Getting Home

“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth…They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.” ~Isaiah 65:17, 21

That magnificent time of year is upon us once again. The grass is turning green. Trees are showing their buds. If you step out on the porch in the evening, you might just hear the sound of frogs in the woods. The geese are back. You know the time of year…  Spring Training! Major League Baseball teams are practicing in Florida and Arizona as we speak. Games are scheduled for the next three weeks until that day for which many of us have been waiting since November 1st: Opening Day! Oh boy… baseball is back!

I get that some of you don’t really care for baseball, and I won’t hold that against you. But I wonder if you’ve thought about the great themes of Scripture that are present in this beloved American pastime. For example, baseball is a rather trinitarian game. The multiples of three are everywhere: three strikes and you’re out; three outs and the inning is over; nine innings in a game (unless the score is tied). There are more. I’ll leave it to you to discover them. 

How about the corporate nature of the team? Each player brings to bear his unique gifts and talents. Each player is part of a body, working together to accomplish its mission. There are men of otherworldly skill in one position who couldn’t perform another player’s part if their life depended on it. Just like in the church, where there are some called to preach with power who can’t carry a tune in a bucket. We need each other, don’t we?

I love the redemptive nature of baseball. A struggling player gets traded in the offseason and finds himself in a resurgent year on the new team. He was as good as dead on the last roster, but now — under new management and with new life breathed into his game — he’s almost like a new creation. 

Then there’s the sacrificial element. There’s actually a strategy in baseball where a player will hit a high fly ball deep into the outfield to allow another player to score. He willingly gives up getting on base for the good of the team — to help another player come home. Sacrifice is part of the game. 

And that leads us to our final point — the point of the game: to get home. Home. Safe. You’ve made it the whole journey around the diamond and you are now welcomed across that plate, which is shaped like a house. You are home. The goal of the game is to get home. Does this not make you think of heaven? At the end of this earthly journey we will round that last base and arrive safe at home. And Christ is waiting there for your arrival to ensure you receive all the welcome of having just hit the winning run in game seven of the World Series. No baseball player has ever experienced the joy each Christian will know when we arrive safe at our heavenly home. But in baseball, there’s a glimpse of it. 

Rev. Kyle Lockhart, Pastor