Hello,
This morning on the way to church I played Red Rover with a line of
crows, and I won!
I leave my house around 7:00 a.m. to get to church on Sunday mornings.
Usually, I travel over the ridge, and since traffic is pretty sparse at that
time of day on Sunday, it takes me about 35 minutes to traverse the winding
road up and over the mountain.
Today, however, we had about 6 inches of snow on the ridge, so I decided
to play it safe and take the main roads to Greensburg, roads that form the two
shorter sides of the triangle of roads from my house to the church. It’s a bit longer, as geometry would
tell you, but it’s not as winding and perilous on snowy days.
Going north on the still unplowed main road, I noticed a small flock of
crows floating down from the sky, landing in a perfect line, beak to tail
feathers, perpendicular to the traffic flow. It isn’t an unusual sight to see crows flutter down and land
on the road, but usually they land in a glob, encircling a squirrel or raccoon
that met its demise. Yet, for some
reason, this morning when they landed they spanned the road in a straight line,
as if they were lining up to play a game of Red Rover with me.
So, answering their daring invitation, “Red Rover, Red Rover. Let Jerry
come over,” I pressed down on my
gas pedal and barreled forward behind the wheel of my wife’s Honda CRV. I was reminded of those grade school
days playing Red Rover on the playground and summoning over the biggest kid in
our class. As I approached, I
decided that my opposing team wasn’t really a bunch of confident, cackling
crows….but a bunch of chickens, because as I neared them they “chickened out”
and flew away even before I could try and break through their line.
Victory was mine!
As I continued my victorious ride to church, I thought to my self, “You
know, crows aren’t the only things that play Red Rover with folks on Sunday
mornings. There’s a bunch of
things that line themselves up in an interlocking chain perpendicular to the
path to church, There’s a bunch of things that think they can hold us back from
hearing the life-changing words from God, speaking the truth that our sins do
not have any claim on us, our God continues to stake out his claim on us by the
forgiveness that came on the cross.
There’s a bunch of things that think they can hold us back from being
part of a community of people who love each other in spite of our
unloveliness. There’s a bunch of
things that think they can hold us back from communing with Jesus, himself, as
he gives himself to us at the altar.
There’s a bunch of things that think they can hold us back from being
gathered up in a peace that surpasses all human understanding, being grasped in
a hope from which nothing in life or death can pull us away, from being lifted
above the mundane routine of the world to be part of a mission of grace that
has changed the universe.
But this I know; when I make my way to church, I am really in something
far more powerful than a Honda CRV….I am carried to church in the invitation of
God. God wants me to come and
spend time with him, and he will let nothing stop me. Now, I know that some may say that the thing that drives me
to church every Sunday morning is my job of being a pastor, but I don’t think
that is true. And the reason that
I say so is that I see 90+ year old people who walk with trepid step let
nothing keep them from coming to church every Sunday…..I see busy families who
are tugged in every direction let nothing keep them from coming to church every
Sunday….I see people, young and old, whose ears ring with precarious prognoses
let nothing keep them from coming to church every Sunday….I see folks whom the
world has declared worthless let nothing keep them from coming to church every
Sunday. They don’t face a line of
crows. They face a line of
illness, of teasing, of fear, of despair, of doubt, of failure……you name
it…..but they, when they see that taunting line, do what I did this morning. They put their foot on the accelerator
and feel the power of the Holy Spirit surge…… and they watch the line that has
taunted them fly away like a bunch of crows…..no chickens.
“Red Rover, Red Rover…..let _________ come over.”
Challenge accepted. Here we
come!
Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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