it's been a long hard fight

but i see a brand-new day dawning

The holy gospel according to St. Luke the 24th chapter!

Opening Day coincided with Holy Week this year, and I have to think a little divine provenance was at work there. All sports, but especially baseball, have a bit of the cross baked into them. Ostensibly, baseball is a game of handling your losses much more than it’s a game of racking up victories. 

No documentary captures this upside-down dimension of the sport better than the “Battered, so-and-so’s of Baseball.” *I’ve changed the title, by the way. Just in case there are any pious ears among us. You can find the documentary in question by googling “the Battered “b-a-s-…” of Baseball.” Or just googling “Portland Mavericks documentary.”

Back in 1973, the Minor League team, the Portland Mavericks were on their last legs after seasons of dwindling ticket sales and even fewer wins. An unexpected future for the team comes in Bing Russel from Hollywood. 

Bing was an actor. In fact, he’s a-lister, Kurt Russel’s father! Bing’s career, though, was not as illustrious. And when Bing was killed off as the deputy in Bonanza, he left Hollywood hangdog.

However, his acting career’s dead-end turned out to be the open gate back to his original love, baseball! Bing bought the Portland Mavericks for peanuts, and then, instead of trying to fix up the team, he leaned into their shabby reputation!

Bing didn’t hide the fact that he was a washed-up actor, and he opened the team to washed-up athletes of all stripes! He held open tryouts. And rather than a handful of dreamers giving it one last go, hundreds of them showed up from across the country! And hidden in that heap of nobodies was one of the best teams in Minor League ball!

The joy of this documentary is watching these characters who love the game too much to give it up despite the fact that they’re past their prime. And that there was someone in the world who had the vision to see all the possibility. As sweet as all that is, the icing on the cake is that these old-timers give the young guns a run for their money! This team of so-called has-beens make run after run at the championships. 

All their attempts were cut short, though. Whenever they made it to the big game, the Major Leagues would send down some of their players to make sure the Mavericks didn’t make their whole player farming system look bad. While it may have worked, there’s no doubt which team was truly remarkable. And which team was truly having fun, too.

The Battered so-and-so’s of Baseball is a delightful documentary, and it overflows with love. Love of the game, and love of that motley crew who loved the game too much to let something like respectability keep them from it. As good as this documentary is on its own merits, it’s also illustrative for those of us who have been called by the crucified one. 

Pentecost is sometimes called the birthday of the church. But really, that’s this moment depicted in today’s Scripture. When Jesus shows up to a couple of dispirited, former disciples who have packed it in and are on their way back home to their former life. 

Often we think Jesus will show up to us once we get our act together and commit to following him once and for all. But here, in today’s Scripture, nearly the exact opposite takes place! Jesus shows up to Cleopas and his companion after they’ve thrown in the towel! 

Jesus isn’t afraid of our failures! As far as he’s concerned, washed-up disciples are just perfect for his purposes! Those two quitters get to be the first class of the inaugural Christian Bible study in the history of the whole wide world! With Jesus himself as the instructor, no less!

Jesus shows these two has-been disciples that the Bible has been telling that suffering ISN’T an obstacle to God’s victory but the very path it runs through from the very start! The irony, though, is that these two disciples have no clue it’s Jesus himself who’s opening the Scriptures to them!
They may not know who their Bible teacher is, but they do know they don’t want him to leave. When they get to their accommodations for the night, Jesus makes like he’s going to travel on. They strongly urge him to stay, though, and he obliges. When the meal is served, Jesus, the guest, assumes the role of the host! 

No sooner does Jesus break the bread than the disciples recognize who he is! Just like that, Jesus vanishes. In his wake, though, those two disciples find the beginning of their restored discipleship! Just like the shepherds in the Christmas story and the women at the empty tomb, Cleopas and company run back to the disciples at that late hour to share the good news! And the rest is history. Isn’t it?

That humble beginning is the origin of the Christian faith! The faith to which you are a part! Two millennia later, and a continent removed to boot! Often we think our future will be secured in our success or at least survival. Today’s Scripture, though, reveals otherwise! Jesus specializes in death! He’s right at home in our dashed hopes and failures! He can make anything out of all our nothing!

That is good. Isn’t it? Because we still have a lot of that these days. Don’t we? Last Easter, like Cleopas and his friend, ‘we had hoped’ all this would be over. And here it is, our second Easter, and we’re still worshipping from home. And like them, maybe you’ve contemplated packing it in. Throwing in the towel. Giving up on all this trouble.

Just like that first Easter, though, Jesus himself shows up to you! Right now, even! That empty space next to you; maybe it’s at the kitchen table where you’re doing home church, or there on the sofa, or maybe just in your heart where you’ve buried your hopes. Either way, wherever it is, that empty space is the one Jesus fills with himself! Today Jesus saddles up right next to you and plies his resurrection trade on you and your dashed hopes all over again! 

May your eyes be opened to see it! 

Yes, it’s startling. But only at first. After that, it’s pure joy! Your losing season is just perfect for Jesus, the original Maverick! Now you get to be one of those so-called has-beens who gets to give it to the big boys of Sin, Death, and the Devil! Their winning streak is over! And you get to be the one who hands it to them! All on behalf of the one who handed his upside-down victory over to you!

The victory is actually already all in hand! Jesus’ pierced hands! You just get to be the one who gets to go out there and play ball! And truly play, too! You are no different than Cleopas and his companion. Or all those wonderful deadbeats on the Battered so-and-so’s of Baseball! Over the moon that the big man upstairs has seen fit to call you! Put your name on the roster. And call your number to take the field! Play ball!

Or, to say it another way, Christ is risen!