The Bungee Cord 9-5-22

Hello,

As I told you last week, I am now officially retired. Thank you for all of your kind words and congratulations. Many people have asked me, “How’s retirement?” Well….so far so good! For this week’s Bungee Cord, I am posting my last sermon. I don’t know if will be my last sermon forever, but it does wrap up what I have tried to make known in my ministry. If you would rather see/hear the sermon, here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSJXgTN_aa0. The sermon starts at 26:15. So, whether you read or see/hear the sermon….DON’T FALL ASLEEP!

Luke 14:7-14

Grace that you pay for isn’t grace. Grace that you pay for, even if it is only a penny, isn’t grace.

Let me tell you a parable about two imaginary high school seniors, Tony and Mary. Everyone in their high school thought that they were be the picture perfect couple. They were both so good looking. Tony was tall and had the chiseled physique of a tennis player. Mary had long silky hair, a beautiful smile, and a very attractive figure. As it turned out they were voted homecoming king and queen. They were the picture perfect couple.

Except they weren’t a couple, at least not at the end of their senior year. They had been going together since the middle of their junior year, but something happened. No one knew what it was, but suddenly a month before prom, they broke up. With the breakup, they suddenly became the focus of a new kind of attention. Since they would not be going to prom together, who would get to go to prom with them. The girls and the boys all started to swarm around each of them like bees to honey. Tony and Mary were no dummies, they knew what was happening. But as the prom neared, neither one of them had acquired a date for the prom.

Their classmates couldn’t figure it out. Here were the two best looking people in the school, and neither one of them had a date for prom. So, their best friends asked each of them, “What’s going on? Aren’t you going to prom?” And interestingly enough, they both gave the same answer. “I am waiting to see who hasn’t been asked.”

So, on Friday night right after dinner, the day before prom, a knock was heard on the door of a guy named Marvin. Marvin was one of those guys that was so unnoticed by everyone at school, that no one noticed if he was there or not. He didn’t seem to have any friends. He would bounce from table to table at lunch, silently eating his lunch. He wore clothes that didn’t quite fit him right, and the way he wore them tended to magnify his less than macho physique. His teeth were out of line. And no surprise to anyone, he didn’t have a date for prom.

Marvin’s mom answered the door, and saw who was standing there. “Mary,” she said, because everyone knew Mary, “What can I do for you?”

“Is Marvin here?” said Mary.

Marvin’s mom was a bit startled because Marvin had never mentioned that Mary knew her. Marvin’s mom yelled into the house, “Marvin, someone is here asking for you.”

You could hear some rumbling in the back of the house, and pretty soon Marvin appeared at the front door in his usual appearance. “Hi, Mary,” said Marvin in a rather flat affect.

“Hi, Marvin,” Mary said back with a lilt in her voice. “Hey Marvin, are you going to prom?”

“Uh, no,” said Marvin in a tone that indicated it was not on his radar.

“Well, Marvin. Would you go with me? I wanted to make someone feel real good by asking them, and well, that is why I thought of you. Why don’t you come to prom with me. Of course, you’ll need to buy me some nice flowers, take me out to a real nice place to eat, get something descent to wear, and buy your ticket. Just think what a great time you’ll have at prom with me. What do you say?”

At the very same time across town, a doorbell rang. A woman answered the door, the mother of Morinda. “Tony,” said Morinda’s mother, because everyone knew Tony, “what can I do for you?”

“Is Morinda here?” asked Tony

“Sure, let me call her. Morinda, there is someone here to see you.”

A rumble came from the back of the house and soon Morinda came to the door. Morinda was also one of those forgotten kids in school, so forgotten was she that people often didn’t even know her name. She, like Marvin, would hop table to table during lunch seeking an open sit, and when she sat down no one talked to her and she didn’t talk to anyone. When she got on the bus she always sat alone, and when she got off the bus, no one noticed that she was gone. “Hi, Tony,” Morinda sheepishly said.

“Hi, Morinda,” said Tony. “Hey, Morinda, are you going to prom?”

“Uh, no,” she said with the tone that came from Marvin’s mouth. “Well, Morinda, would you go to prom with me?”

Silence. Was this some kind of joke. She’d heard of boys doing this mean sort of thing to girls. “Why would Tony ask me?” she thought to herself. “Uh…..” slipped out of her mouth.

“Listen, Morinda,” Tony said, “I know that we don’t know each other very well, but I have noticed you all through high school, and I have noticed that you are always alone, and I don’t want you to be alone tomorrow night. Won’t you go to prom with me?”

“But, I don’t have a prom dress. My hair is a mess. I can’t dance very well. And well….I’m used to being alone.”

“Well, just wear any dress, and your hair is just fine,I promise not to step on your toes too many times, and I think it’s time for you to not be alone.”

Marvin or Morinda….names that we all wear in the grand scheme of things…Jesus is knocking on your door today, and he is asking you….yes you….to come to the final dance….and its not going to cost you a thing. He’s bought the ticket. And he says to you, come just as you are, and Jesus will delight in taking the dancefloor with you. He’s noticed you sitting alone in life, even when you are with your friends, because even your best friends don’t feel the dark holes in your soul. He has noticed you silently plodding through life even amidst the idle chatter that you join in on that is going on all around you. He has noticed you trying to cover up the scars of sin so no one else will see them. Just like Jesus noticed the guests at that meal in our Gospel lesson….Jesus notices you….Morinda and Marvin….and Jesus says, “It far past the time for you to be alone. Come dance with me.”

Amen.

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 The Bungee Cord 8-29-22

Hello,

As of today, I am a retired pastor. I started my pastoral work in the winter of 1983 in St. Paul, Minnesota moved to Toledo, Ohio moved to Arlington, Ohio moved to Sioux Falls, S.D moved to Crooks, S.D. moved to Greensburg, Pa and ended up nearly 40 years later in Ligonier, Pa.. It’s been quite a ride. I have shared the best and the worst of times with people. I have preached hundreds of sermons and led hundreds of worship services. I have learned much about life as I have lived and worked in a great variety of communities…large Suburban church with a parochial school, an urban church surrounded by a dilapidating community, a small town church where my kids were in a school with 40 per grade level, a very large downtown regional church, two small rural churches located on dirt roads, a formerly large church in a county seat, and a small congregation in a historic town.

I recently looked at a picture that was taken at my ordination. Boy, did I look young! Although I thought I was ready to take on the world, I discovered along the way that the world is a pretty tough opponent. Many times I wished that I was wiser. Many times I wished that I could have just snapped my fingers and made things better. Many times I wished that I had thicker skin. Many times I wished I could wind things backwards and do things over and in a different way.

When I was ordained, the verse that I chose to set my direction as a pastor was 1 Kings 18:37, “Let these people know you are God and they are your children.” (Paraphrased from my first cantata, “The Lord Sent Down Fire.”) I hope that I have been a vessel of God’s grace and mercy. I hope that I have clearly proclaimed the truth to people that God welcomes everyone onto his embrace….nomatterwhat. Nomatterwhat the world thinks of you, or nomatterwhat you think of yourself, God sees you as a beloved child, so beloved that God would die and rise for you.

I began firing out the Bungee Cord nearly 25 years ago, hoping to reach folks with the grace of God nomatterwhere they were in their relationship to God. I named this weekly message “The Bungee Cord” because I believe that no matter how near or far away one feels from God, God’s grace extends far enough to embrace you in his love and draw you back to God’s heart. I believe that when God promises, “You are mine,” that is a promise that God holds on to fast against all other gods that might try and steal you away. So strong is God’s hold on you and me that not even death will separate us for the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans .

Being a pastor is a vocation (not a vacation!), a calling to be set apart to lead and to guide God’s people, not from above but from the side. I hope that God will deem me faithful to God’s calling. But now God is calling me into a new vocation, a vocation of not leading, but being led. I look forward to joining hands with the people of God in a new and different ways, taking on new adventures in helping people experience that “God is their God, and they are God’s children.” (1 Kings 18:37)

I don’t know exactly what that will look like, but I do know this, I will continue to write the Bungee Cord. It is my plan to continue to fire out a message of God’s grace and mercy every week. The Bungee Cord may be a small whisper of God’s grace in a world that screeches judgment, anger, and fear, but I hope that it is a whisper that reaches your ears, settles into your heart, and draws you back into the loving embrace of God who has promised to never let you go.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord 8-22-22

Hello,

There is a wildflower that grows in our fields called butterfly weed. To me, it is a rather undignified name for the beautiful flower it produces. I don’t know why it is dubbed a “weed”, because it doesn’t seem to be obnoxiously invasive and the flowers are quite elegant. The flower is a cluster of little orange stars, and it stands out amid the yellow golden rod, the white queen Anne’s lace and the purple New York irornweed. The plant disappears in the fall, and it sprouts much later than the rest of the wild plants in the field, but it produces its flowers just in time for the butterflies which, as the name suggests, are attracted to it.

The reason that I am writing about the butterfly weed is because the guy who mows the fields around us that belong to the original owner of the property decided to get out early this year and mow them all down a month or so ago. He chopped down to the ground all the sprouting wildflowers that would have colored the fields. So, instead of fields of white, yellow, purple and orange, this summer the fields are just brown. The chopped plants have tried to come back to life, and so the brown is mingled with green leaves. But I miss the beauty that could have been.

Last week I was out mowing our grass which butts up against the sheered fields, and as I mowed I noticed some orange flowers low to the ground. Butterfly weed. Not a lot of it, but because it is a late sprouter, some of the plants were still young enough when they were cut that they hadn’t flowered yet. Specks of beauty amid the mower ravished fields caught my eye with delight. But not only my eyes. Butterflies had spotted them too. Monarchs, Yellow and Black Swallowtails sitting on them creating the appearance of a new breed of flower of graceful, fanlike petals.

It was an image to me of what the Christian faith is meant to be in our world. The beauty of life, which God intends to bring wonder and awe to the world seems to always be the target of a rampaging mower, chopping what will be beautiful down to the ground, leaving life dull brown and full of prickly dead stems. Blades of fear, stress, anger, tragedy, sorrow and despair regularly mowing across life.

But if one looks closely, there is a beautiful flower that resiliently rises up from life’s uglied fields. A flower of hope, of peace, of forgiveness, of love, of joy. Rising up from the stem of a cross of death. Like a butterfly weed in the field, bringing beauty to the barren, catching the eyes of butterflies, and drawing them unto its flower. Ever since that first Good Friday, the world has tried to cut God’s love down and destroy it, but the world hasn’t been able to keep it from rising above the stubble of life. Like little clusters of orange stars, God’s love in Jesus Christ continues to blossom in the world through the communities of faith that bear Christ’s name. And when it blossoms in this shredded world, it catches eyes and gathers people unto it like butterflies to butterfly weed.

Let me invite you on Sunday morning to take a close look at the world around you, see the bloom of God’s love in a church nearby, and when you feel your heart drawn to it, go and delight in the beautiful grace of God that sprouts forth there.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord 8-16-22

Hello,

Just a week or so ago there was a story on Facebook about what happened in a Little League baseball game. It was a game between two different towns who were trying to reach the Little League World Series. As you might guess, the teams were made up of very talented 12 and 13 year old’s. Anyway, at some point in the game, a pitch got away from the pitcher and struck the batter on his helmet that covered his temple. The helmet came flying off, and the batter fell to the ground holding his head. The coaches and the medical team came rushing out to treat the batsman who was motionless. The crowd went silent, but after a while the batter was helped to his feet and shook his head a couple of times. It was determined that he was going to be all right, so the batter started walking toward first base and the opposing catcher tapped him on the shoulder, apparently to make sure the batter was ok.

Meanwhile, as all the attention was being focused on the hit batsman, no one had noticed how shook the pitcher was. He was standing on the mound trying to hold back the tears from the fears that he may have harmed the batter. When the batter reached first base, he took a look at the pitcher, and realizing how upset the pitcher was, instead of putting his helmet back on, the batter dropped his helmet and started walking toward the mound. When he reached the mound, he put his arms around the pitcher and gave him a hug. It was an amazing sight, a sight that captured the national news. The young hit batsman received nationwide applause for his kindness and sportsmanship. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jp7wNtupzSU)

But there’s more to the story. The two players were interviewed on a morning news program. As the hit batsman told the story he said that when he got to first base, he realized how torn up the pitcher was, and so he decided to walk up to the pitcher and “show him God’s love.”

To me, this event was an assurance that God is at work in this world as I recalled a verse from Isaiah that speaks about the peace that God is at work making happen,

“The wolf shall live with the lamb,

the leopard shall lie down with the kid,

the calf and the lion and the fatling together,

and a little child shall lead them.”

“And a little child shall lead them.” As I have watched adults play baseball and a batter is hit by a pitch, I have never seen a hit batsman walk to the mound and give the pitcher a reassuring hug. I have, on the other hand, seen such batters charge the mound, trying to revenge his pain. Umpires try and get in the way. Benches clear. A brawl breaks out. People get hurt. The crowd cheers with excitement. Players get thrown out of the game.

But this Spirit-led 13 year-old dropped his helmet, walked to the mound, and gave the weeping pitcher a hug to “show him God’s love”. And when his hug was finished, he nonchalantly walked back to first base. The pitcher’s teammates gathered around the pitcher, the coach came out to console the pitcher who was too torn up to continue, and the crowd applauded.

God is at work in this world, and a little child shall lead us.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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