Bungee Cord 5-26-15

Hello,

I was doing some research for a recent educational series on “big questions”, and the big question of the day was, “Creation.  Was God involved in it?”  In my research I learned many things, things that I never knew.  I learned that although the most popular theory amongst scientists is the “big bang” theory, there are some who now believe that the universe has always existed.  Also, there are many who believe that the universe, our universe, is only one of many universes (there’s something oxymoronic going on here), and other universes may operate under different laws of physics.

It’s all a bit mind swirling for me.  It all makes me feel microscopically smaller and smaller.  It makes me wonder if anything that I do has any significance.  It makes me wonder why the One who stands behind and throughout all of creation would care at all about me.  It makes some wonder all the more if there really is One who stands behind and throughout creation.

But for me, creation is not the cornerstone of my faith, my life, or my thinking.  The cornerstone of everything for me is in a Bethlehem born, Nazareth raised, Galilean  homed, Jerusalem crucified, and garden tombed raised man whose name was Jesus.   It is through this historical person and events that I look backwards and forwards.

·      Rather than wondering why the One who stands behind and throughout this immensely vast creation would care about me, I find myself lost in thanks that that One does. 

·      Rather than wonder if any thing that I do has any significance at all, I find myself motivated to do good awaiting in amazement to discover the impact that my good has. 

·      And rather than wonder if there is One who stand behind and throughout all creation, I find myself woo’ed to believe and trust in that one who is at work re-creating me.

Sunday was Pentecost, the day that the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus’ first disciples, sending them out into the world to tell every person, from every nation, and of every tongue “the mighty acts of God”.  Although we don’t know exactly which acts of which they were speaking, we can be quite confident that they were speaking of the mighty love of God such that he would send his Son into our world and die to stake his eternal claim on us, and the mighty love of God that brought life back into Jesus on that first Easter Sunday morning, and such he walked out of that sealed tomb to never die again, and likewise we.

Certainly, the making of creation was a “mighty” act, but the disciples weren’t talking about that.  They were talking about Jesus, through whom the creation of the universe finds its meaning and purpose.  They weren’t offering “logical” proofs for the existence of God.  They were talking about Jesus who enabled them to see the God that they could not see.  They weren’t talking about world religions and Bibles coming apart at the seams.  They were talking about Jesus who embodied the love of God and who was, himself, the Word of God.

When the first Christians were thrown out of the synagogues who gathered for worship on Saturday, they made a decision that has held through history.  They decided to no longer worship on the 7^th day of the week, a day that was tied to one of the Biblical stories of creation.  They decided to worship on the first day of the week, a day that was tied to that Bethlehem born, Nazareth raised, Galilean  homed, Jerusalem crucified, and garden tombed raised man whose name was Jesus.  The day through which all things past was brought into focus, and gave focus to all things yet to come.

So, come to church on Sunday, (every Sunday is meant to be a “min” Easter) and join in the celebration of the mighty acts of God, the death and resurrection of Jesus…..and who knows, maybe this will be the Sunday when, by the power of the Holy Spirit you are given the language to speak to someone who has not heard of the grace and mercy of God that will make their life brand new.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace,

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 5-18-15

Hello,

     Yesterday, I had some of our high school graduates from our church up to my house for a “Senior Bash”.  Graduating class of 2015.  We goofed around (I was the winner at ping pong!) and had a chance to talk about thigh school and their plans for the years ahead.  I consider it a blessing that young people share their lives with me, and I hope that in some way God works through me to make a dent of his grace in their lives so that they will live lives shaped by Christ’s unconditional love for them, and they will be people who change the world with that same love.

     Forty years ago, I was at the same point in life as those who yesterday came to my house.  Graduating class of 1975 from Hinsdale Central High School was I.  I remember the cocktail of excitement and fear that I drank that day.  Behind the familiar.  Ahead the unknown.  My sights were set on attending the University of Illinois pursuant (the only legal word that I know) to my plans to become a corporate lawyer.  It was during my freshman year of college that I changed my vocational plans and decided that I would be a pastor.

     Why?  It occurred to me that my motivations to be a corporate lawyer were not mine, and although being a corporate lawyer can certainly be formed by solid motivations, I found my motivations to be grounded elsewhere.  Amongst some of the best friends that I have ever had, I discerned that my deepest hopes, strength, and peace were all grounded in God’s unconditional and unyielding love for me.  (Later, in Seminary, I would find that hope articulated in 1 John 3:1, “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are.” – my focus verse).  So, I came to the fork in the road, and as Yoggi Berra says,  I took it, hoping that I could help others live with the blessings of hope, strength and peace that had come to me through Jesus Christ.

     Soon I will have been a pastor for 32 years.  It is hard to believe that so many years have past.  With so many years behind me, sometimes I wonder, “Did I take the road’s right fork?”  How does one answer that question?  Sometimes I find myself falling into how the world answers this question, and I am drawn to numbers and statistics.  But in my heart, I find myself answering this question by saying that if I have helped one person live their lives with the undergirding of God’s grace….one person is enough to answer the question “yes”.  If one person has been able to look in the mirror and say, “ Everyone might think that I am worthless because of what I have done, but I know that I am not because of what Jesus has done for me.” ….. If one person has so felt the forgiveness of Jesus in their life that they won’t pick up the first stone to be thrown at someone else….  If one person has been lost and alone, and has been grasped in their darkness by a good shepherd who has left everything to find them… If one person can live their life for others because they know that death does not have the last word even if it is only for a few more days….if only one person has experienced the hope, the strength, and the peace that comes in Jesus Christ….then that is enough to tell me that I have not been on the wrong path for the past 32 years.

     We Lutherans believe that being a pastor is not a loftier vocation than any other, for all of us who possess the grace of God in our lives have the vocation of sharing that grace with all people.  Butchers, bakers and candlestick makers…no matter what …. each person’s primary vocation is to bless the world with the grace of God which they have received.  I once heard of a man who dried cars at the end of a car wash who placed a paper rose on the driver’s seat of every car he dried with an accompanying card that said, “Bless you.”

     If you are wondering if you have taken the right fork in the road of your life, let me invite you to consider this question, “Has one person experienced the peace, hope and strength that comes from Christ as they have encountered you?”  I bet at least one person has!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord  5-12-15

Hello,

     Someone recently said to me, “I know the Bible says that God doesn’t give you more than you can handle.”  Well, the Bible doesn’t say that, at least I can’t find where it says that.  What the Bible says is this, “No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.” (1 Cor. 10:13)

     I know that many people find comfort in this verse, but although I trust that it is true, it isn’t the most comforting word to me when I am feeling like I have been powerfully pummeled and I see another right jab coming my way.  It lacks a ring of comfort to me because I am not too sure that I enjoy the thought of being God’s sparring partner who God beats down to the point of breaking, but not beyond so that we can go at it again tomorrow.

     Truthfully, I am not certain what the Biblical writer was intending with this verse, but a God who sends his Son to die for me does not seem to be the kind of God who “tests” me by inflicting tragedies upon me, punching me to the point of me saying, “Uncle!”

     I don’t believe that God spends his time seeing how many “punches” it takes to bring me to my knees.  It is clear to me, however, that that is exactly what the world delights to do.  Day in and day out I hear the world awake me with the words, “Okay. Put up your dukes!”  Pressures at work and school that hit you square in the jaw.  Uppercuts that attack your relationships.  Lies that hit you in the gut and take the breath right out of you.  From the corner there are those advising you to keep your hands up!  Take it like a man!  Get up and fight!  Don’t be a sissy!  And when you’ve been thrashed enough, to the point that you can’t get up, that is when the crowd all around you starts yelling, “Looser!”

     So, to me, when I find myself beaten and bruised, gasping for breath on the ground, I am glad to hear this verse from the Bible, “¹¹May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully ¹²giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. ¹³He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, ¹⁴in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Col. 1)

     When the strength to stand has been beaten out of me, when my eyes have become so swollen that I can’t even see where to swing, when I am so pummeled that I can’t even lift my hands…and there are days when I find myself that way…I am glad….no not glad….elated….that God will fill me with his strength…that God has rescued me from the clutches of the evil one….and that through the power of his forgiveness God will send the puncher running with his tale between his legs. 

     It is not my strength that I need to count on to stand and face another day.  The Bible tells me that I can face every day with courage, with hope, and with determination because when I stand toe to toe with the puncher, I do so with the power of God in my being.  Sure, some of the days will be heavy weight fights, the world does not give up easily, if not at all.  But, when I face those days, rather than quivering in paralyzing fear, I can find myself looking at the puncher square into his eyes and say, “Go ahead.  Hit me with your best shot.”, and then a smile comes to my face knowing the power of the divine punch to which the puncher will be on the receiving end.

     Someday, the puncher might just learn not to throw the first punch.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (GGAP)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 5-4-15

Hello,

The lane to our house is about ½ mile long.  It comes off of a well-travelled road, serpentines its way around and above an apple orchard and then levels out before making its final ascent to our house.  At the top of its meandering there is an old dogwood tree standing in front of the tree line.  It’s at least 15 feet tall, and just as wide.  This year, like every year, it has been full of blossom buds.

Winter has finally left us, and the warm temperatures have begun to do their work.  Yesterday, as I was driving by the dogwood tree, I could see the buds puffed up so full that I could tell they were about to burst.  I went to bed last night ready to be amazed at the transformation of beauty that I knew would greet me at the end of the next day.  I had some idea of the wonder ahead because I remember the sight of the aftermath of the explosion of the buds the last several years, but because we live in the “mountains” everything is a little behind the timing of the trees and plants in the valleys, which are already fully abloom.

Sometimes people ask me what awaits us after we die.  Although I can’t say that I can speak from personal experience, I am able to say something….something akin to what I see in my dogwood tree.  Much like my dogwood tree laden with hundreds…maybe thousands of buds ready to burst open, when I take a look at the Bible I see Jesus saying, “the kingdom of God is at hand” in his incarnation, and I get a clue as to what it will be like after I die.  Like a flower bud at the verge of revealing the wonder and beauty that is building inside, so the wonder and beauty of God’s timeless and spaceless reign was abud in Jesus as he walked this earth.  And on Easter morning, when the sealed tomb burst open, the bud began its bloom – a bloom of mercy and grace, a bloom of love and power, a bloom of hope and joy, a bloom of peace that surpasses all human understanding.  As the bloom of God’s reign began to open up on that first Easter day, and continues to open like a flower at a pace that human eyes cannot always detect….continues day by day in the community of faith….I can begin to imagine what God’s reign will be like when it is fully abloom.

Today all the buds on my dogwood tree are buds no more.  Standing atop the lane to my house is what looks like a just exploded firework shimmering in the sky.  At the tip of every branch a five petalled flower flutters in phenomenal beauty and grace. 

God’s kingdom is at hand, buds pregnant with bloom.  So when the day comes that I close my eyes in final sleep, I see in my dogwood tree a promise that another day will come….a day when buds will be no more, but only blooms.  And when that day comes then I am sure that I will be, as they hymn writer says, “lost in wonder, love and praise.”

Have a great day,

God’s grace and peace,

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger