The Problem with Miracles (Bot9 #360)
I love thinking about that 2004 Red Sox season. Each guy on that team fit perfectly into a niche which allowed the team to thrive. The chemistry of “The Idiots” made them enjoyable to watch. Yet to achieve that chemistry, the front office took some risks; the biggest of which trading Nomar Garciaparra on July 31. I had loved Nomar, having watched he and Jason Varitek play in the College World Series for Georgia Tech in my first visit to Omaha (the CWS at Rosenblatt still the single best sporting event I have attended live). But in order to achieve the team’s goal of overcoming the Yankees after losing to them in 2003, they did whatever it took.
The ALCS took place on my fall break that year and my wife and I traveled to Orlando. It was Disney during the day, and playoff baseball at night. The lowest moment was, of course, October 16 when the Red Sox lost 19-8, putting them down 3-0 for the series. I spent most of that debacle browsing earlier versions of the internet (it was way harder back then to find this kind of information, just trust me on this one) for the total salary of each team and wondering how in the world scales that were so clearly unfair could possibly tip back towards the Red Sox.
Enter the miracle and the story of the only team in baseball history to overcome a 3-0 deficit in a series to date. First a 12-inning win followed by a 14-inning win, both of which made my Disney engagement the following morning quite groggy. Then the bloody sock game followed by a dominant win in game seven. From there, the Cardinals didn’t have a chance and the Red Sox would win their first World Series in 85 years (1919-2004).
Being that it’s the only time in baseball history that this kind of deficit has been overcome, I think it’s okay to call it a baseball version of a miracle. But the problem with such miracle is that they only happen once to one group of people.
This past week, I took my family went to Europe. It was my first time in the country and one of our stops was a castle and church tour in Bavaria near Fussen. On that tour, I got to see where two extraordinary things happened, some would even call them miracles.
The first was in the Pilgrimage Church of Wies. According to history, tears were seen on an ignored, dilapidated wooden figure of Christ. This led to a rush of people coming to see the statue. Over the course of the next 15 years, a much larger chapel (the one I saw) was constructed to accommodate the Christian pilgrimages coming to this small farm area. Even to this day there are only a few people living in the village, but people come in droves to see the place where this extraordinary miracle took place. The pictures above show the church, the figure, and a painting depicting the pilgrimages coming from all directions to see the miracle.
The second was in the village of Oberammergau, Bavaria, Germany. As the story goes, the bubonic plague was ravaging Bavaria. Oberammergau saw half of their 160 residents die. On October 28, 1633, the villagers made a vow to God where they pledged to perform a play highlighting the passion of Christ every 10 years. No one died of plague in the village after that vow and the villagers have been performing the play since 1634. The Bavarians will tell important stories on the side of their buildings like the one pictured above showing the play and the town leaders writing their vow.
Now, in general, I don’t have an issue with using miracles as an expression of one’s faith. The trouble comes if that’s what we’re constantly needing or using as the only thing that “proves” the existence of God, our faith becomes shallow. We should take a lesson from the secularization of Europe and pay particular attention to their historic need for such miraculous events to continue to walk in faith. Looking for God to do something this big all of the time simply gives us an opportunity to blame Him when He doesn’t come through and walk away from faith.
I’ve found so many other opportunities to walk out my faith on a daily basis and I hope to continue to share those in ways that both encourage and embolden faith in others. As cool as the Red Sox in 2004, an inanimate statue shedding tears, and miraculous protection coming in the form of a deal made by villagers all are, there are so many daily opportunities to learn, pray, write, meditate, celebrate and create. The more we learn into those opportunities, the less we rely on or need a big miracle to use as the focal point of our faith.