Bungee Cord 8-29-16

Hello,

     When I was a kid, the neighborhood kids would often gather in the park across the street from my house to play football.  Six or eight of us.  That left 3 or four to a side.  On offense, one of us would line up over the ball to snap it, one of us would be the quarterback, and the rest would line up as receivers, who with the center would go out on pass routes that had been diagramed in the huddle on the palm of the quarterback’s hand.  Defensive coverage was always man on man, leaving one player to rush the passer.

     Since there was no one to block the rusher, the rusher had to count before crossing the line.  Usually, they had to count off three seconds….well, what they had to count was, “one thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three,” which was rattled off as fast as possible, making the wait far less than three seconds.  The only restriction on the speed of the count was that the counter had to count so that everyone could hear it and so that everyone could understand it.  The best rushers, therefore, were the ones whose articulation skills were the best.

     Every year, it seems as though the one who counts  “June, July, and August” is able to count far faster than the one who counts “December, January, and February.”  As August is coming to an end, I have felt like I have been out in the park this summer facing a rapid rush, trying to complete the plans that we had made when we huddled in May.  Some completed…some incomplete.

     Well, with “September, October, November” upon us, it is time for huddling and drawing up our pass routes for these months ahead.  As we lean into the circle, Jesus, our quarterback, starts to draw out the patterns for us to run….to our neighbor who has lost a loved one and is lonely in grief….to the kid in school who gets teased about her weight and always eats alone….to the son or daughter who has struggled with life’s decisions and is bruised from their falls…to our jobs where we share our skills and talents with Christ driven devotion….to Sunday worship, our spiritual weight room, to be strengthened to handle the hard blocks of the world.   And when the patterns are all drawn out on Christ’s nail scarred hand, we all put our hands on his and breaking the huddle, Jesus shouts, “Lo, I am with you always.”

     When one reads the Bible, there is immediacy to the message (especially in the Book of Mark where “immediately” is one of the most written words).  It is as if Jesus is facing a “three second” rush…then….and now.  People are hurting and suffering.  People are confused and lonely.  People are being crushed and trampled on. 

     In football, accuracy of the passer, accuracy of the route runner and timing are crucial to completion.  I have great confidence in Jesus’ accuracy and timing.  It is my hope and prayer that I will run my routes without getting sidetracked by the world so that those who are in the midst of their struggles and for whom their “three seconds” seem like an eternity will receive Christ’s life giving grace in their time of need.

     “One thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three.”

     “Hit me Jesus!  I’m open!”

     Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger    

Bungee Cord 8-22-16

Hello,

     It is almost September, and we still have eight chickens!

     Those of you who are regular Bungee Cord readers will remember that my wife has decided to become a minor chicken farmer.  A couple of years ago, she ordered six chicks of which three were still alive last fall when they became stew fodder.  Two  of the first batch met an early death under the keen hunting sense of our Gordon Setter, and another simply disappeared, hawk dinner we suppose.  The unfortunate thing about these chickens’ demise was that they all met their maker under my watch.  They perished on a couple of occasions when my wife went away for a weekend and left them to my care and protection. 

     When we got this second batch of chickens, I resolved that I would redeem my reputation at chicken tending, determined to make certain that not even one these chickens would perish under my watchful care.  Even though my wife has left me in charge of them a couple of times, they live on.  That is why I began this Bungee Cord with an exclamation: it is almost September, and we still have eight chickens!

     John 10:27ff says this, “My 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.^{* 30}The Father and I are one.’

     As much zeal and determination that I have to care for my wife’s chickens, it is clear to me that God’s zeal and determination to care for me is far greater.  I know that my motivation to care for these chickens is wrapped up in pride and ego, and if my dog should snag one of them, it will only be my pride and ego that is bruised.  Jesus, however, tells us earlier in this same chapter of John that it is heartfelt love that motivates his care of his sheep, and if any one of them should perish, it would break his heart.  So love-bound motivated is he that he says he would lay down his life for his sheep….and he did!

     I have kept these chickens safe from a pack of foxes.  I have made sure that they were safely in their coop at night, and I have kept watch on my dog when he is out and pulled him away when he strikes his hunting pose.  But I am easily distracted by baseball games, household chores, and telephone calls, a distraction that just might prove deadly.  Furthermore, if a coyote or bear was seeking a chicken dinner, I know that I would graciously entertain their wishes.  Never would I lay down my life for these (stupid) chickens.

     So when I hear that Jesus has me as the apple of his eye (Psalm 17:8), from which he is never distracted….and when I hear that Jesus neither slumbers or sleeps in his watch over me (Psalm 121:4)….and when I hear that Jesus will let nothing come between  he and me (Romans 8:38,39)…..I have great hope, hope in which I can rest safe and secure….absolutely safe and secure…..which is far more than my chickens can say of the hope they hold under my care.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 8-15-16

Hello,

     I’ve been watching the Olympics this past week, and I find myself marveling at the things I have been seeing.  Volleyballs travelling at speeds nearing the speed of light.  Swimmers slicing through water faster than hungry sharks.  Runners sprinting like planes roaring down a runway preparing for takeoff.  Gymnasts spinning like air-born tops.  A 54 year old ping pong player with the reaction time of a striking snake.

     It is amazing what people can do when they dedicate themselves to something, and dedication is the name of the game for those who gather under the 5 Olympic rings.

     Interestingly enough, this year the Olympians are not only gathering under interlocking rings, but they are taking their place under the outstretched arms of Christ the Redeemer statue of Rio.  It stands on top of a mountain, 2/3 the size of the Statue of Liberty, finished in 1931 and with its outstretched arms it is meant to be a symbol of peace.  It is listed as one of the 7 wonders of the modern world.  Like the feats of the athletes that perform underneath it, its construction is a testimony to the dedication of people.

     But more than that, those freely raised outstretched arms remind me of when those same arms were raised by others and nailed outstretched on a cross.  Talk about dedication.  Dedicated athletes train endlessly and sacrifice their time.  Dedicated statue builders trek their way up mountains pay the sacrifice of aching muscles and bruised bones.  But the dedication of God to his relationship with those whom he created in his image led God to sacrifice even His Son.

     One can understand what would lead an athlete to sacrifice for the sake of wearing the claim of being the best in the world around their neck.  One can understand what would lead an artist to sacrifice for the sake of placing their artwork where it would be seen by everyone.  But when I look at myself in the mirror, I find it hard to see what it is in me that would lead God to sacrifice His Son….but that is what God did.

     “Fact is,” God says as Jesus hung on the cross, “I see in you what you don’t see.  You see in you the product of your hands…..I see in you the product of my hands.”

     Maybe one way to look at the life of the Christian faith is the coming to see one’s self and others not as the product of human hands, but as the product of divine hands…..hands that shaped us in God’s image….hands that were nailed to the cross to nail God’s claim on us….hands that lift us clean out of the waters of Baptism…hands that invite us to be fed on the pure grace of Jesus….and hands that will take hold of us and steal us away from death and lead us to the place in eternity that he has prepared for us with his hands.  And as we thus see ourselves and others, might we not then treat ourselves and others in like manner….more forgiving, more caring, more understanding and more loving.

     These summer Olympics may bring me to marvel what determined people are willing to sacrifice and the accomplishments that brings them, but that amazement pales when I marvel at the sacrifice that God has made in His Son and the accomplishments that God is determined to make in my life.  Yours, too.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace,(ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 8-7-16
Hello,
This week's Bungee Cord is an audio cord...my sermon from today...know this, when I say the last two words my hands are in the air.
God's grace and peace,

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 8-1-16

Hello,

     I was chatting this week with one of my “older” members who loves to go camping.  Let me say that her version of camping is a bit more refined than a tent with primitive toilet facilities….camping for her is spending time in the woods in a rustic, but modern cabin.  So, when I asked her if she enjoyed her time this past week when she was “camping”, she said to me, “It was heaven.  Out there in the trees with my dog.  It was heaven.”

     So, I joked with her and said, “But I wasn’t there.  Are you saying something about heaven?”

     She smirked.

     I asked her if I could quote her, and she said, “sure”, and the reason I wanted to tell you about our joking is that I knew she would have been the last one to wonder who is and who isn’t going to be in heaven, including me.

     For some reason, the Christian faith for many has become a pathway to heaven.  “Are you saved?” has become the byword of the faith, and  “saved” has become equivalent with going to heaven.  And many Christians spend a lot of energy and concern on discerning who is saved, or in other words who is going to heaven.

     Although I don’t claim to be the ultimate scholar and authority on the Christian faith, for me, the Christian faith was never meant to be primarily a pathway to heaven and our job as Christians in this world never was to declare who is and who isn’t going to get there.

     So, what is the primary aspect of the Christian faith?  In my understanding it is this: to live in  the love in God’s heart which is beyond all human understanding that God would let nothing stand between anything in God’s creation, including to stand between God and me, the speck in the universe that I am, and so driven by his love for me…and  all the creation of God’s hand…that God would spare nothing, not even God’s very self, to make sure it would be so.  (sorry for the run on sentence) Therefore, every moment of this life is filled with eternity, and eternity is filled with life.

     If you come to my church, then, you will never hear me sorting out who is and isn’t going to heaven.  Instead, you will hear from me that the grace of God is beyond our wildest imaginations, and as that grace takes hold of our hearts our lives are shaped by the imagination of God.  You will never hear me trying to scare you into heaven, instead you will hear me speak of the death and resurrection of Jesus where everything that might cause us to fear was nailed to the cross and trodden down under the feet of Jesus on Easter Sunday morning.

     If heaven is the unrestricted participation in the presence of God that is not bounded by the limits of this creation, time and space, then as I plod my way through this life that is so bounded and limited in such participation, I give thanks to God promise that picks me up when I stumble and fall ; the promise that nothing in all of creation will ever be able to separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8)

     Thanks to my “older” member for reminding me that the only one who has the power to determine if heaven will be mine, mine in this life and mine when this life is over, is God…..and thanks be to God for sending his Son, Jesus, to make sure that will happen!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger