The Bungee Cord 5-12-25

Hello,

Do bees smell?

It is a beautiful time of the year in Western Pennsylvania, not just in what our eyes take in, but also in what our noses take in. Right next to my hot tub are four lilac bushes that I planted several years ago, and as they begin to blossom, they cast their lovely aroma upon my patio. If you have never smelled a lilac flower, you have missed one of nature’s gifts. It is a sweet, but not overwhelming, smell that when you breath it in you can feel your lungs filling with soft joy. And as the flowers overtake the bushes, I find myself just wanting to bury my face in the flowers and swim in their luxurious scent. The smell is captivating.

However, as I sit near my lilac bushes, I come to find out that I am not the only one drawn to them. Bees are too! My lilac bushes look like a Walmart store that just got a new shipment of toilet paper during the pandemic. The bushes are crawling with bees, all having come to load their “honey stomachs” with the delivery of nectar from the lilac blooms. I know that plants use vibrant colors to attract bee for the purpose of pollination, but as I sit in the cloud of their aroma, I wonder are bees, like me, also attracted by the smell? I know that bees can see. I wonder, can they smell?

So, I Googled it, and this is what I found: “Yes, bees have a very strong sense of smell. They use it to find food, communicate within their hive, and even detect threats. Their sense of smell is much more sensitive than humans, allowing them to detect odors at incredibly low concentrations.” Wow, I guess that they can smell….and smell well!

Also, when I Googled, “What sense creates the deepest memories for humans?”, this is what I found out: “The sense of smell (olfaction) is often cited as the one that creates the strongest and longest-lasting memories. This is due to its unique connection to the limbic system, the brain region responsible for emotions and memory storage. Specifically, the olfactory bulb, where smell information is processed, is directly connected to the hippocampus and amygdala. “

So, as I consider the power of smell to draw bees to a lilac bush, and to create memories that are timeless, I wonder if I have stumbled on to one of the reasons that so many people avoid going to church every week, or maybe completely avoid it. Might it be that when they open the doors of a church, it doesn’t smell very good, or maybe they don’t open them at all because of the rancid smell that they have encountered there? Do they smell, or remember the smell, of judgment, narrow mindedness, institutional control, money grabbing, lifelong grudges, silly rules, and the like.

The Bible tells us that on Easter Sunday morning, some women went with spices to Jesus’ tomb. Why? Because tombs stunk! After three days of death dining on a body, everyone knew that when you opened the tomb, the smell would be rancid. So, they brought spices to help make it smell better. I find it interesting that when you read the Biblical stories of Easter Sunday morning, there is no mention of the smell! When the women walked in and when Peter stepped in, we are not told that any of them reacted by covering their nose. It is true, of course, that it may have just been a detail that all of the Gospel writers overlooked, but as I read the accounts where conversations take place in the tomb, it seems that the rancid smell of death was not there to drive them out. The aroma was not of death, but of life, lilac-like.

The best that those women could have hoped for was to cover of the smell of death for a while, and even with their best efforts and spices, death’s smell would return. I believe the same is true for dealing with the aromas that turn people away from going to church, humans can only cover up the smell. But clearly God can do more. As God did in that Easter tomb, God can incinerate death’s smell in a fire of the Holy Spirit, a fire of life. And not only can God do it, God is doing it. Every Sunday God ignites a fire of the Holy Spirit inside the building where people have gathered in God’s name filling it with the aroma of life, eternal life. And God is determined to keep setting that fire until death’s smell is completely gone.

I invite you to “smell for yourself” God at work amongst those who bear God’s name, including the work that God is doing in your life, and although it may not smell like lilacs yet, I am sure that you will catch whiffs of what God’s love smells like, and you, like a bee, just might find yourself drawn to gather in your “honey stomach” from the shipment of grace that God has delivered there.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord. 4-5-25

Hello,

The death of Pope Francis is news the world around. I was watching one of the network national news shows and discovered that the news programming is going to come from the Vatican until the new pope is selected. Clearly, Christians and non-Christians are finding themselves in the know about a major event in the Roman Catholic expression of the Christian faith.

To many who look at Christians from outside of the faith, and also many who are on the inside, the denominational makeup of Christians is confusing. People ask, “Why all these denominations?” Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Lutherans, Episcopal, Methodist, United Church of Christ, Presbyterian, Baptist, Quakers, Pentecostal…..on and on it goes. And even within these denominations there are separate groups. Within the denomination of which I am a pastor, Lutheran, there are ELCA Lutherans (of which I am one), Missouri Synod Lutherans, Wisconsin Synod Lutherans, Lutheran Brethren, North American Lutherans, and numerous smaller groups of Lutherans, and that is just in the United States. “Why all these different groupings? Can’t we just be Christians?”

Well, my answer to the question, “Can’t we just be Christians?”, is , “We are.” All those who profess God as triune (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) are Christian. Early in the development of the Christian faith, Christians developed a couple of universally accepted statements of faith, the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed to lay out the kernel of the Christian faith, and in many Churches of many of the denominations, one of these creeds is recited each week in worship, aligning the worshippers with Christians from the beginning of the faith. In reciting the Creed, in no matter what denomination it is said, we are saying to each other and to the world, “We are Christians.”

So, “Why all these different groupings?” Well, I find myself saying, “Because God is big enough to wrap his arms around people who are very different.” In my understanding, just like shoes, one size does not fit all. So, using the shoe analogy, the multiplicity of denominations is a result of the size of people’s feet and the kind of shoe that various people need. In my mind, no group of Christians has the corner on the truth, but each group provides a Biblically legitimate corner of the truth where individuals can find a place for themselves, and when all the corners are joined together, so also is the truth. Mixing the metaphors, I see the Christian faith akin to an orchestra, where each section of the orchestra, under the direction of the conductor (Jesus), does its best to play its part of the score, and when that happens, beautiful music is made. Music that is made by only one instrument is limited in its expression and fullness.

Unfortunately, there is another reason for the numerous denominations, and that is people are sinful, and that sinfulness cleaves the Church. We are not always very good at getting along with each other and practicing the humble love that Jesus embodied. That, in my mind, is sad.

So, if you are one who is asking, “Why all these groupings?”, I hope that this Bungee Cord has helped you understand, but more so, I hope that it has helped you see that no matter who you are (no matter what shoe you wear, or what instrument you play), Jesus has created a space just for you. A place where his love for you resonates with your heart. A place where you find strength and hope to step out into the world. A place where forgiveness and mercy shape your life, and a place where peace embraces your days.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 Hello,

I am sitting on a lounge chair in the Dominican Republic overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. I am here with my grandson and his parents to celebrate his fourth birthday. For those of you in the colder climes, it has been sunny and 85 degrees for the past four days. We are here with one of my son’s friends who grew up here and is showing us his country. We are not on a resort, but we are staying in a small town, rubbing shoulders with the people. It has been a wonderful time.

As we were getting acquainted with our “tour guide”, he said to me, knowing that I am a pastor, “I am not a believer,” almost apologetically. I already knew that as my son had told me of his friend’s exclusion of God in his life. So, when he told me that he was not a believer, I was not surprised, but I wish I had been smarter. My response to him was, “That’s okay,” as I am not here to judge my son’s friend, but to experience his country and get to know the people. Like I said, I wish that I was smarter, because in hind thought, I wish I would have said, “Well, the God that I believe in still loves you.”

You see, he is a rather rough and tumble guy, and he has left in his wake a bunch of life’s refuse. Since he is significantly older than my son (he’s a coworker), he has put a lot of miles on his life. “Crusty” and “rebel” might be the best words to describe him. He grew up in a very religiously legalistic home in the mountains of the Dominican Republic from which he has demonstratively strayed, but all in all a very friendly and welcoming guy. It has been a delight getting to know him, and I hope that he would say the same of me.

I suspect he was a bit nervous about being our “tour guide”. For one, I know he wanted to roll out the red carpet for us. And secondly, I don’t think he has spent concentrated time with a pastor for years. I know he did not want to offend me in our time together, and I think he feared my judgment. I am sure that his candid confession of not being a believer was said with some fear and trepidation. “I am not a believer.”

I wish I had been quicker on my feet.. Although my response seemed to put him at ease, I wish my response could have done more. I wish my response would have spoken more deeply to his fears of my judgment, rather than just speaking to his intellectual theological position. I wish I would have said, “The God I believe in still loves you.”

I am certain that he is not alone in his confession. As a matter of fact, I think that disbelief in God is an honest confession that everyone wrestles with, some with more ferocity than others. I, myself, can find myself on this divine wrestling with some regularity, and when I am trying to pin my disbelief down, I hear two things. One thing I hear from the coach saying, “If you want to stay on this team, you better get a pin.” The other thing I hear is from the fans, cheering me on just for being on the floor, “Go at it. We’ve got your back!”

That is who I wished I was to our “tour guide” when he told me that disbelief was getting the best of him. I wish that I would have said something for him to know that I am glad to have him on my disbelief wrestling team. Something that would have conveyed to him that as far as I am concerned, and as far as God is concerned, it isn’t how victorious he was in his battles with disbelief. What matters is how successful God is in God’s battle with disbelief, and God pinned disbelief at the end of a three-day match….pinned forever.

So, today, as you get up from the wrestling mat, tired and worn out, I am throwing this Bungee Cord at you like a towel, and I say to you what I wish I had said to our guide friend, “The God that I believe in loves you."

Have a great week,

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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