The Bungee Cord 5-29-17

Hello,

     In the Lutheran tradition of Christianity infants are baptized so that their entire lives might be shaped by the promises of God.  After being baptized, the pastor draws a cross on the child’s forehead and says, “You have been sealed with the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever.”  Lutheran Christians have varied practices as to when a person receives their first Communion, and at my church the tradition is for that to happen when a child reaches fifth grade.  Until then, when children come to the table with their families, they receive a blessing, and this is the blessing that I give them as I re-mark the cross on their forehead, “In your Baptism our Lord Jesus Christ has claimed you, made you his own, and forgives you all your sins.”

     As I place this blessing upon the children, it is received in various ways.  Some children shyly turn away, others look at me square in the eye, and some receive it with youthful reverence.  Recently as I blessed a child, something new took place: the child started to giggle, and in that giggle I grew in my understanding of the grace of God.

     I was struck with the joy that the grace of God spawns in our lives.

     There are days in my life, and I do not think I am alone, that I face the world as a scrawny, 115 pounds dripping wet, barely able to keep my boxing shorts on in a ring looking at some hulking, muscle popping, towering foe who is laughing as he drools with what he has in mind to do to me.  He is thinking about the right jab of expectations that will knock the wind out of me and bring me to my knees.  He is planning the uppercut of my failures to my jaw that will snap me back against the ropes.  He is looking forward to pummeling me with guilt and shame for the mess that I make in my life.  And he can’t control his laughter as he envisions the round-house of fear that he will land on my temple, knocking me out as he stands over me saying, “You’re nothing!”

     And just when I raise my Erckle-ish arms to cover my face with my boxing gloves, I hear the stomping of feet in the ring, and feel the gentle shove of someone saying to me, “Take a seat.  I’ve got this one!”  And I look up and see one who is bare fisted with nail scars in his hands whose boxing record includes giving death a death blow standing there…and that foe that was laughing in arrogant confidence of crushing me has taken a step back, the fire in his eyes turned to a flickering flame, the puff of his chest deflated in fear, no drool from his now parched lips, and his laughter transformed into a whimper.

     And that is when I begin to giggle…just like that child at the communion rail.  I am struck with the joy that the grace of God spawns in my life.

     So, today as I enter the boxing ring of life, I am reminded by that child’s giggle, that I do so as one who is marked with the cross and with the promise of the one whose fist are scarred with victory, “Go ahead and take a seat.  I’ve got this one!”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord 5-22-17

Hello,

     This past Saturday there was a stretch of motor cycles parked in front of our church, lined up side by side leading people to joke with me on Sunday, “Did our church become a biker bar yesterday?”

     The reason for the array of motor cycles: a wedding.  The couple that I married at our church was part of a motor cycle club, so they planned to ride their cycle to the reception with the rest of the club in tow.  As it turned out the weather cooperated, and when the wedding service was over the groom in his tux and the bride in her gown hopped on their bike and rode off, a “Just Married” sign dangling from the seat.

     Before the service began I was outside talking to one of the groomsmen, a biker, too, and he said to me, “I don’t suppose you have this many bikes parked in front of your church on Sundays.”

     “No,” I said, “but I am glad that they are here today, because maybe people will see that motor cyclists are welcome at our church.”

     “Yeah,” he said, “after all Jesus came for the sick.

     He was right.  Jesus, himself said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick;  I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:31) 

     And yet, he was also wrong, wrong as many have wrongly thought…wrong in thinking that the sickness of which Jesus, the physician, had come to deal with effected only pockets of people….tax collectors, prostitutes, adulterers, and hard living motorcyclists.  Fact is the sickness that Jesus came to address was an epidemic that left no person untouched.  Sure, some people have hidden the pain of this sickness better than others, but sin….and that is the sickness’ name….favors no one.  No one is exempt from the pain that it brings.  No one escapes the loneliness and isolation that it causes.  No one is excluded from the weariness that it brings to our days.  Point is, according to Jesus, no one can look at another and pridefully say , “Boy, is that person sick!”, because we are all deathly sick.

     Somehow, though, that seems to be the message that sneaks out of churches into the world. From the church they in the world hear a diagnoses cast upon them that doesn’t seem to be cast upon those inside, “Boy, is the world sick.”  For many the message that they hear from the church is that the church is a health spa for the holy…..and not a hospital for the hurting.  But this is nothing new.  Jesus faced it.  He didn’t struggle with those who the world had diagnosed as sick.  Jesus struggled with the religious folks who thought themselves not to be sick.

     “Well,” I said to my motorcyclist friend, “We are all sick…motorcyclists no more than anyone else….and since we’re all sick….we’re all welcome at this church….motorcyclists, included.”

     “Oh, yeah,” he remarked back at me with a smile on his face.

     So no matter how you get around in life…in a pick-up…a luxury sedan….a SUV…a Mini Cooper (that’s me)…a minivan…on foot…on a bicycle….or a motorcycle….hope you will get around to coming to church this Sunday, because Christ has come for the sick….and that, as I told my motorcycle friend, is everybody.

     Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord   5-15-17

Hello,

     Life is full of adventures, and I am off on a new one.  I have decided that the time has come for my ministry to end at First Lutheran of Greensburg on June 11th.  I am ending this ministry with no plans on the table.  I am not retiring….not seeking another pastoral call at the moment.  My “plan” is to use the summer months to rejuvenate, and then see what might come my way when the fall arrives.

      I began my life as a pastor in 1983, and it has indeed been an adventure.  It has taken me to such a variety of places and people that has brought a breadth to my life that I count as a great blessing.  I have been with people in the most joyful times of their lives, and in the darkest times.  I have been with people when they have faced struggles not of their own making and tried to help them plod ahead with divine hope.  I have been with people when they have faced confusing decisions and have tried to help them sort through a whole host of options, assuring them that although none of which is perfect, forgiveness will be a rock upon which to stand.  I have been with people when they have made such a mess of their lives that the world discards them like kitchen garbage, but I have come to gather them in the embrace of God.  I have made my home in rural, urban, suburban, and inner city neighborhoods.  All in all, I have come to have a deeper appreciation for the spectrum of life experience and the importance of humbly walking alongside others with the grace of God.

     I know that every vocation carries sacrifices and stress with it, but I believe that pastoral ministry provides unique ones, or at least levels of certain sacrifices and stresses that are unique.  Being a pastor is a bit of a fish-bowl life (to put it mildly), not just for the pastor but for the whole family.   Regularly I find myself paddling upstream in the world, fighting against a current that counts what I do and the message that I bring as somewhere between foolish, irrelevant, and peripheral.  I often find myself in situations where people look to me for answers, but answers are not my companion, Jesus is.  Many times I have been expected to have super-human patience, compassion, and resilience, which, if they have been present in my dealings have been there only because of the Holy Spirit who inhabits my life.

     Likewise, as a pastor, I also experience unique blessings that are rare in this world.  I have experienced the blessing of someone looking me in the eye and saying, “You were there for me when no one else was.”  I experience the blessing of holding an infant in my arms and splashing upon them the promises of God that no matter how arid life is, those promises will never be dried up.  I experience the blessing of placing in a quivering hand the grace of God encased in bread and wine.  I have experienced the blessing of a community of faith that cares for me, even though I am a stranger to them.  I have experienced the blessing of a tearful good-bye from a stoic man and hearing him say two words as he shook my hand, “Thank you.”

     In a world that tends to measure things in categories of success, I have tried to remember that the category by which I am measured is “faithfulness”.  I hope that over these 34 years that God more often than not has said of me, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”  And so, as I “leave what is behind and press on to what is new”, I do so with prayer and hope that faithfulness will accompany me.

     Though much is uncertain, there is one thing that I certainly plan to do: continue writing the Bungee Cord.  I hope that the grace of God has reached you through it, and through it you have felt the embrace of God.  As always, now and in the future…..

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger