The Bungee Cord 3-28-22

The Bungee Cord 3-28-22

Hello,

What Ever Happened to Sin? is book that was written when I was in seminary (early ‘80’s) by an author whose name I don’t remember. Maybe one reason why I don’t remember the author is that I never read the book. I just remember the title because it was mentioned in a discussion with one of my classmates who believed that Lutheran pastors were getting too soft on sin.

The reason that this book title came to my mind is that I was at our weekly pastors’ gathering at which we go over the Bible readings for the upcoming Sunday, when the Pastor who was leading read from a commentary on the Prodigal Son, “people, today, do not relate to the concept of sin” (paraphrased).

You may know the story of the Prodigal Son that Jesus told was about a father who had two sons. One son prematurely demanded his inheritance, took off with it, and spent it all in “desolate living”. When knee deep in pig manure, “he came to himself”, and decided to return home and beg for mercy. Still when he was far away, the Father saw him coming, ran out to him, ordered him to be richly clothed and have the family ring put on his finger, and called for a celebratory party. His son had come home! The other brother heard the ruckus, wondered what was going on, and upon finding out a party for his wayward brother was taking place he became angry. The father came out to invite the angry brother in, but the brother responded by telling off his father for the lack of appreciation that he had received for his years of obedience and work, and the insane appreciation of that other son who had rebelled and squandered everything.

It is a parable that many Biblical scholars believe Jesus told to speak about sin, specifically the forgiveness of sin. Undoubtably, the wayward brother’s actions brought pain to himself and to his father. But so did the stay-at-home brother’s actions bring pain to himself and his father. Sin takes its forms in many ways, sometimes vile and repulsive, other times subtle and eroding. But either way, sin leaves pain in its wake, pain that casts the shadow of death.

You see, sin is not about being bad. It is about being part of pain. Although people can always debate about what is good and what is bad, not so with pain. If something hurts. It hurts. It is no wonder that people don’t relate to the concept of sin if sin is simply a way of separating good from bad. There are plenty of other ways to try and determine good from bad, often leading to a variety of opinions. But if we understand the Commandments as an important fence that protects us from pain, those Commandments are much clearer and it is far more clear as to why we would want to follow them.

So, was the father in the parable soft on sin?

Not as I read the parable. It is clear to me that the father in the story very well knew the pain that was torturing their lives for the sins they had committed. So aware of the pain that he did not wait for either of his sons to reach him, he went to both of them and did something that commandments cannot do. He embraced them. Commandments can be a protective fence, but as we all know, they are not an insurmountable fence. A loving embrace, however, connects hearts, as the Bible says, “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” (1 Cor 13)

Patching holes in a fence or making it higher is much easier than taking someone’s pain into your heart and hanging in there with them as they heal. That is what the father did. That is what God did when Jesus hung on the cross for our sins. That’s not being soft on sin. It is doing the most drastic thing that can actually do something about our sins.

What ever happened to sin? God was tough, as tough as can be, with sin. He nailed it to the cross and left it dead in the grave.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord 3/21/22

Hello,

I believe that the Bible is not meant to be a monologue from God to us, but is meant to be a discussion starter between God and us. So, at my church, we’ve been trying to hear the Gospel lesson with questioning ears. After the Gospel is read, people, who have small sheets of paper in their bulletins, are asked to write a question that comes to their mind after hearing the Gospel. The questions are collected, and for the sermon I draw out questions and respond to them. This Sunday’s Gospel had this parable in it:

Then he (Jesus) told this parable: ‘A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, “See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?” He replied, “Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig round it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.”

Preceding this parable were some words on repentance, and that is where the first question that I drew from the basket came from. “What does this parable have to do with repentance?”

It was a question that caught me a bit off guard, as I hadn’t thought about it before (I usually prepare for these “sermons” by studying it for questions that I expect to be asked). My answer was that repentance has to do with being in a place where God can work on the soil of your life, but I am afraid that my expounding on that idea was a little foggy as I answered off the cuff. So, after some time to contemplate that question, here’s what I would answer.

Consider if you were that tree, who would you want to have his way with you? The owner? Or the gardener? The owner looks at that tree merely as an investment for production, an asset or a liability. Let it live if it lives up to the expectations of the owner. Cut it down if it doesn’t. The gardener looks at the tree as a work of his hands, something that he takes personal pride in. It’s life is the result of hard work and sweat, of sleepless nights thinking about what he could do to bring fruit to its limbs. The gardener has invested his life in that tree, cutting it down would be heartbreaking to him.

If you were that tree, to which of these two would you cry out, “Have mercy on me.”

Right before this parable Jesus reminds the people of the way that the world deals with us. Like heartless rulers of today, Pontius Pilate killed a bunch of people and mixed their blood with the blood of the sacrifices that were being made in Jerusalem. Like tragedies that befall us out of nowhere, a tower in Jerusalem fell and killed 18 people. The world treads hard on the soil of our lives making it impenetrable to nourishment, and it is hard, if not impossible for the fruits of hope, peace, love and joy to ripen in our lives. The world that measures our worth by our productivity is always looking at us, like the owner in the parable, with an axe in hand ready to do some tree chopping.

But that is not the way that God deals with us. As a matter of fact God used a chopped down tree to give his Son’s life for us, to loosen the hard soil of our lives with piercing nails and spear. And into that loosened soil God poured that cross-shed blood, giving the nourishment of the forgiveness of sins. He, like the gardener has invested himself in us, giving everything he has for us. Determined to enliven us with a constant flow of grace and mercy, a flow that nothing in all of heaven or earth could keep fruit from bursting forth from our lives. Peace, hope, faith, love, joy.

If you were that tree, which would you turn to when your life is barren. Who would you cry out to, “Have mercy on me.”?

I am that tree, and I know my answer. I bet it is the same as yours.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord 3-15-22

Hello,

I learned something when I was a pastor in East Toledo: if a person doesn’t see any value in his or her life, they rarely see value in another person’s life.

It’s been nearly 30 years since I moved from St. Mark Lutheran Church in East Toledo. I was in my late twenties when I began my ministry there. St. Mark was a long established congregation in that neighborhood. Originally it was composed of lots of factory workers who lived in the neighborhood. As the congregation grew so did the building. The sanctuary seated 500+ people, with a soaring ceiling and balconies in the rear and both sides. An educational unit was built in the ‘50’s when over 900 children were attending Sunday School.

But, by the time I arrived, the glass factories had all left, and so did the jobs. East Toledo was hit hard. The neighborhoods were dilapidating as many of the people had no money to keep their houses up. Violence was common. One night, at an hour that no kid should be roaming the streets, a boy in his late elementary years was found dead in an alley, the victim of another boy who crushed his head with a cement block. Another time, a woman was walking home along a main street from the 7/11, and she was shot dead. When the police captured the shooter, and asked him why he had shot this woman whom he didn’t know, he said, “I wanted to know what it felt like to kill someone.” People who find no value in their lives, find little value in the lives of others.

But there in the midst of that dessert of valuelessness stood St Mark Lutheran Church, a place where people gathered around the self-giving love of Jesus Christ. Every time people gathered there they were told that the One who authored all of creation and holds it in place so valued each and every one of them that that One would die for them. That one would stand between them and those who would shoot them with bullets of evil and despair and take the bullet for them. Every time that people gathered in St. Mark they received a piece of bread and a sip of wine that carried the promised presence of Jesus, a presence putting into reality Jesus’ decision to make his home in us. What could make someone more valuable than for God almighty to dwell there?

As bombs are exploding in apartment buildings and hospitals, killing hundreds as if they were of no value, Jesus gives us something to say. “Jesus died for those apartment dwellers and hospital patients. They are of priceless value.” Likewise, Jesus gives us something to say to those who are firing those rockets and missiles, “Jesus died for you, too. You are of priceless value.”

One of the biggest lies that we hear is that you can make yourself valuable by having more money, having more land, having more power, but the book of Ecclesiastes tells us the truth in the face of this lie. It’s all “vanity”, and the value of these things is rendered empty by the truth of the words, “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”

Laws, police, and armies are important so that those who see others as valueless do not act out of their ignorance. But laws and armies have no ability to change the way a person looks at themselves or the way they look at others. Jesus, however, who with divine power and love creates and establishes value in every person. Just read the Zacchaeus story (Luke 19).

You and I may never get a chance to talk to any world leader, but I do believe that you and I have the power to start an avalanche of grace that can reach world leaders as we look upon ourselves and others as God does, each one having unmeasurable value in Christ Jesus, and live in that truth.

The peace of the Lord be upon us all.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord 3-7-22

Hello,

For centuries, Christians have taken 40 days before Easter to take a solemn look at themselves in order to not take for granted the depth of God’s love for us that God, in Jesus, would take our sins upon himself, take them to the grave with him, leave them dead, and then walk out of an Easter tomb so that nothing or no one else could have any claim on us other that God. We call these forty days, “Lent”. It is meant to be a quiet and reflective time. Often people give something up during Lent to reorientate their lives to what is most important. The colors that drape the pulpit and altar are purple, a color to remind us of the somberness of this season. A season stripped of celebration.

Unfortunately, Lent comes at the wrong time of the year for people like me who get excited about college basketball, specifically my team, the Fighting Illini of the University of Illinois. Especially this year, because yesterday, the first Sunday in Lent, the Illini held onto a narrow lead over Iowa and we became co-champs of the Big Ten! We wound up sharing the title with Wisconsin, but since we beat them this year, it is clear to me that we are the true champs.

I watched the game with nervous excitement, having been an Illinois fan for so many years and have seen them fall short of their hopes over and over again. The game was close. Iowa was shooting well. We were not. But we hung in there, and when the final buzzer sounded I gave a robust shout of delight. The fans plunged onto the court. Bedlam abounded. Confetti shot into the air. Championship shirts and hats were donned. A trophy was given. “Let the celebration begin!”, shouted the Illinois basketball coach as he raised the trophy into the air.

Not very Lent-y.

There was a day, and it wasn’t that long ago, when the world gave way to the journey of Lent. In many churches there were no baptisms or weddings during Lent. Stores were closed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Fish, not beef, was the standard fare for meals. Wednesday night was held open for Lenten worship attendance. The world slowed down so that everyone could slow down and reflect on who they were and the passion of God for us in Jesus Christ.

But that is not the world we live in today, for better or worse. It is tempting to remember the “good old days” (which in truth were not really all that much “good-er” than today) and try and resurrect them, but to me, that would be like trying to sell horses and buggies in this world of electric cars.

Others say that we should just get rid of Lent. Who wants Lent, anyway. The dreariness. The focus on failure and misdeed. Life is hard enough with the daily pressures that our jobs, our schoolwork, our coaches place upon us. Better to just get rid of Lent and keep spinning on the Merry Go Round of life with a smile on our faces as we glide up and down and go nowhere.

Maybe there’s an in-between answer to the place of Lent in our world. Maybe the place to start our reflection in Lent is not on us, but maybe on this world that we have created. Maybe the place to start is not to strip these days of any celebration, but rather to strip off the glitz of the things of our world and see what lies under these things that capture our hearts, our minds, and our time. When you get right down to it, how much value or hope does it bring to your life or mine that a handful of college age men can put more balls through a hoop than another bunch of men? I will be the first to admit that the contest is exciting, the skills are amazing, and the energy is contagious. But in the end, the fact that the Illini are Big Ten champions does not add anything appreciable to my life. Maybe Lent can be a great time for us, myself included, to see how hollow the things are that we have made of utmost importance in our lives.

And then when we come to the deep and wide fissures that life’s quaking creates in front of us, we won’t just have a bunch of hollow sticks to be the bridge to make it across. We will have the words and promises of Jesus, solid girders of steel, to be the structure to carry us across. “I have come to bring you life, abundant life. I am the rock that does not crumble. I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Your sins are forgiven. I will come and take you to myself, to the place that has been prepared for you, so that where I am, you will be also.” Solid things to celebrate!

So, even though I am still reveling in our victory over Iowa, and I will be thrilled when Illinois is the NCAA tournament champion, too (which also will happen in Lent), I will see those victories with Lent tempered eyes. Eyes that will see in the cross and resurrection of Jesus a victory that makes all other human victories to be no more than a birthday candle that can be blown out, compared to the explosion of God’s grace and mercy that can never be extinguished!

Have a great week!

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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