The Bungee Cord. 2-26-24

Hello,

What does the church smell like?

When I was in college I , mevery once in a while, went and visited a dairy farmer friend of mine. Although they were always friendly visits, when I was there, I always helped out (I think that is what you would call my efforts) with the chores. Milking, feeding, bailing, and the like. On one of my visits, I went to church with my friend, and when I walked in into church, I was immediately hit with a distinct odor….the odor of the barn. You see, almost all of the parishioners were dairy farmers who had come to church after their morning chores. I, who had slept in for the morning milking, did not go into the barn before church, but it was clear to me that almost everyone else had. Something I learned that weekend, when you spend time in the barn, hanging around the cows, you smell like the barn.

What does the church smell like? I know that I have been in churches that smell musty and stale. Immediately when you walk into them you get hit with the smell of airs. The musty smell of folks looking down their nose at you for your station in life, your soiled past, your record of failures, your lack of teeth, and your faulty social skills. And when you’ve walked in a couple of steps, you catch a strong whiff of stale air; air that has been hemmed in by walls of rules and expectations. Rules telling you how much you need to give to the church. Expectations of how much time you will give to the church. Rules telling you who you can have as friends, and expectations on with whom your friendships can grow. Such churches seem to carry the same smell as the smell that Jesus encountered in the synagogues of his day, rules that disallowed him to heal on the Sabbath, talk and eat with unrepentant sinners, embrace a leper, help out a Roman enemy. Rules that trod over vulnerable people for the sake of the institution. There are churches that I have walked into that smell musty and stale, and I have seen the people walk out of such churches carrying that smell into the world.

There are other churches, however, that smell quite differently. They have the smell of hope, of mercy, of empathy, of forgiveness….well, of Jesus. They smell like Jesus who walked into the lives of people who were captured with mental illness, the Gerasene demoniac. They smell like Jesus who dined with outcasts, Zacchaeus. They smell like Jesus who took children into his lap and loved them. They smell like Jesus who welcomed a woman with a checkered past, the woman who wiped his feet with her hair. They smell like Jesus who didn’t even pick up a stone to throw at a woman caught in adultery. They smell like Jesus who loved Peter even after he had denied him three times. They smell like Jesus who wept over Jerusalem’s wandering, and then walked right into that town with God’s relentless love. They smell like Jesus who on the cross opened the kingdom of heaven for a murderer. They smell like Jesus who walked out of the hole that people had put him into and left anything that might make a claim on anyone dead and in that hole. There are some churches that smell of freshness and life, the smell that you get when you walk along a stream in a pine forest, and I have seen people walking out of such churches carrying that smell into the world.

What does the church smell like? Not all churches smell the same, and you’ll know the minute that you walk into one what that church smells like. And when you walk into one that smells like Jesus, none perfectly because every church is comprised not of angels but sinners in need of forgiveness, you’ll know it. And I invite you to go there and hang out regularly, like a farmer doing chores, so that you will carry its smell into a world that very often doesn’t smell very good at all.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord. 2-19-24

Hello,

Are you scared?

After all, violence is unravelling all over the world. A war in Ukraine where cities are disappearing into piles of dust. A battle in Gaza, sparked by unthinkable deeds, leaving millions of people homeless and lining up for morsels of food, and going home empty. A shooting at a Superbowl celebration wounding children who were there to have the chance to see their heroes and remember it for the rest of their lives. Are you scared?

After all, the atmospheric temperature is rising year after year. Record breaking temperatures rolling across the country. Hurricanes and tornados with power and destruction that have never been seen before. Sea levels rising. Artic ice melting. Are you scared?

After all, the world-wide economy is fragile and threatened by the actions of leaders far from our home. Crowds of people at our southern border seeking their way into the United States. Warnings of inflation and recession. Election campaigns foretelling of the demise of our country. Are you scared?

After all, viruses and disease that had previously been unheard of are suddenly prowling all around us. Cancers caused by environmental concerns. Covid mutating as fast as we can develop vaccines. Veins getting clogged by what we eat and drink. Disinfectives filling store shelves and shopping carts. Are you scared?

Day after day, hour after hour, minute after minute there are voices reverberating all around us telling us that there is much to fear. And I believe that they are telling us the truth. To look around and ignore the reality of the perils of the world in which we live is to live in a make-believe world. Human beings are mere ants in the battle against evil. We are no more than sub-microscopic specks of dust in the universe. Only a fool would tell you as a lion is charging at you with hunger in its eyes, “Don’t be scared.” So, I am not telling that you need not be scared.

But in the cacophony of fear speakers, there is one who is telling you that you need not be scared. “Fear not.” There is one whose might, and power spans and contains the universes. There is one whose care for every bit of his handiwork might be classified as OCD. There is one for whom the gates of hell are mere toothpicks, and the chains of death are soggy noodles. There is one for whom the pits of despair are nothing but golf-divots. And this one is not hiding in the bushes of the universe but has stepped right out into the open – right out onto the top of a hill, spotlighted on a cross and says to anything and everything that might crush you or steal you away from him, “You are not getting this one!”

It is not me who is telling you not to be scared. It is the one who died on the cross and rose from the dead, and has staked his claim on you that says, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand.* The Father and I are one.’ (john 10)

In other words, “Fear not!”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord 2-12-23

Hello,

Those of you who are Facebook users may notice that sometimes church signs with “clever” quotes are posted. I find some of them amusing and deserving of a snicker, but a while ago I came across one that turned my stomach.

It said, “CHOOSE THE BREAD OF LIFE, OR YOU’LL BE TOAST.” Although some might find some humor here, not me. The reason that I don’t fund this clever or funny is because it seems to me that many people think that it is true. When I listen to many people, Christians and non-Christians, I hear them saying that they think that Christianity is based on fear. You know, If you don’t want to spend eternity in hell, you better hang onto Christ with all your might, and who knows maybe you’ll lose your grip and you’ll be toast. I have heard it said another way, “Turn or burn!”

But when I study the story of Jesus, it is clear to me that Jesus did not come scare us out of hell. There were already plenty of folks when he walked the earth quite good at doing that. Over and over again Jesus confronted the leaders of the Temple, the Scribes (spiritual lawyers), and the pharisees who told the people that if you step out of line, God is ready to turn God’s back on you. Squash you like a cockroach! Touch an unclean person, heal on the Sabbath, eat with sinners, commit adultery, speak blasphemy….all worthy of being cast into the fires of hell. They made God into what we have made Santa, “You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout…..He sees you when your sleeping. He knows when you’re awake. He knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake… He’s making a list, checking it twice, gonna find out who’s naughty or nice….”

It is clear to me that Jesus did not come to walk this earth, die on a cross, arise from the dead, and ascend into heaven to scare us out of hell. Instead, it is clear to me that Jesus did all of this to love us into eternal life. And when I say “eternal life”, Jesus is not just talking about that which awaits us after we die. Eternal life takes hold of us when death has no power over us anymore. Eternal life takes hold of us when Jesus hits us with his promise in Baptism and says, “I died and rose for this one, and this one is now mine and will be forever!” Eternal life fills our lungs when the wages of sin, which the Bible acknowledges is death, have no more power over us because Jesus brought the wages of sin to death. Jesus said that he is the Good Shepherd, not the Boogie Man, who will let nothing snatch his sheep from his hand. He so loves us that he laid down his life for us. Clearly, Jesus did not come to scare us out of hell, he came to love us into eternal life.

I think a far more apt saying for a church to display on its sign would be, “Jesus, the bread of life, has chosen you, it’s time for a toast! Alleluia!”

Christians throughout the world are about to embark on a six-week trek of honest reflection on their lives, Lent. During Lent, Christians spend time listening for the voices of their failures, betrayals, and sin that so cleverly have placed their claim on them, and seeing the pain, confusion, fear, and sadness that those voices rain down upon their lives. And then when those forty days of the wilderness have led them to a Calvary Cross, they hear a different voice… a voice of love, not fear….say to all those voices who think they have their hold on us, that their hold is over, “It is finished!” And with those cross-shouted words still ringing in our ears, their comes a new word to fall upon us, a victory toast, an Easter toast of bread and wine, and Jesus is the toastmaster, “‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor 15)

Jesus did not come to scare us out of hell. Jesus came to love us into eternal life. Alleluia!

Have a great week,

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord 2-5-24

Hello,

“I’ll keep you in my thoughts and prayers.”

This is a regularly said response to tragedies and suffering. Lately, I have heard people say that this response is trivial and insufficient. “It’s time for more than just thoughts and prayers.” And maybe it is. Maybe it is time to take a hard look and make difficult decisions about the way we live, about the way we treat each other, and the sinfulness in all of our hearts. The trouble is, of course, that the struggles of the world are so complex and intertwined. Good hearted people who want to do something, often want to do opposite things to deal with turmoil and strife. Doing something, although worthy of the effort, rarely solves the problem. Doing nothing, likewise, tends to just make things worse.

“I’ll keep you in my thoughts and prayers,” I believe, is doing something, and that something although it may not be sufficient, it certainly is not trivial, because prayer does something.

When a person prays for another, it does something to the one who prays. It places the one prayed for the pray-er’s heart and mind. The one who prays is drawn to the one for whom the prayer is raised. When this happens, the one who prays starts to feel the anguish in the other’s life and it becomes part of the pray-er’s. The one who prays finds their eyes open to the fears and worries of the other’s life. The one who prays has their eyes opened to the conditions of the prayed for’s life. When people pray for one another, people are no longer just statistics, or a racial group, or an economic class, or citizens of a country. Prayer turns people into people.

That is why Jesus prayed for his disciples and told them to pray for their enemies. Imagine what would happen if members of the NRA and advocates for stronger gun laws prayed for each other. Imagine what would happen if suburbanites and inner-city folk prayed for each other. Imagine if Democrats and Republicans prayed for each other. Imagine if leaders of nations prayed for each other. Imagine.

And prayer also does something to the one who is prayed for. I know that every prayer that is prayed for me is part of a quilt of grace and love that wraps me in the bitter cold of the world. Every prayer adds layers and warmth to that quilt. When things are going wrong for me, I often feel alone, facing the chilling winds of pain, fear, and confusion alone. Sometimes things are so overwhelming that I feel the wind attacking my bare skin. But when someone says to me, “I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers,” I know that I am not alone, and the bite of the chilling wind is diminished, and when I hear that many people are praying for me, I even begin to warm up.

In our church, we pray in our worship service for people who are undergoing turmoil in their lives. We also have a “prayer chain” that holds people in prayer outside of worship. Contrary to what many say, we don’t do these things because we believe that the more people that we get to pray, the more “effective” our prayer will be. That reasoning seems so un-faithful because, Jesus tells us that God listens with equal attentiveness to the prayer of one child or a prayer of a thousand people. The reason that we bring many people into prayer for another is that each of the prayers of the many is a piece of that quilt of grace and love that the prayed for one becomes enveloped in. Having lived in South Dakota and Minnesota, I know, that when you are shoveling yourself out of a major sub-zero blizzard, you don’t do that wearing a spring jacket. You put on a thick down coat! That is what prayer does for the one for whom the prayer is being raised.

“I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers,” is so vitally important, because it sets a foundation of hope in the life of the one prayed for, and it helps guide the one who wants to do something for the other. Although I don’t regularly name each of you in my prayers, I hope that this Bungee Cord comes to you as a prayer….placing you in my heart and placing a patch of a quilt of grace and love around you.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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