I grew up in St. Louis, so baseball has been part of the rhythm of my life for as long as I can remember. (Pitchers and catchers report in a week; spring training is nearly upon us!) When I played army men as a child, the bad guys weren’t the late Cold War Russians, but the Pond Scum Mets. I know the same is true for many of you.
I’ve tried explaining this to people outside St. Louis, but they don’t quite understand how we find a piece of our identity in every Gibson strikeout, Ozzie diving play, Brock stolen base, or Yadi put out. This is why when we St. Louisans talk baseball, we use first person plural pronouns: “we” need to win this one; I can’t believe Goldschmidt plays for “us”; Waino is pitching for “us” tonight; “we” just signed Willson Contreras. We would never say “they,” because the Cardinals aren’t “they.” I have never played for the Cardinals, but in a strange yet very real way, the Cardinals are “us.”
Our city’s identification with the Cardinals illustrates how we are to view the body of Christ. Other Christians are not “they” and “them,” but “we” and “us.” This reaches infinitely deeper than baseball, but perhaps our baseball fandom can show us a way out of the individualism that plagues our western culture.
The books of the New Testament were usually written to groups, not individuals. Still, many of us read the Bible individualistically. I’ll give one example.
A Christian song proclaims, “Greater is He that is in me, than He that is in the world!” While it is true the Holy Spirit is greater than any force outside of us, this song is reading
1 John 4:4 incorrectly. First John 4:4 reads, “You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because greater is the one who is in you than the one who is in the world.”
The “you” here is a plural pronoun. “You” is “y’all”: “greater is the one who is in y’all.” Throughout 1 John, the author depicts his community as one within which truth is proclaimed. His community is light; darkness is outside the community.
Carrying that idea through to 1 John 4:4, we see that the one (God) who is in the community of light (y’all) is greater than those outside who are in the darkness. We are dealing with two radically different communities, not an individual person wading through the dark world. Greater is the one who is in the community of light than the one who is in the dark world.
“I,” “me,” and “my” are transformed by the power of the Gospel into “we,” “us,” and “ours.” In Christ, we are no longer disconnected individuals. We are a family! Other Christians are not “they.” Other Christians are “us.” If we can call the Cardinals “us,” how much more should I call my sisters and brothers in Christ “us”?! Thanks be to God for the family he’s making us into. And let’s go Cardinals.
Matt Easter
Interim Pastor