God or the gods…In Whom Do We Believe? – by Greg Albrecht

Friend and Partner Letter from May 2024:

The god of this age has blinded the mind of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God (2 Corinthians 4:4).

Caught in traffic after leaving his office, Dave arrived at his son’s first Little League game a little late. His son’s team was just leaving the field after finally getting the other team out. Dave could tell his wife sitting in the grandstands was not happy with his late arrival, so hoping to make some amends he walked down by his son’s dugout and called him over.

“What’s the score, Johnny?”

His son, not looking that concerned, said, “28 to nothing.”

Dave was shocked, and replied to Johnny, “Your team is behind by 28 runs!?!?”

Johnny said, “Dad, don’t worry about it. We haven’t even come up to bat yet.” Johnny believed his team was no hopelessly beaten. This was Johnny’s first Little League game. He was not experienced enough to be an unbeliever. Johnny did not believe all was lost. 

The adversities and storms of life may get first crack at us. They may have the first chance to come up to bat, as it were. We head out to the field with high hopes, but by the time the other team – the enemy – this sad old world – keeps running around the bases while we are unable to even get one out, our belief starts to be shaken and then destroyed. 

Finally, mercifully, while the world at large is done piling it on, we walk off the field, heads hanging low, lower lips dragging the ground, wondering when we come “to bat” how we will score enough runs to even tie the game, yet alone take the lead. We are beaten and whipped unbelievers.

The score might be 28-0 but the game isn’t over. The game isn’t over until God comes up to bat. The “game” isn’t over with the initial onslaught. The battle may seem to be lost. The odds may seem to be against us, but as Paul says (Romans 8:31), with God on our side who can be against us? As Christ-followers we believe God will come up to bat. 

After Jesus was crucified, the disciples felt the “game” was over. They were hiding in fear. They had no belief left. All the starch in their sails of faith was long gone. They felt Jesus had let them down and lost the “game.” He humiliated them. He was supposed to save them. He was the Messiah.  hey thought and they certainly wanted him to usher in the Kingdom of God, and among other things, send the occupying army of Romans back to Rome where they had come from. But no, they seemed to be behind 28-0. 

Even though Jesus had told them he would be crucified (which he had been, but before that time they did not believe) and that he would be resurrected (at the time they were hiding in fear he had been resurrected, but they did not believe such a thing could ever happen) they still felt like Jesus should have done what they felt he should have done – which included conquering the Roman army and sending them away in utter defeat. But no, instead of believing in what Jesus had said, they only believed they were behind 28-0.

What things seem like to us is one thing, but the spiritual reality and the promises of God are another. All we can see is that we are hopelessly behind, and all we can believe is that the “game” is lost. As we hide in fear, God in Christ has already won the game – he has come up to bat and ended it all. He is risen. He has defeated death and the grave. He has “scored so many runs” the other team – our enemies, the world at large – can never catch up. 

God in Christ has conquered the gods of this world.  Here’s something on that topic written by an author I have often quoted, and by now many of you know. In his book, The Magnificent Defeat, Frederick Buechner says this about “The Gods Are Dying” –

The gods are dying. The gods of this world are sick unto death. If someone does not believe this, the next time he happens to wake up in the great silence of the night or of the day, just listen.  And after a while, at the heart of the silence, he will hear the sound that gives it away: the soft, crazy thud of the feet of the gods as they stagger across the earth; the huge white hands fluttering like moths; the little moans of bewilderment and anguish. And we shudder at the sound because to witness the death of the gods is a fearsome thing.

Which gods? The gods that we worship.  The gods that our enemies worship. Their sacred names? There is Science, for one: he who was to redeem the world from poverty and disease, on whose mighty shoulders mankind was to be borne onward and upward toward the high stars. 

There is Communism, that holy one so terrible in his predilection for blood sacrifice but so magnificent in his promise of the messianic age; from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.

Or Democracy, that gentler god with his gospel of freedom for all peoples, including those people who after centuries of exploitation and neglect at the hands of the older democracies can be set free now only to flounder in danger of falling prey to new exploiters. 

And we must not leave out from this role of the dying what often passes for the god of the church: the god who sanctifies our foreign policy and our business methods, our political views and our racial prejudices. The god who, bless him, asks so little and promises so much: peace of mind, the end of our inferiority complexes. Go to church and feel better. The family that prays together stays together. Not everybody can afford a psychiatrist or two weeks of solid rest in the country, but anybody can afford this god. He comes cheap.

There are the gods in whom the world has put its ultimate trust. Some of them are our particular gods, and there are plenty of others, each can name for himself. And where are they now? They are dying, dying, and their twilight thickens into night. Where is the security that they promised?  Where is the peace? The terrible truth is that the gods of this world are no more worthy of our ultimate trust than are the men who created them. –Frederick Buechner, “The Magnificent Defeat”

• God does not depend on science, politics or military might. No matter how formidable the foe might seem or actually be, God is more than up to the task.
• God eradicates deeply rooted fears. He can move mountains of grief. He can stop the

storms of doubt and despair. 

• God defeated Pharoah’s armies. God cut a path through the Red Sea so that the nation of Israel could be delivered from the military might of Egypt, and from its religion and all of its gods.
• God overcomes injustices, suffering, death, grief, disease, warfare, hatred and racism.  
• God defeats giants and turns our enemies into toad stools.
• God beats swords into plow shares and spears into pruning hooks.

Back to Johnny as he played in his first Little League game, and let’s see it as a metaphor of you and me as we play our positions in the “game” of life. We prove to be inadequate to stop the other team from scoring. We make errors. We are not as skilled as those on the other team. And if we allow those realities to dictate and determine how we live our lives, then we will live as unbelievers.

However, we are on God’s team. When all is said and done, it doesn’t matter if we even know which end of the bat to hold or which hand to put the baseball glove on. It doesn’t matter that no one on our team is as talented or athletically gifted as the players on the other team. God is on our side. When he comes up to bat, game over.

The “game” was over for Martha and Mary – their brother Lazarus was dead. All hope was lost.  Death had won, they had lost. Jesus, like Dave, Johnny’s father in our story, had arrived “to the game” after the enemy had scored so many runs, taking the life of Lazarus, so it seemed to Martha and Mary all was lost. 

Jesus said to her [Martha], “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26).

My friends – my brothers and sisters in Christ. We are Christ-followers. We believe in him, no matter how dark the night might seem, no matter how overwhelming our situation might be. By God’s grace, we believe.

Your brother in Christ,

Greg Albrecht

Letters to My Friends

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