Change is Everywhere: Baseball and Church

Bob Dylan sang, “The Times They Are A-Changin’”. As further proof of this, another baseball fanatic/friend sent me a copy of “Identifying baseball pitch types in 2023: A modern field guide to MLB’s diversifying arsenals.” The article included discussions on various weapons of a pitcher: Fastball (four seam and two seam), Cutter, Slider, Sweeper, Curveball, Change-up, Screwball, Knuckleball, Splitter, and then the article got in the hybrids. My immediate thoughts were two-fold: (1) glad my playing days ended several decades ago and (2) glad I was a Shortstop, not a pitcher. As a mid-average batter, I only had to worry about a fastball, a curve, and a change—up. If we saw a pitcher with anything other than that, no one else on the team was going to get a hit either. As I often do in my thinking, I switched metaphors from sports to church.  I remember a much simpler Sunday routine: dress up, get to church early, get the hymn book out of the pew rack, sing familiar hymns (in bright lights rather than low-light, theater-type environment), enjoy the choir special, listen to a 28 minute sermon from a preacher who dressed up to honor God, endure the invitation hymn without surrendering to missions, sing a benediction, shake everyone’s hand on the way to the cafeteria (ahead of the Methodists). Paul wrote: Old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).  Even Bob Dylan ends his song with, “the present now will later be past, the order is rapidly fadin’ . . . For the times they are a-changin’.” Amen!