JESUS CHRIST AND DUKE SNIDER

Scripture: Matthew 11:1-6; Ephesians 1:1-14

INTRODUCTION

By way of introduction, I’d like to express my heartfelt appreciation to Dr. John Cantwell of the North Avenue Presbyterian Church, who found out what I was preaching about today and gave me an old fashioned Brooklyn Dodgers baseball cap from Distant Replays in Buckhead where Bill Goetz is the proprietor. I’ve been wearing the hat all week long, and I want to thank Bill and John for helping me find some extra inspiration as I wrote this sermon entitled “Jesus Christ and Duke Snider.”

As a young boy growing up in Sag Harbor, Long Island, my whole world revolved around our family, Pierson Elementary School, the Presbyterian Church my father served as pastor, and the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team. Together with thousands of other loyal fans, I have never forgiven them for leaving New York and moving to Los Angeles in 1958. Ebbets Field in Brooklyn is where they used to play – it was sacred ground – and that’s where they should have stayed.

The author and television commentator Doris Kearns Goodwin, born like myself in Rockville Centre during the 1940’s, has written a best-selling book about her early life and those Brooklyn Dodgers entitled “Wait Until Next Year.” In chapter one, she names the team which I revered and went to see with my father who hailed from Brooklyn:

“Roy Campanella (the catcher) started behind the plate, Gil Hodges (was) at first (base), Jackie Robinson at second, Pee Wee Reese at shortstop, Billy Cox at third, Gene Hermanski in left, Carl Furillo in right and Duke Snider was in center. Half of that lineup would eventually be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame … And never would there be a better time to be a Dodger fan.” (From “Wait Until Next Year” by Doris Kearns Goodwin, 1997, Simon and Schuster, New York, Page 19)

Well Doris Kearns Goodwin was right, and that was the team which I idolized, especially in 1955, when they and their great pitchers Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Johnny Podres, Clem Labine, Carl Erskine and Don Newcombe defeated the New York Yankees to win the World Series. Many years later, much to my chagrin, I discovered that Barbara Morrison from New Jersey, whom I eventually married, had rooted for the Yankees back then – and we still don’t agree on which was the better team!

Barbara’s favorite player was the Yankee catcher Yogi Berra who was and is known for his sense of humor. In that 1955 World Series, a Dodger batter crossed himself as he stepped up to the plate. Yogi looked through his mask, smirked and said, “Why don’t we just let God watch this game”?

Now, among the Brooklyn Dodgers, there was one team member who stood above all the rest – Duke Snider, my boyhood hero – and he was the best centerfielder in professional baseball. “The Duke,” as we called him, could catch fly balls on a fast run, pound out homers and extra base hits second to none, and intimidate the opposing team as he looked at them with his piercing eyes as if to announce “You’re done” even before the game got started.

Sitting in the outfield bleachers with my father, I watched Duke Snider’s every move. He was smooth as silk and played to the crowd’s delight. And as long as The Duke was in center, we, all of us, somehow knew that everything was going to be all right.

II.

That is why I think Jesus Christ and Duke Snider have at least one thing in common. Throughout this past church year, we have focused our attention on the theme “Christ at the Center…In the Heart of the City, In the Hands of God,” proclaiming that Jesus Christ is the source of our life and our love and that In Him, all things hold together (Colossians 1:17). So you see, as long as Jesus Christ is in the center of our worship, work and witness; as long as He is in the center of what we believe and everything we say and seek to do – God has promised to work all things together for good (Romans 8:28). Do you believe that today?

John the Baptist believed it, but during a hard time in his life, he had to hold on to the faith by his fingernails. John was in prison for teaching and preaching about Jesus which had stirred up the people of Jerusalem and the entire region (Matthew 3:1-12; 4:12). Matthew tells us in the 11^th chapter of his gospel that When John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, John sent word by his disciples, asking “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?”

Call it a moment of doubt or a walk through the valley of the shadow. Soren Kierkegaard described it as “the dark night of the soul,” when depression and despair settle in and we feel afraid, forgotten or forsaken.

It happened to John in prison, and that is no surprise. There are several men I visit and correspond with who are incarcerated, and every day they pray for help to keep their eyes focused on Jesus as the center of their lives. So do I, and so must we all, because the tensions and temptations, the sufferings and sorrows of human existence can knock us down and cause us to fall away from the faith.

Lou Holtz, football coach at the University of South Carolina, once said in a speech to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes: “I know that God doesn’t send us more trouble than we can handle, but sometimes I think He overestimates my ability.” Well, he’s a good coach, but that is poor theology.

God does not send trouble or tragedy into our lives. God loves us and He wants and wills what is best for us. However, when the storm strikes, when accidents happen, when our hearts are broken, or when temptation invades our lives and leads us into sin, God is there in the valley of the shadow, reaching out to us with an open heart and open hands, waiting, praying that we will reach out for Him. And the One who was sent into this world to make all of that possible is Jesus Christ our Lord and our Savior.

Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” That is what John wanted to know, and if you are seeking an answer to that question today, then listen to the way Jesus responded: Go and tell John what you hear and see – the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed are those who take no offense at me (Matthew 11:4-6).

My friends - open your hearts, open your hands and open your eyes to see Him and He stands at the center of our lives – loving us, forgiving us, healing us and helping us to become the men and women and young people that He has called us to be. For In Him, all things hold together, and through Him, you and I can find our identity and our salvation as Christians.

III.

Moreover, in Him and through Him we can also discover our unity as brothers and sisters in the church, the body of Christ on earth.

That is surely true here in this congregation at the corner of 16^th and Peachtree Streets, in the heart of the City of Atlanta. We are a Christian, Presbyterian, urban community of faith which welcomes people from all walks of life. The words on the front of our bulletin and the Rose Window above us in the chancel help us to remember that Jesus Christ is the center of everything that happens here. And the Long Range Plan which has been mailed to all of our members and many friends, embraces that same affirmation and sense of direction for the years to come: “A Vision for a Centered Church.”

Does that mean we all agree about theology, or the interpretation of the Bible, or the difficult and divisive issues of human sexuality, or whether or not we serve cheese straws during the fellowship hour in Fifield Hall after worship? (Thank God we got that one resolved!)

No, we don’t all agree on everything. Because when you intentionally welcome and embrace different kinds of people into the family of faith, it becomes abundantly clear that we, each of us and all of us, do not look alike, dress alike, think alike or act alike…and we’re not supposed to. Why? Because God likes – dare I say it? – God loves diversity! That’s the way He created this world and humanity, and no two people – not even beautiful twins like Ruth Law and Naomi Byrd – are identical or exactly the same.

So in our diversity and differences of opinion, we won’t always agree. And that is why we need to keep our hearts and minds focused on Jesus Christ, who has shown us how to live together in unity and in peace. When all is said and done, that is the Lord’s will for you and for me and for the church which He has brought into being.

But don’t take my word for it – listen to the Apostle Paul, who wrote these words to the Ephesians and to all of us still today:

God destined us in love to be His children through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will…For He has made known to us in all insight and wisdom the mystery of His will…which He set forth in Christ – to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth (Ephesians 1:5, 9-10)

Do you see – the will of God for the Christian Church and for His entire kingdom which stretches across the universe, is unity – unity revealed once and for all through Jesus Christ, who came to show us the way, the truth and the life God wants us to live and share with all of His children on earth – people of every race, nation and creed!

CONCLUSION

Now on this Father’s Day, 2003, I want to leave you with a glimpse of that unity and peace which I found in an article sent to me by Dr. John Cantwell, my Presbyterian friend who also gave me the Brooklyn Dodgers cap.

Duke Snider in center and one of his teammates, who played shortstop, was named Pee Wee Reese. He had grown up in Louisville, Kentucky and made it into the Major Leagues. The Dodgers were playing the Reds in Cincinnati, just across the Ohio River from Reese’s hometown, and this is what happened:

“Some of Reese’s old friends made the drive up from Louisville to watch him play at Crosley Field. The year was 1947 and it was different from what had gone before. The Dodgers were starting a black man at first base…and the cotton curtain was coming down. That was not to everyone’s satisfaction. Certainly not to some of Reese’s boyhood friends from the segregated sandlots of Kentucky.

As the Dodgers moved into infield practice, the taunts began. Fans started calling Jackie Robinson names – terrible, spiteful, hateful names. There Jackie stood, one solitary black man, trying to warm up and catching hell. Pee Wee Reese raised his hand and stopped the practice.

He walked from shortstop to first base and put his arm around Jackie Robinson’s shoulder. Reese stood there and looked into the dugout and into the stands, staring into the torment of hate, a slim white southerner, who wore number 1, (was captain of the team), and just happened to have an arm draped around a black man who wore number 42. Reese did not say a word. The deed spoke for itself. And Jackie Robinson, who went on to become one of the greatest baseball players that ever lived, said many years later: ‘After Pee Wee came over like that, I never felt alone on a baseball field again.’” (From “The Boys of Summer,” by Roger Kahn, May 2000)

Duke Snider, Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson were warming up, ready to play the game that day in Cincinnati, Ohio. But someone else was there in the ballpark, moving among the crowd, listening to those taunts and shouts and then walking out onto the field. No one could actually see Him, but He was the one who lifted the shortstop’s arm around that black man, and gave them the courage to play the game.

His name is Jesus Christ, and God sent Him into this world to redeem your life and mine. He is the One who gives us our identity as Christians. Through Him we can discover our unity in the church. And as He stands at the center, leading us toward peace and reconciliation, we can know beyond the shadow of a doubt, that in Him, all things hold together.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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