The Bungee Cord 9-25-23

Hello,

I didn’t get a Bungee Cord out last week because I was a bit busy. I had seven fraternity brothers staying at my place for most of the week. Some of them make a yearly habit of getting together, and this year the get together was at my place. We filled the week with experiencing the Laurel Highlands and Pittsburgh, making sure that they took in some things that you can only experience here: Joio’s Pizza, Primati’s Sandwiches, the incline, Joe’s bar, Fort Ligonier, and Flight 93. And, of course, we watched the Illini football game together…we lost to some rinky-dink team whose uniforms were blue and white.

Four of the guys I knew well, and three of them I had never met before. We were all part of Beta Sigma Psi, a national Lutheran fraternity. I spent my first two years of college (75-77) in that fraternity, transferring to Valpo for my last two years to prepare me for seminary. I had a great time at Illinois, and the friendships that I made at that fraternity were the foundation for those tremendous memories.

The eight of us who met at my house are quite a variety of guys: preachers, engineers, submariner, business folk. I have kept in contact with a couple of them, but some of them I haven’t seen in 40 years, and others I had never met before. Yet, when we got together, there was a bond between us that resurrected a friendship that was part of being in that fraternity. As I am sure that you have experienced the same thing. Time and distance are no match to the power of a common bond.

Of course, some common bonds are stronger than others, but bonds that are deeply held are some of the most powerful. As I consider the deepness of bonds, I can’t think of any bond more powerful than to be people for whom someone gave their life. That is the bond between us that God has brought about in Jesus. Jesus stood up to all who would try and claim us as theirs in a wrestling match to the death, and when death swallowed him up, it swallowed up every other thing that would try and put their name on us. Jesus went to the mat for us and gave his life for us. In all the differences that exist between us and others, there is one thing that we see in the face of each person we see; someone for whom Jesus gave his life. Like a troop of soldiers who were saved by someone diving on a grenade who look at each other at a reunion and say, “I am alive because of what he did,” so also do we say the very same thing when we gather under the cross.

It is an amazing bond that God has cemented among us. But, just consider what a bond God has with us! No wonder God has said to you and to me, “I will never let you go.” No wonder God would not let death have the final word with Jesus, but Jesus arose from the dead to place his name on us so that we would be his for every moment of time, and every moment when there is no time. Remember, when it comes to love, God held nothing back when Jesus came to us, and he will hold nothing back when God draws us to him…..now or ever.

This week I experienced a microscopic example of the power of a deep seeded bond, microscopic compared to the power that God has brought about, the bond between eight guys who went through college with Beta Sigma Psi on our shirts and on our house. And as I experienced the power of my fraternity to overcome all time and distance, I am all the more convinced of this; no matter how far we might be from God, or how long we’ve been there, there is a bond between us and a bond between God and us that “ neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. “(Romans 8:38)

Oskeewowow Illinois!

Have a great week!

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord 9-12-23

Hello,

I was told of a sermon where the preacher was speaking on the importance of the church to be different than society. The preacher said that in a world where society seems to draw fewer and fewer lines about what is right and what is wrong, the church should stand apart from the world and clearly set right from wrong. Actually, as I hear many sermons, this seems to be a common theme. The church needs to be different than society.

I agree, at least in this one way: in the way that we show love for each other. It is what Jesus said is the mark of difference between the followers of Jesus and the world, John 13.3, :”By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Looking carefully at this passage from the book of John, Jesus is not speaking on how his followers love those in the world (although that is certainly part of the Christian life), but rather how the followers of Jesus love each other. Jesus says that it is the love that is shared among those who bear his name that is to make the church different from the world. The world might be driven to love in many ways, but the love that is shared among Christians is driven by only one thing, Jesus Christ. 1 John 4.19: “We love because he first loved us.”

And how did Jesus first love us? Jesus loved unconditionally. There are no “if’s” when it comes to Jesus’ love. The Bible tells us that Jesus loved a shunned woman at a noon-time well, a fisherman who left everything to follow him, ten lepers who he met on the road, a short tax collector who was overcharging the people, a rich young ruler who was seeking eternal life, a woman (and probably the man) who was caught in adultery, a graveyard roamer who was out of his mind, his enemies who hung him on the cross, and on and on it goes. It was out of divine love (John 3:16) that Jesus Christ came into this world, and it was that unconditional love that Jesus loved everyone that he met.

There were no lines in the sand that one needed to cross to come near to Jesus to receive Jesus’ love, and there was no line in the sand that if you crossed going away from Jesus that would exclude you from his love.

That is different than the way the world loves. Lines are drawn, lines that often delineate right from wrong. But there are some problems with this way of loving. First, ask 10 different people where a line should be drawn, and you’ll get many different answers. On big issues and on smaller ones. Abortion, capital punishment, relationships, ecological living, white lies, military spending, clothes one wears, using foul language….. Second, everyone crosses over the lines that they draw. Sometimes those cross overs are big, and other times they are just a matter of millimeters, but when you are crossing over the edge of a cliff, it really doesn’t matter how big the cross over is.

Of course, it is easier to love the way that the world does. After all, birds of a feather flock together, and common enemies make strange bedfellows, but such love is fragile and frail. In our present world of sharp divisions and sharp words, that fragility and frailty is painfully too clear.

It is hard to love as Jesus loves. It is so hard that Jesus was put to death for such loving. But, on the other hand, the way that Jesus loves is powerful, power unmatched in all of creation. So powerful was, and is, Jesus’ love, that not even death could stop him from loving unconditionally. It is that resurrection powered love that is the fuel for those who follow Jesus. It is that love that is stoked and kindled every time Christians get together. It is that love that is a beacon of hope to the world. It is that love that makes the church stand out, and I would say that it is that love that works like a magnet, drawing all people….including you and me, my friends and my enemies, people who think like me and people who don’t, people who act like me and people who don’t, people who follow my understanding of proper rules and people who do not….

So, if you’re looking for rules to follow, there’s plenty of places in the world to go, but if you’re looking for love, divine love, to hold you and guide you through life no matter what…..well, that is what the church is all about.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The BUngee Cord 9-5-23

Hello,

I have officially been retired for one year. It’s been a year of transition. After forty years of doing something, it has taken some getting used to not doing that thing. I have had to get used to sitting in a pew listening to sermons instead of preaching them. I have had to get used to following a worship service, rather than leading one. I have had to get used to biting my tongue when someone comes to me with a concern. It hasn’t always been easy.

On the other hand, I am finding out what it is like to be able to stay up late and watch a Saturday evening game and not have to worry about being ready for Sunday morning. I am discovering the weight off of my shoulders when things aren’t going quite right in the church, and I don’t have to try and please everyone. I am enjoying having evenings free of meetings and not having my sleep troubled by the responsibilities that await me in the morning.

Thing is, though, although I may be retired, God is not done with me, yet. God is not done filling me with love and forgiveness, filling me beyond the brim of my life so that the world might experience the life-giving power of God’s grace. In fact, it was God’s overflowing grace that was spilling out of my life in all the years I was a Pastor. “We love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19)”

I may not be a working pastor anymore, but I am still a working child of God. I still find myself with people who are trembling in fear as they see life’s bulldozer plowing towards them, and God uses me to bring his fortress of care to them. I still find myself with folks who find themselves in a suffocating tunnel of stress, and God uses me to bring his light of peace into their lives. I still find myself with people that the world has decided to discard, and God uses me to gather them up into his heart.

And in the same way, God is not done with you anymore. God is not done filling your heart with divine mercy that is spilling out into the lives of those around you. From your first breath to your last, the faucet of God’s grace has run wide open in your life, giving you life, and giving others life as that grace spills over into the world.

Life is full of transitions for us: retirement, relationship changes, moving, financial bumps…. Although such transitions may be challenging to us, they also place us in situations where God can touch new lives through us. As I find myself fondly looking back at all that God has done through me before I was retired, I also find myself with amazed anticipation imagining the lives that will be given life as God continues to pour into me his grace and mercy all the days and years that are to come.

SPLASH!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger (retired…lol)

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