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Brothers and sisters,
Last week, I traveled to Washington, D.C. to answer a simple question: can a banana play baseball?

Jokes aside, last week I went to D.C. to attend a Savannah Bananas baseball game with friends. The Savannah Bananas are an exhibition baseball team that travels around the country and plays a different kind of baseball in various stadiums. Basically, they’re like the Harlem Globetrotters, but baseball. The Bananas play against other exhibition teams and place a heavy emphasis on entertainment. For example, the first out of our game was a pop-fly to left field. So, the outfielder just put his glove up and caught the ball, right? Not this guy. He caught the ball mid-backflip and did a “superhero landing”. Beyond that, there were dance numbers, a toddler race, a pitcher on stilts, and more!

But there’s one thing the Bananas emphasize above all else—the fan experience. Banana Ball (the version of baseball they play) is focused on making sure fans never get bored. There’s a two-hour time limit—no 12-hour, 24 inning games here! Bunting is outlawed (you’ll be thrown out of the game if you bunt). Walks are wacky (after ball four, every player on the team must touch the ball). And if a fan in the stands catches a foul ball, it counts as an out! The team will go into the crowd during games to celebrate with the fans and sometimes a fan will be brought out onto the field to participate in the shenanigans. But one other thing caught my attention about their love for their fans.

Scrolling through Instagram after the game, I saw a video on how to try out for the team. They emphasize four major things with the first three being pretty obvious: high-level baseball experience, entertainment ability, and social media presence. But the fourth I appreciated. In the video they say, “The name of the organization is Fans First Entertainment. That means you will never big league a kid who wants your autograph, you will always put the fans first, and you will always be a good teammate.” I mention that because I appreciate the humility the Bananas project. In less than ten years, they’ve become this phenomenon with appearances on SportsCenter, games on ESPN, and sold out stadiums all over the country (they sold out Bank of America Stadium, where the Panthers play, twice—meaning 150,000 people over two nights!). And yet, the philosophy is still, “Fans first.” We heard that a lot last Saturday—how grateful they were, how much they appreciated us being there—and it shows.

Humility is something that we Christians ought to know something about. It is a major point in our theology and our understanding of our relationship with God. We believe that we ought to be humble in the presence of the Lord, acknowledging our dependence on God for all things. We ought to be humble in the presence of other people, believing that they have some-thing to teach us, some gift to give us. We believe that we are saved because Christ himself, God in the Flesh, was willing to humble himself enough to come to earth, live among us, suffer death on a cross, and still seek redemption and reconciliation for all of us. To be Christian is to be humble. It is to think of the needs of others first and figure out what we can do to meet those needs. All of it in the service of our God, who loves us more deeply than we could ever imagine.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,

I’ve mentioned this a few times now, but I’ve been thoroughly enjoying a fantasy book club I joined earlier this year. We meet at a bookstore in Chapel Hill once a month and we talk about the latest fantasy book the leader of the club has chosen. Five months in, I’ve enjoyed all of the books we’ve read — some definitely more than others.

Well, last Thursday, I went to chat with the other book club members about a book called City of All Seasons. It’s a very new book, having literally come out this May, that is co-written by two respected fantasy authors. The novel is set in the island city of Fairharbour and is told through the perspectives of two cousins, Jaime and Esther Pike. Sounds simple enough, until you learn that, because of tragic circumstances that happened decades earlier, the cousins have been separated since Fairharbour exists in two different, overlap-ping dimensions. Jaime’s Fairharbour is stuck in eternal winter and is governed by the oppressive Doormen. Esther’s Fairharbour is stuck in eternal summer and is terrorized by the paranoid Fenestration.

The plot of the book surrounds Jaime and Esther’s attempts to communicate with each other and unravel the mystery of what happened to split Fairharbour in two. And it’s the way they communicate that I want to write about a little bit. See, Jaime and Esther are both tinkerers who learned how to make things from their uncle, Pawel. They communicate with each other by creating new, interesting things that recall their shared childhood, slipping these to each other at places where the two Fairharbours bleed into one an-other (in other words, Jaime finds places not covered with snow and puts his object there, knowing Esther will find it, while Esther finds little patches of snow and places her creations there, knowing Jaime will find them). Their creativity, their connection, and their hope of reuniting keeps them going and does, eventually, help them figure out what happened to Fairharbour all those years ago.

What I appreciate the most about this story is the connection the authors make between creativity and hope. When we create something for someone else, we draw on our knowledge of them and we make something that we believe will bring them joy. We make something that reminds them that they are loved. And I would argue love and joy naturally lead one to hope. As Christians, isn’t our hope tied up in the idea that God loves us deeply? Is our hope not defined by the joy God gives to each of us? To be able to build connections with other people is to create com-munity and a sense that we can do great, wonderful things. If we will place God in the center of it all, we will find that creating and connecting with others connects us more fully to God.

So, over the next few weeks, I would challenge you all to create something for someone you love. Maybe it’s a craft. Maybe it’s a meal or a special dish. Maybe it’s creating a day where the two of you spend time with each other doing something you love. Regardless, think about them and their joy, and create something that sparks it.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

P. S. There is a review on the cover of City of All Seasons that calls it, “Deeply different, strange, and fascinating…” Rarely has a review so quickly encapsulated a book. City is deeply atmospheric and moody, with just enough plot to call itself a novel.

Brothers and sisters,

For the last two summers, our church has held a summer program for children that we’ve called Super Saturday Adventures. Each of the last two summers, children from our church and the wider Durham com-munity have come and spent a Saturday morning once a month with us. They’ve learned about God’s love for them. They’ve learned about people in the Bible who did wonderful things for God. They’ve heard parables from Jesus that told them they are beloved. This year, we’re planning to do that again!

Earlier this week, a group of about fifteen church members met to discuss how we wanted to reach out to these kids this summer. So, our Super Saturday Adventures will be on June 28th, July 12th, and July 26th from 9:30 AM to 12:30 PM. Our theme is, “Creatures of the Bible: The Untold Stories”. Basically, we’ll be teaching the children about God’s love for them by using stories that have animals in them. The first Saturday, we’re going to talk about Creation and all the wonderful species of animals God made. That second Saturday, we’ll be talking about Jonah and the Whale and what it means to listen to God. The final Sunday, we’ll talk about the various animals that played a part in the Christmas Story and what the birth of Jesus means for us all.

I’m excited for this. The people that met last night are excited for this. Super Saturday Adventures have been hits with the children and their parents and I’m looking forward to seeing all of them again this summer. To do this, though, we’ll need lots of help! Starting this Sunday, there will be a volunteer sign-up sheet in the vestibule. I would encourage you all to look over the kind of help we need, consider where you may feel God leading you to help, and sign up. We’ll need people in specific stations, but we’ll also need folks who can just be “floaters” who go wherever they’re needed that morning.

Super Saturday Adventures are wonderful events, truly. The kids love them. The volunteers love them. The parents love them. I’m looking forward to hosting these again. As we’ve done the last two years, the main message we’re looking to send to these kids is simple: God loves them and we love them, too.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben