The Bungee Cord. 2-27-23

Hello,

Meet my dog, McMahon. He is a 6 ½ year Gordon Setter, who has been part of our life since he was a puppy. We got him when our previous Gordon Setter, Duncan, was getting old. So, for a couple of years we had two dogs, but we have discovered that one dog is plenty for us. As you can see in the picture, one of his favorite things to do is to chase a ball. We have several acres enclosed in an underground fence, so he has lots of room to run. He’ll chase after a ball for quite a while, and unlike Duncan, McMahon actually brings the ball back to be thrown again, and again, and again….

The one thing that he enjoys more than chasing a thrown ball is chasing leaves. So, when we are playing ball and he feels a breeze, his interest in retrieving the ball is overcome by his interest in chasing a leaf, which he wants me to toss in the air and then he’ll go after it as the wind bounces it around above his head. He seems to find the leaves tasty, so after he snatches one from the air he lays down, puts the leaf between his front paws, and chews it up. After which, he bounces back from the ground ready for another leaf. In the meantime, he has lost track of his ball which I have thrown. So, when he’s chewed on enough leaves, he wants to resume playing ball.

“Find your ball,” I say to him. He responds by turning in the direction that I threw the ball, puts his nose to the ground and starts making sig-sags in search of the ball. He is a true scent dog, hunting for the ball with his nose. As a matter of fact, he is such a scent dog that he will come within a couple of feet of the ball and run right past it. Only if he happens to run right over it will he find it. If he can’t smell it, he can’t find it. And because the ball seems to have no scent, he won’t find it unless it hits him in the nose as he runs with his nose sniffing just above the grass.

I find myself sharing this trait with McMahon…well, not exactly. You see, I can easily get distracted from God’s presence in my life, by the good things in life and by the tough things in life, and I find myself saying, “God, where are you?”. I, like McMahon, start sig-sagging with my eyes in search of God with little luck in finding him in the deep grass of life. I am sure that there are many times when God has been within inches of my search, but I don’t detect him. I am too locked in on how I hope to find him. In thunderous events. In a downpour of blessings. In prayers answered in the way that I expect. In times of great joy and happiness. And when those things are absent, my sig-sagging is as unproductive as McMahon’s. “Where are you God?”

I have discovered, however, that when my sig-sagging takes me to the communion rail, it is as if I have run right over that for which I am searching. God’s presence hits me in my face….literally. “Take and eat, this is my body. Take and drink, this is my blood.”

The tall grass of the world does a pretty good job of hiding God’s presence from us, and often times God’s presence make no sense (scents). But God refuses to be hidden from us, and so Sunday after Sunday, God makes God’s self known to us in a way that we cannot miss God in the wonder of Holy Communion. “I am right here,” God says as God opens our eyes to God’s presence through all of our senses: taste, touch, smell, hearing, and sight.

So, if you, like I, and like McMahon, can get so distracted by other things in life and you start sig-sagging in search of God’s presence, let me invite you to follow your nose to the communion rail this Sunday and experience the delight of hearing, tasting, smelling, touching and seeing God’s presence. “This is my body…this is my blood…for you! I am here with you, and always will be with you.”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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