Monday, March 18, 2024

 The Bungee Cord. 3-18-24

Hello,
There are many stories in the Bible that I find myself thankful to read, and in church yesterday, I heard one of them. Luke 7:36-44. It is the recounting of what happened one day when Jesus had been invited to eat at the home of a pharisee, a very religious person who lived his life trying to follow each and every rule that he had learned from the synagogue. As it happened while Jesus was eating with this man, a woman, who bore the scarlet letter “sinner”, entered the room, kissed his feet and poured a jar of ointment on Jesus’ feet and dried his feet with her hair. When the host saw this happening, this is what he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him—that she is a sinner.”
As the story continues, Jesus makes it quite clear that he, indeed, knew “who and what kind of a woman this was”. And that is why this story is on my list of top 10 stories in the Bible. Jesus knew…..AND…. Jesus let the woman touch him!
I, like you, know what kind of person I am. I know of sin that runs deep in my blood. I know the mean and hurtful thoughts that rattle in my mind and sometimes make their way to my mouth and my hands. I know the selfish and ignorant urges that drive my checkbook and my impression of others. I know the idols that sit on the shelf of my ego. I know, with photographic memory, the times that I have spit at Jesus in the face. I know the people that I have hurt, knowingly or not, because I see them bruised in my wake. I may hide the me that I know so well from other people, as we all do, I think. I try to give the impression that I have it all together. Some people who look at me, and maybe the same would be said of you, “Jerry’s is pretty good guy. He’s not as bad as ……”. But I know that when it comes to sin, sin is like cancer. Even one cancer cell is deadly. I know what kind of person I am.
In Jesus’ day, touch carried a lot of weight. If someone touched you, that person “rubbed” off on you. Their uncleanliness became your uncleanliness. In many ways, I think the same holds today. Maybe not so much those who physically touch us, but those whose lives touch ours. The values that we get from our friends. The way we see the world by the brand of news that we watch. The way we treat others by the fears that are instilled in us. We understand how “touch” can infect our lives.
So, I, who knows what kind of person I am, and who knows the infectious nature of touch read this Biblical story with delight, because like that woman, Jesus knows what kind of person I am….AND….Jesus lets me touch him! When I pray, Jesus turns his ear to me. When I have fallen and need someone to pick me up, Jesus takes ahold of my hand. When I come to the altar and stretch out my hand I hear Jesus’ promise, “This is my body. This is my blood. Given and shed for you.”
I know, as I think we all know, that if everyone knew the real you and me, they would not want us to touch them, but the great news of this story is that Jesus actually wants us to touch him. Even when Thomas (Joh 20) approached Jesus with doubts, Jesus said to Thomas, “Touch me.”
And why does Jesus want us to touch him? So that we do rub off on him. So that all the sin that brings pain and stench to our lives might indeed rub off on him….rub off on him so that Jesus could take that sin to the cross and kill it…take its power away….and then leave it all dead in the grave when he rose on Easter Sunday…gather us up in his arms and “touch us with his love” (as I wrote in my Doubting Thomas musical).
As part of the worship service in my church we “share the peace.” We touch each other and “rub” Jesus off on each other as we say, “The peace of the Lord be with you.” Jesus’ touch is transformational, and when we share Jesus’ transforming touch, Jesus’ powerful love is kindled among us.
It is my hope that these weekly Bungee Cords bring my touch to you, a touch full of Jesus love and mercy. So that you who knows yourself, might also know this: Jesus wants you to touch him and have your lives transformed by his sin-killing and eternal life-giving love.
Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace,
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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Tuesday, March 12, 2024

 The Bungee Cord. 3-12-23

Hello,
There are several significant events in the Bible in which the number 40 is involved. The Bible says that it rained 40 days and 40 nights after Noah built the Ark. The Israelites were said to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. Jesus was tempted by the Devil in the wilderness for 40 days. Interestingly, many Biblical scholars believe that when the Bible uses the number 40, it is not meant to be taken literally. Rather, the number 40 is used as a figure of speech for another way of saying “a long, long time.”
Modern English also has ways of saying “a long, long time”. “It took me forever to clean my room.” “I studied all day for that test.” “I haven’t seen her in eons.” Or as Jed Clampet said, “I haven’t seen you since you were knee high to a grasshopper.”
Last week, I went to visit a friend of mine that I haven’t seen for 40 years, literally 40 years. He and I were college fraternity brothers, and when college ended, we went different directions in life. I went to the cold of Minnesota to go to Seminary. He went to the balmy shores of Hawaii to be an accountant. We have kept minimally in touch through Facebook, so I knew what he would look like when we met last week, but other than that there were a lot of blanks to fill in over the years. It was great fun to share our ventures. Neither of us had led boring or uneventful lives.
He had posted on Facebook that he was coming from Hawaii to Indianapolis to visit his father, and now that I am retired, I figured that I should grab the opportunity to go there and see him. After all, it was only a 6-hour drive from my house in Pennsylvania (from my days in South Dakota, a 6-hour drive is nothing at all!). It was worth the drive.
When I started writing the Bungee Cord over 25 years ago, my main aim was to provide a rendezvous with God for those whose lives and God had gone in different directions. And haven’t we all done that. Some of us have figuratively wandered off as far as Hawaii, and the rest of us who may not have distanced ourselves as far as that have certainly and regularly turned our backs on God and looked in other directions. I called this weekly writing “The Bungee Cord” because God has shown me that God’s love holds onto us no matter how far we might distance ourselves from God, and nothing can sever the bungee cord of God’s love that is always drawing us back to him.
In Jesus, God has shown that God will go as far as it takes to rendezvous with us…6 seconds, 6 minutes, 6 years, 60 years, 66 years and if need be, even to the den of the devil who in the figurative language of Revelation wears the number 666. And in Jesus, God has shown us that whether our ventures have taken us away from God for 40 seconds, 40 minutes, 40 days, or 40 years…a long, long time….God delights in the rendezvous….catching up on our ventures, filling in the blanks….and saying to us, “Beloved, know this: neither time nor space will ever be able to separate us from one another in Christ Jesus. Nothing!”
Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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Monday, March 4, 2024

 The Bungee Cord 3-4-24

Hello,
Yesterday I watched history in the making. I saw Caitlin Clark make a free throw that made her the all-time scorer in college basketball. I watched her step up to the free throw line as if it was just another free throw. I saw her take a deep breath as she put the ball to her side. I saw her raise the ball to her forehead, flip it at the basketball. I saw it drop through the net, and I saw her make history. But what amazed me more than the shot that she made was that she made no demonstrable cheer for the accomplishment that she had made. As a matter of fact, when the reporter talked to her just after she made the free throw as she was on her way to the locker room for half time, she gave a short and mild response to the reporter’s question about the accomplishment she just made, and then she quickly went on to talk about her team and what they needed to do to win the game.
I am sure that somewhere down in her soul she was smiling ear to ear, but by her outward response it was clear to me that she understood something that the announcers did not: it was just a free throw. The announcers, however, said otherwise. The announcer, as Caitlin stepped to the line said, “She is about to take a shot for immortality.” Granted, it was a shot to put her name on the pages of history, but as the announcer lifted that shot to the level of immortality, I thought to myself, “Isn’t this just a basketball game?”
As remarkable as the feat was that Caitlin accomplished, did it have the power to overcome death? The same question might be asked of all sorts of other people’s accomplishment; the Wright Brothers, Jonas Sauk, Abraham Lincoln, Cleopatra, Amelia Earhart, Bill Gates. True, we remember their names and the things that they have done, but the fact is that in all of their cases, death won. Humans are mortal, and personally, I have become increasingly aware of my own mortality after my run in with cancer. The day will come when our faces won’t be seen, our touches won’t be felt, and our voices will not be heard. Death will win.
But that is the wonder and joy of the Easter tomb. There is one, a completely mortal one who was at the same time completely divine, for whom death did not win. When Jesus walked out of the tomb, he left death behind. His face was seen again, his touch was felt again, and his voice was heard again. Jesus won!
Death has been swallowed up in victory.’
55 ‘Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?’
56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Cor. 15)
Jesus, however, wasn’t the only one who won. “3Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” (Romans 6). We are victors, too. Our names are not just written in history books so that we will be remembered forever, our names are written in the book of life and we, like Jesus will live again, live eternally.
To some, I know, it all seems too good to be true, but when I consider the love in my heart for my mortal children, love that would lead me to do anything to have them with me, it seems more than just likely that the one whose power created the universe and holds it together, would have the power to overcome the one thing that would keep me and you away from him, death. I can hardly wait for the victory party to come!
Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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Monday, February 26, 2024

 The Bungee Cord. 2-26-24

Hello,
What does the church smell like?
When I was in college I , mevery once in a while, went and visited a dairy farmer friend of mine. Although they were always friendly visits, when I was there, I always helped out (I think that is what you would call my efforts) with the chores. Milking, feeding, bailing, and the like. On one of my visits, I went to church with my friend, and when I walked in into church, I was immediately hit with a distinct odor….the odor of the barn. You see, almost all of the parishioners were dairy farmers who had come to church after their morning chores. I, who had slept in for the morning milking, did not go into the barn before church, but it was clear to me that almost everyone else had. Something I learned that weekend, when you spend time in the barn, hanging around the cows, you smell like the barn.
What does the church smell like? I know that I have been in churches that smell musty and stale. Immediately when you walk into them you get hit with the smell of airs. The musty smell of folks looking down their nose at you for your station in life, your soiled past, your record of failures, your lack of teeth, and your faulty social skills. And when you’ve walked in a couple of steps, you catch a strong whiff of stale air; air that has been hemmed in by walls of rules and expectations. Rules telling you how much you need to give to the church. Expectations of how much time you will give to the church. Rules telling you who you can have as friends, and expectations on with whom your friendships can grow. Such churches seem to carry the same smell as the smell that Jesus encountered in the synagogues of his day, rules that disallowed him to heal on the Sabbath, talk and eat with unrepentant sinners, embrace a leper, help out a Roman enemy. Rules that trod over vulnerable people for the sake of the institution. There are churches that I have walked into that smell musty and stale, and I have seen the people walk out of such churches carrying that smell into the world.
There are other churches, however, that smell quite differently. They have the smell of hope, of mercy, of empathy, of forgiveness….well, of Jesus. They smell like Jesus who walked into the lives of people who were captured with mental illness, the Gerasene demoniac. They smell like Jesus who dined with outcasts, Zacchaeus. They smell like Jesus who took children into his lap and loved them. They smell like Jesus who welcomed a woman with a checkered past, the woman who wiped his feet with her hair. They smell like Jesus who didn’t even pick up a stone to throw at a woman caught in adultery. They smell like Jesus who loved Peter even after he had denied him three times. They smell like Jesus who wept over Jerusalem’s wandering, and then walked right into that town with God’s relentless love. They smell like Jesus who on the cross opened the kingdom of heaven for a murderer. They smell like Jesus who walked out of the hole that people had put him into and left anything that might make a claim on anyone dead and in that hole. There are some churches that smell of freshness and life, the smell that you get when you walk along a stream in a pine forest, and I have seen people walking out of such churches carrying that smell into the world.
What does the church smell like? Not all churches smell the same, and you’ll know the minute that you walk into one what that church smells like. And when you walk into one that smells like Jesus, none perfectly because every church is comprised not of angels but sinners in need of forgiveness, you’ll know it. And I invite you to go there and hang out regularly, like a farmer doing chores, so that you will carry its smell into a world that very often doesn’t smell very good at all.
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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