Defined By One Act?

Defined by One Act?

A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Randy K. Hammer – June 23, 2019

Genesis 3:1-19; 2 Corinthians 11:1-3 NKJV

If you are a follower of baseball, then you probably know that major league baseball player Bill Buckner died in May at the age of 69 after battling Lewy Body Dementia disease.  Buckner’s career spanned 22 years, from 1969-1990.  He played for five major league teams, including the Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago Cubs, and the Boston Red Sox. 

However, Bill Buckner will be most remembered for one act that affected the rest of his life.  In the 1986 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and New York Mets, Buckner let a ground ball slip between his legs in the 10^th inning of a tie game.  The error resulted in a devastating 6-5 loss for the Red Sox.  Because of that one error, Buckner became “Public Enemy No. 1 in Boston,” and it had a profound impact on him for the rest of his life.  Thousands of people booed him, and some even threatened his life.  Buckner’s life was forever defined by that one error, that one mistake, that could have been made by anyone.  More about Buckner in a moment.

But turning to the scriptures, enter the saga of Eve, the mother of all living.  Now, whether we believe that Eve was an actual historical person, along with her husband Adam, or whether the Garden of Eden story is interpreted as being symbolic or metaphorical and Adam and Eve are archetypal characters created to make a deeper point, is something that each of us must decide for ourselves.  Regardless, Eve, as a character familiar to people all over the world, in the three major religions of the world at least, she is pretty much defined by one act – her disobedience in eating the forbidden fruit.  Consequently, all the problems of the world – pain during childbirth, having to sweat in the hot sun, fighting pests and thorns and thistles for food, suffering, pain and ultimately death – are all blamed upon Eve and her one act of indiscretion, at least as the biblical story has it.  I have even heard women blame the severe monthly pains that some women suffer upon Eve: this is all Eve’s fault! I have heard it said.

In 2 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul warns the Corinthian Christians to not let themselves be led astray and corrupted, citing Eve’s mistake as an example and warning.  In fact, Eve is referred to only two times in the New Testament (2 Cor. 11:3 and 1 Timothy 2:14), that I could find, anyway, and both times she is spoken of negatively because of her one defining act of “disobedience” in eating the forbidden fruit. 

And in the annals of Christian systematic theology, an elaborate theological system of thought is built upon Eve’s one defining act, resulting in the so-called “Fall of Man” and “Original Sin” doctrines, necessitating redemption and salvation.  What would St. Augustine and John Calvin have had to write about had it not been for the story of Eve’s transgression in the Garden? I wonder.  And I cannot help but wonder what form or fashion the Christian religion might have taken had the story of Eve’s indiscretion in eating the forbidden fruit not been written or had not made it into the Bible!

At any rate, when I heard the Bill Buckner story, and how his life was pretty much defined by one act, by one error in life, it got me to thinking and asking some questions.  The truth is, all of us make mistakes.  None of us are error free, are we?  Haven’t we all fumbled the ball of life at one time or another, figuratively speaking?  Haven’t we all had a lapse in judgment at some point?  Haven’t all of us, when being pressured to make an important split-second decision, ended up making the wrong decision?  Bill Buckner’s error could have been made by any baseball player.  If every baseball thrown resulted in a homerun or base hit, even, and if every baseball struck by a bat were caught and resulted in an out, baseball would be a pretty boring game, wouldn’t it?

But as Buckner realized, one person doesn’t lose a World Series game.  All of the strikeouts and ball fumbles that preceded Buckner’s fumble played a role in the Boston Red Sox losing that pivotal World Series game.  But no one pointed a finger at the other players who may have failed to hit a homerun when they stepped into the batter’s box, or who failed to catch the ball when it came their way.  All of this is to say that sometimes the errors in judgment we make are based upon, connected to, or influenced by the errors of others that come before us.  We are all in this game of life together, and none of us lives our life in isolation or a vacuum.

Another truth, following the previous one, that jumped out at me in considering the Bill Buckner story is that we should be slow to judge others for the errors they make.  To paraphrase Jesus, let him who is without error shout the first boo!  Remember and correct the errors in your own life before you condemn others for the errors in their lives. 

But such is not always so easy, is it?  It is much easier to see the errors that others make than the errors we make ourselves, isn’t it?

Yet another truth that occurred to me as I reflected upon Buckner’s story is that when we do fumble the ball in life, we shouldn’t let that destroy us.  Bill Buckner didn’t let his unwanted label destroy his life.  Whatever happened to Bill Buckner? some of you may be wondering.  In spite of the fact that Bill Buckner’s one defining error had a profound impact upon the rest of his life, he did not let it define him.  Buckner said, “At some point you have to realize that it’s just a game, even if people don’t understand that one person doesn’t lose the World Series.”  During his career Buckner won the National League batting title in 1980 with a .324 average.  In 1981 he was named to the All-Star team.  He never struck out more than 39 times in any major league baseball season.  And he finished his major league career with 2,715 hits.  Fortunately, Boston Red Sox fans gradually made their peace with Buckner.  After a World Series victory in 2007, Buckner threw out the first pitch for the 2008 season at Fenway Park and was greeted with a four-minute ovation.¹  Buckner was able to rise above his one defining error and public opinion and continue on with his life.

Another sports legend – football coach Vince Lombardi – said, “It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.”  And looking at life from a Christian perspective, Brother Giles, who was a close companion of St. Francis of Assisi, said, “God’s power to forgive is greater than your power to sin.”

So, in the end, we have to give place for grace – grace for others and grace for ourselves.  We do well in being slow to condemn others for the errors they make.  As the old saying goes, “There but for the grace of God go I.”  Grace as such is like erasing the error someone makes from the big scorebook of life, realizing that had I been in their shoes, I could have committed the same error too.

And we shouldn’t be too hard on ourselves either.  We also do well to remember that we all make errors; we all fumble the ball of life occasionally.  But may we not let that one error of life of the past, that we may regret and that may gnaw at us, define us or rob us of future success or happiness.  Because as the Bill Buckner story shows us, life is more – so much more – than one defining act.  Amen.

¹Material on Bill Buckner taken from “Bill Buckner, a batting champion infamous for World Series gaffe, dies at 69,” by Steve Gardner, USA TODAY, May 27, 2019.