Funny how important some things seem. This Saturday Texas Tech will play the U of Texas in Lubbock, and one writer calls this “the most important game in their 84 year history” for Tech. And most of you don’t even know Texas Tech existed, or where it is located. Well, Herb knows. He’s an alumnus.
And the “most important election in history” is about to take place in less than a week. Already pundits and reporters are speaking in glowing terms of voter turnout in record numbers and massive spending on TV ads especially, as never happened before. And it’s all a record.
And in all the noise and hoopla we sometimes forget the importance of ONE. You are the important one, and you are the one God is speaking to and dealing with. You’re not just a statistic, a voting presence, an addition to the numbers in a football stadium on Saturday. You are in God’s eye. Cherished, nurtured, loved, and cared for.
The Devotion in Portals of Prayer this morning speaks of our Baptism as working daily for us. The story is of a man who was baptized, left the church after service, and soon came rushing back and said, “Pastor, I just had a nasty thought, so why didn’t my Baptism work?” The Pastor asked if he wanted that thought washed away and for pure thoughts to come, and the man said he would. Then the pastor said, “Your baptism is working just fine.”
That’s what God does in Baptism. He brings the Spirit who drowns every evil thought and desire, so that the new man can daily rise. Our sinful hearts may despair and rage, but God gave us new hearts that long for freedom from every sin and vile thought.
Christ lives in me, as St. Paul teaches in Galatians 2,20, so I am a new man.
More than that, we have, in our regular service, a treasure that many do not have. Let’s call it Corporate Confession. In which we confess that “we have sinned against you in thought, desire, word, and deed, done things we ought not to have done, and left undone things we ought to have done.” When we speak the words, our heart is reminded of all the many failures in our lives, the little things left unsaid, the mean things blurted out, and pleads for forgiveness for Jesus' sake. And our prayer is granted by our Merciful Father in heaven. And most precious of all, God grants the lips of man to utter His forgiveness, “Whatsoever you forgave, I forgive also”.
Take heart then, good friend. In all the noise and confusion, you are loved as a person, treasured, sought out, cherished, forgiven, His Lamb. Thank God for this.
GPD 10/29/08
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