The Bungee Cord

Hello,

On my return from my recent trip to the Midwest, I was about 150 miles from home, and a red light appeared on my dashboard. The light was in the shape of an oil can, and under the light were the words, “Oil service needed.” I started pressing buttons to try and figure out the cause of the alert. I have been driving this car for about a year now, and I have yet to know how to manage the buttons and the touch screen. So, there I was cruising along at 70 mph with trucks and cars hemming me in, bewildered and wondering if at any moment my engine might explode. I couldn’t just pull over, and the nearest exit was miles away. I kept pushing buttons, and the alert still lit on my dash. Finally, I got to a screen that was monitoring my oil, and it said “Oil Level OK.”

WHAT?!?!? If the oil level is ok, why the alarm? Was something being misread? Was there some other problem? By this time, I came upon a rest stop. I pulled off, stopped my car, and began pushing buttons again to try and have the car tell me what the oil level was. Sure enough, the oil level was ok. After performing the check, the red light turned into a yellow light, “Oil Service Needed”. Still confused, I decided that if the light was yellow, I would just press on, hoping that I would make it home without ruining my car.

And I did! I called the Mini dealer and made an appointment to address the warning light. “Just bring it in,” they said. That is why I am sitting here in the service department writing this Bungee Cord. Apparently, what my car was telling me was merely that I needed an oil change. A lot of bluster for something so routine.

I have found the same thing happening as I cruise through life. Suddenly a red warning light goes off: “trouble at work”, trouble at home”, “trouble with friends”, “trouble with God”. “Service Needed!” My response to these life alarms is the same as my response to my car alarms; I start pushing buttons trying to figure out just what the problem is. The answers are unclear, and panic starts to set in. I push on, hoping that whatever is wrong won’t ruin my life. Finally finding some sort of rest stop, I quit pushing buttons, put my hands together, and give God a call.

“Just bring it in.” That is why I find myself sitting in a pew in God’s service center every week. Sometimes I discover that alarm that the world set off was far greater than the problem and changing the corrosive words that had been going through my head with the life renewing word of divine forgiveness is all I needed. In such cases, find myself almost laughing at how the bluster of the world becomes quieter than a whisper when Jesus speaks.

Of course, there are times in life when the situation calls for a loud alarm. Life can hit pretty hard, and we can mess things up pretty badly. When this happens and we cry out to God, God responds with the same words, “Bring it in”. And that is when God does major work on our lives. He begins with changing the fearful words in our minds with, “I am with you and I won’t leave you. You need not fear.” And then to cement those words, he unites himself with us. “This is my body…this is my blood…for you.” Jesus grabs ahold of us from the inside. “I’ve got you. We will make it through, together!”

It may be that when we leave that repair shop we might feel like we are still sputtering, but Jesus goes with us promising to keep working on our lives until we are renewed with hope, until we shake the dust off of the mess that has been clinging on, and until we fearlessly step on the gas pedal singing a song of thanks and praise.

“Just bring it in.”

Have a great week,

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord 1-25-23

Hello,

I am stranded in South Bend, Indiana due to a winter storm warning across Ohio. I left last Monday to visit my folks and brother in Davenport, and since I was already 2/3 the way there, and I am a. schedule-less retiree, I went further on to Sioux Falls to see some old friends. It’s been a great trip up until now as I am stuck in South Bend for another day. When I have gone to get a meal, I make sure to wear my Illinois hat….don’t want people to think I am a Irish fan!!!!

A couple of nights ago I went in search of an evening meal, and I wound up in a nice Italian restaurant in La Crosse, Wisconsin. I took a seat in the informal dining room where two TV’s were on, and Family Feud was playing. As I have written before, I enjoy the program for its humor and the glimpse into our culture that it gives. Unfortunately, as I have seen in other TV provided restaurants, the sound on the TV was off. That meant that I had no idea what question the contestants were responding to. I could only see their responses. So, I thought it might be a fun exercise to try and figure out the questions. On a couple of the rounds, I could not even get an idea of the question, but on one round, I think (but I will never know because the sound was off) I figured out what the question was….first tile turned over, dark windows….second tile turned over, coffin….third tile turned over, no garlic….and with that I think I had discovered the question, “How would you know you were in a vampires house?” The rest of the tiles were flipped over, and although I forget what they were, they confirmed my guess.

This experience got me to thinking that quite often we find ourselves doing the same thing in life with God. The world has turned God's volume is off, and all we have to see to answer our questions to God are tiles that get turned over. When troubles come and we ask God, “What next?”, a doctor’s prognosis if flipped over. When confusion hits and we ask God, “Where am I?”, a bill comes in the mail. When we come to a fork in the road and we ask God, “Which way?”, a phone call from a friend is flipped over. The world does a good job of making so much noise, or clogging our ears so that it is hard…or even impossible…to hear God’s word to you and me, leaving us to try to faithfully discern God’s word by the tiles that are flipped over.

But apparently God is well aware of the world’s attempts to silence his voice, because God goes beyond just flipped tiles. God is determined to have his word reach us..He comes to us in tangible ways to answer us with unambiguous clarity. “What next?”, we ask, and Jesus dies on a cross to embrace us with a love that nothing can sever. “Where am I?”, we ask, and with the splash of water God stakes his claim, “You’re with me.” “Which way?”, we ask, and as bread and wine slide down our throat the word of God settles in our guts, “Have no fear, I am with you.”

It is true that God’s word can sometimes slip through the cracks of noise or the ear muffs that the world places on our ears, but even then it is often muffled or mixed up. That is why churches throw open their doors on Sunday morning (and other times) inviting people to come in….come into a place where stained glass windows block out the noise of the world…come into a place where the brutal cacophony of the world is shut out by the peace of God…come into a place where the love of God for you is magnified with universal power….come into a place that looks not at the failures or successes of your life, but as one who is Jesus’ victory prize…come into a place where you don’t have to try and have your questions answered by flipped tiles…come to a place where God’s volume is loud and clear.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace. (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord. 1-16-23

Hello,

Today, I have some bad news for you. You did not win the Mega Million Power Ball. Someone in Maine is now 1.3 Billion dollars richer than they were last week. Too bad for you.

I was watching CNN the night before the drawing, and the reporter was talking about the drawing that was to happen the next day. He said that the odds of winning were 1 in 350 million. So, in the words of the movie “Dumb and Dumber”, he was telling all of you who bought a ticket, “you mean I have a chance.” I can only imagine the look on the face of the person who, against all odds, picked the winning numbers.

1.3 billion dollars. Unless the buyer was one of the rare people in our country who already has that amount of money in the bank, overnight that person’s life was changed in ways that are hard to imagine. No more worries about putting food on their table. No more worries about rent and utilities. No more worries about keeping their job. Sure there would be a lot of adjustments and “friends” coming out of the woodwork, but with a bit of wisdom, those problems are ones that most of us would be willing to accommodate.

No one knows as of today who the buyer of the ticket is, but imagine with me this possibility: imagine that someone bought this ticket as a Christmas present for a friend. I suspect that when the one to whom the ticket was given opened the card and saw it, they probably thought “nice thought, but in truth a pretty cheap present.” After all, the odds of winning were 1 in 350 million. I can imagine that the receiver might have just put it back in the card and sat it aside with all the other cards that had gift cards to stores they never shopped at, soon forgetting that it was even there at all.

But the giver did not forget the gift, having written down the numbers that were on the ticket. One can only wonder what feelings might go running through the purchaser’s body. Excitement in having picked the winning numbers? Regret in having given the ticket away? What should the purchaser do?

What a shame it would be not to tell the one to whom the ticket was given. What a shame it would be for the recipient to live without the knowledge of the life changing gift that had been given. It seems to me that it would even be mean or cruel to keep the news of the value of that ticket a secret. All the unneeded worries and fears that would be carried. All the people that the ticket holder could help.

It is hard to imagine someone not telling the recipient of the gift that had been given to them. It is hard to imagine holding back the thrill of calling the person up and telling them of the life changing gift they had received. It is hard to imagine not getting in one’s car and going over to the recipient’s house, banging on their door, and anticipating seeing the look in their friend’s eyes when they tell them the good news.

What God did in Jesus – sending his son into our world, to live, die and live again – so that nothing in all of creation can separate anyone from God’s love – is literally called, in the Bible, “good news.” The word that has been used as a translation for “good news” is Gospel. And when you think about what the good news that has been given to the world in Jesus Christ is (to be held in the embrace of God, now and forever), the Mega Million Powerball prize in comparison is only a matter of pennies.

Even though it might appear the odds are virtually nil that a universal god would care about the speck of dust that you and I are, that is exactly what God Almighty has done in Jesus Christ. Although some have said that Christians are guilty of shoving religion down other people’s throats, (and I would agree if Christians are merely telling you how you should live your life), but if they are telling you about Jesus….about the depth of God’s love for you so that “neither life nor death” can take you away from him, then I would say that such Christians are only doing what a dear friend would do for someone who is holding a winning ticket.

So, the fact is that unlike how I began this Bungee Cord, I have Good News for you: God has given his Son to you…..you have THE winning ticket!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord 1-9-23

Hello,

“You should change your shoes if you are going to rob a bank.”

That is what was said to me as I got off my short daily exercise on the elliptical machine and passed the leg press machine on my way to play pickleball. The voice did not bear the deep rumble of a muscle popping hulk, and when I looked to my left to see the orator of the comment my eyes fell upon a slight little old lady sitting on the weight machine between her reps. Her gray hair was neatly kept under a headband. She was clad in sleek exercise pants and she had a baggy sleepless t-shirt layered over her underarmor-ish top.

“You should change your shoes if you are going to rob a bank,” she said again pointing down at my pickleball shoes (pictured above). “Someone tried to rob a bank wearing bright yellow shoes, and the shoes were the way the police caught him.” She snickered.

“Thanks,” I said back, “I’ll remember that.” I snickered.

Now, there’s a huge danger in anthropomorphizing God, but if when I saw this small elderly woman sitting on that leg press machine I imagined that her image could be on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Aged. Gentle. Strong.

I was having a bit of a rough day with my lifelong companion, depression/anxiety. I’ve learned that when these days come, it is important to press through them with physical activity and things that I enjoy doing. Although exercise and pickleball are part of my daily routine, on days when the “dog” (as Winston Churchill called his depression) bites, and thankfully it doesn’t bite too often, it is even more important to keep those things up.

I never expected that God would intervene that day in the work-out room of the Ligonier YMCA. Yet as I was trudging through the dark turmoil spinning in my brain, the spiral of gloom was interrupted by this elderly woman’s humorous words. “You should change your shoes if you are going to rob a bank.” A ray of hope broke into my despair.

I’ve don’t remember noticing her when I have exercised at the Y before. I really hate going nowhere on those machines, so generally I am focused on getting my “running” done and getting out of there to play pickleball. But she was there again today, sitting on the leg press machine and as I passed her getting off the elliptical machine, she pointed to my shoes and said, “I really like those shoes,” and I heard a reminder of hope.

Now some may say that what happened to me was an incident of simple human interaction and God had nothing to do with it. Maybe. But as a Christian, I have seen that God, embodied God’s self in a human, Jesus, who brought hope into all creation by simple human interaction. It seems to me that that is how God has decided to work. Not with shock and awe, but with simple human interaction. “You should change your shoes if you are going to rob a bank.”

(By the way, I have since found out that she is 93 years old!)

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (GGAP)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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