{"id":1061,"date":"2008-09-11T00:05:27","date_gmt":"2008-09-11T04:05:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/?p=1061"},"modified":"2008-09-07T16:00:50","modified_gmt":"2008-09-07T20:00:50","slug":"playing-ball-playing-nice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/archives\/1061","title":{"rendered":"Playing ball, playing nice"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m not a big fan of sports analogies or metaphors, especially from the pulpit and in reference to matters spiritual. I find them at least irksome and at times insufferable. When in seminary a local church pastor (whose church we visited often only because of proximity to the seminary) used sports analogies as a staple in his sermons. After a while it was evident that he probably spent more time consulting ESPN than the ISBE.* However, it seems that sports analogies have a long history. <!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Peter J. Leithart, in \u201cGive &#038; Take\u201d in the July\/August issue of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/\">Touchstone  <\/a>magazine, cites <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Seneca_the_Younger\">Seneca  <\/a>as an early user of sports metaphors for rhetorical purposes:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In his treatise on benefits, Seneca returns again and again to the image of a ball game. A benefactor tosses a favor to another, and the recipient has to find a way to toss it back.<\/p>\n<p>Giving too much, in the wrong way, or at the wrong time, is like throwing a ball too hard to be caught. Returning a gift too soon is like tossing a ball back when it\u2019s not expected. If we give, receive, and return thoughtlessly, somebody\u2019s going to end up with a nasty bump on the head.<\/p>\n<p>Seneca sees giving, receiving, and returning as the stuff of social life. Conversation is a game of giving and returning, and so is hospitality, and sex, and child-rearing, and helping a neighbor. <\/p>\n<p>Social life is harmonious when we give and receive the right things at the right time in the right way. Next time you see a game of catch, remember that you\u2019ve seen a glimpse of utopia.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>While a nice sentiment, Leithart\u2019s entry borders on falling into a typically danger when using sports analogies: running the risk of trivializing what you are trying to illustrate. Child-rearing, for example, is not a game (and not even <em>like <\/em>one), though every once it a while it helps to be playful about it. <\/p>\n<p>As Leithart shows, sports analogies have a long history, and likely they are here to stay. But that will not diminish my tendency to cringe every time I hear one from the pulpit. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.galindoconsultants.com\"><img src='http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/11\/galindobanner5.jpg' alt='galindoconsultants.com' \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>*<a href=\"http:\/\/www.studylight.org\/enc\/isb\/\">International Standard Bible Encyclopedia.<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m not a big fan of sports analogies or metaphors, especially from the pulpit and in reference to matters spiritual. I find them at least irksome and at times insufferable. When in seminary a local church pastor (whose church we &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/archives\/1061\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,26,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congregational-life","category-humor","category-famous-quotes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1061"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1064,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1061\/revisions\/1064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}