The Bungee Cord 7-10-17

Hello,

     5 years ago we built a cedar sided house on top of a wooded hill. It has been a beautiful place to live.  Five years of incredible sunsets to take rest of the day.  Five years of birds singing in the trees to sparkle the morning.  But also five years of lurking danger.  For five years the skull jarring pounding of woodpeckers has echoed through our woods, and we have regularly seen them flying through the trees and chiseling away at the trees.  Small downy ones, mid-size ones, and huge pileated ones.

     What danger do cute woodpeckers pose?  Well, they don’t get their name for nothing.  They peck at wood, and our house is sided with wood.  When we lived in Sioux Falls we had a wood sided house, and only rarely did we see woodpeckers around us.  But even though their number was few, they attacked our house.  Thumping away at our wood siding, and leaving great divots in their wake.

     Well, last week, what we have feared for 5 years happened.  We heard the rapid thumping of an aviary bill coming from the back of our house.  We ran out to see the culprit and the damage it was doing, but before we could get there, it was gone, and fortunately, we didn’t see any holes in our siding.  A couple of days past with no woodpecker disturbance, but as I was watching TV in our family room, I heard it.  Right out the screen door.  Sure enough, caught in the act.  A medium sized white and black woodpecker jack-hammering away…..thankfully not on our house….but on a 6x6 treated wood column supporting the deck above.  When I ran outside, the pesky woodpecker left the scene of the crime, and because I caught him as he was beginning his vandalism, I could not find evidence of his pecking.

     We had hoped that the multitude of trees around us, some standing dead with lots of bugs, would keep the woodpeckers away from our house, and for 5 years they have.  I think that the reason for this woodpecker’s attack was a now unused nest that had been built this spring in the framework of the deck, attracting bugs….and attracting woodpeckers.

     Having fought this battle before, I knew that placing something moving and shiny on the house scares woodpeckers away.  So, I went and found some gold and silver ribbon and attached it to the 4 supports for our deck, removing the nest, of course from its location.  Thus far no one has ventured to ask why the strange decoration on my house, but knowing that it works is worth the wonderment of others.  Something moving and shiny keeps woodpeckers away.

     Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.  No one lights a lamp and then hides it under a bushel, but instead puts it on the lampstand for all to see.”  What applies to woodpeckers, Jesus says, also applies to the Christian faith.  It is a shiny thing that when it is moving, it scares some vandals away. The empty lures of the world don’t drill into our lives.  The thumping of greed keeps away from the contentment of our hearts.  The unrelenting pounding of our failures and sins keeps its distance from us.  When Jesus, the light of the world, is moving in our lives, woodpeckers stay away.

     Of course, Jesus is far more than just a woodpecker deterrent, and there are things like tragedy and suffering that don’t seem to fear Jesus as “woodpeckers” do.  But for this we can be thankful: Jesus has come into this world…into your life…as the light of the world, and when he is moving in your life….not hidden under a basket….moving in worship, moving in acts of love and mercy, moving in prayer and thankfulness…..at least the “woodpeckers” stay away!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord 7-3-17

Hello,

“What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?” (Rom. 8:31)

What are we to say about these things?  The random violence that seems to pop up with the tenaciousness of garden weeds…the instability in the world that rumbles like a global earthquake….rulers and leaders whose greed for power sees people as mere pennies along the roadside…lives being ruined by the chokehold of addictions…children whose empty stomachs rumble with pain for days…  What are we to say to these things?

The Bible gives us the words to say, “If God is for us, who is against us?”

One of the things I had to do in my pastoral training was to learn to read (and understand, of course) the New Testament in its original language, Greek.  The reason for that is to equip me to see the nuances and the emphases that the original language was making, and are not always clear in English translations.   Believe it or not, one of these nuances and emphases is found in the small word translated in English, “if”.  There are two words in Greek that are translated “if”, and they carry two different meanings.  One is a meaning of certainty, as when you say to someone going out the door on the way to get groceries, “If you’re going to the store, please pick up some milk.”  The other “if” is one of uncertainty, as when you say, “If it rains, make sure to close the windows.”

“If,” a small word, but a word that can make a huge impact when it is the “if” of certainty, and that is the “if” that the Bible gives us to say to these things.  “If (and that is certainly the case) that God is for us, who is against us?”  It is not that nothing is against us, that would be a naïve, ostrich view of the world.  Rather it is more like a tsunamic wave saying to the sandcastle built on the beach, “And who are you that you think you can withstand my might?”

How much is God for us?  The certainty of God “for-ness” is seen in Jesus.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whosoever believes in him might not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:16-17) Two things to note….the Christian message is that the depth of God’s “for-ness” compelled God to do an almost inconceivably selfless thing, send his very own Son into the battle to die in order that victory might be had.  And, the “for-ness” is not limited to certain people.  It is for the world.  Each and every person…no matter when or where they live…no matter how good or bad they are…no matter how different their views of the world might be…….God sent his Son for each and every person.  Wow!  That is how much God is for us!

So, what shall we say to these things?  We shall say that we, who are children of God, are part of the tsunamic wave of God’s grace that is crashing down on this world.  To the random violence that feeds fear, we will daily randomly delve out acts of kindness that gives peace.  To the instability that draws a bouncing seismic graph of turmoil for the future, we will see the future graphed by the straight line of God’s presence in it and proceed with courage.  To the rulers and leaders that see life as some Risk board game lining up enemies and foes, we will see life as the arena of God’s greatest risk of all, sending his Son to unite the world in magnetic love.  To those who have their throats grasped by addiction, we will grasp ahold of their hands with the power of God almighty and say we will never give up on you.  To the children of every land and nation whose stomachs growl every night with acidic pain, we will open our ears and say we will not rest until those growls are heard no more.

What shall we say to these things?........ If God is for us (and God certainly is), who can be against us?  The sandcastles of sin that the world builds don’t stand a chance against the Tsunamic wave of God’s grace that quaked from the cross and empty tomb and is building momentum and power through you and me.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (gap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord  6-27-17

Hello,

     Went to Office Max in Davenport, Iowa today in search of an inexpensive computer desk for my folks who have just moved into an independent living facility, and we are here to help them get situated in their new digs.  The room in which they have their computer is small and is filled with many other things that they were not able to downsize, so the computer desk needed to be minimal in size, yet practical in nature.

     Having checked several other stores whose inventory was too fancy or too limited, we stumbled our way into Office Max.  Perusing their selection I stumbled upon a desk that met every one of our needs….small, practical, and functional …..all for $149.00.  Looking at the price tag we noticed a notation on it that if we wanted the wood (fake wood) one, rather than the glass one, we could have it for $44.00.  Surely a mistake on the price tag, so when we found a service person who looked it up said, “Let’s go see.”  We walked back toward the computer desks, and on the way there, we come upon the wood one, and walking up to it, sure enough….$44.00…..no….wait….as we got closer we saw a red line through the $44.00 and a red $25.00 next to it.  Could this be correct?  “Guess so,” said the sales person.

     What a deal!  So, without even asking my folks, we bought it for them.  Took it to their apartment and they, too, were amazed at the deal we had just acquired.  As we opened the packaging, I was ready to find myself all too aware as to the reason for the “deal” we had just made…..faulty design, cheap materials, defective.  But no….as we put it together, the pieces were all there, the design was sleek, and the structure was sound.  Everything we wanted.  Every thing we needed.  Everything we had hoped for….and all for $25.00.

     What if it had been free?  A deal even more amazing, given the truth of the product’s promise.  Free…that is the deal that God presents to us….free…everything we want… everything we need….everything we could ever hope for….and all for… free!  “For God so love the world….” (John 3:16,17)… See what love the Father has given us that we should be called children of God.  And that is what we are.”  (1 John 3:1)  Could this be correct… free?  Guess so, says the Bible.

     The cynical side of me keeps on telling me to just wait.  Wait and the time will come when  I will find out that I have been had, that it really was too good to be true.  Is there a God?... A God who in the infinitive expanse of the universe would be so drawn to me that that God would spare nothing to embrace me in an eternal grasp?  A God whose heart is so consumed with love for me that that God doesn’t wait for me to reach out to God, but stretched his arms across a cross that gathered me in…the last thing on his mind being, “what if they don’t accept my love?”?

     But day after day as I live in the free grace of God, just as my folks live with a $25.00 computer desk, I find myself moving from the fear that I may have been had to the joy of finding out that I have been part of a deal that no one would ever believe.    Moving from worrying about being conned, to settling in the richness of grace that even Bill Gates doesn’t know.  Moving from “how can this be?”, to “this is it!”

    Who would have ever believed that a computer desk that meets everything you were looking for could be bought for $25.00?  I do!  Who could ever believe that a God that meets everything and more that you could be looking for could be banked upon for free?  I do!

     Grace is amazing!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger