Bungee Cord 7-27-15

Hello,

     A couple of weeks ago I was out in front of the church, as I usually am on Sunday mornings, waving at people as they passed by in their cars, trucks, and motorcycles.  Occasionally, people walk by to whom I also pass along a grace-full greeting.  Some of them stop and chat a bit, and others speed by without a word in return.  So it was on this particular Sunday morning that a woman came strolling along the sidewalk, a black woman, maybe in her 30’s.  I said to her, “Good morning.  Are you out for a stroll or have you come to worship with us today?”

     “No,” she said, and with that one word I could tell that she was not from western Pennsylvania.  Her accent was the one that I heard when I was in Africa.  “No,” she said, “I am going to the Presbyterian church.”  (It is across the street.)

    “Oh,” I said, “Well, God be with you, and have a great day.”

     “You know,” she replied, “I am not from around here.  I am from Cameroon.”

     “Really,” I said back with familiar delight, “I was in Cameroon for 4 weeks some years ago.”  And we immediately bonded over the stories of the places that I had been.  She had been in the states to spend some time with her nieces and then take them back to Cameroon.

     And then she laughed….laughed that African laugh…and said, “I’ve got to tell you something.  Yesterday, I was at the park listening to the concert there, and there were some people from a church evangelizing.  They came up to me and asked me if I was a Christian, and I said yes.  Then they asked me if I went to church, and I said,”Yes ,the Presbyterian Church on Main Street.”

     “Oh, you go to the stone church across the street from the church with the waving Pastor?” they said to her, and when she told me of their description of me, she gave another good African laugh.

     “The Church with the Waving Pastor.”  I guess that my waving has become more widely known than I had thought, so widely known that our church has become so dubbed.  People may not know where First Lutheran Church is, but apparently they know where the “Church With The Waving Pastor” is.

     I am not too sure that “Lutheran” means a lot to the average Greensburgite”, but it appears that waving does.  I hope that my waving means to them that they are the objects of God’s love and mercy no matter where their life is taking them on any given Sunday morning.  I hope that it means that there is a sense of peace and hope that goes with them as they go on their way.  I hope that it means that God is glad to meet them where they are at.  I hope that those who receive my wave see it as more than just a friendly greeting, but that they see it as a small gesture of God’s grace to them.

    That is what I believe the Christian message is essentially all about: God’s grace to the world, each and every person in the world.  So, I’ll take it.  I’ll take the description by which our church is apparently being come to known as, “The Church With The Waving Pastor”, for I hope that when they experience the harshness of life, the crumbling of their world, the perplexity of right-less answers, the pressure of complicated questions…that they will know where they can go to be swaddled and grasped in the Grace of God……..at the “Church With The Waving Pastor,’

     Have a great week…waving!

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 7-21-15

Hello,

     Sorry that I am a couple days late with the Bungee Cord.  I got back Sunday night from a trip with the youth from our church to the National Youth Gathering of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America which was held in Detroit.  It was an amazing 5 days….not much sleep (4 our so hours a night) …. but full of inspiration, motivation, making of friends, and caring for the people of Detroit.

     30,000 Lutheran High Schoolers descended on Detroit, and when that many young Christians come together some incredible things happen. The energy in worship is incredible.  The enthusiasm for diversity is incredible.  The gathering power of God that fills an arena is incredible.  And the desire to make a difference with the grace of God is incredible.

    One of the days was dedicated to proclaiming justice throughout the city of Detroit, a justice that is found in care and compassion for all people.  So the 30,000 youth were divided into three groups of 10,000 youth wearing bright orange shirts and the plan was to send 10,000 Christian youth into the city over the course of three days to make a dent of God’s grace and mercy in this city that many have written off and consider lost.

     That was the plan.  Unfortunately, things didn’t work out as smoothly as had hoped.  Our group was part of the first 10,000 and we arrived downtown Detroit to catch our bus at 8:15.  Well, we were stuck on the highway in rush hour traffic into Detroit at 8:15, and we didn’t arrive until almost 9:00.  We weren’t the only ones who got snagged in traffic….it seems that the busses that were to take us to our sites also got trapped in the traffic, and like dominos falling one upon the other, the problems began to compound upon each other, making us and nearly 5000 other people wait in Hart Plaza all morning long, finally catching our bus at 12:30.  A second launch was to happen at 10:15, and unfortunately the ongoing delay made it impossible for many groups to go out and do their service project in Detroit.

    Even though our departure was severely delayed, we finally arrived in one of Detroit’s neighborhoods to clean up a couple of blocks that had been neglected.  Our target was an old abandoned appliance store, overgrown with weeds and brush.  On our way there it was quite a sight to see orange shirted teenagers swarming around like ants doing the simple but important work of making neighborhoods dignified places to live.  Many of the residents came out of their houses, spoke to us and thanked us for giving our time and effort to make their neighborhoods better.  Their thanks made us feel good.

     Some, however, heard no words of thanks because they were stuck at Hart Plaza all day and never left.  As crazy as it may seem, I believe that those who wound up doing nothing learned far more than the rest who did something.  The reason that I say that is that they learned with frustrating clarity that Christian service is not done in order to get something out of it, it is done because the love of Christ who has taken hold of our hearts drives us to do something.

     Sometimes….or maybe even often times….walls are thrown up and our good intentions are thwarted, we give of ourselves and no one bothers to thank us, or we work really hard and nothing seems to be changed.  But when these things happen, Christians don’t give up….because Christ doesn’t give up.  When you think about it frustration, exasperation, and lack of appreciation didn’t slow Jesus down, because Jesus didn’t do what he did to feel good.  What Jesus did he did out of love, and he let nothing deter him from doing what needed to be done for those he loved….not even the cross.

     In Detroit I learned many things, but this I learned well: when you serve Christ and hit a home run it sure feels good, but when you serve Christ and you strike out (for whatever reason), when it comes time to step up to the plate again, you do so and give it your best…because the love of Christ, not the thrill of victory, shouts to the world, “Play ball!”….and that is what we did.

     Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 7-13-15

Hello,

“OUT TO LUNCH”.  

This was the sign hanging from the glass window at the entrance that greeted me when I arrived at church at 7:00 Sunday morning.  I snickered a bit when I saw it, thinking it a humorous greeting for the hour that I stood in front of it.

Then I thought about it, and I wondered how many people walking up to our door would see it, no matter what hour it hung, and would say, “That’s right….Out to Lunch.”

Ask around and I suspect that you’ll find more than one person who would quite assuredly tell you that we Christians have a shortage of at least a marble or two….you know….out to lunch.

Out to lunch to think that forgiveness beats vengeance.  Out to lunch to think that someone whose life has been spilled out in disgrace on the front page of the paper deserves a front row seat in church.  Out to lunch to think that there’s more joy in lifting people out of the gutter than personally climbing a ladder to the top.  Out to lunch to stand in the shadow of all the huge problems that our world faces and confidently put on rickety old armor and say charge.  Out to lunch to stare into a coffin filled hole and say, “Alleluia”.

Although many may consider the likes of me who bear the name Christian to be out to lunch, I find myself believing, saying and doing the things I do for what I think is  quite a reasonable reason: I have been to supper.  Been to supper where I have received the tangible forgiving touch of Jesus, instead of the well deserved squashing fist of God.  Been to supper where even though shame clings to me from the pig sty of my life, I have found a seat reserved there for me.  Been to supper having graciously been lifted out of my sewage filled gutter to have the holy presence of Jesus placed in my hands.  Been to supper to have Jesus take hold of me with a hug from the inside out, a hug that nothing has the power to break its hold.  Been to supper where I get a taste of what it will be like to be eternally engulfed in the presence of God.

If you wonder about me…the things that I say, the things that I do, and the things that I believe….it is because I have been to supper….a supper to which Jesus also invites you.  It may be that to dine in this supper turns a diner  into someone who appears to be out to lunch in the world’s eyes, after all those who saw things through worldly eyes thought that Jesus was out to lunch.  But those who dined, and who dine with him, would tell you that with him there is a peace that surpasses all human understanding, with him there is joy that the world cannot give, there is a hope that nothing in all creation can take away, and there is a love that the world does not know.  Out to lunch?  Or been to supper?

Come to think of it, maybe the sign that would most rightly be posted on our entrance door at 7:00 on any given Sunday morning to greet people is,

 “SUPPER SERVED HERE. IMMEDIATE SEATING AVAILABLE!”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 7-6-15

Hello,

     My smart (?) phone tells me that over the last several months I have played 2310 games of Solitaire on it, and of that number I have won 192.  8% winning rate.

     Solitaire, as I have written before, is my game of choice to occupy my time when I am sitting around.  It suits me well as it requires limited brain usage and next to no dexterity.  By the number of games that I have played, you can see that fill my time often with Solitaire.  Some have been very short, not even been able to move one card.  Others have been tantalizingly long, just a couple of cards left to be played but no way to play them.  For a while, there, I was at a 9% winning percentage, but recently I have been on a losing streak and I’ve slipped back to 8%.

     I am convinced that with some games of Solitaire…if not most…the deal of the cards sets up an unwinnable game.  I suppose that there is some skill to playing Solitaire….remembering what cards are in the pile and placing them for optimal flexibility.  But by in large, the length of the game and the final outcome of the game lie in the cards.

     I Googled, “What is the average winning percentage in Solitaire?”  I couldn’t find any scientific study, but there were comments from people, and most of them professed an average well above mine….20%, 30%, all the way up to 90%...but as I read their comments further, it seems that all of them reached their average through what I would call “cheating”….using the “undo” button to attain their win.

     I often hear people talk about the American Dream, “If you are willing to work hard, you can be or have anything that you want.”  As I have worked as a pastor with scores and scores of people over the years, I find myself saying that the “American Dream” is appropriately titled.  It is a dream.  Like playing a game of Solitaire, some hard work and skill can be of help, but in the end victory’s reach ultimately lies in the cards and how they are dealt.  So much so that if 8% or 9% of Americans can say that they attained the American Dream, I would be surprised.

     To say that ultimately victory lies in the cards is no new insight, but it is an insight that leaves many frustrated, angry and cynical……often with God.

     I am not one who believes that God stacks the deck and deals out trouble to some and victory to others.  I don’t believe that God is the one who deals a genius child into one family and a severely challenged one into another.  I don’t believe that God sets one person up for alcoholism and sobriety for another.  I don’t believe that God is the one that deals a arduous life for one and a smooth sail for another.  I don’t believe that God deals a winning hand for some and a losing hand for another.

     Why do I not believe these things?  Because I have seen the cards God has dealt.  True, He has stacked the deck, but In Jesus he has stacked the deck in order that all people would have a winning hand.  The world might play favorites as it deals out cards, but not God.  “For God so loved the WORLD that he gave his only Son.” (John 3:16)…” ⁸But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)….”My grace is sufficient for you.” (2 Cor. 12:9)….”See what love the Father has given us that we should be called children of God.  And that is what we are.” (1 John 3:1)

     Over and over again in the Bible God admits that he’s a crooked dealer, always stacking the deck …..but stacking it so that every one would have an unbeatable hand, a winning hand, a hand that no matter how you play it it is a victorious hand…..a hand unlike the American Dream….is real, and not a dream.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger