Hello,
An amazing thing
happened yesterday in Greensburg, Pennsylvania.
It was an
unusually warm January day, so I decided to take advantage of the warmth and go
outside before the worship services to spread some grace around, waving at
people who drove by in their cars.
Readers of the Bungee Cord know that “grace-waving” is my normal practice
during nice weather months. It is my
hope that as people caught in the spin cycle of this world scurry their way
past First Lutheran church, that the gesture of God’s grace that is wrapped in
my wave might momentarily sneak its way into their lives and bring them a since
of hope, peace, and joy that whirling around in the world cannot.
And herein lies
the amazing thing that happened this past Sunday morning outside of First
Lutheran Church. What I hoped might
happen, happened. I saw, right before my
very eyes, that grace works!
Here’s what I
saw. Three times, not just once, people
waved at me before I could wave at them!
(Two of the waves were taps on their horns. One was an official wave.) Because I am sometimes engaged in greeting parishioners
as they walk into church, I am not always facing traffic. Three times as I was turning back to “grace-wave”,
before I could get my hand in the air, I was the object of a passer-by’s wave. Grace works!
It can be an
exhausting and debilitating thing for those of us who seek to be conduits of
God’s kindness, mercy, and steadfast love to see how judgment, worldly
pressure, and mean-spiritedness seem to excel in suffocating our efforts. When
one reads the Bible, one finds out that this is not a new disparaging
frustration. The Psalms ask over and
over again as to why the evil seem to prosper and those who seek to do good
suffer. And even when the bystanders
passed by the cross on which Jesus died, they mocked him for the defeat he was
suffering.
But every once in
a while, something amazing happens; the truth that grace is more powerful than judgment
flashes before our eyes. Like a stain
that is covered with paint that eventually bleeds through, the grace of God
that has been splashed upon the world in the blood of Jesus bleeds
through. It bled through a stone-sealed
grave. It bleeds through a piece of
bread and a sip of wine. And it bleeds
through a wave coming from a passing car.
When the power of
evil and judgment seem so overwhelming and we find ourselves asking, “Am I
doing any good? Should I give up?”, the
unprovoked wave of those three people passing me on Sunday carried a message
with divine content, “Don’t give up, because it is worth it, and in the end….Grace
works!
Have a great
week.
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
No comments:
Post a Comment