimsically and sometimes more seriously, relates the religious fervor of the national pastime to basic issues of faith and ethics.
Does God care who wins the World Series? Should athletic teams pray for victory? What about the biblical preference for the underdog? These and other questions are raised by lead writer Carter Shelley, who draws links to the first reading, Job 42:1-6, 10-17, and Psalm 126, from the lectionary for October 26.
Team comments, illustrations, and worship materials also relate to the baseball theme, while the children's sermon is based on the Gospel lection, Mark 10:46-52.
Why Is It Called the World Series? Which Team Is God Rooting For, the Marlins or the Yankees? and Other Pressing Issues It Never Occurred to the Biblical Authors to Discuss
by Carter Shelley
When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
we were like those who dream.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongues with shouts of joy;
then it was said among the nations,
The Lord has done great things for them.
The Lord has done great things for us,
And we rejoiced.
-Psalm 126:1-3, NRSV
In the big inning God created the heavens and the earth.
-Anonymous
Many powerful symbols and metaphors become so much a part of our daily lives that we barely notice them or are not consciously aware of them. The Star-Spangled Banner, sung prior to every baseball game, reminds fans and teams alike of how fortunate we are to live in a free and democratic country, one that many people in the past and still today have fought and died to protect.
Hot dogs and a beer or Coke suggest the informality and fun to be had by enthusiasts in the bleachers. Work is over for the day or the weekend. One can socialize, relax, have a good time, and do so without donning coat and tie or pantyhose. At baseball games what you see is pretty much what you get: Americans engaged in that most American of pastimes, baseball.
Were you to invite members of your congregation to discuss What baseball means to you, the answers they provide might sound very much like those given when asked, What does the church mean to you? Community ... fellowship ... give a little cash and get entertained for an hour or two ... being oneself among friends who accept you as you are: unpretentious, enthusiastic, excited, engaged in all that takes place. We can apply all of those words to baseball, but to the church? That's more of a stretch. (Not the seventh-inning stretch, but one of ecclesiology.) So is the link between baseball and the church too broad to breach? I don't think so.
Most likely you'll be preaching to three different groups of people this week. (1) There will be the avid baseball fans who've watched as many of the games as possible in the past three weeks. (2) There will be less enthusiastic, but still interested and knowledgeable individuals who've watched some of the games and know quite a bit about it, but they are not fanatics whose life, work, or day will be ruined if their team doesn't win. (3) There will be people who don't know anything about baseball, may not know or care who's playing, or at all be concerned about who will win. You, the minister, may even identify with one of these groups.
For people who fit into the third category, some basic information may be essential. There are two baseball leagues, the American and the National. They played each other in the first World Series for the first time in 1903 and have done so regularly ever since. Prior to playing each other in the World Series this past week, each team had to play a series of games against a strong competitor from their own league. The reason today's sermon title is Why is it Called the World Series/ Which Team Is God Rooting For, the Marlins or the Yankees? and Other Pressing Issues It Never Occurred to the Biblical Authors to Discuss is in part to acknowledge the fact that biblical authors may have known a lot about games and sports of their own time and place. They certainly knew about war and the importance of leadership and strength and faith in oneself, something athletes and Christians both also need. But the biblical authors didn't know about baseball, which came into existence in the United States in the 1880s. Baseball is a singularly American sport. Both team cooperation and individual heroism occur at regular intervals. It's a paean to democracy, because a poor guy from the sticks (which now include Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Japan) can become rich and famous as a baseball player. A person doesn't have to have a high falutin' education or rich parents or special clothes and contacts to become a baseball hero. Just work hard, practice hard, just be yourself, and you may fulfill your dream.
Psalm 126:1-3 could have been the victory cheer of the National League and American League winners after the Marlins had trounced the Chicago Cubs and the New York Yankees had felled the Boston Red Sox. Alas, victory for one team means defeat and disappointment-even grief-for the other. While some of the fans of the often beleaguered Cubs and Red Sox may have found elements of the patience and suffering of Job a fitting response to coming oh so close to winning, once again they would not be playing in the World Series. Equally fitting despair comes to mind from the prophet Jeremiah's first confession, Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all who are treacherous thrive? You plant them, and they take root; they grow and bring forth fruit; you are near their mouths yet far from their hearts. God's reply sounds much like that which Pat Conroy's basketball coach at The Citadel in A Losing Season might have supplied. If you have raced with foot-runners and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses? (Jeremiah 12:1-2, 5ab). Sad it may be for the Cubs and the Red Sox, but their experience more aptly resembles the later verses of Psalm 126, verses 4 and 5.
The piety of the psalmist, of Jeremiah, and of Job is uttered in the contexts of prolonged suffering. Yet, accompanying that heartache is the intense belief that God can alter their situation and bring them vindication and blessing. In an athletic competition the whole physical as well as the emotional self is called upon by competitors and fans alike. The same is true of the psalmist and of Job, who express both in their words to God. Such emotionalism, which was perfectly natural in ancient culture, can get in the way of a baseball player who can't afford to clutch under pressure. Ironically, for baseball players and other athletes, it is often a lack of emotion that is required. Calmness and steady emotions are required to continue to excel in the face of pressure.
Before the congregation starts to wonder which team you root for, you may wish to explain that for contemporary ministers like yourself, sermons as a rule start with biblical study of a biblical text and not time spent in front of the television or at the ballpark alternately cheering and booing the different contenders. At this point you can educate your congregation by explaining that biblical study today is very different from that of previous centuries where allegory, typology, or a right word or phrase was considered sufficient inspiration to produce a sermon more about the congregation and culture than about the Word and will of God. Pious examples of such homileticians include John Donne and Bishop Andrewes of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. And satiric versions of the same methodology can be found in Laurence Sterne's sermon The Abuses of Conscience in the novel Tristran Shandy.
That technique calls for the preacher to light upon a particular word in a biblical verse and to develop a sermon based upon the meaning and implications of that particular word or isolated verse with little thought or concern about the text's original context. It might be a word such as conscience or sin. In Jonathan Edward's famous sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, it's a single verse, Deuteronomy 32:35, Their foot shall slide in due time. Come to think of it, that's a great verse to use in a sermon about God and baseball. Since it's not one of our lectionary texts for October 26, I'm going to take the lead instead from the Christian Science Monitor article, Does God Care Who Wins the World Series? While I provide a few comments, each minister must answer these question in his or her own way:
Do Americans have more reverence for ballgames than they do for God?
Not every American will have been glued to ESPN this week, but a large enough number will be tuning in to make us minister types jealous. Would that our congregations evinced equal enthusiasm for adult Sunday School and our sermons! More people will be found attending sports events this coming weekend than will be found in churches in the United States of America. More enthusiasm, more emotional energy, and more money will be spent to cheer on one's favorite team. It is in this context that I invite you to ask and answer the following searching questions which, I hope, you will answer from your own theological tradition and beliefs. While the questions may seem trite or frivolous, they actually reach the soul of Americans who can cite years' worth of baseball statistics but not one line from Psalm 100.
Should ministers pray at sports events and, if so, what should they pray? Does God hear such entreaties?
We are told that the hairs on our head are known and numbered by our God. With such teachings from Jesus and the many, many pleas and prayers uttered by women and men in the Old Testament, it seems likely God does hear prayers uttered by two opposing teams asking for a win. To flesh this question out, please consider and share with the congregation how you as a minister handle requests for prayer at high school athletic events, etc. How you deal with such instances reveals how you view it.
Does God have the best seat in the house at baseball games?
If God is all knowing, all seeing, all present, how could God not see and know-and perhaps even enjoy-watching a baseball game from on high? As with the President of the United States in the film Air Force One, the suspense might be spoiled by knowing the outcome before any mere mortals do.
Does God have a favorite team?
Probably God's favorite is always the underdog team, a quirky characteristic that God continually displays. Given a choice between triumphalism and the cross, God chooses Job when he's down, Israel when there's little hope of happiness to be found, and Jesus the Son who eats with tax collectors and sinners.
Why is it called the World Series?
Only Canadians, Americans, and imported star players from other countries play. It's not at all as inclusive as the World Cup soccer tournament which takes place every four years. Perhaps that title reveals more about us as Americans and how now, more than ever, we view ourselves in relation to the rest of the world. We are the number one political and military power in the world. We are the center of the world. Or are we?
Finally, some miscellaneous reflections and notes:
The loser in an athletic event, the one who drops the ball, fouls out, or makes some other error is in danger of becoming a social pariah like Job, with inordinate blame heaped upon his or her head.
Baseball is a metaphor for the American Dream. Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, For Love of the Game, The Natural, Bang the Drum Slowly, Eight Men Out, A League of Their Own, Damn Yankees, and The Jackie Robinson Story are all baseball movies evoking the dreams and ambitions of players throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
If the Yankees don't wreck it, the devil will in the musical Damn Yankees (1958 and revival 1994).
Baseball as well as other competitive sports allow the primarily male part of our population to dream dreams, have hopes and fears, identify with and cheer for .... It's a place where it's OK for men to show their feelings.
Job's false comforters are squelched by God. Job isn't exactly victorious himself, but after God's appearance, after God is through with him, God is a whirlwind of a coach in the locker room speech.
Abuses, cheating, gambling, beer consumed in large quantities reveal the potential dark side of baseball.
Does God care who wins and who loses in baseball games? In the musical and movie Damn Yankees it is suggested that Satan finds in baseball an irresistible opportunity to encourage sin and corruption. The exit clause protects the player Joe whom the devil turns back into an old man in order to prevent Joe's team from winning the pennant.
Proof positive that I am of the female gender. A number of years ago I was invited by a male friend to attend a baseball game involving Philadelphia, the home team. On a hunch, I took a book to a baseball game only to discover that if someone hasn't won by the end of the ninth inning they just keep playing! 2:00 A.M. and it still wasn't done.
Team Comments
George Murphy responds: I'm more a football than a baseball guy and in fact football has overtaken baseball in popularity in the United States, becoming our de facto national pastime. But there is something distinctively American about baseball. Maybe it is arrogant for us to call our baseball championship the World Series, but it's an American kind of arrogance. Our teams don't have to play teams from Japan or South Korea but if they did they'd probably beat them because we've gotten some of their best players.
The World Series tells us who's Number One, which is important for Americans.
We see the world in terms of good versus evil-patriots against the tyrant King George, God-fearing people against atheistic communists, decent folk versus terrorists. God versus the devil.
Or my team against the New York Yankees. Carter mentioned the musical Damn Yankees, which is based on a novel of the 1950s titled The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant. Back then that would have seemed like the end of the world as we knew it-an end devoutly wished for by fans of all the other American League teams who almost every year saw the Yankees in the World Series. It's not a lot different now. In the book the devil is ... a Yankees fan! Of course. You hear people say, My favorite teams are the Indians (or Red Sox, or whatever)-and any team that plays the Yankees. The Yankees represent the forces of evil, powerful and arrogant.
(Of course, I know there are a lot of Yankees fans. We have to see them in the stands at Yankee Stadium for the World Series almost every year! But indulge me. This is a morality play.)
And fate is supposed to play a big role in baseball, almost like a Greek tragedy. The sins of the fathers will be visited on the children. The Boston Red Sox missed the World Series this year by five outs because of The Curse of the Bambino: They sold Babe Ruth's contract to the Yankees-in 1918! And they haven't won a Series since. The Cubs lost to the Marlins because of The Curse of the Billy Goat-a goat who was refused admission with his owner to a Series game the last time the Cubs were in it in 1945. My own team, Cleveland, hasn't won a the World Series in forty-five years (although we were within two outs in 1997) because of The Curse of Rocky Colavito. There's even a book with that title by Akron sportswriter Terry Pluto (who also writes for the Akron Beacon Journal's religion page).
It's all very neat. Baseball represents the way we think of world in quasi-religious terms. But ....
The Cubs and Red Sox lost in the seventh games of their respective playoffs because of long-ago curses? Really? Most people knowledgeable about baseball think that the main reason is that both the Chicago and Boston managers left their starting pitchers in a little too long. Kerry Wood and Pedro Martinez are both great pitchers but they ran out of gas and should have been pulled one or two batters earlier.
The Bible does have that sins of the fathers language, but in Ezekiel 18 God says that's not how it's going to work. Each person is responsible for his or her own acts. If you make a mistake, it has consequences-maybe a disastrous one. But there is no curse working itself out inexorably. With all due regard to the earlier strata of the biblical tradition, God is not a cursing God. If something bad happens, it isn't just because it was meant to be.
Or, if we must use that sort of language, remember Galatians 3:13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.'
And the battle of good versus evil? There are evil powers, and we are called to fight against them. In the baptismal liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer, we are called to Renounce Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God. And it makes good theater to picture the Yankees as the powers of darkness. (I suspect that even many Yankees fans take some pleasure in the fact that partisans of other teams see them this way.)
But two years ago in the playoffs, when Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter came out of nowhere for a defensive play that I can only describe as miraculous, you couldn't help but admire it. And in the climactic game of the American League playoffs this year, when the Red Sox got to Yankee pitcher Roger Clemens in what could have been the last game of his career and knocked him out of the box-sure, you were glad if you wanted the Red Sox to win. But it was still moving to see the whole stadium come to its feet and cheer him as he left the field. And you don't applaud the devil.
In real life, seeing our opponents as demons is dangerous.
So what about being Number One? That's OK in baseball or football, but it becomes a problem when we try to carry it over to life, and especially to our relationship with God. In our Gospel for last week Jesus spoke to James and John who wanted the top positions in the Kingdom of God: Whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. The point is not that there are no winners in life, but that the real winners are those who come in second for the sake of others.
(And on my earlier point about being responsible for our own actions: The American League could take a big step in that direction by getting rid of the wretched designated hitter. Don't get me started ....)
Related Illustrations
from Carlos Wilton
The Baseball Prayer
Almighty God,
you who are called the Mighty Umpire in this game of life,
we are not sure what uniforms we should wear.
While we may be Angels in spirit,
in reality we are Giants in pride,
Dodgers of responsibility
and Tigers in ambition.
When it comes to faith,
we find ourselves in the minor leagues.
When it comes to good works,
we strike out.
When it comes to knowledge of your Word,
we are not even sure of the ground rules.
Therefore, we are thankful for your mercy
when we find ourselves in foul territory;
for your forgiveness
when we commit one error after another;
for your uplifting spirit
when we find ourselves in the pitfalls of a slump.
Dear God, may our game plan be your will,
and our response a sellout crowd with standing room only.
And, when our number is retired here on earth,
my we rejoice to hear you call out,
SAFE,
in Christ's name,
who gives final victory to all who believe.
Amen.
-Author Unknown
* * *
Jesus said, 'I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.' (John 10.14-15a)
I can get you anyplace, says the ticket seller. How about behind home plate?
Two sons and I equip ourselves with dubious food and settle into Section 200, Row S, just up from the field.
We have a perfect vantage point for offering counsel to the plate umpire. When he misses a call, a groan goes up in 200. We don't doubt that the umpire, now chastened, will do better next inning.
We also know when the field umpires blow it. In fact, one call at third is so wrong-headed that fans go beyond groaning in voicing their certainty.
The joy of minor league baseball, of course, is that it doesn't matter much. The players are passing through. The point of our outing isn't nine innings of intense baseball, but seven innings of sitting contentedly within earshot of the train tracks on a balmy spring night.
There is a larger truth, you see, than what is happening on the field. In our case, that truth is about family, brothers connecting, allowing the mournful train whistle to come inside.
I see another father-and-sons quartet knowing the same truth. Beyond them, a woman watches wearily as her husband gets drunk and starts to bellow. Behind us a mother gives her son the great gift of listening.
If you look around, you see all kinds of truth-knowing. Some cheerful, some grim, all of it worthy, even if the other's truth-knowing is different from your own. The baseball game is the occasion, not ultimate truth itself.
Jesus didn't know baseball, of course. (In the Big Inning, of John 1:1, probably doesn't refer to baseball.) But he did see into the lives of people around him. At that point they had neither creed nor institution. They were just his own, a flock of strangers whom he was binding into oneness.
Jesus knew them. Even as they engaged in trivial posturing-arguing about power, privilege, and right opinion-he knew larger truths about them. He knew capabilities that they hadn't seen yet. He knew their hungers and agonies. He heard questions that they hadn't dared to voice. He knew what following him would do to their lives. He knew his betrayer. He knew Simon's weakness. He knew Mary Magdalene as a person and his mother as soon to be childless. He knew the isolation that accompanies being the first to love. He knew the mournful train whistles of their lives.
And he begged them to know him-to know him as deeply as he knew them. Not to stop at first impressions, at the easy knowing of appearance, but to look at him deeply, to know him as a parent knows a child, as a brother knows a brother, as a lover knows her beloved.
Could it ever happen that we turn away from the baseball-game of religion-with its rules, folkways, heroes, and team records-and actually know something worth knowing? Could we turn to each other and come closer to knowing what Jesus knows? Could we know the sweet taste of forgiveness, rather than the acid of judgment? Could we know the weary apprehension, the gift of listening, the leaning of brother to brother, the welter of feelings that come from sitting with one's sons in the latter half of my life and the early half of theirs?
Could we ever hear the mournful train whistles and just allow them to reverberate-no filtering, no judging-just to touch a chord? Could we ever see the field of combat, even religious combat, as unimportant, as merely an occasion for doing what Jesus begged his friends to do: know him, know God, know each other?
-From On a Journey: Meditations on God in Daily Life
by Tom Ehrich
May 8, 2003
* * *
In Joyce Carol Oates' review of The Picador Book of Sportswriting, she commented, Decades ago, when the distinguished American philosopher George Santayana observed, 'Another world to live in is what we mean by religion,' he could not have anticipated how, for many millions of his countrymen, as for yet more millions throughout the world, what he meant by 'religion' would one day be displaced in the most immediate, existential, and emotional sense by spectator sports.
-Times Literary Supplement, July 12, 1996
* * *
Comedian George Carlin has compared the nature of baseball and football:
Baseball is played in a park-a baseball park.
Football is played in a stadium-often called Soldier's Field or War Memorial Stadium.
Baseball begins in the spring, the season of new life.
Football begins in the fall, when everything is dying.
Football is concerned with downs. What down is it?
Baseball is concerned with ups. I'm not up. Is he up? You're up!
In football, you receive a penalty.
In baseball, you make an error. Oops!
In football, the specialist comes in to kick something.
In baseball, the specialist comes in to relieve someone.
Football has hitting, clipping, piling on, spearing, personal fouls and unnecessary roughness.
Baseball has the sacrifice.
In football the objective is for the quarterback, sometimes called the field general, to be on target with his aerial assault, riddling the defense, hitting his receivers with deadly accuracy, in spite of the blitz, even if he has to use the shotgun, with short bullet passes and long bombs, he marches his troops into enemy territory, balancing this aerial attack with a sustained ground attack, which punches holes in the front line of the defense.
In baseball the objective is to go home and be safe.
* * *
Erma Bombeck tells the story of Ralph Corlis. He was the coach who played to lose. He was an enigma in Little League baseball. Ralph went to ball games and invited the kids who always sat on the bench to be on his team. He had one rule, Everyone plays. One season Ralph managed to muster together enough underdog little leaguers to create five teams. They played in a farm yard with car seat cushions as bases.
Ralph's games had no spectators and he didn't care about winning. But one thing became evident to the other coaches in the town. All the young boys were having fun. A few coaches approached Ralph to find out what his game was. He responded by telling them that they played to have fun and didn't care about winning or having spectators. Besides, Ralph told them, no one ever teaches kids how to lose. It's important to know how to lose because you do a lot of it when you grow up.
The other coaches invited Ralph's teams to compete in their league. His team lost eighty-one straight games. And they did it without uniforms, parents, lighted scoreboards and press coverage. In spite of all their losses, Ralph Corlis became the most loved coach in little league baseball.
One season, Ralph's team acquired a boy who had fairly good pitching skills. Then the impossible happened. After years of losing his team won. After the game the boys were strangely quiet and Ralph sat in his car for the longest time thinking about what had just happened. See you next week coach, one of his players said as he passed by the car. But, Ralph had to retire. He couldn't stand the pressure.
I believe that our obsession with winning and keeping score takes all the fun out of life. With more cooperation and less competition there wouldn't have to be any underdogs.
-From a sermon by Keith Wagner, posted on the web at Deacon Sil's Homiletic Resource Center
Worship Materials
by George E. Reed
OPENING
I suppose a rewrite of Take Me Out to the Ball Game would have been appropriate for this week's offering. After several attempts I have decided instead to include only the words of the chorus. You may wish to adapt them for worship or just sing them. You can find both versions of the song at: www.baseball-almanac.com/poetry/po_stmo.shtml
Take Me Out to the Ball Game
Take me out to the ball game, Take me out with the crowd. Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack, I don't care if I never get back, Let me root, root, root for the home team, If they don't win it's a shame. For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out, At the old ball game.
Author: Jack Norworth Composer: Albert Von Tilzer Published in 1908, 1927 by York Music Company
MUSIC
Hymns
Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty. Words: Reginald Heber, 1826; music: John B. Dykes, 1861. Public domain.
Holy God, We Praise Thy Name. Words: Sts. 1-4, Ignaz Franz, 18th century; trans. Clarence Walworth, 1853; sts. 5-7, F. Bland Tucker, 1982; music: Katholisches Gesangbuch, ca. 1774. Sts. 5-7 (c) 1985 The Church Pension Fund.
Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee. Words: Henry Van Dyke, 1907, st. 4 alt., 1989; music: Ludwig van Beethoven, 1824; arr. Edward Hodges, 1864. Public domain.
A Mighty Fortress Is Our God. Words: Martin Luther, ca. 1529; trans. Frederick H. Hedge, 1853; music: Martin Luther, ca. 1529; harm. from The New Hymnal for American Youth, 1930. Public domain.
Songs
We Worship and Adore You. Words and music: traditional. (c) 1987 Maranatha! Music
I Will Call upon the Lord. Words and music: Michael O'Shields. (c) 1981 Sound III and All Nations Music.
CALL TO WORSHP
Leader:
I will bless God at all times;
People:
God's praise will be continually in my mouth.
Leader:
My soul makes its boast in God.
People:
Let the humble hear and be glad.
Leader:
O magnify God with me,
People:
And let us exalt God's name together.
or
Leader:
God has done great things for us.
People:
Let us rejoice in God's blessings.
Leader:
Those who go out weeping
People:
Shall return with shouts of joy.
Leader:
Those who bear the work of sowing
People:
Will reap a bountiful harvest.
COLLECT/OPENING PRAYER
O God, who comes and speaks face to face with Job and who answers the cry of Bartimaeus: Grant us the wisdom to see that you love all your children with a never ending love; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
or
God, we call on you to be among us today as we worship. We know you are already here and that you are also where you have not been called. You are seeking your children, the rich and the poor, the good and the bad. Help us to worship you this morning and to serve you in the least of your people this week. Amen.
RESPONSE MUSIC
Hymns
I Surrender All. Words: J. W. Van Deventer, 1896; music: W. S. Weeden, 1896. Public domain.
Dear Lord and Father of Mankind. Words: John Greenleaf Whittier, 1872; music: Frederick C. Maker, 1887. Public domain.
God of Grace and God of Glory. Words: Harry Emerson Fosdick, 1930; music: John Hughes, 1907. (c)Words, by permission of Elinor Fosdick Downs.
Songs
God, You Are My God. Words and music: Rich Mullins and Beaker. (c) 1992 BMG Songs, Inc.
Great Is the Lord. Words and music: Michael W. Smith & Deborah D. Smith. (c) 1982 Meadowgreen Music Co.
Humble Yourself in the Sight of the Lord. Words and music: Bob Hudson. (c) 1978 Maranatha! Music
PRAYERS OF CONFESSION / PARDON
Leader: We come to worship the God of all, the One who is beyond naming. We present ourselves this day before the One who created all that was, is, and will be. Yet we also pray to this Almighty One to take sides in baseball games, political elections, with our stock picks and our lottery numbers. We say we worship God, but we often treat God as our personal genie. Let us confess our sins of arrogance and impiety.
People: We confess to you, Almighty God, that we often are more interested in using your power to further our aims than your goal for creation. We are more likely to implore you to take our side in meaningless activities than we are to join your side in redeeming your creation. Forgive us and by the power of your Holy Spirit call us once again to follow Jesus in hearing the cries of the lost and needy and in offering them your grace. Amen.
Leader: God, who loves all creation, loves you and offers you grace and peace that you may offer it to others.
GENERAL PRAYERS AND LITANIES
We worship and adore you, O God, for you are the Almighty. You hold us in your loving hands and keep us as the apple of your eye. You are the creative force of all that ever was, is now, or ever shall come into being. Your majesty is beyond our telling. You, indeed, are God the Almighty.
(The following paragraph is most suitable if a prayer of confession will not be used elsewhere.)
We confess this day that we have tried to use you to accomplish our ends. We have invoked your presence to bless our sporting events and other pastimes not because we wanted to worship you but because we wanted you to ensure the outcome would suit us. Forgive our selfishness and our misuse of your Name. By the power of your Spirit direct us once again to be your people who seek your will and direction instead of our own.
We thank you for all the blessings of creation. We thank you for the joy of sharing in games and pastimes. We thank you for the beauty of athleticism. We thank you for the joy of movement in running, walking, dancing. We thank you for the ability to share in laughter and fun with one another.
(Other specific thanksgiving may be offered.)
We are aware that not all people share completely in these blessings. There are those whose circumstances of life make sports and games seem ludicrous. There are those who do not have the ability to move as they desire. There are those who are too weak from hunger or illness to dance. There are those who have lost the joy of their lives. As you reach out to care for these your children, help us to share in your loving care for them. Help us to use our blessings to be a blessing to others.
(Other petitions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of Jesus, our Lord, who taught us to pray, saying:
Our Father ....
A Children's Sermon
by Wesley T. Runk
Mark 10:46-52
Text: They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. (v. 46)
Object: a tin cup or a small bell
Good morning, boys and girls. Have you ever heard of the word beggar? (let them answer) Maybe you have seen beggars with signs asking for food or work, but there are not many people doing things like that today.
A long time ago beggars used to sit in front of churches or on very busy corners and they would have a tin cup, something like this one, and they would ask people to put money in their cups. Some beggars would ring a bell and hold out their cup. At the end of the day if everything went well, the beggar would have enough money to buy food or pay for a place to stay. It was and is a very hard way to live.
When Jesus lived on earth, many of the beggars were people who were blind or had something wrong with their hands or feet. They could not work and there was no one to take care of them. Lots of people tried to avoid them. They would walk on the other side of the road or pretend that they did not see them.
But not Jesus! He would look for these kinds of people and stop and talk with them. Today in our lesson we meet one of those beggars. His name was Bartimaeus and he was blind. On this day, Jesus was leaving the city of Jericho when he heard a voice in the crowd. It was Bartimaeus. The poor beggar kept yelling at the top of his voice, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! People kept telling him to be quiet because he was only a beggar. But Jesus heard the voice and he asked his disciples to call him out of the crowd that had gathered and come and see him. Bartimaeus was thrilled that Jesus would call his name and he jumped up and threw off his coat and began stumbling and walking toward Jesus. Jesus asked the beggar, What do you want me to do for you?
Bartimaeus didn't want money or gold or jewels. He didn't want a brand new house or a pair of fine donkeys. He didn't ask for a great farm or a wonderful business. He asked Jesus to give him sight. He wanted to see again. Jesus healed him on the spot and told him to go because he believed. Bartimaeus was so grateful that he immediately began to be a follower of Jesus.
This is one of the great stories of Jesus and his care for the poor. He healed a beggar and gave him back his sight. Bartimaeus was so happy that he gave his life to Jesus.
The Immediate Word, October 26, 2003, issue.
Copyright 2003 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
