The Bungee Cord 12-29-19

Hello,
Today’s Bungee Cord is an audio/visual message….go to my Facebook page, Jerry Nuernberger, and you’ll find it there.
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)]
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord   12-16-19

Hello,                                                                                      

I’d like to paint a picture for you.  It’s a picture of a sight that I saw some years ago as I was travelling out in the bush from Lutheran congregation to Lutheran congregation in Cameroon, Africa.

The road was like most of the roads in rural Cameroon, dusty dirt, excessively bumpy from the lack of care and the occasional rain that caused wash outs.  The road sliced its way like a laser beam through the endless savannah.  Sometimes the grass was no more than dried stubble, other times it was knee high, but in either case it was sandy brown, baking under the heat of the African sun.

As the 10 of us rode in the medium sized SUV, driven by Phillipe who knew the unmapped roads and was skilled in navigating the untamed terrain, we came upon an old man walking on the side of the road, out in the middle of nowhere.  Tattered and torn was the shirt that draped his shoulders, and baggy and loose the short pants that he wore, held up by a worn out rope.  An old weathered baseball hat covered his head.  His African face was age worn, his cheek bones and jaw bone where chiseled out of his gaunt face.  His eye were glazed over with blindness.  Tennis shoes, if you could call them shoes, shod his feet.

He walked with great effort, bent over, shuffling his feet along the dusty roadside.  His legs were thin and seemed almost muscle-less, his knees stuck out like cantaloupes.  In his boney left hand was a stick with which he stabbed the ground with every labored step.   What was this old man doing out on this road?   Where was he going, out in the middle of nowhere?

He wasn’t alone, though, because in front of him….maybe four feet in front of him was a young boy, middle school aged, I would have guessed. Thin, but seemingly healthy and strong. The shorts and shirt that he wore were in good shape, and they fit him well.  There was a strength to his stride as he put one second or third hand Nike flip flop clad foot in front of the other.  He was obviously walking much slower than the pace that he would have set on his own, because the pace that he was walking was being set by his travelling partner…..the old man who was walking behind him.

But the most striking thing about these two travelers was what each of them was holding in their right hands.  It was a branch, maybe about six feet long, linking the young boy to the old man behind him.  The boy carried it behind him.  The man held onto it in front of him.  Sighted leading the blind.  Strong leading the weak.

And when I saw it, this verse from Isaiah came to my mind:

The wolf shall live with the lamb,
   the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
   and a little child shall lead them. 

Do you ever feel like that old man?  Worn out from life?  Eyes glazed with blinding cataracts from the “years and tears” that Jackson brown sang of? Muscles wilted from the heat of the oppressive sun and sin that has beaten down on you? Out in the middle of nowhere shuffling your way along an endless dusty road?

And you don’t have to be old to find yourself in this picture.  The kid who gets teased every day as she shuffles her was through the high school halls, and sits alone among a table of peers who doesn’t even notice she’s there.  The man who has fallen into so many holes – some holes of his own making, others that have simply been covered traps on his path, fallen into so many holes that his phone never rings and his guest chair is never used.  The parent who looks in the mirror and is beat down by the whispers of “failure”.

There are some….and maybe even some of you…who know all too well the steps of that old African man because you have walked them a lot.  But isn’t it true, that all of us, have found ourselves walking in his steps at times in our life, and we know that all of us will find such blind and dusty walks ahead of us.  Do you every feel like that old man?  Yes. Of course.

So, listen to today’s Advent message, “And a young child will lead them.”  That is the Advent message to us when we know that old African man’s steps far too well.  “A young child shall lead them.” A young child with keen eyesight to keep us on the path.  A young child with strength and endurance to be able to travel the distance.  A young child with a sharp mind who knows the way. A young child who will patiently walk a slow and deliberate pace.  A young child who will stay close and connected to us by a branch, a cross shaped branch.

To us who sometimes feel, or a lot of the time feel like that old African man, God says this from the book of Isaiah… “and a young child shall lead you.”  And who is that “young child”?  It is the one that John the Baptist pointed to to all those people who had come out into the wilderness.  “I can lead you only so far,” he said to the people….but there is one who is coming after me who will lead you all the way…he will take hold of you like fire taking hold of dry piece of wood….he will take hold of you in an everlasting grip of love and mercy that will fill your lungs and soul.  I can lead you only so far, says John the Baptist, to you and me today….but there is one who is coming who will lead you all the way….his sandals I could never fill.  Out of a Bethlehem manger he will come.

Hear this, those who know the steps of that old African man, “a young child will lead you.” 

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord  12-9-19

Hello,

     We said “good bye” last Wednesday to my old dog Duncan.  It was a sad day.

     Twelve and a half years ago I drove from Sioux Falls to Mason City, Iowa to pick him up.  I had found him on the internet when I typed in “Gordon Setter puppies.”  There aren’t a lot of Gordon Setter breeders around, but I like the way that they look, so I went hunting, and a great hunt it turned out to be.

     Duncan and I lived a lot of life together.  We carried each other through a lot of storms.  The first storm was on the trip home from Mason City, where we were driving into a line of tornados.  The approaching sky was as dark as I had ever seen it, and the radio was warning to take shelter.  And so we did.  We got off the interstate and went into the lobby of a hotel, and the tornado bounced right over us.  After it passed, we went back outside, and when I put Duncan down to unlock the car, he trotted away from me.  Even as a little puppy he moved faster than me, and being skittish of strangers he kept on walking away from me as I called him.  For some reason, he stopped for a moment, and I was able to pick him up.  I thought I had lost him even before we got home.

Not too many days after we got home, we took him for a walk in the park across the road from our house, and as we entered the park a guy on a bicycle came at us.  Frightened, Duncan pulled away from me, and he slid out of his collar that was too big for him.  He took off on a run up the four lane road, as I tried to keep up with him. Fortunately, someone in a Suburban saw us ahead of him, and he stopped his car and the traffic behind him so Duncan wouldn’t get hit.  Luckily, he got himself cornered in a fence, and I was able to pick him up.

It so happened that we got him as I was dealing with a bout of depression, and he turned out to be my buddy when things were dark.  He wouldn’t let me hole up in my house, telling me often that he and I needed to go for a walk.  Every time I came home from work, there he was greeting me with unmeasured joy.  He would keep me company when loneliness would try and take hold of me.  He helped pull me through.

Not that he was always an angel.  He had a thing for chewing shoes, and I think I went through 3 pairs of tennis shoes in the first couple of months that we had him.  And when we went to the dog park, he had a habit of stealing other dogs’ toys, and playing keep away from me as I tried to get them back.  He had a mind of his own, and if he wanted to stay outside, there was no cajoling or trickery with food that would coax him in. And if he wanted to play and wasn’t getting the attention that he thought he deserved, he would go into the laundry basket and pull out a sock and bring it in front of me and start to chew on it.  He could be a stinker.

Duncan and I lived a lot of life together, life enough to fill a multitude of Bungee Cords.  But about a month or so ago he stopped eating. We took him to the vet, and cancer was discovered in his lungs.  “Feed him anything he will eat,” the Vet said.  And so we did.  Suddenly his menu was much more gourmet than dry dog food.  He perked up, and although he didn’t return to his normal energetic self, he still would go out and play and go for walks.  But we could see him slowly getting weaker and weaker as the days went on.  Still he was a great friend, blessing us with his companionship.  Last week, he wouldn’t eat a thing, he had a hard time walking, and his breathing was labored.  “Have you had enough, buddy?”, I said to him.  It was time.

So, I said to him as he lay on the couch, “Do you want to go for a ride?”  He raised his head from the couch and gave it a tilt, as he always did when you said, “Do you want …”  I went over and picked him up and carried him to the car.  I couldn’t hold back the tears.  Kate drove, and when we got to the Vet, I opened up the back door of the car and picked him up again.  Even though he was feeling awful there wasn’t a twinge of fear in him as I picked him up. He had come to know how much I loved him.  I carried him into the exam room and set him down.  He stood there sort of slouched over.  He was worn out.  The Vet was tremendously compassionate, and after giving him a sedative injection, she left us alone with Duncan.  

“Good bye, buddy,” I said to him as he fell asleep.  I wept.

I learned something from Duncan last week, and that is when you are in the arms of one who you know loves you, you don’t need to fear, even when death is near.  If Duncan can have that much confidence in facing death as he was held in the hands of a human, I know that I can have that same confidence as I am held in the hands of God when I face death.

Thank you, Duncan.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord 12-2-19

Hello,

Last week, I told you that I am planning on “singing songs of the season” as we walk our way to Christmas. The path of this walk is through Advent, and the season is meant to prepare us for the awesome grace of God that comes to us in Jesus….Jesus who came in a manger, Jesus who comes every day in our lives, and Jesus who will come at the end of time to complete Gods will of grace.  This week, the designated Psalm for Sunday’s worship service is selected verses from Psalm 72.

¹ Give the king your justice, O God,
   and your righteousness to a king’s son. ² May he judge your people with righteousness,
   and your poor with justice. ³ May the mountains yield prosperity for the people,
   and the hills, in righteousness. ⁴ May he defend the cause of the poor of the people,
   give deliverance to the needy,
   and crush the oppressor. ⁵ May he live while the sun endures,
   and as long as the moon, throughout all generations. ⁶ May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass,
   like showers that water the earth. ⁷ In his days may righteousness flourish
   and peace abound, until the moon is no more. 

¹⁸ Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
   who alone does wondrous things. ¹⁹ Blessed be his glorious name for ever;
   may his glory fill the whole earth.

One of the most interesting things about Jesus’ birth was the threat that the news of it brought to the king of Israel, Herod. You may remember that when the Wisemen told him that they had come to pay homage to the King of the Jews, Herod was quite taken back.  So taken back was he that he tried to kill the one of whom the Wisemen spoke.

The reason that I mention this detail of the Christmas story is that Psalm 72 is a song to be sung as a blessing to the king, specifically the king of Israel.  Of course, in those days, the tradition was that the King was selected by God, and certainly that tradition held true in the days of the first Kings of Israel as the book of  1 Samuel tells us.  Unfortunately, as time progressed, the one who became the king was not always so God ordained, as in the case of Herod.

Nevertheless, God ordained or not, this Psalm sings of God’s hope for the rule of the king, and notice in this song that God’s main hope is that the people’s lives will be blessed.  It is God’s hope that the King will be an channel of God’s love into the world.

As you and I live in this world, we can sing this song of the season, Psalm 72, because no less is it God’s hope that the people of all nations would receive God’s blessings through those who govern today.  And although the palpable hand of God may not be as clear in the selection of the world’s leaders as it was for Saul, David and Solomon, God’s love for the people whom they govern is crystal clear, crystal clear in Jesus who hung on a cross and walked out of an Easter tomb.  

That is why in the church of which I am a Pastor, the central symbol is the cross of Christ, not the flag of any nation or the emblem of any political party.  Christ died for all people, people of every race and tribe.  God is not American or Russian.  God is not Republican, Democrat, or Communist.   So, it doesn’t matter what country you hail from or which political party you find yourself like-minded, you are welcome in God’s house.  For God wants nothing more than that every person in every land to come to know the depth of God’s love for them.  

Let me extend God’s invitation to come to his house this Sunday and sit beside someone who just might see the world differently than you do.  And as you share a pew with such a person, you will find yourself also sharing your heart with them, because Jesus will hold you both in his heart.  And being mutually held in Jesus heart, you just might find yourself singing Psalm 72  from your heart, praying God’s blessing upon the earthly one who leads you, and the earthly one who leads the one next to you.

Just think what a difference it might make in the world if the air was filled with a countless chorus of voices belting out this song of blessing, Psalm 72.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord  11-26-19

Hello,

     As the airwaves and shopping centers fill the air with songs of the season (actually, for us Christians, the season is Advent…not Christmas), I thought that I would try something new with the Bungee Cord, and fill the internet with different songs of the season…..Psalms.  The book of Psalms was the hymnal for the people of God.  Each of the Psalms has a specific focus and purpose.  People knew them, knew them by heart.  So well did they know them that when the first line was said/sung, that was as good as saying/singing the whole thing.  An ancient “Name That Tune” sort of thing.

In the branch of the church of which I am a Pastor, a specific Psalm is designated to be part of the worship service, and so during Advent (the four weeks before Christmas), I thought that I would “sing” the designated Psalm each week in my Bungee Cord, and fill the internet with the songs of the season.

Week 1 of Advent: Psalm 122

I was glad when they said to me,
   ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’ 
Our feet are standing
   within your gates, O Jerusalem. 

Jerusalem—built as a city
   that is bound firmly together. 
To it the tribes go up,
   the tribes of the Lord,
as was decreed for Israel,
   to give thanks to the name of the Lord. 
For there the thrones for judgement were set up,
   the thrones of the house of David. 

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
   ‘May they prosper who love you. 
Peace be within your walls,
   and security within your towers.’ 
For the sake of my relatives and friends
   I will say, ‘Peace be within you.’ 
For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,
   I will seek your good.

There is one line in this Psalm that as a kid, I just could not understand, “I was glad when they said unto me, “Let us go into the house of the Lord.”  As a kid, going to church every Sunday morning was not the highlight of my week. Getting up early on Sunday morning (we always, and I mean always, attended the 8:30 service instead of the 11:00), was an unwanted wakeup time.  Going to church and spending time with a bunch of old people when I could have been watching cartoons was a pain.  Having to listen to what seemed like an hour of a droning sermon was torture.  Trying to sit still and not fall asleep was nearly impossible.  I was not glad when my folks said unto me every Sunday morning, “Let us go into the house of the Lord.”

Something obviously changed, after all, I am a Pastor, one who calls people into the house of the Lord Sunday after Sunday, and what changed was this: as I continued to go to church, I came to see something that drew me there, drew me there like a super-magnet.  Jesus was there.  In a more profound way than his presence with me every day, I experienced the presence of Jesus in church and worship.  

I think of the Bethlehem shepherds who were told that in a stable they would encounter the one who would change their lives forever….literally, forever.  And so they “made haste” to go to that place.  When I invite people to church, I, likewise am inviting people to come to a place where they will encounter someone who will change their lives forever….literally forever.  A pastor friend of mine said this, “If people believed that Jesus was really there in church/worship every Sunday morning, who wouldn’t come!”

“I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go into the house of the Lord.’”

Have a great week,

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord   11-19-19

Hello,

With no scientific backing, but only personal observation over the years of being a Pastor, it seems to me that as people live out their lives, they find themselves falling somewhere between being a tree climber and a hole digger.  Here’s what I mean.

Some folks tend to live their lives climbing to higher and higher levels of accomplishment.  They gain greater and greater amounts of respect and acclaim.  People look up to them, and they often are awarded for their deeds.  “World’s Greatest Dad”, “Mother of the year”, “Employee of the month”, “Student of the week”, the sibling you can always count on, the kindest person I have ever met, the pillar of the community, the living example of the Christian faith.  Thing about tree climbers, though, is the higher you go, the more precarious the perch, and the further it is to fall.   It can be a scary thing being a tree climber.  One slip and you can lose it all.  For some tree climbers, the world delights in their tumbling.  For others, the world tends to abandon them in shunning disappointment.

The other end of the spectrum are hole diggers.  They are folks that just don’t seem to be able to live without a shovel in their hands, digging themselves into deeper and deeper holes.  People look at them, too, and stick labels on them.  Loser, black sheep, good for nothing, fool, dregs of society, bottom feeders, deadwood.  Thing about hole diggers is the more holes you dig, the easier it is to fall into them, and the deeper you dig the harder it is to get out of them. People tire of dealing with hole diggers, and so often the world tries not to look into the holes that they come upon in order to not have to deal with what they may find in them

Interestingly enough, the Bible tells us that Jesus had a heart for both tree climbers and hole diggers….and everyone in between.  There was an expert tree climber that Jesus came across one day, Zacchaeus.  He had worked hard to become one of the wealthiest men in town, and the was at the top of his trade, tax collecting. Unfortunately for him, it was lonely at the top and the people could hardly wait for him to come tumbling down.  Interestingly, he was high in a Sycamore tree when Jesus spotted him, and while the crowds laughed at him for his tree climbing, Jesus opened his heart to him, telling him to come on down from that precarious tree, so that Jesus could set him high on a unwavering tree, the tree of God’s love for him.  So loved was Zacchaeus, that Jesus, the Son of God was going to take his place in Zacchaeus’ house.  That is a higher stoop than Zacchaeus’ could have ever climbed himself, and it was a stoop from which Zacchaeus would never fall.

And then the hole diggers….. Once a group of people brought to Jesus a woman who was caught in adultery, apparently to put it gently, caught in the act.  We don’t know how it all happened…what led to the adultery…how they were discovered, but we do know this: the law prescribed that the woman be stoned to death.  All the good people were to gather around her and pelt her with large stones that would crack her skull, break her bones, and fatally injure her.  Caught in a deep, deep pit, the people gathered around her and as they were looking for stones to wield upon her, Jesus looked at something else. He looked at her.  And making every stone too heavy with guilt to lift up, he shielded her with his grace and mercy.  Then he lifted her up out of the hole she had dug, and like a prisoner released from jail said, “Go, you are free.”

If my sociological/theological observations are correct, each of you who are reading this Bungee Cord lie somewhere on the climber-digger continuum.  So, I hope that by reading this, you have discovered that no matter where you are on this continuum, there is one who is neither hoping for your fall or preparing to throw dirt upon you in your hole.  Instead he comes to you to lift you up – up in his grace, grace from which you will never fall, and grace that will overwhelm any hole that might try and swallow you up.  That is what happens every Sunday morning when we gather in church, so let me invite you to join the rest of us tree climbers and hole diggers whom Jesus is lifting up.

Have a great week,

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord
11-10-19

Hello,

     TODAY IS A HAPPY DAY.  YOU ARE IN A HAPPY PLACE.

     Any guesses where I spotted these sentences?

     I spotted them, as I was enthroned, on the interior door of the bathroom of the hotel in which I stayed this past week when I was on vacation (thus the reason for the lack of a Bungee Cord last week.)  They covered the entire door, and they tapped my funny bone when I saw them.

     I snickered at their size, their location, and their content. So big were they that they felt like an order being issued by a marine drill seargent, “You will be happy!”  Located on the interior side of the bathroom door made me think of my time in that room in a way I had not thought of before, and the message they gave seemed an unusual one for a hotel to plaster on a bathroom door.

     TODAY IS A HAPPY DAY.  YOU ARE IN A HAPPY PLACE.

     As I have talked to folks, it seems to me that maybe these words might be expected  somewhere else, too: on the front wall of the church.  I say that because many operate with the impression that Christianity is all about being happy.   Somehow folks have gotten the message that you need to be happy in order to come to church, you need to have a happy face when you’re there, and when you leave you should leave with a smile on your face.  True enough, a great place to bring one’s happiness is to the place from where all blessings flow.  And true enough, who can help from smiling when good news is announced, especially the good news of Jesus Christ.  And true enough, a skip in your step comes quite naturally after dining on a foretaste of the feast to come.  But I am not too sure that happiness is the measure of the worth of having come to church, nor the measure of the depth of a person’s faith.

     I say that because in the Bible happiness isn’t always the result of an encounter with Jesus.  Just think about how the disciples must have felt when Jesus ate his last meal with them, a meal that carried the shadow of his death.  Or, how about what the disciples felt when they gathered in the post-Easter room, hiding for their lives.  Or how about when the Apostle Paul was imprisoned for his faith.

     Likewise, there are times in life where happiness is hard to find….when a loved one dies, when your life has fallen apart because of what you have done, when hopes and dreams evaporate and crumble.

     Clearly, Jesus didn’t come to bring sprinkles to life so that we might be happy, that would make his presence pretty trivial and very fleeting.  Jesus came to bring something far more essential and substantial for life: hope.  As the Apostle Paul says in Romans 8, “I am convinced that …… nothing in all of creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Sometimes life is hard.  Sometimes life is sad.  Sometimes life is wearisome.  When we read scripture we find that Jesus, like insects to a light at night, is drawn to those times.  And when Jesus inhabits those times, Jesus doesn’t say, “don’t worry, be happy.”… or, “you have to look on the bright side of things”…. Or, “it’s not that bad, just think about what other people are going through”.  No, what Jesus says is this, “I am with you.”  And if Jesus, the embodiment of God’s power and love, is with you, there is hope.

     With that in mind, maybe there is a message that should be emblazoned on the front wall of every church, a message that can’t be missed when a person sits down on their pew, a message that declares with Christianity and Jesus is really all about:

     TODAY IS A HOPEFUL DAY.  YOU ARE IN A HOPEFUL PLACE.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord  10-28-19

Hello,

     As the news told us, Elijah Cummings, a member of Congress from Baltimore passed away a couple of weeks ago.  Apparently, when he died there was some discussion about where his funeral should take place.  There were those who said that it should take place in Washington, D.C., where he made his name.  People thought that the National Cathedral or some huge formal assembly hall would be the appropriate spot.  But neither place held his funeral. His funeral was held in the Baltimore church where he and his wife worshipped every Sunday morning at 7:00.

     The reason I was alerted to his funeral was that someone posted a video of some of the speakers on my Facebook page.  So, I clicked the link and listened to the messages that President Obama, President Clinton, and Hillary Clinton gave.  After hearing from these prominent people, I clicked on the video of the message that someone who I never heard of before gave.  It was the message that Elijah Cumming’s pastor gave.

     Apparently, Elijah Cummings and his pastor were good friends who knew each other quite well, and his pastor was there at Elijah’s deathbed when Elijah signed some official papers just before he died.  After the pastor told of his presence at this deathbed signing, the pastor said, “But that wasn’t the last thing that Elijah did on this earth.  The last thing that Elijah did on this earth was to bring you here, to his church, for his funeral.”  And with the oratory of a tremendous African American preacher, Elijah’s pastor moved me with his words.  Elijah Cummings wanted, he said, to have the powerful people of the world be touched by the Power that empowered his life, Jesus Christ.

     It may be that you and Elijah Cummings did not see eye to eye on the matters in which he dealt as a Congressperson (good Christian people often see themselves on different avenues when addressing concerns, and in my mind that is a good thing), but as I listened to his pastor I saw him paint a picture, clearer than I had ever seen before, of the Potter’s hands at work, week after week, shaping Elijah into a vessel of God’s grace for the world. Elijah’s last deed on this earth was to bring the powerful of the world to the place where the power of Almighty God might shape them, too.

     Often when I write the Bungee Cord, I invite you to be part of a worship service on Sunday morning, and when I do that I hope that you receive that invitation in the same way that those who were at Elijah Cumming’s funeral received his invitation.  My invitation does not come to you so that the pews of the church might be filled, simply for the sake of filling them.  My invitation does not come to you so that when you come to church you’ll also bring an offering that will help the church make its budget.  My invitation to you is not so that the doors of the church remain open and the institution of the church keep running.  My invitation to you to be part of a worship service is for one reason, and one reason only; that you, like I, might be shaped and molded by the power of the one whose love for you is so great that he would die on a cross for you.

     I find life to be full of challenges and struggles.  Often times those challenges and struggles are large and complex, sapping me of my energy and my wisdom.  On Sunday morning, in worship, I find the might of those challenges and struggles placed in perspective with the might of God Almighty, and the power of his love.  There is no shortage in the world of those who pour out fear, despair, and violence into it (sometimes I am one of those polluted pourers), and that is why I, like Elijah Cummings worship every week (not at 7:00 a.m., though!) in order that I might be part of God’s gracious love, pouring out into the world through the vessel that he is molding of me.

     Take a listen to the video of Elijah’s Pastor….you can find it by Googling it…and maybe, you, regardless of your power in the world, will be part of Elijah Cummings last deed, being touched by the one whose powerful love makes you and  everything brand new!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace,  (GGAP)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord   10-21-19

Hello,

     Last week I was sitting with my brother-in-law by the stream that flows next to his house, solving the world’s problems.  (I don’t think we made much of a dent….good thing that God has “the whole world in his hands.”)  It was a lovely fall day.  The trees were half-way to their color change, so there was a mixture of gold, orange and green.  The sun was shining full, and as the trees caught it rays the scenery was softened like felt.  The stream, although low, trickled by us as it gently clicked over the rocks, and the temperature was perfect for an outside summit.  It was, as my brother-in-law says, a “chamber of commerce” day.

     And then I looked up.   Directly above us, just above the treetops was a volt (apparently that is the proper name for a group of turkey vultures) of turkey vultures circling. There must have been at least a dozen of them.  When I saw them I wondered if they knew something about the impending future of the two of us over whom they were lurking.  Were they drooling with anticipation over a delightful meal being set under them?   They were high enough that I couldn’t see the whites of their eyes, but by the sheer number of them they obviously had their eyes on something…..maybe us?

     I don’t know if this circling doom has ever happened to you….not literally, but figuratively….but really.  Have you ever woke up in the morning, feeling the freshness of a new day, and then suddenly turkey vultures appear in your sight….a call from a child, a news flash, a letter from the IRS, something expensive suddenly breaks, an unusual pain.  The beauty of the day takes on an ominous feel.  Will these hovering turkey vultures be making a meal of you?  It has happened to me.  More than once….more than I can count, I think.

     In truth, the future is fraught with danger and gloom, and someone once said that it is a good thing that we don’t know what the future holds, because if we did we might not want to step into it.

     Thing is, although turkey vultures may encircle the future skies above us, they do not fly alone.  When Jesus said to his disciples as he physically left them and ascended into heaven, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age,” he left them, and us with a promise, that he will, like a mighty eagle also be encircling above us.  The turkey vultures might drool over us and think they might have their eyes on their dinner, but Jesus says they are wrong….flat wrong…because the skies and the land and all that are in them belong to him….and that includes you and me….and he has staked his claim, a claim that he will not give over to turkey vultures, one you and me.

     In the Bible there is a story of a friend of Jesus, Lazarus, who dies, and when Jesus arrives in the town, Lazarus’ sisters say to Jesus, “Lord, if you would have been here, my brother would not have died.” For many years, I heard that as a scolding of Jesus for arriving late, but as I study that story more deeply, I now hear it as a confession of faith….faith that Jesus has power over death.  I put that story to music some years ago, and the song of those sisters when they greet Jesus is, “Lord, when you draw near there is hope.”

     Hope.  When the turkey vultures are circling above, know this.  Jesus is with you always, even to the end of the age, and he will draw near with the might of an eagle.  And he has staked his claim on you, a claim that he will not hand over to any ugly turkey vultures.  “Lord, when you draw near there is hope.”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord  10-14-19

Hello,

     I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, Hinsdale, to be specific. As in every metropolitan area, our streets were lined with streetlights to put a damper on the darkness.   So what I thought was dark, was far less dark than the dark that I experience where I currently live, out in the middle of nowhere.  Where I live now, on the darkest of nights the stars glitter the skies with abundance like a cupcake decorated by a child with sparkling sprinkles.

     The other thing about living in the middle of the street-lightless nowhere is that I don’t need to pull any shades when I go to bed.  The darkness from the outside invades my bedroom, and there are no neighbors from whom to hide.  Actually, I enjoy going to bed with the shades open and gazing at the sparkling sky as I make my way into slumber.

     A couple of nights ago when I awoke in the middle of the night I found myself greeted by an intruder, the moonlight.  It was a full moon that was bright enough that the trees were casting their shadows on the hillside and the ridge across from our house was in complete view.  It so happened that the moon was situated in the sky at just the right place that it was shining like a spotlight upon me.  As a matter of fact, when I opened my eyes I was blinded by the light.

     As I lay there, I found the words of the Psalmist (139) brought to light, 

If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me,
   and the light around me become night’, 
 even the darkness is not dark to you;
   the night is as bright as the day,
   for darkness is as light to you.  (Psalm 139:11,12)

     I could imagine myself, at that moment,  swallowed up in darkness, having fallen deep into a hole, beaten and bruised, so battered that the air to cry for help not able to escape my lungs.  I could see myself being so squeezed by the darkness that life was oozing out of my pores.  I could feel despair and hopelessness like heavy debris pressing down on my soul.  And then out of nowhere a light, the bright flashlight of a rescuer lasering its way through the darkness and landing upon my face, blinding me.  And in that blinding a sudden flood of hope, a flood of hope coming from a voice yelling, “I found him!”

     When I hear Jesus talk about searching for one lamb, or one coin, I hear Jesus speak of himself much like one of those sent in to find a person after an earthquake has shattered life.  I hear him speaking of himself, “the light of the world”, searching every dark and hidden hole for the one that he loves.  And I hear the delight in his voice upon casting his light into one of the holes and discovering the one for whom he is searching.  “I found him!  I found her!”

     If you live out in the middle of nowhere, I suspect that you have experienced the searing power of the full moon on a pitch black night, but if you live where street lights are plentiful, I hope that this Bungee Cord has captured your imagination, so that you might discover, as I did on the night of which write, the determination of our Lord to find you when the world and its darkness come crashing down on you.  And even more than that, I hope that you might discover the joy that fills the universe when Jesus has found you……and this is for certain, no darkness will keep you from him, and he will find you!

“Even the darkness is light to you.”

Have a great week,

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord  10-7-19

Hello,

      Believe it or not, I, all 5 foot nine of me,  played a lot of basketball growing up.  I don’t play anymore, but I do enjoy watching it….not the pro’s, but college basketball…and for us University of Illinois fans, watching the Illinois basketball team isn’t quite as painful as watching the football team.  Anyway, one of the things that I like about watching basketball is to see the grace and agility of the players, players that would tower over me, but leaping and spinning with quickness and speed that I could never muster.

     If you have ever watched a slam dunk contest you know what I mean.  Guys taking off from the free-throw line, pirouetting in the air, passing the ball from one hand to another between their legs, and then as if putting an exclamation point on their flight, slamming the ball through a hoop ten feet in the air. And they make it look so easy.

     I have never entered a slam dunk contest, for obvious reasons.  I am 5 foot nine, carrying more weight than I used to, and my vertical jump is about an inch and a half now.  I can only dream of doing what those 7 foot, perfectly in shape, guys with a 48 inch vertical jump can do.

     But imagine with me this happening, that one day I go to watch a slam dunk contest, and as I am sitting there in the stands, Lebron James walks up to me, hands me the ball and says, “Hey, you.  Here.  Let’s see what you can do.”

     Of course, I laugh, and say, “Do you mean me.”

     “Yeah, you.”

      And believing that Lebron may have gotten an elbow in the head the night before and seeing things a bit dazed, I say, “Mr. James, are you serious?  Look at me. I could never do a slam dunk.”

     And then he looks back at me and says, “What do you mean?”

     “Well, isn’t it obvious.  I am a short, old, out of shape, gray haired man.”

     And then Lebron laughs. 

     “What’s so funny,”  I say back.

     “Have you looked at yourself lately?”  And putting a mirror in front of me, I see someone who I don’t recognize….me….but now a me who is a young, svelte, person who is standing nose to nose with him.  Amazed at what I see, he hands me the ball and says, “Go ahead, you can do it.”

     Can you forgive someone 7 times in one day for committing the same sin against you?  That is what Jesus told the disciples they must do (Luke 17:4).  Other places in the Bible Jesus says the number is higher, 70 times 7.  But even 7 times, when the disciples heard that they said, “Lord, increase our faith!” Or in other words, “Are you kidding, we can’t do that.”

     To which Jesus replies, “Have you looked at yourself lately? If you had faith the size of a mustard seed (and the Greek, which is the original language of Luke, implies that they indeed do)…If you had faith the size of a mustard seed….and you do….then you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘be uprooted and planted in the sea’, and it would obey you.”  You see, the point that Jesus is making here is not the power of faith to uproot and replant mulberry trees….it is the power of faith to forgive.  

     “Have you looked at yourself, lately?”  That is what Jesus was asking the disciples, and that is what Jesus is asking us.  The world tells us every day who we are.  The world tells us that we are people of short stature hope.  That we are people who are so out of spiritual shape that our vertical leap is no higher than getting even with others, or having vengeance on them.  That the only way for us to stay in the game is to hold everyone down and keep the guilt of their sins on their back.  So, today, when we as the disciples hear Jesus hand us the ball of forgiveness and tells us to slam dunk it 7 times…well even one time seems too much…we find ourselves saying, “Lord, we can’t do that.”

     “Have you looked at yourself lately?”  That is what Jesus says to you and me today, “Have you looked at yourself, lately.”  Today, Jesus, like Lebron James puts a mirror in front of your eyes so that you might see who you really are.  You are, as Jesus said to his disciples, people who have the faith of a mustard seed. And how does Jesus know that? Because he has planted it in you. When you were Baptized….when you heard the promise of your forgiveness….when you receive Holy Communion….Jesus is planting seeds of faith …  seeds of forgiveness in you….seeds that will rise up and produce a bumper crop of forgiveness and mercy.

     Getting even…scoring vengeance….burdening others with guilt and shame, those are nothing but weeds, stealing the nourishment of hope and peace from the soil in which we all live.  They are nothing but thistles and briars bringing pain and fear to all who rub up against them.  The world may tell us over and over again that that is what we are, weeds and thistles that make life miserable.  But today….today Jesus comes to you and me today and says, “Have you looked at yourself lately?”  You are forgiven.  You are full of forgiveness.  There’s not a single thing unforgiven in you.  “In Christ,” the Bible says, “you are a new creation.  The old has passed away, and you are brand new.”

     “Take a look at yourself,” says Jesus.  “See who you truly are.  You may never be able to slam dunk a basketball….but you do have the faith of a mustard seed….faith powerful enough to enable you to forgive someone 7 times…or even 7 times 70.”  So, go out this week with empowered by the faith that Jesus has planted in you, and when someone asks you where you got the power to forgive in an unforgiving world, then you can say with the 7 foot tall basketball player dunking a basket, “Shucks, that was nothing.  I just do what God has given me the power to do.”  Forgive. 

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord   9-39-19

Hello,

      Close, but no cigar!

     This is a phrase that is often found in my vocabulary. When I am playing pickle ball, and the ball hits slightly out of bounce, I find myself saying, “Close, but no cigar (see-gar).”  I don’t remember exactly where I picked it up, but I think I picked it up from the days that the travelling carnival came to our town and parked itself in Robin’s Park, which was right across the street from my house.  The park was a big open field, covering a peat bog (so I was told), where little league diamonds were housed, junior football practice took place, and where we kids played our neighborhood football and baseball pick-up games.

     But once a year, in the summer, the carnival would come to town for a week with its rides, cotton candy, and games.  One of the games was the sledge hammer challenge. You would get a big sledge hammer, hit a mat that was connected to a pole, and up the pole would go a metal ball that if you hit the mat with significant force, the ball would ring the bell at the top of the pole.  If you rang the bell, you got a prize…..a cigar.  If you didn’t ring the bell….well, “close, but no cigar.”

     You see, close, when it comes to the sledge hammer challenge, wasn’t good enough….no cigar.  And likewise, when it comes to salvation, close is not good enough….no cigar. When it comes to salvation, there is no middle ground.  After all, if you are dropping a net into the ocean to pick up someone who is bobbing up and down in the waves, and the rope from the helicopter is not quite long enough to save them, close is not good enough.

     But notice, when Jesus came into this world, he came all the way into the world…not just close to it, but all the way into it.  He didn’t just pretend to take on human flesh, he incarnated himself in it.  He didn’t just come close to the pain and struggles of life, he ran smack into them and took them on.  He didn’t just come close to dying, he breathed his last on the cross.  And he didn’t come close to rising from the dead and just peek out of the tomb on Easter Sunday morning, he stepped out with a victory march and is still making that march today.  When Jesus came to save, Jesus didn’t just come close….he came all the way.  Rang the bell!

     There may be a lot of really good things that come close to being able to save us….friends, family, productive work, wealth and money, fun and excitement, and the rest….but when it comes to pulling us with forgiveness out of the holes we make in our lives, or pulling us out with new life of the 6 foot hole that we will all find ourselves in one day, all those things can only come close.  No bell. No cigar.

     So, this week as you stroll through the carnival of your life…with all the challenges, thrills, fears, and confusion….take a look at a particular pole that stands in your path, the pole of the cross, and see how Jesus hit it with all of his might, the might of God Almighty, and hear his final cry from that pole, a cry of victory over every sin that might try and claim you or me.  And hear the ring from that cross-pole, “It is finished!” And then see the prize that Jesus has won, not a cigar, but new life!  And then hear Jesus say to you as he hands you the prize that he has won….a prize that no one can take away…. “Here, this is for you.”  Alleluia!!!!!!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord   9-23-19

Hello,

     Over the 37 years of my ministry, I have done lots of funerals. Funerals are one of the things that every pastor finds themselves doing.  I have done funerals for nearly every age of person.  Some of the funerals have been laden with grief, and some have been blanketed in peace.  Many times the people who gather bring with them a mixture of both.  Saying “good bye” leaves a hole in people’s hearts, a hole that never really goes away, but by the grace of God in time it is filled with blessed memories and thankful hope.

     One of the things, I believe, that has happened is that the Christian faith has become a lifetime of preparation for one’s funeral. Maybe you have heard someone say, “Are you prepared to meet your maker?”  When this becomes the focus of the Christian faith, the impression that folks get is that the Christian faith is really all about how to get to heaven when you die.

     Now, don’t get me wrong.   When I do funerals, I proclaim with all the gusto I can muster the power of Jesus resurrection over death, power which has opened the gates of heaven.  Thing is, though, I believe that the power of Jesus resurrection is a power that brings us hope not just on the day that we die, but also in every day that we live.  As I have come to know Jesus and the depth of his love for me, I am convinced that the Christian faith is far more meant to be a daily journey with one who loves every step he takes with me (even the step into the darkness of death), than a destination at which I can hardly await to arrive.

     Someone once said to me, “But Pastor, Heaven is about eternity, and doesn’t that make it more important?”  

     My response, “Well, when Jesus talked about eternal life, he wasn’t only talking about life after death, but he was talking about filling every moment of our lives with eternity.”  Because Jesus’ death and resurrection shattered the shackles of time, every tick of the clock is like the a splashing stone making ripples when tossed into the water.  It doesn’t just abruptly end and get relegated to the past, but instead it emanates into the future with hope and peace.  Our days are not preparation for eternity, they are empowered by eternity. 

     And so it is with the power of eternity that we stride ahead in life.  Failures, tragedy, sin and even death are no more than branches strewn in our path that are ground into mulch by a divine chipper, Jesus Christ.   Nothing is more powerful than his love.  Nothing can stand up to his forgiveness.  With the power of Christ in our lives, the stark paths of our lives take on a heavenly sheen.

     Christians have prayed the Lord’s Prayer since it rolled off of Jesus’ lips, and if you have ever noticed each of the petitions concerns the things that we face in our daily lives.  When we have concluded the petitions, we conclude this prayer with a doxology, “For thine is the kingdom, and power and glory forever and ever.” There is one little word in that doxology that sort of flies under the radar of our thoughts, but is in actuality the foundation of why we pray…..and that word is “for”.  It is “because”, or “for” the “forever and ever” nature of God’s kingdom, and power and glory that we place ourselves in God’s hands every step of our journey of life, even the step we take into the darkness of death.

     So, where ever you are in your journey in this life, you aren’t simply travelling toward something (heaven), someone (Christ) is travelling with you!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord   9-16-19

Hello,

     I was flipping through the channels the other day and landed upon a international swim meet for physically challenged swimmers. Apparently it was the world finals, and the participants were simply amazing.  For some of the races, all the contestants were wheeled to their starting blocks in their wheel-chairs, and the participants swam without the use of their legs.  In another race, the swimmers were all blind, and to know when they were reaching the end of the pool, a person reached out from the poolside and tapped them on the head with a tennis ball which was attached to a pole.  Race after race was simply amazing.

     I was inspired by these athletes; their resolve, their dedication, their adaptation.  It all nudged me to tackle life in their example.

     We do have a way of giving accolades to those who find themselves dealing with unique struggles to the point that they are able to accomplish amazing things.  These accolades are well deserved and need to be sounded loudly.

     Given the absolute propriety and importance of the support and encouragement that these battlers receive, it seems to me that it is likewise proper and important to remember those whose struggles are overwhelming and all consuming.  I think about those folks for whom life is so heavy that even getting out of bed is an amazing achievement.  I think about those folks who are treading along a path of increasing struggle as they age, and finding the courage to face the next day is a tremendous task.  I think of kids who ride the bus all alone every day, and that step onto the bus seems higher than an Olympic high jump.  I think of a severely autistic teen, locked in the prison of their own mind, and the parents who try daily to bring a ray of peace and hope to their child.

     The world does a pretty good job of encouraging and praising folks who make it to the spotlight (and that is good!), but maybe not so good in doing so for those who struggle in the shadows.

     Over and over again the Bible tells us that our value does not come from what we do, but from who we are.  “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)  Fact is we all find ourselves holding cards that are difficult to play.  Sometimes we play them well.  Sometimes not so well.  Either way, God is cheering us on as his children.  He applauds when we do well.  He applauds when we have small successes.  And even when we fail, God does not sit on his hands, instead God reaches down to set us on our feet again, and when our knees won’t hold our weight, God embraces us and holds us tight when we are shaking in fear.

     So, no matter where you are in the struggles of your life, in the spotlight or in the shadows, know this; God treasures you.  God treasures you with the life of his Son, Jesus, who died for you to claim you as his own, and rose from the dead so that God would have you with him forever. When Sunday morning comes, let me invite you to come and experience the depth of God’s love and delight in you as we celebrate the Easter victory over and over again.  And if the depth of your struggles might make the trek to church too hard and long, know that we will be praying for you, asking God to give you courage and strength, and asking God to open our hearts to you.

     Some give encouragement to those who battle by saying, “there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.”  That is not what God says, because God knows that is not encouragement for those who are so burdened that they cannot move.  God says this, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:5)

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord   9-9-19

Hello,

     It is dangerous to shave with an electric razor!

     Since I am “semi-retired” (My current job is to be the interim pastor for congregations while they search for a new pastor after their previous pastor has left.), I allow myself the luxury of not shaving when I have no pastoral responsibilities.  This week, that meant that I went from Wednesday to Sunday shave-less.  I have never had a very heavy beard.  In college, when we would have beard growing contests, I was in the lightweight division, and usually lost.  But as I have aged, my beard has filled in somewhat, and has also changed color to distinguished grey.  So, this past Sunday morning I had a good “GQ” stubble growing.

      My alarm went off at 6:30 on Sunday.  I crawled out of bed, shuffled into the shower, and after I dried off, I stepped in front of my mirror to shave.  I picked up my razor, an electric one, and applied it a-buzzing to my bearded face.  All was going well as I removed the stubble from the left side of my face, but when I got to my moustache, my razor immediately stopped!  One look, and I knew why.  The charge had was all used up.  I reached into my cabinet and pulled out the cord and charger, plugged it in, and figured all would be fine….but it was not.  It would not work.  The “battery low” light just kept on blinking.  No buzzing.  No shaving.

     I wasn’t quite sure what to do.  My face was still half bearded.  I briefly considered going to work as is, just to see if anyone noticed (hahaha).  Because I have always used an electric razor, I couldn’t even pull out a blade and shaving cream.  I don’t have either.  It occurred to me that I might have saved my old electric razor, so I opened up the cabinet to see if my memory was serving me right.  And it was.  There in the back of the cabinet was my old razor.  

     Of course, the reason that I replaced my old razor was that it wasn’t shaving very well, anymore.  I think it was around 15 years old.  But without another option, I pulled it out, and hit the power button on it. Red lights started blinking on it. “Battery low.”  But it did make a soft and labored hum.  Realizing that my time was limited, I quickly applied to my face. It was making a dent on my stubble, but a slow and incomplete dent.  But I pressed on, in hopes that the battery would not give out before the job was done. Fortunately it did not. Unfortunately, the job that it did was not perfect, but I decided that it would have to be perfect enough….a couple of stray stubbles and a less close of a shave.  So, I went to work a bit lopsided, shaved.

     If anyone noticed, they didn’t say anything. People tend to be polite. Nonetheless, I resolved to make sure that from now on I would fully charge my razor more often.

     To have a shaver lose its power is really a minor thing in the grand scheme of things.  But to have the thing you lean on for help when the world is collapsing around you run out of power, now that is a terrible thing.  That is why the verse from Hebrews 8 carries so much weight for me, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever.”  

     Jesus power never runs out.  When a person needs forgiveness, Jesus will always have the power to forgive. When a person needs strength to make it through struggles, Jesus will always have the power to hold them tight.  When a person has fallen in a hole of their own making, Jesus will always have the power to jump into that hole with the person and lift them out. When a person is being bullied, shunned, or shamed by the world, Jesus will always have the power to push through that crowd and stand in harms way.  Life hits everyone….everyone….with tough blows, and that is why I am thankful to know that no matter what comes, Jesus’ power will be there.

     It may be dangerous to shave with an electric razor, but one of the greatest things to know and count on in life is that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever.”  Jesus’ power never runs out.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger