Hello,

     You may recall that my wife and I added an 8 week old puppy to our household just before Christmas, dubbed McMahon.  Being puppiless and kidless for the last 9 years, I had forgotten how much energy young ones have and how much work it is to bring them up.  McMahon’s puppy curiosity keeps him constantly on the prowl to find things that he can get into (and destroy), and his constant desire to play, which includes nibbling with his very sharp little alligator teeth, is exhausting.  When he sleeps, he sleeps.  When he is awake, he is awake!

     Nevertheless, over the course of these three months, I have seen something in McMahon that is a daily reminder of the kind of God that I have.

     I often wake up in the middle of the night, and I have discovered that if I just lay there in bed it often takes quite a while for me to get back to sleep.  On the other hand, if I just get up and lay myself down somewhere else, my return to dreamland is much quicker.  Since our house has bedrooms enough for my three boys, I have numerous slumber selections.

     As it happens, McMahon sleeps the night in his kennel which is located in our entry closet just outside of the bedroom that is supposed to be mine.  Unfortunately, his wake-up time is early, and he lets us know that he is ready to take on the day by heart-rending whimpers and awakening barks.  Being a puppy, we know that we should not tarry in responding to his calls because of his puppy sized bladder and puppy like bladder control.  Since my wife is generally in our bed, unmoved through the night, she is the one who rescues McMahon from his kennel to take him outside.

     However, outside is not where he ventures.  With churning paws sliding across the hardwood floor, he has a prior task in his mind, and that is to find me.  The day cannot start for him unless he has located me and slobbered me with his love.  Whether I am awake or not, when he finds me he jumps on top of me, sticks his cute puppy face in my face and lathers me with licking.  The excitement in finding me is almost uncontrollable for him, and only after finding me is the day ready to begin.  That is my McMahon…..and when I read the Bible, I discover that is my God.

Luke 15:3 “So he told them this parable: ⁴‘Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? ⁵When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. ⁶And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbours, saying to them, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.” ⁷Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.”
     What a way to begin each day, with the reminder from McMahon, that God’s day cannot begin without finding me, either!  You, likewise.
Have a great week!
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord 3-13-17

Hello,

     Maybe one of the reasons why it is hard for some people to believe the Christian message is because it just seems too good to be true.  And you know what they say when someone is trying to offer you a deal, “If it is too good to be true, it probably is.”

     After all, in the expanse of the universe with billions and billions of stars, and planets, and comets, and moons, and black holes, and all the rest, it does seem too good to be true that the one whose power created it all, permeates it all, and holds it all together would care about the microscopic speck that I am.  Further, in the face of my preoccupation with myself, it does seem too good to be true that I should be the apple of the eye of the one of whose wider view I am often getting in the way.  And, against the capricious chaos of nature, it does seem too good to be true that there is one whose grip on me is greater than nature’s power.  And, in the face of graves that house rotting bodies turning and turned to dust, it does seem too good to be true that there is one who so much desires our presence that he will not let death have the final word with us.  There is much about the Christian message that is so, so good that it defies credulity, and when confronted with rational thought seems too good to be true.

     We are not the first to find the Christian message to be so.  Ever since the beginning of Christianity, people have struggled with the ulta-goodness of the Christian message.  All the way back when the Bible was written, the Apostle Paul said this in a letter to the people of Corinth, “For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.”  In the face of that which seems too good to be true, there is only one thing that Christians can say, “Look at the cross and the empty tomb.”
     Jesus death on the cross and his Easter morning resurrection is the crux of the Christian message.  Without the cross and empty tomb, any reasonable person could easily judge the tenets of the Christian faith “too good to be true”.  But because of the cross and empty tomb, the goodness of which we speak clearly articulates truth.  In a much lesser way, when I something that is unbelievably delicious and then I look at the ingredients and calories that indicate that it is good for me to eat, I find myself saying of the taste/health consideration, “This is too good to be true.”…..but it is true!  Despite the taste! 
     During this time of Lent that leads to Easter, for centuries Christians have turned their attention to the cross, contemplated the witness of its place in time and space…a witness paired with the resurrection of Jesus….and have concluded with solid faith, the grace of God that seems too good to be true…..actually is true!
     Have a great week!
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord 3-6-17

Hello,

     Why bother going to church?

     When I speak with people about going to church, I say this, “God is not going to love you any more or any less if you go to church every Sunday or if you never go at all.  He gave his Son to die for you.  How much more could he love you?”

     So, why bother going to church?

     Here’s why: the more time you spend in the barn, the more you smell like the barn.  During my college years I, a Chicago suburbanite, lived fraternally with a lot of guys who grew up on a farm.  Occasionally, I would visit my friends on their turf.  One such weekend I went to stay with a friend who was a dairy farmer.  I discovered that there were two milking times during the day, the first around 6:00 a.m. and the second around 4:00 p.m..  I don’t know what the 6:00 a.m. milking was like, because I was dozing while the cows were donating.  In the afternoon, however, I joined the forces in the milking adventure.

     As you can imagine, when milking cows one gets pretty close to nature, nature that has a unique smell.  Dairy farmers say it is the smell of money.

     As it happened, many of the dairy farmers in that part of Illinois were very faithful Christians, which means that going to church on Sunday morning was a deep-seated discipline of the folks.  So, after the morning milking, we gathered around my friend’s kitchen table, had a hearty breakfast, and then we all loaded up to go to church.  When we walked into the church, I found myself in familiar environs.  In those days, Lutheran churches had a common look and feel, whether rural or suburban or city.

     But as soon as I walked in, I noticed something very different.  The smell.  My suburban nose picked it up right away.  The smell in that church was the same as the smell in the barn.  The people who had come to worship that Sunday, and every Sunday, were people who spent a lot of time in the barn, a smell that their noses had become desensitized to.  It was a smell that had become part of them and was just plain natural to them.

     That is the answer to why bother going to church.  There is a distinctive smell in church; the smell of God’s grace and mercy, a smell of love and forgiveness, a smell of hope and peace, a smell of victory over fear and death.  It is a smell that one might sniff in the world if one carefully inhales, but in the world that smell is simply not pervasive enough to sink into our lives, become part of us, and become plain natural to us.  However, in church the intensity of God’s presence is so profound – in the gathered congregation, in the hearing of the Word, in the participation in Holy Communion – that it permeates everything, including those who gather.

     What does it smell like?  Not like money….but certainly like a treasure.  A treasure, as Jesus says where moth cannot consume and rust cannot decay.  It is a treasure that overwhelms the stench of the world’s despair with a lovely fragrance of the uncompromising and unconditional love of God.  It is a smell that brings people together with thanks and compassion, rather than the smell of the world that keeps people apart, or when they do gather together they wind up holding their noses instead of their hands.  It is smell that brings out life, instead of the world’s smell that leads to death and decay.

     Why bother going to church?  In order to smell like the barn, and carry that smell into the world….a smell that the world needs to breath in.  The more time you spend in the barn….the more you smell like the barn.  So, come and spend an hour in church this Sunday, and every Sunday.  Be part of the smell!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger