Grace and the Last Pitch
 
On the last Friday of March I was thinking about the beginning of the baseball season and some ways that the Christian life is like baseball.  I called the piece Grace and the First Pitch. 
 
Now it's the last Friday in October and the season has come to a wonderful and somewhat surprising end, especially for Phillies fans. And, yes, there was a certain grace in the last pitch.  As Brad Lidge fell to his knees, we knew that it was more than the thrill of victory as he would explain in a postgame interview.  There is always something becoming about giving thanks to God. 
 
Now it's the fans' turn. The newspapers tell us that there will be a million people at today's victory parade.  Continue reading →

Forget the cup of cool water…make it a cup of hot coffee
 
Matthew 25 records Jesus’ Holy Week words about our care for the least of those who are his brothers and sisters.  In offering care and concern for others, Jesus tells us that it is as if we offered care and concern to him.  It’s a powerful statement.
 
A cup of cool water offered to the stranger is a token of love that extends across cultural and religious lines.  Christians have no corner on the hospitality market, but kindness done quietly and consistently in Jesus’ name may be one of our most significant ministries in a world that is increasingly fragmented and among people who are increasingly isolated. Continue reading →

1. Why the Phillies Matter to God
2. Why God Loves Ninth Graders

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1. Why the Phillies Matter to God

God and sports is one of the great debates in what is left of America’s civil religion.  In post-game interviews, touchdown receptions and homeruns are not infrequently attributed to the providence of God.  Diehard fans publicly acknowledge their team to be “America’s team,” but secretly know that it is, in fact, God’s team.  We once lived an hour north of Green Bay, Wisconsin, and I know about these things.
 
I’m an agnostic, at best, when it comes to God’s biases in regards to sports franchises, but our Reformed tradition tells me that sports, like all things, are under God’s dominion.  The Dutch theologian and statesman, Abraham Kuyper, is famously quoted as saying, "There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: 'Mine!' " Continue reading →

Sacrifice: A Sense of Joy About It
 
During this past week’s presidential debate, Tom Brokaw read a question that he had received from an online audience member.  Fiorra from Chicago asked, “What sacrifices will you ask every American to make to help restore the American dream and to get out of the economic morass that we're now in?" John McCain said we’d have to cut some pork barrel spending and Barak Obama talked about programs to help us winterizing our homes to make them more fuel efficient and a plan to double the size of the Peace Corps.  It was clear that neither candidate wanted to talk much about sacrifice and each retreated to the safety of stump speech lines as soon as he could. Continue reading →

When Optimism Wears Thin
 
I'm not the news junkie I once was, but I still try to keep up with the news in the world around us. Like many Americans, I no longer subscribe to a printed newspaper, but my morning routine includes a cup of coffee and browsing the pages at CNN.com, Google News, and other online news sources. I want to be aware of as many points of view as possible, so I often visit slate.com, salon.com, the opinion page at the Wall Street Journal, or nationalreview.com. I also receive a daily news update from Christianity Today, which I have found to be valuable in putting things into perspective. Plus I read something called Presbyweb, which requires a subscription, but is the only reliable source for news of the PCUSA. 
 
Maybe I shouldn't read so much. It has me depressed.  The economy is a mess and no one seems to know what to do with it. I'm hardly enthused with our choices in next month's election (if you are, please tell me why – I'm ready for some encouragement). The culture war has deteriorated to World War I style trench warfare; the casualties are high and the prospects for peace are low. If the economy is heading towards a meltdown, our denomination has already arrived there.  Continue reading →