The Bungee Cord 12-29-14

Hello,

     In a couple of days we will have ended another spin around the sun.  According to the internet, we’ve been travelling at 67,062 miles per hour and spinning at the rate of somewhere around 1000 miles per hour.  That’s quite a ride!  Compare that ride to the ride of the fastest roller coaster in the world,  the Formula Rossa in the United Arab Emirates which races along its track at a top speed of 150 miles per hour.  If you can’t go that far for a thrill, there’s a coaster at Cedar Point, Sandusky, Ohio that hits 120 miles an hour.

     I know the feeling of my stomach in my throat as I have gotten of some roller coasters, a couple of which I have said when I stepped off, “I don’t think that I will do that again!”  There are some people who enjoy that feeling.  They enjoy the racing of their hearts and the sweat gushing from their glands.  But not me.  Put me in a Bumper Car or a water dowsing Log Ride, and I will feel like I have gotten my money’s worth out of my amusement part ticket fee.

     The problem about the ride that you and I have taken this year  around the sun is that there is no getting off.  And unlike amusement park rides, the ride around the sun is never the same.  Well, physically it may be the same, but in reality it takes us over and around new curves, up and down new valleys, and spinning us through new cork screws.  We never know as the ride starts again if it will be smoother or bumpier, calmer or scarier.  All we know is that we’ll be travelling at 67,062 miles per hour and spinning at 1000 miles per hour.

     No wonder we are often pretty tired and worn out as we end each lap.

     When I take my seat on a roller coaster, I make sure that I am firmly clamped in by the safety bar across my lap.  Fact of the matter, I even feel more prepared for the ride ahead if I am fastened to my seat not only across my waist, but also over my shoulders.  As I hear the clicking of the track engaging the car, I jostle the harnesses to make sure they are tight and say, “Ok….here we go!”

     So, as you and I hear the seconds click as the track engages our car to take us into the coaster ride ahead, notice that you are well strapped in…strapped in by the arms of Jesus that were nailed into place for you.  Who knows how wild the ride will be this year, but beyond the fact that we can be certain of the speed and the spin, we can also be certain of this: we will not be thrown out.  So if you are feeling your heart beginning to race and  sweat beginning to rise, fear not.  Jesus will hold you tight through each bend and twist, climb and fall until you arrive at the end of this year’s spin…..where you’ll get to go for yet another ride.  “Ok….here we go!”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (GGAP)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord  12-23-14

The Bungee Cord  12-23-14

Hello,

Merry Christmas from me!  Going to try and give you a real Christmas treat.  I wrote a Christmas Carol some years ago called “Carol of the Holy Family”.  I recorded it on my Mac using Garage Band.  I hope that you can upload it to your computer, even if you’re using a PC….but if not, here’s the words….maybe it is better without my voice and just my pen!

Carol of the Holy Family

Jerry Nuernberger, copyright 2004

 

Jesus, Jesus lying in a midnight stable,

Though you’re tiny yet you’re able

To free us from all our sins.

                Gloria, Gloria

                Gloria in the highest.

                Gloria, Gloria

You will make us clean within

                You will make us clean within.

 

Mary, Mary with a child not conceived by a man

Though you’re mortal, yet it’s God’s plan

From your womb salvation bring

                Gloria, Gloria

                Gloria in the highest.

                Gloria, Gloria

Ponder in your heart these things.

                Ponder in your heart these things.

 

Joseph, Joseph father to this heavenly son

Though you’re humble, when his life’s done

God will right the world through him

                Gloria, Gloria

                Gloria in the highest

                Gloria, Gloria

Peace on earth from heaven break in

                Peace on earth from heaven break in.

 

Final chorus

                Gloria, Gloria

                Gloria in the highest

                Gloria, Gloria

Peace on earth from heaven break in

                Peace on earth from heaven break in.

Have a blessed Christmas.

God’s grace and peace, (GGAP)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

CAN'T SEEM TO ADD THE AUDIO.....I'll try later

The Bungee Cord  12-14-12

Hello,

     When I was 30 I looked like I was 16….maybe 18.

     It was when I was about 30 that I was a pastor in Toledo, and in my ministry there I found myself doing a lot of funerals for people I had never met.  So it was one day that I was asked to do such a funeral.  My practice for these kinds of funerals was to meet with the family at the funeral home before the visitation was to begin in order to get to know the relatives, how they were dealing with the death, and learn a bit about the one who had passed away.  As I came to the door of the funeral home, I was met by a short, stocky man whom I didn’t know.

     “I am Pastor Nuernberger,” I told the man, “and I will be doing Louie’s funeral.  Is Louie’s wife here?”

     I wondered if he heard me….maybe he had a hearing defect….because there wasn’t any reaction to my question in his face.  He just kind of stood there looking at me.

     So, I repeated my introduction, “I am Pastor Nuernberger, and I will be doing Louie’s funeral.  Is Louie’s wife here?”

     He sort of grunted as he waved for me to follow him into the funeral home.  He led me into the visitation room where about a dozen people where sitting in the wooden folding chairs that were lined up for services.  A small, fragile woman was sitting in the front row to whom he led me.

     He trudged up to her as if he was trudging through 10 inches of heavy snow and he said with a gruff voice, “Stella, I hate to tell ya, but this is the pastor.”

     Well, as you and I walk up to the Christmas manger there’s a gruff voice from the world directed at us that says, “Folks, I hate to tell ya, but this is the savior.”  After all…it is just a baby…a baby born in a dinky little dirt roaded town….a baby born in a remote mid-east country at a time in history when people knew little about the composition of the universe and what they knew we now know was wrong…..a baby of a tribe of people whose religion dealt in animal sacrifices and offerings of grain.

     Just like that elderly man who looked at me and saw a wet behind the ears, “16” year old, clerical collared kid come to do a funeral for his sister who was deep in grief and thought, “You have to be kidding me.”, there is a natural tendency for people in our day (maybe including you and me) to see a diaper dirtying, manger laid baby born of simple minded people heralded as the savior of the world and say, “You have to be kidding me.”

     In many ways, that disappointed man who greeted me at the funeral home was right.  I was young, not as young as I looked, though.  What did I know about the struggles of life?  What did I know about tragedy and loss? What did I know about emptiness and grief?

     I hope that I knew enough.  I hope that I knew enough so that I could help that widow as she walked through the valley of the shadow of death, facing a life ahead of her that was completely unlike the life she had lived for decades, wondering if the hole in her heart would be a drain to empty her of any joy.  Even though I may not have looked like it, I hope that my time with that family at that funeral proved to be what they needed and hoped for out of a pastor.  I hope that when she shook my hand and with tears in her eyes said to me, “Thank you, pastor,” that her words were heartfelt.

     I guess that it is the same thing with that Bethlehem born baby, heralded as the saviour of the world.  Did the words that this baby spoke in his adult years to the outcasts and unloved have the power to redirect the river of hope to the hopeless?  Did the hands that he stretched out to lift of those who the world had kicked and beaten down have the strength to push his way through the judgments of the world and stand up those who continue to be crushed by the mighty?  Did the arms that were nailed to a cross have the capacity to gather up all the failures, the disasters, the guilt, and the shame of all who have stumbled through life and lead them through the darkness of death.

     I can’t speak for everyone, but I can speak for myself…speak of whom this one who was Bethlehem born has walked into my life in a way that may not have been as visible as my time with that grieving wife in the funeral home, but just as present….and all I can say with heartfelt truth as I sense his loving embrace, “Thank you Lord.”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord 12-9-14

Hello,

     Just under a year ago I was in Bethlehem, the city of David, the Biblical birthplace of Jesus.  The Bible doesn’t give us much of a description of Bethlehem, which in Hebrew means “house of bread”.  Christmas song writers however have painted a picture with their lyrics of a quiet country town where cattle “low” (do any cattle tending Bungee readers know what that means?”) and babies sleep in heavenly peace.  Who knows for sure, but my suspicion is that the truth of life in Bethlehem was not so idyllic. Bethlehem, as was all of Israel, patrolled by Roman armies who kept the peace by ruthless fear.  Also, Bethlehem was under the thumb of King Herod who seems not to have had any hesitancy to spill the blood of his people.  Was all calm and bright in Bethlehem at the time of Jesus birth?  I don’t think so.

     And neither is all calm and bright in Bethlehem today as we near the anniversary of that birth.  Jerusalem is a divided city.  Huge 20 foot walls separate people, Jews from non-Jews.  These walls have become roadblocks, cutting family businesses off from their customers.  These walls have separated olive farmers from their groves, and thus their livelihood. The people of Bethlehem have painted artwork and graffiti on these walls.  One such painting that I saw was of a large purple ribbon, the sort of ribbon one gets for a prize cow at the fair, and inside the circle at the top which on fair ribbons might read “Grand Champion”, these words are painted, “With love and kisses nothing lasts forever”.

     Some of you may have heard of the questioning of the historical accuracy of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem in a book called The Zealot.  This is not a new question.  For centuries some have spoken of the “unlikelihood” of making people return to the city of their ancestors for an enrollment, and the lack of extra-Biblical recounting of such an enrollment in Jesus’ day.  Of course, even these objections do not rule out the possibility of the historical accuracy of the birth story.

     But to me, the preoccupation with asserting or refuting the accuracy of the Biblical account superimposes a modern understanding of history on the Biblical story and misses the truth that the story is making.    The truth that Jesus was to have been born in Bethlehem, which he certainly may have been, has more to do with the revealing of who Jesus was and what Jesus would be.  The Bible tells us that God made a promise to his people that God would provide for them a King who would rule over them, a King who would descend from the stem of David (Bethlehem was the town in which David’s family of origin grew up).   Jesus was the fulfillment of that promise…God keeps his word.   Also, by locating Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, instead of the palace in Jerusalem, we see the truth that God has come, and will come, into the ordinary and common places of life….places filled with manure, places filled with confusion, places filled with danger, places that are not calm, bright, and peaceful.

     In these Advent days, the four weeks before Christmas, if you wonder if you are important enough that God Almighty, the King of the Universe, would even have a flicker of a thought of you pass through his mind…remember Bethlehem.  If you wonder if you life is neat and clean enough that God would want to walk through your life with you…remember Bethlehem.  If you wonder if your life is together enough that God would want to settle in there…..remember Bethlehem.  If you look at your life and see the 20 foot walls that you have built to keep others away and even maybe keep God away…remember Bethlehem.  And on Christmas when you sing “O Little Town of Bethlehem”….remember Bethlehem….and although the picture that the song writer gives of Bethlehem may be a little inaccurate…the song writer got it absolutely, historically accurate….”The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord 11-30-14

Hello,

Last week I was on vacation in San Antonio, Texas, thus the reason for no Bungee Cord. But I am back…and so is the Bungee Cord.

So, why San Antonio?  Well, in 1987 I went to San Antonio for my first time with 40 high school kids who went to attend the National Youth Gathering, a gathering of 20,000 kids (back then there were 2 gatherings of 20,000….so, we were there for the first week).  I remembered saying to myself that San Antonio seemed to be a beautiful city.  I said “seemed” because with 20,000 high school kids stirring around, it was hard to tell for sure.  Anyway, I said to myself back then that someday I should go to San Antonio with my wife and see if my appraisal was correct.  So, that is why my wife and I decided to take a pre-Thanksgiving vacation there.

To my delight, my appraisal was more than right.  The Riverwalk.  The warmth.  The history.  The relaxation.  It was wonderful.

As icing on the cake, my best friend from high school happens to live in the San Antonio area, and our itineraries worked out for us to spend Sunday together.  We worshipped together at the HUGE church that he and his wife go to.  We ate lunch at a restaurant owned by one of his friends.  We went to SeaWorld (free….because his daughter is a whale trainer).  And then we finished the day off with Supper.  It was wonderful…wonderful on several levels.  It was wonderful to have a native show us around.  It was wonderful to get an inside look at Seaworld.  But most wonderful was the chance to catch up with one another.

And we had a lot of catching up to do.  We hadn’t seen each other in 33 years.  He and I grew up in the same suburban Chicago church.  We both played baseball…he a catcher…me a pitcher.  We spent endless hours practicing baseball with each other, shooting pool in my basement, hanging out and goofing around.  He went to Texas to go to college and play baseball, I hung up my glove and stayed north.  He got drafted by the Cincinnati Reds.  I “got drafted” (actually we Lutherans say “got called”) by God to go to seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota.  My wife and I went to see him when he played for one of the Red’s farm teams in Connecticut….and we hadn’t seen each other since.  33 years!

But when we got together, you would have never known it.  We seemed to pick up right where we left off.  Remembering the same funny stories.  Recalling the time that I struck him out in an All Star game with a curve ball in the dirt (you know I had to include that!).  Hearing about parents, and sharing some of the bumps that we have had along the way.  It as great!  It was almost as if 33 years had been erased from the tape of time.

That is the way it is with friends, at least the friends that knew you and cared for you with a depth that was heart deep.

Let me remind you as you read this of one such friends of yours, Jesus.  In a way that only the Divine One can claim, Jesus is a friend that knows you in a heart deep way.  And in a way that only the Divine One can do, Jesus is a friend whose care for you is much deeper than heartfelt.  The cross is evidence of both.

For some of you, Jesus has been a lifetime friend with whom you have shared a lifetime neighborhood.  But others, it may have been years since you have had a rendez-vous  with Jesus. Either way of this I am certain, if you do reconnect with Jesus you will find that it will seem like no time has passed. Whether it has been hours, or years.  There is a distinct joy in being with one whose friendship is uniquely deep…one who knows you like none other, and one who likewise cares for you.

Let me pass on to you Jesus’ invite to reconnect with him this Sunday.  The good news is that you don’t have to go all the way to San Antonio to do so….just find a church….and Jesus will find you.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace,

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord 11/17/14

Hello,

     Yesterday I had “brunch” at a Chinese restaurant in Flushing, New York.  I was visiting my son in NYC, and part of my visit was an experience of the Chinese culture.  It was a Sunday Brunch completely unlike any I have ever had.

     He, his girlfriend (who is Chinese), and I walked into the restaurant that had a dining hall the size of a basketball court.  The  “court” was filled with round tables that sat 8 per table.  Since we were only three, we shared the table with a young Chinese couple that seemed oblivious to our presence at their table.  We were directed to the table by a walkie-talkie holding “maitre d’” who waved us past the wall divider into the hall as if he were a traffic cop and we were car-dodging pedestrians.

     We might as well had been car-dodging pedestrians, because weaving in and around the tables were women pushing metal carts with the food.   Some of the food was on little plates, always in groups of three (and often undecipherable to my western eyes).  Other carts had covered vats with soups whose colors I had never seen in soup before.  And still other carts had food that was dipped out of large containers and place in a bowl for us to share.  The folks who shared our table asked for one such thing as a woman rolled by, a bowl full of sliced cow’s lung.

     To me, it felt like I was eating on a bumper car track.  The din of the conversation (all in Chinese) was so loud that I could barely hear my son’s girlfriend trying to tell me what I was eating (which may have been a blessing), and the women who pushed their carts around hawked their wares like concession sellers at baseball games.  Of course, there were no forks or spoons, only chopsticks, which I found exceptionally challenging to use when seeking to grasp one of the foods that was ….well…slimy. (I had to resort to spearing some of my food in order to lift it off my plate and bring it to my mouth.)

     Like I said, it was a brunch the likes of which I had never had before.  A brunch, however, I am very glad to have had.   I ate things that I had never eaten before, some of which I won’t be disappointed if I don’t eat again.  But more importantly around that brunch table, I experienced a culture that I had never experienced before.  Without having to go to China, I got a taste of the energy, the table fellowship, and the palate of a culture far different from the one that I daily experience.  It was a blessing which has broadened my life.

     Although I do it regularly, I feel like I experience the same sort of thing every time that I go to the Lord’s supper and receive Holy Communion.  That meal that comes with the promise of the body and blood of Jesus “in, with, and under the bread and wine” is of a sort that no human kitchen could concoct.  It is a unity with the Divine and with those who share this holy brunch with me that is beyond my human understanding, and the culture of forgiveness and mercy that permeates the meal gives me a taste of hope and love that is foreign to anything else in life.

     I was quickly filled as I ate my Chinese brunch, not only with food but also with a great appreciation for a different culture.  Let me extend to you the Lord’s invitation to come to his table on Sunday and see if you do not find yourself quickly and wonderfully filled….filled with the grace of God which far surpasses amazing, and filled with a new taste of hope that will flavor every encounter in life that you have with others and every challenge that you face.

     I am thankful for the invite given me to this past Sunday’s brunch.  Might I be so bold as to invite you to a wonderful brunch this Sunday…the Lord’s Supper.  It is a dining experience unlike any other.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord 11-10-14

Hello,

     Today, I am doing something different…..rather that writing the Bungee Cord, I am going to let you hear it!  It’s an audio Bungee Cord!

     Follow this link to my sermon for this Sunday, a sermon that was based on these words of Jesus, “Stay awake therefore, for you do not know the hour or time.”

            http://felchurch.org/sermons/

     Go to the sermon for Nov. 9…..Take a listen…..see what you think.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 11/2/14

Hello,

     “Will you please pick up a box of these on your way to the wedding,” said my wife to me as I was getting ready to go out the door on Saturday.  The “box of these” was a box of vinyl gloves that she needed so she could apply some stain to a bench that she was refinishing.  Since I was giving myself about an extra half hour before the wedding party was to arrive, I said that I could do that, especially because the store was on the way to church.

     When I arrived at the store, one of those huge stores that has everything that you want and everything that you don’t need, the parking lot was full, as you would expect on a Saturday afternoon.  Stubbornly trying to find a spot close to the door, I drove up and down a number of lanes until I realized I was just going to have to walk, parking several lanes away from the door and quite a ways away from the door.

     My wife told me that I would be likely to find these vinyl gloves in the pharmacy area of the store.  Confessing to male blindness in shopping, I must have walked up and down every aisle of the pharmacy section four or five times, not finding the assigned gloves.  Fortunately, I found an employee of the store, decked out in her store’s vest, and so I asked her, “Do you happen to have vinyl gloves?”

     “Medical or cleaning gloves?” she asked me.

     “I don’t know.  My wife needs them to put some stain on a bench.”

     “Oh, then you can find them on the furthest aisle, next to the band-aides.”

     “Thanks,” I said, and ventured where I was directed, and behold boxes of gloves….all latex.

     To my surprise, I heard, “Sir, I am sorry, but I think that you’ll find the gloves that you want in the cleaning area in the back of the store.”  It was the woman who realized her error and had come to be of greater assistance.

     So, off I went to the back of the store, which was a football’s field away.  Unfortunately when I got there and wandered through the cleaning supplies area numerous times, male shopper’s blindness returned and I couldn’t find the gloves anywhere.  As my frustration was mounting, my eyes landed on something that brought peace to my boiling aggravation: another employee in his store vest coming my way.  “Sir,” I said, “I was told that I could find vinyl gloves in this section.”

     Without missing a step, and giving me only a slight glance, he said, “I am off the clock.  I can’t help you.”  And he walked right by me.  Immediately, my blood temperature soared!  So, I spent another ten minutes scouring the cleaning section aisles….and no gloves to be found.  With 20 minutes of hunting behind me, and a wedding parting soon to await me to open the church doors, I gave up, gloveless, and left with steam escaping from my ears.  “I am off the clock.  I can’t help you.”

     Of this, I am very glad:  I will never hear that from God.

Psalm 121

I lift up my eyes to the hills— from where will my help come? 
My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.


He will not let your foot be moved;
he who keeps you will not slumber. 
He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.


The Lord is your keeper;
the Lord is your shade at your right hand. 
The sun shall not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.


The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. 
The Lord will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time on and for evermore.

     Unlike some store employees, God is never off the clock, and good thing, because life is full of far more perplexing things than trying to find a box of vinyl gloves…things that you and I encounter every day…and every night.  When I am lost…when I am confused…when I am struggling…when I am scared…when I am overwhelmed…when I have blown it…when I can’t even stand to look at myself in the mirror……God, like that employee, comes to me…but unlike that employee, God doesn’t watch the clock, instead God sees the anxiety and frustration in my eyes, and he takes ahold of me and says, “Here, let me help you.”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 10=27-14

Hello,

     I got some new glasses about a week ago.  My old ones broke….for good.

     “Don’t get the same kind,” my wife said as I set off to get a new pair of specs.  The kind that I had were “rimless” ones, and the reason that I was to avoid such glasses in the future was that the lenses kept popping out, and they were very difficult to get back in.  Those of you who have shared this type of glasses with me know that the lenses are held in by a thin fishing-line type thread.  I am half to blame for the ease of the lenses falling out because I wasn’t exactly gentle with them, once closing them underneath the lid of my hot tub, bending the frames and sending both lenses a-popping.  Beyond that my nightly wrestles with my dog were bending and breaking the nose pads, and of course, popping my lenses out.  “Don’t get the same kind.”

     When I arrived at the same day glasses store I discovered something: there were only two types of glasses to choose from.  The kind that I had that had, no rims or partial rims, or plastic rimmed ones where the rims are comparatively thicker and quite visible.  With my departing instructions in my ears, I decided to venture into the plastic rim world.

     When I tried the first pair on, I was a bit taken back….didn’t know if I liked the look.  It was a far different look that I had been sporting for the past 17+ years of glasses wearing.  My previous look diminished the fact that my eyes had lost their accuracy and I was now in need of glasses.  This look, however screamed my need to the world, THIS GUY IS WEARING GLASSES!  I was about to return to my old look, against my marching orders, when one of the sales persons said to me, “Oh.  I like those on you!”  So, I took a second…and a third….and a fourth look in the mirror, and with each look I was getting a bit more accustomed to the new look.

     “Okay,” I said, “let’s give these a try.”  So with a few slightly different styles placed in front of me, I sat down to make a final decision and get my lenses fit.  There were four sales people in the showroom, and before I made my final choice, each put in their two cents on the frames that they thought looked best on me….and those were the frames that I got.  “I like the way those look on you,” they all said.

     I came home and walked through the door in search of my wife and her opinion.  When I found her she gave me a bit of a bewildering look and said with the same bewilderment, “Oh…you got new glasses.”

     “Yeah,” I said, “what do you think?”

     “Well, they are not like your old ones.”

     “But do you like them?”

     Silence….then, “Well, I’m trying to get used to them.”

     In the time that I have had my new glasses and my new look, I have received mixed reactions.  Some like them….some do not, but like them or not, one thing everyone said, that they sure made me look different.  Smarter?  Younger?  Goofier?  Hipper?  A babe magnet?  They never said…..just different.

     Over the course of my life as a Christian, I have found myself sporting different frames….same lenses…faith in Christ….but different frames.  In my younger years when everything looked simple and clear, my frame of Christian reference was much the same…simple and clear, as if I didn’t need glasses at all.  But as I have walked this path of faith, my frame of reference has become much more complex…I NEED GLASSES….life throws questions at me that make it hard to see God at work….my own shortcomings make my vision far more near sighted than I wish it were….the experiences of others bring things into my vision that I had never seen before.  Maybe it is appropriate that the glasses I wear now are far more visible than the ones I used to wear.

     So, if we haven’t seen each other in a while…even a few days…and you notice that I am wearing different glasses…..know this….its still me, graced with the love of God in Christ Jesus…just wearing new glasses in hopes to see God’s grace with greater clarity and to see how I might apply that grace to my life in a world where simple and clear answers are not always easy to see.

Have a great day.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 10-20-14

Hello,

     “I’ve been trained to go and help people no matter where they are, please don’t stop me from going.”  So said a young lady who was being interviewed on a National Public Radio program to which I listened on the way to work this past week.  The program was looking at the Ebola outbreak in Africa and people from the U.S. who are going over to help.  Many people couldn’t understand why she would go over and risk her life to help people whom she didn’t know.  Her parents were afraid for her and were hoping she wouldn’t go.  “I’ve been trained to go and help people no matter where they are, please don’t stop me from going.”

     Although it seems thus far that only a few Americans have become sick who have gone to Africa to help those stricken with Ebola, it is all too clear that to do so is to step into a situation that just might take one’s life.  No one would blame anyone for not going and instead staying where it is safe.  Although the call of some to not let anyone go to the area of the outbreak or to leave that area are clearly reactionary, nearly everyone can understand the fears that lead to such sentiments. 

     Why would anyone go and wrestle with this deadly virus?  Why would anyone risk their life for no apparent personal reward?  In truth, it is hard to believe that anyone would willingly do such a thing.

     For some, these are the very questions that they ask of God concerning the incarnation, the sending of his Son.  It seems to be unbelievable that the Divine would be bothered and concerned about the pain and suffering of human beings who are in truth smaller than specks of dust in the scope of all of creation.  It seems to be unbelievable that the Divine would leave the glory of a heavenly throne and risk….no not risk but expect to suffer the humiliation of an earthly throne of pain, the cross.  It seems to be unbelievable that the Divine would be so invested in those who seem hell bent to ruin his handiwork.  So unbelievable does it seem that some have determined it isn’t believable.  “No god, if there is a god,” they say, “would ever do such a thing.”

     The NPR interview gave us no deeper answer of what was driving that young lady to do what she did than her response that she had been trained to go anywhere and help people.  The Bible, however, does give an answer to why God would do what seems unbelievable for the Divine to do: Romans 5:6-8,  “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.”  Why would God do such an unbelievable thing….love.

     Even for humans, love drives people to do unbelievable things.  Who amongst us hasn’t said or thought to one who has acted out of love, “I can’t believe that you did that!”  For me, it is the very unbelievablity of the Divine doings such a thing as dying on a cross for all of humanity…or even more unbelievable…for me…that stirs up faith and hope and belief in God, a God who as the Bible says “is love” (1 John 4:16).

     I am certain that those in Africa hold nothing but thanks for those who, for whatever reason, have come to help them.  As I look at the cross and resurrection, I find myself likewise holding nothing but thanks for the one whose love for me is more than I can believe.

     I also give thanks to those who have responded with reckless abandon to help those who have been caught in the grip of Ebola.  Inspired by them and by God, I find myself motivated to help as I can….not only for those who battle Ebola, but also those whose battles are just as deadly and are not an ocean away.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 10-13-14

Hello,

     This is the time of year that I feel sorry for the deer.  My sympathy does not come from the rifles and bows that are aimed at them, that misfortune has yet to arrive here in rural Pennsylvania.  What has arrived, however, is the autumn brilliance of the oak, maple, cherry, locus and sassafras trees whose leaves deliver a short burst of amazing color to the hills before they fall to the ground, dropping out of sight.  It is a show of incredible beauty that I get to see, and the deer do not.  I see it because the eyes that I have been given can see color; the deer miss out because their eyes only allow them to see in black and white.

     It is true that seeing things in black and white, as with a black and white photograph, provides an increased clarity that allow deer to see their predators (that is of course unless the predator is a hunter in camo’s), but that clarity comes at a price…..the price: diminished beauty, diminished awe, and diminished wonder.

     There is a common duel that is set up in our world, a duel that pits faith against science.  At its best this duel pits “truths” that cannot be seen against “truths” that can be seen.  At its worst this duel purports to be a challenge between those who think against those who mindlessly live in outdated fantasy.  It is a duel that claims victory to science when we believe we have discovered how something really works or came to be, and victory goes to faith when such discovery remains outside of our understanding.  There are a good number of Biblical literalistic Christians who delight in this duel and do their best to shoot science down.  Likewise, the same can be said for empirically driven scientists (and comics) who take aim at faith, usually Biblically literalistic faith, and delight in the ease of shooting it down.

     But when I look out my window at the October Pennsylvania hillsides, I don’t see a duel between science and faith going on.  What I see is the blessing of being able to see in color. 

     With the limited understanding of a solely scientific view of things that I have, it seems to me that the precision that science provides us comes to us through the benefits of seeing things in black and white (not ethically, but empirically).  The starkness of scientific empiricism has proven itself very helpful in leading us to discover how things have come to be, how things work, and how we might harness this knowledge to better the lives of all people.  Science is a blessing to the Christian witness, not a foe.

     Yet, science by its very nature, its non-emotional, statistically verifiable, empirically discernible database seems to me to give us eyes to see things well, but without color…without the color of love….without the color of forgiveness….without the color of hope….without the color of value and worth to that which seems valueless and worthless.  To me, that is the blessing of faith.  Faith does not stand opposed to science; faith brings color to science!

     There are many Christians, who the world seems not to spotlight, that see this partnership between faith and science in every page of the Bible.  We see faith giving wonderful color to the scientific, earth-centered understanding of creation of those who lived in Biblical times (an understanding that we see differently, now, but no less filled with awe inspiring color.)  We see faith giving wonderful color to the events of history that the Bible has passed on, transposing the stark facts of the history that we live in into color.  We see faith giving wonderful color to the joys and struggles of the daily lives of ancient people, and likewise coloring ours.

     When I consider the faith that God has given me, a faith that finds its roots in what God has done for the world (John 3:16), I don’t find myself raising a pistol for a duel.  I find myself thankful for the eyes of faith that allow me to see with color.

Have a great week….enjoy the color!

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 10-6-14

Hello,

     “Pastor, will I go to hell if I get a divorce?”

     I picked up the phone in my office as it rang a couple of days ago.  On the other end of the line was a woman whose voice I did not recognize, but by the tone I could tell that she was distressed.  She said that she lived in the neighborhood and had never come to my church, but she needed someone to talk to about the turns in the road that she had encountered in her life.

     Her husband, she said, had been unfaithful a number of times, had run-ins with the law, and had had a habit of verbal abuse with her.  It had become too much for her and they had separated some time ago.  Meantime, she had begun to date someone else, and therein was the focus of her emotional strife.  The other day she had picked up her Bible and was reading Matthew when she stumbled upon Jesus words on divorce, and she was terrified. (Matthew 5:32).

     “What should I do pastor?  Will I go to hell if I get a divorce?”

     In my three decades of being a pastor, I have heard this sort of question many times, the byproduct of “Christian” teaching that portrays God as some sort of tyrannical teacher who seems to delight in failing students.  From far too many preachers people have heard that Christianity is a lifetime entrance exam for heaven, an exam where failure leads to ….well….hell.

     It seems to me, however, that such an image of God is a misrepresentation of the Biblical witness.  The God that I have come to see in the Bible is not a God  who snickers as he pulls out his red pencil and circles the errors of our lives and enjoying putting a large “F” on our lives.  Quite to the contrary, the Bible tells of a God who so determined to hold us within his loving grasp that he has taken the possibility of failure out of our hands.  He has put away his red pencil that tallies the errors of our lives, and he has taken out his only son whose red blood blots out the convicting power of our errors and failures.

     Life is messy.  Life is complicated.  It always has been.  And to those who thought the messiness and complications of life could be fixed by abiding by rules and regulation, Jesus said, not so.  Jesus did not come to add to the pain of divorce by threats of hell and terrorizing people with fear when the choices they are left with provide no perfect answer but a choice between many imperfect answers.  Jesus came to bring hope…hope that is found in forgiveness…forgiveness that supersedes the deeds of our lives.

     “At this church,” I told her, “we believe that Jesus did not come to send us to hell for the pain that we bring to ourselves and others, he came to make sure that those things don’t send us to hell.”

     “What should I do about this other man that I am seeing?  Should I stop seeing him until I get a divorce?”

     “We believe that God wanted to wipe away the pain of confusion about his love for us.   That is why he sent Jesus, the embodiment of God’s love for us and the cornerstone on which a solid relationship with God can be built.  It seems to me, likewise, you will want to eliminate confusion in order to build solid relationships,” I told her.

     It is clear to me that the one who sent his son to endure the pain of the cross takes seriously the pain that we inflict on ourselves and others.  So seriously does he take the pain of divorce, abuse, anger, obsessive control, and everything else that takes its aim on us and our relationships that God has taken his aim on those things, robbing them of their power to ruin our lives, their power to tear us away from God, and their power to make our lives hell…or send us to hell. 

 2 Corinthians 5.17:

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!,

     “What time are your worship services,” she asked me.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

p.s. – Our worship services are 8:15 and 10:45.

The Bungee Cord  9-29-14

Hello,

     Monday is my day off, so after running errands, cleaning the gutters and doing some yard work I headed for my hot tub.  Nothing like sitting for a spell in the bubbling waters on a warm autumn day, especially when the trees that cover the ridge are transforming to their multi-color splendor.

     I never sit in my hot tub alone.  I always have the company of the two rubber duckies that my son gave me.  This afternoon, though, the hot tub was a bit more crowded.  After I hopped in I was joined by a stink bug.  Those of you who live in this area well know these pesky critters that seem to be everywhere and are impossible to get rid of.  They are about the size of a dime, and their distinguishing feature is the pungent odor they emit when handled or crushed.

     Unlike me, my uninvited hot tub guest was not enjoying its hot tub experience.  It struggled to stay above the churning water, thrashing for its life.  To the stink bug’s good fortune, one of my rubber duckies  happened by and the stink bug was able to shimmy its way up on the ducky’s back..  But all was still not well with my hot tubbing stink bug friend.  The hot tub’s jets turned the water into a wild ride….spinning one way, and then whirling around the other, bouncing up and down, water cascading over it like large ocean waves crashing down on a helpless sailboat.  The stink bug was obviously distressed as it slid around on the ducky’s bag, holding on for dear life.  Unfortunately, the stink bug would eventually lose the tug-a-war with the water and it would fall back into the hot tub with me.

     But all was not lost.  Not a good swimmer, the stink bug managed to stay above water long enough to cling on again to the ducky when it swirled by.  This struggle repeated itself four times during my 30 minute repose in my hot tub.

     As I observed the stink bug’s ordeal, it occurred to me that I was seeing play out what many people envision the Christian life to be.  Christians, they say, are like that stink bug; people who find themselves in swirling waters doing all they can to stay above water when by chance God, in Jesus, has drawn near them and if they are smart they will muster up the strength to hop on and then hold on to the slippery shoulders onto which they are clinging.

    If that’s the Christian hope, then we, like that stink bug are in deep trouble, for we, like it will fall off over and over again, until in the end we have no more strength to climb aboard.

     That is why I find true hope in the words of Scripture that paints quite a different picture of the Christian faith.  “’²⁷My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. ²⁹What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand.’”(John 10)  Far from holding on to Jesus for dear life, the Bible tells us that Jesus is holding on to us with the power of the one who is the giver of life.  Far safer and more hopeful would that stink bug been if I would have scooped it up and held onto it during our hot tub soak, and that is what God has done.  The unfortunate truth for that stink bug is that I do not share for it the love that God has for me, a stink bug no less than it.  But therein lies the grace of God that is beyond my deserving and understanding.  God has scooped me (and you) up with the promise that he won’t let us slip out of his hand.  That is hope.   That is the Christian faith.

Have a great week, fellow stink bugs!

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord II

Hello again,

    After contemplating my story that I sent out in the Bungee Cord, maybe a better way to end the story would be this way, …..

“When I got here the trucks had pulled up and talk about plants!  I thought they had moved a forest in here.  I don’t know how many plants I planted!”

“Remarkable!  And you?”

“Well, by the time I got here, most of the work was done.  So, well…I planted one plant.”

“Oh,” said the reporter.

…… “Sure wish I had gotten here sooner,” said he.

Have a great day!

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

 Bungee Cord 9-23-14

Hello,

           Let me tell you a story.  It isn’t true, but it could be.

     There’s a vacant lot sitting in a neighborhood of Pittsburgh where some of the homes have residents who battle the winter chill because the windows are vacant, and others of the homes don’t fight that battle because they are just plain vacant.  If you drove by that lot, the truth is that it isn’t really vacant.  It is quite full….full of rusted washing machines and old kitchen sinks, full of garbage and trash that was thrown there….full of thistles and ugly weeds….full of rats and stray cats.  Over the years it has become the dumping ground for that neighborhood.  So full of junk and garbage is it that you have to look really hard to see the 63 Impala that has taken its rest there.  It stinks.  It attracts pests.  It is ugly.

     One day, to the surprise of the community, a sold sign appeared on the property.  When the people saw the sign, they wondered what fool from Florida had been suckered by some shady real estate shark.  But they were even more surprised a couple of days later when they saw a car pull up to the vacant lot, and out stepped someone they all knew.  They knew him because he had grown up in the neighborhood, grown up in the days when it was struggling buy not devastated.   Unlike many of his peers he had escaped from the neighborhood and landed a job as a public school teacher.  He started trudging his way around the vacant lot, and when some people saw him there, they ran out to meet their old friend, and the first thing they asked him was, “What are you doing in that vacant lot?”

     “I bought it,” he said.  “Bought it with my hard earned money.”

     “What for?” they asked, thinking that his escape from the neighborhood must have been to an insane asylum.

     “I bought it to turn it into a garden.  I want to bring life into the dying neighborhood, and it seems to me that the place to start is in the most dead place…this lot.”

     As they were talking a dumpster was dropped off with a loud bang, and the people realized that he wasn’t kidding….he might be crazy…but he wasn’t kidding.

     He stepped out of the garden and walked over to the corner where a bunch of the neighborhood folks were hanging out, as they did every day.  Some of them were drug dealers, some of them were gang members, some of them were prostitutes…but all of them knew him…knew him from when he hung out with them as kids.

     “Hey,” he said as he shook their hands.  “I bought that vacant lot, and I have a dream of turning it into a flower garden.  Would you come and help me out.”   Although they weren’t much for dirt, grime and grease, but because he was an old friend, they said,  “Sure, why not…what else do we have to do.”

     So they set off to work in the lot, and the hardest work was first…clearing out all the junk.  They worked hard, but they didn’t make much headway, so they said to their friend who owned the lot, “We need more help!”  So the owner went to another street corner, frequented by the same sorts of people and once again, because he was an old friend of theirs and they really didn’t have anything else to do, they, too, said, “Sure.  Why not.”  Twice more the same thing happened.  More help needed.  More help obtained.  When at three in the afternoon, the lot was finally cleared and ready for the rototillers, four of them.  While some of the people ran the machinery, the others took a short break, but the break was soon interrupted by the delivery of the plants – three flatbed truckloads of plants…..”We need more help.”

With the additional help, the shovels went to work and soon holes were being dug, plants being set in, and mulch set down. It was starting to take shape, but evening was soon coming…. “We need more help!”

So one final group of people were brought into the project to set plants in the holes that were already dug, and to spread around the last pile of mulch.  And when the work was done…that lot, once a cesspool and junkyard had been transformed into a flower garden worthy of wedding pictures.

The whole thing had created quite a stir throughout the neighborhood and even throughout the whole city of Pittsburgh.  So much stir that the T.V. stations sent out reporters.  One of the reporters, a young woman from KDKA, hopped out of her van and headed off with her microphone toward a group of folks who looked as though they had been part of the project.

“What a transformation!” she said pushing her mic in front of one of the person’s face, “And what part did you play in this amazing transformation?”

A little bit camera shy because of her life as a prostitute, the woman said, “Well, I’ve been here all day…we cleared out all sorts of junk, turned over the soil, and planted the plants.”

“Remarkable,” said the reporter.  “And how about you?” she said as her mic found its place in front of some one else’s nose.

“Well,” said the guy, “I wasn’t here from the beginning.  By the time I got here most of the gross garbage had been hauled out.  I helped carry out the washing machines, turning the soil over, and planting.”

“Remarkable!  And you?”

“Well, by the time I got here,” he said, “They were turning the ground over, so I grabbed a shovel and started digging holes for the plants….holes, holes and more holes.”

“Remarkable!  And you?”

“When I got here the trucks had pulled up and talk about plants!  I thought they had moved a forest in here.  I don’t know how many plants I planted!”

“Remarkable!  And you?”

“Well, by the time I got here, most of the work was done.  So, well…I planted one plant.”

“Oh,” said the reporter…… “that’s too bad.”

Take a look at Matthew 20:1-16…..

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger