1 John 3:1

Monday, September 16, 2024

The Bungee Cord. 9-16-24

Hello,

Here's a recent sermon of mine that I thought was worthy of Bungee-hood:

John 6:41-51

“And I will raise you up. And I will raise you up. And I will raise you up on the last day.”

I have heard some Christians say that the life of a Christian is all about holding on tight.

1. When temptations come that try and pull you away from Christ, you need to pray harder than usual. Hold on tight.

2. When the world gets you spinning so fast…your job, you bills, your appointments…you need to get your priorities straight, put God first, start tithing. Hold on tight.

3. When you are lost and confused, and you don’t know what to do you need read the Bible more. Hold on tight.

4. When the road you’re on is really bumpy…your health, your relationship…you need to make time for worship. Hold on tight.

I’ve heard it and I bet that you have heard it too, that as you live this life as a Christian, you need to work on your grip, bulk up your muscles, strengthen your faith so that you can hold on tight.

That may be what others have told you and me, but that is not what Jesus tells you and me this morning. This morning in our Gospel lesson Jesus says this, “No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day.” Hear that again, “No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day.” In other words, Jesus says that the life of a Christian is all about this, “Being held by God.” God’s word to you and to me is not, “Hold on tight.” No, God’s word to you and to me is this, “I’ve got you!”

Over and over again in scripture, God tells us this same message.

1. When you wander, I am the good shepherd who will leave 99 sheep to find you, and I won’t give up until I do. I’ve got you.

2. When you are swimming aimlessly in the sea going nowhere, I will like a fisher of people drop my net of love and gather you up, and you can fight it all you want, but you won’t be able to wiggle away from my love. I’ve got you.

3. When the devil comes along with its arrows of evil, I will clad you with the armor of God, and the devil’s arrows will bounce off of you. I’ve got you.

4. When death takes hold of you and shackles you in a grave that no human can open, I, who has shown you that I have the power to roll back death’s stone, will come and tear death’s shackles off of you in a prison break that will free you from death’s grip forever. I’ve got you.

Maybe you have seen the poster of a cat with its claws dug into a tree branch hanging above a drooling dog with the words, “Hang in there.” Of course, there’s nothing wrong in hanging in there when you find yourself in such situations. There’s nothing wrong in praying. There’s nothing wrong in generous giving. There’s nothing wrong in reading the Bible. There’s nothing wrong with attending worship weekly. But the thing is that even when we do all those things, we are still nothing more than that cat, holding on for dear life, fighting the ever-pulling pull of gravity (notice the word grave in gravity). Not even the strongest gymnast can hold onto the high bar forever, especially when that gymnast is being pulled down by an elephant whose trunk is wrapped around him. “Hang in there,” ultimately are not words of hope, but words of disaster.

So why pray? Why give offering of thanks and praise? Why read the Bible? Why come to worship every week? Why do these things if trying to strengthen our faith is ultimately a losing battle? Jesus tells us the answer in our Gospel, “47Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48I am the bread of life. 49Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’ In other words, the reason to pray, the reason to give offerings, the reason to read the Bible , and the reason to worship every Sunday is not to make us stronger, but rather to have us come to know what it feels like to be held in the hands of God.

When we pray, we get a feel for how strong God’s grip is on us in that Almighty God for whom the universe needs his constant attention, actually makes room in his schedule to stop and listen to you…without an appointment.

When we give offerings of thanks and praise to God, we feel how unbreakable God’s grip on us is as we discover that we give from a well of God’s love for us that never runs dry.

When we read the Bible, we feel how relentless God’s love for us is, love that existed for us even before time began, in every moment of time, and even when time shall come to an end.

When we come to worship, we feel how powerful God’s grip on us is as he physically enters our lives with his body and blood and takes ahold of every cell of our bodies.

In all those ways, prayer, offerings of thanks, and reading scripture, and worship , we “taste and see, that the Lord is good.”

You and I know, that when we step outside these doors, there is going to be a world full of things taking their grip on us….bills, health, job, family, loneliness, excitement, exhaustion, fear, and even death. So, as you take those steps out the door, God says, “go.” Go out with

• good courage,

• deep hope,

• and uncompromised peace.

Because God has said to you today, and every day, “I’ve God you.”

“And I will raise you up. And I will raise you up. And I will raise you up on the last day.”

Amen

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Monday, September 9, 2024

The Bungee Cord. 9-9-24

Hello,

“What’s mercy?”

That was the question that I was asked by the young man travelling next to me on a recent air flight. The young man was not from the USA, so English is a second language to him. As we talked, I told him that I was a Lutheran pastor, and that opened the door up to some discussion on faith, his and mine. He asked me about my faith, and I told him that I have come to see that my God is most concerned with forgiveness and mercy. He listened to me, pondering what I said, and that is when he asked me, “What’s mercy?”

Apparently, mercy was not part of his vocabulary. It wasn’t that his vocabulary was small, he was very conversant in English, but for some reason the word mercy had not made it into his personal dictionary. I got to thinking about that, and I found myself with only one conclusion: he had never heard the word before.

Considering that, it occurred to me that when I hear a lot of Christians talking about their faith, I hear them talk a lot about God leading them to do the right things. Their faith was helping them be good people. You can’t imagine the number of people who have told me when I have gone to a visitation before a funeral that I am going to preside over, “I know that she’s in heaven. She was such a good person.” Additionally, I have heard many Christian people speak of someone who has done something horrendously awful say of that one, “I am sure that there is a special place in hell for him!” Rules. Judgment. Obligation. Those are the words that many people speak when they speak of their Christian faith. Not mercy.

I am not quite sure why so many perceive the Christian faith to be one centered on rules, judgment and obligation. I am inclined to say that such a perspective on faith allows one to elevate oneself amongst others. One can be holier. One can be better. One can be a more “real” Christian. After all, if you look around, you can always find someone who needs to get their act together more than you do. Such a view of Christianity seems to make it a lifetime of ladder climbing. A lifetime of exhaustion from every day bringing another rung. A lifetime of frustration from never reaching the top. A lifetime of misery that comes from being so broken that you cannot climb.

I don’t think that this young man is alone in wondering what mercy is, because for many it is a word that has not become part of their faith vocabulary.

So, I tried to answer the young man’s question. “ What’s mercy?” I stumbled in my efforts, and I said, “It is forgiveness when you don’t deserve it. It is forgiveness based on love, not worthiness. It is a God who takes you as you are and doesn’t give up on you until he has molded you into a beautiful work of art.” If I had had my dictionary with me, I could have looked it up to make it clearer, “compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm.” (Webster’s)

When I read the Bible, I see mercy to be the core of what God is all about. From the stories of creation to the visions of the end of time, I see a God whose response to a broken and dysfunctional world to be mercy. God doesn’t give up on us, even in the story of the flood. God doesn’t say, “You made your bed now you have to lay in it.” No, God, in Jesus joins us in our bed of thorns we have made. God doesn’t say as Marie Antoinette, “Let them eat cake,” and dispassionately watches us suffer from afar. God set his feet on our ground and subjected himself to being spit at, whipped, betrayed, crucified, and even shut in a grave. Driven by a divine reactor of love, the God who has revealed himself in Jesus Christ is a God of mercy.

To be treated mercifully is life giving. I hope that my short encounter with the young man in my flight was a life-giving event for him. I hope that it added a word to his vocabulary of faith. I hope this Bungee Cord is a life-giving event for you, and a word has been added to your vocabulary of faith. I hope that it is a word that becomes the primary word for you and him, and you ponder your relationship with God, your faith. The word: mercy!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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Tuesday, September 3, 2024

The Bungee Cord 9-3-24

Hello,

So, if you have been following the news at all, you, like I, heard of the killing of the six hostages in Gaza this past week. When I saw the pictures of those who had been killed, I was heart-torn. Each of them was a young vibrant person, many were people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time, a musical festival. Their faces reminded me of my kids, and I found myself unable to imagine the grief and terror their parents have been living with, and the pain that will now never leave them.

The news says that they were executed at close range. When I heard that, I thought to myself, “How much hate must have been in those captors’ hearts to do that.” It is hard for me to fathom the depth of hate it must take to look at a young person in the eye and pull a trigger. That is a level of hate I hope I never experience in my heart.

Yet, I can see the embers of such hatred astir there. I see them glowing with anger at someone who has wronged me without a bit of remorse. I see them glowing with vengeance when someone has stepped on me as they have climbed over me in life. I see them glowing with rage when someone I love has been hurt. I can’t imagine the hate that drives someone to shoot someone in cold blood, but I don’t need to imagine where it comes from. I know.

But I also know this: there are plenty of times when I have done things that could fuel to fires of hate in the heart of God for me. I have spit in God’s face. I have turned my back on God. I have hoarded love that is meant to share. I have brought dishonor to God’s name. I have poured enough fuel of pain into the heart of God that God would have every reason to let a bonfire of hate explode in God’s heart.

But it doesn’t. Instead of hate, the explosion in God’s heart is one of love. As a matter of fact, the explosion of love was so great that the whole universe shook when love was ignited in God’s heart. When God’s heart exploded with love, nothing in all of creation could escape its fury, a fury so great that when Jesus, God’s very self, took his place on the Calvary’s cross there began a meltdown of all hate that no measure of hate could escape. As if an exploded nova star whose pull is so great that it creates a black hole, when Jesus cried out, “It is finished,” hatred found itself being sucked down in oblivion, never to be seen again.

God does not, nor will God ever, hate me, or you. Not a single ember of hatred burns in the heart of God. It is gone forever! Only love remains, and so no matter what you and I might do, hatred has no ashes to be stirred up in God’s heart for me or you. God loves me and you. And it is that explosion of love that erupted out of the Easter tomb, also like a black hole, that is pulling you and me into the embrace of God with unmatched and eternal might.

And as that explosion of love reaches your heart and mine, those embers of rage, hate, and vengeance are doused with grace and mercy that turns their hurtful glow into steam to empower you and me with healing love. It may not be that the divine love that radiates from your heart might douse the hatred in the hearts of those who would shoot someone in Gaza but consider what it might do to the hatred in your home, your neighborhood, your workplace, your school. And who knows, maybe one of those embers of love that bursts from your heart might just cause a wildfire of love and mercy that empowered by the wind of the Spirit might land in the heart of someone in a Gazan tunnel.

“This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine….

All around the neighborhood, I’m gonna let it shine….

Hide it under a bushel, NO! I’m gonna let it shine….

Don’t let Satan blow it out, I’m gonna let it shine…

Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine!

Have a great week,

God’s grace and peace,

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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