With elements from two Shakespeare plays, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Much Ado About Nothing, Ms. LaRocca weaves a story about baseball and friendship and teamwork. The chapters in this middle grade novel are told in alternating voices, switching from twelve-year old Trish, who’s a winner in both baseball and math, to her teammate Ben, who feels like a loser in both baseball and math. The two of them begin as adversaries, and they end up finding that they have much in common.

Much Ado About Baseball is a puzzle book, similar to:

• The Puzzling World of Winston Breen by Eric Berlin.
• The Potato Chip Puzzles by Eric Berlin.
• The Puzzler’s Mansion by Eric Berlin.
• The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
• The Gollywhopper Games by Jody Feldman, reviewed at Semicolon.
• The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart, reviewed at Semicolon.
• Escape From Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein, reviewed at Semicolon.

These books all incorporate puzzles and games and thinking challenges into the story to appeal to both the mathematically inclined and the mystery fans among us. In Much Ado, Ben and Trish have to solve the puzzle of how to become friends and how to work together as teammates as well as working through the mysteries of family relationships and baseball. The book begins with the words, “Baseball is magic. Time stops between the instant the ball is released and when it makes it over the plate, between the whack of the bat and when the ball finally touches earth again.” And it ends with, “Baseball was magic. Math was magic, too. And thanks to them both, I had family and friends, in the perfect proportion.”

Nothing is terribly profound here, but there is some interplay between logic and imagination, and thoughts about making room for both. The Shakespeare references will be fun for children who are familiar with the plays, and perhaps those who haven’t yet tasted any Shakespearean goodness might be enticed to do so. It’s a fun romp with some Indian American characters in everyday situations, baseball magic, math puzzles, a girl playing baseball and excelling at math, and Shakespeare. What more could you ask for?

The Lord will come and not be slow,
his footsteps cannot err;
before him righteousness shall go,
his royal harbinger.

Truth from the earth, like to a flower,
shall bud and blossom then;
and justice, from her heavenly bower,
look down on mortal men.

Surely to such as do him fear
salvation is at hand!
And glory shall ere long appear
to dwell within our land.

Rise, God, judge thou the earth in might,
this wicked earth redress;
for thou art he who shalt by right
the nations all possess.

The nations all whom thou hast made
shall come, and all shall frame
to bow them low before thee, Lord,
and glorify thy Name.

For great thou art, and wonders great
by thy strong hand are done:
thou in thy everlasting seat
remainest God alone.

A paraphrase of Psalms 85 and 86.

Chapter 6 is a short chapter, and in it we meet seven new servant leaders of the growing church at Jerusalem, but especially Stephen. Stephen is described as:

I don’t know what the verse at the end of this chapter means when it says that the Jewish leaders “saw his face as the face of an angel.” Maybe Stephen’s facial expression was unusually courageous and joyful and honest and open. Or maybe his face was actually shining like Moses’ face after he met with God or Jesus’s face at the transfiguration. Whatever it was, it should have been a sign to the Jewish council to tread carefully and listen to Stephen’s message. (But it wasn’t.) 

I do know that I prayed after reading this chapter: I want to be so Spirit-filled, wise and full of faith, like Jesus and Stephen, that the only thing men can find to bring against me is a pack of lies.

What did this introduction to Stephen and to the inner workings of the church at Jerusalem say to you?

Chapter 5 of Acts continues with more signs and wonders–the sick are healed, unclean spirits are cast out, the apostles are freed from imprisonment twice, and they are enabled to rejoice that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for Jesus’ name.

BUT the chapter begins with a rather more sobering example of the power and holiness of the Holy Spirit. Ananias and Sapphira conspire to lie to God, and the Holy Spirit, who sees their unrepentant hearts, strikes them dead.

Psalm 1 that we’ve been reading has these warnings:

The ungodly are not so,

But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.

Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,

Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

For the LORD knows the way of the righteous,

But the way of the ungodly shall perish.

God’s signs and wonders are not always healing and freedom and joy. For those who do not stand in awe of His holiness and who do not come to Him with respect, repentance, and humility, the sign of His presence is judgment and ultimately death. I won’t ask you to give examples of this kind of miracle, but if you look around you can see it everywhere. The wages of sin is death.

But the gift of God is eternal LIFE through Christ Jesus our Lord.

My question last week, after reading about Pentecost and the healing of the lame man was: “where are the miracles today?” The Holy Spirit is still at work in the world, so why don’t I see more signs and wonders and marvelous works of God by the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus?

As I read chapters 4 and 5, I started to pick out and count all of the miracles, signs, works, and wonders of the Holy Spirit in these chapters alone:First in chapters 1-3: the resurrected Jesus, the acension of Jesus, wind and fire at the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, the gift of many languages, Peter’s preaching, 3000 people repent and are baptized, the unity of the church, the lame man healed.

Then, in chapter 4,:

• Another 2000+ men are added to the church (not to mention the women whose number God only knows).
• Peter, filled with the Spirit, preaches so boldly and eloquently that he astonishes the Sanhedrin.
• Peter has courage that wasn’t present before the resurrection (Peter denied Jesus and ran away), and he says, “we cannot but speak of the things we have seen and heard.”
• After the believers pray for courage and signs and wonders, the prayer meeting place starts shaking (earthquake tremor?) and they get the boldness they asked for.
• The believers are so moved to generosity that no one among them lacks anything, a miracle if ever there was a miracle.

And that’s just the first four chapters of the book of Acts. They saw signs and wonders and were astonished, and I’m sure the Holy Spirit is still at work in much the same ways. So, I’m thinking maybe the problem is not with the lack of miracles in our day but rather with my vision and my sense of wonder and gratitude. I asked the Lord to give me the ability to see and respond to the signs and wonders He is doing now, and I’m going to be looking carefully this week to see what He shows me.

Blaise Pascal wrote: God is “willing to appear openly to those who seek him with all their heart, and to be hidden from those who flee from him with all their heart. God so regulates the knowledge of himself that he has given indications of himself which are visible to those who seek him and not to those who do not seek him. There is enough light for those to see who only desire to see, and enough obscurity for those who have a contrary disposition.“

How have you seen God at work in the past week?

Peter and John went to pray;

they met a lame man on the way.

He asked for alms and held out his palms, 

and this is what Peter did say:

“Silver and gold have I none,

but such as I have give I thee.

In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,

RISE UP AND WALK!

Peter offers to the lame man and to the people who gather to see the miracle, the best thing he has to give: Jesus and His healing power.

 What struck you as you read this story about Peter and John and their gift?

The Charlotte Mason education folks (which is partly where I got the idea for our Cultivating Beauty and Truth feast) are really into folk songs, but I didn’t add a folk song to our feast. I figured we had enough on our plate as it is.

Nevertheless, our psalm that we are memorizing, Psalm 1, never fails to remind me of this song, sung here by Johnny Cash. I suppose it’s a folk song, and it’s definitely taken from Psalm 1. Enjoy.

The Way of the Righteous and the Wicked

1 Blessed is the man

who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, 

nor stands in the way of sinners, 

nor sits in the seat of ^fscoffers; 

 2  but his delight is in the law of the Lord, 

and on his law he meditates day and night. 

 3  He is like a tree 

planted by streams of water 

that yields its fruit in its season, 

and its leaf does not wither. 

In all that he does, he prospers. 

 4  The wicked are not so, 

but are like chaff that the wind drives away. 

 5  Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, 

nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; 

 6  for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, 

but the way of the wicked will perish.

I’ve heard it said that this filling of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is the reverse story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. Man in rebellion had one language, but God confused their languages. Now those who speak many languages are called to follow Jesus, each in his own language by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And then Peter gets up to preach. Was this his first public sermon? If so, it’s a good start–short, sweet, and to the point: “Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” (vs.36)

And a bunch of people became believers and followers of Jesus in response to Peter’s sermon. When I looked up Pentecost, I read that the holiday was the same as the Feast of Weeks, or the Harvest Festival for the Jews (celebrated 50 days after the Sabbath of Passover Week). That’s why so many Jews from all over the Diaspora were in Jerusalem, for the Feast of Weeks. Therefore, Pentecost is the beginning of God’s Harvest of disciples following Jesus. “Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.”

What would you say is the focus of this chapter and of Peter’s sermon?