The Bungee Cord 9-1-25

Hello,

Is evil winning?

I remember running across Robbin’s park to go to school every morning as a child, 60+ years ago. I remember riding around town on my bicycle all day long. I remember playing pickup games of football, baseball, and basketball for hours on end. I remember flying kites and untangling string. I remember going to church and Sunday school and singing the liturgy by heart. I remember toting my red wagon around the neighborhood, knocking on doors and selling bags of tomatoes, beans, and carrots from the garden in my back yard.

But now, parents escort their kids to school and wait with them as the bus comes to pick them up. The radius of wandering for kids has become smaller and smaller and smaller. The pressure for perfection has pressed down on kids’ athletics so that organized sports have left out lots of kids and pick-up fun has been diminished. Simple things no longer are fun. Sunday morning has been swallowed up by things driven by money. No one knocks on an unknown neighbor’s door for fear of what might the answer bring.

And that’s to say nothing about wars that are killing thousands of people every day, and a lot of them children and elderly. Nothing about the suspicion of scams that comes with every unknown email. Nothing about school shootings and monthly practice to be ready for one. Nothing about the legitimacy given to crass names being volleyed in public discourse. Nothing to say about the callous treatment of “little people” by companies that are beholding to their bottom line.

Is evil winning?

No.

Even after listing all the things that seem to say that evil is gaining the upper hand, still my assessment is “no”. What I see happening is that evil is determined not to go down without a fight. Truth is, evil has always put up a pretty good fight. As idyllic as my childhood memories are, evil was still throwing punches when I was a kid: Viet Nam war, Chicago riots, John Kenedy, Robert Kenedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr were assassinated, drugs were on the rampage, racism was flourishing……..evil has always been a tough opponent.

Evil may be a valiant fighter, but it will never win because it has already lost. When Jesus, the Son of God, went to the cross, he gathered up unto himself all the evil in all of creation. Evil had somehow squirmed its way into God’s handiwork, and so God has taken it upon himself to get rid of evil’s infestation. When Jesus breathed his last breath on the cross and yelled, “It is finished!”, evil’s fight was finished…knocked out…floundering…unable to get back on its feet. And although it may seem as time clicks on that evil still is throwing upper cuts and jabs, the truth is that in the timelessness of God’s eternal reign and love the bell has already rung. On Easter Sunday morning, the only thing that walked out of that Good Friday tomb was Jesus, and now it is ours to live in Jesus’ victory embrace, and living in the wake of Jesus victory, we can hear Jesus say to evil as it tries to raise its ugly head, “Hit me with your best shot…..Loser!”

And as evil, who like a 100 pound fool standing in the ring with Mohamed Ali, takes aim at you and me, Jesus steps in between evil and us and says, “You can’t have this one. This one is mine!”

When Jesus says, “Do not fear,” he has good reason to tell us that, and the best reason of all is that God Almighty loves us, and God will not let anything or anyone take us away from him. God, not evil, has already won!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger