The Bungee Cord 1-29-24

Hello,

For those of you who travel often, what happened to me may not bring any anxiety to you, but it did to me. My wife and I took a trip to Texas, of which I wrote last week, and when we arrived back in Pennsylvania, we discovered that our luggage did not make the trip. We had hoped to carry our luggage on board, but my wife’s bag didn’t fit in the measuring device, so we had to check it to our final destination, Pittsburgh. We left San Antonio for our connection flight in Charlotte. We were a bit delayed out of San Antonio, but we got to our Charlotte gate just before they closed the airplane doors. We landed in Pittsburgh at 12:10 a.m., went down to the luggage claim, watched for our bag to come down onto the carrousel, but after 45 minutes, it never did. We went over to the service counter, only to find out that our bags did not make the connection, and that we would have to wait until the next day to receive them.

Fortunately, there was nothing of extreme importance in our luggage, so I wasn’t too worked up about their lost-ness. But I can only imagine how worked up I would have been if there was something of great value in those suitcases. If there would have been bars of gold in them, instead of bars of soap….or if there wouild have been bags of diamonds in them, instead of bags of laundry, I know I would have been really worked up. So worked up would have I been that I might have raised a little cane with the baggage attendant, and I don’t think I would have gotten a wink of sleep until that luggage was sitting on my front porch as they promised.

This incident brought to mind the Biblical story of the Prodigal son (Luke 15), where one of the father’s two sons strayed away and got himself lost in misery and starvation. The lost son finally came to himself and decided to return home and to be treated like a servant, having betrayed his father. But the Bible tells us that when the lost son was still far away, the father spotted him and came running to him and threw his arms around him. So thankful was the father that, to the son’s surprise, the father put the best robe on him, put the family ring on his finger, and announced a party that would be held in the lost son’s honor.

Something more valuable than all the father owned had been lost. Apparently, the father had not stopped worrying and watching for his son, every day gazing out into the horizon in hopes of seeing him, unable to work or sleep over concern for his son. And when that son finally made his way home, his joy could not be held in.

Jesus told this story to give us a picture of what God is like. God is like, Jesus said, this father who cannot rest while one of his children is lost, and when that child is back in God’s arms, there is a joy in God’s heart that erupts in a heavenly party. You and I are not mere pieces of luggage full of dirty clothes. You and I are of more value than all the gold or diamonds in the world. So valuable that God could not bear to be without us. So overwhelming is God’s desire to have us with him that he came to us to steal us away from the thieves and robbers of this world, and keep us treasured forever.

Have a great week! God’s grace and peace.

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord. 1-22-24

Hello,

I am writing to you from “sunny” Corpus Christi, Texas. Actually, it is far from sunny. Cloudy. Foggy. Rainy. Cold. Yesterday, we visited the botanical garden here. Everything had died from the deep freeze that hit last week. We were going to visit a wildlife preserve, but it was closed because the animals were all trying to recover from the cold. We were going to visit the Lexington, an old aircraft carrier, but it was so rainy and cold that the parking lot was empty. We were going to drive down to the beach, and walk on the sand, but it was so foggy that we couldn’t even see the beach from the road that took us there. As nice as Corpus Christi might be in the spring, summer, and fall, it is miserable in the winter. So, why am I here?

Well, I am here because the primary plans that I had made that brought me to Texas fell through, but I had also made a week’s worth of other plans in Texas that were not refundable, so my wife and I came anyway. I suppose that there might be some folks who, knowing that this was not the best time of the year to visit the hill country of Texas, would have just cancelled everything and taken the loss, but in my mind, I had too much invested in the trip that I couldn’t cancel.

Corpus Christi, as you probably know, means “body of Christ”. As I sit here in my hotel room, in Corpus Christi, having paid good money to come here at this most undesirable time of the year, I find myself experiencing a renewed and deeper gratitude for what God did in sending Jesus, the incarnate One, “Corpus Christi”, to experience the misery, suffering, and pain that he knew he would find when he walked this earth. Of course, God knew what to expect when God came to live among us. God, who could have simply stayed home, knew how miserable things would be for Jesus, the Christ. God knew the ridicule Jesus, the Christ, would face. God knew the rejection that Jesus, the Christ, would receive. God knew the spit that would hit Jesus’ face, the crown of thorns that Jesus would wear, the stripes that would be made on Jesus back, and the nails that would pierce Jesus’ hands, and feet. But God, like I, came anyway.

Why?

For the same reason as I came regardless of what I knew would like ahead. God had too much invested to stay home. Of course, it wasn’t money that God had invested. For God, it was God’s heart. As John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.” Loved. God, as inconceivable as it might be, invested his heart in those who were born in God’s image. When God looked upon the work of his hands, God saw a reflection of God’s very self. You and I might think of ourselves as nothing but, as the group Kansas put it, “dust in the wind,” sub-microscopic specks of dust in the cosmic universal wind, but that is not what God sees. Like a painter who sees herself in her paintings, like a carpenter who sees himself in the dining room table he made, like parents who see themselves in their children who reflect their flesh and bones….that is how God sees those who God created in God’s image. God has invested God’s self entirely in us, and for that reason, God was not able to stay home and watch his beloved be drawn away from him. God had too much invested to stay home. God invested God’s heart.

As crazy as it might sound, I am glad that I came here, to Corpus Christi, in this most miserable weather, because it has caused me to go back to my everyday life with a deeper gratitude for my God, that my God would actually come to my often God-forsaken life….a life where I have spit on him like rain, a life where I have blown cold winds of betrayal in his face, and a life so foggy and confused that I find myself wandering away….God has come and is making my life “Corpus Christi”… full of God’s love, mercy, and forgiveness. Why? Because God has invested his heart in me…..and you.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord 1-15-24

Hello,

CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK’S BUNGEE CORD….

…. As I have come to see, the object of the Christian faith is to be transformed and freed by the grace of God, and to live and die in that grace.

It seemed to me that that group of young adults, living in a stage of life that carries life-long decisions, was hoping that the Christian faith might provide for them a clear path on which to move forward. A neat and tidy road, rid of boulders and potholes, bounded by strong and sturdy guard rails, well-marked with signs and directions, gently sloping and relatively straight. That, of course, is what well-meaning folk who believe that the object of the Christian faith is to know right from wrong and live by that knowledge hope the Christian faith will provide. Having nice roads to walk on through life is certainly a wonderful thing, but the problem comes when one hits a section of the road that is the victim of an earthquake, a mudslide, a sink hole, or a washout.

But it seems to me, that Jesus, when he walked this earth, did not walk those nice roads, and thus neither did his followers. Rather, Jesus walked the messy roads of life. Roads strewn with rocks of pain and suffering, full of hairpin turns of uncertain decisions, narrow paths near cliffsides that made one teeter between life and death. Life is messy, and Jesus walked through the mess, not as a tollway road construction worker repairing all the roads, but as one who had the power and strength to traverse messy roads. And what was that power? God’s transforming grace. Grace that God has given to us as we walk with Jesus along the messy roads of life.

“See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.” (1 John 3:1). By the power of God’s word spoken to us, we have been transformed from frail and weak trail walkers who will be overcome by the messiness of life, into ones whose sinews , muscles and bones are embodied with the power that created the universe. The blood of divine forgiveness flows through our veins. The breath of everlasting life fills our lungs. Our eyes see with divine mercy and love, and our ears hear with infinite range. We are Children of God!

I think that I disappointed that group of young adults, 4:12, at first, but they hung with me as I told them that what I hoped that beside some road clearing, the most important thing that would happen among us is that we would more clearly see who we are, children of God, and live in that identity.

To put a picture to that hope, I said to them, “Suppose that you woke up tomorrow and suddenly, overnight, you grew to 7 feet. Well, if you tried going through the door the same way you came in the night before, you would bang your head. And if you tried putting on the clothes that you wore the day before, you wouldn’t get very far. And if you tried getting in the car without changing the seat from the day before, you would be eating your knees. I could try helping you out by telling you that you have to bend over to get through the door, that you need to buy some new clothes, and that you need to adjust your seat in your car….all helpful things. But might it be better to tell you, “You’re seven feet tall.” And knowing that you would naturally bend over when going through the door that is 6” 5’, and naturally shop for clothes in a store for big people, and you would naturally adjust your seat and rearview mirror in your car. Knowing, and remembering that you are seven feet tall makes all those changes natural. Beyond that, you would know that you could reach a glass that you could never reach before, and you would know that you could dunk a basketball without hardly jumping. Telling you who you are goes a lot further than telling you what to do.”

The Bible tells us that when Christ makes us his, we are a new creation….immediately…children of God.. I suppose that we, that young adult group, could have spent our time telling each other how to live as new creations, but that is a limiting discussion. Instead, to tell each other who we are, and we are not what the world tells us….death bound, claimed by our faults and failures, finding our worth in the number of toys we accumulate that ultimately wind up in the dump…no….we are children of God…eternally claimed, victorious over all our scarlet letters, and worth more than anything and everything in the universe. We are children of God with, as Jesus says, power to do greater things than he did. Imagine that….greater things than he did.

That group, 4:12, became an adventure in discovering the wonder of being a child of God. So, no matter what stage of life you are in, I invite you into that discovery every Sunday morning among your brothers and sisters in Christ, new creations, one and all.

“See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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3Maureen Eide, Fred Borkosky and 1 other

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 Hello,

Someone far wiser than I, I am sure, has written about the developments that come with each stage of life. But here’s what I have come to see in my work as a Pastor. The first five years of life are extremely important, because one’s personality is pretty well set by the age of five (I read that somewhere in my psych books). And in one’s elementary school years, a person creates a world view that grounds the way they think. In adolescence a person is cascaded with hormones that hit them like a boat in a stormy sea, and their brains take on more traffic than they have seen since infancy. I suppose that it is appropriate for most teens to learn how to drive a car during these years, because learning how to stay on the road and afloat is a main accomplishment for teens. The next set of years, 18-35, are years that are full of decisions that will set the course for life. The years that follow, 35 to 65, are developing one’s course in life, gaining expertise, managing the bumps, blossoming where one is planted. And the last decades of life, the stage that I am in, are laced with thanks, exhaustion in trying to keep pace with the world, confusion as the world seems to turn in different directions, and an ever-increasing realization of one’s mortality.

In my experience, it seems that the church has made a great emphasis to be engaged in the lives of people in all of these stages, except one: the 18–35-year-olds. Churches welcome young families with children with open arms. They provide extensive Sunday school for children. Teenage ministries are commonplace. Older folks find comfort and stability in worship services that maintain the traditions of older members. Senior citizen groups and Bible studies during the day for retired folks are provided. But in my experience, 18-35 years old’s seem to be seldom the target for the Christian ministry that they need in their stage of life.

So, seeing that in the churches that I have served, I have tried to bring the presence of God’s grace into the lives of young adults. The Bungee Cord, which I started over 25 years ago, was begun as a missile (a writing, not a bomb) to 18–35-year old’s because I noticed their absence from church. I hoped to overcome their absence with a weekly word of Christ’s love brought to them. When I was writing my sermons, I tried to write listening to the life questions they were asking and facing. I would call them up and have a coke or cup of coffee with them. And to help them find a foothold in the community of God’s people, in one of my churches, I started a fellowship group reaching out to them. The group chose their name 4:12 (1 Tim. 4:12).

I brought a group of 12 of these folks together, some regular attenders and some who did not or rarely attend, in order to discern what kind of ministry was needed among them. So, I asked them a bunch of questions, of which one was, “What do you want most from this ministry?”

The answer that I received took me by surprise. “We want to know what is right and what is wrong.”

For many, that may have seemed like a logical answer to come from a bunch of young adults who had at least some connection with the church. After all, in the minds of many people, I think, that which they were seeking is the object of the Christian faith.

Although many may find it odd, I do not think that teaching right from wrong, and living that out is the object of the Christian faith. I say that because as I read the Bible, I find that the people that Jesus arm wrestled most often were the ones who were teaching that knowing right from wrong and living it out was the focus of one’s relationship with God. (for example: healing on the sabbath (Matt 12), the rich young ruler (Matt. 19), the woman at the well (john 4), the 10 lepers (Luke 17). As I have come to see, the object of the Christian faith is not to know right from wrong and live that out, but to be transformed and freed by the grace of God, and to live and die in that grace.

WHAT?????

TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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