Sermon on (re)learning the game of baseball from a good friend, and how the church has to keep its real job central or lose the game of life. There is also a bit about the five-fold ministry of the church (apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers). What is your job? How do you do the works of God?
2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a
Psalm 51:1-13
Ephesians 4:1-16
John 6:24-35
The Collect
Let your continual mercy, O Lord, cleanse and defend your Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without your help, protect and govern it always by your goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
"Come on, you dog-gone, bullnecked, beetlebrowed, hogjowled, peanutbrained, weaseleyed fourflushers, false alarms and excess baggage! ..."
This passage is taken verbatim from a sermon given by the American evangelist Billy Sunday, on May 14th 1916, at the University of Kansas. William Ashley "Billy" Sunday (1862-1935) was a popular professional baseball player during the 1880s and then the most celebrated and influential American evangelist in the early 20th century.
Born into poverty near Ames Iowa, Sunday spent some years in an orphanage before taking a series of odd jobs in small Iowa towns, while developing his athletic skills. His exceptional speed led him to play major league baseball for eight years with the Chicago White Stockings. Converted to evangelical Christianity in the 1880s, Billy Sunday left baseball for the ministry.
from http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Great%20Men%20of%20God/billy_sunday-baseball.htm
