The Bungee Cord. 8-2-21

Hello,

A couple of weeks ago, I was, as usual on the sidewalk in front of our church waving at people on Sunday morning as they drove by. Waves back. A honk here and there. Smiles emerging from the car windows. As it happened, an older woman walked by on her morning walk. When she came near, I gave her a small wave and said, “Good morning.”

“Good morning,” she said back to me, “Out here drumming up some business?”

Her comment caught me a bit off guard, because that is not why I wave at folks before Sunday worship. “No,” I replied, “I am just out here sharing God’s grace.” `She didn’t reply back to me, and as she passed, I said to her, “Have a great day,” and off I went back to waving.

“Out here drumming up some business?” It got me to thinking how many other people are thinking the same thing, that I am out by the street like one of those people dressed up like the Statue of Liberty trying to get people to bring their tax business there. Drumming up business.

It may sound odd to you, but I don’t believe that it is my job, as the pastor, to drum up business, to fill the pews. I know that many pastors get evaluated on how they are doing in filling the pews, and even sometimes I can catch myself evaluating my ministry by this criterion. But I believe the fullness of the pews is God’s job, specifically the job of the Holy Spirit who in Lutheran thinking “calls, gathers, and enlightens people with the Gospel (the good news of Jesus Christ).”

My job, as a pastor and as a Christian, is to live in God’s grace and share God’s grace with others. Jesus said, “You are the light of the world.” My job is to shine the light of hope, mercy, and peace that God has ignited in me. Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth.” My job is to season life with divine joy, love and forgiveness. My job is not to fill the pews, but to fill people’s lives. My job isn’t to keep the doors open, but to open people’s sin-crusted hearts. My job isn’t to have a balanced church budget, but to give people a rock on which to balance themselves when the storms of life are crashing around.

I do, of course, hope that when I do my job, people will feel the magnetic pull of Christ’s love drawing them to himself. In my mind, that is what any church is: the result of Christ’s magnetic love pulling people into a place of healing, pulling people into a place of where they can breathe in the fresh air of God’s mercy, pulling people into a place where the embrace of Christ is extended to each other and the world, pulling people out the sinking sand of life and setting them on a rock so that they might actually live.

Who wants to be wanted just to fill a pew? Not me. Who wants to be wanted just to keep a church afloat? Not me. Who wants to be wanted to make sure the bills are paid? Not me. Who wants to be wanted so a church can brag about how big it is or how much power it wields? Not me. To me, all of that is what “drumming up business” implies.

But who wants to be wanted to be loved? Me! Who wants to be wanted to be valued as a pearl of such great value that in finding it, you would sell all that one had in order that that pearl might be theirs? Me! Who wants to be wanted even though you bring with you the stench of a cess pool, and be washed so clean that you carry an aroma of divine grace with you every day of your life? Me! Who wants to be wanted no matter what you have done, even something for which the world will not forgive you, …. Wanted so much that someone would lay down their life for you? Me! That is what my wave is all about. It is a small gesture of God’s grace as people are hurrying along in life; a gesture that might just change their life, a gesture that might just give them life, a gesture that might just fill their hearts with the powerful love of Christ Jesus.

“No,” I replied to that woman, “I am just out here sharing God’s grace.”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger