QUARANTINE BLOG # 367

April 1, 2021

Major League Baseball will begin its 2021 regular-season schedule – planned for 162 games – with all 30 Major League Clubs playing today, Opening Day.  And not a minute too soon.

And the QB has been waiting a long time to share a few baseball groaners, from the Bible.  That’s right.  Baseball is mentioned in the Bible.  First, Genesis 1:1 – “In the big inning.”  Next, Gideon rattled the pitchers.  And the prodigal son made a home run.

Pittsburgh Pirates fans will be gathered at 233 to root for the Buccos – who are opening the season in Chicago against the Cubs – and cheering, “Let’s go Bucs,” and hoping to raise the Jolly Roger as the Pirates begin their 135th season.

A great moment at PNC Park is the bottom of the 9th, with the Bucs down a run, and the scoreboard exhorting, “Hoist the colors.”

👉  I don’t think Non-Sequitur had baseball in mind, but they did mention the Jolly Roger.

👉  Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra is widely regarded as one of the greatest catchers in baseball history, who later took on the roles of manager and coach.  He played 19 seasons of Major League Baseball, and all but the last for the New York Yankees.  He was an 18-time All-Star and won 10 World Series championships as a player – more than any other player in MLB history.  He is one of only six players to win the American League Most Valuable Player Award three times.  He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972.  And he had some of the best responses to interviewers in all of baseball.  Yogi once remarked, “I didn’t really say everything I said,” but Yogi-isms are great words of logic, and illogic.  Enjoy this 6 minute piece of Yogi-isms.  Don’t be impatient, because it ain’t over until it’s over.

👉  72,000 applicants put their names in the hat, or maybe I should say space helmet, for a seat on Inspiration4, a SpaceX launch planned for later this year and billed as the first all-civilian spaceflight in history.  Joining the team are Chris Sembroski, a Seattle-area aerospace industry employee and U.S. Air Force veteran, and Sian Proctor, 51, an entrepreneur who was once a NASA astronaut candidate.  Already on board were billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, who conceived the mission in part as a charity drive, and St. Jude physician’s assistant Haley Arceneaux, 29, a bone cancer survivor.

Civilian astronauts Jared Isaacman, Hayley Arceneaux, Sian Proctor and Chris Sembroski.

Isaacman conceived the 3 to 4 day mission in part as a charity drive.  He is forking over an unspecified but presumably exorbitant sum to fellow billionaire and SpaceX owner Elon Musk to fly himself and the three others into orbit aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.  The application lottery raised $113 million in donations for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a leading pediatric cancer center.  Isaacman has pledged $100 million personally to the institute.  Danny Thomas would be proud.

👉  Pfizer announced Wednesday that its COVID-19 vaccine is safe and strongly protective in kids as young as 12, a step toward possibly beginning shots in this age group before they head back to school in the fall.  Most COVID-19 vaccines being rolled out worldwide are for adults, who are at higher risk from the coronavirus.  Pfizer’s vaccine is authorized for ages 16 and older.  But vaccinating children of all ages will be critical to stopping the pandemic – and helping schools, at least the upper grades, start to look a little more normal after months of disruption.  In the vaccine study of 2,260 U.S. volunteers ages 12 to 15, preliminary data showed there were no cases of COVID-19 among fully vaccinated adolescents compared to 18 among those given dummy shots, Pfizer reported.

👉  And a related panel:

👉  One Time.

Exodus contains the history of an incredible construction project – the Tabernacle which would be the place where Israel met for worship, and where offerings would be presented to God.  First, the Tabernacle itself was built.  Then, in this order, the Ark of the Covenant, the Table for the Show Bread (cakes or loaves of bread which were always present as an offering to God), the Lamp Stand, the Incense Altar, the Altar of Burnt Offering, and the Wash Basin.  Finally the builders laid out the boundaries of the Courtyard (which set the holy ground of the tabernacle apart from the rest of the camp), a rectangular space 150 feet by 75 feet, in which all of the previously listed elements would be placed.  

Before the priest could go past the courtyard into the Holy Place he first had to make a sacrifice for the sins he committed – sin had to be stripped of its power to condemn.  

Second, the priest had to wash in Wash basin (also called a laver) as a symbol of cleansed life.  This washing place was made of mirrors given by the women who served at the entrance to the Tabernacle.  Glass mirrors would not be made until the 3rd century A.D., so these were made of bronze, so highly polished that the face of the person using it would be reflected in the metal.

The priest, after having offered a sacrifice for his sins, and looking at himself in the reflection of the water in the bronze wash basin, could go into the Holy Place, into the presence of God.  These ministrations were required of every priest, every time he entered into the Holy Place for himself or for the people of Israel.

The writer of Hebrews said, “First, Christ said, ‘You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings or burnt offerings or other offerings for sin, nor were you pleased with them’ though they are required by the law of Moses.  Then he said, ‘Look, I have come to do your will.’  He cancels the first covenant in order to put the second into effect.  For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time” (Hebrews 10:8-10 NLT).

One time.  For all time.

The next two verses seal the deal: “Under the old covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins.  But our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time” (10:11-12).

One time.  For all time.  Good for all time.  Jesus paid it all, one time, for all of us, for all time.  That is a sacrifice too great, and a promise too wonderful, to be ignored.

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