The Bungee Cord 10-14-24

Hello,

“My name is Karl, with a “K”, said the man seated at the bar next to me.

My brother-in-law and I planned to meet for dinner at a local restaurant/bar the other night. I got there first and found the place to be quite busy. There weren’t any tables open, and the bar was filled except for two seats next to a disheveled man, so I walked up to the open spots and said to the man next to me, “Mind if I sit here?”

“Sure,” he said with a slurry glint in his voice. The unkempt beard on his face had not received a razor in a couple of weeks, and the long hair that was pulled straight back over his head looked as though it had not seen a washing in about that long. The waitress brought me over a menu and made sure that her glance did not fall upon him, obviously ignoring him in hopes that he would soon leave, and I soon found out why. “Don’t order the Ruben,” he said. “They put Russian dressing on it, and I told them when I ordered it that Ruben’s shouldn’t have Russian dressing on them, but when they gave it to me there was Russian dressing on it. The waitress told me that they put Russian dressing on their Rubens, and I told her that that is not the way to make a Ruben”…….on he went.

He was a talker, and his voice had certainly been loosened up by a number of beers that he had drunk. With “flowery” language he told me about his life as a construction worker, making the hour trip into Pittsburg every day. He went on to tell me about how he had gotten hurt on the job and now was on disability.

I ordered a burger.

He kept talking, and in between his words I told him that I was the retired pastor from the Lutheran church in town.

I could tell he heard me, because his language became less “vivid”, but it did not slow down. And then he said to me, “My wife died 7 years ago, and I’ve been alone ever since.”

Cancer got her, and for the last couple of months of her life, I cared for her at home.” He went on to talk about what a good woman she had been for all the years that they had been married.

My burger came, and I said to him that it was great talking to him.

Then he said, “My name is Karl, with a “K”. Thanks for listening to me.”

“Dear God, my name is Jerry, with a J. Thanks for listening to me. Amen.”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord. 10-7-24

Hello,

Christian nationalism?

From its very beginning, Christianity has not been monolithic. As a matter of fact, several books of the Bible are written as a result of the diversity of teachings in the Christian faith. In its early days, there was a strong group of people, led by the Disciple Peter, who believed that before you became Christian you had to become a Jew, and after you were Christian, you had to live under Jewish religious regulations. Alongside of that group was another group of Christians, led by the Apostle Paul, who believed that Jesus’ death and resurrection had opened God’s door to people just the way they were, and their lives were to be shaped by the Holy Spirit as a potter shapes clay. Actually, that is what the book of Galatians is all about.

Ultimately, it was decided that both understandings could live with mutual respect as they followed Jesus. Those who were baptized, both Jew and Gentile, could walk hand in hand as brothers and sisters of Christ. As time rolled along, people tried to summarize the Christian faith and created Creeds, to be guardrails for the followers of Christ. Within these guardrails, Christians have walked their walk of faith, rejoicing together and sharing God’s love in Christ to all.

One way that I image the Christian faith is to see it like a marching band filling the world with thrilling and beautiful music. Trumpets. Trombones. Tubas. Drums. Glockenspiels. Flutes. Clarinets. Led by the drum master, Jesus, the music is the best when each instrument is played to perfection. I know that when my kids were young and learning an instrument for the band, they were led to play the instrument that most fit their physical characteristics. One a trumpet. One a drummer. One a tuba player. As they each learned how to play their instrument with precision, the better the band sounded.

That is how I see the diversity in the Christian faith. Groups of Christians, because of their common characteristics, play their instrument of faith together making room for a variety of people and creating a beautiful sound. But when a group of folks marching under Jesus’ leadership, puts down their instruments and pulls out blaring sirens, such a noise drowns out the music that Jesus is directing.

Although there may be those who disagree with me, in my perception of the Christian band today, that is exactly what is happening with Christian nationalism, a group of people who have pulled out their blaring sirens and have tried to overwhelm the band with noise of dominance, hatred, and arrogance. When I read the witness to Jesus, beginning with the songs of creation and carrying through the song of the New Creation in Christ, I don’t hear songs of crushing dominance. When Jesus’ disciples asked if he wanted a city to be treated like Sodom and Gomorrah (destroyed with fire and brimstone), Jesus said no. When one of his disciples took out his sword and cut off the ear of one who had come to take Jesus away, Jesus said to put their swords away. When Jesus hung on the cross and the people mocked him, spat on him, and tore his clothes off him, Jesus said, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”

This I know from the Bible: when Jesus was asked if he was a king, Jesus responded, “‘My kingdom is not from this world.” With those words coming out of Jesus’ mouth and hitting my ears, it is clear to me that anyone who asserts that allegiance to any government or leader is the sound coming from Jesus’ direction is not playing a song that Jesus is leading, but instead drowning Jesus out with a painful siren.

I write this in my Bungee Cord, because I know that there are those who are hearing what comes out of the mouths of people who call themselves “Christian nationalist” and say that they want no part of that piercing siren. Me either. That is why I invite you to keep your ears open to a different sound coming from many churches and many people. It is a song of love and mercy, of a God who so loves all people that God invested his whole self in embracing all people, a God who doesn’t bring hatred but brings kindness, a God who doesn’t squash people as if they were cockroaches but instead gives them a whole new abundant life, a God who said the person without sin can throw the first stone, and God who said that he would be with us always, even to the end of the age. It is a beautiful song and sound….for you to hear….and for you to share. “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called Children of God. And that is what we are!” 1 John 3:1

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord. 10-1-24

Hello,

What would it take for you to cancel a meeting with the President of the United States?

The reason that I ask is that I heard on the news that someone actually did exactly that. According to the news, the Mayor of New York was supposed to meet with the President, but just moments before they were supposed to meet, the mayor cancelled the meeting. Apparently, he had just received a phone call from one of his assistants saying that the FBI was at her home and had a warrant to search it. So, he cancelled his meeting with the President and raced to her home.

It got me to thinking, what would it take for me to cancel a meeting with the President of the United States? Personally, I can’t think of many people with whom a meeting would be of greater importance or honor. Certainly, I would not cancel such a meeting because of a round of golf, a game of pickleball, tickets to a football game, a clearance sale, a favorite T.V. show, being tired and wanting to sleep in, or because the weather was too cold. I might cancel the meeting if my child was severely ill, or if my house was burning down, if an earthquake struck, or if the FBI was about to search my house. It would have to be a pretty big thing for me to cancel a meeting with the President of the United States.

Considering that, it seems like it would have to be something really big, cosmically big, for me to cancel a meeting with God Almighty. After all, with whom could a meeting be of such importance or honor? As long ago as when Moses wandered in the wilderness with God’s people (sometime around1280 B.C.), God has set up a reoccurring meeting with God’s people, one of the Ten Commandments, “Remember the sabbath to keep it holy.” Every Sunday, since the days of Jesus (Saturdays before Jesus), God has scheduled a meeting with God’s people in order to spend some time with them and speak with them. Weekly, God wants to gather God’s people together in order to rub shoulders with them and to shape them with God’s Word. To open their eyes to hope and to strengthen their hearts and minds with forgiveness and mercy. To take ahold of them with his embrace and to assure them that even if the world is spinning out of control, God has them tight and won’t let go. Seems like God’s meeting with God’s people has a pretty important agenda.

The world, however, double schedules God’s meeting time with God’s people, telling us as it does that there are more important meetings for you and me to attend. After all, the world says, “You can always go next week,” or “You will just hear the same thing you heard last week,” or “I’m tired of dealing with the other people at the meetings,” or “Surely, God won’t mind if you miss a couple of meetings.” But God knows what you and I will face this week, and God says, “Come.” God knows the struggles that some of the others are facing and how important it is for them to see that they are not alone as you sit next to them, and God says, “Come.” God knows the failures that cling on to you like anchors and the fears that take hold of you like shackles, and God says, “Come.” God knows the chaos and the pressures that swirl around you, and God says, “Come.” Given the grace of God’s invitation, what would it take for you to cancel your meeting with God?

Whatever your answer is to that question, know this: whether you go to God’s weekly meeting with you or not, God is not going to love you any more or any less. How could he? God has given his Son for you, to love you with God’s whole heart and soul. God could not love you any more than that, and God cannot love you any less than that. God invites you to his meetings in order that God might have undisturbed time with you so that God’s love might shape you and energize you to live a life that is overflowing into the world with hope, peace, joy, and love. And unlike so many meetings that you and I find ourselves gong to, when you and I see the fruits of God’s power being produced in our lives, you and I will certainly say, “That was a meeting worth going to.”

Have a great week,

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord. 9-24-24

Hello,

I just got home from attending a funeral at one of the churches that I have served. The sanctuary was packed as many people came to say “goodbye” to one who had been a dear friend and who had made a deep impact on their lives.

The time came for sharing some personal memories of the deceased, and the person who got up to speak began by saying, “I don’t want to be here.” The speaker then asked the congregation, who else doesn’t want to be here, and he invited those who felt likewise to raise their hands. A whole bunch of hands went up. Mine did not.

I didn’t raise my hand because I had mixed emotions about being there at that funeral. Although I did not know the one who had died as long as most of those who were attending, I was very thankful to have known her for the years that I was at that church. She was very supportive of the mission that we were trying to accomplish. She was always willing to take on new and important tasks. Her smile was contagious, and her faith was infectious. It is a sad day when one has to say “goodbye” to one who has excavated and brightened the pathway of life. So, in light of the cloak of sadness that was strewn over that church sanctuary by her death, I didn’t want to be there. I didn’t want to say “goodbye” yet.

On the other hand, the day will come for all of us that death will come and grab us by the throat and pull us into its darkness. “Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust.” For all of us, there will be an empty chair at the dining room table. There will be a voice that will not be heard. There will be a hug that will not be felt. And what will the world say about these things?

Gone. You’ve had your chance to live, and you better have grabbed all the gusto while you had a chance. You better have filled you belly with gluttonous food and topped it off with drink-filled parties. After all, we have heard every day of our lives, “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you die.” That is what the world says when death takes ahold of us.

But that is not what is said in the Church, the place where Jesus, who is the first fruits of the dead speaks with thunderous voice. Jesus, who was crucified and died (really died), by the power that created the universe and placed life in it, God, used all of the creative power in God’s hand and grabbed his Son from the grips of death and brought Jesus to life again. God stole Jesus from the grip of death, and as Jesus walked out of that Easter tomb Jesus stomped on death like a cockroach, squashing it to death. From that day, death became no more than a pesky mosquito bite to Jesus, the Son of God, and in turn to all of those who God would also name as God’s children. (John 3:16,17)

‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’

55 ‘Where, O death, is your victory?

Where, O death, is your sting?’

56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Cor. 15)

That is what is said in Church. The world has nothing to say about death, other than “gone”. Inside the walls of the church, there is plenty that is said. We have a God who is so consumed with love that God has blessed you and me with life to live in God’s wonderous creation, but God is not satisfied to have us with him for just the years of our lives. God desires to be with us forever. As the Bible says, he has created a room in his mansion to be with God forever. The wonder of that is far beyond my imagination. Forever? Resurrection of the body? The gathering of all people from all time and place? It is an image that my small mind that is caught in time and space is unable to comprehend. But this, my mind can comprehend. God’s love for me is so great that he sent his Son to claim me, hold me, and love me in this life, I can surely trust that whatever lies ahead will be no less wonderful.

So, when death hits, as it did this day for the one whose funeral I attended, I can say with absolute certainty, “I am glad to be HERE! HERE in the church where I can rest in eternal victory, everlasting love, and grace that not even death can shatter.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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