The Bungee Cord - 7/29/13

Hello,

     BEWARE: POISON IVY ON THE RISE!

     As I wind my way over the ridge to and from work, I often listen to the news magazine programs on Public Radio.  In addition to covering the daily news, they also examine a wide range of topics.  So, when they said that after the break they would be taking a look at the increasing Poison Ivy growth in our country, my ears perked up because on our property we have enough poison ivy that if I could figure out a practical use for it, I could give up my day job!

     Apparently, poison ivy is flourishing in our country.  It is more pervasive and bigger in size.  “It is not unusual,” said the interviewee, “for you to find pan-size leaves.”  Beyond its size, it is also cropping up in places that it had never grown before.  Scientists aren’t sure why.  Is it the growth of CO2 in the atmosphere?  Is it the weather?  Who knows?  But…. BEWARE:POISON IVY ON THE RISE!

     That is bad news for the 80% of the population that is affected by its toxin.  I don’t know if I am part of that 80% or not.  Truth is that I walk through it daily and mow over it weekly, and to date….either because I am part of the lucky 20% or because I vigorously wash with Dawn Dish soap if I have been in it…I have not caught it (knock/wood).  And I hope not to catch it having heard the testimony of a local pastor who is battling its itch, and having heard from the radio interview that a person can die from it

     There are those who say that poison ivy isn’t the only enemy on the rise, they also say that “poison ivy” is flourishing like never before in the world:  violence, drugs, carousing….and with them an itch of hopelessness, purposelessness, and fear that doesn’t go away.   As I look around my corner of the world and see the fragility of relationships, the vice grip that drugs in which many are caught, and the lock and alarm systems that abound, it is clear to me that “poison ivy” is flourishing in our day.  But on the other hand, being a person who was raised in the ‘60’s where “poison ivy” grew pretty well then, too, I can only suspect that the truth of the matter is that “poison ivy” is one of those things that grows pretty well no matter what the decade.

     The Bible calls this “poison ivy” sin, and just like the green thing that spreads on the ground, you and I know that poison ivy/sin can kill you.  Hopelessness can sap the life right out of you.  Shame can itch at your soul and drive you crazy.  Fear can swell up and make life painful to touch.

     It may be no coincidence that when God, in his love and mercy, provided the remedy for this “poison ivy” that God’s remedy came in the form of washing, the washing of Baptism.  Sure the water of Baptism is simple water, but instead of being mixed with Dawn Dish soap, the waters of Baptism are infused with the promises of God….promises that cut through the oil of the “poison ivy” and take away the itch.  Guilt and shame are washed away with God’s promise from the cross, “You are forgiven.”  Hopelessness and fear are washed away with God’s promise, “You are mine, and I will never let you go.”

     So if you are “itching”, let me invite you to come to church this Sunday where the echo of those Baptismal promises will wash over you, and where Jesus will invite you to his table and give you a “booster shot” of his love and mercy in Holy Communion.  Fact is, “poison ivy” is flourishing.  Every one of us walks through it and mows it down every day…..so, from one “itcher” to another, let me invite you to church where the “itch” will find its end and overwhelming thanksgiving will take its place.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (GGAP)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 7-23-13

Hello,

     Here’s a quiz to start off this week’s Bungee Cord.  What town is hometown to Arnold Palmer, Mr. Rogers, and the Ice Cream Sundae?  What the locals know, now all the readers of Bungee Cord now know, the answer:  Latrobe, Pennsylvania.

     Latrobe is the closest “big” town to where I live, 15 miles away.  It houses things like Wal-Mart and Lowes.  So, with some regularity, I make my way to Latrobe, and the way that I get there is to take the road over the ridge, Bethel Church Road, the most direct route.  When I say direct, I mean, direct by how the crow flies, not by the straightness of the road.  In order to go up and over the ridge, Bethel Church road squiggles and bends.   After you travel about 2/3 ways along the twisting road, a rather curious sign greets you.  It’s a yellow, squarish sign that sits on one of the corners of the square, and it reads, “WINDING ROAD NEXT 2 ½ MILES”.

     The first time I encountered this sign I thought to myself, “What did they think the last 7 miles were?”  It seems quirky that this warning should come closer to the road’s end than at its beginning.  I guess that I should feel lucky that I regularly safely traverse the first 2/3 of the way without a warning.  Also, interestingly enough, the 2 ½ miles left in the journey is far less winding than what came before…..the straightest parts come after the sign!

     In a strange way, the placement of this sign seems to mirror often what I find myself “signing” in life.  As a pastor, I find myself intersecting with people’s lives at various legs of their life’s trek, some at the very beginning, but most after they have travelled a good long ways.  Often I run into them where the road has taken a sharp turn, a turn that they have had difficulty negotiating.  Sometimes I find myself amid tragic circumstances and other times I need only be there to lend a hand to get them back on the road.  But whatever the situation, I get the feeling that God is using me like that yellow sign on the road forewarning, “WINDING ROAD AHEAD”.

     It is not like the road hasn’t been winding up to this point in their lives, but as can be the case for all of us, we can either get caught up in the scenery, or focused on where we are going that we haven’t really noticed how winding it has been.  We haven’t noticed how many sharp turns we have made, or how many times we have had to hit the breaks hard until the winding road makes itself known to us when we slide off.

     Sometimes I find people surprised when the road has won and they have slid off, but if we mapped the road of everyone’s life, we would see that no one travels the long and straight roads, like the ones in the plains of South Dakota.  The roads we all travel on are like Bethel Church Road, squiggling and winding.  Roads where turns come upon us out of nowhere, and deer do, too.

     The good news is that God knows the winding-ness of our roads.  He knows it because he has travelled them himself in Jesus.  He knows how easy it is to slide off of a hairpin turn that you didn’t know would be there, and he knows how often something leaps from the woods and crashes into you.  And so when those things happen, you won’t here Jesus reprimanding you for your bad driving.  Instead he will set you and me back on the road, lovingly forewarning you, “WINDING ROAD AHEAD”, and telling you as you put your hands on the steering wheel….”and I’ll be there for you at every turn.”

Have a great (winding) week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 7-16-13

Hello

Chicken Update:

Those of you who are weekly readers of the Bungee Cord will remember that a couple of months ago my wife brought four baby chicks into our lives and constructed a coop (the Taj ma Coop) for their habitation.  A couple of months have since passed, and I am glad to report that all four of the chicks have made their way into the second month of their lives, grown to near adult size, and have comfortably made their home in their classy coop.

     All this, however, has not been without peril, peril at the hands (or paws) of my dog, Duncan.  When they were small chicks living in our basement furnace room, Duncan would hear their peeping, and whine in hopes to be let in.  When we would let him in, he would take his place outside of their cage in an instinctual catatonic trance awaiting them to venture out and become his dinner.  Now that they have made their home outdoors in the Taj ma Coop, when we open the door of our house to let him out he scurries over to their penthouse and sleeks his way right up to the screened-in pen (porch) where they are scratching about.

     Like a New Orleans street artist who stands motionless wearing the attire of the Statue of Liberty, Duncan freezes in hunting pose, his nose pressed against the chicken wire.  The chickens walk unafraid around their pen, and sometimes come right up to where his nose is and give it a peck, but Duncan doesn’t move…ready to pounce….ready to clamp down….ready to eat.  But all for not.  So close that he can smell them.  So close that he can taste them.  So close that the saliva forms in his jowls.  So close….but so far away.   His frustration building like underground lava.

     When a man came up to Jesus and asked, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”, and answered back to Jesus out of what he had been taught… “love the Lord your God with all of your heart, and mind, and strength and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself,” I can see this man taking on the pose of Duncan at the chicken’s screened-in pen.  Being a good man, a man who sought to do what was right, a man who hoped to justify (be right with God) himself by clarifying who his neighbor might be…being so close that he could smell heaven…so close that he could taste it…so close, but so far away.  Could he, or would he ever be able to love the Lord with all of his heart, mind, soul and strength….no.  Could he, or would he ever be able to love his neighbor as himself…no.  Like chicken wire, the commandments create a barrier between us and God, a barrier that is beyond our abilities to break through.  Like Duncan, we can get close…..close but so far away.

     But here’s the great news: we who could never justify ourselves, God justifies.  God, in Jesus, steps out from behind the chicken wire of commandments, and justifies us (makes us right with him)…not by what we could or would do….but by what God can and does do.  God transforms us by the claiming power of his love.  Stretching out his arms on the cross he silenced any other power that might claim a lien on our lives so that we might be wholly and holy God’s.  And when Jesus walked sure footed out of the Good Friday tomb God tore down the walls of both time and space so that we might be with him, now and forever.

     I wonder if that man who asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life is still frozen in place at the chicken wire of heaven….so close and yet so far away.  Or has he come to life, eternal life, as heaven has broken into this world by the grace of God in Jesus, jolted out of his catatonic pose and following Jesus in a magnetically gathering parade of peace, hope, love and joy that marches on forever?

     Feeling a bit stuck yourself?  Jesus says, “Come to church this Sunday so that I might transform your life…..there’s a lot better things for you to do with your life than stand like a statue gazing into a chicken coop pen.”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bunge Cord 7-7-13

Hello,

     Another day of rain in western Pennsylvania.  We are caught in one of those weather patterns that clouds the skies day after day and drops sheets of rain upon the already saturated ground.  The mountain streams are swelled, the fields are waist high in lush grass, the wildflowers are full abloom, and the trees are an umbrella of shade over the soft, moss covered paths. 

     But not so in the mountains of Colorado where I recently spent a couple of weeks.  Rain has been rare and spotty. The ground crackles under your feet as you walk upon the grass that struggles for life.  Small flowers freckle the dry ground, yellow and purple and blue. Pine trees send their roots deep into the earth hunting for a sip of water and their needles pad the ground with firey danger, “NO OPEN FIRES”.

     It is amazing what water can do, and what the absence of it also can do. Out of water life springs, out of drought life struggles.      

     When Jesus said that he came that we might have life and have it abundantly, it seems to me that it is the abundance of a rain drenched Pennsylvania hillside, compared to a thirsty Colorado mountainside of which he was speaking. 

     When God sent his Son, Jesus, God held nothing back.  God did not just moisten our lives with a foggy mist of his love that the hot sun of this world would burn off as soon as it hit.  God did not just send a sprinkling shower that only would only wet the surface and leave our hearts dry and arid.  God did not send a short downpour of cats and dogs, that like cats and dogs would run off and do no good.  NO…when God sent Jesus, he ushered in a gentle, never ending rain (reign) of his grace a mercy – akin to what we have been experiencing here in Western Pennsylvania, rain-wise.  In Jesus, God sent a soaking rain that permeates deep into the hardest soil, that softens old and dry clay, and that turns the best soil into black gold.

     Life explodes out of cloud watered soil, and life explodes out of God watered lives.  Hope like grass, can’t be kept down.  Joy, like shoulder high flowers, soars our spirits high.  Love, as energy from the sun (Son) itself robs the night of it’s cooling pride.  Abundantly life flows out of watered lives.  Sure, hope and joy and love are found in the water strapped world, but just like  in the water strapped Rockies, these things struggle to stay alive, are easily dried up, and are fragile when trod upon.

     So if you feel a bit parched, and your life is arid let me invite you to come to church this Sunday.  Church, where you can get soaked in the grace of God and discover the wonder of life bursting forth.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace,

Pastor Jerry L. Nuernberger