The Bungee Cord 10-18-21

Hello,

You may remember about 4 years ago that Michael Phelps, the most decorated male swimmer in Olympic history, decided to see if he could outswim a great white shark. Of course, I wasn’t there, but I wonder what the conversation went like when he told his coach about his idea.

“Coach,” said Michael Phelps, “what must I do to swim faster than a shark?”

“Well, to do that you would have to do a lot of training. Have you spent lap after lap in the pool? Have you spent hour after hour in the weight room? Have you practiced early in the morning and late at night? Have you spent as much time in a pool that you have felt like a fish?”

“Coach,” said Michael, “you know that I have done all of that since I was a kid.”

“You lack one thing, Michael,” said the coach, “You will need to cut off your hands and feet and grow fins to swim that fast.”

I am sure that Michael Phelps, being the competitor that he is, left his coach saddened, because he had been able to swim so fast.

And watching Michael Phelps walk away in a disappointed slouch, he must have said to all who had heard the conversation, “How hard it is for a human to swim as fast as a shark. It is as hard as putting a camel through the eye of a needle.”

“Can anybody swim faster than a shark?”, the crowd must have answered.

“With humans it is impossible. It would take an act of God for that to happen.”

In the Bible the same sort of conversation happened when a man came up to Jesus wanting to do something that humanly cannot be done. The man asked, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” And this man was not like any man. He was the Michael Phelps of holiness…living by the commandments from his youth...night and day going to the temple…praying and meditating over the scriptures. One whom everyone was sure God had blessed with wealth because of his faithfulness….and when Jesus told him that in order to get his name on God’s will, he would have to give up all human security – something that as a human, everyone knew he couldn’t do….they all asked of Jesus, “Who then – if not this man, this Michael Phelps of holiness, can’t do enough to get himself on God’s will and become an heir of God’s eternal life….who can? Jesus’ answer, “No one can. Just like you can’t get a camel through the eye of a needle. No one can.”

No wonder they asked Jesus, “If this man can’t do enough to be saved, who can be saved?”

“That is just the point,” said Jesus to that man and to you and me, “humans are always children of humans….only God can make children of God…and here’s the good news. God does exactly that. In Jesus Christ, God took on human nature in order to transform it into divine nature…he entered space and time in order to shatter the limits of space and time…he took on humanity in order to crush the power of sin which leads to death and begin a victory march out of the Easter tomb…God, who holds the power of all creation in his hands, has taken you and me, people of a broken creation, and is at work shaping us with potter’s hands for a new and eternally perfect creation.

You see, if we tried to make ourselves heirs of this new creation, we would be facing the task of pushing a camel through a needle’s eye….an impossibly hopeless task. But today, Jesus tells us that this is a task that we need not waste our time or effort on, because what we can’t do…God has already done. That is what the cross and resurrection is all about. You and I, by the work of God, are already part of this new creation! Remember in Baptism you and I were, “Sealed by the holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever.” Children of God and heirs of his kingdom!

I read that Michael Phelps still tried to make himself able to swim as fast as a shark. He had a special body suit made that repelled water like shark-shin. He had a flipper fin made to fit on his feet so he could get the propulsion of a shark. And he trained swimming in the ocean, in the same water that sharks swim in….and guess what….he lost to the shark…and why? Because he is a human … not a shark.

But here’s the difference between Michael Phelps’ situation and ours. Michael Phelps, though he might try as hard as he can, will never become a shark. But we, without any effort of ours at all, have already become children of God. That is what happened to you and me in Baptism. So, although you and I may still be part of the old creation…children of humans, locked in time and space, we are, at the same time, Children of God, freed from the chains of this creation…freed from our sins, freed from the threat of death, freed from the worries and fears of this world.

So, like a butterfly coming out of is cocoon, no longer bound by the limits of being a caterpillar, Jesus says to you and me…children of God…heirs of his kingdom…Fly! Fly! Soar in the grace of God. Feel the wind of hope take hold of you….float through tough times with generosity and compassion for others. Wake up in the morning with joy and peace lifting you out of bed.

I am sure that if God wanted to…he could turn you and me into sharks so that we can swim as fast as a shark…But what good is there in that…instead, God has done something far greater….he has made you and me Children of God, and that is a goodness that makes all the difference in the world…for you and me…and for the world.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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