Brack-ra-mental Theology

While these are my picks, I promise they won't all be right!

Let the MADNESS BEGIN! Of course, if you have been a dutiful Lenten pilgrim you have already been engaging in holy madness for a month now by participating in Lent Madness. With all due respect to the play-in games and Lent Madness, today a nation-sweeping, productivity-ruining madness starts as the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament gets underway. How many games into the tournament will your bracket remain flawless? How much money will the United States economy lose due to workers watching these games over the next three weeks? ($134 million in the first two days alone?) Will anyone pick every game correctly due to selecting their favorite mascot, team color, or the most attractive coach? What does any of this have to do with our relationship with God or each other? Wait, what?

I hear the groans and sighs all the way through the internet, as you are thinking, "Why do you have to turn everything into something related to God? Can't you just let a basketball tournament be a basketball tournament?" In short, NO! Sorry friends, but even in the mundane I tend to find the magnificence of the Divine. March Madness is no exception.

Before going any further though, I need to attempt to operationally define the word sacrament.The good ol' Book of Common Prayer states, "The sacraments are outward and visible signs of inward
and spiritual grace, given by Christ as sure and certain means by which we receive that grace" (BCP, 857). Bread and wine are not just signs of Christ's Body and Blood respectively, they are the way that the people of God receive Christ's Body. It is all very trippy because in that moment Christ's Body (the Church) is receiving Christ's Body (the Body/Bread and the Blood/Wine). As one of my professors from seminary would say, "RAD!" And, yes, it is rad. Yet, let's keep going.

Most good Protestant Christians will quickly site two Sacraments that Jesus passed on to us in his earthly ministry: Baptism and Communion. Most good Catholics will add on five additional Sacraments: Confirmation, Penance, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders (Ordination), and Matrimony. Some Protestants still believe these "extra" five are sacramental, even if they are not strictly seen as Sacraments. This gets me to the kicker... er, since we are in basketball season, the shooter. If these outward and visible signs are signs and means of grace, what is to stop us from thinking about other things in life like this? Jesus never had a cup of java, but isn't sharing coffee and a muffin with a good friend somewhat sacramental? The Jewish people have a tradition of saying every table is an altar. All meals can thus be seen as sacramental. Taking a walk, calling a dying family member, seeing a baby born... the sacramental moments in life are countless. Maybe it even extends to filling out these dumb March Madness brackets.

A lot of people will not be working today. A lot of business analysts will say this is a very bad thing. I tend to see the grace in the lack of productivity. For a few days we all have something in common, we all have something to talk about together. Whether we are picking the teams with the prettiest colors or are trying to use advanced metrics to select the winners we are all glued to our computer screens hoping that our brackets do not bust too much. And yet, it is not really about who wins the office pool to me. I am much more interested in seeing the grace that we receive by having something that brings us all together to see just how much we all have in common with one another. Yet, do not just stop by seeing your brackets as sacramental (brack-ra-mental) push further to find that every ounce of life is dripping with the presence of Our God. March is not just about Madness it's also about Holiness.