In the fall of 1986 I was a college freshman away on some spiritual retreat. I had chosen God over the New York Mets because there weren't any TVs around the weekend retreat and my beloved Mets were in the World Series. To make matters worse, I was attending college in Boston, home of the Red Sox who were opposing the Mets.
One evening - I think it was a Saturday evening - I returned to the house where I was staying to catch the end of game six. The Mets were trailing - badly. The pastor and his wife were huge Red Sox fans and left me alone to watch in misery as they went upstairs to celebrate by doing God knows what.
Down to their final strike, the Mets battled back, one hit and another and another and a wild pitch and the game was tied. I was jumping up and down. Upstairs there was pastoral silence. Then there came a little ground ball headed towards first. It was a sure out. But then it was passed the first baseman and the Mets one and upstairs I heard banging and shouts and, perhaps, weeping and gnashing of teeth.
The first baseman, as we all know, was a man named Bill Buckner and he became a living joke for years and years. "You pulled a Buckner" became a real phrase of ridicule.
Today, however, "You pulled a Buckner" means something very different - a phrase of redemption. Watch as Bill Buckner returned to Fenway Park in Boston to throw out the first pitch and watch what redemption. It is hard to see his walk amidst the great applause and not think of the great Biblical images of the prodigal son returning home and the image that all of heaven rejoices when one person decides to walk with Jesus. And it is hard not to imagine what our own walk will look like one day - a walk into the arms of God.
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This reminds me of something my wife said to me once. I was late to get home because of an unavoidable work issue. The fact that it was unavoidable was irrelevant - she was pissed because we were now late for our plans with her family.
After an unbearable 3 hour car ride during which my wife alternated between saying nothing and yelling, we arrived in reasonable fashion and made a go of things. Once we were settled around the dinner table and all was well, she leaned over to me and said, "Now that we made it here, I forgive you."
Well, that represented real forgiveness as much as this scene you linked evidences a meaningful scene of redemption. Buckner only needed to be redeemed because Red Sox fans are a bunch of jerks. The fans are the ones that need redeeming, not Buckner. The past years have been terrible for Buckner because the fans decided to ignore the balance of his accomplishments for one fluke play. The standing ovation was just like my wife leaning and whispering into my ear. "Now that we've won it, Billy, we forgive you."
Give me a break.
And thus it was that Chris didst implicitly refer to his wife as a jerk.
Of course not, but I did call her out on missing the point of forgiveness. She didn't disagree.
David, this was brilliant!! Yes, the Buckner appearance at Fenway was in all the news ... but your analyis (using it to help us imagine the scene of the Prodigal Son returning home) is truly inspired.
Bravo!
This alone redeems you for that dopey Mac/PC look-alike ad (would Jesus choose the slacker or the neat-freak?) which you posted elsewhere. All is forgiven :-)
Will it take you 22 years to forgive Barack Obama for (truthfully) saying Americans are bitter, David?
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