Baseball, Archery and Other Targets in Life

I continue in this week’s blog with reflections on the August Sermon Series, “So What’s So Hot About Christianity?” The first week I talked about the hopeful vision that Christianity has for a better world. The second week I looked at the Biblical formula to achieve that better world: “To do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” The third week I looked at how Christianity helps us heal those things in our past, our upbringing and our acculturation that block us from living according to the vision of a better world. Last week I focused upon how to change our present. This week I want to turn our sights towards the future. Today I’d like to begin this discussion by talking about archery and baseball.

While archery and baseball may seem to be completely different sports, they share one key element in common: ballistics. In archery, for example, one aims an arrow at a target and tries to hit the center, or “bull’s eye.” The chances of the arrow hitting the bull’s eye are determined by factors such as the strength of the archer, the elasticity of the bow, gravity, and wind resistance. In baseball, a ball is thrown to a batter and when hit, it’s path is determined by the point of impact, the direction of the batter’s swing, gravity and wind resistance. The outfielders watch the course of the ball’s flight and try to judge where it will land in order to catch it. They then in turn, throw the ball to a teammate and the path of that ball is determined by the aim of the thrower, the strength of the thrower, gravity and wind resistance.

The study of all these factors affecting the flight path of the arrow or ball is called “ballistics.” The word “ballistics” is derived from the Greek word, βάλλειν (ba'llein), which means “to throw." It has developed into a very exacting field of study within classical mechanics, which is the study of how bodies move in space and interact with each other.

In the early days of warfare, the skill of archers was highly prized. The ability to hit a target from a great distance was crucial to success in battle, and folk literature is full of stories such as Robin Hood out shooting the king’s chief archer or William Tell’s accuracy while shooting an apple atop his son’s head.

The path of any projectile, whether arrow, ball or bullet, is referred to as “the trajectory” of the projectile. A trajectory describes an arc as it first climbs and then is acted upon by the pull of gravity and gradually loses momentum. The search for a mathematically precise portrayal of the trajectories of moving bodies gave rise to calculus and the various laws of classical mechanics articulated by Isaac Newton.

The courses of our lives develop certain trajectories as well. Just like a ball thrown in the air, how we live now develops a trajectory for the rest of our lives, and for the life that continues after this life. Significantly, the Bible is concerned throughout its pages with ballistics and the trajectories of human lives. This concern is not expressed in terms of bullets, arrows or balls, but in a very old-fashioned sounding word, “sin.”

In the ancient Hebrew language, there is a group of words derived from the root châtâ, which means “to miss (the mark), to go wrong, to lack, to forfeit.” It is translated into English as “to sin.” Similarly, in the ancient Greek, there is a term, ἁμαρτία (hamartia), that means to err, to miss the mark, to do wrong. Both terms have in their etymological histories a notion of missing the mark, as in being off-target, or aiming at a target but falling short. Both came to have the sense that there is a right way to live and act, but human actions often fall short of that way, either through accident or willful intent.

In order to know if one’s aim in archery is right on or in need of correction, one needs to know where the target is. Likewise, in order to know if one is erring or doing wrong, one has to be aware of what is right. Thus, it is crucial to know what constitutes the goal of living, and what is the right way of living in order to achieve that goal.

That is the point of having a vision of what is possible, or even what is intended as an outcome in life. The Bible has various ways of portraying what God’s intention for human life together looks like. This is the target we are aiming at, the goal we are trying to achieve. Of course, we fall short of this target time and time again, but occasionally we get close to the mark. Sometimes we hit it squarely in the center.

In the Bible, it is the job of the prophets and Jesus to describe when the people of God are off-mark and when they are on the mark. The way they do this is to describe what will happen should the people continue in their present course of action. One classic example is the prophet Jonah who is sent to Nineveh to warn them of their impending overthrow by God unless they repent and change their actions. After initially trying to run in the opposite direction, Jonah reluctantly arrives at Nineveh and proclaims, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” The king and people repented, and were not overthrown (much to Jonah’s chagrin). The purpose of Jonah’s message was to describe a possible outcome of Nineveh’s actions. That is, the trajectory of their behavior was headed in one direction, but if they changed their actions, that trajectory would change.

Tomorrow: The trajectory of Sheep and Goats

(Image sources: Archery Target from http://www.dundeedrivegolfrange.com/600px-Archery_Target_80cm.svg.png;   baseball player from http://news.getaroom.com/wp-content/uploads/baseball-player.jpg;   parabola from http://illuminations.nctm.org/lessons/6-8/patterns/Patterns-Parabola.jpg;  archer from http://www.sculpturegallery.com/Andevan07/Archer_1.jpg;   Jonah from http://www.chicken-scratch.ca/St.Jonah.jpg)