Bungee Cord 5-28-12

Hello,

     I’m going back to work this Friday.  A couple of weeks ago I received the call to be a pastor to the people of 1^st Lutheran Church, Greensburg, Pennsylvania.  Greensburg is town of around 15,000 people, but it feels much bigger as it is the county seat and hub of Westmoreland County, the county just east of Pittsburgh.  I’ll be living in the home that my wife and I built just outside of Stahlstown, which is a 25 minute drive over the ridge from Greensburg.  The church is located in downtown Greensburg, and is ripe for a vibrant and challenging ministry to the varied population in which it stands.  I am excited about what may lie ahead.

     To say, however, that I am going back to work is a bit of a mis-statement.  For the fact of the matter is that although it will be exactly a year since I left South Dakota and the people that I served there, I really have been working all along nonetheless; working at my vocation (not vacation, but vocation or calling) of being a child of God.  Just like Prince William and Prince Henry of England have discovered, whatever else I may do, I, who was so made in the waters of Baptism, do it as a child of the King of kings.  There is not a day that goes by that I do not bring the power and authority of God into whatever I may do: being a spouse, being a father, being a neighbor, being a customer building a house.  And as John 3:17 says, that power and authority is one of saving forgiveness and mercy (“‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”).   Like King Midas of storied fame who transformed everything he touched into gold, I have the power to transform everything that I touch into something far more valuable than gold, life: life anew and life forever.

     I was once in a board meeting of an organization that was an outreach owned by of one of the churches that I previously served, and at that meeting, one of the board members, a member of another owner church said, “Pastor, when you step out of the church and into the world, you just have to turn the switch off.”  The switch of which he was speaking was the way of thinking, speaking, and acting that went on while in church.  I wanted to ask him, “And where is this switch?”   Where is the switch that a butterfly can flip to live like a caterpillar again?  Where is the switch that can enable a goose to live in the protection of its eggshell again?  Where is the switch that can turn off the claiming power of God who has said in the waters of Baptism, “You are my child.  My beloved, in whom I am well pleased.”

     The truth is that there is no switch that this world can flip that can cut us off from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:38,39).  There is no switch.  Not on me, and not on you.  Every day, no matter what we are doing, we do it as children of the King of kings.  Every day you and I step out into the world of foreboding shadows as beacons aflame with the Light of the world.  Every day you and I step out into the world suffering from a famine of love as platters serving up the Bread of life.  Every day you and I step out into a world of storms and wolves carrying the staff of the Good Shepherd who leads to still waters and green pastures.  Every day you and I step out into the world that tethers people with their failures and losses with the slashing sword of divine forgiveness and mercy.

     Although I have been away from being a pastor for the past year, I have not missed a day of work in my vocation as a child of God…..and likewise, so it is with you.  So, the next time you read the Bungee Cord, it will come from the pen (or keyboard) of a new pastor of 1^st Lutheran Church, Greensburg, Pa., but it will also come from the pen (or keyboard) of one who has long been a child of God….one who begins every day with this personal mission statement, “Ever changed by Christ’s claiming call, TODAY, I join God in the divine adventure of making all things new”…..and so do you!

Have a great week of work.

God’s grace and peace,

Pstor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 5-20-12

Hello,

     Jesus said that the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed that grows to a great shrub, a woman who mixes yeast in a ton of dough and it effects the whole mixture, a treasure so valuable that one would sell everything to have it, and a net thrown into the water bringing back a catch of every kind of fish.

     When Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God, he wasn’t speaking of a place or a time (in other words, Jesus wasn’t talking about heaven after we die), instead he was giving images of how God exercises his power and authority over all things and all time.  So, maybe a way that more accurately gets at what Jesus was speaking of when he spoke of the Kingdom of God would be to say it this way, “This is what it is like to live in the power and presence of God….”

     Jesus always used things that happened to people of his day to describe God’s kingly reign.  Well, last week a couple of things happened to me that opened my eyes to the Kingdom of God….or “What it is like to live in the power and presence of God….”

     Pastor Jerry says, “The kingdom of God is like walking near hip high grass and a huge wild turkey unexpectedly explodes out of the grass only a foot away from you….or the kingdom of God is like a 7 foot snake that you notice lying on the patio just outside your door after you realize it isn’t your garden hose.”

     Let me explain.  Last week I was out walking my dog, Duncan, through the fields that surround our house.  Much of the fields are unmowed and thick with vegetation, but paths have been cut along which one can walk, which is what Duncan and I were doing.  As we strolled along, taking in the beauty all around us, the solitude was suddenly interrupted by a huge wild turkey bursting out of the tall grass no less than a foot or two from where we were.  Duncan went wild with hunting blood aboil.  I froze and my heart accelerated like a dragster at the sight of the green light… SHOCKED!

     Likewise last week, I set out to brace the railing on my deck which flexed a bit too much when my brother in law leaned on it.  So, I opened the patio doors from our walk-out basement, looking up and trying to discern where I might drill holes for the supporting bolts, when out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw my garden hose about a foot away from my right foot.  But when I turned my head to the left and noticed the garden hose a couple of feet away from me, a quick glance to my right made it clear that I was a foot away from a 7 foot snake!  I don’t know if I let out a screech of terror, but I do know that I jumped away, dashed for the door, and in the safety of my house I could feel my heart once again racing at dragster speed…SHOCKED.

    So, how did these encounters broaden my vision to the kingdom of God?  Well, it occurred to me that just like that turkey and snake, in whose presence I had undoubtably been before they made themselves known to me, so also do I often find myself living in the power and presence of God.  But then there are times when God’s presence erupts in my life like the wild flutter of a turkey, bursting upon me and grabbing me (it has happened to me many a time when I keep kicking myself for what seems to me to be insurmountable failure, and someone will come along and hug me with divine forgiveness and mercy).  SHOCKED!

    And there are times when life plods along and I am captivated by the day to day events of life, that I don’t even notice God’s presence, until I take a second glance at what is right in front of my nose (like so often when I come to the Communion table, preoccupied with job, family, tasks and a little piece of bread is placed in my hands, and a little sip of wine slides down my throat…and I hear the words, “This is the body of Christ given for you…this is the blood of Christ shed for you)….SHOCKED!

What is it like to live in the presence and power of God?

It is like walking near hip high grass and a huge wild turkey unexpectedly explodes out of the grass only a foot away from you….or the kingdom of God is like a 7 foot snake that you notice lying on the patio just outside your door after you realize it isn’t your garden hose.”

Have a great week…in the kingdom of God.

God’s grace and peace,

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 5-14-12

Hello,

If the answer is Friday at 5:00 a.m., then what is the question?

The question has to be, “What is the only time that the dumpster company could send a truck to retrieve the construction dumpster that has been sitting in my yard for the last couple of months.”

At 5:00 a.m. I was sound asleep when I heard loud rumbling going on just outside my window and bright lights shining across my front lawn atop the secluded hill where we have built our house.  What, I wondered, was going on.  Had the military taken a wrong turn on some covert mission?  Had gold been discovered underneath my property and someone was trying to steal it away at night?

Still trying to shake the cobwebs loose in my brain, I carefully peaked out my window and quickly determined that it was only the dumpster company retrieving its dumpster….just the dumpster company retrieving its dumpster….WHAT!  After noticing that it was 5:00 in the morning, in the pitch darkness of the night, it occurred to me that my first two far-fetched conclusions were far more reasonable than what was actually happening.  The only reasonable reason that that huge, loud, rumbling truck was in my front yard dragging up a huge construction dumpster onto its frame was that it must….it must have been the only time that the dumpster company could have sent out a truck to pick up that dumpster that has been sitting in my yard for the last several months.

All sarcasm aside, the reason that that dumpster retrieving truck was in my front yard at 5:00 a.m. was probably due to what pickup schedule was most convenient for the company, or the person who dispatched the truck didn’t consider that most people do not start their days before 5:00, or if they did care, they didn’t stop to think that this dumpster was sitting right outside the bedroom window of the sleeping property owners.  Company convenience.  Lack of consideration.  Lack of care.

In contrast to the Dumpster Company, when God chose to send his Son into the world to gather up all the sin that was cluttering up and stinking up people’s lives, God’s actions were motivated quite differently.  Far from doing what was most convenient for God, God took a path that led to great personal sacrifice for God, the suffering and death of Jesus, his Son.  Far from blindly proceeding with lack of consideration, God took every need of all people into consideration, tackling every evil and roadblock that might stand in his way.  And far from moving with a lack of care, it was because of his complete care for all people (John 3:16) that drove him to act.

It was on a dark night that God arrived in the world in a Bethlehem manger.  It was on a dark Friday afternoon that God engaged sin and evil in a battle to the death.  And it was on a dark, pre-dawn morning, that God burst victoriously out of a human sealed tomb.  It was, as the Bible tells us, the right time, the ripe time, the best time, the only time for God to rumble into the world…and I, for one, am thankful that he did!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace,

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 5-6-12

Hello,

     We had some folks over for a Kentucky Derby party.  Preparing for the party I discovered that one of the horse’s names was “Rousing Sermon”.  By his name alone, I thought he would be the odds on favorite, but such was not the case.  The day before the race he was listed at 50-1 odds, and by the time of the race his odds had gained some favorability, a mere 35-1, still a longshot to win.         

     As I got to thinking about Rousing Sermon’s odds, it seemed to me that those might be applicable odds for a “rousing sermon” on any given Sunday.  There may be pastors who carry much higher odds for a rousing sermon, but for most of us pastors the number of Sundays  are few that our sermons bring people to the edge of their seats, stir them to uncommon action, their memories etching every word we speak, and after twenty minutes has passed everyone is wishing for twenty more.  My seminary preaching professor said that if a pastor preaches six of those a year, that is doing really well, uncommonly well…let’s see, 52-6….not far from Rousing Sermon’s chance of winning the Derby.

     It is not that we pastors don’t try and have a rousing sermon every Sunday.  But most of us are strapped with limited creativity, limited oratorical skills, limited prowess at turning a phrase, and most of all limited time.  Those might sound like excuses, but as a pastor I know they are the reality that I deal with.  And given those limitations,  it is proof that the Spirit is at work through my words in that I might even have one rousing sermon a year.

     All of this is to say that if you go to church in order to hear a rousing sermon, or if you don’t go because you don’t hear one very often, then I would say that your expectations do not match the betting odds.  So, let me offer other things that you might “bet” on when you come to church.  You can bet that the guilt and weight of  your sins (the things that have come from you that has brought pain to you, your neighbor, and God) that you carried to church will be gone from your shoulders when you leave.  You can bet that your weakened knees and tired heart from the daily battles of life will be strengthened with Christ’s power as he has communed with you at his table.  You can bet that the crushing exhaustion of being looked down upon will be shaken loose from you as the people who have shared Sunday morning with you have loved you in the knowledge that they are no better than you.  You can bet that the loneliness and isolation that may have darkened your life will be incinerated into ashes by the warmth of God’s embrace.  You can bet that the problems of the world that seemed victorious before you came to church will seem fragile and frail as you leave to attack them with the power of God in your.  And the distance that you may have felt between you and God will disappear as God has held you in the palm of his hand in that hour of worship.  You can bet on these things…bet your life on them….the odds of them happening when you come to church are better than 50-1, they are certain, certain because they are what God has promised to give you when you come to church.

     So, let me invite you to church this week…and every week.  You might just beat the odds and experience a rousing sermon, but the odds are more than just in your favor that having come to church when you leave church on Sunday morning you will not be the same as when you came, the world will not be the same as when you came, and the hope to bring grace into this pressure ridden world will not be the same as you came.

     By the way, Rousing Sermon finished 8^th…..not bad for the odds he faced.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace,

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger