The Bungee Cord 8-21-18

Hello,

     44 years ago, during the summer after my junior year of high school, four of us formed a lawn mowing company, and we mowed about 50 lawns in our suburban Chicago town.  “WumpKripBergerBuns” (our knick-names) was the company’s name.  It was a great adventure and a great way to spend the summer.

     Well, this past weekend we all gathered at my house in Western Pennsylvania for a reunion.  Gathered from San Antonio, Minneapolis, and St Louis.  I had not seen two of them in the last 40 years, and the third I saw once a couple of years ago.  I wore my high school baseball hat at the Pittsburgh airport, just in case the years had made me unrecognizable.  But apparently recognizable enough, we waved at each other as each one made their way down the escalator and greeted each other with a hug of friendship.  It was great.

     Friday night we had pizza (a meal that we regularly shared when we were teenagers), solved the world’s problems as we drank coffee (something we never drank when we were teenagers) on Saturday morning, went to the Pirates/Cubs game on Saturday (Thanks to Clint Hurdle for getting us down on the field for batting practice and a chance to say, “hello” to him), off to the 911 crash site on Sunday morning (it is about ½ hour away from my house, very moving), wings on the way to the airport, and then back in the skies they went.  A whirlwind of a weekend!  But it was great.

     Sure, we discovered that each of us had changed a bit over the years, mostly in weight, but at the core we found each other to be the same guys who pushed lawn mowers and ate at MacDonalds 44 summers ago. Even though all those years had passed without seeing or even talking with each other, it seemed like we picked up just where we left off.  Laughing. Caring.  Teasing.  It was great.

     It was great.

     Some of you who read the Bungee Cord may find yourself akin to me, in that it has been a long while since you have spent much time with your brothers and sisters in Christ in church.  Just like with my friends and me, life can take us all in different directions, making it easy to simply lose touch.  And in that time, we change.  The things we believed when we were young may not be the same.  The things that we liked when we were young may not be as appealing.  But at the core, there is something that doesn’t change, and that is that we who have been claimed in the blood of Christ are children of God.  (“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)

     So, if you find yourself feeling a tug of your heart to have a reunion around the Table of the Lord with your brothers and sisters in Christ, I hope that you will go.  I hope that you will go and discover what I discovered this past weekend; no matter how long it has been, you can pick up just where you left off.   Laughing.  Caring. Teasing.  Praying.  Loving.

     And if you do, I hope that you will find yourself saying with me, “It was great!”

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger