The Bungee Cord  11-12-18

Hello,

     As a pastor, I have conducted a lot of funerals.  Even though it might sound a bit morose, funerals are a part of the ministry of which I am glad to be involved.  Funerals are a time when all the pretenses of life are stripped off and all you are left with is what it means to be a human being. It doesn’t matter how successful, powerful, beautiful, popular, important, or admired one may be, when I am standing at the graveside  and say, “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust”, there is an undeniable leveling to human existence….a leveling that I, as a Christian, believe has been there all along.

     Last week, I found myself in a unique place, at a funeral that I was not conducting.  It was a funeral for one of the members of the church that I am serving, but since he was also a pastor the funeral was held at a church near the churches he was serving and was conducted by a friend of his in that area.   So, I was seated in the packed medium-sized church along with his former parishioners, his friends and family,  and a bevy of fellow pastors.

   

     If you have ever been to a funeral of a pastor, you will know that it is a bit different, in that the singing tends to be more robust-er than other funerals.  That was certainly the case for this funeral.  When it was time for a hymn, even though the hymn may not have been familiar to everyone, the sanctuary rocked.

     I happened to be seated toward the rear of the sanctuary amongst people who I did not know….older people who seemed to be former members of this man’s church.  The gusto of their singing was a bit less “pastoral”, actually, I could not hear them singing above the rest of the crowd.  Seated in the pew in front of me was someone who, by his attire, I concluded was not a pastor.  He was dressed in a casual shirt and casual pants.  When he took his place in the pew, he struggled due to his limited range of motion.  When the congregation was asked to rise if they were able, he remained seated.  It was obvious to me that this man was a man whose faith was important to him and likewise was the person whose funeral he was attending, as it was a struggle for him to be there.

     As the service was concluding, the organ started the intro to a hymn that is often part of Lutheran funerals for folks a bit older than me, and then we began to sing.  “Oh Lord my God.  When I in awesome wonder.  Consider all the works thy hands have made.  I see the stars.  I hear the rolling thunder.  Thy power throughout the universe displayed.”  And then, even though the sanctuary was rumbling with pastors, and this man was sitting in front of me and singing away from my direction, I heard him!  “Then sings my soul.  My savior God to thee.  How great thou art.  How great thou art.  Then sings my soul.  My savior God to thee.  How great thou art.  How great thou art.”

     And when we came to the final verse, “When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation, And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart. Then I shall bow, in humble adoration, And then proclaim: "My God, how great Thou art!", he amplified his voice even more, and I could hear him as if he was singing a solo.

     I have no idea of what this man’s life was like…easy or hard, but as I heard him proclaim with blaring bluster these words of faith, I found myself humbled in the shadow of one whose faith overwhelmed the shadow of death in that place.  If death thought that it was going to have the last word for the man who had died, death found out that it would not.  The last word would be Christ’s.  Christ’s whose love and power silenced the voice of death on the day that Jesus walked out of the Easter grave, and likewise silenced in the faith that saturated the voice of the man who sat in front of me as he belittled the power of death by the faith-amplified power in his voice.

     Like I said, as a pastor I find funerals events that I am glad to be part of. This funeral included.  I left that funeral drenched in the hope of Jesus resurrection having been blessed to have been seated behind someone whose witness of God’s grace was louder and more powerful than a sanctuary full of pastors!  Thank you, sir, for your witness.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord   11-7-18

Hello,

 God roots for the Fighting Illini of the University of Illinois!

The reason that I know this is what happened a couple of days ago.  When I woke up and opened the shade the covers our western looking window and saw the entire ridge bathed in orange.  Actually, this was not the first time that I have seen this sight.  It happens every morning when the sun rises. Because (I think) of the curvature of the earth, the dawning light gets refracted a bit, and orange becomes the dominant color,  thus the orange draped ridge out my window.

But on this particular morning, the sky that was touching the ridge was a brilliant blue…thus….orange and blue, the colors of the Fighting Illini of the University of Illinois! Obviously, a sign from heaven that God bleeds orange and blue and roots for my team!

Of course, I am joking. Not about the beauty of the sunrise and its colored dawn, but about the assumption that such a thing is a heavenly message of God’s allegiance.  But all joking aside, such assumptions are often spoken with heartfelt belief, placing God on the side of one person or group and not on the side of the other. I remember some years ago when the national church of which I am a part was meeting in Minneapolis and during the debate on issues of sexuality a tornado bounced over the arena, knocking the cross off of the large church next door.  Some were quick to pronounce this a sign of God’s ire about the direction of the debate, a direction that was moving toward more openness and diversity. But was it?  Could not have the topping of the cross  and the opening of the steeple roof have been a sign of God’s blessing, much akin to the ripping of the temple curtain at Jesus’ crucifixion?

Who does God root for? I tend to think that a far more clear message from God as to his allegiance is seen in Jesus dying on a cross.  The Bible tells us that when Jesus died on that cross he died for all (Romans 6:10).  Question: is there anyone not included in “all”?  If the answer to that question is “no”, then it seems to me that we have the answer to the initial question, “Who does God root for?”  For all.

I take great comfort in that answer, because in that answer I find out that God roots for me.  No matter my devotion, my rebellion, my goodness, my evil, my wisdom, my stupidity, my gifts, my flaws….on and on…God roots for me.  Which also means that God roots for you….no matter if you are sailing smoothly through life with a vibrant faith, or if you are stuck at the bottom of a deep pit of your own making or of your accidental stumbling and faith is hard to find.  God roots for you.

And (this may be the hardest thing to crack through my thick skull) God roots for those with whom I disagree.  I don’t mean that God roots for the rightness or wrongness of how I see things verses how others see things, but rather that God’s heart is linked to each of us.  I find that helpful, so that when I am in disagreement with others, I might involve myself in that disagreement, not as people on different teams, but as people who stand on the same side of the field, the Good Friday field, under the cross of Christ.

It is a good thing that God roots for all, because the Fighting Illini of the University of Illinois are in need of someone to root for them (it’s been a long stretch of years on the football field), but even more so you and I are in need of someone to root for us, because it can be a long stretch of years on the field of life.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord  10-29-18

Hello,

     Is it easier to love or to hate?

     I ask this question for today’s Bungee Cord in light of the tragic events of this past weekend in Pittsburgh where a gunman entered a synagogue, yelled out some hateful things, and then proceeded to shoot, killing and wounding a number of people.

     So, is it easier to love or to hate?  I suspect that people far wiser than I have answers, some of them might even be the thesis for a PHD.  But I have a theory, not produced by careful scientific research, but produced out of the experiences of my life.  Here’s my theory: when one is personally connected to another, it is easier to love and harder to hate that one; when one is not personally connected to another, it is easier to hate and harder to love that one.

     When I was in high school I lived about three blocks from the school, so one of the ways that I would get to school was to ride my bike. One day in my junior year as I was going home from baseball practice I was stopped on my bike at the corner of 55^thStreet and Grant street where there was a traffic light.  As I waited for the light to change, alongside me came a car, a convertible, with two of my baseball teammates aboard. Just as the light was changing to green and I was resetting myself on my bike, the two of them leaned over toward me, hacked up a bunch of mucus, and spit on me.  I wish I could say that that was the only time that these two guys turned their ire on me.  It was not. But when that happened, I did not find much love in my heart for them, but I could feel hate bubbling up. The connection as teammates was not very deep.

     I could only imagine what my reaction would be if such a thing was done to me by someone with whom I am deeply connected…..because thankfully, it hasn’t.  However, when I have seen someone’s child or spouse “spit” at the one who is connected to them by flesh and bone, or by the promise of their word, I have seen how hatred still has a hard time taking hold of a heart that shares in a rhythm of love. Undoubtedly, the pain would be more severe, but when connections run deeper than the ocean, even pain doesn’t have the power to overcome the impulses of love.

     For me, the thing that I base my hope in God’s love for me is exactly in such a deep connection that God has made with me, the connection that he has made in taking on human flesh, and the connection that he has made in shedding his blood for me.  Truth is, that I have done to this One, God, who has so deeply connected himself to me, that those with whom I am most deeply connected have not.  I have “spit” in God’s face….not just once….but over, and over again. And although God would have every reason to hate me for my brazen actions, he doesn’t.  Instead, with the overriding forgiveness of Jesus, God still finds it in his heart to love me….every time.

     What would this world look like if people experienced a deep connection with one another?  Fact is, many do not feel a deep connection with certain others….surely that was the case this weekend with the gunman and the folks in that synagogue.  But the Bible tells us that that man had somehow missed apprehending this important fact: there was, indeed, a deep connection between him and those folks in that synagogue.  You see, when Jesus died on that cross, all people became connected to him, like spokes on a wheel.  And just as every spoke needs to be connected for a wheel to carry the weight of the bike, so likewise Jesus connected every person at the intersection of that cross in order that that cross would bear the weight of the love of the one who was nailed upon it. 

      Is it easier to love or hate?  In Jesus Christ, God is at work connecting everyone in the deepest connection possible, and in so doing,  to make love come to life and hate meet its end.  The joy of the Christian faith is that we get to be part of that work, too.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord 10-22-18

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The Bungee Cord  10-15-18

Hello,

     How many Lutherans does it take to change a lightbulb?

     For those of you who are somewhat new to Christianity, or wonder why there are so many different names for groups of Christians (Lutherans, Roman Catholics, Pentecostal, Baptist, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodists, “non-denominational”… leaving out a bunch, and not even mentioning the distinct groups within each group (not all Lutherans are of the same branch of Lutheranism)), you may sometimes wonder what is going on?  Can’t we all just call ourselves “Christian” and leave it at that.

     Well, I hope that we do call each other “Christian”, no matter what particular group of Christianity we find ourselves in.  Problem is, though, that for most of Christian history, Christians have not done so.  The history of Christianity has been littered with claims of one group of Christians possessing the truth, and others being judged as falling short of the truth. Many, therefore, have seen this grouping of Christians by different names as a defect in the Christian church, a sign of our brokenness.  And when any group of Christians makes the arrogant claim that they have the corner on the truth, I agree that that is a sign of brokenness. 

     But personally, as a Lutheran Christian, not claiming that my understanding and practice is right and everyone else’s is wrong, I see the divisions of Christianity, not as a sign of brokenness, but as a sign of the breadth of the God who has revealed himself to us in Jesus Christ.

     I am not an expert on music, but I do know this, that when many different instruments play harmonically together, it is far more beautiful than having 100 of the same instruments all playing the same notes.  Rock and roll, classical, country….you name it… the combination of instruments and voices resonating harmonically together creates a wonderful beauty.

     Fact is, that is the wonder of the Bible, and thereby the Christian faith.  When you read the Bible you find that it is “symphonic” in its presentation.  If you read the first four books of the New Testament, you find different Gospel “instruments” being played.  Matthew is playing an instrument that is very concerned with connecting Jesus with the writings and practices of the Old Testament.  Mark is far more trumpet-like, just trying to quickly blare the message out.  Luke seems to be playing to those who may have been less connected to the Jewish traditions.  And John is like an organ, complex in its construction, and one who plays it plays with hands and feet and accomplished skill.  That is the way it is throughout the Bible….and thereby, in my mind, the Christian faith.

     Why are there so many groups within Christianity?  Well, because Christianity is, and always has been, composed of people playing different instruments, seeking to make beautiful music together…the beautiful music of the good news of God’s love in Jesus Christ.  When people ask me to speak of the differences between Christian groups, I find myself far less interested in making judgements on who is right or wrong, and far more interested in describing the kind of instrument of Christianity they are playing.

     I happen to play the guitar, and because of that, I know something about my instrument.  But ask me about an oboe…..well, I know very little, so my explanations of others is certainly lacking.  (That is why it is good to talk to someone who plays a different instrument in God’s band than you.)  I know my Christian instrument best (Lutheran)….an instrument that is strung with a supreme reliance on God’s love for us that spurs our love for God and others….an instrument that is grounded in the claim that God has made on us that shapes our lives and our faith….an instrument that experiences God’s tangible presence in Baptism and Communion….an instrument that doesn’t wait for me to find God, but trumpets God’s relentless search to find me and embrace me…an instrument where the mercy of God is boldly sounded.  As a Lutheran Christian playing in God’s Gospel band, I believe it is my job to take this instrument that God has given me and play it the best that I can, and enable others who play this instrument to do so, too.  I believe that is the role of every Christian group, so that when we play our song of God’s revelation in Jesus Christ, it rings with a beauty and grace that captivates the world, and also invites the world to play along in the instrument section with the instrument that they have been given to play.

     Of course, every instrument and instrumentalist has its strengths and weaknesses, things that need to be worked on and challenged.  Therein lies the answer to my opening question.

     How many Lutherans does it take to change a lightbulb?

     Change?

     We are working on that.  Hope you’ll work on it with us if this is the instrument that you are carrying. But if you are carrying a different instrument, I know this, that section of the band is hoping that you will work on it with them, too.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord
10-8-18

Hello,

     Last week if you were watching the weather channel, you would have seen my house.  Well, not exactly, but you would have seen exactly where I live, because a huge storm cloud that was swirling in the air passed right over my house.  I know that we made national news because we were contacted by some people living in the Midwest wondering if we were okay.

     It was an eerie event when the cloud went over us.  A wall of rain came down out of the southwest, accompanied by 50-60 mile an hour winds.  Swirling leaves joined the pelting rain as the sky got darker. Then, in a matter of a moment, everything changed.  The rain and wind had turned to come from the Northeast.  No twister reached the ground, but the skies were certainly a-swirl.  When we saw the storm coming we followed the warning of the weather channel and went into our lower level where we have a room that is completely cement enclosed.  It is a room under our front porch….we call it our bomb shelter.  (It also serves as our wine cellar…..handy.)  We never had to dash into it, but we were ready if the swirling sky decided to touch the earth.

     Fact is, this isn’t the first voracious storm to wander our way. We live on top of a hill that with the ridge across from us, there is a sort of half-pipe that invites storms to show off their trickery.  It seems that at least once a year, we have very strong straight winds that rattle our windows and walls, and tear off roof shingles.  When our house was being built, the construction company had to secure the outhouse to a tree to keep it from being toppled over by the “breeze”.  I don’t know why the weather channel decided to let the world in on our suffering, because most of the time when the storms descend upon us, we do it unbeknownst to the rest of the world.

     I suspect that the same thing can be said of all of us, and the storms that descend into our lives.  There are times when the winds rattle our lives and knock us off the ground – the death of a loved one, a hospital emergency, a job that disappears, a marriage that breaks up – and people, aware of the storm, will check in to make sure that we are alright.   And we are thankful for their care.  But more often, I am sure that many get hit by some pretty rough storms – depression, family conflict, money concerns – and no one knows.  They struggle and suffer silently.

     There are a variety of reasons why people keep their struggles to themselves.  Maybe they don’t want to seem weak in a world that demeans weaklings.  Maybe they don’t want to pester other people, who have problems of their own, with the struggles that they are dealing with.  Maybe they are embarrassed by their struggles, believing that they are the only ones who deal with such things.  Maybe they don’t have anyone to talk to, or if they do, they don’t have anyone who they think really cares.

     I have personally found out that there are folks around us who erase those reasons for silently suffering, people who are a blessing. Sometimes they are hard to find, but they are there, and like a buried treasure, they are worth hunting for.  So if….no when…storms take aim on you…..know that you don’t have to suffer silently.

     But even more important than hunting for someone with whom to give you bolster when the storms hit, is to know that there is one is hunting for you, to be your be your shelter and shield when the storm clouds approach.  The Lord.

Psalm 46
¹ God is our refuge and strength,
   a very present help in trouble. ² Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change,
   though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; ³ though its waters roar and foam,
   though the mountains tremble with its tumult.
         ⁴ There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
   the holy habitation of the Most High. ⁵ God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved;
   God will help it when the morning dawns. ⁶ The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter;
   he utters his voice, the earth melts. ⁷ The Lord of hosts is with us;
   the God of Jacob is our refuge.
          ⁸ Come, behold the works of the Lord;
   see what desolations he has brought on the earth. ⁹ He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
   he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear;
   he burns the shields with fire. ¹⁰ ‘Be still, and know that I am God!
   I am exalted among the nations,
   I am exalted in the earth.’ ¹¹ The Lord of hosts is with us;
   the God of Jacob is our refuge.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord   10-1-18

Hello,

     Why do you call this “The Bungee Cord?”

     Nearly 25 years ago when I was the pastor in a small Ohio town, I noticed as I looked out at the congregation that a certain segment of that small town was missing, 18-35 year old’s.  Knowing that Jesus died for them, too, I tried to think of a way to reach them with that great news.  So, instead of waiting for them to come to me, I decided to go to them via a new technology that had just become available: email.

     One of the “ah ha” things that I learned in seminary was that God is a God of zealous grace.  So zealous is he for those that he loves that he will stop at nothing to love them into his embrace.  He died for them.  And so zealous is he for those that he loves, that he is not about to let his dying love would not be in vain.  He will not let them go.   1 John 3:1 says it so well, “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are.”

     With this “ah ha” in mind, another new “technology” came to mind as a visual expression of God’s zealous love: a Bungee Cord….as in Bungee Jumping.  (Those of you who were around then can remember what a fad it was…a fad that I never jumped into!)  It seemed to me to be the perfect image for what I was trying to accomplish, reach folks in the 18-35 year range.  After all, for many that is a time of jumping into life in a bungee jumping way. Prepared, or unprepared, everyone in that stage of life takes that leap into new adventures.  By dubbing the e-mail that I would weekly send to them “The Bungee Cord”, I was hoping to tell them two things about the adventure that lay ahead.  First, they weren’t jumping alone.  God, like a Bungee Cord, was holding them tight.  Second, no matter where their adventure would take them, God would never let them go, and, like a Bungee Cord, pull them back into his embrace.

     How do I know that God’s love is so Bungee Cord-ly zealous? Well, Jesus tells a story of a father who had two sons (18-25 years old?), one who brashly asked for his inheritance while his father was still quite alive.  Then, as if jumping off a bridge, that son went on an adventure in a faraway land, far away from his father and the life that his father had tried to instill in him.  So hair raising was this adventure that he found himself starving while he was keeping pigs alive…..and then Jesus says that something amazing happened…..Jesus said, “but when HE CAME TO HIMSELF” he realized there was hope.  

     When Jesus said, “HE CAME TO HIMSELF,” that young man realized who he was: the son of a loving father.  Even when he had plunged into a canyon of despair deeper than he could have ever dreamed of, his father’s love still reached him, and as the story goes, pulled him back.  And as he was pulled back to his father, he discovered that his father was still looking for his return.  Before he could reach his father, his father ran out to him, embraced him, put the finest clothes he had on him, and put the family ring on his finger, and threw a party for him!

     There’s more to the story, showing how the father also held the other brother tightly, too….but I’ll save that for another time.  This story has traditionally been called the parable of the “prodigal son”,  but I think a better title for it would be “The Bungee Cord Zealous Loving Father”.  (I know, a bit long for a title….but it fits, I think.)

     Over the years my audience has widened to people of all ages, because as I have aged beyond the 18-35 year old bracket, I have discovered that every day for me is a step into a hair-raising adventure.  I need to know, and likewise I want everyone to know, that no jump is made alone, and no matter where that jump will take a jumper, God will not let go and will bring the jumper back into God’s embrace.

     So, whether the jump you took this morning when you stepped out of bed was terrifying or mild, I hope that in reading this Bungee Cord you will take that jump with great courage and empowering hope.  “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