Arguing Outs
God’s grace is free but not cheap, so while arguing who is out and who is safe might be a pastime of the church, it is not the Good News of Christ.
I spend most of my weekday nights and weekends coaching baseball throughout the summer. Baseball is my favorite season of the year. From the sights and sounds and the liturgy to the gamesmanship required to play over 160 or five games during a weekend tournament, baseball requires attention to what is happening directly in front of you, along with what might happen later in the game or season.
One of the parts of baseball that grinds my gears (and a part of the game that I am unfortunately guilty of) is arguing over strikes, balls, and outs. When I am coaching my son’s teams, and a player is involved in a play at any base, inevitably, the nine-year-old will look up at the umpire and argue that they were, in fact, safe even when they were out by a mile (or more).
“Out!” the umpire will shout, and without skipping a beat, the player will look up in utter disgust and plead their case.
Yes, there are times when umpires make mistakes, and in most leagues, there is an appeal and review process for attempting to correct this error. But I will tell you, like my players, sometimes umpires make mistakes.
A perfect example is when MLB Umpire Jim Joyce blew a call at first base, ending a perfect game for pitcher Armando Galaraga.
Who is safe and who is out is something Christians attempt to argue with one another ad nauseam.
Who is saved, and who is not?
Who is out, and who is in when it comes to Heaven?
Many of these arguments, especially those about who is out, are based on proof-texting (taking a biblical text out of context or reading what you want the reader to say).
I have never been interested in the argument over who is out, so I do not quite understand the fascination with determining who is out when Jesus’ ministry was about drawing all people to him so that no one would miss out on the grace of God.
The late Robert Capon made the point that grace is for losers. He wrote, “Grace doesn’t sell; you can hardly give it away because it works only for losers, and no one wants to be a loser. The world of winners will buy case lots of moral advice, grosses of guilt-edged propositions, skids of self-improvement techniques, and whole truckloads of transcendental hot air. But it will not buy free forgiveness because that threatens to let the riff-raff into the Supper of the Lamb.”
Or, as Fleming Rutledge put it, “Whenever we are sure that we are among the righteous, we immediately find ourselves among the arrogant.”
God’s grace is free but not cheap, so while arguing who is out and who is safe might be a pastime of the church, it is not the Good News of Christ. 1 Peter makes the point that the re-righting of creation, the righteousness required by God of all people, has been accomplished “once for all.” “For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.”
Because the grace of God abounds, we are free from the weight and guilt of blown calls at first, what we say about ourselves, and what we say about others. Because of God’s grace, we are free from the weight and guilt of our sins.
In a 2020 interview about the blown call in Detroit, MLB Umpire Jim Joyce said, “I don’t want to be known as Jim Joyce, the guy that blew the perfect game. But I think that’s inevitable.”
After reviewing the video replay, Joyce is overcome with emotion and grief. He ripped his uniform off his body and began to pace around the umpire’s locker room. Colleagues tried to console him, telling him he needed to move past the call. The Tigers’ General Manager, Dave Dombrowski, visited with Joyce, but Joyce wants to meet with one person, Tigers’ pitcher Armando Galaraga.
Galaraga walks into the umpire’s locker room, hugs Joyce, and says, “We are all human.”
That’s grace.
Similar to Job, we may feel the need to rip our own clothes, wear sackcloth, and cover ourselves in dust and ashes. But (and it is a big but so you know it does not lie) the only thing we need to be covered in is that which already covers us and anyone we believe to be out.
When the world is screaming at you, telling you that you are not worthy because of what you have done or what you’ve gotten wrong or left undone, God’s grace says, “Think again.”
Arguing about who is out and who is safe when it comes to God is as useless as my preteen baseball players arguing they were safe because when it comes to God, Jesus has already made the call. The judge took our judgment upon himself and declares us righteous and free.