Fans

Oh, Heavens to Betsy.  That begs for a response.  I wasn't going to write today, but you, sir, have forced my hand.  Just a little rant about the Yanks and then we'll go from there.  Most Christians should understand the Yankees and should be Yankee fans for the mere fact that we were bought with a price.  AND...if you believe that the Yanks buy the championship (which is an absolute falsehood because we (yes we) haven't won one since 2009), Christ also won it all for us.  Following the logic, then, we have won and therefore should all be Chrankees.  (Yes, I put Christians and Yankees together.  There's my heresy for the day.)


As David focuses on the "wicked" he brings us back to the postures of the first two verses.  The word stand is used as an identifier.  Who you stand with implies with which group you identify.  "I can't stand it" when...  We use this phrase as language to stay that we are not comfortable with a particular behavior or belief. The wicked will not stand in judgment.  The will be knocked to their knees in grief.  They will not be a part of the congregation, or the "forest of the forgiven" as the picture language in verse 3 gives us. 


Unfortunately, in the world we live in right now, wicked is not view as wicked and transgressions are not scorned.  As the rarely quoted book of 3 John reminds us, "Beloved, do no imitate evil but imitate good.  Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God." (v. 11)  The Lord knows the way of the righteous.  He sees it in the vision of the church.  He moves us to call the wicked to repentance in order that the "championship" won for us by Christ may be celebrated by all of his fans someday. 


Standing for your team often involves some measure of ridicule.  Whether a Hawkeye fan in Nebraska, a Mets fan in Australia, or a Christian in a place that is not our home, we know with whom we stand.  Paul says, "But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me."  2 Timothy 1:12  And then he begs Timothy and all believers to stand with him in that great and glorious gospel. 


For now, the wicked seem to have their way.  But when Christ returns, the world will hear the loudest cheering in the history of mankind, by the forgiven fans of Jesus.