The Bungee Cord  12-18-17

Hello,

     Here’s a story that I wrote for the 2000 Christmas Eve worship service.

     Jacob Shepherd hadn’t been to church for years.  It wasn’t always that way, though.  For the first 30 years of his life he was there every Sunday.  As a young child, he learned all the Bible stories and sang in the children’s choir.  In his teens, when many of his friends stopped coming to church, he still went … even without his parents demanding that he go.  He found that going to church gave him strength to meet the challenges of his live, and it gave him courage to face his fears – little fears, like asking a girl to a movie, and big fears like the darkness of death.  When he graduated from high school, lots of people in his congregation thought that the might become a pastor, and he had thought about that, too, but instead he decided he needed a break from school and took a job working in an auto repair shop.  He discovered that he enjoyed working on cars, and so he just settled into that job – still going to church, even though he was now living on his own.  It was a couple of years later that he got married and began a family of two children – and Jacob still went to church, every Sunday, he and his family.

     Even though Jacob enjoyed working at the auto shop, as the years past he began to feel cramped and stymied.  So, at the ripe age of 26, Jacob struck out into an auto repair business of his own.  He knew it was a risk, starting something on his own, especially now that he had more mouths to feed than his own.   But he had brayed about it, and decided that it was a risk worth taking.  So, he rented a building, hung out his shingle and waited for things to happen.  And before long, a lot was happening.  His reputation as a car mechanic had followed him, and soon he was booked for days in advance.  He was a hard worker, putting in lots of hours, but never on Sunday morning, because Sunday morning he was always in church.

     Looking at his life from the outside, you would have thought that all was going great for Jacob.  But inside of Jacob, things were stirring.  The bills always overran the income.  The pressures of the long hours were wearing, and soon Jacob found that he had become a regular in another place, the local bar.  Before he knew it, he was spending more time there then with his family.  He found himself drinking at work, now and then, to handle the pressure.  He also found that the money to pay the bills was being swallowed up in cases of beer.  And then one night when he finally made it home, his wife told him to sit down.  She had had enough of his drinking and absence – it was tearing her apart, and it was tearing the kids apart.

     “This has gone on too long,” she said, “You are not welcome here anymore until you get yourself put back together.”

     Heartbroken, he went to the only place he could think of, his auto repair shop and set up a cot in the office.  And when Sunday came, for the first time in his life, he did not go to church, and he hasn’t been there since.  He had made a mess of his life.  He was ashamed of his life.

     “My life stinks!” he said to himself, and he just couldn’t go and foul the sparkling clean church with the stench of his life.  So, he just stopped going.

     Well, it was the week before Christmas some years later and Jacob was still livng out of his office in his auto-repair shop and the neighborhood bar.  Still not going to church.  He really missed going to church, but he knew that he didn’t belong there anymore.  The mess of his life just stank too badly.  As he put his empty beer glass down on the bar, he decided to go out of his way a bit and walk past the church on the way back to his office/home.  As he neared the church, his stomach started to tighten up with nervousness.  More than once he thought about turning back and just going to his auto repair shop.  His life stuck so badly that he wondered if he should even come close to the church.  I’ll stay on the other side of the street,” he told himself, and he kept on his path to the church…….

To be continued next Monday……

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord  12-11-17

Hello,

     “You better watch out.  You better not cry.  You better not pout.  I’m telling you why.  Santa Claus is coming to town…….”

     According to the Internet, which is always correct, this Christmas song was first written in 1934 by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie, and was first sung on Eddie Cantor’s radio show…anyone remember its debut?  Apparently, it was a hit with over 100,000 orders for sheet music the next day!

     As I was driving around the other day, I heard it come across my speakers as the station that I tend to listen to intersperses Christmas songs between the “oldies” (60’s, 70’s, 80’ and 90’s) that it plays.  It may be that I am growing into a Scrooge, because truthfully, I don’t much care for the vast majority of the Christmas songs that the radio plays.  Many of them, to me, are saccharine and ooze thin sentimentality.  I find myself either switching the station when the Christmas songs come one, or impatiently waiting for the return of an oldie.

     One of my least favorite Christmas songs is the one that I began with.  Why?  Because it, in my mind, isn’t even a Christmas song.  Sure, it has Santa Claus in it, and a Christmas tree around with toys are placed…but the tone…not the tune….but the tone is far from Christmas.  The tone of this song is one of fear and warning, of a demand of being good, even to the point of not pouting or crying.  The tone is of threat and constant surveillance.  The tune may be light and cheery, but the tone is dark and ominous.

     That is not the tone of the story on which Christmas is based, the birth of the Christ.  As the Bible so clearly says in John 3:16,17, “‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”  The tone of Christmas is not judgment and condemnation, it is of absolute love and mercy.  Jesus, so says the Bible, did not come for those who are good.  Jesus came for the world, all of whom the Bible says have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God….the pouters, included.  Christmas is about the grace of God that fills God’s heart and emanates from it.  It is about a God whose love for the world is so great that his attentive care neither allows him to slumbers nor sleeps.  It is about a God who is a potter whose hand is at work to shape even the most hard and stubborn clay.   The tone of Christmas, as the Bible speaks of it, is of wonder and amazement, of hope for all and shunning of none.
     Unfortunately, in my mind, the tone of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” pervades our world as we prepare for Christmas.  Consider what the first question is that the Mall Santa asks every child that is placed upon his lap.  Isn’t it, “Have you been a good boy/girl this year?”
     That, of course is not the words that come from the Heavenly Father’s mouth when his children are placed upon his lap.  No, when any of God’s children find themselves in the lap of the Heavenly Father…no matter what age they are….no matter what time of the year or life it is…no matter whether they have pouted or cried….naughty or nice….when any of God’s children find themselves on the Heavenly Father’s lap, God embraces them with divine warmth and says, “Let me tell you how much I love you.”  That is the tone of Christmas!
     Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace,

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord 12-4-17

Hello,

     As many of you may know, we don’t really know the exact date of Jesus’ birth.  In truth, it appears that until the 4^th century many Christians celebrated it on January 6^th, a date that some Christians of the Eastern Orthodox tradition still hold to.  When you read the Bible, there is no recording of the date of Jesus’ birth, which may seem unusual to you and me, but even today in developing nations many people do not know their birth date or even their age, because dates do not carry the same importance in the lives of those cultures.

     There are a couple of theories as to why Christians have marked December 25^th as the birthday of our Lord.  But how ever December 25^th was selected, to me, it is a great day to celebrate Jesus’ birth, because for those of us, at least in the Northern Hemisphere, the day of Jesus birth takes place on what was thought to be the darkest day of the year.  And so today, as we begin this season of Advent, the four weeks leading up to Christmas, our steps take us down a road of ever increasing darkness, to a day that could not be any darker.

     Ever been on one of those roads? 

·      A road of addiction? 

·      A road of failing health? 

·      A road of memory loss? 

·      A road of a family falling apart?

·      A road of financial loss?  

·      A road of sin and pain? 

We’ve all been on these roads, either personally or walking hand in hand with someone we love.  I don’t know about you, but I find these roads frightening.  The darkness at the end of these roads is so powerful that is seems to have the pull of a black hole drawing me in with fear and unconquerable power.

     When I have been on these dark, dark paths I have had people with good intentions say things to me. 

·      They say, “Just hang in there.”  Sure…as I feel the power of the black hole sapping all of my strength. 

·      Or they say, “It isn’t that bad…others have it worse.”  Sure…as the fear and sorrow have a strangle hold on me. 

·      Or they say, “Well, if you wouldn’t have done this or that you wouldn’t be in the position that you are in.”  Sure….as I am being flogged with vengeful intent by the judgments of others. 

·      Or they say, “Sorry. We can’t do anything more.  Good luck.”  And I watch myself falling further and further away from those who have thrown their hands up in the air. 

These are the sort of things that people have said to me, and I bet also to you, when you and I are on these roads toward the darkest of days.

     But that is not what God says to us when we are on ever darkening paths.  What God says is this, “In those days, after all that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light , and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.  Then…..THEN…they will see the Son of Man coming in  clouds with great power and glory.  The he will send out the angers, and gather his elect from the four winds from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.”  (Mark 13:24)  That is what God says.  God says that when you get to the place that cannot be any darker…God will be there.  God will be there, and God will gather you into his embrace.  No matter where in heaven or earth you might be…north, south, east or west…no matter how deep the hole you find yourself in….whether you tripped and fell, whether you were pushed or shoved, or whether you jumped into that hole on your own…God will find you, and gather you into his embrace.

Today is the first day of advent, the day that the liturgical color changes to blue for the next four weeks.  Blue.  Why blue.  Because blue is the color of hope…the hope that we feel in our hearts when we awaken on a sunny day and the sky is pure blue.  These four weeks ahead of us is the only time of the year that the color blue greets us, surrounds us, and takes us back out into the world…and why?  Well when you and I are on paths over ever increasing darkness, with despair chilling our bones, and the world can only speak words of no hope…we are spoken to by the one whose power and might separated the light from the dark as the book of Genesis tells us, the one whose power no darkness can overcome as the book of John tells us, the one for whom even the darkness is light as the Psalms tell us….that one speaks to us and gives us his word….a word that he enfleshes….and he says, “When you find yourself in the deepest darkness, I will be there, and I will gather you in my embrace.”  And I don’t know about you, but I know for me….that gives me hope. 

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger