The Bungee Cord 6-27-22

Hello,

What does the story of Cinderella have to do with the Christian faith?

The reason that I ask that is that when I hear some people (some of them are Christians and some are non-Christians) tell their version of the Christian story, it sounds a lot like the story of Cinderella, at least the glass slipper part. The story that I hear them tell identifies Jesus with Prince Charming who is looking for Cinderella, the one whose foot fits into that glass slipper. The foot that fits, according to these tellers, are those people who think a certain way on particular issues, live a certain way, and even believe in Jesus in a certain way. Those that don’t are like the mean and ugly (at least ugly according to Disney) step sisters, who although they yearn for the prince’s favor, because the glass slipper doesn’t fit, they do not receive his favor. When this telling of the Christian story is told the moral of the story, they say, is, if you want Jesus to love you, you need to work hard to make your foot fit his slipper.

As you may have already guessed, I do not find myself aligning the story of Jesus with the story of Cinderella. As a matter of fact, as I read the Bible, I see God telling the very opposite story. As Jesus walked this earth, the ones who tried to shut him up were the tellers of the Cinderella version: the scribes and the pharisees. They were the ones who told people that if they hoped to be in God’s favor, they needed to fit their lives into 613 laws, worship according to a strict procedure, and keep their beliefs in line with traditions that were centuries old. And if they didn’t, they were shunned by God and the community. So convinced were they of their version of the God’s story that even if something happened to you beyond your control, like leprosy or a work accident that left you to be a eunuch, you were forever outside of God’s favor and excluded from entering the temple. You had to fit in that glass slipper.

The story of Jesus that I read in the Bible is much more like a gentle, highly skilled cobbler who brings his tools and materials out into the street and when he sees someone shoeless or with shredded clumsy shoes, he says, “Come on over hear. Let’s put some shoes on you that fit.” I see Jesus to be the cobbler that carefully measures the feet, examines their unique structure, and then puts his hands to work with leather and sole to wrap those feet in shoes of grace; shoes with which they can tread through life, and even death. Oversized feet of mean step sisters, feet with bunions and callouses, feet of stable workers with manure under the toenails, feet with warts and scabs. Jesus shoes them all. The Jesus I read about in the Bible is a kind and loving cobbler who seeks to fit people’s feet with shoes that fit, not a prince charming who is seeking people who fit into a specific glass slipper.

And isn’t it true, that when you have perfectly fitting shoes, then you can better traverse the path of life. Not as much tripping and falling. Running with speed and agility. Rocks and large stones don’t turn your ankles. No blistering friction. I believe the Christian story is this: Jesus will fit you with shoes, shoes made of grace and mercy, that whoever you are (however you have thought about certain issues, however you have sought to live your life, or however you have understood Jesus working in your life) those shoes will endure the trek you are taking, and when you come to the end of that trek, Jesus, the cobbler be there with a smile on his face and say, “Good shoes, huh.”

Have a great week,

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord 6-20-22

Hello,

A couple of weekends ago, I passed my 39 anniversary of pastoral ministry. It has not been boring! Standing with families in their deepest moments of grief. Splashing the waters of God’s claiming grace on people of all ages. Going with high school youth to high adventure places. Listening to the wisdom of an elderly sage as I brought communion. Moving to towns and neighborhoods far aflung from my suburban Chicago roots. Finding myself praying with someone who has ruined their life. Belly laughing with a parishioner when I did something with the grace of an elephant. It has not been boring!

Several times over the course of my ministry I have told my congregations that I am not at all interested in institutional survival, what I am interested in is keeping the Good News of Jesus Christ proclaimed. To me it is a horse and cart thing, and as it is said, “It’s important to put the horse in front of the cart.” As I see it, Jesus, and the life changing story of his life, death and resurrection is the horse. It is the energy, the power and the driving force that propels the work of God’s people as they gather in communities of faith, the cart.

Someone did a study some years ago, and the studiers asked people who were not attending a church what their number one impression of the church is, and a vast majority of people responded by saying, “All the church wants me for is my money.” Truthfully, I can see why. When the fall comes around and churches are doing their stewardship campaigns (usually involving pledging of money) people get a letter (the only letter they get from the church) or a phone call (the only phone call from the church) asking for their pledge. They get notices of fund raising events asking for contributions. And even in leadership meetings, I have heard leaders say that if the church is going to survive we need the people who are just going along for the ride to start carrying their weight.

And this is where I have gotten myself in trouble. I say to these sort of things, “I went to seminary to be a Pastor, not an oral surgeon.” I am not a tooth puller. What I am is someone whose life has been changed by the grace of God in Jesus Christ. I am someone who rests in the promise that Jesus laid down his life for me, and that is a deed of divine love that can never be taken from me. I am someone who when I look in the mirror sees all too clearly the pain that I have brought others, myself and God, and I hear God say that those things do not have their name on me, but God has placed his name on me, Child of God. I am one who steps into each day girded by the powerful words of Jesus, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” I am one who has been picked up over and over again when I have stumbled and fallen, and every time hearing the confident call of Jesus, “Follow me.” I am one who sees the evil in the world, and no matter how monstrous that evil may be, I can face that evil with the assuredness of the resurrection knowing, “Evil, your days are numbered.”. I am one who was lost, and was found. I was one who was dead, and is now alive. I am one who was a nobody speck of carbon in the universe, and now I am a beloved child of God. I am thankful. I am thankful.

I am a pastor. Someone who has been called to be part of God’s adventure of grace and mercy in this world. I am a rock that God has thrown into this pond, and through me God is rippling waves of love from shore to shore, waves that he began with his big rock, Jesus. I believe that God is stirring up the water to give bounce to our lives, direction to our motion, and energy to our days. And it is my hope that this Bungee Cord is a rock of grace that God has thrown into your life, stirring up hope and joy and thanks in you.

And to those who worry about the survival of the church, who think we need to be pulling teeth, giving the impression that all we want people for is their money, l invite them to read the story of Zacchaeus (Luke 19), Jesus didn’t pull a single tooth there. Thankful people, live thankfully….that’s what I believe.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord 6-13-22

Hello,

A long time ago, someone took out a piece of parchment, grabbed a pen and ink, and wrote these words,

3 “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars that you have established;

4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them,

mortals that you care for them?” Psalm 8

They are ancient words, but they are words that I find forming in my brain when I look up into the skies on one of those crystal clear nights and the heavens look like a two year old’s glitter work of art. Stars hanging in our galaxy that I can see, and countless more in galaxies beyond my sight. It is an incredible wonder that the One who abides over it all would have even a passing thought about me, a subatomic speck in the universe. So unthinkable this seems to some, that they rule out such a hope as the hope of a fool and a dreamer.

Yet, that is the wonder of the Christian faith, that indeed the one whose mind, heart and hands are wrapped around the universe keeps his mind, heart and hands wrapped around you and me. It’s a faith and trust that is not born out of wishful thinking or mortal fears, but it is born out of a Good Friday cross and an Easter morning tomb. We take to heart the witness that has been passed down through the centuries that in a person who died on a Friday and who rose back to a new life on Sunday, God was at work demonstrating God’s care and mindfulness of the specks of God’s creation that carry God’s image.

From the very beginning there were those who scoffed at those who told and believed this story, saying that it didn’t happen. And why were they and are they so certain that it didn’t happen? Well, because they were certain and are certain that it couldn’t have happened. If the grave was empty, certainly someone stole the body. Dead is dead. The grave is the grave.

Christians agree with those who deny the Good Friday/Easter story that dead is dead, and the grave is the grave. As a matter of fact, every year on Ash Wednesday, Christians are marked on their forehead with a cross of ashes and these words are said, “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.” Ashes placed on our foreheads so that every time we look in the mirror we come face to face with the truth; our hands and fingers simply have no power to rival the grip and claim of death on us.

But there is another truth that those ashes speak to us, and that is that it is not the power of our fingers and hands upon which we place our hopes, but our hopes to break the shackles that death has wrapped around us comes from the one who with the power that created the universe and breathed life into it has shattered those shackles. A look to the heavens might raise of the awareness of how small I might be, but just as surely that look up raises in me the awareness of how powerful God is. Powerful enough to do more than my mind can imagine, including raising a man from the dead to live a new life….and raising me up to a new life, too.

Take a look at the heavens. Take a look at the cross. And be full of hope and wonder.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord 6-6-22

Hello,

I went golfing yesterday, not for the first time this year, but for the first time in several years I kept score. For me, golf is far more exercise than sport. I usually play nine holes, but I always walk and carry my clubs. I take them with me to tees that are set back and I carry them as I am looking for a ball (which is all too often). I figure that if I don’t play well, at least I got some good exercise.

Well, yesterday I did not play very well. I shot a 57 for 9 holes (par is 36). Lots of room for improvement this summer. I had my share of good shots: decent drives down the middle, a good 4 iron shot to the green that stayed on the , green, several longer puts that were very close enabling me to two put. But there were two holes which were an accumulation of terrible shots. Several consecutive duffs, chip shots that flew over the green, short puts that I missed – five over par on each of those holes. So, combining a lot of bogies, double bogies, and two quintuple bogies, I arrived at a score of 57.

Years ago, I was a low to mid-40’s golfer, so my hope is to return to that level of play. But having said that, I don’t want my desire to decrease my score to create such aggravation and frustration that I lose the reason that I play golf in the first play, to have some relaxing enjoyment. It is for that very reason that I have not kept score for quite a while.

Keeping score. It is not only something that golfers do. As a matter of fact it is what the world does to you and me every day. The world is always scoring us on how well we are living our lives. Are we up to par with our jobs? Are we solid spouses, parents, children? Are we keeping ourselves healthy and in shape? Are we playing with the best clubs (house, car, vacation, clothes)? Do we hold up under pressure and make those hard puts in life? Often when I finish a round of life and look at my scorecard, it is a 57 or worse.

Thing with life, unlike golf, you can’t not keep score. Sure you can try to ignore the score that the world is keeping on you, but the world keeps on posting its score in your face. So, I find myself in life, just as in golf, seeking to lower my score to something nearer to par. Improve at my job, be aware of my flaws and work on them, take care of the things that I possess, and focus harder under pressure. It is all good, and it is all worth doing. But I don’t want to lose the reason that I get out of bed everyday: to live in thankfulness each and every day that God gives me.

So, as the world puts its scorecard in front of my face, I see these words from the Bible inserted in front of the world’s tally, “ I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6) I have a great life coach! A coach that knows the game of life better than any other. A coach that has mastered the hardest shots of life. A coach that, no matter how bad I am, will not give up on me. So, when I miss a put under pressure, my coach will give me calm to try again. When I slice or hook in my relationships, my coach will show me why I mis-hit and adjust my grip and say, “Try again.” When I “peek” and really duff a shot, a shot to help my neighbor who is in need, my coach will remind me to keep my head down on my neighbor’s need. And when I worm-burn a shot, my coach will say, “Relax, you’re swinging (trying) too hard.”

In my attempt to be a par shooter in life, something that I know I nor anyone else will ever do, I am placing my trust in my coach who has said, “I will be with you always, even to the end of the age.” And when that age end happens and I find myself standing in front of my coach, I know that I will hear my coach say, “Welcome to the clubhouse, par shooter.” And I will say back, but you know that I never shot par.” And he’ll say back to me, “But I shot par on the cross and the Easter tomb, and I am giving you my score.”

Fore!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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