Bungee Cord 4-27-15

Hello,

For the past several days, the news has been full of the tragic earthquake that has rumbled and ravaged Nepal.  Pictures of the devastation and the tallying of the dead and injured are gut wrenching.  They are a shocking reminder of the frailty of life and our compared weakness to the might of the creation.

They also are a commentary upon those who find their primary experience of God in nature.  Sunrises.  Sunsets.  Glorious vistas.  Soaring peaks.  Fields of spring flowers.   “Don’t you just feel the presence of God?” some say.

But what form does that presence take when earthquakes crumble entire cities?  Or when tornados swirl their way through the plains and sweep up school buildings full of children?  Or when rain disappears for years from fields and the only thing that those fields produce is a crop of dust?  “Where are you God?”, or “Why God?” or “How can there be a God?”, naturally rumble across people’s lips.

As a Christian, I do not deny the wonder and awesome beauty of nature.  It is a gift to behold.  To behold the handiwork of God, it can often take your breath away, and when that happens I find myself saying, “Thank you, God.”  Likewise, to find one’s self in the hands of that handiwork can just as easily take your breath away crushing life right out of you, and when that happens I find myself saying,  “Help me Lord!”

The reason that I cry out, “Help me Lord,” when the earth shakes and crumbles around me, literally or figuratively, is because my primary experience of God is not found in nature, but in the one who so embodied the love of God that he took on my nature.  Jesus, fully human, experienced every thing that I naturally experience, and fully divine Jesus took on in a battle to the death everything that nature, including my sinful nature, might seek to take my breath away from me.  When nature tries to get its hands on me, I turn to the one who has taken me into his hands with a grip that will never let me go.  “Help me Lord.”

Some may say that this all sounds highly theoretical and theological, but what good is it when real stuff happens?  Well, all I can say is that because I live the life that all of us live, real stuff does happen.  I have felt the earth quiver and shake, the walls of my life teetering, and my back growing wearing from trying to hold up the roof…..and when it all finally comes tumbling down, I have not been crushed….bruised, beaten up, and maybe broken a bit….but not crushed…held together by the one who has his hold on me.

The people of Nepal need more than for us just to fold our hands in prayer for them, although that is certainly something that we need to do.  But now that their world has come tumbling down around them, we, the body of Christ, are here to stretch our hands to them…lift them up, help them get back on their feet, walk hand in hand with them into their uncertain future, embracing them with the love of God.

Likewise for you, if you find yourself in an earthquake zone, know that you will get more than just our hands folded for you in prayer, but we, the Body of Christ, will be the hands of Christ who will hold you and never let you go.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 4-20-15

Hello,

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

As I wrote last week, I was under the weather the Sunday after Easter…two Sundays ago.  Fortunately, it was one of those short, but miserable bugs, and I was back in the saddle yesterday, having learned something from my Sunday when the horse had bucked me off.

As I wrote last week,  for my whole life, if it is Sunday morning, I have been in church.  One of the wonders of this technological age, is that on those occasions when the horse wins, a worship service can be found on the internet in which to participate at a distance. (Of course, just like anything else, the internet or T.V. cannot capture wonder and awe of actually being there, but when one can’t be there at least it keeps the horse from kicking us when we’re down.)

So, being a Lutheran Christian, I started searching through the internet to see if I could find a Lutheran service that I could take in.  I discovered a couple of things about my fellow Lutheran churches who make their services available on line.  First, it seems like none of us Lutheran stream our services live over the internet, thus I found myself taking in the service from the week before, which was Easter.  Secondly, I discovered that we Lutheran Christians have taken the most amazing, most spectacular, most cosmos changing, most life impacting event that has taken place since the dawn of creation and make it seem as though it is about as monumental as milk toast.

Let me explain myself.   Every one of the services that I took in, about 5 of them (I realize the sample size is small), the service began with the words with which I began this Bungee Cord, “Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!”  Well…not exactly.  Actually, the services began this way, “Christ is risen.  He is risen indeed.  Alleluia.”  The first phrase said by a pastor with the enthusiasm and force of the clerk at the drivers license bureau calling the next number holder to come up and have their picture taken.  The congregation responding with the second part with the energy and fervor of a bunch of hospital patients looking at the food that was just set before them.

Now, I know that Lutheran Christians tend to be people who are a bit reserved in emotion, and we value artistic quality….but I have seen even the most stoic of Lutherans get their dander up at a football game or a school board meeting.  And isn’t the resurrection of Jesus a bit more amazingly cataclysmic than either of those things….actually anything?  When I took in those internet services I thought to myself, if this is all muster that we portray to the world about the event that is at the center of our lives and faith….no wonder the Christian message seems to heard with little relevance by the world….no wonder Sunday morning worship falls way to the bottom of people’s priorities…no wonder the exuberance of T.V. car salesmen seems to have greater impact in people’s lives than pastors and Christian congregants.

So, I thought in this Bungee Cord that I would come out of my Lutheran Christian shell, and open my ears to the events that happened on the first day of the week so many years ago….that when the world thought they had done everything to rid themselves of this man named Jesus….tortured and discredited him, nailed him to a cross and plunged him with a spear, heard him breath his last and watched him hang his head in death, put him in a tomb and sealed it with a large stone…..that on Sunday God showed the world that they just wouldn’t ever be able to get rid of Jesus and the love with which he loved the world.  The stone was rolled back, breath returned to Jesus’ lungs, blood resumed beating from his heart, and he got up from his death repose and walked out of that tomb….alive!

“CHRIST IS RISEN!  HE IS RISEN INDEED!  ALLELUIA!”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace.

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 4-13-15

Hello,

It’s Sunday morning, and I am at home.  There’s been an intestinal bug that has been making its rounds around here, and it’s rounded its way to me.  Ugh.

I am one of those folks that have found myself in a church nearly every Sunday of my life.  As a matter of fact, I think that if I used my fingers and toes to count the number of Sundays that I have not been in church, I would have digits to spare.  That may not come as any surprise to you, after all, I am a pastor, and Sunday mornings pastors spend their time in a church.  However, when my kids were younger and they would contend that we were in church every Sunday because I was a pastor, my response to them always was, “No, we’d be in church every Sunday whether I was a pastor or not.”

Hard to prove the truth of that statement as I have always been a pastor, but as I look around the congregations that I have served, I have seen many people whose faith leads them to church every Sunday, and they are not pastors.  Truth is, I find myself more motivated to go to church on those Sundays that I am off my job.  It is nice to not be responsible for the worship experience, but simply worship instead.  That is not to say that when I am “pastoring”, I am not edified by the worship.  The hymns, the scriptures lessons, the Lord’s Supper, and the sermon (every sermon I preach, I also preach to me) all shape my life, too.  But it is nice to have those times when the time I spend in worship simply soaks into my life like butter on warm bread.

For you Bungee Cord readers, I suspect that you lie all across the continuum of those who are rarely in a church on Sunday morning, and those who would not even need your toes to count the Sundays that you have not been in church.  No guilt intended upon you where ever you find yourself, reason being that I do not believe that a person goes to church to please God.  After all, before you ever took a step in life, God had sent his Son to die and rise for you.  Whether you step into church once a year or once a week, it is not going to get God to love you any more or any less.  He’s already loved you as much as he can, he has loved you with his Son!

And I don’t believe that a person goes to church because they are a believer.  If that were the case most of us would be very sporadic worshipper, because there are days and weeks in our lives when life can hit us in ways that make it hard to believe.  For all of us, the existence and presence of God in our life can sometimes, if not often, be as visible as a fish in murky waters.

I know that for myself, I go to church for one reason, and one reason alone.  God has invited me to come.  God has extended me his invitation because God wants me to believe in him, not just in his existence, but in his unimaginable love for me.  After all, he has given his Son for me (wow!), and lest that deed be inconsequential in my life, God throws open the doors of his church and says, “Let’s spend some time together so my love for you might shape your life.”

The world around us is pretty good at telling us so many things that likewise can shape our lives…”all we are is dust in the wind”….”three strikes and you’re out”…. “whoever dies with the most toys wins”….”look out for number one because no one else is”….”winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing”….”someone is the MVP”.   It may be that these words of the world can spur us on, but in my mind their spur feels like the spur of a boot; inflicting fear, pain, pressure, and resentfulness.

Even though it is only one hour a week that I find myself at worship in the church, compared to the 24x7-1 hours that I find myself a-swim in the world, I find the experience of that one hour to have the power to shape and mold me with hope, to motivate me to do my best because God has given me his best, and to free me to look beyond myself  having been the object of God’s self-giving gaze.  Week after week in church  I experience “see what love the Father has given us, that we should be called, “Children of God.  And that is what we are.”, an experience that helps me ward off what the world want to call me, good to inflate my ego or bad to crush my soul.  Sunday morning, when I am in church, I experience an embrace of God’s grace.

I am looking forward to this upcoming Sunday, when God will throw open the doors of his church, and (stomach bug abated) I’ll be there!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace,

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 3--6-15

Hello,

Have you ever heard what cockroaches talk about?  Well, the other day as I was sitting in a restaurant, I did a little eaves dropping.

“Hey Ralph, hear that you are up for Cockroach of the year.”

“Yeah, Sid, it’s true. Got the word yesterday.”

“Wow, that’s something, but I’m not surprised.  There isn’t a Cockroach that works as hard as you do cleaning up the kitchen floor.  You rip through the grease, and there isn’t a bit of grime that is too grimy for you.”

“Yeah….”

“And you are always looking out for the rest of us Cockroaches, calling us over to share in the discoveries that you have found.  A lot of us owe our life to you.”

“Well….”

“I’d vote for you…that’s for sure.  Hey, did you hear about Stan?  He got crushed by the cook yesterday.”

“Not surprised.  He always was pretty stupid.  Kind of just laid around while the rest of us did all the work.  Free loader…that’s what he was.  I’m sure that he would have never been up for Cockroach of the year.”

“Aren’t you a little bit worried about the cook’s foot?”

“Nah….I am up for Cockroach of the year,” said Ralph.

As I heard Ralph and Sid talking, I thought to myself, “Ralph, you’re missing something.  You’re a cockroach!”

True enough.  Like Ralph, Sid and Stan, when our sample size is our own kind, it is pretty easy for us to idolize some and look down on others, maybe even idolizing ourselves as we compare ourselves to others.  Surprised when “bad” things happen to “good” people, and at ease when “bad” things happen to “bad” people.

But wait!  Isn’t there a problem with this?  Isn’t our problem the same problem that Ralph, Sid and Stan fell into?  They all were cockroaches….we all are sinners. Sure, when we compare ourselves to one another, we might be able to say (although I am not sure that it bears much truth) that someone is less of a sinner than another.  Even though someone among us might be considered “Sinner of the Year” for sinning the least, nonetheless that one is still a sinner.

When I consider the story of Easter, a story that is hard for some, if not all, to believe, I find myself struggling less to believe that Jesus might have risen from the dead (after all, if God was involved in bringing life out lifelessness…however you might believe that involvement to be,….. it seems believable to me that such a God could bring life to one whose life has left him) than that God would care about me, a sinner (cockroach) that he would die and rise for me.  The grace of God is the most unbelievable part of the story of Easter for me. 

That God would endure the sufferings of this world and even the terror of death in order to extend his infinite love to me makes no sense to me when I eye myself next to Almighty God.    I find grace hard to believe.

And maybe that is why God went to the extent that he did when he sent his Son, Jesus.   To simply say, “I love you,” might not ever accomplish the will of God that people would live (abide) in his love.  However, to incarnate that Word, “I love you,” might indeed have the power to bring us under his wing, even when it is hard, or even impossible, to believe.

There might not be anything for cockroaches  to hope in as they wander ‘neath the footsteps of the cook….but not so for us, sinners,  who wander ‘neath the glory of God.  We have the grace of God, grace that is solidly sealed in Easter.  “Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!” 

Alleluia!

Have a great day,

God’s grace and peace, (GGAP)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 3-30-15

Hello,

Welcome to Holy Week.  Although the world might make a bigger deal of Christmas, for Christians this week is the most important week of the year.  This week is the week that Jesus gathered his disciples for the last time around a meal (Thursday), engaged every evil in a battle to the death (Friday), and changed everything forever with a stroll out of a stone sealed tomb (Sunday). 

Christians have a name for each of these days….Maundy Thursday (Maundy means command…Jesus gave two commands: regularly eat this meal of his presence; to love each other has he has loved us), Good Friday (a most terrible day for Jesus, but a day that could be no “gooder” for all humanity), and Easter (as the sun rises in the east bringing light to every day, when Jesus, the Son of God rose he brought light to enlighten all creation night and day, and even when days come to an end).

This week is the heart of the Christian faith, and as we live this week God sets us straight on what God is all about.

God is all about uniting all people.  That is what Maundy Thursday is all about.  As he gathered his disciples around that table for his final meal, he gave to his people the treasure of his presence in their lives, a presence that embodied complete self-giving love.  He didn’t just give a theological lecture on the importance of being nice to each other, lots of people can do that (and it doesn’t work very well).  But Jesus, doing only what God can do, joins himself to those at his table, and pulls them together.  We do a pretty good job of  us’n and them’n…who are real Christians, and who are not….who is saved, and who is not.  The heart of God, however, is about, as they say in Ohio…..about “we’s”, uniting all people in the body of Christ.

God is about freeing people.  That is what Good Friday is all about.  When Jesus died on the cross he took to death with him everything that would want to enslave you.   When he breathed his last so did they.  All the shame in which the world would want to swallow you up ….dead.   All the guilt that you feel constricting you….dead.   All the evil that would spawn in the petri dish of your heart…..dead.  God is not about making good people, lots of people can do that (with questionable results).  God is about freeing people from any voice that would want to enslave by taking their breath away…forever!

God is about in-livening people.  That is what Easter is all about.  When Jesus stepped out of that Easter tomb he stepped out alive and into a new life.  He didn’t come out of the tomb like a baseball batter coming out of the dugout to try again at the plate.  He came out of the tomb in victory having hit it out of the park and bringing the game to a final end.  When Jesus walked out of the tomb, he did not do so in order to give principles to live (hit) by, he did so to begin a  lively victory party that would never end, transforming how we live every moment of this life with the victorious joy that neither time or space can hold in.

Do you wonder what the Christian faith is all about?  Do you feel like the Christian faith doesn’t have much relevancy in your life?  Do you feel like life has a suffocating death-grip hold on you and you are helplessly gasping for breath?

Let me invite you to live this Holy Week.  Come to church on Maundy Thursday and receive the Lord.  Come to church on Good Friday and hear all the voices of enslavement breath their last.  Come to church on Easter and find yourself caught up in a victory celebration that will take hold of you forever.  This week is what the Christian faith is all about…..let’s live this week together.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (GGAP)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 3-23-15

Hello,

     This upcoming Sunday begins the apex of the year for the Christian faith.  This Sunday marks the day that the Bible tells of Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem on a donkey, a ride that turned out to be a ride into the lion’s den, a ride that turned out to be a fast track to death on a cross.

     Something that people have debated and wondered ever since that donkey ride is, did Jesus know what he was getting into?

     Of course, several times in the Bible Jesus told his disciples of the rejection, the suffering, and the cross (and the resurrection…but that is for another Bungee Cord) that was to come at the end of his earthly ministry.  Some are quick to assign a great deal of divine knowledge to Jesus, and they would say that surely Jesus knew exactly what he was getting into.  Others are as equally quick to assign a great deal of human knowledge to Jesus, and they would just as surely say that his predictions of his demise were the logical expectation of anyone who created the level of stir that he had created.  Did Jesus really know the extent of what was going to happen to him as he rode into Jerusalem on that donkey?

     As far as I am concerned, I don’t care.  I don’t care how much he knew about the events that came to pass.  What I do care about is about is why he rode into Jerusalem.  Why?  Because of his conviction of God’s love and mercy for all people.  A conviction for which he was prepared to die….and for which he did die.

     As I read the Bible, I find that Jesus has likewise ridden into my life, victoriously claiming me as he did Jerusalem.  Not thundering into my life as upon a war stallion, but through soft words and the touch of water, much akin to a humble donkey. 

     Now some may wonder, when I was baptized, did Jesus know what he was getting into?  Did Jesus know the extent of the suffering and pain that I would bring him?  Did Jesus know the number of times that I would spit in his face?  Did Jesus know that I carried nails in my pocket and a hammer in my belt?  Did Jesus know what he was getting into when he rode into my life?

     Once again, as far as I am concerned, I don’t care.  I don’t care what he knew about what he was riding into when he rode into my life, because whether he knew what it was going to be like to have me as his or whether he had no idea, either way, what matters is why he rode into my life.   Why?  His conviction that no matter what lie ahead, I was worth it.  Worth it because of his love for me.  He deemed me as one for whom he was prepared to die…and he did.

     As we remember Jesus triumphant donkey ride into Jerusalem this Sunday, remember this: it is not the events of your life that Jesus uses to determine if you are willing to die for.  Jesus died for you and claims you in victory for one reason and one reason only.  God loves you.

     Wow!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace.

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 3-16-15

Hello,

“Got Conned, Part 2”

A couple of weeks ago I wrote of a visit to my office by a man who was “hoping that I could help him”.  As I wrote, such visits create quite conundrum in my soul….to help or not to help…is help really help or hurt?  Nonetheless, I decided to take the risk and help him, only to feel quite certain that I had been conned when he left.

Well, now I am not so sure. 

Friday at 1:11 a.m. my phone rang and awoke me out of a sound sleep.  A bit agrog I reached over to my nightstand and took a quick peek to see if it was a local call, and it was.  I decided to answer the call expecting it to be some emergency for one of the people in my church.  I said, “Hello,” and the person on the other end of the line said, “Hello, Jerry, this is…..”.  The name did not come up in my mind as one of my parishoners, but the caller continued talking as if he knew me really well.

“I’m all shook up and I don’t know what to do,” and he went on to say that he was getting some troubling phone calls.  “All I know, is that I am trying to protect my girlfriend and no one seems to be able to help.”  And then I knew who it was…it was the man who had come to my office for help.  “I’ve called the police.  They came, but they said there was no crime committed so they couldn’t do anything.  So, I’ve got my Gideon Bible in front of me, and I am calling you.”

Still trying to sweep the cobwebs out and his story in, I tried to settle him down a bit by telling him that as long as his door was locked, he would be safe.  I could tell that he was quite shook, and this time I was quite sure that he was not a prank call in the middle of the night.  I continued to try and talk him down, and as we talked it seemed to me that he was settling down a bit.

“Read Psalm 49,” I told him, “It is the Psalm that Martin Luther used to write a Mighty Fortress is our God.”  (WRONG!!!! In my half awakedness, I messed up.  I meant to turn him to Psalm 46.)  I said, “Read it a couple of times, and I am sure that when you wake up in the morning, you’ll see that God has indeed been a mighty fortress for you.”

I can only imagine what he must have thought when he read Psalm 49.  It is about not fearing being poor when the rich are after you.  I guess that I can only hope that somehow the Holy Spirit took the words of that Psalm and brought peace to his heart.

When I hung up I was convinced that this man is battling some sort of mental disease, and he is trying to stay above water as it keeps pulling him down.  It gave me cause to rethink my first encounter with him.  He may indeed have conned me, fully believing that he was telling me the truth.  It may have been that the stories that he had told me were historical in his mind, but historical fiction in reality.

But his 1:11 a.m. phone call made one thing completely clear to me; that no matter how his brain processed reality, he had experience real care from me in my office that day.  Care enough to pull out my business card that I gave him and call me when his world was coming apart.

It took me a while to get back to sleep, and I felt badly when I discovered that I had directed him to a Bible verse that I had not intended.  When I woke up in the morning, I thought about him, and on my drive to work, I went to work with renewed hope…..hope that even when I fear that I have been conned, God doesn’t let that stop him from reaching people with his life-giving grace.

Have a great week,

God’s grace and peace, (GGAP)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger