The Bungee Cord 11-28-22

Hello,

All three of my sons were able to come to my house for Thanksgiving. Along with them came two daughter-in-laws, a mother-in-law, a dog and (of course!) my grandson. It was a grand time. One of the things that happened was that we all gathered around the TV one evening to watch a movie, a movie that we annually watch when my kids visit around this time of the year: “Home Alone 1”.

The high-jinx of Kevin’s defensive operations and the slap stick punishment received by the robbers never gets old. I suppose that there are some that might be appalled at the violence of irons hitting someone in the face and door knobs heated to flesh burning temperature, but to me these antics are just plain funny and silly. The movie’s shenanigans tickle my soul.

There are many tender and maybe even Christ-centered moments in the film that accompany the laughter and the “suspense”: the blessing of family, the power of forgiveness, the goodness that can be found in a neighbor’s heart, but the deepest thing that strikes me about “Home Alone” is the Christian message, and that is that one is never home alone.

Although the premise of the movie (that a child might find himself left behind at Christmans) is highly unlikely, in the real world begin forgotten, getting lost, wandering away happens all the time. In a doctor’s office when the doctor says, “There is nothing more we can do for you.” At school when someone gossips a secret. At home when you have made a mess of your life and you feel the cold shoulder. When you have chased after something, only to find out that you were on a snipe hunt. When the world is spinning so fast that you are exhausted and can’t keep up. When you look into the mirror and see the zit on your life that won’t go away.

And when you find yourself all alone, that is when the “sticky robbers” (I think that is what the Home Alone robbers called themselves) attack. To rob you of hope. To steal away joy. To fill you with fear. To snatch away your future. And the thing is that unlike the movie where Kevin’s cleverness outwits the robbers, that doesn’t always happen in real life.

But here is something that did happen in real life, in Jesus, Almighty God made his home in your life and mine. As the book of John puts it this way, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it….And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.”

The point is this, you and I are never home alone. There is not one moment in your life or mine that we are left alone to the robbers and thieves of this world. As a matter of fact, Jesus has shown us that he will lay down his life to save us from the likes of such menacing evil. So when the robbers and thieves of the world say, “I am going to get you!”, listen to the one who always resides in your life, “27My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. 28I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. 29What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand.*30The Father and I are one.’ (John 10)

So, as the angels of Christmas told the shepherds, hear them tell you as Christmas nears, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah,* the Lord.”

You are never “Home Alone.”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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