Hello,
Yesterday before both of our worship services, I assumed my place
curb-side in front of our church waving at people as they pass in their
cars. It is what I do every Sunday
morning, weather providing. I have
become somewhat of a Greensburg fixture,
to the point that when often when my members tell a friend that they attend
First Lutheran Church, the response they get is, “Oh, you go to the church with
the waving pastor.”
I have been the “waving pastor” at the churches that I have been the
pastor for over 20 years. I have
done it for a couple of reasons.
One reason is that Christians were never meant to be some secret
society, mysteriously meeting behind guarded doors. Jesus took his message of God’s grace and mercy to the
streets, and likewise, I believe, so should we. Just like the football player who lifts weights, we who are
strengthened as we worship in our church, are not meant to stay in the weight
room forever, but to get out on the field and play the game.
The second reason that I wave is because I hope that my wave is received
as a gesture of God’s grace to all who pass by. I don’t know where the people are going to whom I wave. Some are at work as they pass in their
trucks and semi’s. Some are going
to play as they tote their four wheelers in trailers. Some may be going to worship at some other church. But for most of the people who pass me,
I have no idea why they have travelled by 246 S. Main Street in Greensburg on a
Sunday morning. So I wave at them
all, hoping that my brief and somewhat distant attendant care to their life
will be a sign to them that they are somebody’s. I hope that they get a brief notice that they matter….matter
to me….matter to God. In a world
where mattering is as passing as paper plates, and is as hard to reach as the
peak of Everest, I hope that my wave will speak the essence of the faith that
holds me, that whoever you are, without doing anything to earn it, you matter
to God. And so I wave….a gesture
of God’s grace.
Some of my parishoners joke with me asking me, “How many have you
brought in this morning?” They
joke with me because they know that the answer to that question is not the
reason why I am waving away. Fact
is, I don’t know that anyone has stopped by because of my waving. It would be wonderful if they did. But it is no less wonderful that when
the time in life comes whey those “wavee’s” find themselves up against a brick
wall, or watching their lives slip through their fingers, or wandering
aimlessly in a life with thin purpose, or being cast aside by something that
they have done…..when they look in the mirror and see a nobody….they will
remember that someone who didn’t even know them, someone standing out on a
curbside wearing a white robe and a colored stole, someone outside of a church….waved
at them….and with that wave spoke a word of gracious truth…that they are
somebody….somebody worth waving at….somebody worth dying for.
So, although you are not driving past First Lutheran Church today, I
hope that you see me waving at you, waving at you in my weekly Bungee
Cords. These weekly words may not
be deep and profound, but I hope that they always catch your eyes as a gesture
of God’s grace. You, too, are
somebody….somebody worth waving at….somebody worth dying for!
Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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