Sunday Morning In The Chapel

TigerBlog remembers a lot of Tuesday night Ivy League basketball games.

They involved Princeton and Penn, and they were either near the halfway point or on the last night of the season. In fact it was a rarity for a long time when Princeton and Penn would play on a Saturday.

Wednesdays? That's another story. TB can't remember any Wednesday league games. Maybe there have been some and they're just slipping his mind?

Whether or not Princeton has ever had a Wednesday Ivy League game before, there is definitely one tonight. It's a big one too, in New York City, where the Princeton women will take on Columbia this evening. Tip-off is at 5, and the game can be seen on ESPNU.

The stakes on this one are pretty simple. Princeton is 11-0. Columbia is 10-1. Every other team has at least five league losses. 

If Princeton wins, it clinches at least a tie for the Ivy title and the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Ivy tournament. If Columbia wins, there'll be a tie at the top with two games to play.

Princeton and Columbia are meeting on a Wednesday because of a postponement of their originally scheduled Jan. 7 game due to Covid issues. Princeton dominated the first meeting between the teams, winning by a 57-39 count. You can be sure Columbia has learned something from that meeting and will be a different team this time around. You can also be sure Princeton knows that and will be ready as well.

It's a wildly busy time for Princeton Athletics, with winter championships to be won and spring teams who are getting underway. It's a whole weekend of huge events across the board.

Still, TigerBlog would be remiss if he didn't share with you what he experienced Sunday morning in the Princeton University chapel.

TB has seen pretty much everything through all his years with Princeton Athletics, or at least he thought so until Sunday. That's when he saw Ford Family Director of Athletics John Mack deliver the sermon during the chapel's weekly Sunday service.

Mack's father was a longtime minister, and John took over for him at their church in Michigan after he passed away several years ago. His turn on the pulpit Sunday morning was hardly his first time doing so, that much was clear.

It was also clear that he has a gift for speaking. If you've heard him speak at all since he became the AD back in September, whether it was in a small meeting or in front of a large group, then you know what TB means.

To be a public speaker is one thing. To grab an entire congregation the way he did Sunday morning is quite another, though. 

As TB watched him, he couldn't but think back to what it must have been like on March 13, 1960, when Dr. Martin Luther King gave the sermon from the same spot, telling an overflow crowd that "an outward concern for the welfare of others" should be a defining characteristic of life.

This past Sunday TB looked around at the incredible building, seeing the beautiful stained glass, the marvelous architecture, the glorious columns. It's almost like the echoes of Dr. King are still up in the rafters there somewhere, and there on the elevated stage Sunday was John Mack, doing his best to honor the standard that was once set there.

Mack was nothing short of mesmerizing. He spoke about a verse from the Book of Genesis, one that included this passage:

And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked?

TigerBlog is hardly a biblical scholar in the least. He'd never read that particular verse before, and he won't pretend to be the most informed as to its meaning.

Mack explained that its significance is that it speaks not to the fact that Adam had done the opposite of what he'd been instructed but instead to the idea of who told him he had done wrong. He then went on to speak about it more modern terms, about how so many people allow outside factors to determine their worth, rather than to simply feel worthy in who they are. 

There are applications to the world of athletics, of course. Did you win? Did you do your best? Can you be satisfied with winning if you haven't done your best? Must you feel badly about losing if you did?

Beyond the words themselves, there was the delivery. It was powerful. It was moving, even for someone like TB, who is not a very religious or spiritual person.

It was quite an experience. TB says this not because the person at the pulpit was the one who runs the athletic department. He says this instead because the person who gave the sermon Sunday was amazing.