The Bungee Cord

Hello,

Does God have favorites?

Does God love Americans more than Russians or Chinese? Does God love rich people more that poor people? Or does God love poor people more than rich people? Does God love people who obey the law more than those who don’t? Does God love generous people more than people who hoard all of their resources? Does God love Israelis more that Palestinians? Does God love kind people more than God loves jerks? Does God love other people more than God loves you? Does God love you more than certain kinds of other people?

Does God have favorites?

My wife and I have three sons, now all far into adulthood, but I remember well that when one of them would come up to us and ask, “How come this brother of mine got to do this or that and I don’t?” My response always was, “It’s obvious, isn’t it? We love your brother more than we love you.” My answer, of course, was not true, but I answered that way to address the elephant in the room. The elephant being that I was playing favorites, loving one more than the other based on rules.

The confusing thing about rules and love is that they are apples and oranges, but we often don’t see that. The rules that I had with each of my three sons were given out of love because they were meant to protect and guide them, but not one of the rules that I gave my sons was a rung on the ladder to my heart. My love for them came far before even one rule was set, and even if they were to have broken all the rules my love for them would not have been phased a bit, because my love for them had nothing to do with rules, it had to do with my heart.

Such is the way with God. Rules that God has given us were certainly given out of love, to protect and to guide us, but they were never meant to be rungs on a ladder to God’s heart. I can say that with complete assuredness because, when it comes to God’s love for us God sent his Son in spite of how well we were following rules (But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)). Whether a person was in the deepest and slimiest hole there could be, or whether someone was seen as the best rule follower of all time (Read what the Apostle Paul said of himself in the third chapter of Philippians), Jesus died for them. Certainly, it pains the heart of God when we, by not following the rules, hurt ourselves and others, just as it pained and pains me when my children hurt themselves and others by what they do and did. But as it is with me, so it is with God, actions do not diminish love.

And if you or I might still be inclined to think that there is something that a person can do that God would love them less, just look to the cross. Jesus died. Jesus died…died for the world (John 3:16,17). Death is not something that one can take back. God completely and vulnerably opened his heart to all people - not just some people. Jesus died, and that is an act of love that God cannot take back.

I, for one, am thankful for God’s irreversible and dying love. And although I might wonder “Why do the evil prosper? Why did this tragedy come to me?”, I am glad that the answer has no connection to God’s love based upon rules, for if it did, then it would always make me live in the fear that the rule(s) that I break just might be the one(s) that would close God’s heart to me.

Does God have favorites? In Jesus, God exclaims, “No!” In Jesus, God proclaims what is humanly impossible; all people are the “apple of his eye,” including you and me. And, in Jesus, God is daily at work “shining us up” with his love so that we might indeed bring the light of God’s love into the darkness of this world.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

See less

Shared post

 The Bungee Cord

Hello,

If you ask Google, “How many times did Jesus say, ‘Follow me,’?” It will tell you that Jesus said, “Follow me,” twenty-one times. Most often this instruction of Jesus refers to a pattern of discipleship and joining Jesus in a cascade of grace. But these last couple of days I have been working with a log splitter, splitting logs from trees that have either fallen down or were taken down on our property. And I have come to see that when Jesus says, “Follow me,” sometimes he is doing so as a mighty log splitter.

In Matthew 16 Jesus tells his disciples that suffering and death lie ahead of him. Peter, the disciple that seems to have been the most reactive said to Jesus, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” Although Peter is often maligned for his response, it seems to me that his response is a common response when struggles and suffering stare us in the face. Most of us, I think, tend to stop dead in our tracks in the face of doom that is around the corner. Why walk into trouble? It is safe where we are. Hunker down, find a bunker and stay put.

But Jesus knew, and you and I know, that doing so creates a prison of fear. We live in constant fear that the struggles might just make their way around the corner. Or we worry, like actors in scary movies, that if we walk into a dark alley, we will be greeted by a hockey mask wearing man wielding a chain saw. When we live under the threat of terror, it is a life that is lived sitting on the edge of one’s seat. Anxiety smothers peace. I think that this is what Jesus meant when he said, “For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life?”

However, to his disciples and us, as we face the struggles and suffering ahead of us, he says, “Follow me,” and with the power of a log splitter he presses directly into the struggles ahead. Like a hydraulic blade, Jesus inched his way into the suffering ahead of him, and even into the barrier of death, and on Golgatha’s hill he, on the splitting wedge of the cross, plunged death’s stump. And on Easter morning he split apart death and every other suffering that might be poised to crush us when Jesus walked out of the grave.

When Jesus said, “Take up your cross and follow me,” he was speaking like a mighty log splitter whose splitting edge was the cross, and was cheering us on to follow him in like manner through the split that he had just made. And as we follow his log splitting lead, we will see the powerlessness of the struggles that once loomed. Triumphantly and mockingly, we find ourselves singing, “Death where is they victory? Death where is they sting?”

It is when we pass through the valley of the shadow of death that peace and joy is found, for it is there that we live with the confidence of knowing that we are watched over and led by a shepherd who leads like a log splitter!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

See less

Shared post

 The BUngee Cord

Hello,

This upcoming Sunday is All Saints Day. It is the day in the life of the Christian Church that we rejoice with those who have found out that death is not the last word, but that, “Here in my Father’s house are many rooms….and this one is yours,” (John 14) will fall upon our ears after we die.

When I consider this promise that Jesus gives us as I live on this side of the grave, for me, it is a hard thing to imagine. What will this “house” be like? What will eternity be like? What will it be like to see God “face to face” (1 Cor. 13)? Truthfully, these are things that I cannot even imagine.

A lot of folks spend a lot of time trying to describe what heaven will be like. Even Jesus faced such questions when he was asked whose wife would a woman be in the resurrection after she had married a number of times in this life. In trying to develop a picture of what heaven will be like, they find what they consider clues in the Bible. Pearly gates. Golden streets. Angels soaring around. However, for me, these pictures of heaven create more confusion and misunderstanding than something upon which to calm my wonderings.

Some years ago, I visited an older man (someone who was my current age) who was dying of cancer. As I spoke with him, he told me of the wonders of his life….his family being foremost. And then he said to me, “I am scared to die. Tell me about heaven.”

It was so long ago that I don’t remember all that I said. I am sure that I spoke of the promise that tears and suffering will be no more, and that we will live in God’s unhidden presence for eternity, but beyond that I really couldn’t tell him much more than that. And then I told him that for me promise of life after death was a mystery….or more aptly an adventure. I told him that when I think about what is to come after this life, it is like an unborn infant trying to imagine what life would be after birth. There in the warmth of my mother’s womb, how could I even imagine what living would be like. I suspect that if I would have had the choice, I would have rather just stayed there. But as with death, so is birth. Neither can be avoided. We are thrust into them.

When I find myself facing an adventure of unknown trails, I know that I am most comforted when at the trail head I am greeted by one who knows the way. In birth, it was my parents, but now that I am a parent I realize that when I held my children in my arms after they were born, I was far from a skilled and solid guide….likewise were my parents. That is why it was a welcomed blessing that when I was baptized a couple of months after my birth, Jesus said to me as the water splashed over my head, “I am the Good Shepherd. I know the way. I have laid down my life for you. Follow me.”

Now, in the nearly seventy years of this life, I am thankful for the guiding presence of Jesus in each and every day. I am thankful for the rest that has come when I have walked along still waters and green pasture, and I am thankful for the courage and hope that has come as I have walked “through the valley of the shadow of death.” I. am thankful because all the while has been the beckoning call of Jesus, my guide, “Follow me.”

It is the promise that that call awaits me at the threshold of death that stills my fears. Although I cannot imagine what awaits me when this life is over, I am convinced that the one who has shown me self-sacrificing love will certainly do the same after I die. If God has so loved me in this life, I can wait with exhilarating expectation of what that love will be like when death is behind me.

So, I’ll be singing this Sunday, “For all the saints, who from their labors rest… Alleluia! Alleluia!”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

See less

Shared post

 The Bungee Cord

Hello,

If God is all-powerful (omnipotent), all-knowing (omniscient), all-present (omnipresent) and all-loving (is there an “omni” word for this?) why do children die from bike accidents? Why do nations fling bombs at each other? Why do floods wipe neighborhoods away? Why do diseases snuff life out? Why is there suffering? Why is there evil?

Some ask these questions and answer that there must be no God.

I, however, find myself drawn to a different answer, an answer given by Martin Luther over 500 years ago. Martin Luther said that the perplexity that comes from these questions comes from the “Omni’s”….omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and omniloving (if that is a word). As humans, who are not “onmi” anything, and therefore it is impossible for us to conceive of what an “omni” might entail. Even though we might have learned to control the power in an atom, we are still limited in our power. Even though we might grow more and more in knowledge to the point that we have created AI, there is much that is beyond our mental grasp. Even though we might be able to be in two places at one time thanks to cell phones and other technologies, we still can’t throw our arms around a dear friend and wipe the tears off a grieving mother on the other side of the globe. And even though we might be able to love those who have been gracious and merciful to us, we still aim rockets and guns at those who seek to destroy us.

So, when we seek to understand God through all the “omni’s”, we find ourselves running on a never-ending hamster wheel. That is why Martin Luther called these “omni’s” “God’s masks”. They are like masks that hide us from knowing God, understanding God, and even believing in God. They leave us with unanswerable why’s. They leave us in unshatter-able darkness. They leave us with unreasonable faith. Masks.

However, said Martin Luther, God has taken off all of those masks when he sent his Son, Jesus, to dwell among us. In Jesus, God took off his masks and said, “Look at me.” In Jesus, God incarnate, God gives us a glimpse of who God is, a glimpse that we can relate to, comprehend, and understand. We discover that God is one who cries at the tomb of one of his best friends, Lazarus. We discover that God is one that cares about the hungry as Jesus fed 5000 people on a plain. We discover that God is one who grieves the death of those who consider God their enemy, the Roman soldier whose daughter had died. We discover that God is one who puts children on his lap and embraces them. On and on I could go, but the long and the short of it is, if you want to know what God is really like, don’t look to the “omni’s”. Look to Jesus.

And maybe if you find yourself getting caught up in one of the biggest questions, “Why would the one who has created all that is, seen and unseen, care at all about you who are less than a speck of dust in the scheme of everything and the struggles that you have?”….look at Jesus….look at Jesus who was nailed to the cross out of divine care for you, who spent three days dead in a grave to wrestle every evil in a battle to the death for you, and rose the triumphant victor and opened the gates of eternal life for you…..look to Jesus, and you’ll find the answer.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

See less

Shared post

 Hello,

In this world full of words, now nearly 500 years ago, Martin Luther discovered something about words. Some words, he said, were live words, and some words were dead words. Some words did something to you when they hit your ears, live words. And some words carried no power in them as they were spoken, dead words. Often times they were the exact same word, but how they were used mattered to make them dead or alive. And some of them were far more powerful than others.

Take, for example, the word “love”. When said, “What the world needs now is love, sweet love,” the word “love” doesn’t pack much of a punch when it strikes our ears. However, when someone says to you, “I love you,” that word, “love”, has the power to change the hearer’s life

This distinction of words is what Jesus is all about. When God sent his Son, Jesus, to the world, God wasn’t singing a song talking about love. No, God was speaking his Word to us saying, “I love you.” If we compare it to present day communication, when Jesus suffered on the cross, died, and rose again, God was saying, “I LOVE YOU!” (All caps, bold faced, and underlined) And when we consider who was saying this living word to us, these words have the power to change who we are, how we look at ourselves, and how we treat those around us.

The one who says, “I LOVE YOU,” is the same one who Genesis 1 says spoke and everything seen and unseen was made. It is the same one who breathed life into dust and life began. It is the same one who put explosive energy in an atom and who started an explosion of energy in the sun. There is power in God’s word…universal power!

When God looks at you and says, “I LOVE YOU,” God is gathering up all that power and like a laser beam turning it directly on you. It is a laser beam so powerful that it can pierce the layers of hurt and pain that the world has inflicted on you. It is a laser beam so powerful that it can disintegrate the sins that cling to you and turn them into lifeless dust. It is a laser beam so powerful that it can slice through the thickest darkness that you can find yourself in and be a “lamp unto your feet, and a light unto your path.” (Amy Grant, “Thy Word”)

Take note, that when God speaks his Word, Jesus, he doesn’t say, “I like you,” as if God was a pimply teenager who isn’t really sure about how he or she feels about you. When God says, “I LOVE YOU,” God jumps in as if diving off a diving board with all he has to give, holding nothing back, making his proclamation irreversible. In Jesus, God says that he has fallen in love with you, and just like falling off a cliff that is something that cannot be taken back.

It is my hope that when you receive this Bungee Cord, you are hearing the living word of God saying to you, “I LOVE YOU!”, and as God’s living word falls on your ears and reaches your heart that you are so filled with joy, hope, and peace that you are just about to explode with love.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

See less

Shared post