The Bungee Cord 10-31-17

Hello,

     Most people think that today is Halloween, and that it is, but for us Lutheran folk there is a more important designation to Oct. 31.  For us, this is the Birthday of the Lutheran Church, and this year it is a significant Birthday, our 500^th.

     500 years ago, a German monk, named Martin Luther, posted 95 theses for debate among his college faculty concerning things that he believed were churchly things that needed correction….or reformation.  Someone got ahold of these 95 points of debate and due to a newfound technological invention, the printing press, they were distrusted far and wide, and thus the Reformation took hold.  It was never Luther’s intent to birth a church, but rather it was his hope that the church would turn away from practices that he believed were not Biblical.  Unfortunately, he was met with strong resistance from the Church, which eventually kicked him out, and without a Church that called him one of their own, a church began that bore his name.  Lutheran….not because he is to be the one worshipped in this church….but because those who are part of the Lutheran church, even to this day, view the Christian faith through the concerns that were raised October 31, 1517.

     For many years, this day took on the tone of a victory celebration.  We Lutherans celebrating that we had gotten it right, and still have it right.  Those a generation older than I, remember the battle lines that were continued to be drawn between Lutherans and Roman Catholics, even to the point that those who bore those titles were expected to keep their distance from the other.

     Thank God we have reformed beyond those days!  Today, we who are Lutheran look upon this day as a day of thanks, thankful for the continuing renewal and reformation that God is doing amidst all God’s people, including (and maybe especially) those who bear the name Lutheran.

     To those who are not Christian, the multiple denominational character of the Christian church is baffling and even a stumbling block to their participation in the faith.  “If Christians can’t get their act together and figure out what they believe, how can I have any idea what I am supposed to believe,” say those who are not Christian.  It is confusing, even to us who name ourselves Christian.  “Why can’t we just be Christian?”, people say.  “Why the need for Lutherans, Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, Baptists, and the like?”  Some Christians seek to deal with dilemma by being part of a non-denominational church.  Truth is, although such churches may not be affiliated with a named denomination, each of them, whether they know it or not, follow the particular teachings of some denomination.

     So, on this Reformation Day, why not?....Why not get rid of the denomination thing, and just call ourselves Christian.    

     Well, the first thing to say is that I would be quick to state as strongly as I can, those who are gathered under any denominational name are indeed Christian.  Much like everyone who comes to a Nuernberger family reunion is certainly a Nuernberger, but we are not identical in our Nuernbergerarianism.  Cousins in family, as I believe denominations are home to cousins in the Christian faith.

     As I look around the Christian church, I see different kinds of people, and I am thankful that the Christian church is a big enough tent to gather us all in.  We Lutherans tend to be folks who for some reason are very aware of our weaknesses, and therefore when we hear the Gospel we hone in on that which overcomes every weakness….God’s grace.  Other Christians, for some reason, have their own focal points, and their ears pick up on that which enlightens their lives.  Truth is that no denomination holds the entire truth, and all of us can learn from each other.  Even the Bible, in my reading of it,  is not monolithic in its proclamation.  That is why it is called a canon, which means “yardstick”.  The Christian faith never has been founded on a point, it has been established within a yardstick, a yardstick on which I can find my point and others find theirs.

     For too long, Christians have acted as if different denominations were competing for the truth.  Although not completely eradicated, this competition has given way to an understanding of the Christian faith as a conglomerate of folks who, when cemented together by the Holy Spirit, the truth can be seen, if only in a mirror dimly.

     So, if you are one who has seen the church as a fragmented group of folks who can’t get their act together, let me invite you to worship in a number of churches and see that each church, when it is at its best, is trying to create a space for different kinds of people upon whom God has poured out his love….different like me….and different like you.  Thank God that God is big enough to wrap his arms around all different kinds of people!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace,(ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord  10-23-17

Hello,

     Ah….the good ole’ days.

     A couple of days ago it was 80 degrees, sunny, and more summerlike than autumnal.  So, I decided to do what one does in the summer on such days.  Wash my car.  It was a job that needed to be done as I had not given it a bath since the spring when I left my Greensburg job where the automatic car wash is located.  The dirt and grime had built up.  The shiny metal of the hubcaps were more black than metallic.  Even my headlights were dimmed from the build up of smushed bugs on them.  It was time for a wash.

     I retrieved a bucket, squirted some Dawn Dish Soap in it, and filled it full of water from the outside hose.  I sprayed my Mini Cooper  down first to loosen the dirt, and then I got my seldom used wash mitten, dipped it in the bucket and took after my car with “Karate Kid” vengeance.  (Wax on/ Wax off motion.)  First, the roof, then the hood, then the side panels.  It is amazing the shine that had been hidden for months.  Finally, I took to the windows……and that is when I remembered “the good ole’ days”.

     I remembered that as a child, before the days of self-serve, when one went to get gas, one rolled over the pneumatic hose that rang a bell, alerting an attendant of your arrival.  The attendant, being so summoned, emerged from the station, came up to the driver’s window, which you cranked down manually, and even without asking, you would say to him, “Fill ‘er up with regular.” 

     Dutifully, he would search for the gas cover….on our car, an Oldsmobile, it was under the rear license plate…extract the handle from the pump, stick it in the gas tank opening, lock it to keep flowing, and then he would leave.  Wrong!  No, he had just begun.  After asking you to pop your hood, he would proceed to check your oil level and any other level that could be checked.  If asked he would check your antifreeze level, and check the pressure on your tires.  And then, when all of that was done, he would pull a bottle of window cleaner from the stand next to the pumps and wash all of your windows.  Spraying them and wiping them off with a squeegee.  When all was done, he would hand you a bill, produced from a carbon paper device.  You’d pay the bill.  He would say, “Thank you.”  And with your car all checked over, gas tank filled, and windows clean….off you would drive.  Ah….the good ole’ days.

     Truthfully, the good ole’ days were not purely good, were they?  Every good ole’ day was also full of plenty that was not so good, and good to get away from.

     For Christians of my ilk, Lutherans, the remembrance of the good ole’ days is a sometimes spoken recall.  The days when churches were filled to the brim and people would come a half hour early to worship to get a good seat.  When choirs filled choir lofts, and Sunday Schools  were ant hills of kids.  When people entered the sanctuary in solemn reverence, and the church budget was always met with ease.

     Of course, the glow of those days is not all rosy.  The pews may have been full, but many often left worship spiritually empty.  The Sunday Schools full of children made it easy to forget those children who did not come.   People would coldly sit next to each other in church as if they were there alone.  Offerings were given as required dues.   And maybe most significantly, issues of complex reality were often treated with deep lines drawn in the sand.

     There are some things about the good ole’ days that I, as a pastor, would welcome back, but there are also things that I am glad to have left back in those days.  We don’t live in the good ole’ days.  We live in the today, and it aint all bad.  I am glad that going to church takes more intentionality, intention has a way of opening the spiritual gas tank to be filled up.  I am glad people take note of those around them and experience the care of a Christ-filled handshake and ask with honest depth, “How ya’ doing?”  I am glad that communion is graciously offered rather than sparingly given.  I am glad that offerings are gifts of thanks and non-givers are seen as people to care about rather than shun as someone  who is not carrying their load.  I am glad that the church has come to see that the world is, figuratively, not as round as we thought it was.   I am glad that that lines in the sand have been eroded by graceful waters, and I am glad that when someone comes to me in pain, I don’t have to judge them first, but can embrace them with care.  I am glad that those who struggle with belief are taken seriously rather than written off as “the lost”.

     If you are not coming to church because you think that the church lives in the good ole days….well, in the case of some churches you may be right.  But the church that I am part of, and many of which I know, seeks to be the place where God encounters us in these days.  Every church falls short of its hope to live out its identity as the body of Christ, but with the Spirit’s ever blowing wind of grace, the evidence of Christ’s love for you….for today…..is there.  I invite you to come and see.

     Ah….thank God for God’s grace in these days!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 10-19-17

Hello,

     It’s a cool, crisp day in Western Pennsylvania.  Sunny. Breezy. 50 degrees for a high today.  A great day to stay inside and write the Bungee Cord.

     Ah, but not according to my Dog, McMahon, a 1 year old Gordon Setter.  According to him, cool, crisp, windy autumn days are not to be spent inside, but outside doing his favorite thing.  Chasing leaves!  Nothing more fun than scampering after some leaf that is floating by unaware of the impending danger that is lurking.  Like a skilled hunter, McMahon sets himself in lurching position, his head jerking right and left to spy his prey.  And when a leaf saunters by, McMahon springs at it, pouncing on it, and then chewing it up.  What fun!

     Unfortunately, he thinks he needs an audience for his play, and so he won’t let me stay inside.  So, I have given into his unrelenting demands to join him outside, and have decided to write today’s Bungee Cord where he wants me to.  I find it too chilly to try and sit on our porch and write, so I have taken my place about 50 yards from our house amidst some trees where I fire ring is.  Seeking to stop the chatter of my teeth, I decided to build a fire.  Not an easy thing to do with wood that has recently been rained on, and wind that bullies the weakling flames.  But with a little help from lighter fluid, mission accomplished. 

     As I write, my once fledgling fire is now burning strong.  However, there is a problem.  The wind is too strong to allow the heat to radiate very far.  The heat flows quite well directly down wind, but so does the smoke which stings my eyes and rankingly permeates my clothes.  Though I add more fuel to my fire, the lateral expanse of the heat is still truncated by the gathering wind.  Every once in a while, the wind dies down a bit, and I can feel the heat blanket around me.  It seems that the only way to stay warm is to stay close to the fire.

     Likewise, in life, it seems the only way to stay warm is to stay close to the fire.  Sure enough, there are days when life is calm and peaceful, and the warmth of God’s grace radiates without hinder in every direction.  But when the wind blows strong and sharp – eroding hope, billowing with despair, fear chilling the bone – the wind has a way of truncating the reach of God’s warming grace.  When that happens, draw near to the fire.  That is what Sunday morning worship is for; to be the fire that warms people’s lives.  Warming it with the power of God’s grace and mercy that nothing in this world….or universe for that matter….can extinguish.  If hopelessness is swirling, in worship there is an inferno of hope in the tangibly given promise, “This is my blood…this is my body….given for you.”  When life seems like a wind tunnel of despair, there is a great warming shelter given in worship in the divine words, “Your sin is forgiven…as far as the east is from the west.”  When fear is tornadic in power, there is, in worship a bunker of grace that no tornado can pierce in the promise of God, “I am with you always.”  There is a furnace churning out divine heat, heat to draw near to when the sharp and piercing winds blow.

     So, does that mean that one only need to go to worship when the cold wind blows in one’s life?  I think not….and this is why…the wonder of worship is that not only is the place that we experience the warmth of God’s grace, those who gather in worship are also the fuel of that very fire.  An infant crying in her mother’s arms is a visual and verbal sign of hope to the 90 year old who has a hard time seeing life in their life.  The shake of one’s hand by another when one’s brokenness has scandalously and shamefully landed on the front page of the paper carries divine warmth.  Singing brings beauty to life’s boredom, and joining voices in prayer creates a human shield against the wind.  It may be that your life is peaceful and calm, but be assured of this; it is not so for everyone, and on those days…you and I are the fuel for the fire that God ignites in worship.

     So, on this cool, crisp, windy fall day….as I sit next to my fire…I am thankful for the fire that I can draw near to and be part of in this world where the wind never rests.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace,(ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger