The Infinite Game

The sermon preached by Fr. Ernie on July 9, 2023

Let me ask you: have you ever noticed how there are some people who are just never satisfied? Jesus did. He makes that clear in today’s Gospel: Look how people respond to me in comparison with John the Baptist, he says. Here we are, about as different as two people can be. John the Baptist lived alone in the dessert. His clothes were ragged, and he ate practically nothing. As a result, most people avoided him. They thought he was crazy. They called him a demon. But then I come eating and drinking, and socializing with everyone — even those who most people saw as sinners — and how do people respond? They reject me, calling me a glutton and a drunkard. They miss the point entirely. They can’t see what I’m doing. What I’m offering them is actually very simple. It’s something even little children can understand, but these people, who see themselves as so “wise and intelligent,” just don’t get it. I’m trying to ease their burden. I’m trying to get them to let go of all the baggage they’re carrying, but they just don’t see it. They turn away.

That, in paraphrase, is what Jesus is saying to us today. The question is, what exactly does he mean by this? What is it that the “wise and intelligent” don’t see but which even little children can grasp? …You know, I think I may have found a possible answer. I came across it in a book I read recently. The book’s called “Finite and Infinite Games.” It’s a strange book really — strange but fascinating.  It basically says that there are two approaches to life. You can see it as either a finite game or an infinite game.

People who see life as a finite game are always trying to get ahead. They judge everyone they meet as either a winner or a loser, and they themselves want to be among the winners and will do everything in their power to get there. They’re very serious about this too which means that this is not a game they’re playing for fun. They have too much at stake. It’s is a grim, cut-throat game. You see people like this everywhere. They’re the ones at work who are always playing office politics, for example, the ones who spend their time spreading rumors. undermining others, and maneuvering for better positions. They constantly judge people and put them down. They see other people as simply competition and are out to get the better of them. In other words, they’re just out for themselves. Have you met people like that? I have.

The alternative to this is to see life as an infinite game, not a finite one. People who do this are not out to “get ahead” but to help others. They’re not out to push their way past everyone else in order to get to the top, but to include others as much as possible. They work to bring people together in order to make everyone’s life richer. They don’t complete, they include. They don’t judge, they listen. They don’t put down, they embrace. For them, life is more than just the span of one lifetime too. They see all this as something far, far bigger than just them. It started long before any of us got here were here and will continue long after we are gone. It is in fact eternal, and we are part of that eternity.

I know that all this sounds very abstract. So, let me tell you about something that happened to me in high school that this book reminded me of. The memory came back to me because it seemed to me a small example of what the book is talking about, a glimpse into what Jesus meant in today’s gospel. It’s a memory, of all things, of a baseball game.

Now, I should say right from the start that I have always loved baseball. I love it so much in fact that I might have even been tempted to try a career as a professional ball player except for one thing: I’m terrible at it. …Well, maybe not actually terrible. It’s just that I can never hit the ball. Never. I can catch the ball, though. Or at least I can catch it more often than I could hit it. I catch it at least 50% of the time, so you see, I do have some ability, although for some reason that ability was never fully appreciated by the other boys in my gym classes. In fact, it was so little appreciated that I was always the last one picked whenever they were choosing sides. That was bad, but what was really humiliating was that I was also often used to balance someone of real talent, so that if one team got a player who was really, really good, they’d have to take me too to counteract the advantage. Now thathurt.

It was especially bad on the days when there were too many boys in the gym class that there could be as many as 20 guys on each side. Even then I’d always be the last one chosen. This was the case on the day I’m thinking of, a tenth grade gym class. I waited as the team leader, Larry Reagan, divided us all up into different positions. After choosing those for the infield, Larry set about assigning the outfield. There were so many boys that left field, center field and right field all got three players each. Even then there were still unassigned boys, so Larry began to tell those who remained to take position in what he called “deep left field, deep center field, or deep right field.” Larry did that until only I remained. Then he turned to me, closed his eyes and sighed.

“Where would you like me,” I asked to encourage him.

“You know what, Ernie,” he said, his eyes glinting, “I have a very special position just for you. I want you to play deep, deep right field.”

I jogged out past the first group of right fielders, then took a position past the second group of right fielders and turned around.

Larry was still watching me. “No, Ernie,’ he called, “further out.” I jogged a little further. “No, Ernie,” he called again, “way, way, way out.”

By the time I finally got where he wanted me, the game was in the far, far distance. All the others were just a tiny figures. They were so far away that I could barely hear them calling to each other. For a while I watched and tried to follow what was happening, but they really seemed to be almost in another world, so I began to look around.

It was really such a beautiful day, a bright sun, a deep blue sky. The sounds of the birds were much louder than that of the distant players. I walked around a bit, and noticed how thick and tall the grass was, and such a dark rich green. That’s when I noticed the dandelions. These little yellow flowers were the bane of lawns in this region. They appeared every spring, and could quickly take over a yard. Homeowners hated them, but as I looked around I thought that they were really quite lovely. And there were so many of them. They were everywhere really.

I walked over and picked one and studied at it.

‘Why are these flowers considered weeds,’ I wondered. “They’re really quite beautiful. Was it just because they’re so hardy and pop up everywhere? How foolish,’ I thought. I bent to pick another, then another, and another. As I did I slipped them in the glove on my left hand. I studied the result. I thought the flowers looked rather nice arranged inside my baseball glove, so I took it off and began to walk around collecting enough to fill it. I completely absorbed in this when something else caught my attention. Far in the distance I thought I heard someone calling my name.

“Errrrnnnnniiiiieeeee.”

Who sould be calling to me? I wondered. I had by then completely forgotten the game of course, so I pivoted and looked back, squinting to see the tiny figures in the distance. For some reason they had all turned to me.

“Errrrnnnnnniiiiiieeee,” they called again. They were all pointing up in the sky, so I looked up. It took me a moment to find it, but there — far, far up — was a tiny, white ball and it coming towards me. Had someone actually hit that? I wondered. It seemed incredible, but there it was. I was coming right towards me too.  

Never taking my eyes from the ball, I ran to get under it as I quickly slipped my glove back on my hand. It took only a few steps forward and to the side to get beneath it, and there it was. It was coming right towards me. I swelled with excitement. This was going to be easy. It was right there. I raised my glove over my head to catch it and as I did nearly four dozen dandelions fell into my face causing me to jerk back as an instant later the ball thudded to the ground at my feet.

From then on I was known as the Dandelion Kid, and that was it for baseball career.

And yet, somehow, I never regretted what happened that day, because it showed me just how beautiful the world can be when you are not caught up in competition. It showed me, in other words, the truth of the infinite game, the truth that Jesus was pointing to. Don’t get me wrong. I still love baseball. I’m going to a game of the San Jose Giants next week in fact. And there is no reason why people who play the infinite game can’t play or watch sports too — or play any other game for that matter — but Jesus’ point is that life is not about winners or losers. We are all included. It’s not a competition. We are all there to help everyone else. No one is there for themself alone. And in this case, play is truly playful. That’s because God is in charge which means that we don’t have to struggle to get ahead. Instead, we can let go of their fears and worries and put it all in God’s hands. This is what Jesus trying to tell us. 

“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest,” he says. In other words, let go and let God. And while you’re at it, look around and see what a wonderful world this truly is. And be playful while you’re at it. We all did this as a child, but since then we may have forgotten how to do that. We need to relearn what we once knew. It’s so simple really. As Jesus says in Luke: “Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? If you cannot do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.” What’s true of the lilies of the field is true of dandelions too. And true of us. It’s true of everything in fact. It’s all part of the infinite game. AMEN.

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