Bungee Cord 3-30-15

Hello,

Welcome to Holy Week.  Although the world might make a bigger deal of Christmas, for Christians this week is the most important week of the year.  This week is the week that Jesus gathered his disciples for the last time around a meal (Thursday), engaged every evil in a battle to the death (Friday), and changed everything forever with a stroll out of a stone sealed tomb (Sunday). 

Christians have a name for each of these days….Maundy Thursday (Maundy means command…Jesus gave two commands: regularly eat this meal of his presence; to love each other has he has loved us), Good Friday (a most terrible day for Jesus, but a day that could be no “gooder” for all humanity), and Easter (as the sun rises in the east bringing light to every day, when Jesus, the Son of God rose he brought light to enlighten all creation night and day, and even when days come to an end).

This week is the heart of the Christian faith, and as we live this week God sets us straight on what God is all about.

God is all about uniting all people.  That is what Maundy Thursday is all about.  As he gathered his disciples around that table for his final meal, he gave to his people the treasure of his presence in their lives, a presence that embodied complete self-giving love.  He didn’t just give a theological lecture on the importance of being nice to each other, lots of people can do that (and it doesn’t work very well).  But Jesus, doing only what God can do, joins himself to those at his table, and pulls them together.  We do a pretty good job of  us’n and them’n…who are real Christians, and who are not….who is saved, and who is not.  The heart of God, however, is about, as they say in Ohio…..about “we’s”, uniting all people in the body of Christ.

God is about freeing people.  That is what Good Friday is all about.  When Jesus died on the cross he took to death with him everything that would want to enslave you.   When he breathed his last so did they.  All the shame in which the world would want to swallow you up ….dead.   All the guilt that you feel constricting you….dead.   All the evil that would spawn in the petri dish of your heart…..dead.  God is not about making good people, lots of people can do that (with questionable results).  God is about freeing people from any voice that would want to enslave by taking their breath away…forever!

God is about in-livening people.  That is what Easter is all about.  When Jesus stepped out of that Easter tomb he stepped out alive and into a new life.  He didn’t come out of the tomb like a baseball batter coming out of the dugout to try again at the plate.  He came out of the tomb in victory having hit it out of the park and bringing the game to a final end.  When Jesus walked out of the tomb, he did not do so in order to give principles to live (hit) by, he did so to begin a  lively victory party that would never end, transforming how we live every moment of this life with the victorious joy that neither time or space can hold in.

Do you wonder what the Christian faith is all about?  Do you feel like the Christian faith doesn’t have much relevancy in your life?  Do you feel like life has a suffocating death-grip hold on you and you are helplessly gasping for breath?

Let me invite you to live this Holy Week.  Come to church on Maundy Thursday and receive the Lord.  Come to church on Good Friday and hear all the voices of enslavement breath their last.  Come to church on Easter and find yourself caught up in a victory celebration that will take hold of you forever.  This week is what the Christian faith is all about…..let’s live this week together.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (GGAP)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 3-23-15

Hello,

     This upcoming Sunday begins the apex of the year for the Christian faith.  This Sunday marks the day that the Bible tells of Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem on a donkey, a ride that turned out to be a ride into the lion’s den, a ride that turned out to be a fast track to death on a cross.

     Something that people have debated and wondered ever since that donkey ride is, did Jesus know what he was getting into?

     Of course, several times in the Bible Jesus told his disciples of the rejection, the suffering, and the cross (and the resurrection…but that is for another Bungee Cord) that was to come at the end of his earthly ministry.  Some are quick to assign a great deal of divine knowledge to Jesus, and they would say that surely Jesus knew exactly what he was getting into.  Others are as equally quick to assign a great deal of human knowledge to Jesus, and they would just as surely say that his predictions of his demise were the logical expectation of anyone who created the level of stir that he had created.  Did Jesus really know the extent of what was going to happen to him as he rode into Jerusalem on that donkey?

     As far as I am concerned, I don’t care.  I don’t care how much he knew about the events that came to pass.  What I do care about is about is why he rode into Jerusalem.  Why?  Because of his conviction of God’s love and mercy for all people.  A conviction for which he was prepared to die….and for which he did die.

     As I read the Bible, I find that Jesus has likewise ridden into my life, victoriously claiming me as he did Jerusalem.  Not thundering into my life as upon a war stallion, but through soft words and the touch of water, much akin to a humble donkey. 

     Now some may wonder, when I was baptized, did Jesus know what he was getting into?  Did Jesus know the extent of the suffering and pain that I would bring him?  Did Jesus know the number of times that I would spit in his face?  Did Jesus know that I carried nails in my pocket and a hammer in my belt?  Did Jesus know what he was getting into when he rode into my life?

     Once again, as far as I am concerned, I don’t care.  I don’t care what he knew about what he was riding into when he rode into my life, because whether he knew what it was going to be like to have me as his or whether he had no idea, either way, what matters is why he rode into my life.   Why?  His conviction that no matter what lie ahead, I was worth it.  Worth it because of his love for me.  He deemed me as one for whom he was prepared to die…and he did.

     As we remember Jesus triumphant donkey ride into Jerusalem this Sunday, remember this: it is not the events of your life that Jesus uses to determine if you are willing to die for.  Jesus died for you and claims you in victory for one reason and one reason only.  God loves you.

     Wow!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace.

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 3-16-15

Hello,

“Got Conned, Part 2”

A couple of weeks ago I wrote of a visit to my office by a man who was “hoping that I could help him”.  As I wrote, such visits create quite conundrum in my soul….to help or not to help…is help really help or hurt?  Nonetheless, I decided to take the risk and help him, only to feel quite certain that I had been conned when he left.

Well, now I am not so sure. 

Friday at 1:11 a.m. my phone rang and awoke me out of a sound sleep.  A bit agrog I reached over to my nightstand and took a quick peek to see if it was a local call, and it was.  I decided to answer the call expecting it to be some emergency for one of the people in my church.  I said, “Hello,” and the person on the other end of the line said, “Hello, Jerry, this is…..”.  The name did not come up in my mind as one of my parishoners, but the caller continued talking as if he knew me really well.

“I’m all shook up and I don’t know what to do,” and he went on to say that he was getting some troubling phone calls.  “All I know, is that I am trying to protect my girlfriend and no one seems to be able to help.”  And then I knew who it was…it was the man who had come to my office for help.  “I’ve called the police.  They came, but they said there was no crime committed so they couldn’t do anything.  So, I’ve got my Gideon Bible in front of me, and I am calling you.”

Still trying to sweep the cobwebs out and his story in, I tried to settle him down a bit by telling him that as long as his door was locked, he would be safe.  I could tell that he was quite shook, and this time I was quite sure that he was not a prank call in the middle of the night.  I continued to try and talk him down, and as we talked it seemed to me that he was settling down a bit.

“Read Psalm 49,” I told him, “It is the Psalm that Martin Luther used to write a Mighty Fortress is our God.”  (WRONG!!!! In my half awakedness, I messed up.  I meant to turn him to Psalm 46.)  I said, “Read it a couple of times, and I am sure that when you wake up in the morning, you’ll see that God has indeed been a mighty fortress for you.”

I can only imagine what he must have thought when he read Psalm 49.  It is about not fearing being poor when the rich are after you.  I guess that I can only hope that somehow the Holy Spirit took the words of that Psalm and brought peace to his heart.

When I hung up I was convinced that this man is battling some sort of mental disease, and he is trying to stay above water as it keeps pulling him down.  It gave me cause to rethink my first encounter with him.  He may indeed have conned me, fully believing that he was telling me the truth.  It may have been that the stories that he had told me were historical in his mind, but historical fiction in reality.

But his 1:11 a.m. phone call made one thing completely clear to me; that no matter how his brain processed reality, he had experience real care from me in my office that day.  Care enough to pull out my business card that I gave him and call me when his world was coming apart.

It took me a while to get back to sleep, and I felt badly when I discovered that I had directed him to a Bible verse that I had not intended.  When I woke up in the morning, I thought about him, and on my drive to work, I went to work with renewed hope…..hope that even when I fear that I have been conned, God doesn’t let that stop him from reaching people with his life-giving grace.

Have a great week,

God’s grace and peace, (GGAP)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 3-9-15

Hello,

“Do they teach you in school (college) not to say, “ I am sorry,”?”

I asked this question of my business degree college grad son a while ago.  The reason I asked this of him was two-fold.  One reason was that there was a law going through the Pennsylvania legislature that would allow a doctor to say to a patient, “I am sorry,” and not be held liable for saying so in a subsequent court case.  The second reason was that this proposed law had perked my ears to listening for the words, “I am sorry,” and I have to say I wasn’t hearing it very much.

“Yeah, Dad,” my son said, “we are told not to say, “I am sorry,” because people don’t want to hear that.  What they want to hear is, “I will make it right.”  “Sorry” is a sign of weakness, and that’s not a good impression to give.” (My paraphrase of his response.)

As I think about it, “I am sorry,” was already making its way onto the endangered speech list even when I was a kid.  A very popular book and movie, Love Story, had as it’s central line, “Love means never having to say, “I am sorry.”” (Really?)  So, now some 40 years later, I guess that I should not be surprised to find, “I am sorry,” moving its way toward extinction.

I can’t say that I have any science to confirm this, but it seems quite clear to me that the progressive disappearance of, “I am sorry,” has led to a climate change, a global cooling of warm relationships between people.  Married couples who do not say, “I am sorry,” find themselves stuck in a trap of who is right and who is wrong, and they never deal with the thing which has brought pain between them.  Friends and neighbors who do not say, “I am sorry,” find themselves having less and less to say to each other and eventually they say nothing.  Family members who do not say, “I am sorry,” get gripped by grudges and the day soon comes that though their last names match, they deny it has any claim of association.  When people no longer say, “I am sorry,” a cold wind of fear, pride and arrogance is stirred up, and there is a climate change.

So, is there any hope for this climate change that we are facing?  I believe that there is, and this is it: Lent.  The 40 days of Lent have been observed by generations and generations of Christians to take a look at their lives in light of the life of Jesus….Jesus who so loved and cared for everyone, even the ones who everyone else cared nothing for, that he held nothing back, giving himself completely and fully, not turning away from the humiliation, the suffering, and death that lay in front of him…and when a person has spent 40 days bathing in the grace of God, like a knee hit with a doctor’s reflex hammer, the words, “I am sorry,” cannot be held back.  “I am sorry for the way I have treated you, Jesus.  I am sorry for the way that I have treated others.”

Of course, the risk in saying, “I am sorry,” is the response of the one to whom one has said those words.  If that one says, “Sorry isn’t good enough,” and slams the door in your face…well, that would lead to deadly disappointment.  Sorrowful and rejected.

When we come to Jesus with the words, “I am sorry,” we do not need to fear the response, because Jesus has already spoken his response to us before we even take the breath in to say our words.  And his word is, “I forgive you.  I love you.”…that is what the Good Friday cross that concludes the 40 days of Lent is all about.

Love and life blossom from the words, “I am sorry.”  They blossom in a deep and abiding relationship with God, a relationship that gives us the courage and power to risk saying, “I am sorry,” to the people around you and me.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace,

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 3-2-15

Bungee Cord 3-2-15

Hello,
I am pretty sure that I got conned last week.  A man showed up to the church last week “hoping that we could help him”.  This happens almost every day, and sometimes many times a day.  Undoubtedly, there are many who ring our doorbell who are truly in need of help, but just as surely my 30+ years of being a pastor has made it clear to me that many, if not most, are not being truthful with their needs.

Some people have dug themselves into very deep holes and living in them has become their lives….addiction, financial sloppiness, obnoxious behavior, criminal history…..others have fallen into very deep holes and for them, too, living in them has become their lives…abuse, mental illness, pink slips, abandonment, health issues.  Some people would say that people such as these are leaches on society as they manipulate the system (and it is true that many do), but when I see these “hole dwellers”, I see people who are sinking in desperation and hopelessness….living their lives doing desperate and hopeless things…like manipulating the system….and conning pastors.

The Bible tells us that Jesus, too, encountered people who were living their lives in deep holes.  Some had fallen into them  (lepers, widows, crippled and demon possessed).  Some had dug themselves into deep holes (adulterers, extortionists, greedy and rebellious).  The interesting and important thing to note that when Jesus dealt with them, it didn’t matter to him how they got into the holes they were in, all that mattered to him was lifting them out of their holes so that they could truly live.

I wish that I were as smart and insightful as Jesus.  For I, too, am motivated by Jesus’ lifting of me out of my hole, to be a lifter of other hole dwellers.  So, when a person comes to the church doors seeking a room for the night in a local hotel, am I lifting them up by putting a roof over their head, or am I helping them dig deeper by enabling their addictions for which they can now use their money?  So, when a person comes to the church door seeking food, am I lifting them up by giving them a generous supply of food, or am I helping them dig deeper in their hole as they go out and sell that food to pay off a bookie or loan shark?

The man who came to our church door last week told a story that I have heard many times before…addiction, trouble with the law, homelessness, trying to get back on his feet, a job that starts in a couple of weeks.  The unusual thing about his story was the degree of sincerity with which he told it….the things that he said that he was doing to try and get himself out of his hole….the connections that he said he had made with others.  In listening to him I decided that I believed that to help him with his request might indeed be placing a rung on a ladder of helping him get out of his hole.  And so I did.

But no sooner than when he left, I found myself second-guessing my actions.  Over the years I have learned that desperate people have honed their skills to get what they need.  They know what to say.  They know how to look.  They know how to cry when they need to.  They know what documentation to have.  And as I looked back with my encounter with this man….I noticed that he had utilized all those “tricks”…or were they in this case “truths”?  I guess that I will never know.

I think I got conned, and if so, I am afraid that I did not help that man, but instead helped him dig deeper his hole.  And if I was conned, I don’t know if he laughed triumphantly about the pastor over whom he just pulled the wool my eyes.  I don’t know if he confirmed his view that pastors are easy targets because they are so naïve.  But I do know this…I listened carefully to his story….I dealt with him as helpfully as I could as he spoke of his trials and addictions….I spoke of God’s forgiveness of him for the pain he said he had brought upon himself and others….I spoke to him of the grace of God that I need as much as he…I tried to treat him with the respect that I would give if he were the President of the United States.
I don’t know if I was conned or not, but I do hope that the honest Christ-like compassion that came from my heart will not be a shovel with which to dig deeper but rung of grace that will lead him to light.

Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace,
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger