The Bungee Cord 2-27-23

Hello,

Why can I say with sheer confidence that God loves you, and me for that matter?

I know that in saying this, I am making a rather blanket statement. After all, I don’t even know many of you who will read this Bungee Cord. I don’t know if you live a life that resembles Jesus’ life. I don’t know if you are someone who is the pillar of your community or someone who is the blight of your community. I don’t know if you pray and worship, or even if you believe in Jesus. Even those who are reading this that I do know, how can I be so sure in telling you that God loves you?

Here's the answer. God loves you, not because you love God and your life resembles that love. God loves you because “God is love.” (1 John4:16). And just a few verses before, “In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:10)

Clearly, God did not send his Son into the world because the world loved God accordingly. As a matter of fact, the Bible tells us that God sent his Son to save sinners. Not just some sinners, but all sinners. That includes me, and that includes you. For those who would say, “But don’t you have to want to be saved?”, I know this for a fact. Even though I do not possess the depth of love that God has, I know for certain that if one of my kids was determined to take his life, I would do everything in my power to keep that from happening. And that is what God has done in Jesus.

For those that might say, “Don’t we have to do something? Do some good? Believe at least a little bit?”, I ask this: Where does “some good” start? When does a “little bit” kick in? If there is something that I must do to be loved by God, I am certain that I would always be certain that I was not. As a matter of fact, I would start looking for that special place in hell for people like me. Someone has said to me when I say such things, “People don’t think that way anymore,” and maybe they don’t, but if sin is deadly (and it is deadly enough to kill Jesus) it seems to me that even a single virus of sin in my life is enough to bring death into the world and earn for me a special place in hell.

Listen to this, “9We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 6). How do I know that God loves you? Because Jesus died for you! He died for you despite the deepest darkest secret that you hide in your heart because you think if it is know you will be unlovable. He died for you despite the failures that float in your wake that constantly pop up all around you. He died for you despite your inability to conceive of the existence of one who commands the universe with such love. He died for you, not because you love him. He died for you because God is love.

Like lying in the warm sun after the cold of winter has past, soak up the warmth, see the world illumined in grace……”abide in God’s love”. God loves you.

Have a great week,

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord 2-20-23

Hello,

“There is no god.”

So say many people as they look at the tragedies that have fallen upon the people of Turkey and Syria. Thus far, the death toll is 46,000 people and the expectation is for many more to be added. And for those who survived, children are left without parents and parents are left without children, hospitals are overflowing, homes have been demolished and people have been left to face the cold without shelter. When terror of this magnitude strikes, people look around them and cry out in anger and despair, “There is no god!”

Many who answer this exploding cry of outrage and anguish by offering a defense for God for such crushing misery say things that, in truth, only add fuel to the flames of their claim. To say that God had nothing to do with their pain, it’s just the way the world is makes God out to be some toy poodle trying to ward off a bear. That makes God someone who is cute and cuddly, and who needs a god like that. To say that God is punishing those who were the recipient of these quakes makes God to be like a coach who looks beyond the ill deeds of her favorites and takes out her wrath on the unlucky unfavored, and who needs a god like that. To say that God is trying to teach us something, trivializes the pain that the “learners” are feeling, and makes God to be the kind of teacher that uses a sledgehammer to kill a stinkbug, and who needs a god like that. To say that everything happens for a greater divine purpose makes God out to be some heavenly chess player who counts winning to be more important than losing some pieces, and if you’re one of those casualties of some game, you certainly don’t need a god like that.

When I look around and see the terror that ravages countries, cities, families, and individuals, I, too, find myself ready to join a chorus of scarred singers, “There is no god!”

But in my glance, I see something else, too. I see a Golgotha cross which sought to inflict lethal suffering to an innocent man who had gathered all the evil of the universe in his being, who was nailed there, and who took all that evil to the bottomless pit of death in a short three hour battle. And I see a nearby empty grave that wasn’t even strong enough to hold that same man in the grips of death for a measly three days. I see a Roman soldier who stood by that cross and as a witness to the power of the one from whom no evil could escape, “‘Truly this man was God’s Son!’ And I see a woman who in grief wondered where the body had been taken from the empty grave, and having her tears of sorrow transformed to tears of joy with one word, “Mary.”

And when I see these things breaking through the cracks of terror and suffering, I see a God who intimately involves God’s self in the pain of the world. Pain that we create. Pain that crashes down upon us out of nowhere. Pain that takes life and breath away. And unlike those who would answer that God has nothing to do with tragedies, God steps into those tragedies and says, “I am here, and no earthquake can take you away from me.” (Romans And unlike those who say that God is punishing, God screams from the cross, “I forgive you all!” (Matthew 27) And to those who say that God is trying to teach us something with suffering, he speaks from the mouth of Jesus, “‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11). And to those who seek to find a greater divine purpose in the evil that befalls God’s creation, Jesus, the Son of God says, ” I 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)

Is there a God?

With these things captivating my vision, I find myself drawn to add my voice to that of the Apostle Paul in Romans 8, “What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written,

‘For your sake we are being killed all day long;

we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.’

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

“I am convinced.”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord. 2-13-22

Hello,

When I was a kid, it was a special treat to get in the car and go to Westmont, Illinois, a town a couple of towns away from ours, Hinsdale, and go to McDonald’s. McDonald’s were just making their way into the Chicago area and to eat at one was a new adventure. Hamburgers were small and $.15. Fries were a dime, and a strawberry shake was 20 cents. (I admit, I had to look the prices up.) My folks would each get a hamburger. My brother and I would split one. We’d get two fries to share among the four of us, and the real treat was the two strawberry shakes that we’d all share. My dad would walk into the glass front building with the golden arches on both sides, bring our meal back to us in a paper bag, and we would sit in our car and enjoy some fine dining.

But my how McDonald’s has changed. Its menu has expanded, its burgers are bigger (I remember when the quarter pounder came out…what a thrill!), and its prices have risen, a lot! The buildings are much more impressive, even offering wifi for customers. But something else has changed. A couple of weeks ago, I stopped in at a McDonald’s after not having to been to one in a number of years, and I was caught off guard. There was no one at a register to take my order with a smile saying, “How can I help you today?” Instead, there were several kiosks with video screens where I was to place my order, screens that were a bit confusing to me with their directions, but no one around to give me any aid. I floundered my way through the ordering process, and when I had paid with my credit card (I think it would have taken cash, but I couldn’t figure that out either), I got a number to identify my order. I was supposed to select a seat, although I don’t think I did that right either, and then wait at my numbered seat for my food to be brought out to me. There were few people there, so in spite of the fact that I was not seated at my appropriate spot, a person found me, asked me of my number and then, without another word, placed my meal in front of me.

The thing that most startled me was that I almost got my meal without seeing a single human being. If my meal had been simply placed on the counter, and my number called to pick it up, that is what would have happened. My how things have changed. We now live in a world where human contact is disappearing. For a long time, we have just been a number in our governments world (SSN). When I went to the University of Illinois with tens and thousands of students, my test scores were posted with my ID number. With the anonymity of the internet, we are known by our telephone number. But I never dreamt of the day that I would have no human interaction at a McDonald’s, and I would be nothing more than a number on a Kiosk screen.

Being a number with no human contact doesn’t feel very good to me. It makes me feel like nothing more than one of a million items at the end of an assembly line. As a number, I feel no more treasured than a grain of sand on a beach. I have no reason to believe that the number giver cares anything at all about me; my struggles, my joys, my hopes, my dreams. Never seeing a face or shaking a hand brings on a chill of isolation and loneliness. After all, who cares about a number?

The amazing thing about our God is that to God I am not a number, and neither are you. When I consider the myriads of people who have walked this earth, let alone the vastness of the universe, God would have me know that I am a treasure to him. Unlike the McDonald’s, God does not hide behind the counter of heaven and keeps our encounters to an uncaring kiosk. No, God has stepped into human presence as a human who stretches out his arms on a cross and says, “I love you this much.” And God embraces us, one by one, with that cross born love when baptismal waters splash upon us, waking us up to God’s claim on us, “You are mine.” And he offers us more than just a smile and a handshake as he invites us weekly to a banquet table of pure grace saying, “this is my body…this is my blood…for YOU.”

For some, such a God is too hard to believe in. How could it be that God would care about the sub-atomic speck of the universe that you and I are. Admittedly, it is something that is hard for me to believe. But just as a human parent who is determined to have their child know that they mean everything to them, so God keeps on loving us with divine and unconditional love until we live our lives transformed with hope in God’s care for us.

The world, for the sake of profit, speed, precision, and ease may be turning away from human interaction. But God doesn’t care about profit, speed, precision, and ease. God cares about you and me, so God will keep on turning God’s face to us in love and embracing us with Jesus’ grace and mercy. Thanks, God!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord. 2-6-23

Hello,

Beware of Dog!

That is a sign that I have not enjoyed seeing when making a pastoral visit. Over the years when I have seen such a sign and a large drooling Chow Chow chained to the post holding the handrail, there has been significant enough fear rumbling through me that I have not gotten out of my car. In such cases, I have honked in hopes of alerting the visit-ee (pre-cell phone days), or I have pulled out my phone and called the visit-ee and have asked if they could do something with the dog. If the dog remained, I would leave, but if the dog was removed from my path, I would venture into the house with trepidation.

Sometimes the owner would come out of the house and wave me in saying, “Oh, he won’t hurt you.” When that happened, I still stayed in the safety of my can and explained that those words did not calm my fears. One time, the owner brought the dog inside, a black Chow Chow, and then came out and said, “Come on in.” Which I did, but when I sat down on the sofa, it came bounding out of the kitchen with death in its eyes (or at least that is what I saw in its eyes). Fortunately, it did not make a meal of me, but let me say that my visit was quick and when I left it was clear to everyone that my anti-perspirant had not overcome my fears.

Fear is a powerful thing. It can keep us from doing things. It can keep us from going places. It can keep us in line. But the problem with fear is that its power is not invincible. Throw a big juicy steak at the dog, and the dog no longer has a consuming interest in you. Get an armored vehicle and arm yourself, and the dog will become no more vicious than a gnat. Put a sedative in its food and you can stroll right up to the house as if the dog isn’t even there. Fear loses its power when fear is gone.

That is one reason why our prisons are filled to overflowing. That is one reason why kids experiment with drugs. That is one reason why there are so many unwanted pregnancies. That is one reason why people find themselves swallowed up in debt. And that is one reason why, I believe, that many people have no interest in Christianity.

Consider what most people believe the Christian message is. I think that most would say that the Christian message is, “You have got to believe in Jesus if you want to be saved.” Or, “You have to accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior if you want to go to heaven.” Or maybe a little more harshly put, “Turn or burn!” In my ears, these things are fear driven words, because they all imply, “And if you don’t, you better look out.” Much akin to the sign, “Beware of Dog!”

But what happens when life hits you so hard that you say, “I can’t believe in a god who would let this happen to me!”? What happens when you find yourself on top of the world, drunk with success and you say, “I don’t need a savior.”? What happens when you are cruising through life in a hypnotic daze and you fall asleep at the wheel and find yourself plunging over a cliff of despair, and you say, “There’s no god.” Do you burn?

When I read the entirety of the Bible, which is well capsulated in these verses from the book of John, ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.’ (3:16,17), I do not see a God who has sent Jesus to scare us out of hell, but instead I see a God who has sent his Son, Jesus, to love us into heaven. Belief in Jesus is not meant to be driven by fear, but rather to be the result of being overwhelmed in love.

Apparently, God knows the inadequate power of fear: other things are more powerful, and fear’s power always wanes. That is why, when it comes to God relationship with you and me, God has chosen the power of divine love: love that nothing can overcome and separate us from God (Romans , and love that never ends (1 Corinthians 13).

The world is full of fierce, salivating dogs, but God is not one of them, God is the Good Shepherd who has laid down his life for his sheep, you and me, and God is not about to let that death be in vain as he takes hold of us with a unconditional embrace saying, “Fear not, I’ve got you.”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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