Bungee Cord  2-22-21

Hello,

Today's Bungee Cord is a video....here's the link: https://www.facebook.com/jerry.nuernberger.3

Have a great week.

God's grace and peace, (gap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

 The Bungee Cord. 2-15-21

Hello,

 

What is so bad about sin?

 

The answer: sin is deadly.

 

Now that may seem a bit extreme, but when you stop and take a good look at sin, it becomes all to obvious that sin is indeed deadly.  Sin, of course, is a technical term used in the Bible, and at its heart, the Bible defines sin as turning in on one’s self.  It is an eyesight problem that keeps one from seeing beyond one’s own nose.  With such myopic sight one can see how deadly it is to speed through live sinfully.  People crashing into each other with fatal force, maiming one another, and deeply bruising those who get in the way.  Colliding with their creator.  Life becoming one cruel accident scene after another.  You see, sin isn’t bad because someone has said it is bad.  Sin is bad because it brings pain, and ultimately death.  Death to people.  Death to relationships between people.  Death to the relationship with God.

 

Some might say that turning in on one’s self is necessary in order to survive, as if life is meant to be one continuous demolition derby.  But God, the creator of life, would have us know that life doesn’t have to be that way.  God would have us know that there is one far stronger, far more powerful, and far wiser who’s entire being is focused on not just our survival, but upon robust living.  That one is God.

 

When God sent his Son into the world, it was as if God was doing LASIK surgery on our severely nearsighted eyes.  God was giving us vision to see that we don’t need to be self-consumed with survival, for the one who breathed life into us has taken that into his hands.  And with such vision, we can make our daily drive able to see the people around us, we are able to see the ditches and cliffs, and we are able to see the finish line and the one who is there cheering us on.

 

There’s not a day, though, where the road doesn’t kick up dust and bugs don’t fly across our paths, filling our eyes with blurring grime and creating irritating pain.  And to plow through life without doing some eye-washing turns us back into reckless drivers again.

 

That is why I am writing about sin today, because this Wednesday is the beginning of Lent.  Lent is forty days that we take to do some intensive care on our eyes.  The quick eye washing that we do every day has a tendency to miss a bunch of the specks that cause us pain.  The relentless disturbance of dust and bugs deepens the scratches and prevents the healing of the wounds.  Lent is a time to restore the corrective laser surgery that God has done on our eyes in Jesus Christ.

 

We take these Lenten days in order that when that which we most need to see is right in front of us, we can see it.  God wants us to see all those things that bring pain and misery to our lives and the lives of those around us breathing their last as he gathered them into himself on the Good Friday cross.   And God wants us to see Jesus leaving all those dead things behind in the grave when he walked out of the Easter tomb.  God wants us to see, see clearly, that God has taken our survival…. our life…into his hands.

 

I, for one, am looking forward to seeing that with crystal clarity, and then living life with resurrection vision, bringing life into the world instead of creating so much pain.

 

Have a great week.

 

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

 The Bungee Cord. 2-8-21

Hello,

 

Several years ago, when I was going to be interviewed to be the newly called pastor of a church, I was driving along, and the thought came into my mind out of nowhere, “Who is my favorite musical artist?”  Well, for me that is an easy answer; James Taylor.  And my favorite song he sings, “Shower The People”.

 

As it so happened when I was being interviewed, I was asked a question that I had never been asked before in such an interview; “Who is your favorite musical artist?”  Coincidence?  I don’t know, but whatever the case, I didn’t stumble a step and said, “James Taylor, and my favorite song is “Shower The People.”

 

I don’t know anything about James Taylor’s religious leanings, and “Shower the People” doesn’t seem to be an overtly Christian song, but as I hear it, it seems to be saturated with what I believe about the God who has revealed God’s self in Jesus Christ.  You see, in a world that wants us to believe that there is a scarcity of love and compassion, God would have us know that that is not so with him.  There is no end to God’s love.  It is never diminished.  It is ever flowing fountain of grace and mercy that not even the universe can contain.

 

It is true that love is risky.  When set your heart upon your sleeve, it can get easily bruised.  I believe that God experiences that every day with me.  God put his heart out in the open when he sent Jesus, and every day I respond in less than love-filled ways to God’s love for me.  But here’s the thing with love; when love is mighty river, love overwhelms risk.  When a child is caught in a burning building, just try and keep a loving parent from dashing into that building out of love for that child.  So it is with God.  In Jesus, we discover that God is unable to hold back his love for us, no matter the risk.

 

But more than risky, love is lifegiving.  It is the thing that puts strength back in your knees when you have messed up and fallen on your face.  It is the thing that opens up the window and fills your lungs with hope when the stuffiness of life is suffocating.  It is the thing that pumps purpose and direction in life when things are confusingly dizzy.  It is the thing that hold you in the palm of a hand when you are so wearied by life that you can no longer hold on.

 

And that is why love overwhelms risk, at least for God.  And as one who has experienced what the risky love has done for me, given me life, I find myself caught up in being likewise risky with love.  Drenched in the shower of God’s love for me, I can’t help but get others wet as my sopping wet life touches theirs.

 

There is no scarcity of love, at least not when it comes to God’s love.  There is no risk that God will not take to love you, and there is no barrier in all the universe that will keep God from loving you.  And there is no valve that the world can close that will keep God’s love from spewing out from you into the world…..and as James Taylor says…”will make things better.”

 

Of course, James Taylor says it better than I do, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfJWqjoekow.

 

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

 The Bungee Cord 2-1-21

Hello,

 

I thought a little bit of humor would help as we slug along through winter and the pandemic.  So, I found this joke on the internet.

 

During an impassioned sermon about death and final judgement, the pastor said forcefully, "Each member of this church is going to die and face judgement." Glancing down at the front pew, he noticed a man with a big smile on his face. The minister repeated his point louder. "Each member of this church is going to die and face judgement!" The man nodded and smiled even more. This really got the preacher wound up. He pounded the pulpit emphatically when he came to the ultimatum: "Each member of this church is going to die and face judgement!!!" Though everyone else in the congregation was looking somber, the man in front continued to smile. Finally, the preacher stepped off the platform, stood in front of the man and shouted, "I said each member of this church is going to die!" The man grinned from ear to ear. After the service was over, the preacher made a beeline for the man. "I don't get it," the preacher said in frustration. "Whenever I said, 'Each member of this church is going to die,' your smile got bigger. Why?" "I'm not a member of this church," the man replied. 

 

Snicker, snicker.

 

All laughing aside, I have never given an “impassioned sermon about death and the final judgement”.  It is not that I do not believe in “death and the final judgement”.  Death is very real, especially now, and every Sunday when I confess my faith in the Apostles’ Creed, I acknowledge that with the end of this life, I will be judged by God.  The reason that I haven’t impassionedly preached on these things is because in my relationship to God, God has impassionedly taken care of both of these things.

 

Death will come, but I do not fear it, because when Jesus stepped out of that Easter tomb, he crushed death under his feet like an ant on the sidewalk.  And my judgement will come, but I do not fear it, because Jesus will say of me, “I died for this one.  His sins claim him no more.  He’s one of ours.”

 

So, every week I hope to preach an impassioned sermon not about death and judgment, but about abundant life (life now and life forever) and God’s gracious mercy (now and forever).  I hope to help people catch a glimpse of the power of God’s love in their lives, a power that like a potter’s hand is shaping their lives to live with Christ-like hope, peace, joy and love.  And I hope, with the forgiving power of Christ’s resurrection, to undo the shackle on their leg that is dragging that ball and chain of sin, failure, tragedy and fear – that ball and chain that the world keeps on fastening back on.  And I hope that when I have done my impassioned best there will be smiles on the faces of all the members of my church that have heard my sermon, and I hope that if that man of the joke was in attendance there would be a smile on his face, too.  For what I have said is true, whether you are a member of my church or not!

 

Have a great week,

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger