Joe D

Joe D.

When Joe DiMaggio died last month, there was one word that people said or wrote over and over again. The President said it, so did the Vice President. The word spilled itself all over the pages of "USA TODAY." It leapt from the word processors of writers Jon Saraceno and Chuck Johnson. It fell from the lips of New York lawyer Russell Frackman while dining in Manhattan. GRACE. That was the word. Joe D. and grace forever linked. Like love and marriage, like horse and buggy, you can't say one without the other.

The tributes spread themselves thick all over the media. "It was as if a president had died," said one commentator. A caller from Queens spoke of this tremendous radiation" Joe D. gave off. Ken Burns spoke of his invisible force field," while sportswriters wrote of his "mystery," and his "grace for the ages." "His base running was a memory to take home," said one observer. Earnest Hemmingway wrote about him in "The Old Man and the Sea." Two singers for two separate generations sang of him.

In 1941, Les Brown's recording of "Joltin' Joe DiMaggio" proved to be a musical prophecy:
"He'll live in baseball's Hall of Fame. He got there blow-by-blow. Our kids will tell their kids his name, Joltin' Joe DiMaggio."
Twenty-six years later, and for another generation, Simon and Garfunkel sang:

"Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you."

Say "Joe D." and forever there will be that one word, "grace."

I wonder, what do people say when they hear the word "church?" Ask. You'll hear interesting word associations: "holier than thous," "morality," "right wing," or "Republican" are some of the responses. In a survey of university students, cry a river over these replies when they answered the question, "What comes to mind when you hear the words 'evangelical Christian?'"

"People who nag you;" "going to church;" "Bible bashing;" "over zealous;" "someone who doesn't do anything wrong;" "religious;" and "something forced on the Indians." As the coup de Gras, one girl said, "They make me ill." Good grief! Our message is as garbled as Day One on the Tower of Babel.

But why doesn't "grace" leap into people's minds? Could it be that they've tuned in and then tuned out when they've heard some of our "important" discussions? Could it be they've heard it said that movies are forbidden, even "The Sound of Music?" Maybe it's that they've heard that there's this unofficial dress code that stands there with ruler and mirror in hand to make sure that hem lines and three piece sartorial splendor measure up. Maybe they've gotten in on the "crucial" issue of the great hair length debate, or heard about the importance of sneakers versus dress shoes, and listened to people agonize over pants, culottes, or dresses. Add to that a critique of the color red and the inappropriateness of turtleneck sweaters and you have a list that has generated more in-your-face debate than a U. N. meeting.

Say, "evangelical Christian," and people will most likely associate the words with the Moral Majority, with proposals for censoring the Internet, or with anti-abortion activists. Do they ever associate the word with grace?

If there were a mythical listener hearing churches stridently taking up issues over the last 300 years, he'd have heard paint-peeling discussions of the wearing of buttons on shirts, of the color red, of the reading of novels, and of the evils of the piano. (Surely, God must have a sense of humor to have put up with all this.) If a mythical reader would read all the rules and rule books produced by churches over the last 300 years, how long would it take him, provided he had both the stamina and the stomach to do so? But would our mythical hearer have heard much about grace? Yes, probably, but the question is, would he have seen much of it? He'd have most likely heard people talking the talk about grace during the invitation on Sundays, but he wouldn't have seen or experienced much of it walking its walk on Mondays.

What's the force field of the church? Shouldn't it be grace? What's the aura of the church? Shouldn't it be grace? Do we hear anybody saying, "The grace I experienced at church last Sunday was a memory to take home?" Someone wrote that Joe DiMaggio had the aspect of a Greek god. Shouldn't we sense in believers that there's this aspect of the biblical God of grace about them?

Those who watched Joe D. play saw something special, so special that their kids would tell their kids his name, Joltin' Joe DiMaggio. Could it be in our church that our kids will tell their kids about some place special, about this special lush, green patch of grace?

…Mike Halsey, Pastor

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