Hello,
Two funerals on Friday. A
wedding on Saturday. A baptism in
worship and the first day of Confirmation class with middle schoolers on
Sunday. This weekend was the
gambit of life.
“Pastor, what do you do?”
It is a question that has oft been asked of me by an honest inquisitor
whose encounters with me are most often limited to seeing me in a white robe
for an hour on Sunday morning.
I usually answer that question with the list of daily tasks that I, as a
Pastor, do, but after this weekend (not necessarily an abnormal weekend) I
believe a more accurate answer is, “I live life with people.”
I live life with people.
Not life at a distance. Not
life hidden behind rose colored curtains.
Not life at the surface.
Not life moving at just one speed or moving in just one direction.
As a pastor, I live life with people. I am with people in the most tender and the most terrible
times of life. I am with people in
the most enthralling and most embarrassing times of life. I am with people when life is settled
and when life is spinning. I am
with people when life is cruising along and when it is crumbling away. I am with people when they have no one
else and I am with people when they are surrounded by everyone else.
As a pastor, I live life with people…..because that is what God
does. When God enfleshed God’s
self in Jesus – as
incomprehensible as that might be – God answered the question, “Where are you,
God?”
“I am here in your life,” says God. God is not some spectator in the universal stands being
entertained by the products of God’s creation. God is not some force that is unmoved by the groaning of the
cosmos. God is not some theoretical
idea that stems from human yearnings.
In Jesus Christ, God reveals what God does; God lives life with people.
In knowing that God lives life with me, I discover that no moment of
life is mundane. I discover that
no deed of life is a hole of inescapable depth nor a pedestal of superior
view. I discover that the bullies
that try and bring me to my knees have to overwhelm a divine bodyguard. I discover that quiet rings with love
and that noise cannot plug my ears to hope.
As this Bungee Cord intersects your life, I hope that it brings my
presence into your life, wherever your life is or whatever is going on in your
life, for as one who carries the yoke of Christ (that is what the stole that I
wear on Sunday mornings is meant to symbolize), I do what God does….I live life
with people.
Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace,
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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