A Past Time Redeemed: How Stacy and I Tried to Teach Our Children Christ Centered Baseball

This last spring our family entered the American sports arena.  Naomi and Ethan were given their first taste of America's favorite past time; baseball.  Ethan and I have been hitting the ball around in the backyard for the last couple of years.  Naomi had just recently shown some interest this last year in wanting to learn how to play the game.  Seeing that both of them had decent hand eye coordination and a good work ethic, Stacy and I decided to put them in a low competitive league.  However, before we did this, we had some stipulations for our family.  We came up with two overarching principles that were going to guide our involvement in sports, followed by three immediate criteria that we would use to evaluate how we redeemed our time at each game or practice.

Maintain Your Center

First, we committed to each other that sports were not going to dominate the nucleus of our family.  Stacy and I have seen first hand how sports centered a family can become; spending three to four nights a week at games and practices and not getting home until after 10pm.  This is not healthy on all kinds of levels.  For starters, in order for a family to maintain this schedule it is going to have to give up something, and more times than not, it is the priority to maintain fellowship with God and His people.  Late nights and weekend tournaments tend to work against family devotions and corporate worship on Sundays.

Redeem Your Time & Presence

Another thing we were committed to was a Christ centered testimony to fellow parents and players.  If we were going to spend several valuable hours of our precious family time to something, it needs to be done in a way that is edifying and worth it.  Anytime you get involved in a sport of any kind, you are making an investment.  You are expecting a return of some kind, whether it is in your child's skill set, social posterity, or even a bit of leisure time.  The return that Stacy and I were looking for is for our family to draw nearer to Christ and to display his worth to the world.  In order for this to happen we needed to have a plan in place to redeem our time and presence on the ball field.

Teaching Our Children Christ in Baseball

This worked itself out in three criteria, in the form of three questions, that I gave the Naomi and Ethan to evaluate every game and practice. First, "did you play to God's glory (1 Corinthians 10:31)?"  Both of them must have heard me say, "Do everything with a hustle" a hundred times.  I expected them to try their hardest, whether they succeeded or not, at running, catching, hitting, fielding, etc.  I did not mind if they struck out every single time they were at bat, as long as they struck out swinging. 

The second criteria was, "Were you a testimony of God's grace to your coach, teammates, and opponents (Philippians 2:1-11)?"  In short, did you have the mind of Christ when you interacted with everyone you came in contact with while playing baseball?  We expected both of them to play hard and compete to the best of their ability, but we also expected that they do it a manner this is dignified, and that testified that God is more valuable than being the best player on the team or winning the game.

Finally, the last criteria was, "Did you have fun (Philippians 4:4)?"  Many times Christians get a bad reputation for being a bit bland or stoic.  I get that.  The general perception of us Christians from those looking on is that we are bound by a bunch of rules and God has forbidden us to have an ounce of fun in this life.  Ya right!  God has given us a wonderful freedom to truly enjoy His creation and the life He has given us.  Baseball is a gift from God.  He gave us this wonderful creation to not only work but also to play.  The green grass, cool breeze, and perfect baseball playing temperature of 72 degrees on a trim dusk spring evening is part of the blessing of God.  Even the knowledge of the game itself comes from the one whom every good and pleasing thing comes (James 1:17).  Yes, amen, enjoy the game of baseball and have lots of fun fielding grounders, hitting home-runs (or singles), and sliding into second base on a steal (oh the irony!).  Our joy in baseball can also testify of our joy in Christ, as long as we understand from whom the blessing comes.

These questions would be rehearsed before and discussed after each game and practice.  Nothing elaborate, just a brief session while walking to the field or to the car afterwards.  The purpose was to be intentional in exposing the children to God's presence in every aspect of life.

Does All of This Matter?

The stipulations set in place were to help protect the center of our family's theology and our nucleus.  The center of our family's theology is that Christ is our Lord and He takes first place in everything we aim to be and do.  The nucleus of which our family orbits is Christ and His the word.  By protecting our center of theology we protected the nucleus of our family.  By setting our criteria for evaluating our involvement in baseball, we reinforced our center of theology and further strengthened our nucleus.  In essence, we intentionally sought to make much of Christ in our involvement in sports because we see Him as Lord over everything, we want our children to taste and see that He is Lord over everything (Psalm 34:8), and we wanted to make sure that nothing altered His position as Lord over everything in our family.

Sports in America has an unprecedented ability to take over the height and length and breadth of a family.  To stop this from happening, a family needs to put some gurards in place to keep the center from imploding. This is one way in which used to ensure we did not loose sight of our family's center and redeem our time in America's pastime.

From Eden to the New Jerusalem Review

Alexander, Desmond T. From Eden to the New Jerusalem. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2008. 208 pp., $19.99

Summary

  From Genesis to Revelation, the idea of Yahweh creating the earth with the intention of constructing an arboreal temple-city that was inhabited by people who display His holy nature is seen consistently and coherently in the biblical meta-narrative. (188) Yahweh created the heavens and the earth as a place where He would dwell and live among a people made in His image that existed to display His glory.  The world is His temple and those whom He created are to worship Him and enjoy His blessings.  Though the world and mankind was thrown into catastrophe and separation by the fall of man, Yahweh tenaciously keeps to His plan to provide a place where He and man will dwell forever in harmony in the New Jerusalem.

T. Desmond Alexander in his book, From Eden to the New Jerusalem, argues that the new earth and the new heavens are very likely to have much in common with the present cosmos (11).  He begins in the end with the intent to go back to the beginning.  A story’s conclusion provides a good guide to the themes and ideas dominant throughout (10).  The New Jerusalem not only gives us a taste of what the future holds for believers, but also gives us insight to the process that began the Garden of Eden.  Alexander seeks to show the links between Genesis 1-3 and Revelations 20-22 and argues that these links frame the entire biblical meta-story (10).

   He begins by offering two things that are evident with a proper study of Revelations 20-22.  First, the biblical description of our future existence has more in common with our present life than most people assume, and second, the concluding chapters of Revelations offer a window through which the main themes of the biblical meta-story may be studied. (7)  It is through this window that chapters two through seven give clarity to the major themes presented in the biblical narrative.

In chapter two, the longest chapter of the book, Alexander argues that Revelation 20-22 represents the fulfillment of Yahweh’s original blueprint for the earth.  From the outset of creation, Yahweh intended that the earth would become a holy garden-city in which He would dwell alongside human beings (74).  Starting with a brief overview of the theme of the divine presence on earth (19), Alexander shows Yahweh’s desire to dwell with his people by examining the motif of the temple and the temple-garden of Eden (15-19).  He examines Genesis one and identifies parallels that exist between the Garden of Eden and later Israelite sanctuaries (21).  He spends most of the chapter showing how these parallels of the garden and sanctuaries are seen in the tabernacle (31), Jerusalem temple (42) and the church as a temple (60).

The first part of chapter three observes how Adam and Eve were thrown from the Garden of Eden, stripped of their priestly status, and was not allowed to facilitate God’s creation plan (74). The remainder of the chapter is spent showing how God is restoring his sovereignty through Israel and the church.

 Alexander builds on the theme of God’s presence with images of John’s vision in Revelation 22:1-3; specifically the throne of God.  He establishes Yahweh’s sovereign right to rule the earth and make viceroys of Adam and Eve (76).  Adam and Eve were given complete dominion over all of the earth to grow and guard the garden for Yahweh’s namesake.  Adam and Eve fail to do this by allowing the serpent to usurp God’s authority from them.  The ones through whom Yahweh’s sovereignty was to be extended throughout the earth side with His enemy.  By heeding the serpent they not only give it control over the earth, but they themselves become its subjects (79).  Yahweh then moves to restore His sovereignty over the earth through two major events in the bible; setting up Israel as a theocracy and the church as the kingdom of God.

In chapter four Alexander identifies Satan as the nemesis who deceived Adam and Eve.  Alexander uses Revelations 20:2 and Genesis 3:15 to launch into a brief biography of the ancient serpent and his place in historical redemption.  The serpent is cursed in Genesis 3:15 to a destiny of judgment.  Yahweh pronounces that the serpent’s seed will be crushed by the seed of the woman.  From here a dichotomy is created in mankind; those of the serpent and those of the woman.  This is first recognized early in Genesis when examining the lines of Cain and Seth.  Here we encounter the idea that human beings may by their actions be perceived as belonging either to the unrighteous ‘offspring of the serpent’ or to the righteous ‘offspring of the woman’ (107).  Jesus makes this distinction in John 8:39-44 when He told the Pharisees that they were of their father the devil.

In the end, the serpent will be defeated by the seed of the woman and ultimately cast into eternal punishment.  All who are of the serpent will perish with him in the lake of fire, and all who are of the seed of the woman and the promised Seed, will live in an eternal rest with Yahweh in the New Jerusalem.

Crucial to the demise of Satan is Jesus Christ, for He is the one who overcomes the devil (121).  Chapter five explains how the redemption of creation is accomplished through the slaughtering of the Lamb, Jesus Christ.  Noting several verses in Revelations 21, Alexander spends some time showing the significance of Christ being compared to a sacrificial lamb. He then points to the Passover and makes the connection of the ritual in that event and the sacrifice of Christ for believers.   In the Passover in Exodus, the sacrifice of the animal atones for the sin of the people, the blood smeared on the doorposts purifies those within the house, and the sacrificial meat sanctifies or makes holy all who eat it.  The Passover ritual enables all the Israelites to obtain a holy status, an important requisite for becoming a royal priesthood (129).  The Passover sacrifice provides an important paradigm for the process by which the holy status of human beings is restored.  Only those who have been sanctified through the sacrificial death of the Lamb, Jesus Christ, can expect to enter the New Jerusalem (135).

Because of the sacrifice of the Lamb, the royal priesthood of believers will have life abundantly in the New Jerusalem.  This hope is reflected in themes found in Revelations 21-22 and reappears throughout the biblical meta-story in three concepts; holy people, tree of life, and nations (139).  Chapter six explores these themes in detail hitting on particular motifs such as holiness, cleanliness, wholeness, abundant life, and diversity of worshipers.  Alexander encourages his readers by concluding this chapter in saying “Life in the New Jerusalem will be very different from how we experience it now.  As a holy and whole people, we shall inherit a perfect world where everything is in harmony (170).”

Chapter seven highlights the continuity of both the Old Testament and the New Testament.  Alexander argues that by drawing attention to the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ, John’s vision of the New Jerusalem emphasizes the intimate relationship and continuity that exist between them.  Both Old Testament tribes and New Testament apostles contribute to the construction of the New Jerusalem (172).  From this foundation Alexander offers clarity of what true Christian hope is and how our hope in the future rest we will receive in the New Jerusalem will encourage those who love Christ now in this present day.

The last chapter concludes with a review of the main thesis of the book.  He ends with these encouraging words, “Although our future experience of life will have something in common with the present, it will also be radically different.  Everything that detracts from experiencing life to the full will one day be totally eradicated.  Then, and only then, shall know life as God intends it to be.  Then, and only then, shall we truly grasp the immensity of the grace of God, whose love for rebellious and errant human beings was demonstrated through the gift of His own unique Son.  Then and only then, shall we know God fully in all his majestic glory and splendor (192).

Critique

T. Desmond Alexander, in his book, “From Eden to the New Jerusalem,” sought to answer two of life’s most fundamental questions; why does the earth exist and what is the purpose of human life?  Using well organized chapters and succinct trains of thought, Alexander clearly answers these questions by exploring the authoritive meta-story of the bible.  He begins each chapter with a review of the last and provides a clear transition into an overview of the next theme he is tracing.  He stays away for weighty theological terms and does not entertain areas that are obviously on the periphery of the theme he is discussing.  This provides the reader with a smooth read and comfortable understanding of the reasoning of argument.  Alexander cautions that this study is not exhaustive, but rather indicative, outlining some of the central themes that run through the bible (11).

Alexander clearly accomplishes his goal of answering two of life’s fundamental questions by showing that Yahweh has intended from the very beginning to dwell with his creation in harmony.   He accomplishes this by analyzing the bible in its literary context connecting themes that center around a unique deity (10).  As he connects the themes, a picture emerges of a God intentionally designating purpose to the existence of the earth and mankind.  Alexander is careful to provide exegetical evidence for each argument making sure that the continuity of the bible as a whole is the center of focus.   One example of this is happens early in chapter one.  Alexander argues that the Garden of Eden was not just a habitat for mankind and animals, but served as a temple.   He then compares the garden to other Israelite sanctuaries six parallels of the garden and the tabernacle, and the temple.  He analyzes provides Hebrew syntactical analysis and cross-references over fifty scriptures in the Pentateuch (21-23).

There are two things I found extremely helpful in the book.  First, the footnotes alone are worth the price of the book.  It is here Alexander offers further evidence and direction for his thesis.  The notes are elaborate in one sense, and yet concise enough to not be overwhelming.  Second, Alexander took great care to offer pastoral guidance in his application points.  Towards the end of most chapters, Alexander pointed out several considerations in how that particular chapter applied to the Christian life today.  This is especially seen in chapter four when he gives advice in resisting the devil. 

Overall, I would highly recommend this book to someone who is looking for answers to two of life’s fundamental questions, and to one who is discouraged by the world they live in.