The Bungee Cord. 2-2-26

Hello,

It’s cold here…at least for here it is cold. Temperatures hovering in the single digits. My memories of life in South Dakota and Minnesota would be thankful for these temperatures in the middle of the winter!

Thursday, I had to have my brakes worked on, and so I drove to our mechanic in Latrobe, about 30 minutes away, expecting to wait there for a couple of hours. After a bit, it was discovered that the parts they ordered didn’t fit my car, and beyond that my brake fluid hose had developed a leak. So, I would have to leave my car there, which was fine with me. They kindly gave me a lift back to my house, and they drove back to their shop, leaving me outside my house in the cold. I walked up to the door, and it was locked. Apparently, my wife had left to run errands. Ooops….my house key was on my car key chain. I went to look for the hidden key, and it wasn’t there, and I remembered that it had been used a week or so ago and by its absence, it must not have been put back.

Fortunately, we live in the day of cellphones, so I called my wife, and she said she would be right home, which meant a half-hour or so. Our closest neighbors live a half mile away, so I decided that I would wait in the cab of our pickup, which was air temperature, 5 degrees. Even though I had a couple of layers on, the cold seeped its way to my skin, and I was cold! I tried to relax and tell myself that it wasn’t that cold. It didn’t work. I was very cold, and I started measuring the minutes…no, the seconds …. until my wife’s return. I’ll say this: I was elated when she arrived, and when she opened the door, I rushed to the woodburning stove, wallowing in the warmth!

The world can be a very cold place, not just when the snow falls and the winter wind blows, but also when harsh words spilling out of cold hearts swirl around us….when callous decisions are made and you are fearful, left out in the cold… when people you count on let you down, betray you, or just disappear and the blanket of care is torn off of you… when violence and arrogance, like a blizzard, sweep through cities and nations… when some people seem to get all the breaks and you seem to get none ….when drugs and hatred seep through the cracks in our lives and chill us to the bone.

I don’t know about you, but this winter seems to have been a colder winter than usual…not weather wise…but otherwise. Just sitting in my house, watching the news, I shiver.

One way that one might speak of the Christian faith is that we have a God who feels the cold of this world and is at work to warm it up. That is the whole point of Jesus life, death, and resurrection. Jesus came to warm up this world with warmth of God’s love. In this one man, Jesus, the Son of God, God flinted a spark of divine grace and mercy, igniting a fire by which all people might find warmth. And even though we, with our cold hearts, tried to extinguish that fire by snuffing it out on the cross, God showed the world that his power to warm was far greater than any power to chill. On Easter, that fire of warmth was rekindled when Jesus rose from the dead, and it is a fire that continues to burn.

When the world is the coldest, as it has been lately, I find myself eagerly making my way to church on Sunday morning….not to escape the cold….but rather to be warmed…warmed so that the chill of fear and despair might be soothed by hope….hope that like a blanket embraces me when grace is shown to me when I walk in the door, when peace takes hold of me when I sing and when I pray, when love covers my ears like ear muffs when scripture is read and taught, and when joy, like an icebreaker, reaches my heart when I receive the Lord’s Supper.

And when I am sufficiently warmed, I am inspired to bring that same warmth to those who shiver from the arctic cold of the word, wrapping them in the grace with which I have been embraced, and inviting them to come closer to the fire where deep warmth is found.

Martin Luther once said that evangelism (telling others about Jesus) is nothing more than one beggar telling another beggar where there is food. It occurs to me that one might also say, “Evangelism is nothing more than telling one person who was freezing telling another person who is freezing where there is warmth.”

Have a great week. Be warm.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger