The Learning Community

This past Monday I spent the day interviewing various church members about the lessons God has taught them through the years on various subjects.  The result of these interviews will be several videos we are having produced to show at various times throughout our Words of Wisdom series through the book of Proverbs.

Listening to their amazing stories and the accumulated wisdom of their many years of walking with Christ reinforced my conviction that one of the most compelling reasons for our regular gathering is that when we come together we draw from a deep well of experience, knowledge and wisdom that exists within the church family.  We regularly gather because that's what the Bible instructs us to do.   But more than that we gather because we are strengthened by one another and because we learn from one another.

I have my own experience to draw from her.  In a very real sense,  I was not only raised in the church, but was raised BY the church.  By that I mean the relationships I developed by attending church with my family reinforced the biblical principles I was taught in the home.  Not only did I learn the Bible didactically within the church but also experientially by the way people lived around me.

This is what we mean when we say biblical community is an important discipline of the faith.  The community of grace is an environment of dynamic learning from cradle to grave.

But you cannot be passive in the process, you have to dedicate yourself to involvement.  The growth process is enhanced as we go to church habitually, and when we serve and actively pursue relationships with other believers.  One of the great benefits of being a part of a large body of believers is the eclectic variety of influences and accumulated wisdom around you and your family.

I believe this is one of the most important reasons that Jesus gave us the church and that God called us into faith community.  To further reinforce this point, take just a minute to watch this slice of the interview John Ortberg did with Christian scholar, philosopher and head of the University of Southern California School of Philosophy Dallas Willard recently at Menlo Park Church in San Francisco California:


John Ortberg and Dallas Willard from MPPC on Vimeo.

How To Forgive An Umpire

Umpire Jim Joyce blew the call.  It was made painfully obvious with each replay on Detroit's Comerica Park's Jumbo Tron.  It was one of those moments umpires would give anything to get back- like a scene from the Southwest Airlines commercial, "Wanna get away?"


Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga had been nursing a perfect game against divisional rival Cleveland and this was his last pitch.


The crowd was practically apoplectic in anticipation of only the 21st such game in Major League Baseballs illustrious history.   They were on their feet cheering wildly as Jason Donald hit a weak grounder between first and second and the routine play was easily made to first base.  Donald was out by a full step and everyone knew it.  Everyone that is except umpire Jim Joyce who emphatically and enthusiastically made the wrong call.  


One second he was just another major league umpire, the next he is eternally and notoriously enshrined in baseball trivia.  


He didn't know it for certain until after the game when he watched the play on a monitor in his dressing room.  He was so upset by what he saw that he couldn't shower.  He felt sick at his stomach.  And in a rare admission for a big league umpire  he made his way to the Detroit locker room and asked Tiger's manager Dave Dombrowski if he could apologize to Galarraga.  


He gave the pitcher a hug and told him he wished he had it back.   "He felt really bad"  Galarraga said.   


Every now and then something emerges in popular culture that serves as a striking example of a deep truth of biblical teaching.  One such example occurred the next afternoon when the two teams faced each other again and umpire Joyce was at the plate.  


Dombrowski sent Galaraga out to sign the lineup card and to shake Joyce's hand to begin the game.  With cameras rolling the two men met, and in a terrific display of maturity and grace Galaraga patted the shamed umpire on the shoulder as a way of saying "all is forgiven."   Dombrowski wiped tears from his eyes in accepting the remarkable gesture of forgiveness.  


Galarraga may never get another chance to throw a perfect game.  But what he did on that home plate the day after the blown call that robbed him of it will go down as something almost as perfect and noteworthy.  In a culture where hating umpires is a religious rite and blaming others for every little thing that goes wrong is an art form, what the world saw at home plate stood as a shining example of civility and class.  


Would to God that little league parents across America were paying attention.  


It reminded me of Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 about the inevitable injustices we all face from time to time:

"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven."

The Bible teaches that as Christians we are to be good forgivers because we are all partakers of the ultimate forgiveness that God offers through His atoning work on the cross:

"Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you." Col. 3:13

As Christians we are set free from our anger and bitterness by a lifestyle of forgiveness.  In other words, because of what Jesus did, we can all "shake it off" and move on.  We live with these two realities: 

• Unfair things will happen.  The wrong calls will be made and injustice will adversely affect our hard work.  The world is fallen and as a result rain falls on those who deserve it and on those who don't.  Until Christ comes to make things right, life will always be unfair.
• When we bear a grudge we destroy ourselves.  The Bible says "Be angry and sin not."  Anger about injustice is normal, but to live in perpetual anger is sinful and destructive.  

So the forgiveness prominently displayed at Comerica stadium last week is a shining example of this important biblical principle- that we are not just to occasionally and begrudgingly forgive, but that we are to live our lives in a perpetual state of forgiving.   I know it seems hard to pull off in an unjust world with blown calls and blind umpires.  But when we consider how truly undeserving we are of His grace, how could we live any other way?

Hats off to Jim Joyce for being man enough to admit he blew it.  And hats off to Galarraga for giving us a great picture of how a real man forgives.