The Bungee Cord  8-3-15

Hello,

I went to the Pittsburgh Steelers’ training camp on Friday.  A friend from Sioux Falls who grew up in this area had come to visit, and just by chance his visit coincided with the Steelers’ training camp that they conduct in Latrobe, a town just over the ridge from me.

It so happened that Friday was a unique day on their training camp schedule as the practice was to take place at night in the local high school stadium.  Usually the practices are held at the local college, St. Vincent’s, and usually they take place in the afternoon….in the blazing sun.  Not knowing how packed the house would be, we arrived shortly after the gates opened at 5:00, found ourselves prime seats where we could lean back against the stadium wall, and enjoy the nice evening weather, the country-rock band and Steeler drum line, and watch the variety of people fill the stands, almost all of them decked out in gold and black.

At about 6:45 a police car blazing its red and blue lights came into view, and behind it a line of busses resembling a circus line of elephants marching with trunks clasping tails.  The first bus was the Mr. Rogers Trolley (Mr. Rogers was born in Latrobe…as was Arnold Palmer…but he doesn’t have a trolley or  bus) and in it rode the coaching staff.  Following it were 6 yellow school busses carrying the players.  The crowd broke into cheers as the players entered the field carrying their shoulder pads through the tunnel of Latrobe High School Cheerleaders dressed in Steeler colors.  True Steeler fans were listing off the players as they watched them walk onto the field, but me….the only Steeler I know by face is Ben Roethlisberger….and apparently for dramatic flair he strode onto the field last.

Practice began with gentle warm ups and stretching, but soon it elevated into some serious hitting and thrashing as the time came to commence the challenge to make the team.  Over the next several weeks the hundred or so guys that were out there would be whittled down to less than 50.  So with lifelong dreams treasured in their hearts, these muscular monsters started to throw their weight around.  Crashing into one another trying to keep from being the one finding himself belly up on the ground.  Coaches yelling.  Shoulder pads crunching.  Muscles being pummeled and bruised.  Its hard work, and only the best will make it….everyone else gets cut.

It seems to me that the Christian life is often portrayed as akin to a football training camp.  Many speak of the Christian life as if it was meant to be years and years of being thrashed around, withstanding the ramrod of temptation, enduring the tirades of God’s anger, and hoping not to be the one found belly up and cut from the team.

I know that a lot of people say that that is what the Christian life is meant to be, but I don’t think so.  Sure the Christian life is full of bangs and bruises, hungry tempters, and the harsh voice of guilt and shame shouting at you from the world when you fail.  But it is not a training camp in which you are working to prove yourself worthy of making the team…why?....Because you are already on the team!  “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called Children of God, and that is what we are.” (1 John 3:1) When Jesus stood toe to toe on the cross in a battle to the death with every evil that might try to claim us for its team, he slammed every one of them to the ground, leaving them breathless and belly up, and he gathered us onto his team….on his team not because of our strength and might to endure a training camp, but because of the strength and might of his love that will not let anything or anyone separate us from him. (Romans 8)

The Christian life, then, is a life that is shaped and molded by the one who has put us on his team.  Sharing with us his love so that we might love likewise.  Nourishing us with his grace so that we might grace-fully stride in the world.  Coming to us when we have been knocked down and picking us up, healing our bruises and saying, “Let’s try that one again.”

The Christian life is not a religious training camp where heaven’s jersey hangs in balance.  No, it is a life of living in the Kingdom of Heaven, clothed and gowned in grace and mercy of God where the game never ends and the victory has already been won.  The Christian life is not a training camp where one fights to get or keep their place on the team…..no, the Christian life is game day every day filled with the hope of the victory that has already been won and the thrill of carrying that victory into the world so the whole world may live in that unshakable hope.

Hut!  Hut! Hike!  That’s the Christian life.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 7-27-15

Hello,

     A couple of weeks ago I was out in front of the church, as I usually am on Sunday mornings, waving at people as they passed by in their cars, trucks, and motorcycles.  Occasionally, people walk by to whom I also pass along a grace-full greeting.  Some of them stop and chat a bit, and others speed by without a word in return.  So it was on this particular Sunday morning that a woman came strolling along the sidewalk, a black woman, maybe in her 30’s.  I said to her, “Good morning.  Are you out for a stroll or have you come to worship with us today?”

     “No,” she said, and with that one word I could tell that she was not from western Pennsylvania.  Her accent was the one that I heard when I was in Africa.  “No,” she said, “I am going to the Presbyterian church.”  (It is across the street.)

    “Oh,” I said, “Well, God be with you, and have a great day.”

     “You know,” she replied, “I am not from around here.  I am from Cameroon.”

     “Really,” I said back with familiar delight, “I was in Cameroon for 4 weeks some years ago.”  And we immediately bonded over the stories of the places that I had been.  She had been in the states to spend some time with her nieces and then take them back to Cameroon.

     And then she laughed….laughed that African laugh…and said, “I’ve got to tell you something.  Yesterday, I was at the park listening to the concert there, and there were some people from a church evangelizing.  They came up to me and asked me if I was a Christian, and I said yes.  Then they asked me if I went to church, and I said,”Yes ,the Presbyterian Church on Main Street.”

     “Oh, you go to the stone church across the street from the church with the waving Pastor?” they said to her, and when she told me of their description of me, she gave another good African laugh.

     “The Church with the Waving Pastor.”  I guess that my waving has become more widely known than I had thought, so widely known that our church has become so dubbed.  People may not know where First Lutheran Church is, but apparently they know where the “Church With The Waving Pastor” is.

     I am not too sure that “Lutheran” means a lot to the average Greensburgite”, but it appears that waving does.  I hope that my waving means to them that they are the objects of God’s love and mercy no matter where their life is taking them on any given Sunday morning.  I hope that it means that there is a sense of peace and hope that goes with them as they go on their way.  I hope that it means that God is glad to meet them where they are at.  I hope that those who receive my wave see it as more than just a friendly greeting, but that they see it as a small gesture of God’s grace to them.

    That is what I believe the Christian message is essentially all about: God’s grace to the world, each and every person in the world.  So, I’ll take it.  I’ll take the description by which our church is apparently being come to known as, “The Church With The Waving Pastor”, for I hope that when they experience the harshness of life, the crumbling of their world, the perplexity of right-less answers, the pressure of complicated questions…that they will know where they can go to be swaddled and grasped in the Grace of God……..at the “Church With The Waving Pastor,’

     Have a great week…waving!

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 7-21-15

Hello,

     Sorry that I am a couple days late with the Bungee Cord.  I got back Sunday night from a trip with the youth from our church to the National Youth Gathering of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America which was held in Detroit.  It was an amazing 5 days….not much sleep (4 our so hours a night) …. but full of inspiration, motivation, making of friends, and caring for the people of Detroit.

     30,000 Lutheran High Schoolers descended on Detroit, and when that many young Christians come together some incredible things happen. The energy in worship is incredible.  The enthusiasm for diversity is incredible.  The gathering power of God that fills an arena is incredible.  And the desire to make a difference with the grace of God is incredible.

    One of the days was dedicated to proclaiming justice throughout the city of Detroit, a justice that is found in care and compassion for all people.  So the 30,000 youth were divided into three groups of 10,000 youth wearing bright orange shirts and the plan was to send 10,000 Christian youth into the city over the course of three days to make a dent of God’s grace and mercy in this city that many have written off and consider lost.

     That was the plan.  Unfortunately, things didn’t work out as smoothly as had hoped.  Our group was part of the first 10,000 and we arrived downtown Detroit to catch our bus at 8:15.  Well, we were stuck on the highway in rush hour traffic into Detroit at 8:15, and we didn’t arrive until almost 9:00.  We weren’t the only ones who got snagged in traffic….it seems that the busses that were to take us to our sites also got trapped in the traffic, and like dominos falling one upon the other, the problems began to compound upon each other, making us and nearly 5000 other people wait in Hart Plaza all morning long, finally catching our bus at 12:30.  A second launch was to happen at 10:15, and unfortunately the ongoing delay made it impossible for many groups to go out and do their service project in Detroit.

    Even though our departure was severely delayed, we finally arrived in one of Detroit’s neighborhoods to clean up a couple of blocks that had been neglected.  Our target was an old abandoned appliance store, overgrown with weeds and brush.  On our way there it was quite a sight to see orange shirted teenagers swarming around like ants doing the simple but important work of making neighborhoods dignified places to live.  Many of the residents came out of their houses, spoke to us and thanked us for giving our time and effort to make their neighborhoods better.  Their thanks made us feel good.

     Some, however, heard no words of thanks because they were stuck at Hart Plaza all day and never left.  As crazy as it may seem, I believe that those who wound up doing nothing learned far more than the rest who did something.  The reason that I say that is that they learned with frustrating clarity that Christian service is not done in order to get something out of it, it is done because the love of Christ who has taken hold of our hearts drives us to do something.

     Sometimes….or maybe even often times….walls are thrown up and our good intentions are thwarted, we give of ourselves and no one bothers to thank us, or we work really hard and nothing seems to be changed.  But when these things happen, Christians don’t give up….because Christ doesn’t give up.  When you think about it frustration, exasperation, and lack of appreciation didn’t slow Jesus down, because Jesus didn’t do what he did to feel good.  What Jesus did he did out of love, and he let nothing deter him from doing what needed to be done for those he loved….not even the cross.

     In Detroit I learned many things, but this I learned well: when you serve Christ and hit a home run it sure feels good, but when you serve Christ and you strike out (for whatever reason), when it comes time to step up to the plate again, you do so and give it your best…because the love of Christ, not the thrill of victory, shouts to the world, “Play ball!”….and that is what we did.

     Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 7-13-15

Hello,

“OUT TO LUNCH”.  

This was the sign hanging from the glass window at the entrance that greeted me when I arrived at church at 7:00 Sunday morning.  I snickered a bit when I saw it, thinking it a humorous greeting for the hour that I stood in front of it.

Then I thought about it, and I wondered how many people walking up to our door would see it, no matter what hour it hung, and would say, “That’s right….Out to Lunch.”

Ask around and I suspect that you’ll find more than one person who would quite assuredly tell you that we Christians have a shortage of at least a marble or two….you know….out to lunch.

Out to lunch to think that forgiveness beats vengeance.  Out to lunch to think that someone whose life has been spilled out in disgrace on the front page of the paper deserves a front row seat in church.  Out to lunch to think that there’s more joy in lifting people out of the gutter than personally climbing a ladder to the top.  Out to lunch to stand in the shadow of all the huge problems that our world faces and confidently put on rickety old armor and say charge.  Out to lunch to stare into a coffin filled hole and say, “Alleluia”.

Although many may consider the likes of me who bear the name Christian to be out to lunch, I find myself believing, saying and doing the things I do for what I think is  quite a reasonable reason: I have been to supper.  Been to supper where I have received the tangible forgiving touch of Jesus, instead of the well deserved squashing fist of God.  Been to supper where even though shame clings to me from the pig sty of my life, I have found a seat reserved there for me.  Been to supper having graciously been lifted out of my sewage filled gutter to have the holy presence of Jesus placed in my hands.  Been to supper to have Jesus take hold of me with a hug from the inside out, a hug that nothing has the power to break its hold.  Been to supper where I get a taste of what it will be like to be eternally engulfed in the presence of God.

If you wonder about me…the things that I say, the things that I do, and the things that I believe….it is because I have been to supper….a supper to which Jesus also invites you.  It may be that to dine in this supper turns a diner  into someone who appears to be out to lunch in the world’s eyes, after all those who saw things through worldly eyes thought that Jesus was out to lunch.  But those who dined, and who dine with him, would tell you that with him there is a peace that surpasses all human understanding, with him there is joy that the world cannot give, there is a hope that nothing in all creation can take away, and there is a love that the world does not know.  Out to lunch?  Or been to supper?

Come to think of it, maybe the sign that would most rightly be posted on our entrance door at 7:00 on any given Sunday morning to greet people is,

 “SUPPER SERVED HERE. IMMEDIATE SEATING AVAILABLE!”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Bungee Cord 7-6-15

Hello,

     My smart (?) phone tells me that over the last several months I have played 2310 games of Solitaire on it, and of that number I have won 192.  8% winning rate.

     Solitaire, as I have written before, is my game of choice to occupy my time when I am sitting around.  It suits me well as it requires limited brain usage and next to no dexterity.  By the number of games that I have played, you can see that fill my time often with Solitaire.  Some have been very short, not even been able to move one card.  Others have been tantalizingly long, just a couple of cards left to be played but no way to play them.  For a while, there, I was at a 9% winning percentage, but recently I have been on a losing streak and I’ve slipped back to 8%.

     I am convinced that with some games of Solitaire…if not most…the deal of the cards sets up an unwinnable game.  I suppose that there is some skill to playing Solitaire….remembering what cards are in the pile and placing them for optimal flexibility.  But by in large, the length of the game and the final outcome of the game lie in the cards.

     I Googled, “What is the average winning percentage in Solitaire?”  I couldn’t find any scientific study, but there were comments from people, and most of them professed an average well above mine….20%, 30%, all the way up to 90%...but as I read their comments further, it seems that all of them reached their average through what I would call “cheating”….using the “undo” button to attain their win.

     I often hear people talk about the American Dream, “If you are willing to work hard, you can be or have anything that you want.”  As I have worked as a pastor with scores and scores of people over the years, I find myself saying that the “American Dream” is appropriately titled.  It is a dream.  Like playing a game of Solitaire, some hard work and skill can be of help, but in the end victory’s reach ultimately lies in the cards and how they are dealt.  So much so that if 8% or 9% of Americans can say that they attained the American Dream, I would be surprised.

     To say that ultimately victory lies in the cards is no new insight, but it is an insight that leaves many frustrated, angry and cynical……often with God.

     I am not one who believes that God stacks the deck and deals out trouble to some and victory to others.  I don’t believe that God is the one who deals a genius child into one family and a severely challenged one into another.  I don’t believe that God sets one person up for alcoholism and sobriety for another.  I don’t believe that God is the one that deals a arduous life for one and a smooth sail for another.  I don’t believe that God deals a winning hand for some and a losing hand for another.

     Why do I not believe these things?  Because I have seen the cards God has dealt.  True, He has stacked the deck, but In Jesus he has stacked the deck in order that all people would have a winning hand.  The world might play favorites as it deals out cards, but not God.  “For God so loved the WORLD that he gave his only Son.” (John 3:16)…” ⁸But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)….”My grace is sufficient for you.” (2 Cor. 12:9)….”See what love the Father has given us that we should be called children of God.  And that is what we are.” (1 John 3:1)

     Over and over again in the Bible God admits that he’s a crooked dealer, always stacking the deck …..but stacking it so that every one would have an unbeatable hand, a winning hand, a hand that no matter how you play it it is a victorious hand…..a hand unlike the American Dream….is real, and not a dream.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord 6-30-15

Hello,

     A couple of weeks ago I was in Chicago for my daughter-in-law’s graduation.  We flew into O’Hare Airport and caught the Blue Line train into the city.  When we got off the train and walked up the stairs, I look around and I felt right at home.  Unbeknownst to me, the train dropped us off at the corner of Madison and Dearborn, the corner that used to house First Federal Savings and Loan, the place that I worked for 5 summers and several Christmas’ during my college years.

     Much had changed.  The old brick building that I had worked in had been replaced by a shiny metal and glass one.  Dearborn street  now has a bike path marked on it, and the building that was being constructed on the corner of Dearborn and Monroe was completed (a long time ago, I am sure).    But the First National Bank building stood sloped and tall, and it’s courtyard housing the Marc Chagal mosaic had not changed one bit (except it now bore the name Chase).  The Shubert Theater, also renamed, stood exactly as it had before, and the Italian Village Restaurant still had the same façade and inside.  Even though much had changed, that which hadn’t gave me enough landmarks to help me know exactly where I had wound up, and even feel like I was back at home.

     I suspect that some of you reading this Bungee Cord have found yourselves in worship nearly every Sunday for all of your lives, and the place that you are worshipping now brings a warmth to your life and faith like only home can.  If you have been a longtime congregant, you have seen some things change: pastors, people, colors, music, formalities…..and although you remember how things used to be, having lived through the transitions for you it is not the old things that make you feel at home, but it is the new things that fit you so well that carries the warmth of home.

    Others of you, I suspect, have not found yourself regularly in worship over the years.  For those of you who find yourself thus, I would venture to guess that the thought of going to worship does not harmonize with going home.  It may have been that when you have gone to worship, things are so different now that it feels like an alien world.  But let me invite you to look around that worship experience with “Chicago eyes” and see if there are not still some things that are still there that you might savor and make you feel at home.  A hymn?  A face or two?  Holy Communion?   Baptism?  Bible readings?  Gathering of prayers?  Amid all that has changed, maybe there are still landmarks to gather in that pull you back to home.

     Of course, some of the changes may resonate very well with where you are at in life and fit better than the way things used to be.  Maybe you remember when doubts and questions were not very welcome….well in the church that I serve they are welcomed with open arms.  Maybe you remember that it seemed like following rules was the central focus of the Christian faith….well in the church that I serve being shaped by the grace of God is primary.  Maybe you remember the feeling that the institution of the church with its budgets and buildings seemed to be at the heart of things…well in the church that I serve I strive to make the transformational abiding presence of Christ the heart of our existence.  Maybe you remember a sense that the church felt more like a club that had its eyes only on itself….well in the church that I serve I do my best ( as most pastors do, I think) to keep our eyes also upon the world and serve the world with the heart of Christ.

     And, I suspect that some of you who are reading the Bungee Cord have never gone to a Christian worship service, and the thought of doing so is not a journey home but a venture on a unchartered trip.  Certainly that is true….but maybe….just maybe you will surprisingly find that although you may have never been there before, the love of Christ that you experience there just might make you feel like you have finally found your home.

     In the Bible there is a story about two sons, often called the story of the Prodigal Son.  One son leaves home and comes back…the other stays and never leaves….but to both sons the father’s feelings are the same when he says to them both (paraphrased), “It is great to have you home.”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord  6-22-15

Hello,

     This past Sunday in worship we had a Slam Dunk Contest….not really, but really.

     In the worship service every week, we collect an offering….not to pay our bills, but to offer an expression of thanks and trust to God who has been bountiful in goodness to us.    It is thankfulness that gathers us, thankfulness that motivates us, and thankfulness that sustains us.  If thankfulness is not the driving force for our offerings….that is to say that if we are not able to derive thanks to God for the astounding grace that he has give us, the grace shown in the death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus, then  clearly we have missed the point of why we gather, of what motivates us, and our purpose for keeping on.

     Given the “pay for fees” environment in which we live, thankful giving is a hard thing to learn, practice and teach.  That is why we start very young.  While the offering plates wind their way through the congregation, we invite the children to get up out of their seats and come to the altar area and place their offering in the “Thank You Jesus” jar.  To watch the children stroll up the aisle with delight in their step, and sometimes run, is a witness to all of us adults who do not always exhibit such delight and joy in giving an offering.

     This past Sunday I experienced such a witness coming from a child of less than two years old.  I saw him stroll tentatively up the aisle hand in hand with his grandmother.  They walked together until they reached the stairs where she let go of his hand and let him climb the three stairs and walk the handful of steps to the altar area where the “Thank You Jesus” jar was placed.  The steps he took by himself were slow and measured, often looking back at his grandmother to make sure that he was doing what he was supposed to do, and when he reached the “Thank You Jesus” jar, he looked back at his grandmother who motioned him to drop his offering in.  Giving him a nod, he stretched out his diminutive arm over the large jar and from his hand slipped a one dollar bill.  The bill hit the rim of the jar, but like a free throw dancing on the rim, it fell in.  Surprising to me, there still remained one more dollar bill in his hand.  How it didn’t’ slip out with the first, I don’t know…and I think that he didn’t know either.  So, he took a look at that stubborn dollar still attached to his tiny hand and with all the force that he could muster he flung it into the “Thank You Jesus” jar.  Slam Dunk!  A dunk that outmatched any dunk of Michael Jordan, the king of dunk.  A 10+.  And just like a basketball player celebrating having put down a dunk against a towering foe, a big smile came across his face as he turned around and he dashed to his grandmother, his short, stubbing legs churning in delight.

     I learned something from watching that little child.  I learned that giving my offering was something to celebrate.  True, I don’t think that that child’s actions were a result of being thankful to God for all of God’s goodness, but maybe it was his innocent and naïve understanding of what he was doing that had the power to break through my adult hesitancies and misgivings.  I know that for myself, my offering has a tendency to cling to my hand – stuck on my worries and fears, my greed and pride, my cynicism and faithlessness – much like that first dollar that found its way into the “Thank You Jesus” jar as it slipped from that child’s hand and rim-shot its way in.  But when I saw that child slam dunk that second dollar into the “Thank You Jesus” jar, I saw in his dunk a defiance against everything that makes us worry and fear, that turns us into hoarders of God’s goodness, and that makes us people who live with “grab-itude” instead of gratitude.  “In your eye!” (That’s basketball jargon for “Take that!”), I heard him say with his dunk, even though he isn’t able yet to verbalize much.

     We do have so much for which to be thankful to God…every breath, every moment, every thing, and especially every bit of divine mercy and grace.  Sometimes I forget that, and because of my forgetfulness I usually place my offering in the offering plate with a soft drop.  But maybe this week I will remember….remember the over abundant grace of God, and when the offering plate comes by I will slam dunk my offering in it, defiantly saying to everything that tries to pull me down, “In your eye!”…and with celebration and delight saying, “Thank You Jesus!”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger