The Bungee Cord

Hello,

I have been attending my current church for about four years now, and for as long as I have been going there, the same thing has been posted on the sign in front of the entrance and facing the wall. Along with the church’s name and the time of worship, is this question, “How do you reflect God’s glory?”

Recently, I suggested to the church council that the sign be changed. I suggested that instead of asking the question, “How do you reflect God’s glory?”, the sign would say, “God’s grace awaits you here.” I made that suggestion because I believe that going to church and even the life of faith is primarily about the measure of God’s love for us, and not the measure of our success in reflecting that love.

I say that because the people with whom Jesus found himself most often butting heads were the ones whose focus was on people’s lives, the scribes and the pharisees. They focused their teaching on rules to live by and rules to worship by….things like, delineating how many steps you could take on the Sabbath and still keep it holy and eliminating from worship people who were “unclean”. Although they never said it quite this way, if they were to have put a sign in front of their places of worship, that sign would appropriately ask, “How do you reflect God’s glory?”

But when one reads the Gospels, Jesus never says to those he encounters, “How do you reflect God’s glory?” Instead, he said to a taxpayer named Zacchaeus whose reflection of God’s glory was mired with greed and theft, “I am coming to your house today.” He said to a leper who everyone shunned because of his frightening image , “Go and show yourself to the priest,” and having said that the leper was healed. He said to a paralyzed man who everyone measured as worthless, “Take up your pallet and walk, “ and that is exactly what the man was able to do. He said to a man dying on a cross, “Today, you will be with me in paradise.” Jesus did not evaluate how well people were reflecting God’s glory, he, by the power of God’s grace, made them a reflection of God’s glory.

To me, to be asked by a sign at the door of the church, “How do you reflect God’s glory?” seems to invite only those who have done it well, and telling those whose reflection is marred that they need to go and work on their reflection and come back when their lives provide a more vivid response. That is why I suggested the sign change. After all, no one reflects God’s glory with significant accuracy….God knows that…and that is why God sent Jesus, to wipe the dirt and grime off of our lives and make us people of brighter hope, of clearer compassion, of blinding love, and exploding joy.

If you don’t see these things in you when you look in the mirror, and if others are unable to make these things out in you when they look at you….there’s a place for that to change: at church. Inside the doors of the church, God awaits you with his grace to transform you and your life into a pure reflection of his pure grace. God encounters us with his word, which like a cloth dusts us of our sins. God splashes the waters of Baptism on us which cleans deep below the surface, all the way to our hearts. God invites us to his table and personally shines up every cell of our bodies. God polishes us up when we rub shoulders with the fellow forgiven. Church is all about encountering God in the fullness of his grace and then going back out into the world radiating it.

Please receive this Bungee Cord as an invitation from a pastor standing outside the church, welcoming people in, standing in front of a sign that says, “God’s grace awaits you here.”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord

Hello,

When I was a pastor in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, I and three other pastors went to visit our Lutheran brothers and sisters in Cameroon. It was a life changing experience. The purpose of our visit was simply to spend time with them and learn from them. So, for three weeks we wound our way across Cameroon and discovered the wonder of the grace that was showered upon us.

We were led by the Lutheran Bishop of Cameroon, and driven around by his driver, Philip, as I recall. Sometimes we were joined by other Cameroonian pastors, making our travelling group to be as much as ten people. We travelled in a SUV. Three in the front, three in the back and four in the rear section sitting on benches that faced each other. (The Bishop was always in the back or rear sections, because, as he told us, it would be disgraceful of him to make his guests ride in less prominent seats.). Often times roads were washed out, bridges impassible, stopped by military demanding “tolls”, and although we were warned of the possibility of bandits, thankfully that never occurred. Due to all these things, arrival time at our destinations in the bush were always unknown, but in every town that we visited, a delegation of people would take their stand at the edge of town and wait for us to come. And when we arrived, they would let the rest of the village know, and the villagers would line the road singing us in.

I learned a lot from my brothers and sisters in Christ in Cameroon, and one of the most important things I learned was a lesson about time. They were not ruled by time; they made time fit their lives. Being gracious in their welcome was far more important than time. Gathering together in worship that would last hours, was far more important than time. Dancing around a fire into the night was far more important than time. Mourning the death of a loved one together, which often was a week, was more important than time. They had a saying, “You Americans have all the watches. We have all the time.”

Given their understanding of time, their appreciation of our visit…that we would come and spend time with them…was overwhelming. They lavished us with food far better than they ate. Sometimes they gave up their homes for us to stay in. One time I was housed with a family that gave me the main bedroom to sleep in while the parents slept on the floor in another room. The time that we spent with them was like a pearl of great value, so valuable that they would treasure it forever. These people who had very little, were rich in time, and they lavishly shared their time with us.

I left Cameroon with a deep appreciation of the people whose lives were far different than mine, and a deeper appreciation of the gift of time. I left with new amazement that the one who has all the time in the universe, decided to spend time with us, the people of this small blue planet. In Jesus, God lavished upon us a gift for all of us to treasure every day of our lives, God’s time. This gift reveals just how important we are to God. So important are we to God that God would take the time to walk where we walk, feel the things we feel, and share the joys and sorrows or our lives. It is a gift beyond amazing.

But there is a yet more amazing gift, and that is the one who holds all time in his hands and God has deigned to not let time rule your life or mine, but rather God has taken his reign over time and has taken you and me into his embrace forever! Even when time, either our earthly time or even time itself, comes to an end, God will not let time take us from him. As Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe[a] in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14)

Tweaking the saying that I learned from my Cameroonian friends, “God has all the time in the universe, and God has decided to spend that time with you!”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord

Hello,

Jesus said,45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; 46 on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.” (Matthew 13)a

I spent the weekend with my son, his wife and my grandson. They live in an apartment in the concrete jungle of Brooklyn. We wandered out of the jungle on Sunday and went down to the river where there are parks for kids, trees for shade, and athletic facilities. After my grandson had dug in the sand at one of the parks, climbed playground equipment in another park, and walked on logs at still another park, we decided it was time for a treat, an ice cream cone.

I sat down at one of the picnic tables while my daughter-in-law and grandson went to get the ice cream. The picnic tables were located next to a bunch of soccer fields that jutted out into the river on what must have been a man-made island. As I was sitting there, holding our spots at the table, I heard a plopping sound next to me. I looked toward the sound, and there in the water that separated the picnic area from the soccer fields was a soccer ball afloat that had not been there before. Apparently, someone had put more juice into their kick than they had thought, and they kicked the ball over the 30-foot net that surrounded the soccer fields.

My hunch was right, because in a few moments from the entry slit in the nets came three young guys, older high schoolers, searching for their ball. The water was about six feet below the dock, so I watched these three athletically fit guys stand there in helpless disappointment. Their ball was right there in front of them, bobbing in the water, but it was beyond their reach. The water was dirty and smelly, and there was no way to get out if one jumped in. So, all those three could do was watch until the ball until they decided that it was a lost cause and they went back to the soccer fields and joined up with some other guys who were kicking their ball around.

Jesus tells us that God is not like those three guys who helplessly watched. When God sees you and me bobbing around in stinky, cold, and deep water, God does not just stand there and gaze. God does the unthinkable. God jumps into the water to retrieve us. That is what God did in Jesus. Why would God do such a thing? Jesus tells us why. It is because when God looks upon us, God doesn’t see a soccer ball that has been kicked around. God sees a pearl of unmeasurable worth, and so God jumps in feet first to take ahold of each of us that he might have us as his forever.

It may be that you and I might look in the mirror and question God’s judgment of us. Surely, day after day the world around us tells us that our worth is measurable. We hear it all the time in school, at work, in relationships, in our neighborhoods. Over and over again, we are told that we are not worth jumping in for….and some are not even worth the time to watch bob up and down. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and Scripture tells us that we are the apple of God’s eye, ones who a shepherd would leave an entire flock to go find when we are lost, ones that God cannot be without. That is the kind of God that we have.

So, when you find yourself kicked so hard that tall nets won’t hold you safely in and you are bobbing around in smelly, dirty water, don’t look up to see if God is there. No, look next to you and see the splash of the one who so values you that he’s jumping in to take ahold of you….forever!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord

Hello,

It was a beautiful day here in Western Pennsylvania, so after I delivered lunch to my 14 Meals On Wheels clients, I decided to go and play nine holes of golf. Golf, for me, is less sport than exercise. I don’t keep my score, and I generally walk and carry my clubs, thus my exercise. It’s been several years since I have had to buy golf balls, because on slow days I hunt golf balls as I play…often because my shots tend to wind where lost balls land. So, it was today, and as I walked my way along the course, I stumbled upon a ball. I was surprised that it was laying there as it was in plain sight. I picked it up, and I noticed something was written on it, “Prov 2”.

“Prov 2” may have been the chosen identifying mark for the player of the ball, but my suspicion was otherwise. Seeing how the ball was obvious to find, and the marking “Prov 2” was visible on the top of the ball, I think that it was placed there on purpose in hopes that someone would pick it up and read Proverbs 2 in the Bible. It seemed to me to be a unique evangelistic attempt by some Christian golfer.

Well, it worked. Although I think the hope of the “evangelist” was to have someone pick up this ball that knew far more about golf than the Christian faith, I put the ball in my pocket, brought it home, and looked up Proverbs 2. I know that many Christians are drawn to the book of Proverbs for its life guidance that they believe is divinely unique. As I read the book of Proverbs, I, too, find its wisdom helpful. Interestingly enough, many Biblical scholars would say that its wisdom was a wisdom that was shared by many in the day of its writing, and not particularly unique to the followers of the Bible. At its core, the book of Proverbs was meant to be wise instruction to growing boys to give them a good moral foundation for life, to make them good adults. Good rules to live by.

As I wrote last week, I don’t believe that Jesus came to pass on a bunch of moral teachings to us, to make us good people. I believe that Jesus came to transform us to be God’s people, children of God…people whose heart beats in rhythm with God’s, people whose eyes and ears see and hear the love of God abounding in every day of life, people who live free from the shackles of their deeds and who breath in the fresh air of forgiveness, people who are so infused with hope that they look at the grave and sing songs of victory. The book of Proverbs may give us God’s wisdom by which to structure our lives, which is good, but its goodness doesn’t do what Jesus came to do …. give us life, abundant life.

So, I thought to myself as I put that golf ball in my pocket, if I was to be a golf ball evangelist, what would I write on a ball that I would leave on the golf course for someone to find…a verse that would open the finder’s heart not with rules to live by but hope to live and die by. Well….here’s the verse that I would write on the ball…1John3:1.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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 The Bungee Cord

Hello,

Here’s a truth about Christianity that I think often gets misspoken: Jesus did not come to make people good people, Jesus came to make people God’s people.

Often times, I hear people say, “I am a good person. I don’t need Jesus,” and they are right. Being a good person is something that people can become by many other means. Like shooting a basketball, anyone can learn to do it to some degree. True, some people can be better basketball shooters than others, but is that not also true about being good? With the exception of maybe a few people, most people acknowledge that they are not perfectly good, just like no one can claim to never miss a basketball shot, but when they do speak of their goodness they tend to write off their imperfections as minor or compare themselves to those who are far worse. It seems to me that the goal of being perfectly good for anyone who lives in this world is a goal that even Jesus would say is a humanly impossible goal. After all, no matter how many feathers you put on an elephant, it is never going to fly. Jesus did not come to put feathers on elephants….that is make people good people.

Rather, Jesus came to make people God’s people. Over and over again, the Bible tells us that Jesus came, not to add feathers to elephants, but to transform elephants into something that can fly, like eagles. “So, if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being!” (2 Cor. 5:17) When Jesus takes ahold of us, he doesn’t just feather us up, he changes us. He transforms our hearts to beat with God’s eternal life. He gives us ears to hear things we could never hear before. He gives us eyes that pierce the darkness. When Jesus gets ahold of us, he doesn’t just put feathers on us, he gives us wings of faith upon which we can soar in the wind of the Holy Spirit. “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” 1 Peter 2:10

Good people, as good as they might be, are still only as strong as they can be. They can find themselves shackled by chains that they cannot break. They can find themselves bearing loads that are too hard to carry. They can find themselves facing foes who can crush them like a bug. But God’s people are held in the power of God’s hand, and when Paul thought about the grip that Almighty God has, he said this, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Clearly, God’s people are formed to be good people, but they are formed to be far more than that. Regularly, God’s people find themselves encumbered with things that keep them from flying as they are able, things that the Bible calls “sins”. But daily as God takes God’s place in our lives through prayer, Scripture, Baptism, and Holy Communion, God tears those things off of us and sets us back on our way saying to us, “Fly!” Fly with “peace that surpasses all human understanding (Phil 4). Fly with hope that never disappoints (Rom 5). Fly with complete joy (John 15:11). Fly with love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. (1 Cor 13). Fly with grace upon grace (John 1). And fly with life that conquers death (1 Cor 15).

No matter how many feathers you put on an elephant, it won’t fly. Thanks be to God that he transforms us into something new…that can fly!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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