The Bungee Cord 2-28-22

Hello,

Why did Jesus die?

That was the question that the first disciples struggled with and likewise every generation of people who have heard the story of Jesus. The people who stood at the foot of the cross and mocked Jesus saw his death as proof of Jesus’ disillusionment. The disciples thought that the Messiah, the promised restorer of Israel, would come with might and power. They thought that he would be like a roaring lion, sending their foes running away with their tails between their legs, but those thoughts died when they saw Jesus die on the cross.

Why did Jesus die?

Well, Jesus, himself, gave the answer. Jesus died to save people from their sins.

Imagine yourself being taken hostage by some band of terrorists. Those of us who are old enough to remember the Iranian Hostage Crisis that took place during President Carter’s tenure heard what it was like to be so held. I read a couple of books written by the hostages and they described the powerlessness and hopelessness they felt. They spoke of the paralysis of their lives in their isolation. They spoke of the loneliness and the emptiness in their souls. They felt the worthlessness of being pawns in a game that others were playing. They spoke of the grip that their captures had on them that controlled every day and everything. It was a living hell during their hostage months.

Although you and I may not think of in this way, but our sins do the same thing to us. They take us hostage. The pain that we bring to ourselves, our loved ones, our world, and even to the heart of God can be like shackles that our sins slap on our lives. Like hostage takers, our sins can take over our minds as they circle around and around in obsessive control. They take hold of our hearts and drag us into dark dungeons. They torture us like a leather whip when we see the look in people’s eyes who we have sinfully struck. Sins take hold of us with a grip that is unyielding.

Cheat one time on a test and teachers watch you carefully whenever you take a test. Cheater. Overstep established boundaries and every encounter you make is seen with suspicion. Abuser. Shoplift one thing from a store and every time you go in there the cameras will be turned to you. Thief. Share one secret at the lunch table and no one will ever confide in you again. Gossiper. Lie to a loved one once and every alibi will be heard with a shadow of unbelief. Lier. Beat up a kid on the playground and no one will ever come to you with a problem. Bully. Turn a deaf ear to someone who needs a hand, and any good deed will be viewed as a action of self-aggrandizement. Jerk. Be found to have taken an overdose, and people will be slow to trust you. Addict. Drive under the influence and crash into a person on their bike, and you will wear that person’s blood forever. Killer.

Sins take us hostage and demand our lives for a ransom.

Jesus died to save us from our sins, not to pay a ransom, but instead to bring the hostage holders to death. When Jesus went to the cross, he challenged all hostage taking sins to a battle to the death, winner take all. And when Jesus said, “It is finished!”, he was speaking of this deadly wrestling match. Like a wrestler taking a death-grip on his opponent jumping into a bottomless pit, Jesus took all sins to death with him, dying as certainly as he did when he breathed his last. Any claim that those hostage taking sins might have had on anyone’s life was gone when they crashed to their death. All people were freed…saved…from their sins.

And then on Easter morning, God did what only God can do, and that is raise the dead from life. On Easter morning the only one who emerged from the grave was Jesus….no hostage takers….only Jesus. And as Jesus walked out of that tomb, he staked God’s claim on all those former hostages. Forgiven. Freed. Children of God. No longer shackled by those hostage takers, now embraced in the eternal love of God. Winner take all!

The world may still try and keep us hostage to our sins, but God will not let that happen. That would make the death of Jesus to be in vain. Jesus did not die for nothing. He died for everything….for everyone. That is why everyone is welcomed to walk into the doors of any church on any Sunday…no matter what they have done, no matter what they have said, no matter what they have though….to hear and live in the truth. And the truth is that sin has been put to death, even the sins that try to cling to you and me when we walk into church, and because of that there is hope to live because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

You see, Jesus died to save all people from their sins.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord 2-21-22

Hello,

I was going to see a friend, my seminary roommate and fraternity brother from the University of Illinois, who lives near Gettysburg, Pa. The route from my house was mainly Turnpike, but to get to his house the last portion of the trip took me through rural Pennsylvania. Even in the winter, rural Pennsylvania is beautiful scenery. As I drove along, I came upon a site that caught my attention. It was an item that was placed by the side of the road that someone was trying to get rid of. A toilet with a sign on it that said, “Free.”

Had I had a need for a toilet, or room for it in my car, I could have stopped right there and procured a way to flush the refuse of my life out of my life….for free! As I contemplated this offering, it occurred to me that such is the same thing that God offers to us through Jesus. It’s not in the form of a toilet, but instead it is in the form of a tortured man on a cross who in three days walked out of a grave, never to die again.

Jesus came to flush sin out of our lives….all people’s lives, and on the cross when the Bible tells us that Jesus gave a huge shout saying, “It is finished!”, there was a universal flushing sound taking all the sins of all time down to the grave to their final resting place in that septic tank of death. And then, after the flush, a huge sign could be found on that cross, “Free.” To the world, it cost nothing. To Jesus, it cost everything.

But here’s the difference between that toilet on the side of the road and the cosmic toilet in the form of the cross, we don’t have to stop by the side of the road and try and find a place for it in our lives for it to work for us. The flush that came from the cross had such force that it gathered all the sins of the world in its swirl. No need for us to install it in our lives. So powerful was the flush….a free flush for us….that it caught and catches all the “refuse” of our lives down to the septic tank of the grave, and out of our lives. “FREE!”

Interestingly enough, when the Apostle Paul, considered all the good deeds of his life, let alone the sins that were part of his life, he said that it was all “refuse”…..actually the word that is translated in the Bible from the original language really is “s$@t”. The stuff that goes down a toilet.

So the next time you see a cross, or the next time you see a toilet, see it with the sign on it that I saw, “FREE!” The flushing forgiveness that God gives you is FREE. The mess that you have made of your life. The secret sins that only you know. The failures that you carry on your shoulders. The misery that comes with letting yourself down, the people you love down, and even God down. Hear the flushing sound sending it all to the septic tank of the grave. Forever!

It is FREE. Completely FREE! You can’t pay a cent to have it take hold of the “refuse” of you life. You don’t need to pay a cent. So….the next time you push the lever on the toilet that disposes of the “refuse” of your life, hear a cosmic flush coming from the cross gathering up the “refuse” of your life and sending it off to the grave. Sin stinks…..and Jesus sends that stinky stench where it belongs…to the grave. As the Bible says, “as far as the east is from the west, so has God forgiven your sin.” Thank God. Say “Good bye” to the stench, and go out into the world carrying the wonderful aroma of God’s love and mercy. For FREE!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord 2-14-22

Hello,

About 20 years ago, a neighboring pastor, a friend of mine, had the youth of his church stand at each of the doors of the sanctuary with a basket in their hands. They were there each Sunday to collect the spare change that people had in their pockets or purses. The pastor had been in Africa for some years as a teacher in a seminary, and in Africa one of the most common sights is children begging for food money. So, when he returned to the United States, he had the youth of his congregation do what so many youth in developing countries do, beg for food money. He said of the youth in his congregation, “We beg so that others don’t have to.”

This past Sunday as the TV world celebrated the Super Bowl, my congregation joined forces with numerous congregations throughout the United States to celebrate “Souper Bowl”. We, with so many, encouraged the people who attended worship to remember those who didn’t snack and feast while watching the Super Bowl, but whose soup bowls were empty. We had the largest pot in our church kitchen placed at the entry to the church for people to drop their contributions in as they entered the church, but when church was over, I borrowed my pastor friend’s practice and asked to elementary aged girls to hold that pot by the exit door. I said to the girls, “It’s easy to miss that pot when it is just sitting on the floor, could you hold it so people can see it better?” And they did. They begged so that others didn’t have to.

I don’t know how many dollars would have fallen into that pot if it just sat by the door, but I do know that $313.00 were placed into it as the girls held it. Our congregation is not big, and with Covid still swirling around we have fewer people worshipping than before Covid’s invasion. There were somewhere around sixty people there yesterday, many of them couples and families. Yet from this relatively small number of people, $313.00 was collected to fill people’s soup bowls. If you have been to the grocery store lately with a full cart of groceries, it may seem that $313.00 doesn’t go very far. But when in the hands of people who bring food to the poor, it goes a long way. It only costs ten cents to provide a meal in a refugee camp. It costs but a dollar or two to provide a meal in a soup kitchen in our cities and towns. And in the hands of the Westmoreland County Food Bank, it can provide bags and bags of groceries for the line of people who show up every month.

In my mind what happened this past Sunday at our church is a shining example of why coming together to worship is so important. I believe that we come together to be empowered. Every day of the week we find ourselves slogging our way through life….pressures placed on our shoulders, failures shackled to our legs, sins sapping the life out of our souls. But when we come together in worship we experience Jesus lifting those pressures from our shoulders when he embraces us in his love and fuels our hearts. When we come together in worship we experience Jesus picking us up when we have stumbled and supporting our steps with his strength. When we come together in worship we experience the power of the cross and resurrection pulsing through our veins with forgiveness and mercy, transforming us by God’s grace.

And God is so wildly gracious in his empowerment, that when we walk out of worship we are like someone leaving a coffee shop having had a cup of coffee with 5 shots of caffeine. We, like a 300 horse power Mini (I drive one), have more than enough power to take on the hills and valleys of our lives. Bursting with power to forgive a neighbor, a friend or a family member. Bursting with power to stand beside someone who the world torments and tortures. Bursting with power to……..drop some money in a huge soup bowl so that other’s soup bowls are filled.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord 2-7-22

Hello,

Dum dum da dum dum dum dum, dum dumty dum, dumty dum dumty dum dum dum. (sing to the Olympic song)

I’ve been watching the Olympics over the last several days, and that tune has rumbled through our house with every commercial break. Over and over again, I am astounded at the skill, courage, and determination that the athletes bring to their events. Skiers slicing down the mountain, around moguls, their knees bouncing to their chests. Figure skaters who glide across the ice and leap into the air with perfect precision and apparent ease. Curlers who can make a rock stop on a sheet of ice where they want it to. Snowboarders Speed skaters racing around a track with reckless abandon. Ski jumpers soaring through the air and landing on their feet a football field beyond where they took off. And the daring of bobsledders and luge riders. It is a feast of visual amazement.

In the 14th chapter of John, Jesus tells his disciples an amazing thing, “:Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.” More amazing than turning water into wine, feeding 5000 people, raising Lazarus from the dead, and giving sight to a blind man?

When Jesus spoke of “greater works than these”, I don’t think he was speaking about the amazing things that are being done at the Olympics. I think he was talking about something as amazing as speaking the words of forgiveness to someone who has ruined their life and watch that forgiveness set them back on their feet to live again. I think he was talking about something as amazing as telling a grade school child that gets teased the moment he gets on the bus that there is someone who has loved him so much that they died for him, and watch that child get out of bed, get dressed, and courageously step onto that bus again. I think he was talking about something as amazing as telling a middle aged person who has just been told she has cancer that nothing…not cancer, and not death….will ever be able to separate her from the love of God in Christ Jesus, and then see her look square into death and say, “Death, be not proud!” I think Jesus is talking about something as amazing as standing by the bedside of a dying older loved one to whom you have just read the 123rd Psalm, and have that loved one close their eyes in peaceful hope.

In these next few weeks of visual amazement, keep your eyes open for the amazing things that Jesus is going to do through you….things so amazing that it makes Olympic feats seem like nothing more than jumping rope.

“Dum dum ditty dum, di dum di dum, di dum ditty dum di dum” (Sing to Amazing Grace)

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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