Rector’s Ramblings – October 31, 2024

The Dodgers have won the World Series! This means one crucial thing – the New York Yankees lost the World Series! As an Orioles fan, I cannot pull for the Yankees even though they represent “our league.” I root for whoever the Yankees play as a way to support my team, which has had some good seasons in recent years, including this season. But the Orioles are notorious for postseason mishaps. This year, losing in the wildcard series against Kansas City was no different. It’s just what we do, which makes it all the more annoying when the Yankees are playing well. Granted, they haven’t won the Series recently, but still.

Truthfully, however, I don’t really hate the Yankees, even if I tease Tom Ernst, who tortures me every Sunday during the season with his Yankees pins and watch. It’s more of a lighthearted rivalry. It’s not like I have to spit every time I say the Yankees’ name. There’s no hatred involved towards the Yankees or their fans. It’s just fun to have rivals. Someone has to win in baseball when all is said and done. I just prefer it when it’s my team. When we don’t win, we all look forward to the next season with hope. Well, Orioles fans didn’t have much hope for a long time, but you know what I mean.

I cannot help but contrast the much more serious and troubling team sport we sometimes call politics with baseball and the end of the World Series. The team that played the best and scored the most runs just won the Series. No one is sure when we’ll know who wins the presidential election next week. Playing the best isn’t the most fitting metaphor, but it feels like it’s been turned into a game, nonetheless – and a deadly one. It may not cost lives, but it’s costing us a sense of unity, shared purpose, identity, and a legacy. Those elements of our common life are not guaranteed; without care and keeping, they will die. When they die, no one is quite sure what will come after.

As Christians, we don’t get to, nor should we sit out on political discourse. We are not called to be impartial. We are called to build God’s kingdom however we can, and while baseball games might not do a lot of kingdom-building (but in another context, we could identify ways they could), elections most certainly can. Not because we strive to elect Christians, per se, but because starting from the fundamental elements of our faith, we do our best to ensure (when we can) that those elements are present in the people we choose to represent us, govern us, and cast a vision for our future. 

Despite the rivalries, for baseball fans, it’s about baseball at the end of the day – for love of the game, as a Kevin Costner baseball movie title suggests. Every fan appreciates a perfect game, a new record, or a history-making moment. Baseball fans live for the weird statistical records that announcers love to pull out of their research, regardless of who sets those records. At the end of the day, American League fans don’t want to see the elimination of National League fans. They are rivals, but they are compatriots in the church of baseball (to quote Bull Durham), too. They share a love of the sport, how it’s played, and anything that helps baseball thrive, such as the now-popular pitch clock addition.

Political rivalries, on the other hand, have become corrosive, dehumanizing, and dangerous. Gone from large swaths of political life and speech-making are calls for unity, shared purpose, a hopeful view of the future, an invitation to work across differences, and even a sense of truthfulness about serious issues. Grievance and the politics of resentment have replaced any healthy debate of policy differences. Once upon a time, policies essentially sought a general outcome regardless of the candidate and differing details on how to get there: the thriving of all the citizens in our nation. As we navigate these waters, it is increasingly difficult to catch even a glimpse of God’s kingdom in stump speeches or a voice that speaks any little echo of the Gospel.

Last evening, we heard from Bren Dubay, the director of Koinonia Farm, a Christian collective community a few hours from here. They have chosen a unique and biblical framework for their common life that is not perfect but strives for faithfulness, nonetheless. She admitted it’s undoubtedly not a utopia. They argue with one another, face trials, and find their way through problems together. They build their lives around three Gospel teachings of Jesus: service, reconciliation, and hospitality. Those three pillars of their common life are central to ours, too, whether welive on the same farm with one another or not. We’re all called to think more in terms of “us and we” than “us and them.”

Conversely, there are a lot of “me” focused messages in our political world at the moment. I get it. Everyone wants to win. We’ve turned politics into an existential competition at the end of which there can only be one winner. That’s how baseball might work, but not how God intends our world to work. We only truly win when everyone wins. I realize that’s still a radical message to this day, but such is the Gospel. Ideally, everyone on a ballot would articulate a vision for everyone to thrive together, but that’s not always the case. And we know that by now. Our system is what it is, and it produces the candidates it produces. I don’t know how we can heal and reform those systems, but I know it won’t happen between now and next week. 

Over the long term, we need to engage in prayerful discernment about how we can raise up and elect candidates for all manner of offices who can demonstrate their calling to faithful leadership and governance and a life that reflects the fruits of the spirit like some of those Paul outlined for the Church in Galatia: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We aren’t looking for perfection – we’d never find it. But we know what we’re seeking, nonetheless. We know it when we see it, and we know it when we see its opposite. The goal is to get as close as possible to raising up those who can reflect at least some of these ideals.

We wear a lot of hats.Hats for our baseball teams, hats for our families, hats for our careers, hats as citizens of a community, hats for our church – there are a lot of them. Whatever hat we are wearing at a particular moment, we wear it with our Christian identity peering out from under the brim. As followers of Christ, we are called to serve and love our neighbors. The mission of our Church is reconciliation between people at odds with one another and between people and God. One of the strongest threads throughout our Judeo-Christian tradition is about care and hospitality for those who are “other.” We know what God expects from us.

I don’t know what will happen next week in our political World Series (let’s be honest, baseball isn’t really a world contest either!). I know that many people are anxious, angry, and afraid. I don’t think the outcome will change those feelings. There’s a good chance it will have the opposite effect. I don’t think God intervenes in baseball games, and I’m not sure how much God intervenes in elections. Except. Except that God intervenes in our lives every day, again, no matter what hat we wear.

God sends the Holy Spirit to move in and through us, inviting us to hear and see the world around us as Christ might, even as we stand in a ballot box. At the end of the day, we have free will and will use it. God’s involved because we’re involved. And, no matter what happens, God will still reign, the Good News of God in Christ will be needed more than ever, and our Christian identity will remain. We’ll still be on the same team, God’s team.

If you’re feeling anxious about this election cycle, I get it. You’re far from alone. And we’re all far from alone with the presence of God in our midst. Let’s just remember who we are and who we serve, and when all this is behind us, we can recommit ourselves to things like service, reconciliation, and hospitality. You can wear an Orioles hat, a Dodgers hat, or a Yankees hat – God doesn’t care about the hat. God cares about us and that we care for one another. The rest takes care of itself in time.

Tom+

Almighty God, to whom we must account for all our powers and privileges: Guide the people of the United States in the election of officials and representatives; that, by faithful administration and wise laws, the rights of all may be protected and our nation be enabled to fulfill your purposes; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Photo Credits: Dodgers Fan, Sammy Sosa, and hat/flag via dreamstime.com subscription.