The Bungee Cord 12-25-17

Hello,

       Last week’s Bungee Cord was the beginning of a Christmas Story that I wrote in 2000.  (You can find it on my blog: 1johnthreeone.blogspot.com.  Here’s the rest….

   ….”I’ll just stay on the other side of the street, “ he told himself, and he kept on his path to the church

     His church had always had a living manger scene, and as it happened it was being displayed that evening as Jacob made his way to his church.  He stood across the street from his church, looked at the building that once felt so much like home, looked at the people who he used to sit next to in church dressed up like Mary, Joseph, angels, Wiseman and Shepherds – and tears began to well up in his eyes.  Tears that came as he stood there and saw so clearly the stinking stench that he had made of his life.  And the tears that came as he missed the warmth and love that he no longer could have because of the smelly mess he had made of his life.

     And as he stood there looking at that living manger scene, he felt a tug on his heart to cross the street and get closer.  So, slowly he plodded across the street and neared the living manger.  He got close enough that he could tell who the people were who were portraying the Christmas characters, and he pulled his hat down over his brow so that they couldn’t tell who he was.  He had not been there very long, looking at each of those Christmas characters – Mary, Joseph, Angels, shepherds, wisemen, and the baby Jesus – when tears again welled up in his eyes and trickled down his cheeks.  The tears also made his nose run a little bit, and so he sniffled – and when he sniffled he thought that the noticed something.  So, he sniffled again.  And this time he was sure that he noticed something.  What his sniffling noticed was – to put it politely – the animals (the sheep, the cows, and the donkey) had all done their business as they stood there in that living manger scene.  He couldn’t smell it when he was across the street, but there in that make-shift stable he could smell it as if he was standing in it.  It stunk.  It really stunk there at that manger.

     Jacob went back to his auto repair shop, and climbed into his cot that night and said, “This Christmas, I am going to church.”  And when Christmas rolled around, that is what Jacob did.  He felt like a kid as he ascended the stairs to the front door of the church, stairs that he had ascended countless times as a kid.  The handshakes of the ushers and greeters felt like well-fitting gloves. The music wrapped him up like a warm blanket the readings and the prayers landed softly on his soul.  It felt great.  It was great to be back in church. 

     When the service was over, he chatted with the people as he made his way to the door. When he got to the door, the pastor reach out his hand, shook Jacob’s hand, and said, “Jacob, great to see you.  We’ve missed you.”

     And Jacob, with a smile on his face, said back to the Pastor, “It was great to be here.  You know, I’ve made such a mess of my life, that I didn’t think I should come to church any more.  But thanks to that living manger, I found out that I was wrong.”

     “How’s that?” asked the pastor.

     Have you ever taken a whiff around that manger?”  Jacob said with a smile.

     From that day on, Jacob was back in church every Sunday with a new-found hope – the hope that the Lord who chose to enter this world in a smelly manger had also chosen to take his place in Jacob’s rancid life.  But more than that…..also with the hope that the Lord whose presence filled that grand and beautiful church would use his forgiving power Sunday after Sunday to transform Jacob’s life into a temple as beautiful and grand.

     Just like Jacob, you have a place….you belong…in church, too.  On Christmas….and every Sunday.  No matter what your life smells like.  And if you have a hard time believing that, next time you see a living manger scene, do what Jacob did.  Get close to it and take a whiff!

Merry Christmas.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord  12-18-17

Hello,

     Here’s a story that I wrote for the 2000 Christmas Eve worship service.

     Jacob Shepherd hadn’t been to church for years.  It wasn’t always that way, though.  For the first 30 years of his life he was there every Sunday.  As a young child, he learned all the Bible stories and sang in the children’s choir.  In his teens, when many of his friends stopped coming to church, he still went … even without his parents demanding that he go.  He found that going to church gave him strength to meet the challenges of his live, and it gave him courage to face his fears – little fears, like asking a girl to a movie, and big fears like the darkness of death.  When he graduated from high school, lots of people in his congregation thought that the might become a pastor, and he had thought about that, too, but instead he decided he needed a break from school and took a job working in an auto repair shop.  He discovered that he enjoyed working on cars, and so he just settled into that job – still going to church, even though he was now living on his own.  It was a couple of years later that he got married and began a family of two children – and Jacob still went to church, every Sunday, he and his family.

     Even though Jacob enjoyed working at the auto shop, as the years past he began to feel cramped and stymied.  So, at the ripe age of 26, Jacob struck out into an auto repair business of his own.  He knew it was a risk, starting something on his own, especially now that he had more mouths to feed than his own.   But he had brayed about it, and decided that it was a risk worth taking.  So, he rented a building, hung out his shingle and waited for things to happen.  And before long, a lot was happening.  His reputation as a car mechanic had followed him, and soon he was booked for days in advance.  He was a hard worker, putting in lots of hours, but never on Sunday morning, because Sunday morning he was always in church.

     Looking at his life from the outside, you would have thought that all was going great for Jacob.  But inside of Jacob, things were stirring.  The bills always overran the income.  The pressures of the long hours were wearing, and soon Jacob found that he had become a regular in another place, the local bar.  Before he knew it, he was spending more time there then with his family.  He found himself drinking at work, now and then, to handle the pressure.  He also found that the money to pay the bills was being swallowed up in cases of beer.  And then one night when he finally made it home, his wife told him to sit down.  She had had enough of his drinking and absence – it was tearing her apart, and it was tearing the kids apart.

     “This has gone on too long,” she said, “You are not welcome here anymore until you get yourself put back together.”

     Heartbroken, he went to the only place he could think of, his auto repair shop and set up a cot in the office.  And when Sunday came, for the first time in his life, he did not go to church, and he hasn’t been there since.  He had made a mess of his life.  He was ashamed of his life.

     “My life stinks!” he said to himself, and he just couldn’t go and foul the sparkling clean church with the stench of his life.  So, he just stopped going.

     Well, it was the week before Christmas some years later and Jacob was still livng out of his office in his auto-repair shop and the neighborhood bar.  Still not going to church.  He really missed going to church, but he knew that he didn’t belong there anymore.  The mess of his life just stank too badly.  As he put his empty beer glass down on the bar, he decided to go out of his way a bit and walk past the church on the way back to his office/home.  As he neared the church, his stomach started to tighten up with nervousness.  More than once he thought about turning back and just going to his auto repair shop.  His life stuck so badly that he wondered if he should even come close to the church.  I’ll stay on the other side of the street,” he told himself, and he kept on his path to the church…….

To be continued next Monday……

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord  12-11-17

Hello,

     “You better watch out.  You better not cry.  You better not pout.  I’m telling you why.  Santa Claus is coming to town…….”

     According to the Internet, which is always correct, this Christmas song was first written in 1934 by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie, and was first sung on Eddie Cantor’s radio show…anyone remember its debut?  Apparently, it was a hit with over 100,000 orders for sheet music the next day!

     As I was driving around the other day, I heard it come across my speakers as the station that I tend to listen to intersperses Christmas songs between the “oldies” (60’s, 70’s, 80’ and 90’s) that it plays.  It may be that I am growing into a Scrooge, because truthfully, I don’t much care for the vast majority of the Christmas songs that the radio plays.  Many of them, to me, are saccharine and ooze thin sentimentality.  I find myself either switching the station when the Christmas songs come one, or impatiently waiting for the return of an oldie.

     One of my least favorite Christmas songs is the one that I began with.  Why?  Because it, in my mind, isn’t even a Christmas song.  Sure, it has Santa Claus in it, and a Christmas tree around with toys are placed…but the tone…not the tune….but the tone is far from Christmas.  The tone of this song is one of fear and warning, of a demand of being good, even to the point of not pouting or crying.  The tone is of threat and constant surveillance.  The tune may be light and cheery, but the tone is dark and ominous.

     That is not the tone of the story on which Christmas is based, the birth of the Christ.  As the Bible so clearly says in John 3:16,17, “‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”  The tone of Christmas is not judgment and condemnation, it is of absolute love and mercy.  Jesus, so says the Bible, did not come for those who are good.  Jesus came for the world, all of whom the Bible says have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God….the pouters, included.  Christmas is about the grace of God that fills God’s heart and emanates from it.  It is about a God whose love for the world is so great that his attentive care neither allows him to slumbers nor sleeps.  It is about a God who is a potter whose hand is at work to shape even the most hard and stubborn clay.   The tone of Christmas, as the Bible speaks of it, is of wonder and amazement, of hope for all and shunning of none.
     Unfortunately, in my mind, the tone of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” pervades our world as we prepare for Christmas.  Consider what the first question is that the Mall Santa asks every child that is placed upon his lap.  Isn’t it, “Have you been a good boy/girl this year?”
     That, of course is not the words that come from the Heavenly Father’s mouth when his children are placed upon his lap.  No, when any of God’s children find themselves in the lap of the Heavenly Father…no matter what age they are….no matter what time of the year or life it is…no matter whether they have pouted or cried….naughty or nice….when any of God’s children find themselves on the Heavenly Father’s lap, God embraces them with divine warmth and says, “Let me tell you how much I love you.”  That is the tone of Christmas!
     Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace,

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger