IF GRACE IS THE BASE....AND IT IS! 

QUESTION:

If you have money to help the Lazarus' of the world and you don't, are you going to Hell?

Luke 16:19-31

The Rich Man and Lazarus
19 ‘There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. 22The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. 23In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. 24He called out, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.” 25But Abraham said, “Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. 26Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.” 27He said, “Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house— 28for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.” 29Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.” 30He said, “No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.” 31He said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” ’
Notice that Jesus doesn’t start this parable with the phrase, “The kingdom of God is like…”. I note that because having not done so, I don’t think that Jesus means this to be a picture of what it is like to live in the reign of God, now or eternally. Rather, I think it is meant to show that no matter how hard we try to “enter the kingdom of heaven by force”, we cannot. If we think that we can knock on the door of heaven and pound our way in with a battering ram of good works, we are wrong.

It was believed in Jesus’ day that wealth was a sign of God’s favor for a righteous life, and poverty was a sign of living in sin. In other words, the wealthier you were, if you were a devout Jew, the more you could be assured that you were doing God’s will….at least that is what people thought. (Not too far from what some Christian preachers preach today….”Do right and God will bless you.”) In this parable, we don’t know why the rich man wound up in eternal torment, but we do know this: his money didn’t help him. It was not, as he had thought, a sign of God’s love for his righteousness, and as he sat there in Hades, he discovered that the money that he had did him no good. Although Jesus doesn’t put these words in his mouth, we can hear him saying to Abraham, “What’s the deal? Don’t you know who I was? I was a rich man who lived a devout life. There must be a mistake. What am I doing here? And what is Lazarus doing there? Check your books and you’ll find out that I deserve to be up there!”

I don’t think that this is a parable telling us that we who have money need to take care of the Lazarus’ of the world (as true as that may be because Jesus who is rich in mercy has taken care of us, poor sinners), and our relationship with God, temporally or eternally is dependent upon our doing so. Rather, it refutes the idea, an idea that the Pharisees carried, that living a righteous life, following all the rules to be good people of God, will land us in the arms of God.

The only thing that lands us in the arms of God is when God jumps into the cesspools of our lives, whether they be thick with human waste or like a clear mountain pond laced with deadly bacteria, and pulls us out. I tell a parable of my own making about going to a restaurant and being presented with a glass of water with mouse turds floating on the top. The one to whom it was presented said to the server, “Don’t you see the mouseturds in this glass?” Agreeing that they are there, she sticks her hand in the water and cups most of the turds and pulls them out of the water and sets the glass back down. Amazed, the diner says to the server, “There are still mouseturds in this water.” “So sorry,” she responds and then carefully removes the remaining turds and sets the glass down in front of the diner. Almost enraged, the diner says, “I can’t drink that, there were mouseturds in that water!” With a huff, the server pours the water into a different glass, takes her pitcher and refills the original glass with clean water, and says, “Here, Sir, a glass of clean water. The diner says, “I can’t drink that water, there were mouseturds in that glass!” So, the server dumps the glass out, spits in it cleans it with her shirtsleeve, and says, “Here, sir, a glass of clean water.” “But you spit in it!” Finally, she calls for help, and from the back room comes a dishwasher with a bucket of boiling water. The dishwasher squirts some soap in the glass, wipes it with a cloth, and rinses it in the boiling water. “Here,” he says, “a glass of clean water.”

The point of my parable and Jesus’ parable is that we cannot “force” our way into God’s grace, no matter how hard we try. But God takes filthy glasses of water, filthy sinners, and makes them worthy to be in God’s presence, temporally and eternally. Neither Lazarus nor the rich man deserved to be with God, and neither do we. Yet by the power of grace, God…God… gathers us into his “bossom”.

Interestingly enough, there is a story of a real man named Lazarus in the Bible who Jesus raised from the dead after being in the tomb for four days. Apparently that wonderous event didn’t change the minds of many people, just as Jesus said it wouldn’t in this parable. Hopefully, Jesus must have thought, that this parable just might open the eyes of people to trust in a God who jumps into the cesspools of their lives, instead of a God whose love can be bought, which it cannot be.

 The Bungee Cord 9-26-22

Hello,

In one of my churches a man came into my office wondering if we could provide some space for a group that he was leading. He was a state employee who was in charge of helping people who had just been released from prison work their way back into society. His groups were comprised of people who had served their time for various crimes as serious as murder, except no sexual offenders. Why they were left out, I don’t know. Anyway, after listening to the description of his needs, I felt like this would be a great opportunity for us to witness our Christian faith to these ex-prison folk and to provide a Christian witness to our community. So, I showed him a place in our building that had an exterior access, a restroom, and could be closed off from the rest of our building.

I took his request to our church governing board, and the vote was 12-0 (I don’t vote)….to deny his request. Generally, the reason for the denial was that it was seen as too dangerous and some people said that they would be scared to have such a group of folks in our building. I was disappointed.

Just a few weeks later, I was leading a seminar at a regional gathering of the WELCA (Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America). The subject of the seminar I forget, but I vividly remember a brief conversation that I had with the national representative of the WELCA who had come from Chicago. She was telling me of her church and the ministries that it had that were trying to reach beyond the walls of the church to the community, and among her list, she was enthusiastic to say was a ministry to ex-cons.

I didn’t get a chance to have her fill in the blanks about this ministry, but it was clear to me that there was something that her church saw in people who had been in prison, that my church didn’t see, and that was that her church saw these ex-cons as family. Maybe some of them were blood relatives, but for those that weren’t they were relatives by Jesus’ blood.

I have dealt with parishoners who have had relatives incarcerated, and when it has been one of their children, the pain of the imprisonment keeps them awake at night. It isn’t that they don’t believe that their child should not be held responsible for the pain that they have brought to others or the community, but like an parent, the isolation, the fear and the negative influence that their child faced in prison were like daggers to their hearts.

I am not an authority on criminal justice, and I know that part of the equation of that justice is remembering the pain that a crime brings to a victim. I also know that when trust is broken, it is very hard to reestablish, especially in families. And yet, I believe that the daggers that strike a parent’s heart of an incarcerated child also reach the heart of God when I hear Jesus say, “I was in prison and you visited me.”

Caring is a risky thing. You can have your heart broken time and time again when you care. But caring is also a priceless thing. When one is cared for and cares about another life comes alive. That is what the cross and resurrection of Jesus is all about, God cares, and God’s care leaves no one out. Not me…not you…no one. The church is at its best when it cares as God cares, after all, the Bible says the church is the body of Christ. So, it you have dug yourself into a deep hole and you find yourself in a real prison, or a prison with invisible bars, know this: God cares, and there is a church who sees you as family. A church whose heart feels the daggers that have pierced your heart, and who is willing to risk caring about you, rebuilding trust with you, and most of all being part of the divine transformation that through you God will bring love and mercy into the world instead of pain and suffering.

Have a great week!

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord 9-19-22

Hello,

The Pittsburgh Steelers, our Pittsburgh Steelers have a quarterback problem. They have too many of them, three: Mitch, Kenny, and Mason. For twenty years we’ve had one quarterback, Ben Rothlisberger. But Ben retired last year, and now we have three. We traded for Mitch this past summer, and we drafted Kenny this year. Mason has been with us for a couple of years, backing up….way backing up Ben.

So, the question leading up to the season has been, who is going to be the starting quarterback? As the preseason unraveled, it became clear that Mitch was going to be the starter, and the question now being asked was, who will be the backup? It appeared to be a tight contest between Mason and Kenny. Mason the quarterback with some team experience, and Kenny the hometown rookie and definitely the fan favorite. Right up to the first regular season game it appeared that Mason had won the battle over Kenny, but the day before the game a sudden switch was made. Kenny was named as the number two quarterback, much to the delight of the fans.

Much to the delight of the local sports talk radio hosts, too. “Thank goodness Kenny got the spot. Mason is terrible! When he got in last year, he couldn’t put a football through an open barn door. He is awful!” On and on they would go about how bad of a quarterback Mason is.

The coach held a press conference and while supporting his decision to name Mitch and Kenny as number one and two, he gave high praise to Mason. “A high quality quarterback and team member.”

I have heard that college coaches tell their players never to listen to the sports commentators on the radio or TV. The only person that they need to listen to is they, the coaches. What do those commentators really know, anyway? And more importantly, it doesn’t matter what they say. It only matters what the coaches say.

Actually, that is what Sunday morning is all about, listening to the only one whose opinion actually matters, God. There is an army of armchair quarterbacks out there who are more than willing to tell us what they think about us. “Looser. So stupid that you can’t tighten your shoes even though they are Velcro. Can’t raise your kids. Can’t be trusted. Doesn’t know a watermelon from a grapefruit when it comes to deciding right from wrong. Out of touch. Out of brains. Worthless!” Day after day we are hit with an onslaught of commentary, to which God gives the advice of football coaches, “Don’t listen to them. What do they know about you? And what does it really matter what they say? The only one whose opinion about you that actually matters is Mine,” says God.

That is why attending worship each week is so important: to hear what matters, to hear the truth, and to hear from someone who deeply knows you. To hear that God Almighty, the ruler of the universe counts you so valuable that he would, and did, die to have you as his. To hear that God Almighty, the ruler of the universe is there to pick you up when you fall, to embrace you in love when others have given up on you, to heal the scars that you carry, and to let nothing – even death – take you from him. To hear that the one who knows how many hairs are on your head is divinely pleased with you. And with those things echoing in our ears, we can go out into the world with confidence, hope and peace…with hands outstretched to our neighbor…with hearts gathering in the broken hearted.

See you Sunday in God’s locker room, and then let’s hit the field and show the world how the game of Christlike love is played!

Have a great week..

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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If Grace Is The Base….And It Is!

QUESTION: What makes God happy?

Luke 15:1-10
Now all the tax-collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 2And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.’
3 So he told them this parable: 4‘Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? 5When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. 6And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbours, saying to them, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.” 7Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.
8 ‘Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? 9When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbours, saying, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.” 10Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.’

What makes God happy?
So often the message that people hear coming from Christian pulpits and churches is that God is happy when God’s people are doing God’s will. God is happy when God’s people are doing God-pleasing things. Certainly that is true and the Bible makes that truth clear over and over again, especially when one reads the story of the people wandering in the wilderness under Moses leadership. God delights when God’s people order their priorities to God’s priorities: focusing their worship on God, treating one another with the love with which God has treated them, caring for the poor and needy, bearing clear witness of God’s trustworthiness. In a word, God is pleased when God’s people are righteous.
However, in this Gospel lesson, we find out that what God delights in even more is something else, and that is when one who is not righteous, is back in the in the flock. God is even most thrilled when one who has wandered away from God’s care or fallen through the cracks is back in God’s embrace. “More joy in heaven…more joy in the presence of the angels…over one sinner who repents.”
The key to God’s joy, Jesus says, is repentance, and repentance is something that seems to be something that we, not God does. Literally, the Greek word for repentance means “to change one’s mind, or way of thinking”. Sometimes folks say that can be said that repentance is “turning around, or turning back, people hear Christians telling others to do just that, turn back from their wondering ways. Such a proclamation, of course, carries no divine grace, but is a word of judgment. “Turn or burn!”
So, to clarify what repentance truly is, Jesus follows these two short parables with a longer and clearer one, the parable of the prodigal son. Some scholars believe that a better title for this parable is “The Prodigal Father”, as prodigal means extravagant. In fact, this parable is an illustration of Jesus’s previous sayings about what makes God really happy. God delights in the righteous who stay, but God really pulls out all the stops when one who has wandered away is returned to the father’s embrace.
When I read this longer parable, I find the most important sentence to be, “when he came to himself”, because in this sentence Jesus magnifies the power of God’s grace in our lives. Notice, that when the runaway son was least righteous, something popped into his mind; the depth of his father’s love that he knew the father’s servants received. Therefore, it was not the wayward son’s ability to draw on his own power to bring him back to the father (he was in a pit of his own making out of which he could not pull himself out), but it was the pull of the father’s merciful love that reached that son in his pit and pulled him back. Repentance, you see, is not something that we accomplish by our own strength and will, but rather is accomplished by God whose love extends as far as we might go, and brings us back. And the more amazing thing that this wayward son discovered is, that the Father’s love is even greater than he thought it was, for when the father spotted him from afar, the father ran to meet him…to embrace him…and not to treat him with the loving care for a servant, but to treat him with the extravagant care for a son. And of course, that is who he was. (“When he came to himself.”)
The power that enables repentance comes from God, a God who seeks and sweeps and stretches to gather up a “sinner” and bring that sinner home. Hmmm…isn’t that what a Bungee Cord does?
So what is God’s word of grace to us in these two short parables? It isn’t that God is calling us, like a mother ringing a dinner bell, to come back home. Instead it is that God comes to get us…get us when we are too weak to move, too far down in a hole to pull ourselves out, too overwhelmed and deafened by the noise of suffering and guilt…God comes to get us with the reach of his love and bring us back home.
So, consider when you come upon someone who is feeding swine and knee deep in pig manure, the thing to do is not to yell at that person, “Hey, get out of that mess and follow me.”, but instead jump into that mess, as Jesus does, take hold of that person and with the power of Christ’s love pull that person out. And when that happens…when we are caked in pig manure and come out smelling like a pig…God is really happy!

 The Bungee Cord 9-12-22

Hello,

My son from New York was visiting me this weekend, and of course his wife and my grandson came along! Saturday we decided to play some golf. Neither one of us are tremendous golfers, actually we are both accomplished hackers. It was a slow round. At the tenth hole a guy who was playing alone caught up to us and joined us for the back nine. He was a far more accomplished player and took the game rather seriously. Unfortunately for him, I think the lower level of my son’s and my play affected his concentration and his game suffered. He was gracious about it, though.

My son has played less than 10 times in his life, so you can imagine the patience it took for our acquired partner to plod along the course with us. I am good enough to keep the ball in play, but not so my son. Drives sliced a fairway or two to the right, balls lost in the trees and tall grass. Fortunately, or unfortunately, despite my sons erratic play, we kept on pace with the slow play of the people in front of us.

Finally, we came to the 17th hole, and I suspect our newfound golfing buddy was quite ready to have this round finished. The 17th hole is a long par four with a slight dogleg right, trees lining the left side of the fairway, a creek running along the right side, and the same creek running through the fairway about 50 yards from the green. My son popped his drive up into the creek on the right. I showed my golfing prowess and drove my ball right down the middle about 200 yards (a good distance for me). And our friend whose concentration must have been used up cranked his drive much further than mine, but lost into the trees on the left. Feeling pretty good about my performance on my drive, I confidently took out my 9 iron to lay up in front of the creek having discovered far too many times that my game is not consistent enough to carry the creek. Wouldn’t you know, that my confidence got the best of me, and I peeked from my ball and toed it into the creek on the right side of the fairway.

When I approached the creek, I could not find my ball, but there was an orange ball lying in the middle of the creek, and being a cheap golfer, I figured that I might as well retrieve this orange ball. So, I pulled out my sand wedge, planning to scoop the ball up as I had so often done. It was a steep slope down to the water, but there was a small ledge just above water level that I figured would get me close enough to scoop up the ball. Quickly I discovered that my judgment was severely in error, because as I stepped on the ledge and put my club in the water that was much deeper than I had expected, the ground began to give way under my foot and I was heading head first into the water in slow motion. Fortunately, I was able to stab my sand wedge into the creek bottom which turned out to be as deep as the shaft of the club, and only the top of the hat that I was wearing got wet. But being in the inverted position that I was, and teetering precariously on my golf club, I could not move. My head inches above the water, my feet sticking out vertically from the steeply sloped Creekside. Helpless. A fool of my own making.

Soon, I heard some hilarious laughing coming from the side of the creek. It was my son who was enjoying the sight of his father’s predicament, and a belly rumble coming from our serious, patience worn friend..

“I can’t move!” I said, giggling myself, and thankful that I was not golfing by myself with I often do.

Soon I felt a set of hands grab my left ankle and another set of hands grabbing my right, and with a strong yank I was pulled, feet first, out of the creek. We all laughed at my foolishness all brought about by my penny pinching nature to retrieve a ball whose initial owner was far wiser than I.

Thankful to been saved from dunking myself in that creek, I dopped another ball (a ball that I had previously found in the deep grass), and amid my laughter hit another nine iron onto the green. As the three of us picked up our bags of clubs, our newfound never smiling friend said with a chuckle of delight, “That is a sight that I will never forget!”

It all made me consider what God says when God pulls us out of the foolish predicaments that we bring upon ourselves. I bet God, after grabbing his hands around our ankles, finds himself chuckling in comic delight, “That is a sight that I will never forget!”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 IF GRACE IS THE BASE…..AND IT IS!

Question: Does Jesus really mean "hate"?

Luke 14:25-33

25 Now large crowds were travelling with him; and he turned and said to them, 26‘Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. 27Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? 29Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, 30saying, “This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.” 31Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. 33So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.

I remember listening to someone who had gone to seminary say, “I went to seminary and found out that Jesus didn’t really mean what he said.” Well, that is not the seminary that I went to. I was taught that Jesus meant everything that he said. So deeply was that conviction that we examined each of Jesus’ words in the Greek (the original language of the NT), sought to understand exactly what the implication of Jesus’ words were to the people who first heard them, and then sought to understand how that implication translated into our lives.

In this passage, does Jesus really mean “hate”? According to Brian P. Stoffregen when Jesus used the word “hate”, it carried the meaning "to turn away from, to detach oneself from.” It did not necessarily carry a sense of animosity. So, the implication that Jesus was making was that if someone would come up to Jesus and say, “What do I have to do to be your disciple?”, Jesus would answer, “Well, if you detach yourself from the things to which you are deepest connected (your family, your life), then you have done what you need to do to be my disciple.”

Who can do that? That is what Jesus bids us consider as he speaks about building a house or waging a war. I know that I cannot do that. And just to make sure that I realize there is no way that I can do enough to be Jesus’ disciple, Jesus says in words that should be all caps, bold faced, and underlined, “That’s right, if you want to make yourself able to be my disciple, you’ll have to give up all of your possessions.” To be able to be Jesus’ disciple means that a person would have nothing else that they cling to. Period. That is what Jesus means.

But who can do that? No one. No one is able, by their own doing, to be a disciple of Jesus. That is Jesus’ point. Notice, not one of Jesus’ disciples came to him and asked to be a disciple. Every one of them was approached by Jesus, and Jesus said to them, “Follow me.” The point being that it is by the power of Jesus that one is a disciple, not the power of the person.

That is good news, the gospel (that is what gospel means in Greek, “good message”). It is the best of news to hear Jesus tell us that when we look in the mirror and see who we really are, people who are bound in our human skin and all that comes with that (the hold of family, the hold of life)…..powerless to become his disciple, Jesus empowers us to be exactly that. Jesus makes us his disciples. As it is said in Isaiah 64.8 “:Yet, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.” Likewise, Martin Luther wrote in the Small Catechism, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.”

So, do you and I have any hope of being a disciple of Jesus, of having our lives transformed by his word? Our hope lies not in us, but totally in Jesus….Jesus who died and rose for all. Consider those who Jesus called as his first disciples, not just the twelve, but all who he touched with his love. Lepers, demoniacs, outcasts, forgotten. If such were they who Jesus empowered to be his disciples, you and I, with certainty can count ourselves among those who are named by Jesus as his disciples. And as so named, we can also count ourselves among those upon whose Jesus’ hand is at work, shaping and molding us to be people who find life, both now and forever, in him.

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