The Bungee Cord  2-24-20

Hello,

     I read on the internet that the Texas Rangers stadium, in preparation for the season, flushed every one of their toilets at the very same time….all 2600 of them.  It must have been quite a gushing event.  The reason that they did so was to make certain that their plumbing system could handle such an cascade of sewage.  After all, it would be a bit embarrassing if the game had to be interrupted because there was a flow of unwanted debris flowing down the stands like a mountain stream from a less than capable waste system.

     I laughed when I read the story, but maybe it is not such a laughing matter at all.  Do you even take a look at your life and wonder if there is a waste system that can handle the toilet bowl of your life?  That can get rid of the filth…not get clogged up….and make you clean.  I know that the people around us can do a lot to flush the crud out of our lives.  They can tell us we are forgiven.  They can tell us that the hurt we have caused is water over the dam.  They can treat us with kindness and care.  

    But try as they might, people’s words and actions often don’t have to power to flush us clean.  The drainpipes of our lives have a way of leaving residue behind that can clog things up.   The force of other people’s forgiveness just doesn’t have the umph to clear things out.  When Jesus was asked by his disciples how many times must one forgive another for doing the same thing, Jesus’ answer was 7 times 7 (or 70), which was his way of saying you must forgive such a person every time.  When his disciples heard that, they said, “We need more flushing power to do that!”  

     The whole point of Jesus’ death on the cross was to do what you and I cannot do, and that is flush the filth of our lives with such force that not even one speck of crud is left in our lives.  On the cross, Jesus clogged up his life with all the crud the world could muster, and with the final flush, “It is finished!”,  all that putrid stuff went down the cross into the bottomless pit of death.  The Bible says that the death that Jesus died, he died once and for all.  Nothing, not even a small particle of gunk, escaped Jesus’ gathering it into himself, and nothing, not even a small particle of gunk, escaped from its flush into death.

     So, when you take a look at your life and wonder if there is any hope that the grunge in you might be extricated from your life…if you wonder whether the piling up of excrement will cause an unmovable clog….if you wonder if something you have done is so massive it cannot be displaced…..if you wonder if the grit and the grim will just always be there with its rancid reminder……Listen to Jesus cry from the cross, “It is finished!”, and you will hear what the maintenance people at the Texas Rangers Baseball stadium heard; a gushing noise so powerful to handle even the worst of toilet capacities. 

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord 2-17-20

Hello,

People have told me that they do not believe that you have to come to church to be a Christian, and you know what…..I agree with them. I strongly believe that it is not my doings or lack of doing that determines my place in Jesus’ heart. It is Jesus who has gathered me in his outstretched cross-nailed arms, and has stepped out of the Easter tomb to take my hand in newness of life that makes me a Christian. After all, “Christian” means “little Christ”, and so it is as the Bible says “not me who lives, but Christ who lives in me.” (Galatians 2)

So why go to church? Why spend a brief moment of time each week to gather with others who have likewise been claimed by Christ?

People have all sorts of reasons for not doing so, and I believe that some of them are good reasons. Some say that they don’t come to church because they don’t need people judging them and telling them to get their act together. Their act is quite together, they say. Others say that they don’t come to church because they don’t need people to tell them how to live their lives, especially when the people who are instructing them have lives as messed up as theirs. Some say that they don’t come to church because they don’t believe what the church teaches, either they don’t believe it at all or they don’t see the need to be specific in their belief.

If any of these reasons are keeping you or someone you know from coming to church, then I would say that their reasons are good. I say that because as I have come to know Jesus, I don’t believe that Jesus ever intended that people should come together to have their spiritual height measured, as if going to an amusement park and standing by one of those signs to see if you are all enough to ride. Think about Zaccheaus’ spiritual stature, and Jesus went to his house! I don’t believe that Jesus ever intended that people should come together to be treated like cookie dough and have a single shaped cookie cutter be pressed down. Think about the encounters that Jesus had with people who the world had cast out. I don’t believe that Jesus ever intended that people should come together only after they believed enough. Jesus talked about the power of faith the size of a mustard seed could work transformation in people.

So, if the church that you have gone to or have heard about is one that beats a drum of judgment, that imprints every life with one mold, or that is for people who “really” believe (of course, I don’t know when “really” really kicks in)…..than I think your decision to not go to church is perfectly valid. Because those things are not, in my mind, what Jesus intended to have happen when people got together in his name.

I am pretty sure….no confident….that Jesus intended that when people gathered around him they experienced divine forgiveness and mercy. Forgiveness and mercy so mighty that powerful peace would overwhelm them as they lived their lives. Confident that Jesus intended that when people gathered around him they would experience the embrace of God’s love that would shape their lives. Confident that Jesus intended that when people gathered around him that they would experience a lung-full of fresh air, giving them hope and strength for each day of life. 

So, if you happen upon a church that does its best to be what Jesus intended it to be and you don’t want to experience the peace of forgiveness, you don’t want to experience the love of God just the way you are, and you don’t want to breath in some fresh air…..well, if you don’t want any of these things….then I would say to you, don’t come to church.

But if you do want the things that Jesus intended to be the reason for people to get together in his name….. let me invite you to come.

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

The Bungee Cord 2-10-20

Hello,

I am doing a Bible Study with my congregation called, “The Backbone of the Bible, 33 stories that hold everything together”. We began with the stories in the first book of the Bible, Genesis, and we have weekly worked our way through the Bible. A month or so ago, we arrived in the New Testament, and yesterday our study was on the story of Jesus turning water into wine.

As the story goes, Jesus was at a wedding where the wine had run out. Bummer! And so, at the encouragement of his mother, Jesus rectifies the problem by using 6 jars whose volume each was 20-30 gallons. He had the servants fill the jars, and then when the servants drew out the contents of the jars, and they took it to the guy running the wedding to taste. When the guy tasted it he said, “‘Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.’ 

You see, the way it worked was that when weddings, which could last a week, took place wine was an essential ingredient as a catalyst to celebrate the joy of the occasion. Everyone, apparently, followed the same pattern of drinking the best wine first when the folks’ taste buds were not dulled, and then once dulled the Boones Farm stuff would come out. It was the fact that the wine that had come from those jars that Jesus had had filled with water was the best wine yet to be served that caught the guy running the wedding off guard.

So, what is the point of this story? Why did the writer of the Gospel of John place it at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry?

Well, it seems to me that he did so to introduce the story of this man, Jesus. And maybe the point of this introduction was this: the “wine” that Jesus gives is far better than anything else, and it is offered in abundance. Undoubtedly, the guy running the wedding had served what he thought was the best wine first, but he discovered that the best that humans could make was nothing compared to that which Jesus could make.

I think that is a very important thing to remember when it comes to Jesus. It isn’t that that which comes from human hands is vinegar. It can be pretty good. Family. Job. Health. Enjoyment. Kindness. Forgiveness. But it just can’t match the love, hope, peace, mercy, and forgiveness that Jesus creates. Love that is unconditional and unending. Hope that comes with the vision from the future. Peace that surpasses all human understanding. Mercy that never tires, and forgiveness that is absolute and complete.

I am not a wine snob. I can’t tell the difference between the taste of a $15.00 bottle of wine and a $50.00 bottle of wine, so I buy the $15.00 wine. But I can tell the difference in taste between a $5.00 bottle of wine and a $15.00 bottle, and that is why I buy the $15.00 wine. If you’ve only had $5.00 a bottle wine (spiritually speaking), let me invite you to taste what Jesus has to offer (spiritually speaking). You, like the guy running the wedding, just might be caught off guard too, and you’ll find yourself thankful for the abundant and free supply of the “wine” Jesus gives to you.

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

The Bungee Cord 2-2-20

Hello, 

     Have you ever found yourself in this spot?  Something has happened.  Maybe it happened because of your own doing.  Or maybe it was one of those seemingly random tragedies in life that capriciously has struck you.  And there you are.  Your hopes and your dreams  are lying around you in shambles.  The things that mean the most to you are in complete disarray – your health, your family, your financial stability.  And as you are standing there with the cold winds of fear swirling all around you, someone with all the best intentions in the world, puts their arms around you and they say, “You are going to be ok.”

      Or maybe this instead.  You have worked hard…maybe in school, maybe in your job.  There are people who you can call friends, and you spend a lot of good times together.  You have just had your annual physical and the doctor told you that you are in great health.  You bills are all paid off.  You live in a great house, in a great community, and there’s a brand new car in your garage.  And as you are standing there feeling really good about where you are in life, someone with all the best intentions in the world, puts their arms around you and they say, “You are going to be ok!”

     If you have been in either of these situations, or something akin to them, you know that there is power that comes from the past.  Sometimes that power is as destructive as a car crusher emerging from the past.  The things that we have done…the situations that we have been in…the food that we have eaten…the words that we have said….all those things can have a way of rising up out of our past with the power to crush our lives.

     And likewise, the power of the past can be as fortifying as drilling pylons deep into the ground, giving us a great foundation for our lives.  The things that we have done…the situations that we have been in….the food that we have eaten…the words that we have said….can have a way of having set a solid footing for our lives, a footing with the power to build a wonderful life.

     And when you find yourself engaged with the power of the past – whether for destruction or foundation – and someone comes up to you and says, “You are going to be ok,”  do you ever find yourself wondering, “How do they know that?”  How do they know that the power of the past isn’t going to crush you, too?  How do they know that the power of the past is strong enough for what lies ahead?

     Well, that is where the words from Jesus that were written by Matthew, that we call the Beatitudes, come into play.  Today, Jesus tells us, we who find ourselves in either struggle or ease as we wrestle with the power of the past, he tells that as powerful as the past may be, the past’s power is no match for the power of the future.  He says to us, “If you are mourning, meek or hungering and thirsting for righteousness….or if you are merciful, pure in heart and peacemakers….where ever the power of the past has led you,” Jesus, who stands in the future tells us, because he is already there, what the future holds for us, “you will be comforted, inherit the earth, filled, receive mercy, see God, be called children of God.”  Today, Jesus speaks to us out of the future, a future where Jesus is standing, and with the power of standing in the future, he says to us, “You are going to be ok.”

     You see, your friends and the people that care about you and wrap their arms around you and say, “You are going to be ok,”, they are standing right where you are standing…in the present, contending with the power of the past, and truthfully, because that is where they are standing, they don’t know if you are going to be ok.  They may be positive thinkers.  They may be confident in the foundations that we build.  But from where they stand, they don’t know if you are going to be ok.

     But Jesus knows.  Jesus knows that you are going to be ok because when he ascended into heaven, he broke the bounds of time and space.  As a matter of fact, when Martin Luther was asked, “Where did Jesus go when he ascended into heaven?”, Martin Luther said, “Jesus went into the future.”  Jesus speaks from the future, and with the power that comes from being in the future, Jesus wraps his arms around you today – no matter how deep a hole you find yourself in, or how high a tower you stand upon – no matter how fragile you are from being pummeled by life, or how strong you are from pinning life down – no matter how tired you are from trying to unbury yourself from the landfill of your failures, or how relaxed you are setting upon the mountain of your successes…….Jesus comes to you today, comes to you from the future, throws his arms around you ….and with the power of the future, a power so strong that it brings makarious….that is the Greek word for what is translated “blessed” in the Beatitudes….but maybe a better translation is “complete inner peace” – and he says to you, “You are going to be ok.” 

     Jesus knows of what he speaks!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger