The Bungee Cord  3-28-16

Hello,

     I woke up this morning with the wind rattling my windows, quite a change from the calm, placid Easter Sunday that we had yesterday.  Personally, I always hope for a bright, warm, and calm day for Easter.  When such Easter days happen, I find myself captured in the pure joy of the day; joy in Jesus’ resurrection victory over sin and death.  With the sun beaming bright, the Alleluias of Easter day are captured in a heavenly spotlight that makes them ring with clarion clarity.

     So, when I woke up this morning I was a bit disappointed in seeing the low hanging dark clouds in the sky being swept along by the strong gusting wind.  It kind of took the Easter wind out of my sails.

     But then I got to thinking.  Far from the peaceful, serene and sunny event that Easter has become for most of us, the Bible tells us that the first Easter was a swirling and churning occasion.  An earthquake….a huge boulder was rolled away….guards shook with fear and became like dead men…confusion and chaos with ears being filled with stories that were nearly impossible to believe.  Far from a gentle and soft wind caressing their lives, that first Easter was an explosion that rattled and shook everything.

     And come to think about it, thank God it did.  Thank God that the first Easter was much more akin to a voraciously hungry roaring lion, than a gentle kitten that purrs and wants to be petted.  I say that because I know how tightly my sins cling to me.  I know that the shame and guilt in my heart over the pain that I have caused acts like super glue.  I know that fear has a way of taking hold of my thoughts and plans.  I know that hopelessness can become a cataract that blurs everything I see.  In order for me to live in the victory of Easter, Easter better hit me with a hurricane of God’s grace.

     Today, on the first day after Easter, I find myself having changed my mind about the change of weather that has greeted me.  I find the rattling of my windows, the shaking of my house, and the swiftly moving clouds above me as a welcome reminder of the power of Easter, the power of Easter that sweeps into my life, and yours, that no evil can withstand.  Today, I am thankful that God’s grace is not a stagnant bubble of air that leaves the dust and the dirt of my life to cling on me, but instead it is a gusting gale ripping every parasitic, life sapping thing away from me.

     Oh, don’t get me wrong.  I still look forward to the sun drenched, peaceful days that are also part of life, but thanks to the climactic power of Easter, those days will not be stagnant and oppressive.  Instead they will be full of life…full of hope…full of peace…full of joy….and full of God’s grace!

Have a great (and breezy) day!

God’s grace and peace,

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 3-21-16

Hello,

     I don’t like “C and E” Christians.

     What is a “C and E” Christian?  They are the ones who only show up to worship on Christmas and Easter.  They are the ones who take the seats of the regular worshippers.  They are the ones who expect the same pastoral care, the same treatment for weddings and funerals, the same place in the church’s prayers as all of those who come to church every Sunday and bring their weekly offering envelopes.  They are the ones who, if you ask them, say they are Christians but everyone knows that their words don’t match their Sunday morning priorities.

     I don’t like “C and E” Christians…in fact….I love “C and E” Christians.

     I love “C and E” Christians.  I love them because God loves them, just as God loves me.  I love them because when I look in the mirror the fickleness of my faith sticks out like an ugly scar.  I love them because the place that my faith takes in my life is sometimes hard to find as I confront the temptations of life.  I love them because in spite of the fact that they know that they are the object of some people’s down-looking nose gaze, their faith still brings them to the table of the Lord.  I love them, because at the heart of things, I am one of them….just in other ways.

    So, I am thankful that they take their place in worship on Christmas and Easter.  I am thankful that the Lord has a place for them at his table.  I am thankful that by their presence the saving grace of God has a Spirit empowered chance to heal the hurts that they carry, unlock the guilt that imprisons them, and knock down the walls that separate them from their neighbor.  I am thankful that they have forgiven me for my Pharisaic self-righteousness and for my sinful eyes that stray to take a closer look at their pocket-books than their hearts.

     Sure, I have hopes that I will experience the blessing of their presence at worship more than twice a year…..not because their presence helps us meet our expenses, nor because I can stand in the thin and frail victory of filling a sanctuary when so many are shutting their doors….no, I have hopes that I will see them regularly with me in worship because they are family.  They are my brothers and sisters, beloved by our Heavenly Father, and when they take their seat at the Lord’s table, I am certain that that warms God’s heart, because I know that it warms mine.

    I do not for one second believe that God keeps a Sunday morning attendance chart by which God allocates his love for me (or anyone else), but I hold onto the hope that God’s love for me is so great that he will always welcome me (and everyone else) with uncompromised grace when I step into his house and kneel at his table.  I don’t go to church every Sunday to try and gain God’s favor, I go to church every Sunday so that I might be shaped and molded by the divine love of the one who has claimed me (and everyone else) as his favorite and the apple of his eye.

     I will be in church on Sunday, Easter, and I hope that you will be, too.  I will be there in hopes that God’s grace will change my life and give me life….grace to give me daily hope, heartfelt peace, sight beyond my nose, strength beyond my own, and the urge in my step to answer his invitation to come to his house and table every Sunday.

Have a great Holy Week!

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 3-14-16

Hello,

       Yesterday as I was driving my 25 miles over the ridge to First Lutheran Church of Greensburg, Pa…..I was listening to “Sunday Baroque”, as I always do.  The program was entirely works by Bach, because Sunday was Bach’s birthday.  (Bach, by the way, I found out means “brook”….a tid bit that was part of his birthday celebration).  Bach spent his life writing music, playing music, and directing orchestras and choirs.  A great deal of his music was Christian in content as he was the musical professional at several Lutheran churches.

     I was enjoying the prancing of fingers along keyboards and zipping of bowstrings across violins, when the announcer introduced a new piece.  The piece was a selection from a cantata that he wrote named, “Out of the depths I call to thee” (a verse from the Bible).  Along with naming the selection, the announcer than told us listeners who was singing and playing it: a Japanese Bach Society under the direction of a man named Suzuki.  This should be interesting, I thought to myself, as I began to listen to a orchestra of Japanese people, paired with a choir of Japanese people, conducted by a Japanese man presenting a piece that was written for a German orchestra, to be sung by a German Choir (in German), and conducted by a German man.

     Now, I am not well versed in classical music, so I cannot evaluate the quality of the music I was listening to, but it sure seemed to me to be very well done, and I giggled a bit as I thought of hearing German flowing from the mouths of Japanese folks.

     Some people say that music has the ability to bring people together, as evidenced by the uniting of two very divergent cultures as I listened to “Sunday Baroque”.  It is true, of course, that music can also be a way of dividing people, sharply dividing them …. Punk, country/western, rap, classical….  But at its best, music can span many divides as it provides a means for folks to experience the passions, the culture, and the history of people quite unlike them.

     The other interesting thing that I noted as I listened was the text that was being sung….”Out of the depths I call to thee”.  As I heard it (sung in German), it occurred to me that not only do the notes of music bring people together, so does the text.  Those singers may not have known what those German words meant as they sung them, but I am certain that suffering and pain that they spoke of most likely had come across their lips in their native language, too.

     Religion (although I would rather use the word “faith”) has often been used in a way to divide people, as music has sometimes been used.  However, when religion (faith) plants its roots in the divine response to the pain and suffering that no one escapes, it, too can unite people across deep chasms.  “Out of the depths I call to thee.”  What parent whose child is entrapped with drug addiction hasn’t experienced the angst of the words of Bach’s cantata?  What person enshrouded in endless loneliness hasn’t voiced them, too?

     Rather than get tangled up in right and wrong….heaven and hell…I, as a Christian, would rather speak the divine response to the cry from the depths that I have heard from the Cross of Christ….a response that the Bible says has been spoken to the world….”I do not run from your pain and suffering, I join you in it, and will not let it take you from me.”

     What will come of those words that echo through my mouth and life as they land upon the ears and lives of those who hear them?  I don’t know.   But this I do know; the depth of hope that they bring to my heart compels me to echo them to everyone who experiences the angst that is found in the words, “Out of the depths I call to thee.”  A commonly felt hope just might bring us together.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 3-7-16

Hello,

     Have you ever been asked if you are saved?

     What does that mean?  What does it mean “to be saved?”

      Most often, I believe that the focus of  “being saved” has to do with what happens to you after you die.  So, when someone asks you, “are you saved?”, they could just as well ask, “Are you going to heaven after you die?”

     I don’t know when it happened, but somewhere in the annuls of time Christianity came to be touted as the way to get to heaven.  I know that in the time of Martin Luther (1500’s) that was how Christianity was portrayed.  People were told that one’s life was like a college entrance exam.  Pass it, and you would go to heaven.  Fail, and you would go to hell.  Acting troops made their way among the people with frightening depictions of hell, and then they passed around a bucket in which people could purchase an indulgence to clear the way to heaven for themselves and others.

     But that message was not left in the 1500’s.   I have been told on more than one occasion that people were disappointed with me because I did not preach a “salvation” sermon at funerals that I have led.  Coming out of the perspective that Christianity is the way to get to heaven after you die, people have told me that I have wasted a perfectly great opportunity for people to see the importance of the Christian faith as death stares at them square in the face at the funeral.  “Turn or burn!”

     As you might guess, I do not believe that Christianity was ever meant to become simply a way to get to heaven.  If that were the case, why would God send his Son, Jesus into the world and into the life that we live before we die?  Also, over and over again, the Bible tells us that “the moment of salvation is now”, and when Zaccheaus (the Wee Little Man) experienced the grace of Jesus in his life, Jesus said of Zacchaeus, “Salvation has come.”

      So, as I see it, salvation, in Christian thinking, has a far greater scope than just getting a person to heaven.

     Let me offer a different picture of salvation.  Imagine that you are that kid on the playground that gets picked on by everyone.  Not a day goes by that you aren’t whipped by cruel words, tackled by thugs, and scraped up by scallywags.  And then one day, a new kid comes to school…a kid whose stature makes the most gorilla-like bully seem like a tiny chimpanzee, and on the first day that that new kid is in school and sees you getting picked on comes up to you as you are lying there beaten, bruised and bloodied and says to you, “You won’t have to worry about those bullies anymore.  I will be your friend, and they will have to come through me to get to you!”

     That is the moment of salvation, and that, I believe is the salvation of which Jesus speaks.  To all that bullies us in life (the taunting of our sins, the judgment of others, the pressures of the world, and even the haunting howl of death) Jesus cried from the cross, “You won’t have to worry about those bullies anymore.  I will be your friend, and they will have to come through me to get to you!”

     In the waters of Baptism, the Bible says, Jesus personally spoke those words to me….and I was saved!  Saved, not just to get to heaven, but saved to live each day of my life with the friendship of Jesus abiding with me.  There’s much in life that looms large over me, but I know that nothing will ever be able to crush me, not even death…Jesus won’t let it.  I am saved!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace,

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger