The Bungee Cord. 11-25-24

Hello,

“I’m Ronald Reagan (Jr.), a lifelong atheist, not afraid of burning in hell.”

Maybe you have heard this quote that ends a commercial for an organization that works to keep religion out of government, a noble effort in my mind. I have heard it more times than I can remember or like. The thing that bothers me most about this quote is that it is said so smugly, almost arrogantly. The last time I heard this commercial, there was a new addition to it, a remark touting the upswing in the number of folks claiming, “None,” when asked what religion they were.

Usually, when I hear such smugness and arrogance I don’t respond to it, realizing that such kind of speaking has a way of finding itself being flushed into septic systems. However, the problem with any kind of arrogance and smugness is that they are like hairballs in a drain, gathering up all sorts of debris and clogging everything up. When that happens, people stop talking and listening to each other. People start avoiding each other. People stop caring about each other.

As I wrote in last week’s Bungee Cord, I believe that the question of the existence of God is worthy of discussion, a discussion where I find Jesus to be the hinge pin in my understanding and belief. Personally, I find a thoughtful and respectful challenge to my conclusion to be helpful. It makes me clarify my thinking. It makes me contextualize my thinking. It makes me have a better understanding of others. It brings life to my faith.

I know that Christians, and maybe I, too, am guilty of smugness and arrogance. I believe that is what Ronald Reagan, Jr. is responding to. He has heard a “Christian” message that is full of fear and anger, “Turn or burn!” It is a message that feels like it comes from folks who view themselves above others. It is received as coming from one who is looking down their nose. Obviously, there are many who believe that this is the Christian witness, but as you might surmise, I do not.

When I read the Bible, I do not see God’s work in Jesus as an attempt to scare us out of hell. I see God’s work in Jesus as a means of loving us into heaven…the kingdom of heaven. In Matthew, Jesus regularly speaks of the kingdom of heaven, not as a place, but as an existence, an existence of living under the love and grace of God, now and forever. In this existence, we see clearly how each of us are people who live short of the glory of God, a shortfall in which it doesn’t matter the degree of shortage. Just like when you build a bridge, in the end it doesn’t matter if you are a football field short of your span, or an inch short. But the wonder of God is that no shortage is too big for God to gather us into his grace. As the Bible says, “6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. 8But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.” (Romans 5). When I see what God has done, smugness and arrogance are erased, and thanksgiving and gratitude are replaced.

If a smug and arrogant message is all that Ronald Reagan, Jr. and all the rest of the “None’s” which he rejoices in have heard, I don’t blame him or blame them for their response. I, too, might find myself among those who smugly are “not afraid of burning in hell.”

But I wonder what their response might be if they heard the Christian message that I have heard? A message that sees no one as better than another. A message that speaks of God’s love that is totally self-giving on God’s behalf. A message that feels another’s pain and loneliness and incarnates itself there. A message that isn’t a light at the end of the tunnel, but rather is a light that comes into the tunnel and burns brightly there. A message that proclaims that you don’t need to be afraid of burning in hell, because you can rejoice that God is determined to love you into heaven.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord. 11-19-24

Hello,

Does God exist?

When I hear people talk of their disbelief in God, I hear reasonable reasons. Some say that the presence of evil and tragedy convince them that God doesn’t exist. Some say that God is merely the transference of human fears and doesn’t exist. Some say that God is the answer to things we don’t understand and God’s reality wanes with every scientific discovery.

Over the centuries, there have been theologians who have tried to “prove” the existence of God. They contend that there must be an unmoved mover of all things. Others point to the intricacy of the creation, from its vastness to its minuteness. However, their proofs do not seem to carry much weight to those who have concluded God’s nonexistence. The unconvinced hold to a spontaneous and ongoing development of creation. They summon math formulas to deal with the existence of time and space. They use science and reason to undergird their disbelief, and I find myself agreeing with non-God believers that God’s existence cannot be proven by reason or science.

As a Christian, I am one who believes in the existence of God, but my belief in God is not founded on any “proof” of God. Actually, I do not think that the Christian faith begins with the belief in God. Even the Bible speaks of the things that non-God believers say. When tragedy happens in the Bible, often the ones who suffer say in disbelief, “Where are you, God?” Instead of beginning with the assertion in God’s existence as the prerequisite to Christian faith, I find that my belief in God is preceded by something that has happened in the universe: the death and resurrection of Jesus.

If Jesus died and rose from the grave, and that is the witness that has passed down from the first Good Friday and the first Easter, then there must , or at least I think so, have been some force or power whose limits are beyond time and space. There is only one reason that I believe in God: Jesus.

Of course, there are those who say that the cross and resurrection did not happen, and to counter such thinkers Christians have sought to prove its place in history by finding “artifacts”. Pieces of wood from the cross, the shroud of Turin, and on and on, and maybe they are. Some Christians claim to have seen holy visions, and maybe they have. But such proofs do not carry much weight for me.

The thing that breaks the camel’s back of doubt for me is the witness of a couple of women who recounted their discovery of the empty tomb out of which came a message, “He is not here. He has risen from the dead.” Because of that, I do not see myself as one whose task is to logically or empirically prove the existence of God, rather I find myself to be one who has been blessed to receive the witness of those women, and I seek to pass that witness on to those around me.

Of course, the witness that I have received does not come to me in a vacuum. I experience the true hope that that witness brings into my life. I see the power of that witness to break open my heart to others. I feel the peace that surpasses all human understanding embodied in that witness. I find that witness to be the seeds of faith that grow and blossom in my life. It is that witness and the repercussions of it in my life that leads me to believe in God.

There are those who disbelieve that astronauts landed on the moon…even though the witness was made on a TV screen. There are those who disbelieve that dinosaur ever roamed this earth….even though their bones bear witness to their existence. There are those who believe all sorts of things even though witness and evidence has been laid out before them. So, I understand that some may continue to disbelieve in the existence of God, despite the witness of those women, but as with all those other witnessed things that people disbelieve, the only thing that I can do is continue to be one who passes on those women’s witness, sharing the love that has come to me with everyone else….whether they believe the witness or not.

Have a great day.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord. 11-13-24

Hello,

I am a day late on the Bungee Cord this week, because I am on the road. A dear college friend of mine (I wrote of him a couple of Bungee’s ago) died, and I am off to his funeral in Northwest Illinois. I am taking a little detour on my way there to visit my dad who is in a memory care unity in Davenport, Iowa.

On my way to Davenport, I drove as far at Valparaiso, Indiana, home of Valparaiso University, which is the college from which I graduated. By looking at my wardrobe and my mancave, you might think that I graduated from the University of Illinois. Well, I did attend the University of Illinois my first two years, but it was there that I decided to be a Pastor, and I needed to transfer to get the courses I needed to go to seminary. I learned a lot at Valpo, but I had a great time at the University of Illinois. My mind may have left U of I, but my heart did not.

Anyway, it’s been decades since I wandered back to Valpo, which is about an hour southeast of Chicago in Indiana. When I got off the Indiana tollway at the Valparaiso exit, I was immediately lost. Some of my confusion was due to the length of time of my absence that was straining my waning memory, but the larger part of the confusion was due to the major change that has transpired around Valparaiso since I left in 1979. The fields of corn and soybeans have all vanished and have been replaced with housing developments, businesses, storefronts and apartment buildings. Traffic lights, round abouts, and congestion. I was so confounded that I had to ask Siri to direct me to Valparaiso University.

The University has also changed. New buildings, new roads, blocked off roads, and athletic facilities that were not there 45 years ago. I have to say that the campus has a new and fresh look to it, which I guess is necessary in this day of competition for students. The chapel, which is one of the largest in the U.S. still stands majestically above everything else, giving witness to the school’s foundation of Christian mission to the students, the town, and the world. I have heard that the huge chapel, which was packed on Sundays and was well attended for chapel during the week is more akin to an empty echo chamber these days with far more people attending basketball games with Valpo’s team in the national spotlight. (When I was there it was much more in the national dungeon.)

I find that visits like this, to the haunts of my past, give me a clear picture of how much time has passed in my life. When I stay in my familiar abode or visit new places, time does not seem to have scooted by that much. Sure, my face and figure give me evidence of time’s march, but the transition is so slow that it is hard to see the change from day to day. My Valpo visit put a microscope to time’s advance in my life, and made we contemplate on who I am in this drastically different world.

Even further ago was the day that Jesus was crucified on Calvary’s hill and then rose from the stone sealed grave. I have been to that hill and tomb, and it, like my Valpo visit was a stark reminder of the passage of time. But I don’t think you have to go to these holy sites to be made aware of vast difference in that world verses the world in which we live. Visiting the pages of scripture take us to a time in the past that we have a hard time imagining. We might then wonder, “What does this ancient story of Jesus have to do with me? Is the work of God that it speaks of have any impact on me who lives so far removed, both in time and space from Jesus?”

To those wonderings, I hear a timely answer that comes from Jesus making a direct and tangible visit into my world. When the waters of baptism splashed over me and I heard, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” and when I receive a piece of bread and a sip of wine with Jesus’ promised presence, “This is my body given for you …this is my blood shed for you,”….my wonderings are answered. “I have come to visit in your time and place” says Jesus, “and embrace you with my love and mercy.” Although time may change a lot of things as we age our way through life, time does not change the most important thing in our lives, God’s love for us.

1 John 3:1 “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are.”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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