The Bungee Cord
3-29-19

Hello,

I was sitting at the bar yesterday afternoon on Fisherman’s Pier in Punta Gorda, Florida. I am on vacation with my wife, visiting my sister-in-law. They had abandoned me (actually it was the other way around) to the aisle of shops, and besides, the NCAA games were on. So, I found an outside bar (it was 75 and sunny!) to grab a glass of wine and pass some time. 

The bar was full, but I found an empty seat between a couple of guys, who I surmised had likewise been abandoned. So, I said to the guy on my left as I sat down, “So, have you been abandoned by women-folk, like I?”

“Well,” he said with a sort of male grunt in his voice, “Yea. I’m a compulsive buyer. If I see something I want, I buy it. So, I don’t go in those stores. My wife, my buddy and his wife are out shopping.”

“Oh,” I said, “probably good to just wait here. Besides, the games are on.”

“Don’t really care about the games.”

“You vacationing, or are you a resident?” I asked.

“Moved here a couple of years ago, bought a house….increased $200,000.00 since I bought it.”

“Wow,” I said. “Good for you.”

“Impulsive buyer, you know. I just try and keep things simple.”

“Oh,” I said, “me, I find that life can be pretty complicated sometimes.”

“Nope,” he said as he stuck out his hand, “Go to the middle east, you steal, and they cut this thing off. Those people who invented Narcan (opium overdose fighter) should be shot. All those crazy people….the government let them all loose. Lock um up!”

“Oh.” 

Having found out I was in the “preaching business” earlier in our conversation, he said, “Are you going to write a book?”

“A book?” I asked.

“Yeah. You’ve dealt with all these people. You must have a lot of stories to tell.”

“You’re right, I have dealt with a lot of people, but I am not going to write a book. People entrust their stories and lives to me, and I want to honor that trust. No book.”

“Oh. So how is the preaching business?”

“Well, I am just part time now. Been doing this for 36 years, and it has taken a toll on me. Just need to cut back,” I said. “I have found that life is complicated, and I just want to be someone who brings people hope.”

“Some people don’t deserve hope,” he snarled.

“Well, I think everyone does.”

“How about those drug addicts. They just get that Narcan, and then they go right back to the drugs. Should shoot those people who invented it.”

“Well,” I said, “I have found that when it is your son who is the opium user, people feel differently.”

“Oh,” he said.

We talked for a while, the conversation continually drifting the same way. Him…life is simple. Me….life is complex. My wife returned, thankfully emptihanded, and so I got out of my chair and said, “Nice to meet you.”

As I got up we shook hands and he said to me, “You know what. I think God planned on you to sit down next to me today.”

“Well,” I said back with a genuine smile on my face, “well, I don’t know about that. But it was great meeting you and talking to you today.”

I guess that one never knows when one has the chance to bring the hope of the love of God into people’s lives…..even while sitting at a bar in Punta Gorda, Florida.

Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord  3-18-19

Hello,

     You may remember that a couple of years ago we went hunting for a puppy to accompany our old dog through the sunset of his life.  Duncan is his name.  You will be glad to know that at the old age of 12, he’s still pretty spry.  Maybe his companion is keeping him young?

     We’ve had our once called puppy for a little over two years now.  He, like Duncan, is a Gordon Setter.  Unlike Duncan, he is a Gordon Setter with notable blood lines. McMahon is his name.  Both his mother and father were champions in the ring and in the field.  He is a rather statuesque dog, and his alertness is always on high alert.  He loves to chase a ball in our back yard, and he even brings it back.  His favorite activity, however, is chasing leaves.  As the wind scurries the leaves across the ground, he hunts them down, pounces on them, and chews them up.  Another favorite pastime for McMahon is stalking the chickens in the chicken pen. They are enclosed behind an electric fence, preventing their death, so McMahon lays and stares at them until one of them moves, and then he leaps into action chasing the chicken around the fence.

     Recently, my brother in law who hunts, approached us with the idea of getting McMahon trained to hunt.  Figuring that we were depriving McMahon of his natural blood-line instincts it sounded like a great idea.  So, we lined up a hunting evaluation for McMahon done by someone who regularly trains bird dogs.  This past Saturday was McMahon’s entrée into the hunting world.  I had great expectations for him to become a great hunter.

     But he failed, miserably.  When he got there, he was not very welcoming to the trainer, barking aggressively at him.  He was a bit overwhelmed by all the other dogs who were barking at him from their kennels. He was, of course, distracted by the leaves that were all blowing around him on that rather windy day.  And when the test birds were released, he only showed passing interest in tracking it down.  He failed.  Miserably.  So badly did he fail that the trainer said that he was “soft”, not exactly a word of desire for a hunting dog. Soft.  Failure.  McMahon.

     But here’s the thing.  I still love him.  Despite his failure at hunting.  Despite his falling short of his blood lines.  Despite his puppy-like exuberance.  Despite his ill-timed desire for attention.  Despite the drool that oozes from his oversized jowls onto clothing. Despite it all…..I still love him. He’s my dog….a best friend.  

     When I consider my human ability to love my dog beyond my dog’s shortcomings, pestering, and even failure, I find an insight into God’s love for me despite my shortcoming, pestering, and even failure.  I know how often I fail.  I know how often I desire God’s complete attention.  I know what a mess I make of this gift of life that God has given me.  Nevertheless, God says that he still loves me.  Loves me so much that he would send his Son to die for me so that nothing would separate me from him, and loves me so much that he would raise Jesus from the dead so that I would always be with him. 

     When I look at my life and who I am, it is hard to believe that God would love one such as I.  Of course, God is always at work loving me and seeking to convince me of his love for me….calling me his child, forgiving me over and over again, and nurturing me with grace and mercy.  But this weekend, in the light of McMahon’s miserable failure, and my abiding love for him, I have caught another glimpse that there is truth in God’s word of love for me….one who also miserably fails.

     For you, too.

Have a great week,

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord 3-11-19

Hello,

     I think I need to go back to seminary for further instruction, Imposition of Ashes 101.

     Last Wednesday, we began Lent as we always do with Ash Wednesday.  I don’t know how long Christians have be observing the practice of placing a cross of ashes on the forehead of those who come to worship on Ash Wednesday, but I am quite certain it has been for a long time.  For a long time, people have begun their 40 day Lenten journey of reflection and restraint by coming to the front of the church during the Ash Wednesday worship service and have a cross of Ashes placed on their foreheads and hearing the truth of the human condition, “Remember you are dust, and to dust you will return.”

     Well, anyway, this past Ash Wednesday I arrived at church early in the evening so that I could prepare the ashes for imposition. That sounds like a rather formal thing that a pastor might have instruction on in seminary, but in truth it was one of those things that seemed to slip through my education.  How do you prepare a pile of ashes so that they can be applied to someone’s forehead?

     Over the years, I have come up with my way of preparation. I take a bit of baby oil, not too much though lest the ashes become goopy, mix it in with the ashes and produce a sort of sticky but dry substance.  Also in the past, I have taken the safer route by buying a packet of ashes from a church store (yes….you can buy ashes).  When you buy them they come very finely crushed and uniform in size. Many churches, however, make their own ashes.  They make them out of the Palm Sunday palms that people have kept at their homes for a year.  They bring their dried palms (a visual sign of how our faith can become rather fickle, shouting Hosanna one day, and another day our praises have sort of dried out) on the Sunday before Lent and burn them.  Thereby when they are placed on our foreheads, it is a physical confession of our up and down faith, and speaking to us the truth that our only hope is in the grace of God who sent his son to die on a cross for us.

     Unbeknownst to me, this congregation which I am serving as an Interim Pastor, is one of those congregations that creates ashes from palm leaves that they have burned.  So, when I came to worship on Ash Wednesday, I found a container of ashes that were apparently burned last year.  Although the ashes were not super fine in their texture, and although they were not completely uniform in size, they were pretty close.  So, I dumped a tablespoon or so of the ashes in to a small bowl, added a couple of drops of baby oil, and began to stir.  After a while, it seemed like I had accomplished my preparation goal….a dry, but sticky substance.

     But when it came time in the service for me to apply the ashes on the people’s foreheads, I found out that my preparation was far short of perfect.  Instead of transferring a small amount of “soot” to my thumb, I could either get nothing to go on my thumb, or I would get boulder-size (well…not quite that big) clumps on my thumb.  You can see where this caused a problem.  When I marked people’s foreheads, the ashes didn’t just stay on their foreheads, but because of the quantity of ashes that I had on my thumb, often times they came tumbling down people’s faces….landing in their eyelashes and dropping on their shoulders.  So, when the people heard me say, “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return,” the message came like a bold and all caps text….shouting the truth of the human condition.  Not just a cross of ashes on their foreheads, but an avalanche of ashes on their bodies.

     I am not sure that the folks needed an amplified version of the message of Ash Wednesday, but they got one.   Some say that compared to generations ago, the reality and power of death is less.  People live longer.  Medicines fight off deadly disease.  Safety measures are normal parts of life.  So, maybe the cascade of ashes is not so out of line, after all.

     Whether appropriate or not, I know this: given the amplified message of Ash Wednesday that my people received……I am going to do all that I can to counter it with overwhelming loudness on Easter!  For when Jesus rose from the dead on Easter Sunday, he did so with a sonic boom that even brought deafness to death. Because of Jesus, death’s words do not have the final word….it may be that the human condition is a dust-bound journey….but thanks to Jesus, his death and resurrection, death’s dust will be gathered together into new life….life filled with the living breath of God….life filled with timeless life of God….life filled with the unending wonder and presence of God.

     “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Those may be Ash Wednesday’s Lenten words….but, get ready, they aren’t the last words that you are going to hear!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord  3-4-19

Hello,

     For centuries, Christians have joined Jesus on his journey to the cross, and the name of this cross-bound path is Lent.  It is a 40 day journey, numbered so recalling the 40 days that the Bible tells us that Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness, and also recalling the 40 years of the wandering in the desert of the people of God with Moses in the Old Testament.  It is meant to be a time of  personal reflection and intentional restraint.  As we reflect on the clutter of our lives that has gotten in the way of our relationship with Jesus, we, as travelers naturally do, unload them from our shoulders so we might more ably follow Jesus.

     It may sound like these 40 days ahead of us are primarily about us, about us getting our act together to be better Christians.  But in truth, the focus of our journey is not us, for if that were to be the case, we might simply go round and round in circles of guilt or get stuck navel gazing in fear and going nowhere.  The focus of the Lenten path is on the one who leads us, Jesus.  Listen to this verse from 1 John 4.10

“In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

      At the base of our journey with Jesus, whether in Lent or not, is the first-given love and mercy of God, and there is a word for this love, grace.  Grace.  Grace before we even take our first steps.  Grace that shepherds us along the path.  And Grace that makes everything brand new when we need follow no more, having arrived in the undiminished presence of God.  Jesus, the embodiment of God’s grace is our focus.

     One of the things that happens when we take our focus off of Jesus, we can also lose sight of the grace of God.  God’s grace suddenly becomes something afar in the distance, the thing that either is the destination of our self-plodding journey, or it is the thing, like an ox-cart that will pick us up and carry us after we have gone as far as our spiritual muscles will take us.  And when this happens, the journey can, and I believe always will, become very hard. Hard as we carry an ever-weightier backpack of our failures.  Hard as we get bruised and beaten as we blindly stumble over boulders and branches that life throws in the way.  Hard as the mire makes each step more difficult and energy consuming…..and we wonder, will we make it?

     That is why, as we set our sights on the journey with Jesus to the cross, it is vital to know that this journey is not only bound for grace, it is begun with grace and propelled by grace.  When Jesus says to you and me that he doesn’t care how weak and feeble we are, he wants us along with him in the journey…..that is grace.  When Jesus says to you and me when we run into obstacles too large for our muscles to lift out of the way, “Stand back!”, and with one mighty kick that obstacle is sent flying…..that is grace.  When Jesus says to you or me when we have stumbled, even the 70^thtimes 7 time, “Here, I will pick you up,”…..that is grace. When Jesus says to the rest of the group, “Hey, where’s (your name)?  We have to stop and search.  We’re not going anywhere until (your name) is found,”….that is grace.  And when this journey comes to its end, you will hear Jesus lift you out of the darkness of the grave and say, “Let me show you the place that I have prepared for you in the eternal presence of God,”….that is grace.

     You see, grace is not the goal of our lives and faith, grace is the essence of our lives and faith.  So, as you pack up your things for this 40 day Lenten journey, know this, God will be leading, guiding, and sustaining you every step of the way with the most important thing in this journey, his grace.

Have a great week,

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger