The Bungee Cord 8-29-22

Hello,

As of today, I am a retired pastor. I started my pastoral work in the winter of 1983 in St. Paul, Minnesota moved to Toledo, Ohio moved to Arlington, Ohio moved to Sioux Falls, S.D moved to Crooks, S.D. moved to Greensburg, Pa and ended up nearly 40 years later in Ligonier, Pa.. It’s been quite a ride. I have shared the best and the worst of times with people. I have preached hundreds of sermons and led hundreds of worship services. I have learned much about life as I have lived and worked in a great variety of communities…large Suburban church with a parochial school, an urban church surrounded by a dilapidating community, a small town church where my kids were in a school with 40 per grade level, a very large downtown regional church, two small rural churches located on dirt roads, a formerly large church in a county seat, and a small congregation in a historic town.

I recently looked at a picture that was taken at my ordination. Boy, did I look young! Although I thought I was ready to take on the world, I discovered along the way that the world is a pretty tough opponent. Many times I wished that I was wiser. Many times I wished that I could have just snapped my fingers and made things better. Many times I wished that I had thicker skin. Many times I wished I could wind things backwards and do things over and in a different way.

When I was ordained, the verse that I chose to set my direction as a pastor was 1 Kings 18:37, “Let these people know you are God and they are your children.” (Paraphrased from my first cantata, “The Lord Sent Down Fire.”) I hope that I have been a vessel of God’s grace and mercy. I hope that I have clearly proclaimed the truth to people that God welcomes everyone onto his embrace….nomatterwhat. Nomatterwhat the world thinks of you, or nomatterwhat you think of yourself, God sees you as a beloved child, so beloved that God would die and rise for you.

I began firing out the Bungee Cord nearly 25 years ago, hoping to reach folks with the grace of God nomatterwhere they were in their relationship to God. I named this weekly message “The Bungee Cord” because I believe that no matter how near or far away one feels from God, God’s grace extends far enough to embrace you in his love and draw you back to God’s heart. I believe that when God promises, “You are mine,” that is a promise that God holds on to fast against all other gods that might try and steal you away. So strong is God’s hold on you and me that not even death will separate us for the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans .

Being a pastor is a vocation (not a vacation!), a calling to be set apart to lead and to guide God’s people, not from above but from the side. I hope that God will deem me faithful to God’s calling. But now God is calling me into a new vocation, a vocation of not leading, but being led. I look forward to joining hands with the people of God in a new and different ways, taking on new adventures in helping people experience that “God is their God, and they are God’s children.” (1 Kings 18:37)

I don’t know exactly what that will look like, but I do know this, I will continue to write the Bungee Cord. It is my plan to continue to fire out a message of God’s grace and mercy every week. The Bungee Cord may be a small whisper of God’s grace in a world that screeches judgment, anger, and fear, but I hope that it is a whisper that reaches your ears, settles into your heart, and draws you back into the loving embrace of God who has promised to never let you go.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Jerry Nuernberger

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