The Bungee Cord 2-17-13

Hello,

     This is the first winter that we have lived in our house on top of the ridge, and this winter has confirmed the wisdom of two of the purchases we made as we moved in: a tractor, and a four wheel drive pick-up.  In the past several weeks we have had our fair share of snow up here, snow that doesn’t accumulate in Greensburg where it is warmer because of its lower elevation.  Four inches, six inches, three inches, and even now we are getting another 8-10 inches of snow.  The snow comes in waves, but unlike the snow in South Dakota where we used to live, it doesn’t pile up as warmer weather also comes in spurts to melt it away.

     Even though we know that the melting is coming, we still find ourselves needing to plow our lane every time it snows.  We have a nearly half mile lane that winds its way up our hill whose incline is too steep for a car to traverse without being plowed.  Thus the need for our tractor for which we have a plowing blade.  A wise investment.

    In addition to the utility uses of our four wheel drive pickup, our Ford Ranger has also proved its worth in this winter’s snows.  On those days when I have left for work and the ground was clear only to find it downy white in the afternoon when I returned home, simply by switching it into four wheel drive my pick up gets me up the hill as if it was going down hill instead of up.  Snow be not proud….I have a four wheel drive pick up!

     The other day, however, I discovered that my pick up has come in winter handy in a way that I had not anticipated.  As I was brushing the several inches of snow off the front windshield, my eye caught movement near the front driver’s side tire.  As I looked down I saw the source of that movement: a field mouse that had dropped out from the engine and was scurrying its way through the snow and through my feet.  I didn’t screech or yell, but I have to admit I jumped a bit by the surprise of a mouse darting through my feet.  Apparently when I last parked my truck, the warmth of the engine was just what this little field mouse needed to survive another bitter, cold night.  In terms of proving itself a worthy purchase, that mouse would have more than agreed with me on its winter value; a life saver.

     I don’t know that the Bible ever likens the Church to a Red Ford Ranger pickup, but it seems to me that the image is a good one.  Sometimes life can bring wave upon wave of snow, dropping a couple of inches here and a foot there, and what we need is something with sure footing to get us up a hill….and the church is that….when you take your seat in one of the pews, you can feel the traction of the Lord who trudged up Calvary’s hill grab the ground underneath you.  And then there are those times when you’re lost in a storm, a storm whose fury is out to get you, and what you need is a place of warm shelter….and the church is that…when you nestle into your seat the warmth of God’s forgiveness, the blanket of the people’s compassion, the shelter from the oppressive, attacking winds provides just what you need to save your life and strengthen you to face the world again.

     To what can the kingdom of God be compared?  How about a Red Ford Ranger Pickup.

It’s snowing again! 

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace,

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord 2-11-13

Hello,

     Note to self: do not drink 4 cups of coffee before donating white blood cells.

     A couple of months ago our church had a blood drive at which I bled a unit of blood that would be put to use to save someone’s life.  This was my first donation since moving to Pennsylvania, and as I had expected there isn’t much difference from state to state in the blood donation procedures. I was, however, surprised a couple of days later to get a phone call from the local Red Cross telling me that I had an exceptional platelet count, and they were wondering if I would be willing to come in for a platelet donation.

     Back in the ‘80’s when we lived in St. Paul, Minnesota, I participated in platelet donation, but for a variety of reasons had not done so since then.  As you may know, the procedure for donating platelets involves having a line placed in one arm that extracts your blood into a machine that separates white and red blood cells, and then there is a second line placed in the other arm that returns the red blood cells back to you and leaves the white ones behind in a collecting bag.  The whole process from hook up to unhooking takes about 3 hours.

     My appointment was set for 1:15 for this past Tuesday,  and I was told to hydrate well before I arrived.  So along with a very nutritious Wendy’s hamburger, I drank a big glass of pop before I walked into the Red Cross.  I suppose that the big glass of pop would not have been anything of significance except for the fact that I had had several cups of coffee in the morning while I was at work.

     I took my seat in the reclining chair where a TV was suspended in front of me to occupy my attention for the next 3 hours, and with a few misses of my veins and a few re-sticks, within a half an hour I was sending my blood into the separating machine.  “You can move your hands,” the technician told me, “but don’t move your arms.”  I don’t know if it was the realization that these words carried that I would have to be motionless for the next three hours that triggered some unconscious fear, but suddenly I found myself well aware of all the coffee and pop that I had drank summoning me to visit the little boy’s room…..which I would not be able to do for about three hours.

     To cut to the chase, let me say that it was a very difficult three hours.  The minutes passed more slowly than the minutes pass when sitting in a dentist’s chair having major work done on your molars.  I tried not to look at the clock, because every glance only seemed to magnify the pressure that I was feeling in my bladder.  Knowing that my blood was desperately needed due to the decrease of donors in this cold/flu season, I was determined not to plead for mercy and ask to have my donation cut short.  To say that my three hours of being “strapped” to the arms of that chair were agonizing is probably a bit hyperbolic, but to say that it was a battle with misery would not overstate the case.  When the bell rang on the machine stating my mission was complete, they couldn’t get me unhooked fast enough for me to run to the restroom.

     It seems to me that we have become so used to talking about the three hours that Jesus spent “strapped” to the cross, that we do so with a rather casual appreciation of what he went through for us.  Not to say that the discomfort that I endured for three hours in my reclining char came anywhere close to the excruciating pain that Jesus endured for three hours on the cross, but this Lent I wont say those words “they nailed him to the cross” with apathy.  If my experience of giving blood brought the level of misery it did for me, I cannot even imagine the level of misery that Jesus’ experience of shedding his blood brought to him.  Yet Jesus went willing to that cross to shed his blood so that every power or deed that would wish to claim you or me would be bled to death and only God’s claim would remain.

     These 40 days of Lent that lead us to Easter are meant to be days of honest reflection: honest reflection on the pain that we cause ourselves, those near and far from us, and especially God…but also honest reflection on the nearly incomprehensible love of God that he would send his Son, Jesus, to shed his blood on a cross so that we would be given a place in his heart forever.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord 2-4-13

Hello,

     If you watched the Super Bowl last night, you saw what I saw.  The lights went out in the middle of the game.  Mysteriously. Instantly.  Inconveniently.  Just after an exciting kick off return, the game stopped more abruptly than Dale Earnhardt, Jr. hitting his breaks.   But the lights were not the only thing that  were snapped off .  So also were the announcers, silenced in the middle of a sentence.  One can imagine the panic that shook the TV truck as they tried to cover time that was selling for 3.8 million dollars per thirty  seconds.  When it happened, no one knew why.  No one knew how long the darkness was going to hover.  No one knew exactly what to do.  Players milled around. Coaches yelled at people who were supposed to be in charge.  Building personnel scrambled and announcers stumbled over pregnant pauses. Patience was called for.  20 … maybe  30 minutes and the lights might come back on…. but no one could say for certain.

     Although the hype that comes with the Super Bowl game might lead us to think otherwise, there really are far more significant times in life when the lights going out creates a deeper crisis: “we can’t do anything more for you,”, “please clean out your desk,” “mom…dad…are you sitting down?”, “there’s been a terrible accident”, “what a mess I have made”.  Far more significant are these light outages.  With these the fear, confusion, despair, and impatience is painfully real and heart crushingly deep.  Seconds pass like hours.  “Just wait” are words of torture.  “Hold on.  There’s a light at the end of the tunnel,” falls upon the ears of those whose hands have been sapped of their strength as reason to give us.  The darkness that delayed the Super Bowl doesn’t contend with the thick darkness that slams upon life, real life.

     To that darkness and the confusion, despair, and pain that it brings comes an a word to us from the one who shattered the darkness of creation with the words “let there be light”…from the one whose birth in Bethlehem brought the light into the darkness with a power that no darkness could overcome….  from the one whose Friday’s cry “it is finished” finished off the convicting fuel of sin and whose Sunday’s steps out of a death sealed grave ignited a flame of everlasting life fueled by the never ending mercy of God……….. from this One comes the words, “Fear not.  I am with you.”

     The good news…. the powerful good news of Jesus Christ is that the one in whom there is no darkness actually cares about you and me to enjoin himself to our flickering lives.  It may seem that such news is too good to be true, and many through the centuries have said so:  “No god would take on the cares of his creation”.  “It is only the wishful thinking of weak, scared people who believe such a thing.”  “I see famine, war, hatred, disease…..where’s the beef….where is God?”

     These critiques of the Christian faith are not new.  They are as old as the Bible itself, and so hear the Bible’s (or as I would rather say “God’s) response to them, “For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.” (1 Cor. 1:22-25) 

     “Fear not.  I am with you,” are God’s powerful words, power that reveals itself in a peace that surpasses all human understanding when those words take hold of our hearts.  I have witnessed their power in my life and in the lives of many for whom darkness has interrupted their lives with real, bone chilling fear, and so I put my trust in them as I turn new corners….not knowing what I will encounter there, other than when I am there God’s Word “will be a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.”  So, also, it will be for you.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 1-28-13

Hello,

     Several years ago I was on a retreat with a bunch of 7^th,8^th, and 9^th graders.  We were in the dining hall, and I found myself seated at table with seven seventh grade boys.  Some would consider this a very dangerous place to be.  It was lunch, and although I don’t remember exactly what was served, I am sure that it had to be something akin to sloppy joes, chips, and sliced peaches….isn’t that what is always served for lunch at camp.

     As we awaited the hall to fill up and lunch to begin, I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of poking and jabbing amongst my table mates.  When all had arrived and grace had been sung and said, the “runner” (a dangerous name for kids carrying food) was selected by some random factor…the one with the longest hair?  Once selected, the runner walked to the serving station and procured our food and set it on our table, and that is where the pleasantries came to an end.  Like coyotes circled around a dead animal, my tablemates began lunging at the food, grabbing for sloppy joes and potato chips, fearful, it seemed that this food might take off and run away if not for their pouncing on it.  Once the flurry had subsided and most of the sloppy joes and potato chips were on plates and not on the floor, I said to my lunchmates, “Is this how you eat at home?”

     To my surprise every one of them, all seven seventh grade boys, said the same thing, “No.  We never sit down at a table and eat together at home.”

     “Really?” I replied back, startled.  At that time I still had my three boys at home, and we regularly, but not always, tried to eat at least one meal a day together as a family.  Probing further, I discovered that the universal practice of these seven seventh graders was to almost always eat by themselves….grab something out of the frig….heat it up….take a seat in front of the TV….and eat.  And even when they did eat with others in the family, it was usually sitting on the couch or easy chairs, focused on the TV.

     Although this may not be true for you, I have since discovered that this is pretty standard fare for meal time in our culture.  Tables are not used.  Families don’t gather, and the TV provides conversation.

     When I consider why many Christians do not find themselves drawn to Sunday morning worship, it seems to me that my seven seventh graders provided me an insight.  In a culture where mealtime is often solitary, often paired with individual entertainment, and the sole objective is simply to fill one’s stomach….it is no wonder that Sunday morning worship where we gather together at a pre-set time, where we share fellowship and a table with others, and where certain “manners” are observed seems an odd and almost repulsive idea to many.

     Gathering together for worship may be a relic from an age when people gathered together to eat, but maybe this is a relic worth holding on to.  For when people gather together for worship they develop friendships that are grounded in God’s self-giving love.  When people kneel side by side at the table, they experience the impartial, unconditional love that Christ gives to each of them.  When people join their prayers for loved ones and strangers they link their thoughts and hearts.  When people join their voices to those around them in song, they hear the sounds of harmony that is possible in spite of their difference.  When people sit side by side in worship together, they get to know each other better, and thereby are able to care better for each other in times of need.   When people converse and praise together, single notes are woven into rich and interesting chords of sound.

     It may be easier to eat alone in our fast paced world, and it may be easier to practice one’s Christian faith alone in this same harried world, but consider the monochromatic life and faith that such isolation creates and on the other hand the dynamism of being together brings to both life and faith.

     At First Lutheran of Greensburg where I worship and dine, the church bells ring at 8:00 a.m. and 10:30 a.m..  Those bells echo from a day that is passed, a day when dinner bells called children in from play to gather around a table and have their lives broadened as they joined for a purpose greater than just filling their stomachs with food.  If you hear our bells or not, know that the invite is sent  ringing out to you, no matter where you are.  There is a church whose doors are open to you telling you that it is supper time….time to gather around the table of the Lord with a far greater purpose than just filling our stomachs with food.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace,

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 1-21-13

Hello,

     “If I could have a beer with Jesus….”

     I was driving back from Pittsburgh in the loaner car that was given to me while  my car was having major repairs done when I heard this song come from the radio that was playing on one of the preset stations.  “If I could have a beer with Jesus….”

     I am not a regular country western, or even a frequent country western listener.   But as it so happened, some previous driver of this loaner car must have been and decided that I should be, thus gracing my ears with a tune that I had never heard before.  I snickered as I heard it.  The image of a sandal shod, robe clad, ancient Israeli sitting down at a honky tonk bar tickled me. 

     Although the image may have been a bit too dog-dying, jilted-lover country western for me, it did get me to thinking.  Wouldn’t we all want to “have a beer with Jesus”, and ask him some of the deepest things on our minds?  Maybe ask some of the same things that Thomas Rhett Akins, the singer of this song, was wanting to ask: “How’d you turn the other cheek to save a sorry soul like me?  Do you hear the prayers I send?  What happens when life ends?  Is mommy and daddy alright?”  Or maybe we would ask, “Where are you when unthinkable tragedies strike?  Are you real?  Will I make it through the darkness of my life?”

     Well, we in the Lutheran Christian tradition believe that something of the likes of what Thomas Rhett Akins sings actually happens….happens over and over again.   We believe that Jesus does invite us to have a drink with (and actually of) him every Sunday morning.  He joins us as we lean on a communion rail, invited to come with all of our questions, our failures, and fears and he gives an answer, his answer: “Take and eat.  This is my body.  Take and drink.  This is my blood.” 

     To some it may seem an odd answer, and maybe even an answer that dodges the questions that we bring, but when you consider it, what clearer and more satisfying answer could Jesus give us: an answer that embodies his deep love for us, a love that does not fall upon us from afar, but unites itself with us from within.  After all answers are only as trustworthy and secure as the trustworthiness and security of the one giving the answers.  Will any question, doubt or fear cause Jesus to turn his back on us…..take and eat, take and drink…..the answer: no.  Will any question, doubt, or fear separate us from God….take and eat, take and drink…the answer: no.

     Let me…no hear Jesus invite you to his table to sit down and have a drink with him.  And when you come, go ahead and ask him any question that you might bring, and experience the direct answer that Jesus will give to you.

     Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 1-14-13

Hello,

     Tuesday night the red and blue lights of a police car lit up the street in front of our church.  A criminal had been nabbed.  The criminal: me.  I was coming to church for a meeting, when just a couple of blocks away from the church someone cut me off having pulled out in front of me from a parking lot.  Not only did the person almost hit me, whoever was driving the car didn’t seem to know where the gas pedal was once they were in front of me.  Driving half the speed limit, the car plodded ahead of me…..aggravating me. 

     Not that it would have helped, I tried peering through the back window of the snail paced car to see just who could have been such an inept driver.  Since it was dark, I had a hard time seeing through the window, but as we approached in intersection the streetlight illuminated the interior just enough to catch a glimpse of the rear of the driver’s head.  I focused my eyes on the shadowy head, hoping to make some sort of identification, but even with the streetlight, I couldn’t make out much.   So half way through the intersection, my anger stewing, I turned my eyes back to the street, just in time to see that the traffic light above me was scarlet red.  I took a quick look to my left and right in order to see if there was any cars coming my way, and I caught in my glance a car just about to enter the intersection on my right….a car with an apparatus on its roof…a bar of lights.

     I didn’t even have time to hope that the light bar would stay darkened, when the red and blue lights lit up and began to spin, and the car…the police car…jumped on my tail.  I turned off the main road and stopped my car, stopping it right next to the church.  The police car pulled up right behind me, its flashing lights announcing a crook had been nabbed.

     I sat in my car, mad at myself for “breaking the law” and embarrassed by the attention that I was sure I was attracting.  The police officer stepped out of her car and made her way to the driver’s window of my car.  She didn’t have to tell me why she had stopped me.  I knew, and I pleaded guilty of my crime even before she spoke.  Politely, she took my license and went back to her car.  Hoping for undeserved grace, in a few moments she returned to my car, handed back to me my license, and saying, “You’ll get your ticket in the mail.”

     I started up my car, turned into the alley just ahead of me, parked my car and entered the church…entered the church as one who had broken the law.  Not something of which to be proud, but clearly true.  Fortunately, my crime did not hurt anyone, but none the less, I had committed a crime, throwing me into the pool of all criminals….and so the thought occurred to me, being the law breaker that I was, maybe I should not have entered the church.

      But therein lies the rub….the misinformation that has somehow made itself into the world.  Somehow the word has been circulated that only “good” people should go to church.  People who do not squabble.  People who do not gossip.  People who do not lie.  People who are not prejudiced.  People who do not find themselves in the sheriff’s log in the newspaper.  But that is not true.  The church was never supposed to be a place for perfect people, rather Jesus created the church to be a place for imperfect people.  A place where God’s forgiveness frees people from the prison of their sins, and where God’s love is at work transforming them into new people. 

     I got my fine in the mail today. $112.00.  I will pay my fine, as I should, and eagerly I will go to church this week…where I belong….not because I am perfect, but because I am the very kind of person Jesus wants in the church….a sinner who stands in need of his transformational forgiveness. 

     So, let me on Jesus’ behalf, invite you to church this week.  There is nothing you could have done, felt, or said that should keep you away….because the church isn’t made for perfect people.  It was made for sinners, breakers of the law, like you and me.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 1-7-13

Hello,

     Sunday was the celebration of the Day of Epiphany in our church and in churches around the world.  The day of Epiphany, 12 days after Christmas, marks the traditional day of the arrival of the Wisemen in Bethlehem.  I am not sure why centuries ago Christians decided to count twelve days as the passage of time for the Wisemen’s visit, but so it has been for years and years and years.  It is where the song, “The Twelve Days of Christmas” (…on the first day of Christmas my  true love gave to me) has its roots.

     Over the centuries there has been a fascination with these Wisemen.  In truth, the Bible really does not say much about them.  They only appear in Matthew’s telling of the Christmas story, and Matthew calls them “Magi”.  This name seems to indicate that they were connected in some way with non-Jewish spiritual life.  Most likely they were like medicine men in African tribes who through their “ability” to read the skies they could give guidance to people’s lives. 

     Other than that, we really don’t know much about them.  Where exactly did they come from?  Somewhere from the east, but exactly where, we don’t know.  How many of them were there?  Other than the Bible telling us that there was more than one of them, we don’t know.  How they travelled to Bethlehem?  We don’t know.  How they were able to discern the star’s direction?  We don’t know.  They brought gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, but how much of each and what Mary and Joseph did with those gifts, we don’t know.

     A lot of tradition has been built up around these Wisemen, most of it having no Biblical foundation.  In truth, the only thing that we know about them is that they were drawn by God to Jesus’ side, and they were welcome at Jesus side.  Although the focus of Epiphany is meant to be on the revelation of Jesus to be not just the king of the Jews, but much greater: the Lord of the nations…..I find great hope in taking a good look at these Wisemen and seeing what the Bible actually tells us about them:  they were drawn by God to Jesus’ side and they were welcome there (repeated…for emphasis).

     Just like all the tradition that we have slapped on the Wisemen, a lot of stuff has been slapped on people about who they should be before they come to Jesus side.  Are you welcome if you find some or a lot of the Christian faith hard to believe?….so it was with the Wisemen, and they were welcome…SO ARE YOU!  Are you welcome if your lifestyle doesn’t match the lifestyle that you have been told is expected of Christians?....the Magi’s lifestyle was far from what was expected of the Jews and they were welcome….SO ARE YOU!  Are you welcome if your customs and dress are unusual?.... so it was with the Wisemen compared to the rest of the people in Bethlehem, and they were welcome….SO ARE YOU!  Are you welcome if you have many things tugging on you and focusing your life on other interests?....so it was with the wisemen, but God didn’t count them out.  God drew them to Jesus side and they were welcome…..SO ARE YOU!

     So, the truth is that you and I don’t really know much about the Wisemen….the truth is that you and I don’t really know much about each other….but this we know about the wisemen….and this we know about you and me…..God is at work drawing all people into the love and mercy of Jesus, and all whom God has drawn in is welcome!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace,

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger