This August, we are doing a worship series at my church on Summer Pastimes and how they speak to us of the life of faith. So each Friday I will turn from the lectionary to the gospel I’ve selected for worship that week. Here is this week's (a bit of a seventh-inning stretch..)
Baseball is in the on-deck circle this week, and boy, does it lend itself to puns and metaphors for the life of faith! Strikes, outs, fouls, errors, sacrifice plays, stealing bases, walking runners. You could say it starts in Genesis: “In the Big Inning…” Most of all, with its circular play and the goal of getting players to a base called Home, it lends itself to thoughts of heaven.
Baseball allows us to explore the concept of grace – what does it mean to have an unlimited number of strikes and fouls? How do we live into the wonder of a system based not on running back and forth but round and around again, always moving toward Home? How might we think about Jesus – as the pitcher who walks us all, or the hitter who came to bat when the bases were loaded and both sides were losing?
I invite you to consider your spiritual life in Christ as though it were a baseball game – what opens up for you? What position do you see yourself playing? Where on the field is Jesus – or is he the Manager?
In this game of God-life, we are all good hitters, capable of foul balls now and again as well as the occasional homer. But no matter where we are – in the field, in the dugout, or hugging a base, we don’t have to steal home – Jesus has come to the plate, and has hit us all in.
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