Bungee Cord 4-14-14

Hello,

     I was talking to a couple of high school girls this Sunday about the music that they listen to, and I discovered that they listen to music differently than I do.  They, unlike me, listen to their music via their I Phones.  Through apps that they have downloaded, they plug in their favorite artists, and presto, music by that artist and other artists of that genre flow without interruption into their earphones.

     Old school and old man that I am, I listen to music through the radio, as I always have (that is when I am not listening to “vinyl”, tapes, cd’s and all the other outdated carriers of music).  As a teen travelling around in our car mowing lawns, we’d listen to WLS and WCFL, AM stations that played the same 15 songs over and over again.  In college, AM/FM radios became standard equipment in cars, and I felt I had really moved up in the music listening world when we could blast the sound of our favorite music in stereo.

     So, when I hop in my car and my radio isn’t tuned to National Public Radio, I listen to the music that my radio can access.  There’s an “oldies” station…oldies?...of the music that I grew up on, and there’s a current pop  music station that I listen to (never have been into country…and there’s plenty of those stations around here!).  If you have been listening to your current pop music station, you will have heard a song by The Passengers called, “Let Her Go”.  It’s a song sung by a guy with a rather high-pitched, nasally voice with a chorus with which that voice etches in your head,

But you only need the light when it's burning low


Only miss the sun when it starts to snow


Only know you love her when you let her go

Only know you've been high when you're feeling low


Only hate the road when you're missing home


Only know you love her when you let her go

First time I heard it I was struck at what a sad song this is.  The tune is melancholy, and the words are sad….sad not only in the words that are said, but also even sadder if they are true.  Isn’t it sad, if the song is true, that you only recognize the goodness that you have in your life when that goodness is gone.  Isn’t that sad?  Very sad, if you ask me.

     This Sunday, Easter Sunday, when I go to church, I know that I will hear a song, a song that I hear every Sunday, a song that was sung from a Golgatha cross and reverberated from a Sunday morning tomb.  It’s God’s song, and it is “I Won’t Let You Go”.  Of course, it is sung with different tunes and different words, but every week that I go to church I hear a variation of God’s song, “I Wont Let You Go.” The joy of Jesus Christ is that he knows how much he loves us….so much that he won’t let us go, a point that God makes absolutely clear in the cross and resurrection, so clear that the Apostle Paul in Romans 8 writes,

“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.”

So, if you’re tired of hearing the dismal and hopeless songs that the world sings, like “Let Her Go”, come to church this Sunday and sing along.  Sing:

Jesus Christ is risen today, Alleluia!
 Our triumphant holy day, Alleluia!
 Who did once upon the cross, Alleluia!
 Suffer to redeem our loss. Alleluia!

Hymns of praise then let us sing, Alleluia!
 Unto Christ, our heavenly king, Alleluia!
 Who endured the cross and grave, Alleluia!
 Sinners to redeem and save. Alleluia!

But the pains which he endured, Alleluia! 
Our salvation have procured; Alleluia! 
Now above the sky he’s king, Alleluia!
 Where the angels ever sing. Alleluia!

Sing we to our God above, Alleluia!
 Praise eternal as his love; Alleluia!
 Praise him, all you heavenly host, Alleluia!
 Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Alleluia!

Have a great week…..see you Sunday!

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger