The Bungee Cord. 12-6-22

Hello,

This week I have decided that I could never be Santa Claus, and the reason why: I don’t like getting up on the roof! This past week, we had a strong wind rumble through our little valley. There were sustained winds of 25 mph and gusts that rattled our house. We lost a couple large branches off of our trees, and we also lost a couple of shingles off of our roof. With rain in the forecast, and roofers hard to find for immediate repair, I was left to be the one to replace the shingles. Unfortunately, the shingles that the wind tore off were at the peak of our roof, 35 feet above the ground.

So, I crawled out of the window in our living room loft and stepped out on the roof, which is a shallow slope above the front porch. I, then, made my way over to the main roof whose incline was much steeper, maybe not the steepness of a ski jump, but standing on it, it sure felt like it was. I shuffled my way to the back side of the house and up to the peak of the roof. And when I had made my way up to the peak, I put my rear end near the shingle-less site, sat down, and took a look at the damage. Sure enough, two shingles had blown off, and a bunch of the ones that remained had been blown loose and would need to be glued down. And that is when I thought to myself, “I don’t want to be up here!” You see, as I have aged, getting up off the floor isn’t as easy as it used to be, and I discovered that getting up off the roof was not as easy as it used to be either. The lack of ease is a minor problem getting off the floor, but not so on the roof. One slip. One loss of balance….and rolling down the roof I would go.

To make a longer story short, I did accomplish my task of repairing my roof without killing or maiming myself, but though the day was chilly my shirt was sweaty, and my nerves were in need of soothing. Thus, my discernment, I could never be Santa Claus. I don’t know how he can land a sleigh and reindeer on the slanted runway of a roof, hop out of the sleigh carrying a loaded bag, walk across a snow-covered incline and not go tumbling down to the ground. But I do know this; I could never do it! I could never be Santa Claus!

As I consider the Christmas season, I know something else, too; I could never be the Messiah. I could never shoulder all the sins of the world and carry them to the cross. They would crush me and I would never make it there. I could never gather in all the fear of the world and render it harmless. It would be like an ant taking on an elephant in a wrestling match. I could never walk into the darkness of despair as a light of hope that shatters even the deepest darkness. The light that I would carry would keep on getting blown out by the gale force winds of the world. I could never put a leash on death and drag it to a bottomless pit. Death has a grip on me that seems to drag me to places that I don’t want to go. Even more so than not being able to be Santa Claus, as Christmas nears I know that I could never be the Messiah.

But that is the good news of Christmas. I don’t have to be. You don’t have to be. God, the master of the Universe, the only one who could ever do what a Messiah needs to do, has taken the matter into his own hands and has provided a Messiah: Jesus. He who did not need to leave his heavenly home, has come to make his home in his creation….on this earth…in human hearts. The infinite inhabiting the finite. And like one of those home improvement shows where a home that is falling apart is transformed into a home where life and love can be built, so is God at work as he has taken his home among us. Digging into every corner and finding ancient fears and sweeping them out. Pulling up the rotten boards of sin and grief and laying down a solid floor of forgiveness and eternal life. Mitigating the mold that has grown with the absolute sanitizing cleansing power of his cross-shed blood. Of course, I can share in God’s home-cleaning work, but thankfully the completion of the restoration that God has in mind is not up to me.

Thank God that neither I nor you have to be the Messiah! Jesus is!

Have a great week!

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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