The Bungee Cord  8-17-20

 

Hello,

 

      I opened my  browser, and as usual a group of news stories appeared on the bottom of the screen.  One stuck out, “Noteworthy Deaths”.  What makes one death “noteworthy” and another death not worthy of note?

 

     Over the course of my ministry, I have done lots and lots of funerals. 

 

      I have done some funerals where there were so many people in attendance that people were standing outside.  I remember one such funeral was  for a young mother involved in a tragic accident.  Another such funeral was one for one who had been a pillar of the small community in which we lived.

 

     I have also done small funerals, never so small that it was just me and the deceased, but on a couple of occasions it wasn’t very many more than that.  One such funeral was for a very old person who simply outlived all of her family and friends.  Another such funeral was for someone who lived an isolated life and never had any friends.  

 

     I have done funerals where there was lots of crying and tears, and I have done funerals where not a sound is heard.  Sometimes the silence was because no one really cared about the one who died, and other times the silence was because the one who died was not cared for at all.  I have never heard anyone say of the one who has died, “Boy, am I glad he’s gone,” or “she was really a jerk,”  but the silence of anything nice to say was close enough.

 

     I have done some funerals where there was giggling and laughter. Never quite ruckus in merriment, but sometimes a bit more than the nervous snickers that are often part of the family stories that are shared.

 

     I have done lots of funerals, and as I look back on them, I wonder, how many of them would have been considered noteworthy?  Or another question, when I die, will my death be “noteworthy”?

 

     I guess that I hope that my life has been worthy of note.  I hope that in some way, the steps that I have trod in this life are more than just imprints on hard ground.  I hope that they have left some imprint of good in people’s lives….the lives of those closest to me, the lives of those who I have been called to serve, the lives of those who have been kicked in the teeth by the world.    

 

     But here’s the heart of the Christian message: no matter how noteworthy the world might consider your life or my life to have been, in the heart of God we live and die as people of unmeasured noteworthiness.  And the noteworthiness of our lives and deaths finds its value in the investment of love that God has put in each person. The Christian message is that God so values each person that God totally invests God’s self in each one.  When God sent Jesus, God didn’t just send Jesus for some people.  God sent Jesus for all people.  And when Jesus, the Son of God, died, Jesus didn’t just die for some people.  Jesus died for all people.  Including you and me.

 

     It may be true that on the day that you and I die, the our names may not be found on a Google search of noteworthy deaths.  But Jesus lived and died for you…. for YOU!  What could be more noteworthy than that!

 

     In the heart of God, I know that God looks upon me and my life and death as noteworthy.  And as I live out my life…any you live out yours…you and I get to treat others and tell others that no matter what the world says about them when they are tucked into the grave, a tear will run down the face of God when someone who God’s Son, Jesus, died for dies…..and a party will resound in heaven when that same one, who by the power of Jesus resurrection, rises from the dead!  And what could mark a death as more noteworthy than that!

 

Have a great week.

 

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger