Misfit Faith by Jason J. Stellman

Author:Jason J. Stellman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2017-03-07T05:00:00+00:00

* * *

*1 . These are references to the shows’ theme songs. Look it up.

*2 . In antiquity it was the sons in particular who received the father’s inheritance, which is why the apostle appeals to male imagery here (and not because he is sexist). But if it makes my female readers feel any better about being referred to as “sons,” the New Testament elsewhere refers to us all as “the Bride of Christ”!

Forests, Trees, and Baseball

“Enthusiasms,” muses Al Capone (masterfully played by Robert De Niro) in the 1987 film The Untouchables. “What are mine? What draws my admiration? What is that which gives me joy?” In this early scene, Capone is at a formal dinner with his trusted underlings, one of whom has betrayed him. As he circles the table making his twisted motivational speech, his goons seek to correctly answer his question with things like “Dames!” and “Boozin’!” Capone smirks and shakes his head. “Baseball!” he says, at which the room fills with obsequious, mandatory laughter. He then brandishes a bat and reminds them that, while hitting is an individual effort, all the base hits in the world don’t matter if the men are not team players when out in the field. At this point Capone is standing directly behind his betrayer, but unlike in a similar scene in an upper room a couple thousand years ago involving a betrayer and the Betrayed, there is no gesture of peace or last-ditch offer of friendship and pardon. Instead, well, you can probably imagine what happens next: Capone caves the guy’s skull in with the baseball bat, the blood slowly oozes across the lavish table, and everyone learns a valuable lesson about teamwork and solidarity (shudder).

The issue of individual effort versus teamwork, and the paradox of true unity and real diversity, is highlighted not only in the realm of baseball but also, you guessed it, in the mystery of the Trinity. There we behold something ineffable and beyond comprehension: There is one God, but that one God subsists in three coequal and coeternal divine Persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father is not the Son or the Spirit, but he is God. The Son is also God, although he is not the Spirit or the Father. And the Spirit is God, yet he is not the Father or the Son. And all the while there are not three Gods but one. The baffling and counterintuitive nature of this mystery has been captured in a funny way (to me at least) by a meme that I saw going around Facebook in which Jesus is kneeling in prayer and looking up to heaven. The caption reads, “Are you there, God? It’s me, you.” (Now, I understand that this meme was probably created by those whose intent was to mock the idea of the Trinity, that God can be three-in-one. But let’s lighten up and be honest for a moment: The whole thing is a bit ridiculous, isn’t it? From the perspective of conventional wisdom anyway.

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