1 John 3:1: August 2025

Monday, August 25, 2025

The Bungee Cord. 8-25-25

Hello,

Every Tuesday, I go to visit my wife’s cousin’s husband who is in a nursing home. He’s a couple of years older than I am and he is dealing with a severely debilitating disease. As it goes with such diseases, he gets progressively worse with each of my visits. My hope is to let him know that he is not alone in his struggles and to brighten his day. About a month or so ago, as I was going through the maze of hallways to get to his room, I passed a young man, I’d say in his twenties. The reason I mention this encounter is that this young man had several tattoos on his face. One was surrounding his right eye, another was on his cheek, and the third was near his chin. He didn’t seem like he was visiting anyone, and he was dressed “business casual”, so I assumed that he was an employee….probably a kitchen attendant, I supposed. After all, someone with tattoos on their face surely was not suited for public work. Over the next several weeks, I still saw him there.

A couple of Tuesdays ago, when I knocked on my wife’s cousin’s husband’s door, there was no answer. So, I walked in and shouted, calling his name to see if he was there. Nope. The room was empty. I decided to try and hunt him down. Not in the dining room. Not in the activities room. Not in the exercise room….but wait, when I stuck my head in the exercise room, there he was, the young man with the tattoos….calmly and encouragingly leading chair exercises with the residents. He saw me peek in and with as polite a voice I could imagine, he said to me, “Are you looking for someone?”

I told him that I was looking for my wife’s cousin’s husband, naming him, and he, knowing who my wife’s cousin’s husband was said, “Sorry, but he’s not here.”

Immediately, a surge of self-disappointment ran through my veins. “How could I have been so quick to negatively judge that young man?” He was obviously some sort of occupational or physical therapist who had devoted himself to care for these folks who so often are forgotten. Honorable.

This event underscored to me something that I say to people who wonder how people who go to church can be so hurtful to others: “The church is not a bunch of holy angels but sinners who are in need of forgiveness, including me.” Including me.

For me, I go to church every Sunday, not because I am holy, but because Jesus has promised that when two or three are gathered in his name, Jesus is in the midst of them. And more than that, Jesus has promised to work his transforming love on me so that I might more clearly reflect Jesus’ love and mercy in my life, and see the blessing that people are beneath their skin.

No matter what the world thinks of you, know that there is a place for you in church. Completely holy people are found in heaven. People whose lives are entwined by sin are found in church, and the good news is that Jesus is like a master gardener with a pruning clipper in his hands, ready to snip those twines off of you and set you free to be loved and love others. Life is a lot better, for everyone including me, when Jesus has set to work on those twines!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Monday, August 18, 2025

The Bungee Cord. 8-18025

Hello,

Many more years ago than it seems, I graduated from college with a BS in Psychology. After taking one of the courses, my professor, in my junior year, asked me if I would be willing to TA (teaching assistant) for the same course for the next year. It was an honor I gladly welcomed. During my college years, I had decided to be a pastor which necessitated four years of seminary education after college graduation. The application process required many things: taking the GRE, writing numerous essays, providing my college records, and getting several recommendations. One of the recommendations that was required was one from a professor from the college I had attended.

Believing the professor that new me best and would give me the best recommendation, I asked that psychology professor if he would be willing to write one for me. When I asked him, I was taken a bit by surprise, because he hesitated. After pausing a bit, he said to me, “I will be glad to give a recommendation for you, but I believe that you could help the world out far more if you pursued an advanced degree in Psychology.”

Those words must have sunk deep into my heart, because I still remember them nearly 46 years later. And now, as a retired pastor 42 years later, I wonder if he was right? There are certainly many people in our secular world who would agree with him. It is a world that either doesn’t believe in a divine presence or lives as if there is not one. That which motivates their lives is not a relationship with a god based upon thankfulness to that god. Even in Biblical times, Paul, one of the writers of the books in the New Testament wrote that he was deemed “a fool”.

Maybe there are those who would dub me a fool, too, and maybe I am, because when one is embraced by unconditional love one does what the world sees as foolish things. It happens when people fall in love. They give up their jobs. They move to new places. They trust one another with uncompromised certainty. One of my seminary professors said that it bears noting that we commonly say that we “fall” into love, and we who have fallen know the uncontrollable condition of falling.

I have come to see that my falling began when the waters of Baptism splashed over me and I was drenched in the love of God….the love of God so zealous for me that he would send his son to make me his own…the love of God so unconditional for me that God would not let anything, or anyone (including my rebellious self) steal me away from him….the love of God so deep that God has determined to love me not only for this lifetime, but forever. Living in that love I find myself graced with a “peace that surpasses all human understanding”, a light that reaches into my darkness, a hope that no burden can crush, a heart that sees the God-given value of each person, a rock on which I can stand when the world trembles.

I went to seminary to be a pastor because I wanted to be someone who spreads that kind of love, like peanut butter on bread, all over the world. You don’t have to be a pastor to do that, psychologists can do that, too, but I sensed that God had given me the faith, skills, and the drive to be one who so focusses on the “spreading of peanut butter” so that I might help others, including psychologists, “spread peanut butter”, too.

I am certain that I could have brought a lot of good to the world if I had pursued an advanced degree in psychology, but as I look at what a lot of people are trying to spread all over the world, I believe that when my days are done I will stand before this God who loves me and the world with amazing grace, and I will hear God say to me, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Monday, August 11, 2025

The Bungee Cord 8-11-25

Hello,

We just finished Vacation Bible School at our church. The church that I attend is a small, country church that had decided that to best serve the folks around us we would invite people of all ages to an intergenerational, evening gatherings. And that is what we did. For four Wednesday evenings, kids whose teeth were yet to fall out and folks whose mouths were full of false teeth and all ages in between gathered for a meal, singing, learning, praying, and crafting. All who came, about 25 each night, remarked when it was over, that they very much enjoyed themselves.

Prior to its beginning, we encouraged people to invite their friends and neighbors. One mother with elementary aged children did so, and the reply she got back from those she invited was, “We don’t do the church thing.” Maybe you would have responded likewise.

Since I wasn’t there when the invitation was given, I don’t know exactly what is behind this answer, but I think this response says a lot to Christians who seek to grow in the love that God has for them and to make that love known to the world. What I hear in this answer is that when people think about the Christian faith, what comes to their minds is the church and not the Christ.

And I don’t blame them, for quite often what I hear coming from those who bear Christ’s name is primarily concerning the church, not the Christ….what the church and its members should be doing in the world instead of what Christ is doing….what the church can do to shape your life instead of what Jesus is doing to shape your life…what the expectation are of those who are members of the church instead of what expectations you can count on from Christ…how good you will feel because of the music at worship instead of how good you will feel because of Jesus who died and rose for you. To many people, worship, Bible study, Sunday School, youth groups, potlucks, fellowship groups, summer camps, offerings, food drives….are all church things….not Christ things.

I find this a very important thing to discover, because when the institution, the church, becomes the main thing, there’s a whole lot of things in the world that can be more entertaining, more exciting, more productive, more convenient, more relevant, and more “hip” than the church.

In saying all of this, I am not saying that the church is unimportant or un-needed. What I am saying that when it comes to the Christian faith the Christ, Jesus, is of prime importance and of ultimate necessity. The church is akin to an engine; Jesus is akin to the fuel. My Mini Cooper with its 305-horsepower engine is cool to look at and compare with the engine of a Ford Escort, but it is the fuel that is makes them both purr. The fuel is the thing.

So, maybe you, like the Vacation Bible School invitee have no desire or need to do the church thing, let me invite you to come and have Jesus do the Christ thing in you. Come to worship, Bible Study, Vacation Bible school, a pot luck, a fellowship group and be filled with the fuel that will fill you with life….life to empower you to step into the darkness of a new day, life to empower you to lift up those who have been pushed to the ground, life to empower you to love instead of hate, life to look in the mirror and see someone who God would die for, life to stand at the cliff of a grave and have no fear. Come and experience the Christ thing!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger