Bungee cord 12-28-15

Hello,

“Silent night.  Holy night.   All is calm.  All is bright.  Round yon virgin, mother and child.  Holy infant so tender and mild.  Sleep in heavenly peace.  Sleep in heavenly peace.”

When it comes to the birthing of babies, the process that happens today is really quite a recent phenomenon.  All the prenatal care, the birthing classes, the rushing to the hospital, spinal taps and pain medication, sterile rooms and incubators….only recently born babies, at least in the scope of the centuries of births, have had this level of care and precision.  I have had parishioners for whom it was vastly different, who were born in their homes under the care of the town doctor calling for hot water and towels; not because they opted for a more “natural” birth, but because that was the way every baby came into the world.  What we have come to expect with baby births is really quite a recent expectation.

I don’t think that Mary and Joseph expected what we expect.  I highly doubt that they had many prenatal visits to a doctor gauging the process of the pregnancy.  I highly doubt that they were disappointed to have given birth in a stable.  At least it was shelter.  I rather suspect that when the contractions began, anxieties rose to a fever pitched level wondering if mother or child would survive what was about to take place.  If Jesus was Mary’s firstborn, as the Bible says he was, the birth pangs were probably the most severe she would ever feel as a birthing mother.  And I can only imagine the delight (?) in Mary’s heart when a bunch of shepherds showed up merely hours after her delivery…I know that I have visited many a new mother who greet me with thanks, but I can tell are struggling to put a smile on their faces after the ordeal that they have just been through.

Maybe, because birthing things are so different for us, the sentimentality and ease that we apply to the birth story of Jesus is a recent phenomenon, too.  Maybe we are among the first to miss the degree of worry that Mary and Joseph felt.  Maybe we are among the first to miss the degree of pain and fear that was part of that event.  Maybe we are among the first to miss the inconvenience of that night.  But most importantly,  maybe we are among the first to miss the degree of thankfulness and  amazement that all went well that night.

I find that something to consider when worry, pain, fear, and inconvenience take hold of me – maybe I will find myself more appropriately thankful and amazed by God’s fulfillment of his promise to be born into my life.

Have a great week!

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 12-21-15

Hello,

Merry Christmas.

I went on Google searching for the origins of “Merry Christmas”.  One site says it goes back to the pen of an English admiral and then expanded by Charles Dickens in his story, “A Christmas Carol”.  Although no one seems to  know for sure how it happened from there, but the phrase took off and became a pretty universal greeting between those celebrating the Christmas holiday.

Now, I realize that I am dwarfed by Charles Dickens as a literary trend setter, but today I would like to humbly propose changing the word that we connect to “Christmas” when we pass on our Christmas greetings.

Why the change?  Well….to me, “merry”  just falls a bit short of  the impact that I hope the story of Christmas makes in people’s lives.  “Merry” just seems , to me, to be too shallow and saccharine a word to connect with the events of the Christmas story.  “Merry”, to me, invokes “glee” and “happy”….neither of which a necessarily bad, but  it seems that God’s intent in the incarnation was meant to take hold of our lives with something far more profound.  Besides that, to wish someone “merriment” when they are in the darkest shadows of life does seem to be a bit hollow and empty.

So if not “merry”, what?

How about “wonder-full”….or how we usually spell it, “wonderful”?  When I consider the universal majesty of God, and the microscopic place that I hold in the universe, I, like the writer of the 8^th Psalm, am struck with nothing less than awesome wonder that God would deign to enflesh himself in the life that I live.  When I consider the fickleness of the faith that I hold and the defaming that my life brings to the name of God, I am struck with awesome wonder that God would go to such an extent to embrace me in his love.  When I consider that instead of hanging me over the fires of hell to deal with the toxicity of my life, God came to hang on the cross and make his blood the alkaline for the acid that runs through my life I am struck with nothing less than awesome wonder.  To me, the message of Christmas is far more than merry-making.  It is absolutely wonder-full.

     And so, no matter how you find yourself in life…cruising along, stumbling through it, battling it every day…let me offer my Christmas greeting to you.  May the one who is the light that no darkness can overcome so shine in your life that your eyes see with unobstructed vision the grace, the mercy, and the love of God for you in this Christmas season such that you are struck with nothing less than awesome wonder.

Have a Wonder-full Christmas.

God’s grace and peace,

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord  12-14-15

Hello,

“Everyone should get something for Christmas,” said a young boy who had come forward for yesterday’s children’s message.    His comment came in light of our congregation’s commitment to generously share with others the blessings with which God has blessed us. 

During the months of November and December we have been gathering items for school bags that will be distributed by Lutheran World Relief all over the world.   Rulers, notebooks, pens, pencils, erasers, and a bunch of other things have been brought in and gathered beneath the blackboard that is standing in the front of the church.  We’ve set a goal of filling 231 bags (the age of our congregation), and it looks like we will not only reach that goal, but crush it.  The Office Max, Staples, Walmart, and Dollar Stores in our area don’t seem to be able to keep their shelves filled to match the generosity of our congregation.

A nine foot Christmas tree once decked out with white angels with the names of families whose Christmas would be present-less, has been transformed into a nine foot Christmas tree adorned with hats and mittens to be sent to the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota.  As the angels came down and morphed by the folks of the congregation into mounds of brightly wrapped presents gathered under the tree, the hats and mittens lit upon the branches.

Money and gifts came in and were taken to the residents in a state mental institution that is not too far from us as we participated in its “Reindeer Project.”  Cards for our shut-ins were circulated around the congregation during Communion, which were signed by everyone and will be personally delivered to the shut-ins on Sunday along with a stocking stuffed with care items.

The amazing God’s grace driven generosity  has been enfolding before our eyes in these weeks before Christmas.  First Lutheran is not a church whose pews are filled with the wealthy of our area, instead it is a church that mirrors the moderate and fixed incomed sectors of this town.  And as the generosity of these folk’s has flowed in, not once have I heard anyone say that people are feeling like they have been over asked.

“Everyone should get something for Christmas,” said that generous child.

“Everyone does,” I said back to him, “everyone gets Jesus.”

And as the mounding generosity grows in front of us in our sanctuary, I find myself overwhelmed by what the gift of Jesus does in people’s hearts.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace,

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord  12-6-15

Hello,

Last Monday I loaded my lawnmower up into my pickup for its winter tune up.  It is getting older, and as I have discovered with my aging body, without tune ups things just don’t work as well as they did when younger….even with tune ups they don’t, but at least they work.

So after lunch, my lawnmower and I set off for Doug’s.  Doug is one of the employees at the yard tool store.   There are other employees there, but Doug sold us our chain saw, and so we got to know him.  Believe me, Doug knows his chain saws, and with a little chew in his mouth he will tell you everything you don’t need to know about them along with the serial numbers of the various parts that make them up.  I trust Doug, not just with my chain saw, but with my lawnmower, too.

Doug’s place is about a town and a half away from my home, a 15 minute drive up and down the hills.  As I neared it, I noticed that it was missing the normal assorted  variety, age and repair of pickups that normally take their place in the parking lot.  Mmmm, I wondered.  Could it be that I caught Doug at a break in the flurry of business that normally buzzes at his store?

Well, I was wrong.  I had not caught him between business rushes.  Instead, as I neared the glass door that seemed far darker than usual, I noticed a single sheet of white paper taped to the door, and on it with uncommon technological fare was printed from a computer, “Store closed November 30^th.  Hunting season.”

A reminder of where I live; out in the country.

I’ve always known that hunting is big here….big enough to close schools…but I didn’t know that it was big enough to close businesses.  True enough, deer hunting season started last Monday, and had I not discovered it by my trip to Doug’s, I would have soon realized it by the constant sound of guns firing in the distance (and sometimes not so distant).

I remember when I was a kid growing up in suburban Chicago, there was a distant sound that likewise gave clue to businesses being closed: the sound of church bells.  In my town, lots of people followed those church bells to places of worship, and businesses followed suit by closing on Sunday morning, partly because lots of people were in church, but also partly because Sunday, like hunting season around here, was a holy-day (holiday).

Now, Sunday is the biggest business day of the week for lots of stores, and youth activities have inundated both days of the weekend.  Some complain and remember those “good old days” when churches didn’t have so much competition, and people flocked to church.

I, however, don’t find myself complaining about the “competition”, mostly because I don’t see it as “competition”.   I would not see an invite to spend an hour with the President of the United States to be in competition with a trip to the mall or even taking part in a ping pong tournament.  So, neither do I see an invite from God to spend an hour with him to be in competition with any other inviting voice.

So, one might ask, why isn’t everyone in church on Sunday morning?  Well, I have to say that I don’t know….but I have a theory….and this is it: people don’t hear God’s invitation.  I think that lots of people hear a moral judgment saying that you should go to church.  I think that lots of people hear an institution that is trying to survive say they need more people to fill the pews to meet a budget.  I think that lots of people hear a self-righteous distortion saying that if you have a lot of doubts or a confused life church isn’t for you.

What I don’t think a lot of people hear is an invitation from God Almighty, the one who has loved the invitee with the life of Jesus, his Son, saying, “Come to church and lets spend some time together getting to know each other and sharing life.”

Maybe I am wrong, but I know for myself, I find that to be an irresistible invitation, an invitation for which I find myself, like Doug in hunting season, turning off all the lights, locking my doors, and ready to post a sign for anyone who would wander to my home, “Closed, Sunday.  At church.”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger