Thomas J Parlette
“No Matter Which Way the Wind Blows…”
1st John 4: 7-21
4/28/24
Well, the reviews are in…
“The Yankees game on opening day took 2 hours and 33 minutes,” said baseball fan Molly Knight on opening day, 2023. “The pitch clock is amazing.”
“The greatest thing since the invention of baseballs,” said Neil Best.
“The game has a cadence that would be familiar to Ted Williams and Sandy Koufax, unhurried but crisp,” said Ben Goldfarb. “I love it.”
“The pitch clock is a big help, even if your team is terrible. I didn’t have to watch the Giants play for three hours. Instead, it took just 2 hours and 30 minutes for them to get shut out and lose,” said Giant fan Geoff Swartz.
Echoing many others, Royce Young said, “It feels like I’m watching a new sport.” (1)
Yes, the reviews are in – and they are good. The pitch clock has made baseball a whole new game.
My apologies to all those who are not baseball addicts – I get it, I’m not a big fan either, but I did make an effort to watch some games with the new pitch clock rule. And it does make a difference.
The pitch clock was introduced last year in an effort to make the game shorter and more exciting, because many younger fans just did not want to sit watching a game for 31/2 to 4 hours. And so far, it has worked out pretty well.
Mark Leibovich has written in The Atlantic, “The pitch clock is a kind of pacemaker to re-regulate the game’s lagging heartbeat. Pitchers are now allowed just 15 seconds to begin their motion to deliver the ball to home plate, and hitters have to be set in the batter’s box by the 8 second mark.” (2)
This might seem like a small adjustment, but it’s a radical change. Previously, pitchers could take as long as they wanted between pitches, and batters could shuffle around endlessly in the batter’s box. “The goal is to curtail dead time,” says Leibovich, “the endless velcroing and re-velcroing of batting gloves and strolling around the mound.”
And the results seem worth it. We are seeing a whole new ballgame – one that is faster and more thrilling, depending on how into baseball you are, I guess.
For centuries, God’s people lived by complex religious rules and regulations – The Ten Commandments, laws about clean and unclean foods, rules about ritual and moral holiness. The regulations went on and on and on, sometimes like a baseball game that lasts up to 4 hours.
But then, God’s love was revealed in Jesus. The compassion and mercy of God became visible through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. This inspired John to offer a new rule to the followers of Jesus in the first century: “Let us love one another, because love is from God.” This change came from the discovery that love is the very heart of God’s will for our lives.
And that’s a whole new ballgame.
John knew that love had been part of God’s game for many years. In fact, the commandment, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself,” was first introduced in the book of Leviticus. But the game changed when God chose to put a human face – the face of Jesus – on the commandment. “God’s love was revealed among us in this way,” says John: “God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that God loved us, and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
So why was this change necessary? Many people would say, “But we like the game the way it is!” The problem with the love commandment in Leviticus was that it could easily become a matter of endless philosophical debates, like discussions of baseball’s infield fly rule, which I can’t begin to understand. So, John changed the rule by attaching it to the sacrifice of Christ. Now, when we look at Jesus on the cross, we see the love of God for us. We discover that even before we could express our love, God showed love by sending Jesus to be an “atoning sacrifice for our sins.” Jesus died to show God’s love for us, and to restore the relationship with God that had been broken by our sin. Now, when we look at Jesus, we see God’s love revealed. We see the loving face of God.
Like the introduction of the pitch clock, this change had a powerful effect. “Beloved, since God loved us so much,” said John, “we also ought to love one another.” Suddenly, the love of God in Jesus became more than a good idea. It became a vivid illustration of how we are to love.
In addition, John found that God helps us when we attempt to love. “God abides in us,” says John, “and his love is perfected in us.” With this intervention, we can be confident that God is with us and working through us. Our love gets stronger because it is based on the activity of God. The New Testament professor C. Clifton Black says “God’s love for us is the source of our power to love God and one another.” (3)
“We love because God first loved us,” says John. God’s love is the source of our power, making it possible for us to love. The result, said John, is that those “who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.” When we show this kind of love, God’s love lives in us and God’s love is perfected in us.
The rules began to change when God’s love was revealed in Jesus. With the arrival of Christ, the compassion and mercy of God became visible to the world. Then God promised to live in us and perfect his love in us, so that we would be able to love one another. This transformation occurred when John discovered that love is the heart of God’s identity. John captured this fact in three simple, but profound words: “God is love.”
Once upon a time, there was farmer who installed a weather vane on top of his barn that was inscribed with the words “God is Love” – big and bold, so you could easily read it from the ground.
One day, a traveler stopped by the farm and watched as the weather vane swung back and forth with the breeze. Then, with a bit of a smirk on his face, he asked the farmer, “Do you mean to say that your God is as changeable as the wind?”
The farmer shook his head and replied, “No – what I mean to say is that no matter which way the wind blows, God is Love.” (4) God is love.
Not only does Jesus reveal God’s love, but Jesus reveals that God is love. And that’s a game changer.
In the novel City of Peace, a pastor named Harley Camden makes a visit to jail to see a Muslim inmate named Muhammad Bayati, who is accused of murdering his daughter. The two begin to talk about their beliefs, and Muhammad says “God is merciful and just.”
“God is also love,” adds Harley. “Our Bible says that God is love.”
Muhammad cocks his head slightly. “That’s different from our understanding. We have many names for God, but love is not among them.”
“For Christians, love is at the core of who God is,” explains Harley. “God reveals his love by sending Jesus to bring us forgiveness and new life. And the response we are supposed to make is to love one another – a love that should be extended to friends, enemies, black, whites, Muslims, Jews and fellow Christians. It is supposed to come down to love. In fact, the Bible insists that those who say, “I love God” but hate their brothers and sisters, are liars.”
“I would agree with that,” says Muhammad. “Loving God does require that we love the people around us.” (5)
Richard Rohr has written that “People who know God well – mystics, hermits, those who risk everything to find God – always meet a lover, not a dictator. God is never found as an abusive father or a tyrannical mother; God is always a lover greater than we dared hope for. How different from the “account manager” most people seem to worship. God is the lover who receives and forgives everything.”
“When we go into the Presence, we find someone not against us, but someone who is definitely for us! Mystics recognize someone else is holding them. People who pray always say, “Someone is for me more than I am for myself.” Prayer is being loved at a deep, sweet level. I hope everyone has felt such intimacy alone with God. I promise it is available to all. Maybe a lot of us just need to be told that this is what we should expect and seek. We’re afraid to ask for it; we are afraid to seek. It feels presumptuous. We can’t trust that such a love exists. But it does.” (6)
Like baseball, religion is a change-averse environment. Many people of faith prefer to play by traditional rules and are nervous about innovations that run counter to their understandings. As Muhammad says to Harley, “We have many names for God, but love is not among them.”
If we have multiple names for God, why do we need any more? Religion, like baseball, is not comfortable with change.
Traditional baseball fans were not happy about the pitch clock when it was first proposed. “Baseball is a timeless game,” they would argue. “It is the only game without a clock, and it will last as long as it needs to last.” A clock was not part of their understanding, even though most of them wanted the game to move more quickly. “They craved more action and offense,” says Leibovich; “more balls hit into play; more doubles, triples and stolen bases.” (7)
Finally came the innovation – the pitch clock. And it was a game changer. In the same way, John came along and said, “God is love,” changing the Christian faith forever. This assertion, “God is love,” is a powerful “pacemaker” to regulate our heartbeat, keep us spiritually healthy and inspire us to love one another, just as God has loved us. As Harley says to Muhammad, “It is all supposed to come down to love.
Yes, love one another is the heart of the whole new ballgame. Because “God is love… those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.” To abide is to live or to dwell in something – to accept, observe and follow a particular path. For John, to love God is to love our brothers and sisters, and to abide in love is to abide in God with no distinction between the two. This is a whole new approach to faith, based on the love of God in Christ, and the love that God has for each of us.
So, if you feel that your spiritual game has a lagging heartbeat – install the “God is love” pitch clock, and let it help you to love your brothers and sisters. This is a change that will draw you closer to God and to the people around you. It will focus you on the action, and keep you excited and engaged. Once you “love one another,” you’ll never want to go back to the way the game was played before.
As that wise farmer said about his weather vane – “No matter which way the wind blows, God is Love.”
May God be praised. Amen.
1. Homileticsonline, retrieved 4/1/24.
2. Ibid…
3. Ibid…
4. Ibid…
5. Ibid…
6. Ibid…
7. Ibid…
