The Bungee Cord   11-26-18

Hello,

     We Lutherans, and many other Christians, do a strange thing this time of year.  We wait.

     This Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent, a four-week season that proceeds the celebration of Christmas.  During Advent we hear the good news of the coming of the Messiah, the one in whom God will make all things new, whom we profess to be Jesus. Interestingly enough, this good news is not only the good news of the promise of the Messiah to come in a past moment of history, in a Bethlehem manger, but also the Biblical promise of the Messiah to come into our lives every day, and when the days of this age are over, for the Messiah to come again in gathering glory.  Advent means “coming”, and during the four weeks of Advent we turn our attention to doing something that most folks in our culture are not very good at doing, waiting.

     But waiting is an important skill to develop, because even in our world of general instant gratification, there are still times that we find ourselves waiting.  Small and insignificant times, like at the grocery store behind someone in the checkout line who wants to check each of the cashier’s pricings, then wants to go over the receipt, and then pays with a check that they fill out in snail paced care, and then wants some of their stuff re-bagged according to the shelves that are in the pantry.  (Ugh!) And then there are those times when waiting is huge and time plods along with torturous delay.  Like when someone you love has collapsed at home and you await the ambulance.  Or like when a medical test is taken, and you await the results.  Or like when an accident happens, and you wonder if your child was involved and is ok.  

     Even today, we find ourselves waiting.  So, we Christians practice the art of waiting during these four weeks of Advent.  During these weeks we hone up on our waiting skills.  We hone up on keeping vigilant for that for which we wait.  It is all too easy to get distracted by the things going on around us that we can either forget that for which we wait, or we can give up on it.  So, we practice keeping our eyes on Jesus.   Another thing we practice is housecleaning.  Waiting affords a chance for preparation for that for which we await, and so we take the time to spruce up our lives for the arrival of one in our lives whose prominence is unmatched in the universe.  And we spend our time developing our patience, patience that comes from unshatterable hope, the hope that comes with Jesus.

     Of course, the culture around us, especially in these weeks leading up to Christmas, fights against waiting.  Decorations go up in early November.  Stores play “Christmas” (quotes to indicate that many of the songs that we hear during this time of the year have little to do with the advent of Christ) songs as shoppers fill their stores.  Even in churches, people come up to me during these weeks and say, “Pastor, can’t we sing some Christmas carols?”  We live in a culture that doesn’t like to wait.

     Fact of the matter is that the pews of churches would be fuller during these four weeks of Advent if we went along with the flow of the world and reveled in immediately gratifying our desire for Christmas, but many churches work hard to uphold the practice of waiting.  And why?  Waiting is part of life.  Even today. 

     So, let me invite you to come and wait these next four weeks of Advent.  When you come, you will see that the dominant color in the church during the season of Advent is blue.  As you may or may not know, blue is he color of hope, the hope that one experiences when one awakens from sleep and sees a crystal blue sky.  “Maybe this will be a good day!”  Come and wait.  Wait for Jesus, and I am sure that you will find that this will be something well worth becoming good at when you find yourself waiting….waiting for Jesus….in the small and in the huge things in life.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord 11-19-18

Hello,

     Sometimes you win.  Sometimes you lose.  That is life. But when you lose 63-0 (especially to Iowa!), that is a crushing loss.

     As you may know, I am a loyal (foolish?) University of Illinois fan.  I went there for my first two years of college, and my heart still lies there, athletically.  I don’t find myself an ongoing rooter of the Fighting Illini because we were great back then, and I remember and long for the good old days.  We were terrible then, too.  But I had such good friends and such good times going to the games, that my loyalties remain.  Oskeewowow Illinois!

     There have been some bright moments over the years.  A Rose Bowl game.  A final four in Basketball.  But by in large, it has been the same old same old.  A few wins.  And lots of losses.  I joke with folks who root for winning teams, saying that it must be really boring to win all the time.  When you root for a perennial losing team, like the Illini, however,  it is really exciting when you win!

     Of course, it is also a bit embarrassing when you lose so badly, 63-0 (especially to Iowa!).

     I know why the Fighting Illini tend to end up on the losing side of things: our players aren’t as good.  For some reason, unbeknownst to mankind, college age athletes would rather attend sub-par universities whose colors are not orange and blue…..blue, maze, scarlet, grey….. even yellow and black.  But here’s the thing, on the playing field of life, I don’t know why some people find themselves regularly with their faces in the dirt and mud, while others are more regularly kicking up the mud and dirt on their way to victories. Of course, it is true that some people do a pretty good job of digging holes for themselves, but it is also true that there are many people for whom life is simply harder, and by no fault of their own.

     Why is this so?  I wish I knew, and then we might be able to figure out how to mellow the pain that many people take on in life.  But, I don’t know.  Some are quite ready to give simple answers, answers that seem to me to be like rubbing salt in a wound….”you don’t trust God enough”… “God is trying to teach you something”… “everything happens for a purpose” …”it is God’s plan”.  It may be true that these answers apply to some things in life, but personally, I don’t see how they might apply to something like having one’s child get hit by a car while walking home from school….and many other tragedies.

     It seems to me that one of the basic tenets of the Christian faith is not to dwell on the why of unequal suffering, but rather to dwell in the grasp of the one who has taken suffering on….and won!  When Jesus took his place on the cross, he also drew unto himself every evil and suffering that the world might brew, and when he breathed his last breath, so did they.  “It is finished, “ Jesus said as pain and suffering began to gasp for air as he pulled them under with him.  And when Jesus walked out of that Easter grave, he walked over all the evil and suffering that remained dead in their graves.

     So, when shame raises its ugly head and says, “I beat you…beat you badly…63-0,”  Jesus says to that shame…”No, I beat you….I crushed you on the cross…100%-0.”  When guilt grabs you by the throat and says, “I beat you….I bet you badly….63-0,”, Jesus says to that guilt, “No, I beat you…I crushed you on the cross….100%-0.”  When you have blown it and failure says, “I beat you …beat you badly…63-0,”  Jesus says to that failure, “No, I beat you beat you…I crushed you on the cross…100%-0.”  When sin points out the scars that you carry and says, “I beat you … beat you badly….63-0,” Jesus says to that sin, “No, I beat you …I crushed you on the cross…100%-0.”

     Christians gather every Sunday, not as mandated drudgery, but as gleeful victors, people who are part of Jesus’ team…. A team that won big!  Crushed the opponent!  Not 63-0, but 100%-0!  You are part of that victory!  Come and join the celebration!

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord  11-12-18

Hello,

     As a pastor, I have conducted a lot of funerals.  Even though it might sound a bit morose, funerals are a part of the ministry of which I am glad to be involved.  Funerals are a time when all the pretenses of life are stripped off and all you are left with is what it means to be a human being. It doesn’t matter how successful, powerful, beautiful, popular, important, or admired one may be, when I am standing at the graveside  and say, “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust”, there is an undeniable leveling to human existence….a leveling that I, as a Christian, believe has been there all along.

     Last week, I found myself in a unique place, at a funeral that I was not conducting.  It was a funeral for one of the members of the church that I am serving, but since he was also a pastor the funeral was held at a church near the churches he was serving and was conducted by a friend of his in that area.   So, I was seated in the packed medium-sized church along with his former parishioners, his friends and family,  and a bevy of fellow pastors.

   

     If you have ever been to a funeral of a pastor, you will know that it is a bit different, in that the singing tends to be more robust-er than other funerals.  That was certainly the case for this funeral.  When it was time for a hymn, even though the hymn may not have been familiar to everyone, the sanctuary rocked.

     I happened to be seated toward the rear of the sanctuary amongst people who I did not know….older people who seemed to be former members of this man’s church.  The gusto of their singing was a bit less “pastoral”, actually, I could not hear them singing above the rest of the crowd.  Seated in the pew in front of me was someone who, by his attire, I concluded was not a pastor.  He was dressed in a casual shirt and casual pants.  When he took his place in the pew, he struggled due to his limited range of motion.  When the congregation was asked to rise if they were able, he remained seated.  It was obvious to me that this man was a man whose faith was important to him and likewise was the person whose funeral he was attending, as it was a struggle for him to be there.

     As the service was concluding, the organ started the intro to a hymn that is often part of Lutheran funerals for folks a bit older than me, and then we began to sing.  “Oh Lord my God.  When I in awesome wonder.  Consider all the works thy hands have made.  I see the stars.  I hear the rolling thunder.  Thy power throughout the universe displayed.”  And then, even though the sanctuary was rumbling with pastors, and this man was sitting in front of me and singing away from my direction, I heard him!  “Then sings my soul.  My savior God to thee.  How great thou art.  How great thou art.  Then sings my soul.  My savior God to thee.  How great thou art.  How great thou art.”

     And when we came to the final verse, “When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation, And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart. Then I shall bow, in humble adoration, And then proclaim: "My God, how great Thou art!", he amplified his voice even more, and I could hear him as if he was singing a solo.

     I have no idea of what this man’s life was like…easy or hard, but as I heard him proclaim with blaring bluster these words of faith, I found myself humbled in the shadow of one whose faith overwhelmed the shadow of death in that place.  If death thought that it was going to have the last word for the man who had died, death found out that it would not.  The last word would be Christ’s.  Christ’s whose love and power silenced the voice of death on the day that Jesus walked out of the Easter grave, and likewise silenced in the faith that saturated the voice of the man who sat in front of me as he belittled the power of death by the faith-amplified power in his voice.

     Like I said, as a pastor I find funerals events that I am glad to be part of. This funeral included.  I left that funeral drenched in the hope of Jesus resurrection having been blessed to have been seated behind someone whose witness of God’s grace was louder and more powerful than a sanctuary full of pastors!  Thank you, sir, for your witness.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord   11-7-18

Hello,

 God roots for the Fighting Illini of the University of Illinois!

The reason that I know this is what happened a couple of days ago.  When I woke up and opened the shade the covers our western looking window and saw the entire ridge bathed in orange.  Actually, this was not the first time that I have seen this sight.  It happens every morning when the sun rises. Because (I think) of the curvature of the earth, the dawning light gets refracted a bit, and orange becomes the dominant color,  thus the orange draped ridge out my window.

But on this particular morning, the sky that was touching the ridge was a brilliant blue…thus….orange and blue, the colors of the Fighting Illini of the University of Illinois! Obviously, a sign from heaven that God bleeds orange and blue and roots for my team!

Of course, I am joking. Not about the beauty of the sunrise and its colored dawn, but about the assumption that such a thing is a heavenly message of God’s allegiance.  But all joking aside, such assumptions are often spoken with heartfelt belief, placing God on the side of one person or group and not on the side of the other. I remember some years ago when the national church of which I am a part was meeting in Minneapolis and during the debate on issues of sexuality a tornado bounced over the arena, knocking the cross off of the large church next door.  Some were quick to pronounce this a sign of God’s ire about the direction of the debate, a direction that was moving toward more openness and diversity. But was it?  Could not have the topping of the cross  and the opening of the steeple roof have been a sign of God’s blessing, much akin to the ripping of the temple curtain at Jesus’ crucifixion?

Who does God root for? I tend to think that a far more clear message from God as to his allegiance is seen in Jesus dying on a cross.  The Bible tells us that when Jesus died on that cross he died for all (Romans 6:10).  Question: is there anyone not included in “all”?  If the answer to that question is “no”, then it seems to me that we have the answer to the initial question, “Who does God root for?”  For all.

I take great comfort in that answer, because in that answer I find out that God roots for me.  No matter my devotion, my rebellion, my goodness, my evil, my wisdom, my stupidity, my gifts, my flaws….on and on…God roots for me.  Which also means that God roots for you….no matter if you are sailing smoothly through life with a vibrant faith, or if you are stuck at the bottom of a deep pit of your own making or of your accidental stumbling and faith is hard to find.  God roots for you.

And (this may be the hardest thing to crack through my thick skull) God roots for those with whom I disagree.  I don’t mean that God roots for the rightness or wrongness of how I see things verses how others see things, but rather that God’s heart is linked to each of us.  I find that helpful, so that when I am in disagreement with others, I might involve myself in that disagreement, not as people on different teams, but as people who stand on the same side of the field, the Good Friday field, under the cross of Christ.

It is a good thing that God roots for all, because the Fighting Illini of the University of Illinois are in need of someone to root for them (it’s been a long stretch of years on the football field), but even more so you and I are in need of someone to root for us, because it can be a long stretch of years on the field of life.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger