The Bungee Cord

Hello,

It was called “the shot heard around the world”. It was the opening skirmish of the American Revolutionary War at the North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts, on April 19, 1775 (google search). Just over a year later, the Declaration of Independence was signed, and thus marked the birthday of the United States which we will celebrate on July 4th.

I suspect that those who signed that document in Philadelphia on that day in 1776 could not have imagined what things would look like 250 years later. What began as a fragile gathering of colonies seeking independence has grown into a strong union of states discovering the opportunities that lie ahead of them. And what discoveries have there been! Although it is certainly true that we have not entirely lived out the ideals that were sown at this country’s birth, the freedoms that have been achieved, the hopes that have been fulfilled, the peace that has been formed, and the lives that have been change is a phenomenal sight to consider. The reverberation of that Concord shot still rumbles throughout the world.

It wasn’t a shot that rang into the world, but the ping of a hammer driving in one of four nails into the hands and feet of a man who was nailed to a Jerusalem cross just shy of 2000 years ago. I am certain that the eleven of the twelve disciples who had joined their lives together and were hiding three days later in that locked room could not have imagined what would grow out of those hammer pings. Their hopes that their small nation of Israel might be freed from the oppression of the Romans had crumbled, but out of those crumbs something far greater happened: people whose number exceeds billions, from every corner of the world would be freed from oppression far greater than any human could impose. As Jesus said in Matthew, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell,” and in Jesus’ death those fears were squelched as Jesus eternally took to the grave anything that might try to impose such deadly powers. Although it is certainly true that the vision of grace that exploded from that cross on Easter morning has not fully been accomplished, the peace, hope, joy, and love that has blossomed from that cross has proven to be greater than anything that has tried to destroy it. The reverberation of those Calvary pings still rumbles throughout the world.

So, as fireworks fill the heavens to celebrate the blessings of this 250 year old nation, know that those colorful explosions are only a twinkle compared to the party that is going on in God’s heaven….a party so full of joy that it matches the joy of a impoverished woman who lost a coin and then finds it, that matches the joy of a shepherd who so values each sheep that he leaves his flock to find the lost one and rejoices when he finds it, that matches a father’s joy when a lost son is drawn back into his arms and throws a party to beat all parties, and that matches the joy of finding a pearl of such great value in a field that the finder sells everything to have it. None of us knows how many more years that Concord shot will be celebrated in this country, but we do know this: that Calvary ping will continue to ring in celebration throughout the universe for eternity….and that is something to celebrate!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord

Hello,

Today, being Monday, is the day that my driving partner and I deliver Meals on Wheels to the 14 clients on our list. I’ve been delivering Meals on Wheels on Mondays for the past couple of years, and I find it a grounding and eye-opening experience. I was telling my delivery partner today, that I think it should be mandatory of every elected official to deliver Meals on Wheels at least once before they are elected. As I have been invited into the lives and homes of these folks on my route, I find myself reminded of how hard life is for some people and how resilient those same people are.

Anyway, as we started off today, we rounded one of the turns on our route and we came upon something that I had not seen before. There, sitting on a split rail fence was the largest gathering of turkey vultures that I have ever seen. There must have been twenty-five of them, posted on a couple of sections of split rail fence. It is not unusual to see a half-dozen turkey vultures doing their work of scavenging from a roadkill, but in this case, there was no dead animal around. It was as if they were gathering awaiting a dispatcher to call them, like firefighters in a fire station. I wondered, “Do they know something that I don’t know?”

Although our modern world does a pretty good job of hiding the reality of death from us, there are those moments when the truth of our limited mortality slips through the cracks. As was the case when I crashed the party of turkey vultures this morning. Martin Luther was to have said that even the blowing of an autumnal leaf across the ground whispers death’s truth to us. Death is powerful. Death is relentless. Death is determined. It is not hard to believe in death. Even Jesus believed in death.

What is more difficult to believe is that there is something more powerful than death, but that thing is the essence of the Christian faith, and it is love, specifically God’s love. The Bible tells us about the presence and truth of this ultimate power over and over again, “For God so loved….”, “God is love….”, “No greater love is this that a man should lay down his life….”, and “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.” Further, God proved the power of his love when an Easter tomb erupted with life and the very one whom death thought it had pinned did a reversal and walked out of that tomb, full of life. And Paul, who encountered that one on a Damacus road was compelled to pen this, “No, in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

In Jesus we see that God’s love is more powerful than death….it is more relentless than death…..and it is more determined than death. As we gather week after week under the cross of Christ which blares out God’s love, around the Baptismal font which embraces us in God’s love, and at the altar that unites us with God’s love, we are the counter in this world to a bunch of vultures. So, when people come around the bend on Sunday morning and see our red roofed church and cars in the parking lot, maybe they will think, “Do these people know something I don’t know?”

And we do….God’s love and its power!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord

Hello,

We are coming up on the longest day of the year, June 21. Officially it is called the summer solstice. It happens when the axis of the earth is tilted toward the sun, thus giving the northern hemisphere the longest day and the shortest night. Living in Pennsylvania that means that it is light when I wake up in the morning, and it is there is still some light when I hit the rack at night. Of course, the opposite is true when the earth’s axis is tilted away from the sun in December. It is dark when I awake, and it is dark far before I go to sleep. I much prefer the longer days of daylight. So, in those darkest days, I assure myself that the lighter days are coming.

I think it is true for all of us that there are times in our lives when the darkest of days has nothing to do with the earth’s axis, but rather life’s axis. The events of our lives can so wobble our world that the axis of our lives creates a darkness that can be darker than the darkest night and seems to go on without any light rising on the horizon. I have found myself in such times when depression rocks my life. I have listened to others speak of the darkness that shows no sign of ending at the death of a loved one, a marriage that has fallen apart, a hole that has been fallen into, or a rejection where the door has been slammed shut and locked. When these times happen, it doesn’t matter what time of the year it may be, the darkness is long, very long.

Although you and I can trust that the longest nights of the calendar year will be transformed into the longest days of the year by virtue of the laws of the universe, there seems to be no law to assure us that the darkness that befalls us due to the wobbling of our lives will likewise recede. The darkness can hit us out of nowhere, and it can enshroud us with a stubbornness that seems unwilling to let go.

That is why the good news that God gives us is not Annie’s song, “The Sun Will Come Up Tomorrow”. That might work for the calendar, but it doesn’t work for life. The good news that God gives us is that God, the one who separated the darkness from the light in the beginning, has used his power to do so again on the darkest day that has ever befallen all of creation when God’s Son, Jesus, died on the cross. On that day, it seemed like the universe would be wrapped in darkness for eternity, after all, it was the Son of God who had just died. But three days later, God, who in the beginning said, “Let there be light,” who said to Lazarus who had been dead in a tomb four days, “Lazarus come out!”, who said to a soldier’s daughter for whom the people had already begun their mourning, “Little girl, get up,”….that same God, spoke into the darkness of that Good Friday tomb, and called Jesus to come out…..AND HE DID! Thereby announcing the good news that no darkness can overcome (John 1), Jesus came up on Easter!

It is this singular event in the history of the universe that crashes into the darkness of our lives with explosive power. Like a thief in the night, God has broken his way into the darkness, and he has stolen us away to live in the light of his eternal love. And having given his all to rob the darkness of us, God is not going to let anything steal us away from him. As the Bible says, “there is nothing in all of creation that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans

So, when the days are the darkest, and the darkness is long, don’t sing the powerless platitudes with Annie, “The Sun Will Come Up Tomorrow”. Instead, fill your lungs with a deep breath of the Spirit and sing triumphantly, “I Know That My Redeemer Lives!” That’s a song that will carry you forever!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord

Hello,

Here’s the majority of my sermon from yesterday….it seemed Bungee-able to me.

In today’s Gospel lesson (Matthew 9:9-13) we hear a rather detail-less story of Jesus’ selecting Matthew to be one of his twelve disciples. There is, however, one detail that we are told; Matthew was a tax collector.

Now, tax collectors in our day may not the most popular people in town, and letters from the IRS are not considered Valentines cards, but tax collectors in Jesus’ day were far, far more despised. The reason that they were so hated was that the taxes they gathered were sent off to Rome who had conquered their land. They collected poll taxes, land taxes, and tolls levied on goods that passed over roadways. The tax collectors, in order to get their jobs, paid a stipulated sum to the Romans, and then amassed their wealth by gathering more than they had paid the Romans. Generally, the tax collectors were Romans, the oppressors, but sometimes they were Jews, and those Jewish tax collectors we considered traitors. So, when people spoke of these tax collectors, they were paired with robbers, sinners, prostitutes, and Gentiles. They were considered the lowest of the low…few, in Jesus’ day, were lower.

And today we find out that when Jesus started to amass his disciples, the twelve that he would spend his life with, he chose a hated tax collector, Matthew.

As we would expect, his choice did not sit well with the people who observed this choice. With disgust the Pharisees asked some others of Jesus’ disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Why was he eating with … and eating with people was a public sign of alliance with those people … why was he eating with such scum? Why was he eating with those who everyone else had the sense from whom to keep their distance. Why was he eating with those who were the cockroaches of their town?

Jesus’ answer, “Because those people need me.”

I suppose the same thing might be said of those with whom Jesus eats today, those who gather at his table. Why does Jesus eat with us? Look around…look who is here. Although there may not be those the likes of tax collectors in Jesus’ day…look around. Here, just like in every church,

• there are people who have quirky personalities,

• people who wear the scars of things they have done in the past,

• people who the world has branded “losers”,

• people whose temper gets the best of them,

• people whose skulls are thick and hearts are calloused,

• people who when they are seen by others the others cross the road so they don’t have to talk to them,

• people whose children won’t talk to them, and children whose parents have turned their back on them,

• people who are called old and stupid by this technological world that is racing around at break neck speed.

We are not a bunch of angels, we are a band of sinners…every one of us…sinners in need of a savior…and that is why Jesus has called you and me here this morning, and that is why he eats with us….we need him.

It may have been that the other disciples were thinking that others would not want to join their group, a group with such a vile sinner, when they saw Jesus welcome Matthew…that scummy tax collector, and if that’s what they thought, their suspicions held true when the townsfolk scoffed at Jesus for eating with the likes of Matthew. They did not want to be part of such a crowd. But Jesus did not regard all those judgments and fears…the only judgments that Jesus regarded were that Matthew, a tax collector, was one who he had come to die for, and he, Matthew, needed Jesus.

And having seen Jesus make his judgment on Matthew, you and I can be assured that Jesus makes the same judgment on you and me. And that judgment is this: no matter what the world thinks of you and me…no matter what you and I think of ourselves…you and I are welcome here in this church…welcome to eat at Jesus’ table…because Jesus came to die for you and me, and you and I need him.

And as we go out in the world, that is the welcome that Jesus sends you and me out to proclaim….that no one is so low, so messed up, so sinful, so scummy…that they are not welcome here. Actually, the opposite is true. Such are the very ones that Jesus has chosen to be among his disciples… he chose Matthew…and why? Because Jesus came to die for them, and they need Jesus.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord

Hello,

Grace.

It is a difficult thing to understand and it is a difficult thing to live under, but as I was sitting in the Denver Airport awaiting my flight to return home from my visit to my son who lives in Denver, I encountered grace.

All the seats in the gate area were full, so I was thankful that I had a seat to sit in. As I was waiting, I noticed in the row of seats next to the ones that I was sitting in, there was a young man moving in the aisle. As I looked more closely, I saw that he had a freshly opened bags of Fritos, and he was going to each person in that aisle with a Frito in his hand offering it to them. It was a remarkable thing to see, such grace. He had a bag of Fritos, and everyone else was empty handed so he shared, not expecting anything in return. Grace.

The people were at first a bit surprised by this young man’s gesture, but when they could determine that this was a man with Down’s Syndrome their response came with a smile, “No thank you.” Smiles spread around that aisle of previously somewhat impatient waiting folks who had been through the hassles of getting to board their flight. Grace.

I believe that grace has transformational power, and I saw that power work its might through that grace-full man. Having run through the obstacle course of rules to get to the gate….getting their tickets, obtaining their boarding pass, tunnelling through TSA, getting their luggage checked and approved….the gesture of a Frito lightened people’s hearts and transformed their trip.

Because grace has such transformational power, that is why God used grace to transform creation. Sure, creation is well served by the rules and laws that keep everything in order, including everything on earth. But the rules of daily life can feel as binding as the rules that proceed getting on a plane. Grace, however, does something that rules cannot do. It transforms. It renews. It brings hope. It opens life. That is what happened when Jesus took his place on the cross, dying so that we might live, and expecting nothing as payment or in return.

Grace is hard to understand, because it doesn’t come naturally, at least to us. We tend to hold on tightly to that for which we have worked hard. We tend to expect others to carry their weight. We tend to expect appreciation for what we have done, and hold people accountable for what they have done. We hold on tightly to rules.

And grace is hard to live under, because it knocks down all the ladders that we proudly climb. It declares us no better than those whom we have a hard time stomaching. It speaks, “Fear not,” when we encounter situations that would lead us to turn to violence and destruction.

But when you fall flat on your face, bruised and broken like the traveler which the Good Samaritan encountered, there is no more blessed or powerful thing to encounter than grace. And that unmerited, self-giving love shown by the Good Samaritan, is a picture of the kind of love which God bestows upon us. Grace.

There are some who say that it is possible to refuse grace, but from what I saw happen at the airport, it confirms my belief that that is not true. It may have been that the people to whom that young man offered a Frito refused the Frito, but the utter kindness that he gave to them was something that they could not turn back…..evidenced by their smiles. I hope that in telling you this story, you may have a keener power of God’s love for you….a love that is pure grace…a love that brings joy to your heart and breath to your life!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord

Hello,

I went to see my father, who is 93 years old and lives in a memory care unit in Davenport, Iowa, this week. Although his health is good, his memory is completely gone, so when I visit him, he has no idea who I am. My brother lives in Davenport, so my visit to my dad is doubled with a visit to my brother and his wife.

It is an eleven-hour drive from my home in Pennsylvania to Davenport, so being retired and old, I break the trip up. This time I stayed in LaPorte, Indiana for a night in a national chain hotel. They stay was fine, as usual, but when I checked out something happened that has never happened to me before. I went to the desk to tell the young woman that I was leaving, and as I turned to walk away from her, she said to me in a very friendly voice, “Make good choices.”

It caught me off guard. Was this something the company has told its desk clerks to say? Did I look like someone about to get myself in trouble? Certainly, her words were wise ones to say, but it did seem to be an odd thing to hear as I was checking out of the hotel.

When I greet people at the door as they are leaving worship, I always say, “Have a great day.” It seems like an appropriate thing to say to someone who has just spent time in the refreshing presence of God, has unloaded their burdens and received the promise of God’s forgiveness, has communed with the Almighty, and is about to step back into the world and its challenges. “Have a great day.”

I wonder, however, if my end of worship greeting catches people off guard. As I listen to Christians and non-Christians speak about the Christian faith, it seems to me that as they left the church, they would expect to hear something akin to, “Make good choices.” I say that because for many, it seems, that the Christian message they hear is, “Be good.” The message they hear or think they will hear amounts to a bunch of rules by which to lead one’s life accompanied with the admonition to abide by those rules.

But when I listen to Jesus’ parting words, either from the cross or when he left folks as he encountered them in life or when he left this world and ascended to the Father, I don’t hear a bunch of rules coming from his mouth. Instead, I hear things like, “fear not,” and “I will be with you always.” Personally, when I leave worship, I find myself like a bird whose wings have been injured in life and I have just undergone the healing care of the greatest veterinarian, and now, better than new, I leave with the graceful hands of the healer tossing me triumphantly into the sky and joyfully bidding me, “Soar!”

That is not to say that rules are unimportant to know and live by, for they do bring order and safety to our lives, but they don’t give life. They don’t fill one’s lungs with hope and courage. They don’t break the chains holding the guilt and shame that brings us down. They don’t open our eyes to wonder and awe. It may certainly be appropriate to be told in by those who share the world with us to follow the rules and “make good choices”, but Jesus has a far better thing to say…something that bestows life in all of its abundance….”I love you. Your sins have been taken from you. I will be with you, and noting in all of creation will be able to separate me from you.” So, “Soar!”

Have a great day!

God’s grace and peace, “(ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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