Dear Gloria Dei,
I once heard a story about the great baseball player, Babe Ruth. He was up to bat and the umpire called him out on strikes. Babe didn’t like the umpire’s call and so he turned and looked at the ump with disdain and then said in a rather loud voice, “There are 40,000 people here who know that the last pitch was a ball, you tomato head.” Babe Ruth braced himself, thinking he’d get ejected from the game. But instead, the cool-headed umpire said, “Maybe so, Babe, but mine is the only opinion that counts.”
As we go through life and make decisions, of course it is important to get other people’s advice and opinions. But during this season of Lent, we are reminded that over and above all else, it is God’s opinion that counts the most. I once had a pastoral colleague tell me that, when preparing and preaching a sermon, I am first and foremost preaching to an audience of one (God). In other words, what I say is to be what God wants me to say. Only then can the Word of God proclaimed come alive for the hundreds of people who hear the sermon on any particular weekend.
So what is God’s opinion of us? As we journey with Jesus to the cross, we are reminded that we are in need of a Savior. We cannot save ourselves. But God’s opinion of us is one of love. God doesn’t create this world and then step away. No. God loves this world. God loves you and me. And so, God steps in with a vision and a plan to win us back, to redeem us, and to set us once again in a right relationship with God. This God does through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. As the apostle Paul says so many times, “We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus.”
This weekend in worship we’ll hear the very early stages of God’s vision to win us back. The Old Testament calling of Abraham and Sarah begins God’s vision which culminates in God blessing the world through the giving of his Son. For this weekend’s worship, please read Genesis 15:1-6, which is a reassurance to Abraham of God’s promise given a few chapters earlier.
Because of Jesus, God has a very high opinion of you. Be blessed.
See you in worship,
Pastor Tim
