April 15, 2011 Morning Prayer reflection
Emily Seitz
While I was reading the chapter Living in the Presence of God from the book On
Our Way what stood out to me is how easy it is for me and maybe you too to get stuck in
this rut, where God is a Sunday morning thing. Here, on Sunday morning in this space I
am in God’s presence and that’s great, but then church is over and that’s done, and I
move on to whatever else I wanted to do that day without a second thought. And though
it is important to note that of course we are all in God’s presence during worship and that
is an integral part of our Christian lives it isn’t supposed to end there. After all, it is
pretty easy to live in the presence of God when you’re standing at the altar for
Communion, or participating in the liturgy. But we do not live permanently in this space.
We live out there. The point of living in the presence of God is to actually LIVE in his
presence, in the real world, at our jobs and in our classrooms. That’s not as easy. Not
because God is not as present ‘out there’ as He is ‘in here’, but because we don’t always
know how to see Him.
God is present in our world not just where we expect Him to be, in the sunset, in
the flowers, in Communion, but also where we least expect Him. The rotting log, dying
tree. Our own broken, sinful selves. The places where we are the most broken, in fact,
the most human, are the places where God and all of His glory show through. For me,
there is almost nowhere more revealing of our own humanity than the baseball field.
There is such a mix of success and failure in this sport that it brings out so many
distinctly human emotions. In baseball there is a statistic called a “perfect game.” A
perfect game is a game where the pitcher of one team gets every single batter he faces out,
in order. Not one member of the opposing team can get on base safely. The pitcher must
get all 27 outs, 3 in each of the 9 innings, in a row. A completed perfect game is
something beautiful to watch, totally whole and complete. It rests not just on the pitcher
to get everyone out, but also his teammates. They have to field every ball perfectly, for if
they don’t, a runner could end up on base because of their mistake. Everyone has to
perform perfectly and the beauty of a game that well played is indescribable. It is easy
for me to find the presence of God during the beauty of the game at a moment like that,
when everything works out just like it’s supposed to, the same way that it’s easy for us to
be in the presence of God during the worship service. But, do you know how many
perfect games have ever happened in the history of Major League Baseball? 20. 20
perfect games from 1880 through the 2010 season. I’ve been watching every major
league baseball game I possibly could since I was 7, and I’ve never seen one.
I have always been fascinated by this idea of the perfect game and I’ve always
thought that I want to see a perfect game more than any other feat on the ball field. An
event last summer during a major league game between the Tigers and the Indians might
have changed my mind. Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga had been pitching a perfect
game successfully against the Indians and had gotten into the 9th inning. He got the first
out in the 9th without difficulty but the next Indians batter hit a ground ball to the first
base side and it was sort of a difficult play; one could see that it was going to be close.
But they completed the play and it looked good, until the umpire at first base, Jim Joyce,
unexpectedly yelled SAFE instead of OUT. They showed the play again and again on
instant replay on TV and it became pretty clear that the runner really had been out. Even
Jim Joyce, later, after looking at the replays himself, was able to admit that yes, he did
get the call wrong. The player should have been out, and Galarraga should have pitched a
perfect game that night. At first, everyone thought that this would be a scandal, critics of
the game cited this incident as an example of everything that is wrong with baseball
today. I disagree with this take on it. A moment like this is why I love baseball, because
nothing could be more human. The next day the Tigers and the Indians were scheduled
to play again and this time Jim Joyce was supposed to be the home plate umpire. This
was the day after he made possibly the biggest mistake of his career. If I were him I
would have much rather hid under a rock, than go out there and umpire that game. But
the next day Jim Joyce walked out on the field with the other umpires, and, fighting back
tears, imagine this, a baseball umpire, fighting back tears, went to home plate. And the
Tigers sent no one other than Armando Galarraga up to the plate for the batting lineup
exchange, and he and Jim Joyce embraced. Immediately afterwords the players got set
and Joyce then turned towards the new day’s pitcher and pointed toward the mound and
said those magical words that start every baseball game, “Play ball!” What could be
more human than that? Or rather, what could be a better example of living in the
presence of God, than that? Instead of hiding in his mistake, Joyce simply returned to his
job and started over, and instead of slandering Joyce in the papers, or arguing with him
endlessly about his bad call, Galarraga simply embraced him, and forgave him, and
moved on. Isn’t Joyce’s behavior that day a little like how we ought to approach the altar
during Communion? Aware of our sins, aware that we have fallen and cannot fix it on
our own, and then receiving God’s forgiveness in the body and the blood, and then, most
importantly, returning to our lives and the world, saying “play ball” in our own way,
continuing to live in God’s presence and his forgiveness. Recognizing our failings and
God’s grace in our lives and living with both.
That’s a Lent thing, and a spring thing, finding life in the midst of death and grace
in the midst of failure. It’s a baseball thing, and a human thing. The presence of God is
active both in our Easter joys and our Lenten sorrows. So go from this place and live in
the presence of God in the classroom, the office, the playing field, the dormitory, and
anywhere else you will be this week. Play ball.