The Bungee Cord 3-24-25

Hello,

Mondays are the day that I deliver Meals on Wheels to fourteen people. It is the “Donegal Route”. We always go out in two’s just in case the meal receiver is having difficulties. The people we serve (who are officially called “clients”, but that name disguises the fact that they are people) are of varied needs, and because we bring a daily meal to them, they are able to remain in their homes until their needs surpass their abilities.

The meals are homecooked out of the kitchen of the church to which I go, Bethel Lutheran Church. For many years, it was just a small kitchen in the corner of the basement, but for the last ten years or so, the meals have been cooked in a larger, professionally equipped kitchen in an addition that the church constructed. Every weekday morning, a different three -person crew shows up early to make and cook the meal for the route that I drive and the other route, the “Rector route”. Ham, scalloped potatoes, corn on the cob, a salad and a brownie. Backed chicken, those little potatoes, beans, an apple, and a cookie. Just samples of the treats the cooks cook up. When I walk in the building at 10:00 a.m. the smell of the meal ignites my saliva glands. The food, however, is not for me.

The meals are placed in reusable plastic trays and placed in a heated satchel. The cold parts of the meal are placed in paper bags. Once loaded in my car, my delivery partner and I hop in my Mini to wind our way through the hills and valleys of our area to the homes on our route. The reception at each of the houses is unique. Some of the places have placed a small refrigerator on their porch, instructing us to put the food in it, and we rarely see the recipient. But the vast majority of the people await our delivery, and when we knock on the door, we get a chance to greet them face to face. Some are pleasant. Some are a bit grouchy. Some are unable to get to the door, so we walk in and shout, “Meals on Wheels”, and find the person resting in a recliner. There is usually at least one person, who in their loneliness or confusion needs someone to talk to, and so we spend a little time doing so.

I suspect that for most of our people, the world spins too fast for them to keep up, and when that happens, I suspect, they can easily feel forgotten and left behind. In my ministry I have spent a good deal of time with aging people who have sometimes asked me, “Pastor, why am I here?” Their days are full of emptiness as their children have moved far away and their spouse has died. They don’t get out much, and the most often destination is a doctor’s office. The things that they used to enjoy doing, like reading or driving a tractor, they can’t do anymore because their eyesight is nearly gone, and their arthritis prevents them from getting into the tractor seat. The pain is always clinging to their bodies, and the phone doesn’t ring anymore. And so, they ask me, “Pastor, why am I here?”

I wish I knew the answer, but of this I am certain, their value to God, has nothing to do with what they are able to do, but rather what God has done for them. God sent his Son, Jesus to engage anything (including aging) that might claim anyone away from God in a battle to the death, and in Jesus’ Easter victory God staked his eternal claim on all people. Irrespective of what value the world places on a person, God has placed the value of someone he is willing to die for on each person.

Jesus said, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15.13) Granted, my once a week Meals on Wheels visits fall far short of Jesus’ act of unconditional love on the cross, but when I deliver a meal without any expectation of receiving something in return (that is things like: “it makes me feel good”, or “it assuages my feelings of undeserved blessings”), I get a taste of the wonder of sharing in God’s unconditional love. I get to experience the power of God’s grace.

When asked, “Why am I here?”, I find myself saying, “I don’t know. But this I do know, when I am with you, I get a chance to experience the greatest love of all, giving myself unconditionally to you. Thank you.”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord. 3-17-25

Hello,

I am on my way to Florida to watch a couple of Pirate games with a friend of mine. We got to the airport in plenty of time, so as we were waiting at our gate we chatted about all sorts of things. As we were chatting, my friend told me of a humorous event in his life.

He has a friend who is a whiskey connoisseur, so for his friend’s birthday he bought a very nice bottle of whiskey. The friend was delighted with the gift, so delighted that he placed it on his fireplace mantel and surrounded it with two flashlights to light it up for display. A couple of months later, my friend was at his friend’s house and he noticed that the bottle was still on the mantel, lit up by the flashlights, and unopened.

“I see that you haven’t opened the bottle yet,” said my friend.

“Nope,” was his friend’s reply, “I am waiting for a real special occasion.”

Later that year, one of his son’s graduated from college, and the bottle remained unopened. A year later, his daughter graduated from college. Still the bottle remained unopened. Not too long afterwards, his daughter got married. The bottle remained unopened. His youngest son graduated from college. The bottle stayed sealed.

Some time after all of these events that apparently were not special enough to open that bottle of fine whiskey, my friend went over to his friend’s house and spied the bottle on the mantel, still lit by the flashlights, but there was something new. The bottle had been opened. Surprised by the sight, my friend asked his friend as to what the special occasion was that he was worthy of opening the bottle and having a drink.

“The dog died.”

I don’t suspect that God has a mantel in his heavenly mansion that displays a fine bottle of whiskey that he keeps sealed awaiting a very special occasion, but if he did I suspect that you and I would find it sealed when we, his children, accomplish things in our lives like graduations, weddings, and the like. I suspect that he would keep the bottle sealed by all the things that we mark as important accomplishments in our lives: sports victories, job promotions, acts of great charity, and mvp’s….not that any of these things are of no import. But I have come to learn something about God, something that God has taught me in Jesus. And that is that the things that we do, even the things of greatest importance, are of less importance to God than the thing that God has done for us.

As the Bible says, God pulls out all the stops in heaven when he has found a wandering sheep and brought it home in his arms….when he has found a lost coin that he has searched for for hours…when he has cleansed a leper from his life-sapping condition. The most special things to God are when God employs his grace and changes a person…forever! Hopeless to hopeful! Joyless to joyful! Lost to found! Fearful to peaceful! Dead to alive!

I don’t know if you have ever heard it, but Jesus tells us that there is a never-ending party going on in heaven over you. And it is a party that God is throwing, not because of anything you have done – as good or as bad as those accomplishments might be – but because of what God has done…God has taken hold of you out of the grasp of the traps that have snapped on you, out of the hole that you have fallen into, away from the greedy forces of the world that have grabbed you….and God has embraced you on his eternal lap.

And so, God has wrapped you in God’s finest robes. God has put his ring on your finger. God has slaughtered the fatted calf for you. And he has opened his finest bottle of whiskey that has sat on his mantel and says, “Time for a toast! Here’s to my child who I have with me now and forever! L’chaim!”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord 3-10-25

Hello,

In the late 1970’s (which doesn’t seem all that long ago to me) I went to see my first stage show, “The Wiz”. I was going to Valparaiso University at the time, which was in driving range of Chicago. I got up enough nerve to ask a girl to go with me, so when the day of the show came, I picked her up at her dorm in my red Gold Duster with a black vinyl top and off we went to the Shubert Theater in downtown Chicago.

“The Wiz” was a musical adaptation of the story of the Wizard of Oz with upbeat music and flashy 70’s costumes. Since it was my first stage show, musical or play, I found myself amazed at the ability of the actors to carry their parts, at the creativity of the set, and at the music that brought life to the story.

Now, almost fifty years later, there is one song, whose chorus still sticks in my mind. It was sung by the Wicked Witch of the West, who I recall as being a large person with an equally large voice, decked out in a dark, poofy dress (see the picture...she wasn’t green!) And the song ….. “Don’t nobody bring me no bad news!”

I don’t know for certain why that song has etched itself in my brain, but my guess is that its lyrics echo an experienced truth. When things are falling apart, people don’t want to be further shaken by bad news. When things are going well, people don’t want to be soured by bad news. When things are deathly scary, the last thing a person wants is bad news. “Don’t nobody bring me no bad news!”

My recollection of how the Wicked Witch of the West responded to the incoming news that she didn’t want to hear was that she turned away from the bearer of the news and stomped her way to the other side of the stage. I find myself prone to likewise respond. Put up my hand as if I was a traffic cop, turn my head to the side, rotate my back to the news bearer’s direction, and walk away.

Over and over in the book of Psalms in the Bible, the plea of one coming to God with bad news is heard, “Turn not your face away from me.” I would feel pretty safe in wagering that every one of us has found those words, or similar words rolling over our lips. They are words of the deepest fear. “Don’t shut the door on me,” to one of your kids when you have made a big mistake as a parent. “Don’t walk away from me,” to a spouse when a marriage has been hit by a collision. “Don’t let me go,” to a boss when you have messed up on the job. “Don’t turn your back on me,” to a friend when you’ve dug a hole for yourself and fallen into it.

As frightening as those words might be for us to say when dealing with others, their fright is monumentally higher when dealing with God. After all, there is an essential dynamic going on when it comes to God, and there is an eternal dynamic going on with God. If God, the giver of life, turns his back on me, that makes my life of less worth than a dirty paper plate. If God, the sustainer of life, hands me a universal pink slip, what am I to do with my life? If God, the one whose days are beyond this life, shuts the door on me, where can I go for shelter from the eternal cold? It is a frightening thing to consider the news that I bring daily to God. Might God sing to me, “Don’t nobody bring me no bad news?”

I don’t know about you, but I know for myself, when I am facing the most fearful of fears, “maybe’s”, “I think so’s”, or “some so and so says so’s” do me no good. Such responses just deepen my fears. No, I need to hear from the receiver of my bad news that my bad news is welcome. I need to feel the embrace of the receiver when I speak my bad news to know that I am still cared for. I need to have the receiver of my news look me square in the eye with grace and mercy and say, “I couldn’t love you any more than I do right now.”

And that is what God has done for you and me, bringers of bad news. He sent Jesus, the Word of God, to tell us of God’s forgiveness. He sent Jesus, the Son of God, to stretch out his arms on the cross to enfold us with a limitless embrace. He sent Jesus, whose love splashes on us individually in the waters of Baptism, and who unites himself with us in the bread and wine at his table, to squarely look at us and say, “You are my child; my beloved; with you I am well pleased.

The world might say, “Don’t nobody bring me no bad news,” but know this: God says, “Come to me all you that are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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