deu09-15

25 March 2007

“LIVING WITH TWO STRIKES”

Deuteronomy 9:15-21

It is so amazing how much we are sports drive in our country.   The images of sports find their way into our language everyday.

This sermon is not a celebration of opening day of baseball although I know many of you are ready to continue your debate about Yankees or Mets.  (It is important to realize that we are a church of both Yankees and Mets fans.  It is a requirement that we learn how to love each other!

Of course the metaphor, “living with two strikes” comes from baseball but it has become since 1994 a legal reference.

The law was enacted as Chapter 12, Statutes of 1994 (AB 971, Jones) by the Legislature and by the electorate in Proposition 184. As its name suggests, the law requires, among other things, a minimum sentence of 25 years to life for three-time repeat offenders with multiple prior serious or violent felony convictions. The Legislature and voters passed the Three Strikes law after several high profile murders committed by ex-felons raised concern that violent offenders were being released from prison only to commit new, often serious and violent, crimes in the community.

This reminds us that we are to have compassion on our brothers and sisters who are imprisoned.  The ultimate goal of incarceration should be rehabilitation and restitution. Prison –industrial economy.  Being on locked down in this state is really about being economically locked up- meaning upstate.

For our purposes today, I would want us to see together that our everyday circumstances have                  us as living with two strikes.

IN fact

To be black and poor

To be Black and female

To be Black and scared

To be young without a high school diploma

To be old with no retirement planning

To be poor or unemployed without health care

To be consumed by debt to MasterCard and Visa

To be smart and sneaky

To be intelligent and idle

TO achieve and cocky

To be married and unfocused

To be single and undisciplined

To be sexually active and irresponsible

To be an addict without support

To rent with no option to buy

To be an immigrant with no sponsor

Our text points us to the biblical reality of living with two strikes.  You see the people of Israel were indeed sinners but they also were stubborn.  It is one thing to be a sinner because we all are sinners;   it’s another thing to be brazen.  You’re wrong and you dare someone to try you.  That kind of life will inevitably lead to one meeting his/her match. 

Jim Croche’s Bad, Bad Leroy Brown

IN cartoons, Sylvester the Cat spent his time trying to catch Speedy Gonzalez.  Too fast so it was suggested to him to try to catch Slow Poke Rodriguez.  What they did not tell him that Slow Poke Rodriguez compensated for being so slow, you see “Slow Poke Rodriguez, he carry a gun!”

We are in a culture where now, it is always someone else’s fault

No responsibility for our own actions

No admission that it could be me.

SAY that” It could be me”

I.              Two strikes means you’ve got to take time to honestly evaluate where you are.   You’ve got to take seriously that you are standing there at a most critical moment.  This could be my ending.

II.              Just watching won’t get you progress.  Somebody here is up at bat and you’re just resting the wood on your shoulder.  You have no desire to even try.  You’re just standing there waiting for someone to give you a free pass to first base.  To more you just stand there and watch, depending on the quality of the pitch, the bigger whole you may find yourself in.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer called this “Cheap Grace” 

I played organized baseball for the Pee Wee Wasps.  Although I had a pretty good glove, I did not have a good bat.  I was afraid of getting hit by the ball.  Too scared.  Other times, I was too eager.  As an adult, I even struck out in slo pitch softball just looking at the ball.  They called me “Hank Aaron”

III.             Two strikes mean that you’ve got to make the most of you next opportunity.  Two strikes does not mean three strikes.  Do you know how many hits, how many home runs  happened when the count was two strikes?   BE active and determined with this present opportunity.  Don’t define yourself by where you have been but by what God has put in you for this very moment.  You’ve got to try.  Try your best.  Give it your best effort.  As long as you do not miss it altogether, you get another chance.