The Bungee Cord 5-29-23

Hello,

Yesterday, in Christian churches throughout the world, people were greeted by red flowers on the altar, red paraments (the colored cloths that cover the worship furniture in the front of the church), red stoles worn by pastors, and in my case, red tennis shoes that I wore. The reason for all the red was that yesterday was the celebration of Pentecost, the day the Holy Spirit came upon God’s people in Jerusalem after Jesus ascended into heaven. And the reason that red is the color of Pentecost is that when the disciples were gathered in an upper room a roaring wind blew among them, and when it passed, the disciples were found to have tongues of fire resting above their heads….red tongues of fire…tongues of fire that unleashed their tongues to tell the great news of Jesus to people of all different languages.

There was a song that we sang at Younglife (a community-based youth focused ministry) when I was in high school named, “Pass it on”. The first words of the song were, “It only takes a spark to get a fire glowing, and soon all those around can warm up in its glowing.” It was one of our most sung songs, and as you can tell by my remembrance of the words, most remembered songs. Thing is, the words of the song are not true….or at least not always true.

It is true that when rain has been very sparce the sticks and leaves that cover the ground are extremely flammable. It is so flammable that with only one spark from a small campfire, millions and millions of acres of forests can go up in flames, as we have seen in years past in California. Even in Pennsylvania as one drives through the state and national forests, one regularly sees silhouettes of Smokey Bear reminding us of the dryness of the brush and the danger of fire.

But anyone who has been camping on one of those endlessly rainy weekends knows that when things are wet, especially when they are really wet, getting a fire is not nearly so easy…..sometimes nearly impossible. Wet leaves, wet branches, and wet logs are hard to light, and even when they do light the moisture that they hold quickly turns the flames into steam. And on those cold, damp nights there is no glowing fire, and there is no warming. People just shiver around smoldering logs.

As I look at the world in which we live, it makes me wonder, “What is the fire danger level for us?” Is the world wet and soggy? Is the world dry and brittle?

Some years ago, when I lived in Ohio and my kids were little, I had a deal with them that I would do something with each one of them, just me and each of them alone. One on one time. My youngest son, who although we lived in Ohio, was a huge Minnesota Vikings fan…a Randy Moss fan to be exact. His choice for our “one on one” was to go to see the Vikings play the Detroit Lions. So that is what we did. It was an early afternoon game, so he and I drove up from Ohio to Detroit on Saturday night and stayed in a hotel (I had to find someone to sub for me at church). We got up on Sunday, went to a church that we had looked up, and after worship went to the football game. When we pulled into the parking lot, I was amazed!

Even though we had arrived around 10:00 a.m., the parking lot was nearly full. It was full of campers and vans (many of them painted Lions blue), cars and pickups, tents and barbeque grills, chocked full of people sporting Lions jerseys, eating, drinking, playing cornhole, and listening to music quite different than the music that my son and I had just been singing. It was the first pro-football game that I had ever been to, and when I saw what was before my eyes, I said to myself, “So, this is what the rest of the world does on Sunday mornings!” The stadium was packed, and we found ourselves sitting in one of the end-zones amid a large group of Lion jersey fans whose rowdiness increased as the game progressed, and the beer flowed down their throats. (My son, who was wearing his Randy Moss jersey, kept his jacket on the whole game, even though the game was inside.). Fights broke out around us. Angry words were hurled at the field. And when the game was over….and the Lions lost….the stands emptied out, except for the garbage that was left behind.

Now, I am as big of a sports fan as anyone else. If you don’t believe that come and see my University of Illinois mancave, upon looking at it some think I am a bit “overzealous”. I know how fun it is to cheer and get all excited for one’s team. I know the fun in being an avid follower of a sport you enjoy. But having gone to that Vikings/Lions game, I saw with clear eyes, that what I had attended was a smoldering flame. It brought no hope to my struggles. It brought no peace to the storms that I was in. It brought no light to the darkness of the complexities of life.

It was a great diversion from all of that. But short lived and smoldering.

The church that I was in yesterday was not nearly so full as that football stadium, and the small parking lot was about half empty. But when I walked in, I felt fire! I felt fire in the red that was draped all around me. I felt fire in my heart when the scriptures were read of a God who embeds God’s self in us. I felt fire in my gut when down my throat slid a piece of bread and a sip of wine that was filled with Christ’s presence. I felt fire, and warmed in its glow as the final benediction was pronounced, “The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you…and give you peace….and give you peace…and give you peace forever.” (a Michael Card song). And when the sanctuary emptied, I saw what I saw at that football arena, garbage strewn all around…but not the garbage of hot dog wrappers and beer cups…but the garbage of sins that by the power of Jesus’ forgiveness were left behind…swept away forever. I know that I had been warmed by that fire. I felt new strength to tackle the lions awaiting me. I know that I felt new hope to stand up to the blocks and shoves that were lined up outside the doors. I know that I felt a deep peace in seeing the blocker who was leading me out the doors was the Lord himself who will be with me always!

The world may be wet, soggy and damp….but the love of God for you and me is ablaze! Come and “warm in its glowing!”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord. 5-22-23

Hello,

I just spent today playing golf on the golf course that Arnold Palmer grew up on, Latrobe Country Club. It was a fund raiser for scholarships for a local Christian camp. Arnold’s father was the Pro at the club in its early days, and as his son, Arnie got to play the course. The club house walls are lined with pictures of Arnie and there is a case there stocked with some of the trophies he won. When Arnie was winning event after event, that he bought the club….it’s Arnie’s club now.

As I played, I imagined myself walking in Arnie’s footsteps. Hitting off the tee with towering drives (mine quite less towering than his). Chopping up the fairways with approach shots, just like he did (well, not hitting the green as often as he did). Hitting out of the sand, just like he did (and I did, hitting once out of the sand with a hole saving shot). Putting along the lines that Arnie did (not really, because his line were into the hole…mine were not.). Unfortunately, I discovered that although I walked in Arnie’s steps, it didn’t do anything to transform my golf game.

Some years ago, I went to Israel, and walked in Jesus’ footsteps. Around the sea of Galilee and the site of Jesus’ baptism (interestingly enough, there’s no water where scholars believe the baptism took place because the course of the Jordan river has changed.). To the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus earnestly prayed. Into Jerusalem and followed the path that Jesus took on his way to the cross. Stood at the site of his crucifixion and resurrection. As I did that, unlike my Latrobe Country Club experience, I didn’t imagine myself doing what Jesus did there, but rather found myself amazed that Jesus, the Son of God, would actually unite himself so deeply and fully with all humanity in his steps.

Truth to be told, however, my stroll along Jesus’ steps in Israel, just like my stroll in Arnie Palmer’s steps, didn’t really do much to my life or faith. It did give me a deeper appreciation for the wonder of the incarnation, and it was very helpful to get an appreciation of the geography and culture of the world that Jesus walked (for example, I never knew that the Mount of Olives, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Temple of Jerusalem, and Calvary were all aligned and visible from the Mount of Olives…that is to say, they were not very far apart). But walking in the sand that Jesus did, and sailing on the lake that Jesus walked, did not do much to transform me as a person of faith.

I have discovered that that transformation is far more activated in my life and faith when I follow Jesus’ to the places that he is walking today. I know that my faith has deepened and my life has been changed when I follow him to the communion table where he feeds me with the forgiveness of his body and blood, when I followed him to eat with folks that the world has left behind at the weekly free meals that one of my churches provided, when I walked alongside him through the guards and metal detectors to worship with prisoners, when I have gone with him to the hospital to stand by the bed of someone who is dying and hold their hand, when I have splashed water on a person and sealed that one in the eternal embrace of Jesus. Unlike walking where Arnie walked and walking where Jesus walked, when I have walked where Jesus is walking, I have been changed and I am transformed as a child of God.

I was invited to play golf on Arnie’s course, and that was a memorable thing full of imagination. It was great. I was invited to go to Israel, and that was a memorable thing full of learning. It was extremely interesting. But day after day, Jesus takes hold of my hand…and yours…and takes you and me for a walk with him, where he is going, and that, thanks be to God, is a transformational thing!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord. 5-15-23

Hello,

You’ve never heard Bob Dylan sound like this… https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=620550276549022

Take a listen, it will be worth your time!

We forget, don’t we. Those of us who grew up in the ‘60’s have a way of forgetting how top-si-turvy the world was for us when we were kids, or at least I often do. I was 7 years old when Bob Dylan released this song. I suspect that I was too young to really know about the roller coaster that I was on, but I do remember some things: long hair, bell bottoms and miniskirts, the Viet Nam war, riots and protests, “the generation gap”, a drug deal going on in my advanced physics class in the desk behind me, Elton John (was he gay?), hippies and cults, Watergate….as many older people said, “The world is going to hell.”

“Times, they are a’ changing.”

I’m an older person now. Retired. Almost 50 years from my high school graduation. Now I am one of those for whom high school kids will say at my 50th reunion, “Boy, is he old!” I am not sure if it true for every “old” person like me, but at this stage in my life, I am not very fond of roller coasters (truth is, I never have liked them). My joints are stiff. My back easily gets sore. My blood pressure is high. I have little hair to get blown in the wind, and my hands can’t grip as tightly as they used to.

But like it or not, life sure feels like a roller coaster. Covid, new gender understandings, daily mass shootings, people yelling at each other on “news” shows, fentanyl, empty churches, pink/green/blue/orange hair, Ukraine and Russia and China and Syria and Mexico, a constant aura of suspicion, unending political distrust….I hear many older people say, “The world is going to hell!”

Times, they are a’ changing.”

As one who counts himself “old”, you won’t hear me saying, “The world is going to hell!” We may be on a roller coaster, but it seems to me that we always are and have been. As I read the Bible, I find that humans have been on a wild ride since the beginning of our existence. The stories of Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah and their descendants, Moses, King David and his descendants, the prophets, the Babylonian exile, the birth and death and resurrection of Jesus, the life of the early church….it’s been a wild roller coaster ride. Even the volumes of science, history, and sociology agree….it’s been a wild ride.

And here’s why I don’t think that this ride is taking us to hell…..God is with us on this ride. In every twist and turn of Scripture, the Bible tells us that God was there. And in the incarnation of Jesus, God would have us know that in every hill and valley of history, science and sociology, God was there. God is with us on this roller coaster of life…every century of it, every decade of it, every year of it, every day of it, every minute of it, every second of it… God is with us. Embracing us in God’s love when we have made a mess of life. Holding on to us when we have fallen off a cliff. Guiding us as a wise shepherd when we have become lost or when the future looks ominous. Enlightening us when things become complex and difficult to understand. But most important of all, Jesus says, “drawing us unto himself” (John 12:32)

This world is not going to hell, because God has ahold of it. Things, as they always have, been a’ changing…but in the midst of the change…changes that we will need to adapt to….one thing will not change: God’s grip on God’s creation, and that includes the speck of that creation that you and I are.

God, hold on to me tight, because “Times, they are a’ changing.”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord 5-9-23

Hello,

I never knew who Blippi was until I had a grandchild. As a matter of fact, I never knew that Blippi even existed…..but he does!

Blippi, as any of you who are Grandparents may know, is a children’s TV personality. Blippi takes children on all sorts of adventures, many of which are places that they may go: playgrounds, school rooms, doctor and dentist offices, and nature reserves. Some places that Blippi takes the kids are places that they may never go: on rocket ships, construction sites, farms, and factories. He teaches them new words (words that I think are sometimes pretty bog for a two-year-old….which my grandson is). He teaches them about life skills, and he teaches them about machines and trucks….my grandson’s favorite. He even has songs about all these things. Blippi and my grandson are great friends, as a matter of fact after dinner as he is getting tired, he says to his mom and dad, “Blippi time”, and he gets his daily dose of Blippit before going to bed.

Last week was my grandson’s second birthday, and as you can see from the picture, he and I dressed up as Blippi for the grand event. Blippi balloons hung from the walls. Blippi songs were sung, presents were given (one of which, of course was a Blippi book!). Never would I have known about the thrill of Blippi had I not had a grandchild.

In a much more significant way, never would have I known of the depth of God’s love for me, had God not sent his Son, Jesus, into the world. And I might go as far to say, I might never have even known of God, had God not sent his Son, Jesus into the world. Jesus is, as one of the prayers that is said at Christmas, “the God whom we can see, so that we might believe in the God that we cannot see.”

And a la Blippi, God been with me in the adventures of life, some adventures frightening ad painful (no offense intended to dentists or doctors, but when I went in for cancer surgery, I have no problem confessing that it was a scary trek), and some places overflowing with joy (my wedding to my wife, and the birth of my three children…just to name a few highlights). Songs that speak of Jesus’ power and presence in my life, and the hope that it gives me echo from the church pews where I first learned them. Daily at bedtime, and weekly at church time, I find myself spending some “Jesus time”.

One of the first hymns that I learned, because it was one of my mother’s favorites (my mother turned 89 yesterday, and although she lives in confusion and delusion, I am sure she could sing it all to you), was “What A Friend We Have In Jesus”, a hymn that although may be a bit overly sentimental to be one of my favorites still sticks in my heart and enlightens my soul with its words. “Have we trials and tribulations? Is there trouble anywhere? Never need we be discouraged. Take it to the Lord in prayer.”

Blippi may be a wonderful friend to a child. But Jesus, in whom God is revealed and at work in the world, is a lifetime friend. “What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry, everything to God in prayer!”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace (ggap),

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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