The Bungee Cord
4-24-17

Hello,

     If you would have walked into church on Easter morning, would have you been surprised to see a casket in the front of the church.  Well, that is what was sitting in the front of First Lutheran when folks arrived, and many found themselves at various stages of surprise.

    The casket was closed, just like the early Easter tomb, and as Mary and Mary who went to that stone closed casket, many of those who took their seats in our church wondered what was to happen.

     The prelude ended, and the silence.

     Not that I am an angel, but I am decked in robes of white on Sunday mornings.  I walked over to the casket and with much less power than that which unrolled the stone away from the Easter tomb, I opened it….to find it empty!  “Christ is risen!”, I shouted.

     “He is risen indeed!”, came the shout from the congregation.

     The organ sprang into action, and the choir processed into the church singing along with the congregation the Good News of Easter joy.  In their hands were large letter balloons, 3 feet in height, which as they placed in the casket as they passed it on their way to the choir loft in the front of the front of the church.  Each letter a little higher than the one it followed, so that when all placed in the casket “ALLELUIA” rose out of what had previously been silent and empty.

     Caskets …. all kinds of caskets …. caskets of guilt, caskets of shame, caskets of failure, caskets of fear, caskets of death… all kinds of caskets seem to have the last word in our lives.  They close with an unshattered silence.

     But not in the church!  In the church there rumbles a sound from the Easter tomb of the past and from the future from the tombs of those whom God will break open with the same divine power….ALLELUIA!  God has the last word in the church!  A word that opens caskets with new life, life that no guilt…no shame…no failure…no fear…not even death can ever hold back.  Life that doesn’t crawl out of the grave….but soars with divine power.  ALLELUIA!

     That first Easter morning was full of surprises.  Maybe you who have read this Bungee Cord, as the people of First Lutheran, got a taste of that Easter surprise…a surprise that comes with the power to give you new life!

Have a great week!

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord 4-10-17

Hello,

     When God sent his Son into the world, God did a very risky thing.  The risk that God took was not the risk that Jesus, his Son, might get hurt.  God knew that would happen.  The risk that God took was not that Jesus, his Son, might be betrayed by his closest friends.   God knew that would happen.  The risk that God took was not that Jesus, his Son, might be tortured, humiliated, and even die a death of unbelievable pain and suffering.  God knew that would happen.  The risk that God took was not the risk that Jesus, his Son, would be swallowed up in death forever.  God knew that he would not.

     The risk that God took when he sent his Son into the world was this: would anyone believe it? 

     Would anyone believe that anyone, let alone God Almighty, would so care about the pain of humankind that he would knowingly sent his Son to get hurt?  Would anyone believe that anyone, let alone God Almighty, would desire the companionship of humans that he would send his Son into a snake-pit of fickle, frail and foolish friends to be betrayed by them?  Would anyone believe that anyone, let alone God Almighty, would value the very perpetrators of that one’s pain and anguish that he would purposefully have his Son bear the brunt of the worst that anyone could do to him?  Would anyone believe that anyone, let alone God Almighty, would so treasure the collection of carbon that humans are that he would raise his Son from death so that we might be his collection forever?  Who would believe any of that?

     I suppose that it would not be so hard to believe if God would have invested something trivial in this risky adventure.  But God did not, God invested everything, God’s very self.  I suppose that it would not be so hard to believe if God would have played his cards differently, investing powerfully with fire and brimstone, or legions of angels.  But God did not, God invested with his heart.  I suppose that it would not be so hard to believe if God would have held something back, so in case it didn’t work, God would have a second chance.  But God did not, God went all in…all in once and for all.

     Although I think it may have been more believable if God had acted in a more believable way, of this I am certain; if God would have done anything less than God did, it would not have done any good.  Anything less, although believable, would only have the power to scratch the surface of our lives, and that is not what God was after.  God was not after trying to polish us up so that the world might shine a bit better.  God was not after tuning us up so that we might better stay in line, obediently running like a fine working machine.  God was not after applause and accolades drawn by God amazing power. 

     What God was after was something far deeper.  God was after people’s hearts, hearts that would beat in rhythm with God’s very own heart…full of hope, full of peace, full of joy, full of compassion.  God gave his heart, in order that God might have yours and mine.

     That is not easily believed.  But isn’t that the way it is with love?   Love is hard to believe.  In order for love to be believed, one must open one’s heart in love to the other…not just once, but over and over again.  There’s an Ole and Lena joke, the ilk of which Scandinavian Lutherans tend to tell, and it goes like this (try to hear it with a thick Norwegian accent):

     Lena came up to Ole one day with big tears in her eyes and she said to Ole, “How come you don’t tell me that you love me?”

     Ole, with Scandinavian perplexity wrinkling his face said, “Well Lena, I told you that I loved you on the day that I got married, and well……..I haven’t changed my mind.”

     God took a big risk when God sent his Son into the world:  would people believe that God would have such love that God would do such a thing?  Well, God is determined that you and I believe it.  God didn’t stop telling us and showing us the risky nature of God’s love….God is doing it over and over again….every Sunday in His Word and at His Table.

     When God sent God’s Son into the world, it was a risk that God was willing…maybe could do no other….than take….because as hard as it is to believe, God wants our hearts now and forever.  Hope you’ll come and experience the embrace of God’s love this Sunday!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord 4-3-17

Hello,

     Over the last two years, I have developed a great admiration for three women.  They are each a “little” older than me.  I see them every week.  They always wear a red shirt and black pants.  I have never talked to them, and I have never heard them speak.  They are the people who keep the small food court clean in our local mall.

     As some of you may know, every Friday I eat my lunch at the food court of the Greensburg Mall.  Although there is about a dozen of food choices, I am in the habit of selecting from only three:  Chinese, Pizza, or Hot Sandwich.  I don’t dine at the food court for its culinary delights, but for the easy access if provides for folks who might want to stop by and chat with me.  I call my Friday lunching experience “Food Court Friday”.  When I started, I was regularly joined at lunch.  Now, not as often.  But my parishoners know that I am there, and I hope that it provides a less formal and less intimidating place to talk to their pastor.

     So, I am in the five-star ambiance of the Food Court every Friday from noon ‘till one, and every Friday I have been in the care of the same three women.  They work quietly and without fanfare.  In fact, one might not even notice that they are there.  But with broom and dustpan in their hands, spray bottle hung on their belts, and a cloth draped from their pockets they prowl the food court for recently used tables, for crumbs fallen to the floor, and for chairs not properly pushed in.  I have never heard them complain, even after arriving at a table slopped by a family of toddlers who have melted their Dairy Queen ice cream cones all over the table and chairs.  Their clothes are ironed.  Their hair carefully placed.  For several weeks, I saw them wielding tooth brushes to clean the crevices created by welds which hold the chair backs together.

     As I have watched them faithfully serve us “foodcourters”, I am reminded of something Mother Teresa said, “In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love."   What Mother Teresa said, these women do (Of course, Mother Teresa also embodied her own words.).

     I find Mother Teresa’s words ringing true in my life.  In the scope of the world’s movers and shakers, the greatest of my deeds is merely a mild tremor.  I am thankful when I can make a difference in just one person’s life.  I am thankful for the chance to be present at a critical point in a person’s life.  I am thankful when I can either literally or figuratively lift a person up and help them get on their feet again.  Small things in the scope of the world, but big things, I hope in the lives of the individuals that cross my path.

     Some years ago when I felt myself treading water in life, I decided to write a personal mission statement.

“Ever changed by Christ’s claiming call, today, I join God in the divine adventure of making all things new.”

     When I think about it, it is really an unbelievable honor and privilege to be part of God’s life-giving endeavor, an endeavor in which he holds nothing back, not even the one in whom God was fully embodied, Jesus.  I don’t think that my life bears worthy credentials.  I don’t think that I am bright enough to see through the foggy complexities of the world.  I don’t think that my heart has the strength to endure the climb of the mountain ranges rising up all around me.  And yet….Jesus has enlisted me to be part of this incredible endeavor of mercy and grace and life.

     “Small deed with great love.”  That is what I seek to do.  That is what people like teachers, and garbage collectors, and mothers or fathers, and mayors, and nurses, and factory workers, and car mechanics, and friends, and CEO’s, and ….. three women who clean up the Greensburg Mall Food Court do.

     Have a great week….being part of God’s divine adventure of making all things new!

God’s grace and peace,

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger