The Bungee Cord. 8-4-25

Hello,

“Can’t we all just get along?” Those words were spoken by a guy named Rodney King in 1992. Riots had broken out in Los Angeles after a police officer had been acquitted from assaulting Rodney King. The rioting lasted six days and 63 people were killed during it, and 2,383 other people were injured. (Wikipedia). On May 1, as the mayhem was wreaking havoc, Rodney, with his voice trembling said these words that seem still unanswered, “Can’t we all just get along?”

Since these are the only years in which I have lived, I don’t know if there was a time where people were more aggressive with each other, but it seems clear to me that our days are marked by strident, confrontational divisions. Divisions at dinner tables, neighborhood streets, government halls, and national borders. “Put up your dukes and fight,” seems to be the mantra of our time.

But when I see the faces of the people of Gaza and Ukraine, the dilapidated neighborhoods in which people live, the lines of folks at food banks, the fire in the eyes of people on different sides of the aisle, the erupting population of imprisoned, the fences around gated communities, and the fear in the eyes of a child walking into a school building…..I have got to believe that there is a much better mantra to be said, a mantra that answers Rodney King.

To me, that mantra comes from the cross of Jesus Christ, “I love you.” When Jesus stretched out his arms on the cross, he did so with no exceptions coming from his mouth. There were no “ifs” in his outreach. There were no qualifications or prerequisites. Over and over again in the Bible, we are told that the love that God was pouring out on the cross was for everyone. “There is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, enslaved and free, but Christ is all and in all!” (Col 3:11). “There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male or female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. (Gal. 3:28)

What would happen if the first thing that came to our minds when we encountered anyone was, “Jesus died for this one”? Might our response to a pesky neighbor, an ethnically different stranger, a “lazy freeloader”, a diametrically opposite thinker, an arrogant personality, a person who mortar fire is aimed at be a good answer to Rodney King’s question?

I know that the mantra of the world has a way of slipping in through the doors of the church, but when I hear the scriptures, sing God’s praises, be fed at the altar, and fold my hands in prayer I hear Jesus words concerning all people, “I died for this one.” The weekly imprint of those words leaves a mark in my heart as I look in the mirror and as I look into the world, a mark that shapes my life, a mark that with its weekly renewal speaks louder than, “put up your dukes and fight”.

“I died for this one.” “I died for this one.” “I died for this one.” “I died for this one.”……

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger