Back in the day, it seemed every other UU minister I knew had a sermon (or more) about major league baseball. (We’ve since come to preach about women’s softball, a game just as engaging and filled with unpredictability.)

Back to the major leagues, even those preachers who rooted for perennial, last-place “basement-dwellers” couldn’t resist the game itself. The sermons weren’t about winning, they tended toward two things: Creativity within diversity.

Creativity, because swinging at round ball with a round bat could result in a whiff in the wind, or a curve ball sent deep into the night. It was about not knowing for sure what’s going to happen next.

The other stand-out characteristic was diversity: Players, managers, coaches and fans from multiple countries, identities and and approaches to the game. It was about a game once ruled by Whites, then broken open by Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby.

I’ll be talking about baseball this Sunday, but in keeping with my colleagues, as a platform for something much bigger, much more important. In this case, God understood as a “Creative Exchange”.

But you don’t need to give a hoot about baseball to understand all that. Substitute any healthy activity that brings you into a holy space where time stops, and creativity begins. Think about what feeds your spirit, and reminds you all is not lost on Planet Earth. What is it that ushers you into the presence of something that transcends it all?

Hope to see you Sunday. And if you have some baseball gear, feel free to wear it to the service. Even you Yankees fans.

Don