The Bungee Cord 12-25-24
Wednesday, December 25, 2024
Monday, December 16, 2024
The Bungee Cord. 12-16-24
Hello,
“You better watch out. You better not cry. Better watch out I’m telling you why. Santa Claus in coming to town. He’s making a list, checking it twice. Gonna find out who’s naughty or nice. Santa Claus is coming to town.”
You, like I, may have learned this song as a child. Truthfully, I don’t remember when I learned it, but my guess is that it was being etched into my ears as I cooed and gurgled in my crib on my first Christmas. I remember singing it in elementary school Christmas programs, watching a TV show made about it, and hearing it as we walked through the Sears department store in Oakbrook on our shopping adventures. When I looked up the history of this song on Google, the computer told me, “The famous lines "You better watch out, better not cry / You better not pout, I'm telling you why / Santa Claus is coming to town" are credited with popularizing the idea of Santa's "naughty or nice" list”.
All sorts of people have recorded this song, from Bing Crosby, Maria Carey, Frank Sinatra, to Bruce Springsteen, and millions and millions of records have been sold. I suppose that its popularity comes from its catchy toon and how fun it is to sing. But more than that, I believe that its message catches us. We do live in a world where we applaud fairness, “you get what you deserve, and you deserve what you get”. Think about it; we rail against the boss who gives a worker a raise even though that person didn’t work very hard, while you, who worked your tail off got a pay cut. We throw up our arms in protest when someone on food stamps buys a thick sirloin steak. We cheer when someone who has done something terrible is thrown into prison and the key is thrown away. “You better watch out…”, it is a song that rhymes so well with the ethos of our world that it might someday replace every country’s national anthem.
As much as this song has been the glove to fit the Christmas hand of our world, it does not at all fit the hand of the one by whom Santa Claus of lore was driven to live, Jesus the Christ. Quite to the contrary of the world’s principles, God’s operational principle is this: “You don’t get what you deserve, and you could never deserve what you get.” The Christian message, the message of Jesus Christ, is that God gives us his love even though we continuously spit in God’s face and spread pain around the world that is God’s prize handiwork. And who among us could ever be so important in the universe that God, himself, would come to save us forever from our self-inflicted doom? We deserve the vengeance of God, but God gives us his mercy. God owes us no reward, but God gives us himself.
The Christmas that the world has fashioned sings “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”. The Christmas that God has fashioned sings, “‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah,* the Lord.”
Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
Monday, December 2, 2024
The Bungee Cord. 12-2-24
Hello,
How long does it take to walk around Harvard Gulch Park?
At least that is the answer if you are a 3 ½ year old who makes snow balls from the barely snow covered grass, who discovers a big leaf and wants to see how far the wind will carry it, who sees a squirrel and wants to watch it climb a tree, who sees a playground with a sandbox, who walks by an oak tree and searches for acorns, who spots a pair of ducks in the stream, and who wants to jump over cracks in the sidewalk. Who cares how long it takes?
What a wonder it is to see what it is like to live in the moment and be captivated by it.
Harvard Gulch Park is adjacent to my son’s and his wife’s house in Denver where we went to spend Thanksgiving. My youngest son, his wife, and their son (3 ½ years old) came from Brooklyn. Thanksgiving was a chilly day, but not too cold to go for a walk around the park with my grandson. I figured it would be nice to get about a half hour of fresh air. I got quite a bit more than a half hour.
Time has a way of taking hold of our adult lives, even on Thanksgiving. Turkeys to cook, football games to watch, preparing for people to come over, flights to catch, rental cars to return. Even though we can feel time’s leash tugging us into the next moment, yet we try to squeeze life out of the present and enjoy the moment. Sometimes we are more successful at that than other times. As we gathered around the feast-full table on Thanksgiving, I found myself a little less tugged, but when the meal ended, there came time’s tug.
Often times, Christians misunderstand the gift of eternal life that Jesus gives. Many understand eternal life to be that which God gives to us after we die, something ahead of us when time has no pull. Jesus, however, tells us that eternal life is not something that begins when we die, instead it is something that comes to us in this life when God embraces us in his eternal love. Listen to what Jesus says in John 17:3, “3And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” When Jesus speaks of “knowing”, he is not talking about an intellectual assent or discovery, rather Jesus is speaking about a union of love that has the power to bring forth life. The Apostle Paul in Romans 6 put it this way, “0The death he (Jesus) died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” In other words, with whom Christ has joined himself live in eternal life….now! Every moment of this life is filled with eternity, and when this life is over, life, like a flower, blooms with eternity.
The world may tug us around on time’s leash, but not Jesus. Jesus comes to make every moment eternal, so we, like a 31/2-year-old child can live in each moment and be captivated by it. The hug of a loved one does not end when the hug is released or the loved on is gone. The joy of a laugh is not squelched when tears stream down one’s cheek. The freedom of forgiveness is not captured when we mess up or fail. The power of hope is not burst like a bubble when tragedy’s pin strikes.
Surely, the joy, wonder, love and peace will be of a magnitude which cannot be imagined when the dimness of this life is removed and we come face to face with God (1 Cor. 13), but as we walk in the Harvard Gulch of this life we can experience time’s leash untethered and find ourselves , as the writer of the hymn “Love Divine All Loves Excelling” penned, lost in wonder, love and praise.
Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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