Good Morning All,
Have you ever engaged with someone in a
debate about who is the best or who is the worst? For example, which was the best baseball
team, the 1927 Yankees, the 1955 Dodgers, the 1975 Reds or the 1998
Yankees? If you get some real baseball
guys together; that question is never answered; you can make the case for all
of them by taking different parts of the game and different parts of society
into factoring your decision.
If you are really into this type of game,
you ask who the worst was. Who lost the
most games? Who had the worst record? This is sometimes easier because it is
usually only a matter of numbers. If
team “A” lost 35 games and team “B” lost 40 games, then team “B” is the
worst. But arguing over who is the best
or what was the best will always be an argument because there are many factors
in being the best.
In our verse, Paul tells his young pupil
Timothy that he is number #1!! Paul
tells him that he is the best, the top dog, the king of the hill, the chief
sinner. As I read that verse, I am not
sure if that is really a “best of” or a “worst of” category. Usually, we want to be the chief, but do we
want to be the chief sinner? We may not
want to be the chief sinner but we often times are. I have never murdered anyone. I have never given false testimony in a court
of law. But I have been angry at another
person and not for good reasons. I have
never given false testimony, but I have listened to and shared gossip at the
local coffee shop. All of these are sins
and Scriptures says that all sins rise as a stench to God. All sins are like the carcass of a dead
animal on a July day. We are all chief of sinners just like Paul.
But God in his grace solved that. Christ Jesus came into the world to save
sinners, even the worst ones like me and like you. God sends his Spirit to bring this point
home. When we receive this by faith, we
have all the joy that we can have. We
are on the journey with the Spirit toward our heavenly home which Christ has
gained for us.
When we acknowledge that we are the chief
of sinners and need God’s forgiveness; that is the essence of Christian
life. We need God’s grace; God gave us
that grace even before we knew it. He
continues to give it and will always give it.
We only need to trust in his Word, and we receive the blessing of life
starting with the washing of the stench in the waters of Baptism and nourished
by the Word and Holy Communion. This
trust leads us in confidence and boldness to pray to God asking for and
believing in his promises. God promises
to hear all who call on him in faith, trusting in his mercy for Christ’s
sake. So maybe being chief of sinners
isn’t that bad; especially when we are cleansed by the blood of the Lamb and
declared holy for his sake.
Dear
Father in heaven, by nature I am chief of sinners. Yet in your love you redeemed me and made me
your own. For this and all other gifts I
give you thanks and praise. Continue to
cleanse me, to wash me and make me into the disciple that you want me to be, in
Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.
God’s
Peace,
Pastor
Bret
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