Hello,
Some
months ago I told you of some new neighbors who moved in – actually they
weren’t neighbors, they were squatters making their home in my yard:
groundhogs. We have been setting
live traps for them , and having the traps out for the most of the summer, it
seems as though we have emigrated them elsewhere. We have left the traps out, just in case any of them, or
their relatives, decided to take up home back in our yard, but we haven’t
caught anything for the last month or so.
That is until yesterday.
Yesterday, my wife was weedwacking and as she neared one of the traps
she thought she saw something move in it, and sure enough, we had caught
ourselves another varmint. As she
neared the trap, though, she discovered we had not caught a ground hog. We had caught a skunk! Not wanting to be sprayed, she quickly
backed away, and came and told me of our catch.
I said, “Well, we will have to talk to Ralph (our friendly neighbor who
has helped us “relocate” the groundhogs) and see if he will help us.” So, later in the day, Ralph happened by
and I said to him, “If I gave you a beer, would you do me a favor?”
With a glimmer of wonder as to what these greenhorn neighbors of his had
gotten themselves into now, he said, “Well…..depends upon the favor.”
“You know those traps that we’ve been setting for the groundhogs?”
“Yup,”
he said through his Yosemite Sam beard.
“Well,
one of the traps is full, and it’s not with a groundhog.”
That’s
all I needed to say, and he said, “You caught a skunk, didn’t you?”
“Yup,” I
said back.
“Well,
it may cost you more than one beer, but we’ll see what we can do to take care
of it,” and with that I invited
him into our house for payment and briefing on how we were going to get this
skunk out of our trap without becoming the recipient of its perfume.
Those of us who have been dubbed the name Christian for a while have
come to know that Jesus is quite adept at “relocating” the groundhog sins, the
pesky and bothersome things that we do, from our lives….the things that we know
other people will even forgive.
But when it comes to the skunk sins, the really stinky things, the
things that for which the world dumps shame on us, the things that crash into
our lives like a hurricane…the things so rancid that no one wants to be around
us, and smell so bad that we don’t even like being around ourselves…..well, the
one who knows how to deal with groundhog sins, also knows how to deal with the
skunk ones, too.
He says,
“Bring them to me, and I’ll “relocate” them. I’ll take them off of you, and place them on me, and I will
exterminate them. I’ll take them
to death with me as I breathe my last on the cross, and they will be
finished. I am not just an
exterminator of groundhog sins…..I died for the skunk ones, too.”
And here’s good news to go with that: it doesn’t cost you a thing….not a
beer, or even two beers….not a single cent, not an IOU, not a pledge or a
promise. Jesus took on the price
himself, and so there is no price to pass on to us.
So, if you have caught something in a trap….a groundhog sin or a skunk
sin….come this Sunday to church and lay whatever it is at the feet of Jesus and
hear the words of death and life from Jesus, “You are forgiven.” Forgiven so that you can live with
others. Forgiven so that you can
live with God….but most of all, forgiven so that you can live with yourself.
Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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