“In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:2-3)
I’ve long been a baseball fan. With zero athletic ability, I never played much, but as a boy I followed the game. At night, I sometimes picked up games on AM radio stations in major league cities, and often listened to the games of our local Denver Bears triple-A minor league team. I looked at box scores each day in the newspaper. My brother and I collected baseball cards, and we selected teams and played a game with those cards and a deck of playing cards. On Saturday afternoons as a boy, I often watched “NBC’s Major League Baseball Game of the Week,” with announcers Curt Gowdy and Tony Kubek. This was before cable television, and since my city did not have a major league team then, this was usually the only televised baseball I saw. Those games were televised from different stadiums in different cities each week.
The major league stadiums that were in use during the era of my childhood are mostly all gone. Places like Yankee Stadium, Tiger Stadium, and Comiskey Park have been torn down. Even most of the multi-purpose stadiums built in the 1970’s and 1980’s have met the wrecking ball. Three iconic baseball venues, however, remain in use – Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, built in the early 1960’s, and Wrigley Field in Chicago and Fenway Park in Boston, both built early in the twentieth century.
My wife and my son both enjoy baseball; our son played the game in high school, and baseball remains a connecting point between us. He and I drove to Omaha for a couple of college world series games the year of his high school graduation, and the next year we flew to Arizona for a few days at Colorado Rockies spring training. Last year, after some thought and discussion, my wife, my son, and I went to Wrigley Field in Chicago. I still remember in my youth watching games that were televised from that stadium; I remember the names of many of the Cubs players from those days. I carefully planned out the trip, shelled out the cash to buy airfare and tickets to the games, and we attended two games along with a stadium tour where we were able to go onto the field and stand in front of the unique ivy-covered outfield walls, and had most of a day to go into downtown Chicago as well. Wrigley Field lived up to our hopes. A modern scoreboard has been added along with a few renovations, but the stadium retains its charm. It sits partially surrounded by an older residential area, and the footprint of the stadium is small; we walked all the way around it several times, along Waveland Avenue, along Sheffield Avenue, along Addison Street, and Clark Street, the main street in front of the stadium. The Cubs won; the fans sang “Go Cubs Go.” For a baseball fan, Wrigley Field is an iconic venue. We’d like to go again.
This year, we are going to Fenway Park in Boston. After thought and research, a pile of cash even bigger than last year has been invested. Tickets to two games have been purchased from the ball club and are in a drawer (yes, old fashioned paper tickets), along with documentation showing the purchase of a stadium tour. I’m not going that far without the proper admission documents in hand, and airline tickets were purchased only after baseball tickets were purchased, at a stadium where sell-outs are common. A hotel a couple of blocks from the stadium has been reserved. A day will be available for a visit to a couple of historic Boston sites. We’ve planned a great trip and visit to historic, iconic Fenway Park and hope it lives up to our visit last year to Wrigley. We await the trip with much anticipation.
As a boy, I also learned of an Iconic Venue that far exceeds the grandeur of any baseball park. The cost of entering this Place is incalculable. But I learned that the Designer and Builder of this Great Place wants me to come, wants all to come, and so paid the vast cost of admission Himself. While the requirement to enter was not something I could pay and it was paid on my behalf, nevertheless something was required from me. I had to humble myself and ask; I had to acknowledge that I was unable to gain admission on my own merit but needed to request admission based on the immense price that had been paid for me. That wasn’t too difficult for me as a boy, but that process of humbling oneself, admitting one’s inability to meet the entrance requirements, admitting that one has in fact no right to enter, proves a great obstacle to many.
And so, in my childhood – I don’t know the date – I came to believe the promise of the Great Designer and Builder of this venue, humbly asked Him, and received my entrance credentials. I did not receive a paper ticket, but rather gained every confidence in my innermost being that my future entrance into the iconic venue is assured. I believed the gospel, and the witness of the Spirit speaking through the Word. I don’t know the future date or the circumstances of my eventual entering this place, but I know that the One Who has paid the price for me does. By faith in Christ and what He paid on my behalf, I have lived in anticipation of one day entering this Place; in a way, in that innermost part of my being, in my mind and in my heart, I am already there.
Biblical Christianity has a profoundly future focus. For many who will one day enter this Place, those living under persecution or those living in difficult circumstances, going there is their daily hope and expectation. Entrance into this great Place has a downside, however, at least to me as a prosperous, healthy, and happy American. Unlike going to a ballpark or going on a vacation, one never returns from this place, and I am not anxious to leave my life in this world. I have a great life, with many places to go, many experiences to experience. My beloved wife and I have plans for a great future. I enjoy my new grandchild; maybe there will one day be another. As life here continues, perhaps the Designer and Builder of the Great Place will enable me to help someone in their life as they look forward to that Place, and certainly He wants me to encourage others to humble themselves and seek their own admission. The Apostle Paul wrote (Philippians 1:21-24),
“For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you.”
The great old sports stadiums are mostly gone, and those that remain will eventually be gone too. The Great Place where I will one day go will last forever. Many people expressing the ideas of folk religion might speak of “going to that great ballpark (or, great “fill-in-the-blank”) in the sky.” Heaven is far more than that; it is the eternal home of believers who know Christ as their Lord and Savior. I do not know exactly what one does, what one sees, or what one experiences, after entering this place. I do know that it exists for the honor and glory of its Creator and He has designed it exclusively for those who have humbled themselves and asked for admission on His terms, and so we will worship and praise Him. I know that, because He Himself has paid the inestimable price of admission for those who enter, He loves us greatly and will delight in our enjoyment of our life in this Great Place. We will be free from the presence of sin and the results of sin; we will have fellowship with God.
God’s redeemed people should live in the perpetual anticipation of the eternal home He has prepared for us. The American evangelical church seems to have forgotten this. Pastors speaking to self-absorbed audiences talk much of topics like prosperity and success and happiness and better relationships and social justice, and imply that following Jesus is merely a way to have a better life in this world. The church seems to try to reflect and conform to society as much as possible, incorporating current entertainment trends and current social topics in place of speaking clearly and often of the the gospel and eternity. It has decided to meet human desires and perceived needs rather than calling men to faith and repentance, the necessary entrance requirement to enter eternal life. Many churches avoid speaking of or singing of topics like salvation from sin, death, and the second coming of Christ. This is a grievous error. As in the past, sermons in sound churches today often concern heaven and how to get there, although unfortunately sometimes to excess and failing to remember to also speak of the important implications of the gospel in daily life now. Hymns and gospel songs often remind us of sin and salvation, heaven, and the return of Christ. The motivational talks of today’s seeker-sensitive church no longer feature such themes, and the contemporary entertainment that has replaced singing of hymns and gospel songs in many churches does not do so. The gospel must affect every part of our life in this world, but we must never forget that “this world is not my home, I’m just passing through,” and our real task is to offer the gospel so that others might believe it and come to live their lives in anticipation of their eternal home. Christians live with the perpetual consciousness that this life can meet with disaster or even end at any time, but we have an eternal home awaiting us. Further, Christ may come at any moment and bring the present evil age to an end. This is our hope.
In Revelation 21 John wrote,
“Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
Michael Stertz 