The Bungee Cord  1-19-18

Hello,

“There’s probably no God.”  That was the slogan of an “advertising campaign” launched in England in 2009.  Countering a campaign by Christians who plastered the sides of buses with the promise of eternal torment for those who were not Christian (not what I would put on a bus to speak of the Christian faith to the world), a group of people who see no evidence for God’s existence, and also believe that those who promote the existence of God detract people from engaging in the most important things in life, began plastering their message on London buses.  “There’s probably no God.”  The campaign took off, and soon this slogan found itself translated to a variety of languages and posted on buses in a variety of countries.

As odd as it may seem, I find myself agreeing with these folks….not agreeing that there is no God….but agreeing with them in the word “probably”.  Limited in my knowledge of statistical analysis and probabilities, it seems completely reasonable to me that if one examines the existence of God based upon specific criteria, that is, the empirical data collected by day to day human experience, one might well conclude that the data is far from conclusive that there is a God.  Although some may say that they have put God to the test and God has responded to that test to prove God’s existence (I remember in my high school days that one such person asked God to cause the cloths hanging in his closet to flutter to prove God’s existence, to which he said that happened), I find myself, for a variety of reasons, not assured of God’s existence because of such things.  Folks far wiser than I find causes for the happenings in our world that do not mandate the existence of God.

This is no new phenomena.  Even in the Bible, in Psalms 10, 14, and 53, we are told that there were people who said, “There is no god.” 

I don’t know if the number of people who profess that God does not exist is any greater today than in other generations, but it does seem to me that the numbers are not falling.  And my guess is that is happening because as folks look around in hopes of discovering God’s existence, much of what they take in leads them to conclude that the probability of God’s existence is minimal at best.

That doesn’t surprise me, because if indeed, God is one who is so utterly different than human beings, that is, not bound by time and space, than to use the confines of time and space to discover God is not a very probable task.  To me, it is like a blind person seeking to prove the existence of the color orange.  What would give a blind person empirical truth to the existence of the color orange?  Would not a blind person be led to say, “Orange probably doesn’t exist.”?

So, you may be asking of me, why do I believe in God?  My answer lies in what the Apostle Paul wrote centuries ago to the Corinthians,

²¹For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. ²²For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, ²³but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, ²⁴but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.”  (1 Cor. 1:21-25)

For me, it seems very reasonable that God, who is beyond our limits, would take hold of our hearts and minds through something that is likewise beyond empirical proof…..love.  Love so great that God would enter into time and space to reveal God’s self to us.  It is said, and I have found it so for myself, that when one is in love, one sees the world in a whole new way.  Likewise, when I discover that I am in God’s love, I likewise envision things anew…I see God’s presence where empirical eyes do not.  I live with hope when empirical eyes do not.  I find reason for peace and joy when empirical eyes do not.

My tradition of Christianity has long taught that “ I believe that I cannot come to my Lord Jesus Christ by my own intellegence or power. But the Holy Spirit called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with her gifts, made me holy and kept me in the true faith…”.  This teaching rings true to me, thankfully true.

So, giving credit where credit is due…..those who seek to discover God through human wisdom will probably always conclude that “probably there is no God”, but I have come to see that God’s deepest desire is for me to know him and his love for me, and God will go to unbelievably foolish means until I, and you, abide in his love…..have eyes that see with his love…..and believe in him….not just probably….but certainly!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord  1-22-18

Hello,

     This is a common word of “hope” that we hear when things are tough, a word that even sometimes rolls off my lips when I am speaking with folks who are in the midst of troubles and uncertainty.  But when I say these words I know that they only carry moderate and short term hope.  I know this because I know that even the strongest among us will find our strength waning as time progresses and as the weight of the world doesn’t give in.  Actually, when you, like the cat in the poster, are finding yourself hanging on by only a couple of claws, “hang in there” sounds much more like a word of doom than hope.

     “Hang in there!” is not the Christian message.

Jesus Christ hung in there!  That is the Christian message.

The Christian message places no consolation in human strength, rather the Christian message places every hope in the strength of Christ.  Above everything else that Jesus Christ did when he hung in there on the cross was that he engaged every power that would hope to wrest us away from God in a battle to the death….a death from which only he arose.

The Bible tells us that as Jesus Christ hung on the cross, passers-by and soldiers called upon him to come down from the cross and give up the fight.  But Christ did not.  Jesus Christ hung in there.  He hung in there until he could cry with a final and triumphant shout, “It is finished!”  And with his final breath on the cross, so also breathed any voice that would try and separate us from the love of God (Romans 8).  Therein lies the hope that no one wielding human strength and power could give.  Jesus Christ hung in there!

To me, weak human that I am, my hope in life, when things are good and when things are tough, is not in how tightly I hold onto God, but rather how tightly God is holding on to me.  That also, weak human that I am, is my hope on the day that I will be facing death.

So, when I am with folks who are engaged in life, and seek to give them a hope that will last far longer than the strength of their hands, I say, “The Lord be with you.”….not a word of something that I hope will come true, but as a word of something that is true, and I know that it is because “Jesus Christ hung in there!”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace,(ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord  1-15-18

Hello,

     What a difference a day makes in Western Pennsylvania.  Last Friday I was walking around outside in a t-shirt in 60 degree temperature, and then on Saturday I was out shoveling snow, all bundled up, the air plunging to 9 below.  Not alone, were we in Pennsylvania, because I believe that this rollercoaster ride in temperature made its way across the Midwest to the East coast.

     For me, the abrupt change in apparel need is a good reminder that life can likewise take us to unexpected balmy heights and then send us likewise unexpectedly to frigid depths in the blink of an eye.  Life is…not just might be…at times a wild ride, a ride that often creates a difficulty in seeing God’s presence, at least a difficulty for me.

     Some years ago I wrote a song (yes, another song….having tortured you with a couple of videos, this week, I’ll just pass along the lyrics) on the Psalm 139:7-12.

“Sittin’ on a mountain top, just taking in the air.

Everything looks great up here, ain’t got a care.

It’s hard to see you Lord, in all this glare.

But even when I climb the clouds….my God you’re there.

God you’re there…God you’re there.

Even when I climb the clouds, my God you’re there.”

I find it personally true that when life is as good as it gets, the goodness of life is a glow that captures my vision.  I can find myself basking in the wonder of the joy and beauty that sometimes are like mountain peaks, and even better yet are like high mesas.  Sometimes the spotlight of pride and accomplishment beams into my eyes, and it is easy to get lost in myself.  But even then, says the Psalmist, God does not abandon me.  “Even when I climb the clouds, my God you’re there.”  Thank you, God.

“Blinded in a lightless cave, fears everywhere.

Signs say don’t even look, don’t love or care.

It’s hard to see you Lord, in sorrow’s snare.

But even in the valleys, Lord….my God you’re there.

God you’re there….God you’re there.

Even in the valleys, Lord…my God you’re there.” 

I don’t know who said it, but someone named these miserable days…weeks…years…as “the dark night of the soul”.  To me, that is a very accurate name for those times, having found myself flushed, like water in a toilet bowl into them.  Sometimes it has been my hands that have initiated the flush….other times, I have simply gotten caught up in a flush not of my making.  Either way, it is terrible, and when it happens it is really easy to wallow in a pity party…a party that I have discovered no one else wants to come to (and I don’t blame them).  But even then, says the Psalmist, God does not abandon me.  “Even in the valleys, Lord, my God you’re there.”  Thank you, God.

     As the January weather reminds us of the herky-jerky, clicking, hurling, plunging ride that life is…not might be… but is, God says to us in Psalm 139, “I am with you.”

“Oh…oh…what love.

Oh…oh…what love.

Whether high or whether low…..

My God you’re there.”

Thank you, God.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

⁷ Where can I go from your spirit?
   Or where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
   if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
⁹ If I take the wings of the morning
   and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand shall lead me,
   and your right hand shall hold me fast.
¹¹ If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me,
   and the light around me become night’,
¹² even the darkness is not dark to you;
   the night is as bright as the day,
   for darkness is as light to you. (Psalm 139)