The Bungee Cord .7-19-21

Hello,

I’ve been to quite a few baseball games, but a couple of weeks ago as I was watching the Pirates on TV, they showed something that I have never seen before at a baseball game. Out in the outfield, before the game started, there was a coach playing catch with a young boy who was in the stands. My guess was that the boy was an elementary age youngster. His glove was bigger than his forearm. His Pirate hat had plenty of room for him to grow into as it covered both of his ears. Standing in the legroom in the first row of seats, there he was playing catch with this coach. Back and forth they tossed the ball. Every throw perfectly thrown from both of them, and every throw caught, too.

There were a couple of kids standing on either of his sides, but they did not have gloves, so they stood there watching, witnessing all that was going on. As I watched this game of catch go on, I wondered just what this young boy was feeling inside and what he was going to tell all of his friends the next day when he got home.

“Hey guys! Yesterday at the Pirate game, I played catch with one of the coaches! It was sooooo cool! Here’s the ball to prove it. I can’t wait to get back to another Pirate game!”

Now, I don’t know exactly what that young boy thought, but I do know that if that was me, that is what I would have had going through my head. The thrill to hold a major league baseball in my hand. The thrill of playing catch with one of the coaches. The thrill of making good throws and catches….maybe the coach would write my name down for the future….dreaming of the day that I might be down on that field with a Pirate uniform on! (By the way, I played for the Foster Toy Pirates in my Little League years.). It would have made my whole summer vacation amazing if I, at a young age , would have played catch with a real Pirate! I know that I would hardly been able to wait to tell all my friends about it.

Even though I have lived decades from my Little League years, I would still be thrilled to play catch with a Pirate, but yesterday something happened to me that is far more thrilling. Yesterday when I was at church, Jesus invited me to dine with him…..to join him in a meal that he first gave 2000 years ago to 12 people with whom he walked in life. And yesterday, Jesus invited me….yes, little, insignificant me….to share in a meal where the barrier between divine and mortal is shorn. Christians of different traditions understand the meal to which Jesus invites them in differing ways. The tradition that I am part of reads the Bible and hears Jesus offering a personal invitation, an invitation to a meal where he is personally there, body and blood in with and under the bread and wine. We call the meal Holy Communion, and the communion that we experience with Jesus is a personal and physical one. It is a meal where Jesus gives himself to us, physically unites himself with us, takes hold of us…not from the outside where the world can try and pull us away from him, but from the inside where the world cannot reach.

So, yesterday, Jesus…the Son of God, the King of King and Lord of Lords, the Redeemer of the world….did more than just play catch with me, he caught me in his eternally merciful embrace. Even though my aim in life can be pretty wild and off the mark, and even though I often drop the ball of forgiveness and mercy that he has tossed to me, Jesus invited me…yes me…to join him in a meal that will change my life. Now and forever. When I think about it, it really is incredible that Jesus would invite me to his table – far more incredible than having a Pirate coach play catch with me before a game. And far more thrilling!

I am writing to you about what happened to me yesterday because I can’t hold it in and keep it to myself. Jesus invited me to his meal. Jesus gave himself to me and took ahold of my heart. I heard Jesus words said to me that were said to the first disciples, “This is my body given for you…This is my blood shed for you. Jesus….yes, Jesus….did more than just play catch with me…Jesus communed with me. I can’t wait to find myself at his table again.

Oh…and I heard Jesus invite you, too!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

 

The Bungee Cord 7-12-21

Hello,

Yesterday as I was leaving worship, I drove through “downtown” Ligonier, as I always do. Usually “downtown” Ligonier is a sleepy place on Sunday mornings, but not yesterday. I don’t know what the occasion was, but “downtown” was crowded, not with people, but with Golden Retrievers (and their owners, of course). For one whole block, both sides of the street were filled with Golden Retrievers, all of them peacefully congregating. Properly sitting, some laying down. No barking. No tugging and pulling on leashes. Calmly attending whatever occasion brought them all together.

To me, it was an amazing sight. Amazed I was at the gracious beauty of each of the dogs, but that was not the apex of my amazement. I was mostly amazed at the calm and order of all the dogs, for I know if there had been such a gathering of the breed of dog that I have, it would have been canine chaos!

I have a Gordon Setter. This is my second Gordon Setter. My first we had to put down a year and a half ago. He was a great companion for 13 years, as is my current dog, McMahon, who is 4 ½ years old. I am not a hunter, and that is what comes naturally to this breed. Some have called Gordon Setters the Cadillac of hunting dogs. I just like the way they look. Stately, flowing hair, floppy ears, black and brown coats. Years ago, when I got my first Gordon Setter, Duncan, I researched the breed a bit to find out what I might be getting, and the first sight that I went to had an interesting opening sentence that I remember to this day, “This breed is not a Golden Retriever.”

Now some 15 years later, I wholeheartedly agree! My Gordon Setters did not, like Golden Retrievers, live to please me. Lively, full of energy….some say perpetual puppies. Their hunting nose and instincts are the driving forces of their lives. They love to run, and they never seem to tire in wanting to be entertained….”here’s my ball…let’s play!” Inquisitive about every dog that they see. “Heel” is not a natural practice for them. Like I said, if there was a gathering of Gordon Setters in Ligonier, it would not have been a peaceful sight.

But, I love my Gordon Setter. I delight in seeing him chase around and get excited. Seeing his ears flop up and down as he takes his long strides strikes a smile on my face. His loyalty is tremendous, and in the evening when he’s ran all day, there’s nothing he’d rather do than snuggle up on the couch and watch a baseball game with me. His personality is humorous, and his daily delight in life is contagious. He’s not a Golden Retriever…..but then again, in many ways I am glad that he is not. To be sure, he is not a boring companion.

The sight of all those Golden Retrievers got me to thinking about people. People, just like dogs, are different. Some are sort of dignified in their approach to life (like Golden Retrievers), and some sort of just romp their way through life (like Gordon Setters). Neither way better than the other….just different….and thankfully so. When I see the variety of churches, I see what I saw on Sunday…..different kinds of people gathered together in common “breeds”. It surely can be said of God’s people, “we are not all Golden retrievers!” The music that comes out the window, the tone of the sermon, the décor of the church and the dress of the people….quite different in each of the churches. And in my mind that is a good thing, because as I said before, “we are not all Golden Retrievers!” In God’s kingdom there’s a place for terriers, basset hounds, greyhounds, poodles and all the rest to gather. I am thankful that God’s love for his people is big enough to gather together all sorts of “breeds”, including me.

So, let me invite you on this upcoming Sunday, to gather together with your “breed”. To celebrate the wonder of what God has created in you. To treasure the community that shares the traits that you bring to the world, but most of all to hear the Master of all say to you, “I love you for who you are.” And when you go back into the world amongst all the differing “breeds”, maybe you won’t be compelled to think of yourself as better or worse than another “breed”, but part of a great array of wonder who share the Divine Master’s delight.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

 The Bungee Cord 7-5-21

Hello,

This week's Bungee Cord is my sermon from yesterday.....seemed like it would be good to Bungee it, too.

2 Cor. 12:2-10

I suspect that there isn’t a one of us here who hasn’t gone through, in some way, what the apostle Paul writes about in his letter to the Christians in Corinth.

“Therefore,” says Paul, “to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”

We never find out from Scripture what this “thorn in the flesh” was that tormented Paul. Lots of people have tried to guess, and guess is what they are doing. As for me, I don’t feel a need to guess, as a matter of fact, I think that is good that we don’t know what it was, that in knowing we might find ourselves thinking that the thorn we might have does not relate to the one that Paul had. All we know is that he had a thorn in the flesh, one so aggravating, one so life-sapping, one so painful that he appealed three times to the Lord to be rid of it. Now, three times may not seem like all that many to you or to me, but it is two more than once, and don’t we all hope that one appeal to God for help should be enough? How long would it take to get rid of this thorn? How many prayers would he need to say? If not three prayers….how many?

But apparently, after his third prayer, Paul heard an answer, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”

Is it? Is God’s grace sufficient for you and me? Is God’s grace sufficient for you and me when the pain of a thorn gouges into your feet with every step that you take? Don’t we need more? Don’t we need God to take away that piercing thorn? A broken relationship that is stabbing at your heart? The taunts of those who delight in your dirty laundry? The loneliness of grief that jabs deep into your soul? The hopes and dreams that failure has popped like a balloon? Mental strife that has embedded itself under your skin? Is God’s grace sufficient enough for you and me when it comes to the thorns in the flesh that have taken their place in our lives? Don’t we need more?

Don’t we need more? Don’t we want to have the thorn removed? Don’t we want God to take the scalpel to the thing that is causing our pain and loneliness and remove it from our lives? Don’t we want God to use his divine tweezers and pull the thorns of failure and illness from under our skins? Haven’t every one of us joined Paul in appealing to God, “Lord take this away!” We certainly want more. Don’t we need more?

“No,” says God, “my grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” Power is made perfect in weakness? Really? Yes, really. Ask anyone who has been afflicted with the thorn of alcoholism, and they will tell you that it’s true, because they have found out that the first step to living with the thorn of alcoholism is to acknowledge their complete weakness to alcohol and put themselves in the hands of a higher power for whom alcoholism does not even have the power of a small sliver to disrupt life. They will tell you that as long as they tried with their own power to carry the thorn of their lives, all it did was cause more pain. But when they hit rock bottom, when they were absolutely at their weakest, that is when they felt the power to conquer the pain of their thorn….the power that comes from God. And conquer it many have, maintaining sobriety of years and years. They will be the first to tell you that the thorn has not gone away. They will always be acoholics, but being held in the powerful hands of God, hands of grace, the alcohol doesn’t have the power to bring pain to their lives. God’s grace is sufficient, power is made perfect in weakness.

We’re not in heaven yet, and that means that until we get there things will not be perfect. This is thorny ground on which we live, and there is simply no way to walk through this life without stepping on some thorns…Paul lists some of them, “insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities”. But notice that Paul is not afraid of them, as a matter of fact he says that he is “content” with them…at peace with them, because he is no longer counting on his power to subdue them, power that he has seen fail him. Instead he is counting on God’s power to render them powerless, power that he has seen do just that. For Paul saw what happens to the thorns of life when God takes them on.

Remember what Jesus wore on his head when he hung on the cross? A crown of thorns. And remember that when he walked out of that Easter tomb, those thorns were gone. All their power to bring pain to life was crucified with Jesus….they died with Jesus on the cross….and they stayed there. Dead on the cross. Jesus showed that he, unlike us, has the power to render thorns powerless.

Is God’s grace sufficient for you and me? Don’t we need more? What more could we receive than that which takes the sting out of every thorn, even the thorn of death –

‘Where, O death, is your victory?

Where, O death, is your sting?’

If you and I are ever to be at peace in this thorny world, it is not going to found in the strength of our hands, in the might of our minds, or in the determination of our hearts. Those things might bring us temporary relief, but not peace. When you were Baptized, God took ahold of you with a death grip, a grip that not even death can loosen. When the waters splashed over you, and God named you as one of his own, he embraced you in his love….in his grace…jealously telling every other thorny power in the world, “You can’t have this one. This one is mine.” So when you find yourself tormented by the thorns of this world and your strength has been sapped dry, and all you have left is Jesus…..you will also find, that Jesus is enough.

My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.

Amen.

Have a great week.

God's grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

 The Bungee Cord. 6-28-21

Hello,

 

A couple of years ago, I bought 6 blueberry bushes for my wife for her birthday.  We gave them a home near the vegetable garden behind our house.  They must like it there, because they are hardy in their production of berries.  Of course, we are not the only ones who enjoy the berries.  The birds love them, too.  So, in order that there are any blueberries for us to consume, we have to put nets around them.  

 

In the past, the nets have been held up by some 8-foot branches that we picked up around our house.   Triangularly assembled, the nets looked like pup tents, letting the rain and sun in, but keeping the birds out. This year, however, we decided to upgrade our netting system.  I went out and got a bunch of ¾ inch plastic conduit and some rebar.  I pounded the rebar into the ground, cut the plastic conduits to be legs and crossbars, dropped the conduits over the rebar, connected the crossbars, and secured the nets on the structure….all without the help of a structural engineer!

 

As the blueberries have begun to ripen, I have gone into these net-boxes and picked the first crop of berries.  The birds have also noticed the blueberries ripening, and so they fly circles around the boxes, like a squadron of reconnaissance jets.  Although they locate their target, they find that the berries are safe inside the impenetrable nets.  Sometimes they land on the crossbars, I suspect with great frustration, being able to see those berries and not being able to reach them.  So close, but yet so far away!

 

Recently, I looked out of my bedroom widow, and I saw a bird flying around the blueberry bushes.  At first, I thought it was outside the netting, but upon closer examination, it was clear that it was inside.  It was flying between the two bushes that the net was covering.   Back and forth.  Back and forth.  However, it wasn’t consuming any of the berries.  It was trying to get out.  It was trapped.  I don’t know how it got in, but it was clear that it did not remember, and its efforts to escape were completely in vain.

 

I got on with my day, and completely forgot about the trapped bird.  When I came home in the afternoon, I remembered the bird and went to the blueberry bushes to see if I could rescue it.  It was gone.  I told my wife that I noticed that the bird was not in the nets any longer, and I said, “It must have figured how to get out.”

 

“No,” she said, “I had to let it out.”  I suspect that without my wife’s help, or mine, that bird would still be in there today.  She saved that bird.

 

What an incredible picture of what Jesus has done for us.  We, like that bird, can get drawn to the things that tantalize our eyes.  Not always things that are bad for us like blueberries, (a job, a physique, a family, popularity) but sometimes things that do want to consume our lives (fame, power, excitement, fear).  But drawn to them we can be.  They become the focus of our hearts.  Their lack of accessibility can become a nagging frustration, to the point that we “have” to have them.  And sometimes our desires are fulfilled and we find a way to get them…..only to find ourselves trapped inside an inescapable net.  But Jesus, when he sees us trapped, has compassion on us….compassion that turns his complete focus on us.  And unlike me, Jesus is not distracted, but comes to us with powerful grace….doesn’t just open a hole for us to try and find our escape, but he removes the net completely and says, “Fly. You are free.”  Once in flight, he secures the nets again, blessing us with the freedom to soar in God’s grace.  Not trapped by the things of this world, but caught in the joy of the one whose eye is on the sparrow.

 

“If the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed!” (John 8:36)

 

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

 The Bungee Cord  6-21-21

Hello,

 

The Pirates (Pittsburgh’s baseball team) are not doing very well this year.  So, when something good happens, there is a lot of rejoicing. This weekend, they won a game!  In addition to the winning the game, our center fielder hit a home run that cleared the stadium wall and bounced into the river which runs alongside the stadium.  Such home runs happen only every once in a while, so when they come it is pretty exciting.

 

So exciting it was that a man who was walking along the edge of the river jumped off of the platform into the river to retrieve the ball.  Apparently, this man’s dive was caught on TV, and so this morning (Monday) as I was driving into work, listening to the sports talk station, the radio guys started talking about this man’s splashing retrieval of the ball.

 

“No way would I ever do that!” said one of the announcers.  “Not for a home run hit by the center fielder, in the middle of June, by a team that is playing so badly.”

 

“Me either,” said the other announcer.  “There’s no way that I am jumping in that river.  Well, if I did see some law abiding person slip and fall in the river and there wasn’t anyone else around.  I might jump it.  But if some drunk stumbled into the river, no way I am jumping in.  No way for some drunk!”

 

I don’t know what you would do for a “worthless” baseball or person, but I do know what God would do, and I know it because I saw God do it.  I saw God jump into slimy and polluted water, to retrieve what the world considered worthless, and was floating in the water because of stumbling through life drunk with sin.   When God jumped into this world in Jesus, it wasn’t captured on TV, but just as certainly captured in the words of Scripture.

 

“For God so loved the world, that he sent his only begotten Son….” (John 3:16)  The truth is that people do seemingly crazy, and maybe even stupid things when it comes to someone they love.  And that is what led to God’s river jump.  One of the things that some find scandalous about  the Christian faith is that God would jump into this river for those who the world views as worthless, but to me that is the greatest news of all that the Christian faith proclaims….because when I am floating in this river, I know that Jesus, like that “crazy” Pirate fan, would jump in just to have me…..and have you, too.  

 

I don’t know what that Pirate fan did with that “worthless” baseball, but I do know what God has in store for the “worthless” ones that Jesus jumped into retrieve.  God plans to take care of you and me like we are the finest pearl in the ocean.  God plans on having you and me right next to him for eternity.  You and I will be the first thing God sees when every morning of eternity and the last thing he sees every eternity’s evening.  You and I are the apple of God’s eye, and God’s plan is to hold us in his divine love forever.

 

Thank you, God, for jumping in the river for us….as foolish as the world might think that jump may have been!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

 The Bungee Cord  6-14-21

Hello,

 

If you are a long time reader of the Bungee Cord, you know that on Sunday mornings before worship, I stand outside on the sidewalk and wave at people driving by.  My wave is intended to be a token of God’s grace to them. A reminder to them that even in the busy-ness of their lives, God has not forgotten them, never failing in God’s love for them.  As I wave, some people return a wave to me.  Others tap their horns.  Other’s don’t see me (or pretend to not see me) and drive right by.

 

The other thing that I do before worship is I go over my sermon a couple of times, hoping to pound it into my memory so I can speak it to the people, rather than read it to them. When the weather is not nice, I find a quiet place in the church building to do that.  When the weather is nice, I sit outside on the bench that is located by the sidewalk facing the street.  Of course, when I am sitting on that bench, my eyes are looking down, and I am focused on my sermon in my own world.

 

But yesterday, my concentration was interrupted a couple of times by the honking of a horn.  A couple of people who saw me sitting there in my liturgical garb tapped their horns at me, giving me a gesture of God’s grace and mercy.  Although some might think that a pastor whose vocation it is to share God’s grace and mercy would not need to be the recipient of such, for me, that is far from the truth. I need the expressions of God’s care for me through the care of others just as much as anyone else…..maybe even more. So, both times when I was honked at and waved at by the people, I lifted my head and attention from my sermon and waved back with a spontaneous grin on my face.

 

I learned something by those couple of honks.  I learned that the little things that we do to share God’s grace and mercy do make a difference, and do move people’s hearts.  Sometimes it may seem that the struggles of life and the speed of life make it too hard for God’s grace to break through.  But yesterday, I found out that God’s grace and mercy, given in a simple wave, changed at least two people’s lives, transforming them into grace-givers.

 

So, as the Bible says, “don’t lose heart”.  When your kids do not seem to live in the confidence of God’s love for them, placing their confidence somewhere else….when you neighbors seem to be caught in the grips of anger…..when someone you deeply love is beset with addiction….when loneliness creates such a cloud of despair for those who are aging….when the days are dark and the pace of the world is rapid….keep on gracing them and others with a gesture of God’s love.  Keep on “waving” (in whatever form your waving might be).  Do not lose heart, because God’s love and mercy does make a difference in people’s lives.  I’ve seen…no, I have heard (honk, honk) that it is true!

 

Have a great week

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

 The Bungee Cord.  6-7-21

The Bungee Cord 6-7-21

Hello,

I was with a pastor friend at a local coffee shop talking about pastor things, and in our random strain of talking he told me of an old Catholic priest from his younger years in ministry. This priest was to my friend, a mentor of sorts. Someone to whom my friend would go to find some wisdom, get his feet on the ground, and settle his soul.

“This priest,” said my friend, “said to me that when this life is over and you are standing at the gates of heaven, God is going to only ask you one question.”

“Oh, I know this,” I thought to myself. “It has got to be, ‘Do you know Jesus?’”

But that wasn’t the question my friend recounted. “The question God will ask you is, “Did you enjoy it? I did all of this for you. I created the heavens and the earth. I filled it with beauty. I gave you a universe full of things to strike your curiosity. I saturated it with love. I even sent my son to die for you to open up pathways for peace, and joy. I did it all for you. Did you enjoy it?”

Who knows what God’s welcome will be like when the final trumpet of this life shall sound and the inaugural trumpet of the life to come play reveille? Personally, I don’t think that there will be a question at all. I think that God will look us straight in the eyes and holding back tears of joy, God will say, “Welcome! You’re in room 405,876,345.”

But the question that Catholic priest proposes sure sheds some truth and light on the days of this life. We can get life all turned upside down, and when that happens life becomes much more of a daily drudgery. Trying to make a name for ourselves. Counting the number of toys we can claim. Slogging our way through pits of quicksand measuring ourselves against others. Getting lost in a stampede of tragedies. Always seeking to squeeze something more out of each of our days.

“I did all of this for you. Did you enjoy it? Did you enjoy each breath, whether only a handful or more than you could ever count, wherein your lungs took in the power of life? Did you enjoy every glimpse, whether only a few or more than you could count, of the brilliant array of color that created an explosion of marvel and delight? Did you enjoy each touch of another’s hand, whether only a few or more than you could count, that carried its grip as far as your heart with a flood of joy? Did you enjoy the hope of the resurrection of Jesus that opened every day to you with grace and peace? I did all of this for you. Did you enjoy it?”

The Bible tells us that you and I are the apple of God’s eye. So treasured in God’s heart are we that he would…no, has….done everything to love us. Like a parent who lavishly goes all out for their child’s birthday…Chucky Cheese, a balloon shaping clown, your favorite cake and ice cream, noise makers and hats, friends invited from all over, music….the works. And when it is over, and when everyone has left, the parent embraces the child and says, “I did it all for you. Did you enjoy it?”

Enjoy it.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger