U2, the Florida Marlins and Good Works:
What Dolphin Stadium taught me about 1 Peter 1

I am one of the six actual Marlins fans in existence. This is for good reason. First, I didn’t start following baseball until the end of high school so I didn’t have to suffer through the years when the Marlins wore the turquoise uniforms that made them look like Miami Subs employees. Secondly, I was born in south Florida so I don’t have a history with any other team and therefore don’t know any better.
I tell you this because at Marlins games I have experienced some interesting moments. The first was in 2003 when they won their second World Series. It was the year where out of nowhere the Marlins went from typical “I think my high school team could beat these guys” to “Holy crap they might make the playoffs” and like everyone else I jumped head first onto the bandwagon. I watched every playoff game and even got to attend a game from each playoff series as the fan attendance went from 16 (including 12 popcorn guys) to like 25,000. The crowning moment for me was when they were playing the Cubs in the second round and at one of the games they showed a highlight reel of the seasons best plays but the kicker was that “Where the Streets Have No Name” by U2 was playing in the background and they timed it so that just as they showed Pudge make the tag on JT Snow at the plate, Bono went into his trademark "screaming passionately and somewhat incoherently but still hitting notes" voice and right there in Outfield Reserve seat 109 I actually shed real, salty tears. I kid you not. It was a moment that every sport fan lives for. We’ll return to this in a moment.

As Christians I think one of the biggest subconscious, yet daily, practical struggles is why exactly do we live holy lives? If we truly adhere to justification by faith alone as so adamantly preached by Paul how do we live holy lives without a) growing legalistic and prideful or b) falling into a works-driven salvation whereby we rely on our good deeds?
1 Peter 1 is one of my favorite passages in all of Scripture. As Peter writes to a scattered people who are undergoing persecution and are in need of encouragement he begins his letter by laying forth a beautiful description of salvation. Jesus Christ has come in “great mercy” (v.3); “he has given us a new birth into a living hope” (v.3); an “inheritance that can never perish” (v.4); “ a faith greater than gold” (v. 7); in Christ is “inexpressible and glorious joy” (v. 8); the salvation in Christ is so great that prophets of old longed to see it and even angels longed to have a peek (v. 12). Peter’s goal is to remind the people of the magnitude of their salvation, that Jesus Christ was such a great gift that he overshadows any trouble we encounter. But Peter goes a step further, while the magnitude of salvation is indescribable, the price is too precious to neglect. Such a salvation was bought at a hefty price – the blood of Christ. After Peter describes the great salvation he reminds them of the cost. In verse 18 he says, “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed…but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”

Price Tag Living

We are a people motivated by price. Just look around. Thing that we own that are expensive we treat with much more care. I also learned this at a Marlins game. For a short time last season I had the privilege of sitting in the owner’s box (you should have seen the look the owner’s bodyguard gave me when I tried to tell him my U2-outfield-highlight reel-crying story). The bottom line is that these tickets were really expensive, way out of my league (pun intended) and I knew how much they cost the guy who let me use them. So during those frequent times when the Marlins were getting pulverized I was tempted to duck out early – but I didn’t – and the reason I didn’t was because I knew the cost of the tickets and the message it sent to the guy who gave them to me regarding my gratitude. And it was right there – in a turquoise plastic chair, covered in peanut shells, drinking a $13 Heineken, and watching overpaid athletes that 1 Peter 1 clicked. Our motive for Godly living is not found in our pride, our sense of self righteousness, our motive for Godly living is found in gratitude. And it’s not that we are trying to repay Christ (for that cannot occur), its simply that we understand the cost of our great and glorious salvation and we live in response to it. Peter wanted to remind his discouraged flock that salvation through Christ is a mind-blowing experience to which all else pales in comparison, and that when we truly grasp the cost of such a salvation our lives will scream it. When we don’t pursue obedience – when we duck out of the game early – we show contempt for the precious blood of Christ that purchased us from our sins. As Peter exclaims – it’s not like we were bought with gold or silver (we ain’t sitting in the upper deck) we were bought with the divine currency of Christ’s shed blood (we’re sitting in the owner’s box baby) and we should live accordingly.

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed…but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect…For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God…Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
(1 Pet. 1:17-2:3 in part)