10-15-2020

 Good Morning All, 

       Romans 3:28; “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.”

    I have been watching the major league baseball playoffs.  I am kind of cheering for Tampa Bay but not with any great thought or heart.  One of the things I love about baseball is that it easily connects you to past games and past players.  I remember Kirk Gibson’s homerun in 1988 or Carlton Fisk’s homerun in 1975.  I remember the game 7 of the 1991 world series, probably the best game I have watched.  It took 10 innings for the Twins to beat Atlanta.  Jack Morris pitched all 10 innings for the Twins and John Smoltz started for the Braves and the umpire behind home plate was a guy named Don Denkinger.  The irony in this is that Don Denkinger was also involved in one of the worst plays in the world series history.  He was the first base umpire in the 1985 series who called the batter safe at first base when every replayed showed the batter out by a step to a step and a half.  That play is often looked at as changing the winds of fortune and gave the series win to Kansas City over St. Louis.

    This was long before replays and reviews.  This was when the game was played the way the umpire called it on the field.  If he called you out; you were out.  If he called you safe; you were safe.  There could be 50,000 people in the stands and a dozen TV cameras that showed different but what he called was right.  The runner was called safe and later he scored the tying run and it counted.  There was no little mark that said “it didn’t really count” nor did St. Louis win because “we all know better”.  Kansas City won the World Series in 1985 and that will not change.  The umpire declared the batter safe and that was it.

    We are declared safe by God.  Everyone knows I sin; they know you sin.  Yet you and I are declared holy by God.  We are righteous to stand in His presence, to come before Him with our prayers and to seek His comfort in our time of need.  We did not beat the throw but because of His mercy; you and I are safe, declared righteous by God.  Yet the devil and our sinful self tries to confuse us.  We keep hearing the whispers in our ear “just wait until everyone sees the replay; you will get tossed out.”  Yet there is no replay, there is no video review; what God declares is final and He has declared us holy.  We are holy because someone else paid our debt and rather than our sinful rags of clothes, we wear Jesus’ robe of righteousness.

    So, we can and should celebrate and give thanks for this wonderful gift.  We should tell our neighbors and our friends about the way to be safe.  The way to be declared righteous in God’s eye, we should tell them about Jesus.  We should tell them of the peace that we have because we are safe.  We should tell them of the comfort we have because we are safe.  We should tell them of the rest that we have because we are safe, safe in the arms of our loving Savior.  We are safe with Jesus and nothing else matters.

Gracious Father, we give you thanks for our safety.  You have made us part of your holy family because of your great love.  Guide us by Your Spirit to ever walk in Your grace.  Keep us safe and be with those who struggle with fear, worry and anxiety.  In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret