The Bungee Cord 1/31/22

Hello,

Some years ago, I heard of a study that was done on the effect of harsh and negative comments directed at kids. The study concluded that it takes seven positive comments to override each negative one. Negative comments make dents in kids’ lives that are deep and long lasting.

The reality of the world that most kids live in is that their worlds are strewn with landmines of negative comments. Words that slip out of parents’ mouths in times of frustration and anger. Torments greeting kids when they step on the bus, or walk into a classroom. Subtle stabs when the T.V. turns on. Social media that can be brutal. Coaches who forget what is most important. Most kids are pretty bruised and beaten up, even the ones who seem to have weathered the barrage, when they put their heads down on their pillows each night.

One of the main reasons that I decided to be a pastor was that there was a place where the bombardment of negativity was far less prolific: my church. I felt the warmth of people’s care for me when people of all ages took the time to get to know me. We had interns from the seminary who took an interest in building me up. My peers, although not perfectly, saw the best in me and celebrated it.

As I spent my growing up years in the milieu of the church, I came to learn that the reason for the care that I was receiving was the rock upon which the church lived, Jesus. In a world that counted my strikes, Jesus counted them as his own and gave me a fresh count every day. In a world that admired me for what I did well, Jesus admired me for image of God in which I was created, which was none of my doing. In a world that took a magnifying glass to my blemishes, Jesus was constantly magnifying his love for me in the community of Christ.

When it came time to make a vocational decision, I found myself many worthy options, but I decided to pursue the ministry because I wanted to be part of a world that built people up with the love of Christ. It is true that you don’t have to be a pastor to, as James Taylor says, “shower the people with love” (my favorite JT song). As a matter of fact people who aren’t pastors are more on the front lines in fighting the barrage of negativity. But as a pastor, I hoped to channel my skills and abilities in equipping them with the grace of God as they went out into the trenches.

About a month and a half ago, I met with our church council (the leaders of our church) and asked them to join me in un-denting the lives of the kids in our congregation. Our church is not big, and when we went through our list, we discovered that we have 44 kids under the age of 21 as members. So, I asked the leaders of our church to join me in writing a “grace note” to each of these young folk that we would send out at the end of January. I got a blank stare when I first proposed this project. They, like most of us, are quite adept at seeing the missteps that kids make, and point them out to them. Additionally, we adults can get so caught up in the details of our lives, that we simply don’t see the kids around us (in our case that is easy to do, because so many of those 44 we never see).

“What’s a grace note?”, I was asked.

“Well,” I said, “it is simply a word from you expressing your thankfulness for that person’s presence in your life.”

Over the course of the last month and a half, I received several e-mails from our leaders asking for further explanation. The truth is that we aren’t very diligent in telling people of the blessing that they are in our lives. But, yesterday, in our worship service, as we installed the new leaders of our congregation, the council, I had them come forward with their grace notes which we placed in a basket. As they placed their grace notes in the basket I said to them and our congregation that this is the most important thing that they will do throughout the year in their leadership. Not making sure the bills are paid, or that the property is well maintained, or that things run smoothly….but keeping us on the track of being a place of grace and mercy in a world that is strewn with landmines of shame and guilt.

We gathered our basket of grace, and I am excited to see just what might happen when these 44 young people find 10 notes in their mailbox from people they may or may not know, simply telling them that they are loved with the love of Christ.

Ten notes….that will cover 1 ½ negative comments that they might have received according to researchers. But my hope is that it will, by the power of God, blow those negative comments out of the water, and fill their lives with hope, peace, love and joy.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord

Hello,

Has anyone ever asked you, “Why do you believe in God?”

I find it interesting that over the course of my nearly 40 years of being a pastor, I do not think that that question has ever been asked of me. Not even once.

I have, however, found myself asking me that question. “Why do I believe in God?”

Through the centuries, many have tackled this question. Some have answered it by pointing to the creation, and saying, “How could you not believe in God?” Others have drawn upon their skills in logic and they say, “Logically, it makes sense to believe in God.” Still others recount some miraculous event in their lives and draw their belief in God from it. And some, I am sure because some preacher has told them they have to, believe in God in order to go to heaven after they die.

These answers may provide a link to belief in God for some people, but for me they do not span the chasm between unbelief and belief. For me, creation, though amazing and awesome is also capricious and faltering. Logic falls short because it has led some to not believe. Two people experiencing the same miraculous event are apt to differently attribute it. And, if it is true that God only likes those who like him, I am not too sure that such a God would like me enough to have me around forever.

Why do I believe in God? The clearest answer for me is that I was raised in a home that believed in God, and I am thankful for that. But I know, and you know, that belief that is based on another’s belief may be a good foundation for ongoing belief, but in order for that belief to be an active catalyst to life, it needs to be personally asserted, especially in our day and age.

So, maybe the more pertinent question for me is, “Why do I continue to believe in God?” Here’s my answer, “Because God wants me to.” For some divine reason, it seems clear to me that God wants me to believe in God. Like a lover who is stricken with love for another, and wants the other to believe it and take it to their heart, so God, who the book of John says “is love”, wants me to believe in God and take it to my heart. To believe that I am not, as Kansas says, just “dust in the wind”. Instead as the Psalmist says, I am “the apple of God’s eye.” To believe that my life is not at the mercy of the vibrations of the universe like those football players on that electronic game that we used to have when I was a kid. Instead it is guided and led by a shepherd who would lay down their life for even one sheep. To believe that I am not an accident that will be forgotten, but instead I am a jewel that will be eternally treasured.

It seems to me that that is what the Bible is all about. It is about a God who wants to be believed in. So deep is God’s desire to be believed in that God took the ultimate step to create belief. That is what Jesus is all about. “Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, 2but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. 3He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word.” Hebrews 1:1

To some, this may seem like a circular argument, but to me no less circular that the answer given by a bride or groom at a wedding to the question, “Why did you marry the other?”

“Because the other showed me who they were: someone stricken in love for me, and I took it to heart.”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord 1-17-22

Hello,

Thank you for your prayers.

Thank you for your care.

Thank you for being a friend (add the “Golden Girls” tune)

A week has passed since my surgery to remove a kidney due to the unwelcomed residence of a cancer tumor that decided to make its home there. The first several days of recovery were rough (my wife, Kate, knows that I am a bit of a wimp, but even she would say it was a rugged road). I am letting my body heal with some rest, and I have every expectation that I’ll be back in the saddle at work a week from today. Likewise, everything that I have been told by the doctors gives me every expectation that this cancer is behind me. Thank God.

When I was younger, I thought the job of a pastor was to challenge people to be faithful Christians, and for some pastors that may be true. But when I was in seminary, I ran into a professor, Gerhard Forde, who gave me a different direction to pursue. Instead of challenging people to be faithful Christians, he said that the job of a pastor is to ignite and fuel a fire of God’s grace in their lives so that people might have the faith to overcome the challenges of life.

That stuck in my heart, and that is what I try to do as a pastor, and as the writer of the Bungee Cord. It has become very clear to me that life is full of challenges, many small, but some very big. In the scheme of things this kidney/cancer challenge has felt big, but I know that many who have been met with the diagnosis of cancer face a far greater challenge than I have. I can also think of a Mack Truck full of different kinds of challenges far more severe than mine that hit people, and maybe have even hit you.

As I trudge my way through the challenges of life, it does not seem to me that God, who loves me so much that Jesus, his Son, would die for me, would involve himself in my life by giving me yet another challenge….a challenge that I could never fulfill. Rather, as I read the first chapter of the book of John, “and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it”, it seems to me that instead of giving me a challenge, he has given me himself. Notice that John does not write, “There’s a light at the end of the tunnel”. That’s a challenge. John writes, “the light shines in the darkness”. That is powerful hope.

Each one of your “likes”, comments, emails, messages have been logs of grace thrown on the fire of God’s love for me. Each one of them embodied a depth of care and love for me that I could not have imagined. When I needed a bonfire in this darkness, you fueled it! Thank you.

So, it is my hope that a tangible sign of my thanks to you is my weekly Bungee Cord. I hope that in receiving it you see a log of God’s grace being placed upon a fire of hope for you and the world. I hope that if the fire is only smoldering in your life, the Bungee Cord may be a spark to ignite it again. Some years ago, I wrote a song entitled, “Lord, When You Draw Near There Is Hope.” I have seen the truth of those words as you have drawn near to me, bringing Christ to me. I hope those words ring true to you, as I draw near to you in Christ-born love.

Thanks, again.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord 1-14-22

Hello,

The first house I lived in as an adult was a simple house in St. Paul., Minnesota. Mustard yellow stucco. But it was ours. It had a unattached two car garage, mustard yellow stucco, too, and it was placed about 50 feet behind our house giving us a long St. Paul drive way to shovel, by hand. Of the 4 winters we lived in that house we had 2 winter snow falls of 120+ inches. Lots of shoveling.

One fall morning I woke up to go to work and on my way to the garage, I noticed that one of the garage doors was wide open. I stuck my head in and looked around and I discovered that we had been broken into. My bicycle was gone.

It wasn’t the end of the world, but it was a nice bike. We reported it to the police who said they would keep their eye out for my bike, but in truth I had no hope of ever seeing it again. If you have ever been broken into, you may have felt what I felt. I felt an eerie feeling of vulnerability. My soap bubble of feeling safe and secure was burst.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I was broken into again. This time it wasn’t my garage. It was my body. Some cancer cells have apparently been stalking my body, and they broke in and took up residence in my left kidney. They were discovered because of tests that I have been taking to seek out a reason for high blood pressure that I have been dealing with for a number of years. Noticed with an ultra-sound. Confirmed by a CT scan, and discovered by surgery to remove my left kidney.

So, if you were wondering where the Bungee Cord was last Monday, it hadn’t been written because I was, on Monday, a bit preoccupied getting those squatter cancer cells out of my body. The doctors removed my kidney, and they believe that they have gotten everything that they need, and I should be able to proceed on with life rid of my cancer…..also rid of one of my kidneys. The recovery has been significantly harder than I had anticipated, but as of today, Friday, I am doing much better. Able to get out of bed by myself and things are finally “moving”, I know TMI.

I write this to you in this weeks Bungee Cord, not to solicit your pity or even kind thoughts. I write this to you because after this week’s break in, I am feeling the same sort of feelings that I felt when my garage was broken into. Much more elevated, though. I have a very eerie awareness of my vulnerability, and my bubble of naïve safety has been popped. Truth to be told, I have always been aware of these things in my life….but until the break in happened, they seemed to be distant feelings.

When I heard the doctor tell me that the mass was cancerous, I felt like I had just been hit by a Mack truck, even though I knew that it most likely was. I started weeping as I told the surgeon, ”Thanks for saving my life.”

Some may say it to be so, but I do not view my faith as a crutch to lean on in times of struggle. What I experience my faith to be is to discover that I am held in the hands of One whose power is far greater than mine, and whose love is more than I can imagine. When I can hold on no longer, I discover that I am being held…..nomatterwhat.

And that is what I am experiencing now. I have much confidence that the road ahead is quite clear of cancer, but also with a heightened awareness that I live every day stepping into the unknown. And so I step into the future, singing a song that I have sung before. A Rich Mullins song, “We’re Not as Strong as We Think We are.”…..singing the last line of the chorus with increased gusto, “….you have been my king of glory, won’t you be my prince of peace. You have been my king of glory, won’t you be my prince of peace.”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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