Bungee Cord 4-16-13

Hello,

     “How do we live in a world like this?”, was the question that was asked this morning in the wake of the bombing terror in Boston by one of the Mike’s of the Mike and Mike show on ESPN.  “What do we tell our children?”

     His answer was a good one, and it was (paraphrased), “Bad things happen in this world, but there are far more good people than bad, so the likelihood of this happening to you are so low.  So don’t live in fear.”

     Although I echo his response, I would want to add something more, and that is, “We who have just lived through the marking of the death and resurrection of Jesus have seen that this evil, or any evil, will not have the last word.  God will have the last word: a word of love not hate, a word of life not death, a word of hope and not despair.”

     And we who bear the name of Christ incarnate that word.  When evil strikes, the Spirit of God draws us together to stand up and be the living, acting voice of God’s  last word.  That is why when famine strikes, we send food.  That is why when wars displace people, we are there in refugee camps.  That is why when someone is given the worst health news, we join ranks around that person and hold them when their knees are buckling.  That is why we wrap our arms around someone whose life has come crashing down upon them, whether their downfall be of their own making or outside of their own deeds.

     As the Gospel of John says Jesus is “the light that shines in the darkness and the darkness is not able to overcome it.”.  Jesus did not run from the darkness.  He strode into it.  Likewise, the Spirit of God draws those who bear Christ’s name into the darkness of our day.

     When we gather on Sunday morning, we do not gather to escape evil, but gather to be empowered by God to overcome evil: to overcome the evil that ravages our own lives with the power of God’s forgiveness that makes all things new; to overcome the evil in our neighborhoods by welcoming those who have been kicked in the teeth over and over again by the world; to overcome the evil  in the world caused  by judgments that have been driven by easy answers by joining hands and hearts with those who are wandering through the complexity of life; to overcome the evil of terror, even this Bostonian terror, not with vengeance but with justice.

     How do we live in a world like this? What do we tell our children?  What do we tell ourselves?  We can tell them, and tell ourselves, “When Sunday comes, let’s go to church.”  Church where we fill our tanks with the explosive power of God’s love and mercy.  Church where we stand side by side and confess our faith, saying to ourselves and the world, “We are not alone.”  Church where the organ echoes the victory of evil when the Easter tomb’s stone was rolled away.  Church where we hear and become God’s final word to evil, “Death be not proud.”  Church where we go back into the world equipped to join God in facing evil head-on, rather than running in fear from it.

     Mike’s answer that good people outnumber bad people is an answer that we need to hear, but it seems to me that there is more power in God’s answer…an answer that we are part of….”The light (of Christ) shines in the darkness, and the darkness will not overcome it.”

     Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace,

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord 4-9-13

Hello,

     In the vast majority of Christian churches throughout the world, the story of “Doubting Thomas” is read on the first Sunday after Easter.  This story takes place just one week after Jesus rose from the dead and the disciples had gathered behind locked doors.  They weren’t there reveling together over the news that had been told them, that Jesus had risen.  They were hiding, huddled in fear, held in their doubts when suddenly there was another person with them.  A person that they did not immediately recognize.  But when they saw the scars from the nails in his hands and the wound in his side…..then they knew who it was…it was the Lord….it was Jesus.

      So, they went to tell their fellow disciple and friend, Thomas, what had happened to them.  When he heard their story….well….it seemed too good to be true.  And so he told his friends that if he could see the very same things that they saw…. The nail pierced hands and the spear pierced side….he would believe, too.

     And so it was, another week later, that the disciples were gathered again in that closed-door room, and Thomas was with them.  (Had they fallen back into doubt and fear?)  And just as had happened the week before, another person was suddenly among them, who, without even being asked, stretched out his hands and showed his side so that faith would take hold in all of his disciples, including Thomas.  It was the Lord.

     As I said, in the vast majority of churches throughout the world, churches that follow a common set of readings, this is the story that has been selected to be read on the first Sunday after Easter.  I wasn’t at the meeting where the decision was made that this story would be the follow up story to what people had heard just the week before on Easter, but my guess is that it was selected for this reason: the Easter story is hard to believe.

     It was then….and it is now.  To us who see graves stay shut, it seems more reasonable to believe in the crushing power of death.  To us who see the power of might and missiles, it seems more reasonable to believe in amassing our own power and to make “eat, drink and be merry” be the goal of our lives.  To us who see the bird in our hand, and only hear the birds in the bush it seems more reasonable to clutch our hands.  The Easter story of Jesus resurrection was hard to believe, and it still is hard to believe.

     But notice two things from the “doubting Thomas” story:  first,  Jesus is neither surprised or offended by their disbelief; second, Jesus knew what it would take to awaken belief in them so that they might “have life in his name”, and he provided it (his cross wounded body).

     I take great comfort from this story when I find myself mired in doubt and fear (yes……pastors experience these things, too).  I take great comfort that God is not surprised or offended by my lack of belief.   But I take even greater comfort that God is determined not to leave me captured in the pit of my unbelief.  He knows what is needed to break the shackles of doubt….his crossborn wounds….and he gives them to me….every Sunday at the Altar.  “Take and eat.  This is my body.  Take and drink. This is my blood.”  And as he takes his place in the depths of my life, he boots doubt out the door, just as he did with Thomas saying, “Doubt be gone, belief be here.”

     “Belief be here….so that you may have life in my name.”  Life not in the name of fear and despair, but in hope and peace.  Life not in the name of success and failure, but in the name of victory.  Life not in the name of pain and suffering, but in the name of justice and mercy.  Life not in the name of illness and death, but in the name of the one who goes with us through the valley of the shadow of death to waters of life.

     Something…..or maybe better to say that someone….transformed those cowering disciples into courageous comrades ….The Lord.  Me, too, Lord…..please, me, too.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace,

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord 4-1-13

Hello,

     The NCAA basketball tournament isn’t even over yet, and already I’ve lost in our family bracket contest.  I had so few right picks, that from the very beginning of the tournament I have been in last place.  The upsets that I picked proved to be false hopes, and the “sure” winners I picked failed me.  Guess that it is a good thing that I am a pastor and am not trying to make a living by basketball wagers….and a good thing that pride is the only thing at stake with our brackets.

     Part of my problem with picking my NCAA bracket is that I tend to pick with the pulse of my heart, instead of the wisdom of my mind.  So, this year my heart told me that my team, The Fighting Illini of the University of Illinois, would win their second round game against the severe odds that they faced.  The odds were right.  My heart was wrong.  (I perennially make this mistake with the Illini.)  The other problem is that there are certain teams that no matter how good they are touted to be, I just can’t bring myself to pick them….old grudges die slowly….to the despair of my brackets.  You’d think I would learn that picking with my heart isn’t a winning proposition.  Matter of fact, it is a painful one.

     I am not the first one to discover what happens when you pick with your heart.  God discovered it long ago.  Clearly it was not divine wisdom that drew God to take his stand with  us humans, for if God had hoped that picking the likes of us would give him loyal friends, people who would rightly portray his grace and mercy, and children who would always bring honor to his name…..well, it doesn’t take much wisdom to see that picking us is like investing all your money in Enron.  Not very wise.

     Actually, the Bible tells us that God, like me, picks with his heart…..”For God so LOVED the world that he gave his only Son (John 3:16)  And also like me, God found out that picking with one’s heart is not a winning proposition…it’s a painful one….the pain of betrayal that we  shared with Judas on last Thursday (Maundy Thursday)….the pain of nails that we with the soldiers drove through Jesus’ hands and feet….and the pain of grief as God watched his only Son die.  It was heart, not mind, that led God to choose us, root for us, and stand with us.

     But this last Sunday was all about the power of love, of God’s love. When Jesus rose from the grave, God trumped wisdom with love. When Jesus rose from the dead, God crushed under foot all our failures, our fickleness, and our foolishness…crushed them dead.  The power of God’s love – love that accomplishes what it sets itself out to do -  makes God’s choice seem pretty wise, after all. 

     So, I rejoice in Easter, for on the day of Jesus’ resurrection we discover that God really did know what he was doing when he, from his heart, chose the likes of me….and you…because he knew the power of his love that turns the lost into the found, losers into victors, and death into life.  Alleluia!

Have a great week,

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord  3-25-13

Hello,

     If you haven’t been to church for a while, I would like to offer you an apology. 

     The apology that needs to be given to you is this; we have been wrong to speak of you as “C and E” Christians, that is Christmas and Easter Christians.  We have been wrong to diminish the honesty of the intellectual struggle that you might have in aligning the Christian message with realities of life that you see.  We have been wrong to make small the challenges of your world that sets you on a treadmill that just keeps going faster and faster.  We have been wrong not to take blame for making secondary things seem to be the primary thing that we stand for.  We have been wrong for not coming clean on the hurtful things that we have said and did that may have turned you away.  But most of all, we have been wrong to be cynical about your presence among us on Christmas or Easter, rather than to be thankful for it.

     It is important for you to know that not every person who regularly attends worship thinks of you as a “C and E” Christian.  I know that I do not.  When you make the effort to worship among us, that is our chance to impact your life with God’s love that has opened up our lives.  It is our chance to be Christ to you; loving you no matter what others think of you, forgiving you no matter what you have done, and walking with you no matter what life might bring.  Of course we don’t do that perfectly, but when you come and worship with us, I trust that the Holy Spirit’s presence will overcome our faults and shortcomings.

     So, with apology behind, let me say to you as boldly as I can, please accept my invitation to come to worship this Sunday, Easter…..actually, it is not my invitation, it is Jesus’ invitation.  Nothing would delight Jesus any more than for him to see you at his table and to commune with you.  Nothing would delight Jesus any more than to have you spend an hour warming up around the fire of his love as you live in this rather cold and harsh world.  Nothing would delight Jesus any more than to fill your ears with the truth, that you are of such value and worth that he would die for you, in a world that is constantly bombarding you with the lie that places your value on the things you do.  Nothing would delight Jesus any more than for you to bring whatever struggles you face in life, and for him to lead the charge back out into the world like a NFL lineman, blasting a hole of hope through which you can pass.

     No matter how long it has been since you have been in worship, I hope that you will come to church this Sunday, Easter.  Of course, I hope that you will often come back, and I ask you to take my word when I say that my hopes have nothing to do with filling empty pews, reaching a church budget, or personal pride.  I hope that you will worship regularly because there is nothing more that would delight Jesus than to have you in church regularly….to hope you, to peace you, to joy you…..to love you.

     See you Sunday!

Have a great week,

God’s grace and peace,

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord 3-17-13

Hello,

     This Sunday will be Palm Sunday, and as the story of Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem is told, let me call your attention to who I would nominate as Best Supporting Actor: the donkey.

     Palm Sunday marks the beginning of the high point in the year of the Christian faith, Holy Week.  Holy Week begins this Sunday as Jesus rides into Jerusalem well aware of what awaits him, dines with his disciples on Thursday well aware that one will betray him and goes to pray in the garden well aware of the soldiers who will arrest him there, stands in front of Pilate on Friday well aware of the cross that awaits him, and on Sunday strides out of death’s tomb well aware of the change that he has brought to all of creation.  That is Holy Week, and it will begin this Sunday, Palm Sunday.

     Holy Week  begins with Jesus victoriously riding into Jerusalem, not on the mighty steed of a ruthless general, but humbly on the back of a meager donkey: a pack animal, not a war animal; a beast of burden, not a beast; the transporter of the meek, not the proud. He bounced into town on the back of a donkey, instead of charging in on a nostril-flaring stallion.  To proclaim his capture of the hearts of all people, Jesus showed his heart.  He didn’t ride into Jerusalem backed by an intimidating army, he rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey: a shabby, stubborn, slothful donkey.

     In a world where strength and style stride into our lives on muscled steeds with flowing manes bringing us to our knees, remember that Jesus rides into your life on a weak-kneed, scraggly maned donkey.  In a world where those in the saddle leave behind the weak and broken as they strut upon their steeds of success, remember that Jesus rides into your life on a stubborn donkey that doesn’t give up on where it wants to go, among its herd of weak and broken donkeys.  In a world that gallops along at a pace that ultimately leaves everyone behind,  remember that Jesus rides into your life on a donkey that plods at a pace that leaves no one behind, including you.

     It may have been that you have experienced a Christianity that is more akin to a conquering war-horse thundering into your life…beating you down, terrorizing you with fear, demanding that you keep up with it.  Be that the case or not, let me invite you to worship this Sunday, Palm Sunday, and experience something far different.  Come and see that the one named Jesus Christ who rides into your life does it out of stubborn love for you, does it out of uncompromised care for you, does it out of the sharing the weakness of human life.  He does it riding on a donkey: The Best Supporting Actor.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace,

Pastor Jerry Nuernbegers

The Bungee Cord  3-10-13

Hello,

     We had a visitor in church today.  Actually, we regularly, and thankfully, have visitors in our worship services.  Today’s visitor was far more memorable than the usual.

     I was saying “hi” to people and shaking their hands as they sat sparsely in the pews before our 8:15 service when I noticed a man sitting on the far aisle who I didn’t recognize.  The closer I got to him, the more unfamiliar he looked.  He was wearing a worn and dirtied Pittsburgh Steelers jacket, his hair was unkempt, his beard was several days unshaven.  He regularly adjusted his thick black rimmed glasses, and with each adjustment of his glasses he wiped his nose with the back of his hand.  His clothes were worn and they appeared in need of a good wash.  He was a tall man, and he had a sort of confused look in his eyes.

     “Good morning,” I said to him and extended my hand to him in welcome, noticing a small, worn out boom-box placed next to him.   “I don’t think that I recognize you,” I then said, my standard follow up to those whose faces I cannot place.

     He told me his name, and said that he was “new to here”.  “Well,” I said, “I am glad that you came this morning.  Welcome.”

     That was about the extent of my pre-service conversation with him, and as the service progressed, I could see that he was a bit lost in the sometimes confusing order of worship (liturgy) that we Lutherans engage in.  I noticed that he fumbled between the hymnal and the bulletin, looking around every once in a while to see what others were using.  Sometimes he would be sitting when everyone else was standing, but I noticed his mouth moving every once in a while when we were singing a hymn.

     He was sitting toward the rear of the church.  As communion approached, I wondered if he would come forward.  To my dismay, as the ushers made their way to his pew, he did not come to the altar.  Instead, he picked up his things and exited out the rear church doors.  I was disappointed.  Disappointed because I know that Jesus included this visitor in his invitation to his table, and I wondered if I had done something in my pre-service encounter with him to send a contrary message.  Or, did he feel that the invitation to the altar to receive the sacrament did not fall upon him because, in truth, he didn’t really look like the rest of the carefully dressed and clean clothed people…..maybe I should have tried to be clearer in extending the invitation to everyone?  Here, was a person in our midst, who appeared to be one who struggled with life….(don’t we all?)…and instead of coming to receive the very gift of the Lord, himself, our guest…..no, the Lord’s guest exited out the back. I had the distinct feeling of failure….I had failed him….I had failed the Lord.

     Interestingly enough, as the service concluded and I stood at the rear of the church and wished all who passed through my door “a great day”, our visitor walked back into church through the door that he had exited (the door where I was standing).  Caught off guard, I shook his hand coming in, and saying his name, I said, “I thought you had left.”

     “No,” he said, “he just needed a cup of coffee,” which we were serving in our basement. 

     “Oh,” I replied, and as no one else was exiting out my door, I tried to strike up a conversation with him.  “Are you from Greensburg?”

     “No,” he said, and told me a town that I had not heard of before.

     “Don’t know where that’s at,” I said, and then he rattled off a couple of other towns that were close to it, towns I didn’t know of either.

     “Well, I don’t know those towns, but I am glad that you came to worship with us today,”   With a little more small talk, I finished by saying, “Hope you’ll come again.”  And off I went to get together with some of our high school kids between our services.

     I had forgotten about him as we began the second service and made our way through the sermon and the congregational prayers, but as we began to collect the offering, the front door of the church by the choir loft opened, and in walked our visitor, again.  Apparently he had hung up his coat, because this time he was wearing a thin threaded shirt with a sports team’s tee shirt visible underneath.  He walked back to the pew that he had sat in during the first service, and I wondered again, as communion began…..”would he come and receive the sacrament?”

     I said the same preparatory things that I had said the first service, yet this time when the ushers motioned to him to invite him to the table, he got up…..and came!  He knelt beside the others, and as I came up to him, he extended his hands and I said to him as I placed the piece of bread in his hands, “This is the body of Christ, given for you.”  He took it, and he ate it.  When the wine made its way to him, the person giving it said, “This is the blood of Christ, shed for you.”, and pouring it into the small cup that he picked up on the way to the altar, he drank it.

     With communion over, I raised my hands in blessing and said to the congregation, “The body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ strengthen you and keep you in his grace.”  I hope heard me.

     The service ended, and this time he didn’t go out my door, so I assumed that he had returned to the life that had brought him to church, and as I left, I discovered what that life was.  Sitting on the bench, outside our church, there he was….in his Steelers jacket, listening his quite audilbe boom box, enjoying the warmth of the day, with a large, black, plastic garbage bag that appeared to be carrying his earthly belongings stuffed under the bench.

     “Have a great day,” I said to him, “Hope to see you next week.”  I don’t know where his life will take him this week.  I hope he stays safe and receives the care that he needs…..but more than that….I really do hope to see him next week….and everyone else who struggles with life (and who doesn’t?).

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

(sorry for being a bit long winded today!)

Bungee Cord 3-3-13

Hello,

     This morning on the way to church I played Red Rover with a line of crows, and I won!

     I leave my house around 7:00 a.m. to get to church on Sunday mornings. Usually, I travel over the ridge, and since traffic is pretty sparse at that time of day on Sunday, it takes me about 35 minutes to traverse the winding road up and over the mountain.  Today, however, we had about 6 inches of snow on the ridge, so I decided to play it safe and take the main roads to Greensburg, roads that form the two shorter sides of the triangle of roads from my house to the church.  It’s a bit longer, as geometry would tell you, but it’s not as winding and perilous on snowy days.

     Going north on the still unplowed main road, I noticed a small flock of crows floating down from the sky, landing in a perfect line, beak to tail feathers, perpendicular to the traffic flow.  It isn’t an unusual sight to see crows flutter down and land on the road, but usually they land in a glob, encircling a squirrel or raccoon that met its demise.  Yet, for some reason, this morning when they landed they spanned the road in a straight line, as if they were lining up to play a game of Red Rover with me.

     So, answering their daring invitation, “Red Rover, Red Rover. Let Jerry come over,”  I pressed down on my gas pedal and barreled forward behind the wheel of my wife’s Honda CRV.  I was reminded of those grade school days playing Red Rover on the playground and summoning over the biggest kid in our class.  As I approached, I decided that my opposing team wasn’t really a bunch of confident, cackling crows….but a bunch of chickens, because as I neared them they “chickened out” and flew away even before I could try and break through their line.

     Victory was mine!

     As I continued my victorious ride to church, I thought to my self, “You know, crows aren’t the only things that play Red Rover with folks on Sunday mornings.  There’s a bunch of things that line themselves up in an interlocking chain perpendicular to the path to church, There’s a bunch of things that think they can hold us back from hearing the life-changing words from God, speaking the truth that our sins do not have any claim on us, our God continues to stake out his claim on us by the forgiveness that came on the cross.  There’s a bunch of things that think they can hold us back from being part of a community of people who love each other in spite of our unloveliness.  There’s a bunch of things that think they can hold us back from communing with Jesus, himself, as he gives himself to us at the altar.  There’s a bunch of things that think they can hold us back from being gathered up in a peace that surpasses all human understanding, being grasped in a hope from which nothing in life or death can pull us away, from being lifted above the mundane routine of the world to be part of a mission of grace that has changed the universe.

     But this I know; when I make my way to church, I am really in something far more powerful than a Honda CRV….I am carried to church in the invitation of God.  God wants me to come and spend time with him, and he will let nothing stop me.  Now, I know that some may say that the thing that drives me to church every Sunday morning is my job of being a pastor, but I don’t think that is true.  And the reason that I say so is that I see 90+ year old people who walk with trepid step let nothing keep them from coming to church every Sunday…..I see busy families who are tugged in every direction let nothing keep them from coming to church every Sunday….I see people, young and old, whose ears ring with precarious prognoses let nothing keep them from coming to church every Sunday….I see folks whom the world has declared worthless let nothing keep them from coming to church every Sunday.  They don’t face a line of crows.  They face a line of illness, of teasing, of fear, of despair, of doubt, of failure……you name it…..but they, when they see that taunting line, do what I did this morning.  They put their foot on the accelerator and feel the power of the Holy Spirit surge…… and they watch the line that has taunted them fly away like a bunch of crows…..no chickens.

     “Red Rover, Red Rover…..let _________ come over.”

     Challenge accepted.  Here we come!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger