The Bungee Cord  1-22-18

Hello,

     This is a common word of “hope” that we hear when things are tough, a word that even sometimes rolls off my lips when I am speaking with folks who are in the midst of troubles and uncertainty.  But when I say these words I know that they only carry moderate and short term hope.  I know this because I know that even the strongest among us will find our strength waning as time progresses and as the weight of the world doesn’t give in.  Actually, when you, like the cat in the poster, are finding yourself hanging on by only a couple of claws, “hang in there” sounds much more like a word of doom than hope.

     “Hang in there!” is not the Christian message.

Jesus Christ hung in there!  That is the Christian message.

The Christian message places no consolation in human strength, rather the Christian message places every hope in the strength of Christ.  Above everything else that Jesus Christ did when he hung in there on the cross was that he engaged every power that would hope to wrest us away from God in a battle to the death….a death from which only he arose.

The Bible tells us that as Jesus Christ hung on the cross, passers-by and soldiers called upon him to come down from the cross and give up the fight.  But Christ did not.  Jesus Christ hung in there.  He hung in there until he could cry with a final and triumphant shout, “It is finished!”  And with his final breath on the cross, so also breathed any voice that would try and separate us from the love of God (Romans 8).  Therein lies the hope that no one wielding human strength and power could give.  Jesus Christ hung in there!

To me, weak human that I am, my hope in life, when things are good and when things are tough, is not in how tightly I hold onto God, but rather how tightly God is holding on to me.  That also, weak human that I am, is my hope on the day that I will be facing death.

So, when I am with folks who are engaged in life, and seek to give them a hope that will last far longer than the strength of their hands, I say, “The Lord be with you.”….not a word of something that I hope will come true, but as a word of something that is true, and I know that it is because “Jesus Christ hung in there!”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace,(ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord  1-15-18

Hello,

     What a difference a day makes in Western Pennsylvania.  Last Friday I was walking around outside in a t-shirt in 60 degree temperature, and then on Saturday I was out shoveling snow, all bundled up, the air plunging to 9 below.  Not alone, were we in Pennsylvania, because I believe that this rollercoaster ride in temperature made its way across the Midwest to the East coast.

     For me, the abrupt change in apparel need is a good reminder that life can likewise take us to unexpected balmy heights and then send us likewise unexpectedly to frigid depths in the blink of an eye.  Life is…not just might be…at times a wild ride, a ride that often creates a difficulty in seeing God’s presence, at least a difficulty for me.

     Some years ago I wrote a song (yes, another song….having tortured you with a couple of videos, this week, I’ll just pass along the lyrics) on the Psalm 139:7-12.

“Sittin’ on a mountain top, just taking in the air.

Everything looks great up here, ain’t got a care.

It’s hard to see you Lord, in all this glare.

But even when I climb the clouds….my God you’re there.

God you’re there…God you’re there.

Even when I climb the clouds, my God you’re there.”

I find it personally true that when life is as good as it gets, the goodness of life is a glow that captures my vision.  I can find myself basking in the wonder of the joy and beauty that sometimes are like mountain peaks, and even better yet are like high mesas.  Sometimes the spotlight of pride and accomplishment beams into my eyes, and it is easy to get lost in myself.  But even then, says the Psalmist, God does not abandon me.  “Even when I climb the clouds, my God you’re there.”  Thank you, God.

“Blinded in a lightless cave, fears everywhere.

Signs say don’t even look, don’t love or care.

It’s hard to see you Lord, in sorrow’s snare.

But even in the valleys, Lord….my God you’re there.

God you’re there….God you’re there.

Even in the valleys, Lord…my God you’re there.” 

I don’t know who said it, but someone named these miserable days…weeks…years…as “the dark night of the soul”.  To me, that is a very accurate name for those times, having found myself flushed, like water in a toilet bowl into them.  Sometimes it has been my hands that have initiated the flush….other times, I have simply gotten caught up in a flush not of my making.  Either way, it is terrible, and when it happens it is really easy to wallow in a pity party…a party that I have discovered no one else wants to come to (and I don’t blame them).  But even then, says the Psalmist, God does not abandon me.  “Even in the valleys, Lord, my God you’re there.”  Thank you, God.

     As the January weather reminds us of the herky-jerky, clicking, hurling, plunging ride that life is…not might be… but is, God says to us in Psalm 139, “I am with you.”

“Oh…oh…what love.

Oh…oh…what love.

Whether high or whether low…..

My God you’re there.”

Thank you, God.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

⁷ Where can I go from your spirit?
   Or where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
   if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
⁹ If I take the wings of the morning
   and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand shall lead me,
   and your right hand shall hold me fast.
¹¹ If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me,
   and the light around me become night’,
¹² even the darkness is not dark to you;
   the night is as bright as the day,
   for darkness is as light to you. (Psalm 139)

The Bungee Cord 1-1-18

Hello,

Happy New Year!

Some years ago, I went to Cameroon to spend four weeks visiting Lutheran congregations in the northern part of the country.  It was a life and faith changing experience.  Our trip began in February, and after a rather harrowing plane ride from the main city to our destination in the north we experienced a life quite removed from what we were used to; a life untouched by electricity, plumbing, paved roads, and the regulation and pressure of time.

“You Americans,” they would say, “have all the watches.  We have all the time.”  Because time had so little power and regiment to their lives, there was something else that we regularly saw and heard that caught me by surprise.

“Happy New Year!” was a regular greeting, and large banners wishing the same were strung in large and small towns….even though by the time that we left nearly two months has passed since the change of the calendar.

Over and over again in this generally timeless world, there was a reminder that the new year had come.  It seemed odd, odd enough to ask why this ongoing reminder….but, the time we spent with our Cameroonian friends passed without me getting a chance to ask.  So, I can only guess…..and here is my guess….the past has a way of clinging on to us…..the good and the bad.   The successes and failures.  The disasters and the gains.  The joys and the sorrows.  Unfortunately, the good always seems to have a rather frail grip, but the bad’s grip is tenacious.  Truth is, the bad of the past has a way of clinging tightly no matter what kind of world one lives in, but for those whose lives are not insulated from the swirling winds of the world, the strength of the clinging power of the past’s bad is very obvious.

So, “Happy New Year!”…everywhere you go, everywhere you look in order to shake off the past as rigorously as possible.  “Happy New Year! No matter what has happened, at least we made it though.” “Happy New Year!  The calendar pages have been ripped off and we’re starting off brand new.”  “Happy New Year!  If life has been hard, who knows, maybe the upcoming year will be different.”  Like one of those machines that shakes a Christmas tree, hoping to knock off all the dead pines before you take it home, so the signs and welcomes of “Happy New Year!” are meant to rattle our lives.

Problem is, the past has the power of Gorilla Glue to hold on.  Debts … grief …. fears … hurts … shame … guilt … despair ………… a power that clings with super human might … a power that the wishes we offer with human hands and words cannot shake loose.  No matter where one lives.  No matter how often we say, “Happy New Year!”

But listen to this!  “SO IF ANYONE IS IN CHRIST, THERE IS A NEW CREATION;  EVERYTHING OLD HAS PASSED AWAY; SEE EVERYTHING IS NEW!” (2 Corinthians 5:17…capitals, bold, and underline intended.)  In Jesus Christ, God has shaken the universe with a power that nothing can withstand…nothing….not even death!   Making every year….every day…every moment brand new.  Even though the world still sees the past clinging onto us after the world shakes us, not so with God.  When God shakes us with his grace, the only thing from the past that God sees holding onto us is his hold of God’s love on us.  And with God’s love being the only thing that clings onto us, we are empowered to live in this world with newfound hope, courage, peace, and joy. “FOR I AM CONVINCED THAT NEITHER DEATH, NOR LIFE, NOR ANGELS, NOR RULERS, NOR THINGS PRESENT, NOR THINGS TO COME, NOR POWERS, NOR HEIGHT, NOR DEPTH, NOR ANYTHING ELSE IN ALL CREATION WILL BE ABLE TO SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD.” (Romans 8:38,39)

So, as you step into this new year, this new month, this new day, this new moment do so with feeling the grip of God on your life and the power of his shaking and amazing grace.

Have a great day.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger