The Bungee Cord 2-12-18

Hello,

     A lot of Christians will be walking around with a cross of ashes on their foreheads this Wednesday, “Ash Wednesday”.  So, what is that all about?

     Well, to put it simply this practice is all about honoring the truth.  When the ashes are applied to a person’s forehead, the applier says, “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”  That is the truth of human existence.  We begin as a microscopic speck of carbon, and when this life is over the multitude of carbon particles that we have become disintegrates into the store of carbon that creation holds.  Between the beginning and the end, the amalgamation of this carbon takes its place in the wonder of a body, and that body enjoys spectacularly amazing animation, which we call life.  The truth is that this life that we enjoy is a temporary thing, bookended by dust and dust, carbon and carbon.

     As Christians, we do not assert the immortality of the soul that purports that we have existed in some form from before creation began, and a form that will exist after creation is over, making our bodies simply a temporary hotel for this eternal thing.  That is an ancient Greek concept, a concept that has sort of crept its way into a lot of Christian belief.  Unfortunately, this concept has a way of making our bodies “prisons” from which the “soul” must try to escape, and that turns this wonderful thing called life into a thing of terror and evil.

     Thing is, the heart of the Christian message is that this experience of life, the unique experience of life that is you and me, is not the enemy.  It is a treasured gift, so treasured that the Giver of life took on life to fill every moment of life with eternity, and fill eternity with life, your life and mine.  In Jesus’ death and resurrection, we encounter the depth of God’s love for us that destroys the bookends of dust and dust, carbon and carbon, so that God might have us in God’s realm, a realm that is not bordered by time or space.  As the Bible says, “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” (2 Cor. 5:17) 

     That is why the ashes that are placed on a person’s forehead are made in the shape of a cross.  For it was what God did on the cross on which Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, hung that gives us hope.  If not for the cross of Christ our only hope would be what we could make of our ashes and carbon, which in the end is really nothing.  But because of the cross we can live in the hope of God’s almighty love and what God can do with ashes and carbon, which is everlasting.  That is why when death comes our way we, who have been marked with Christ’s claiming cross, have “certain hope” (words from the funeral service) that dust and carbon won’t be our end, but life, life anew, will greet us …. us.  Resurrection – not reincarnation – not immortality of the soul…but resurrection, new life,  from the dead.

     So, every time on the day that Christians begin Lent, the reflective journey to the cross (that is, Ash Wednesday) that we look in the mirror and see those cross-shaped ashes on our forehead we see the truth staring at us right in the face: the truth of the temporary length of our days witnessed every time we stand by a grave if not for Christ’s cross, and the truth of life beyond the border of days because of Christ’s claiming cross and the grave out of which he walked on Easter.

     There….that’s what Ash Wednesday is all about!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord  2-5-18

Hello,

     I, along with millions of others, and maybe even you, watched the Super Bowl yesterday.  As Super Bowls go, I found it to be quite an entertaining game as well as a game that made a lot of people happy.  I say that because I saw a pie chart posted on Facebook this week with a small black sliver of that pie indicating the number of people who as Eagles fans were hoping that the Philadelphia Eagles would win.  The entire rest of the pie chart was a light green depicting the vast percentage of people who were just hoping that the Patriots would lose.  I know that the pie chart was a joke, but I have a feeling it wasn’t too far from the truth.  For a lot of reasons , the Patriots have become a team to hate.

     This morning as I was in my car with my radio on, the Public Radio station was doing a story on the Super Bowl.  As part of the story, the reporter was interviewing some of those folks that comprised that small black sliver of people who as Eagles fans were hoping that they would win.

     One woman interviewee said this, “Yesterday was the second greatest day in my life.  The first was the day that I married my husband. Yesterday I saw my Eagles finally win the Super Bowl, and that was the second greatest day in my life.”

     “Wow,” I thought to myself, “either that woman’s life is really miserable, really empty, or really shallow.”  After all, it was just a football game.  Now in saying that, you need to know that I am a big fan of sports….any kind of sports.  My wife will vouch for me by informing you of two things: the almost locked-in reception our TV has to ESPN, and the existence of my orange and blue, Oskeewowow Illinois man cave in our basement.  For all the sports that I watch, especially the Fighting Illini of the University of Illinois, I would find myself pretty excited if the Illini ever (and I mean ever…ugh) won a national championship, but I am certain that if they (but they won’t!) ever do win a national championship it would rank far down my list of the greatest days of my life.

     The thing that I like about sports is its ability to be a great diversion in life.  After all, running a ball across a goal line, hitting a home run, scoring a goal, making a basket, sinking a put hardly comprise matters of life and death.  Sure, the discipline and hard work put in by those who do these things best is worthy of admiration and emulation, but the end product is really a piece of entertainment and diversion.  It gives those who watch, and play, a chance to lose themselves in something of limited consequence so that that of greater consequence isn’t quite so overbearing.  And I believe that we all need these sort of diversions in life.

     Thing is, though, that like all diversions, life’s diversions are only temporary.  Sooner or later life hits us smack in the face, and when that happens something deep, not shallow or trivial, needs to be there to keep us from getting crushed or swept away.  And I find myself counting the advent of those things in my life as some of the greatest days in my life….the day that I married my wife, the day that each of my kids was born, the day I graduated from Seminary, the day someone said to me “you saved my life”….. on and on I could go.  Thankfully, unlike my fear for the interviewed Eagle fan, my life has been neither miserable, empty, or shallow.

     But greater than all of these days, one day yet stands out as the best: the day that I got hit with water….water that alerted me that it was me that was being spoken to…spoken to by the one whose power spans the universe, who holds it together, who permeates everything that is and isn’t…who is bound by nothing, not even space or time…..that that one was speaking to me and saying, “Jerry, it was for you that I died and rose, and I won’t let anything…and I mean anything….ever….and I mean ever....take you away from me.

     Now that was the greatest day in my life, a day that makes every day great!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger