The Chicago Cubs & Victory In Jesus

The Chicago Cubs won the World Series this week.  The fact that I was able to write that sentence is fairly unbelievable.  The last championship the Chicago Cubs won was in 1908.  They came close a couple of times over that 108 year stretch, but never won it all until this week. 

I lived in Chicago long enough to become a Cubs fan.  I've sat in the stands at Wrigley Field on beautiful summer days with a Chicago hot dog in one hand and an Old Style beer in the other.  I have also suffered with Cubs fans every year since as the Cubs always seemed to find a way to let it all fall apart at the end of a season. 

Perhaps there is no greater living Chicago Cubs fan than the actor Bill Murray.  Murray was invited into the Cubs locker room to celebrate with the team after they won Game 7 of the World Series.  "Dreams do come true," he told reporters with tears in his eyes.  

He acknowledged that the Cubs had always been the "Lovable Losers," known for their sportsmanship and class.  And then he said something so insightful, so amazing... 

"The great thing about it is we became such great losers. Good sports. Good losers. I just hope we're good winners. I hope we're good winners. I hope we're just as good sports as winners as when we didn't win. You know what I mean?"

That statement resonated with me for some reason.  I got to thinking about how as Christians we have been granted an incredible victory of sin and death through the Resurrection.  And I also got to thinking about how so often we let that go to our heads. 

I know someone who has some fairly inflated notions about their own holiness.  They have no problem condemning non-Christians, and consider it a duty of sorts to call other Christians on the carpet for all the ways they aren't living "according to the Bible."  

In Isaiah 58, the prophet speaks for the LORD to people who are haughty and going through the motions of faith.  "Is not this the kind of [worship] I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every chain?"  

God is saying, "You were chosen, set apart, given the victory---but you let it go to your head.  You haven't been a good winner.  You need to care about the things I care about." 

May we find ways today to share the victory that we've been given in Christ with a world that so desperately needs to experience it.  May we find the humility to put Christ and the message of the Cross and empty tomb ahead of our own ideas, beliefs, preferences and doctrines.  May we know and show Jesus to the world. 

And may the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you now and always. Amen.