On God's Side?

Here we are on the morning after the Red Sox have absolutely drubbed the Rockies-- talk about "Rocktober!" Does the Colorado baseball team really want to continue with efforts to register the word "Rocktober" as a trade-mark (an effort creating anxiety in the music biz) after they themselves got "rocked" last night? Maybe it is time for them to come down to earth...

(This is what "humiliation" and "humility" and "being humbled" are all about: coming down to earth; from the same root at "humus"-- which is wonderful stuff when you can get it! The difference in meaning of those words has to do with the nature of the descent, and whether the landing was gentle or not!)

Anyway, an article in the LA Times (on the editorial page, not the sports pages! See? Sometimes I go elsewhere for my sports information!) told me some things about the Rockies I didn't know. Like: "The Rockies have become known as the closest thing MLB has to a faith-based club. The front office runs the franchise on what it describes as Christian principles..." Etc. This has contributed to their thinking that God is on their side. That, before last night, they had won 21 of 22 straight, many evidently attributed to God's "intervention!" At least, so indicates the article.

The article goes on to explore the ethical conflicts inherent in being Christian (or religious in general), on the one hand, and being a baseball/sports club/business, on the other. For instance, when the Rockies beat the San Diego Padres to get into the playoffs, they did so courtesy a phantom touching of home plate by Matt Holliday and an umpire's generous call. After the game, Holliday thanked God for the victory and would not say whether he thought he'd scored or not. The Christian ethic would have been for honesty, the sports ethic for claiming victory regardless, and the sports ethic won out.

(Personally, I would have thought that God would have favored a team called the "padres" over one called the "rockies." And it is clear to me that for about 20 years now God has not favored one called the "dodgers!")

In any case, the differing ethical demands of heaven and earth are only one of the problems with thinking that God must be on your side when you are winning. Another is, are we to think ourselves as God-forsaken when we lose? Is that how the Rockies are thinking of themselves this AM? (Surely they are not thinking that God was a Red Sox fan all along? Ah, but the way they have been playing since "the Curse of the Bambino" was lifted...)

One response to such folks as populate the Rockies' organization is to say that God doesn't care about sports, but I don't want to believe that about God. I prefer to think that God does care about sports, just as God cares about all human endeavor, but that God's interest is in our being "good" sports, and learning what we can about matters spiritual in that pursuit.

So what I hope what the Rockies, and other teams like them, learn, is that God "makes the rain fall on the just and the unjust" (just as God did last night in Boston), and that God is "with" us whether we are winning or losing, and maybe that God is more concerned for us about "process" rather than "outcome."

Because, after all, we Christians believe God has already taken care of the "outcome!" It is the "process" that is more telling about the quality of our faith and the nature of our relationship with God.

Maybe that's what the Rockies are learning, too...

Blessings!