Showing up speaks volumes

Will Bud Selig show up? This question has sports TV and radio talking heads spinning. Barry Bonds is poised to break the career home run record in major league baseball soon. The current record is held by Hank Aaron, who last hit a roundtripper in 1974. Bonds' soon-to-be-accomplishment would be noteworthy in the best of circumstances. However, since it is widely assumed that Bonds used performance-enhancing drugs (read: steroids), his coming coronation as home-run king yields a tarnished crown. It appears that nearly everywhere outside of San Francisco, where the 43-year-old slugger toils for the Giants in left field, he is regarded as a cheater.

Selig, the commissioner of baseball, has not said for certain whether he will attend. "I have a day job," was his evasive answer this week when asked if he would show up to see Bonds break Aaron's record. We don't have to be Selig's tongue to realize that baseball's head man has a sour taste in his mouth about the whole Bonds business.

In 1961, then-commissioner Ford Frick refused to show up to see Roger Maris break Babe Ruth's single-season home run record. Frick's failure to attend spoke volumes.

Showing up says a great deal. Thomas More refused to show up at the coronation of Anne Boleyn as queen in 1533; while keeping a public silence about his nonattendance, More's failure to show up was widely (and correctly) interpreted as displeasure with King Henry VIII's actions.

Imagine how many people wanted Jesus of Nazareth to show up somewhere. The natural conclusion is that his very attendance would constitute a stamp of approval, an endorsement.

Jesus showed up once at a wedding. John 2:1-11 reveals that Jesus attended a wedding at Cana, a village northeast of his hometown of Nazareth. He didn't officiate but was invited and went. While there, he performed his first miracle, the changing of water into wine to allow the reception to proceed normally. As was his wont, Jesus turned the miracle into an opportunity to teach.

In the aforementioned case, showing up displayed Jesus' approval of the activity -- namely, a wedding. Approval, though, is not always conveyed by showing up.

If I had 10 minutes with Bud Selig, I would point this out. You see, in the story that immediately follows the Cana wedding tale, Jesus shows up somewhere else and condemns what he is seeing. In this story, in John 2:12-16, Jesus arrives at the temple courts in Jerusalem where money was being exchanged. No doubt he was welcomed warmly. Upset by the thievery occurring before his eyes, he condemned the moneychangers and overturned their tables.

Bud Selig could do his day job and still show up. If he is displeased by the record being broken, there are several ways for him to show it (e.g., don't applaud when Bonds breaks the record. Or applaud but don't stand up. Or stand up and turn his back to the field. This last option is a bit much; Bonds has never failed a steroid test. Strong suspicion is not empirical evidence.)

Jesus' life displayed integrity. Simply showing up didn't necessarily mean he approved. If he didn't approve, he said so. Somehow it seems Jesus knew that people would draw their own conclusions if he didn't make an appearance. I hope Mr. Selig, who has shown several examples of integrity during his 15 years as baseball's head man, shows up and does his day job as the primary ambassador for an embattled sport. I hope he attends the inevitable and soon-coming record-breaking game and speaks his mind -- or at least allow his body language to speak for him.

Jeff Long is pastor of Centenary United Methodist Church in Cape Girardeau. Married with two daughters, he is of Scots and Swedish descent, loves movies and is a lifelong fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers.