Major League Grace

Romans 5:1-11

June 6, 2004

St. Paul UMC

Rev. John Fleming

By now I am sure that most of you know that like most boys who grew up playing baseball in city leagues and in neighborhood backyards, I once dreamed of being a major league baseball player. My potential career began when I was five and donned my first uniform, a red t-shirt that simply had the word Warriors ironed on the front of it. My first official at bat came when our coach put a baseball on a tee and told me to do my best. Because I am here this morning and not finishing up an illustrious career, you know that I did not make it in the major leagues. In fact, some weeks I wonder how I made our men’s softball team.

Maybe the closest I came to a major league job happened now almost four years ago. At the time, I was the Associate Pastor downtown at First Church. One of our members was an umpire in the minor league baseball system. He had been doing that for ten years and had worked his way up to the triple “A” level, a step just below the major leagues. His season began in early March and lasted through September. During that time, he traveled all across the United States and into Canada calling baseball games. When his schedule brought him to Memphis, the Cardinals Triple A team, sometimes I would go and watch him umpire. I remember one particular game that Susie and I went to. We were sitting just behind home plate where Kraig was calling the balls and strikes. We were sitting with Kraig’s wife, Cathy, when I noticed a man with a clipboard just in front of us. For three or four innings he wrote down several things in his notebook and when he put it down, when I was sure that he was finished with his work, I turned to him and I asked him, “You are a baseball scout, aren’t you?” He told me that he was, that he worked for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. I told him that I had never been good enough to make it to the majors with my baseball abilities, but that I was a pretty good pastor. So I asked him, “Do major league teams hire preachers?” He told me that they didn’t; that usually baseball teams asked pastor to come in on Sunday mornings for chapel and that maybe I could do that here in Little Rock. I said, “Little Rock? I want to travel with the team!” He just smiled at me and went back to watching the game.

My dream of making it to the majors causes me to like the story of what happened in the spring of 1995, the year that major league baseball went on strike. You may remember those months. If you are a true baseball fan, you want to forget them. It was the spring that the million dollar arms and the Cadillac bats stayed home disputing salaries and incentives. The players association and the owners could not come to an agreement. In an effort for the baseball season to begin, no matter what the cost, the owners threw open the gates to almost anyone who knew how to shag a fly ball, scoop up a grounder, or run out a bunt. The players who showed up to do that were not the minor leaguers. They also were on strike. These were the guys who went from coaching Little League and delivering packages for UPS one week to wearing a major league uniform the next. The players were not great, of course, and the games were not fancy. One manager said that he had a pitcher whose fastball would not even register on a radar gun. The players huffed and puffed around the bases and you could often see them stopping at a base, putting their hands on their knees and trying to catch their breath. These players gave it their all. When a coach asked for volunteers to shag fly balls, a dozen hands went up. When he told them to run the bases, they ran the bases. These guys arrived at the ballpark before the gates were unlocked and stayed until the grounds crew told them that it was time to go home. They thanked the attendants who washed their uniforms and the caterers for bringing food. They were appreciative of the fans who payed the dollar to watch them play. You see, these guys did not see themselves as a blessing to baseball. They saw baseball as a blessing to them. They did not expect any luxuries; in fact, they were surprised when it happened. In the great baseball town of Cincinnati, the general manager stepped onto the field, applauded the fans who were there and announced that free hot dogs and soft drinks were available to everyone. In the trade of the year, the Cincinnati Reds sent five players to the Cleveland Indians with no strings attached. Most teams played their players somewhere between two and five thousand dollars, plus expenses to play. The Montreal Expos only gave away jerseys as payment, but that did not bother anyone. Like I said, the games were not flashy. If you were a real fan, then you missed the drama of the late inning home run or the stolen base at the right time. All of that was forgiven when fans saw players playing the game for the sheer joy of it. What made them so special, you want to know? Well, it is simple really. These guys were living a life that they did not deserve. They did not make it to the majors with their skills. They made it there because they were in the right place at the right time. They were not picked because they were talented. They were chosen because they were willing. You might even say that they were just happy to be on the team.

Well, if you do not mind the preacher coming out in me this morning, then I would like to say that we are not all that different from these major leaguers. If the first four chapters of Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome teach us anything, they teach us that we are living a life that we do not deserve. We know a few things about this letter of Paul’s to the Roman Christians. One of the first things that we know is that the Church in Rome was one of the only churches that Paul corresponded with of which he was not the founding pastor. Because they did not know the apostle and because they had never heard his words firsthand or listened to one of his sermons, Paul had to lay a heavy theological groundwork for them. A commentary or two that I read this week lays the letter out and splits it between the first eleven chapters and the last four. The first eleven are heady and heavy, the last four are practical. In the first eleven, Paul is letting the Romans know who he is and what he believes. He is hoping to make it to Rome, to establish an outpost there that would eventually enable him to spring into Spain and spread the gospel there.

So the first few chapters are a challenge to understand. And to understand our lesson for this morning, from the fifth chapter of the letter, you have to turn back to an illustration that Paul uses in the fourth chapter. He uses Abraham to make the point that we are saved, that we are right with God not because we are able to follow the letter of the law, dot the “i’s” and cross the “t’s,” but because of our faith. Listen to the way that these lines are put in a different translation of the Bible, “...Abraham never stopped believing. He grew stronger in his faith...and felt sure that God was able to do what he had promised. So, God accepted Abraham’s faith, and that faith made him right with God...” Paul uses Abraham as an illustration. He says that if we have faith in God, then we are right with God. In fact, that is the first line of our scripture lesson for this morning. Paul writes, “Therefore, since we are justified by faith...” I have learned and I have said this to you, that when Paul uses the word, therefore, we need to pay attention to what comes next.

So if it is all right with you this morning, I would like to point out some of the promises of these eleven verses. Here is the first one. Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God. Some commentators believe that this is a future hope, a future peace, but I do not believe it. I think that Paul is saying that because we have faith, we are justified, made right with God. And because we are, we have peace with God. Church is there anything that is more important than that? I know that we want peace in a lot of places in our lives. I know that we want peace in our world. We pray for that. I know that we want peace with our neighbors. The great statesman, Benjamin Franklin, once wrote these words, “Love your neighbor, but don’t cut don’t your hedge.” There is some good advice in those words. We want to get along with those that we live next door to. We also want to be at peace with those that we live with. I do not know how it is with you, but I will do just about anything for things to be peaceful at home. Peace with all those things is important. But perhaps the place that we need peace the most is in our relationship to God. And, says Paul, salvation brings peace with God.

My favorite Christian author, Max Lucado, tells the story of a monk and his apprentice who traveled from the abbey to a nearby village. The two parted at the city gate with the plan to meet the next morning at the same gate. That happened. The monk and his student met at the same time, but the monk could tell that something was wrong. His young friend was unusually quiet. When he asked what was wrong, he said, “What business is it of yours!?” The monk knew that his brother was troubled, but he did not say anything. The two started walking back to the abbey. The separation between the two got worse. The student actually fell behind his teacher, walking several steps behind him. When they arrived at the abbey, the monk turned to his young friend and said, “Tell me, my son. What troubles your soul?” The boy started to lash out again, but when he saw compassion in the monk’s face, he confessed his sins and told of some things that had happened in the village the night before. The teacher put his arm around his student and said, “We will enter the abbey together. We will enter the cathedral together. And together we will confess your sin. And no one but God will know which one of us fell.” Isn’t that a good description of what God has done for us? He did more than the monk could do. He gave us Jesus who made forgiveness real for us. In a few minutes, we, too, will have the chance to confess our sins. So, we have peace with God. That’s the first promise of this passage.

The second is the promise of a place with God. Listen again to what Paul writes, “...through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand...” The verse, through whom we have obtained in the Greek, I understand, literally means “...to usher into the presence of royalty.” Maybe we could think of such a thing like this. There you are, in the kitchen of your house, in the summer perhaps. Your daughter comes in to get a cold drink. She opens the door, reaches for it, and takes a drink. Behind her is someone that you have never seen before. So you ask your daughter who he is. If she shrugs her head and says “I have no idea” then my guess is that you will ask him what he is doing in your house and with your daughter! Then you will ask him to leave. But, if on the other hand, your daughter says, “It’s okay, Dad, he’s with me. He’s a new friend who lives up the street” then your tone would change, wouldn’t it? Jesus has asked us to accompany him into His Father’s house with the words, It’s okay, Dad, he’s with me. That is the second promise of this passage.

And then there is the third. Paul says that hope has been given to us and God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Getting to the hope, now that is the challenge. God’s grace is so powerful that even the things that work against confidence and hope only serve to strengthen it because those of us who know about God’s grace know that our sufferings produce endurance. And endurance produces character. And character produces hope, and there are few lines of scripture better than this one, “...hope does not disappoint us.”

So I will never make the major leagues. That is okay. I did not get a call to come when no one else would in the spring of 1995. I did not deserve a place on that team, nor on the one that I am on now. But I am on it and because I am, I hold on to the three promises, peace, a place, and hope. Let us pray.

(Special thanks to Max Lucado for the sermon idea and for a story or two contained in these words).