The Bungee Cord 2-17-20

Hello,

People have told me that they do not believe that you have to come to church to be a Christian, and you know what…..I agree with them. I strongly believe that it is not my doings or lack of doing that determines my place in Jesus’ heart. It is Jesus who has gathered me in his outstretched cross-nailed arms, and has stepped out of the Easter tomb to take my hand in newness of life that makes me a Christian. After all, “Christian” means “little Christ”, and so it is as the Bible says “not me who lives, but Christ who lives in me.” (Galatians 2)

So why go to church? Why spend a brief moment of time each week to gather with others who have likewise been claimed by Christ?

People have all sorts of reasons for not doing so, and I believe that some of them are good reasons. Some say that they don’t come to church because they don’t need people judging them and telling them to get their act together. Their act is quite together, they say. Others say that they don’t come to church because they don’t need people to tell them how to live their lives, especially when the people who are instructing them have lives as messed up as theirs. Some say that they don’t come to church because they don’t believe what the church teaches, either they don’t believe it at all or they don’t see the need to be specific in their belief.

If any of these reasons are keeping you or someone you know from coming to church, then I would say that their reasons are good. I say that because as I have come to know Jesus, I don’t believe that Jesus ever intended that people should come together to have their spiritual height measured, as if going to an amusement park and standing by one of those signs to see if you are all enough to ride. Think about Zaccheaus’ spiritual stature, and Jesus went to his house! I don’t believe that Jesus ever intended that people should come together to be treated like cookie dough and have a single shaped cookie cutter be pressed down. Think about the encounters that Jesus had with people who the world had cast out. I don’t believe that Jesus ever intended that people should come together only after they believed enough. Jesus talked about the power of faith the size of a mustard seed could work transformation in people.

So, if the church that you have gone to or have heard about is one that beats a drum of judgment, that imprints every life with one mold, or that is for people who “really” believe (of course, I don’t know when “really” really kicks in)…..than I think your decision to not go to church is perfectly valid. Because those things are not, in my mind, what Jesus intended to have happen when people got together in his name.

I am pretty sure….no confident….that Jesus intended that when people gathered around him they experienced divine forgiveness and mercy. Forgiveness and mercy so mighty that powerful peace would overwhelm them as they lived their lives. Confident that Jesus intended that when people gathered around him they would experience the embrace of God’s love that would shape their lives. Confident that Jesus intended that when people gathered around him that they would experience a lung-full of fresh air, giving them hope and strength for each day of life. 

So, if you happen upon a church that does its best to be what Jesus intended it to be and you don’t want to experience the peace of forgiveness, you don’t want to experience the love of God just the way you are, and you don’t want to breath in some fresh air…..well, if you don’t want any of these things….then I would say to you, don’t come to church.

But if you do want the things that Jesus intended to be the reason for people to get together in his name….. let me invite you to come.

Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord 2-10-20

Hello,

I am doing a Bible Study with my congregation called, “The Backbone of the Bible, 33 stories that hold everything together”. We began with the stories in the first book of the Bible, Genesis, and we have weekly worked our way through the Bible. A month or so ago, we arrived in the New Testament, and yesterday our study was on the story of Jesus turning water into wine.

As the story goes, Jesus was at a wedding where the wine had run out. Bummer! And so, at the encouragement of his mother, Jesus rectifies the problem by using 6 jars whose volume each was 20-30 gallons. He had the servants fill the jars, and then when the servants drew out the contents of the jars, and they took it to the guy running the wedding to taste. When the guy tasted it he said, “‘Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.’ 

You see, the way it worked was that when weddings, which could last a week, took place wine was an essential ingredient as a catalyst to celebrate the joy of the occasion. Everyone, apparently, followed the same pattern of drinking the best wine first when the folks’ taste buds were not dulled, and then once dulled the Boones Farm stuff would come out. It was the fact that the wine that had come from those jars that Jesus had had filled with water was the best wine yet to be served that caught the guy running the wedding off guard.

So, what is the point of this story? Why did the writer of the Gospel of John place it at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry?

Well, it seems to me that he did so to introduce the story of this man, Jesus. And maybe the point of this introduction was this: the “wine” that Jesus gives is far better than anything else, and it is offered in abundance. Undoubtedly, the guy running the wedding had served what he thought was the best wine first, but he discovered that the best that humans could make was nothing compared to that which Jesus could make.

I think that is a very important thing to remember when it comes to Jesus. It isn’t that that which comes from human hands is vinegar. It can be pretty good. Family. Job. Health. Enjoyment. Kindness. Forgiveness. But it just can’t match the love, hope, peace, mercy, and forgiveness that Jesus creates. Love that is unconditional and unending. Hope that comes with the vision from the future. Peace that surpasses all human understanding. Mercy that never tires, and forgiveness that is absolute and complete.

I am not a wine snob. I can’t tell the difference between the taste of a $15.00 bottle of wine and a $50.00 bottle of wine, so I buy the $15.00 wine. But I can tell the difference in taste between a $5.00 bottle of wine and a $15.00 bottle, and that is why I buy the $15.00 wine. If you’ve only had $5.00 a bottle wine (spiritually speaking), let me invite you to taste what Jesus has to offer (spiritually speaking). You, like the guy running the wedding, just might be caught off guard too, and you’ll find yourself thankful for the abundant and free supply of the “wine” Jesus gives to you.

Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord 2-2-20

Hello, 

     Have you ever found yourself in this spot?  Something has happened.  Maybe it happened because of your own doing.  Or maybe it was one of those seemingly random tragedies in life that capriciously has struck you.  And there you are.  Your hopes and your dreams  are lying around you in shambles.  The things that mean the most to you are in complete disarray – your health, your family, your financial stability.  And as you are standing there with the cold winds of fear swirling all around you, someone with all the best intentions in the world, puts their arms around you and they say, “You are going to be ok.”

      Or maybe this instead.  You have worked hard…maybe in school, maybe in your job.  There are people who you can call friends, and you spend a lot of good times together.  You have just had your annual physical and the doctor told you that you are in great health.  You bills are all paid off.  You live in a great house, in a great community, and there’s a brand new car in your garage.  And as you are standing there feeling really good about where you are in life, someone with all the best intentions in the world, puts their arms around you and they say, “You are going to be ok!”

     If you have been in either of these situations, or something akin to them, you know that there is power that comes from the past.  Sometimes that power is as destructive as a car crusher emerging from the past.  The things that we have done…the situations that we have been in…the food that we have eaten…the words that we have said….all those things can have a way of rising up out of our past with the power to crush our lives.

     And likewise, the power of the past can be as fortifying as drilling pylons deep into the ground, giving us a great foundation for our lives.  The things that we have done…the situations that we have been in….the food that we have eaten…the words that we have said….can have a way of having set a solid footing for our lives, a footing with the power to build a wonderful life.

     And when you find yourself engaged with the power of the past – whether for destruction or foundation – and someone comes up to you and says, “You are going to be ok,”  do you ever find yourself wondering, “How do they know that?”  How do they know that the power of the past isn’t going to crush you, too?  How do they know that the power of the past is strong enough for what lies ahead?

     Well, that is where the words from Jesus that were written by Matthew, that we call the Beatitudes, come into play.  Today, Jesus tells us, we who find ourselves in either struggle or ease as we wrestle with the power of the past, he tells that as powerful as the past may be, the past’s power is no match for the power of the future.  He says to us, “If you are mourning, meek or hungering and thirsting for righteousness….or if you are merciful, pure in heart and peacemakers….where ever the power of the past has led you,” Jesus, who stands in the future tells us, because he is already there, what the future holds for us, “you will be comforted, inherit the earth, filled, receive mercy, see God, be called children of God.”  Today, Jesus speaks to us out of the future, a future where Jesus is standing, and with the power of standing in the future, he says to us, “You are going to be ok.”

     You see, your friends and the people that care about you and wrap their arms around you and say, “You are going to be ok,”, they are standing right where you are standing…in the present, contending with the power of the past, and truthfully, because that is where they are standing, they don’t know if you are going to be ok.  They may be positive thinkers.  They may be confident in the foundations that we build.  But from where they stand, they don’t know if you are going to be ok.

     But Jesus knows.  Jesus knows that you are going to be ok because when he ascended into heaven, he broke the bounds of time and space.  As a matter of fact, when Martin Luther was asked, “Where did Jesus go when he ascended into heaven?”, Martin Luther said, “Jesus went into the future.”  Jesus speaks from the future, and with the power that comes from being in the future, Jesus wraps his arms around you today – no matter how deep a hole you find yourself in, or how high a tower you stand upon – no matter how fragile you are from being pummeled by life, or how strong you are from pinning life down – no matter how tired you are from trying to unbury yourself from the landfill of your failures, or how relaxed you are setting upon the mountain of your successes…….Jesus comes to you today, comes to you from the future, throws his arms around you ….and with the power of the future, a power so strong that it brings makarious….that is the Greek word for what is translated “blessed” in the Beatitudes….but maybe a better translation is “complete inner peace” – and he says to you, “You are going to be ok.” 

     Jesus knows of what he speaks!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord 1-27020

Hello,

     As I have written on several occasions, my wife has a hobby of which I have become a participant: raising chickens.  Not necessarily a willing participant, but not opposed to being part of the “fun”.  Over the course of the last several years, her hobby has grown.  We started out as greenhorns in the chicken raising world. Kate built a moveable chicken coop, we ordered a small flock of chickens over the internet, and we were on our way. Since then, Kate’s mastery of chicken raising has grown….feeders, water dispensers, feeding mixtures, variety of chicken breeds, and……..an electric fence.

      Up until the electric fence, the chickens had the roam of our property.  This led to some disasters and inconvenience.  The disaster took its place in the disappearance of several chickens by the jaws of a fox.  The inconvenience being that when the chickens were out of their coop, my dogs had to be inside…..much to their torment and dismay.

     So, we bought a movable electric fence that could be replanted as the coop was moved.  100 feet of it, giving the chickens quite a bit of ground to stroll around in.  But apparently not enough ground, because recently a couple of the chickens have so developed the urge to find new ground to dig in that they have developed the muster to take flight over the fence, even with their wings clipped!

     I was playing fetch with my dog, MacMahon, about a week or so ago on the field below our house, and when he had had enough I said to him, “Ok, let’s go inside.”  Being a little quicker of foot than I, he reached the house before me.  As I neared the house, I was struck with terror.  A chicken was wandering about, outside of its fence!  I was shocked that it was still alive.  Had MacMahon not seen it?  He must have been too focused on getting back inside and it escaped his glance.

     I quickly herded him inside, shut the door, and took off to catch the over-venturous chicken. Believe it or not, chickens can be quite fleet of foot, but fortunately as I neared this chicken it did what scared chickens also do….they kind of spread their wings and cower.  I grabbed, and as I grabbed it I thought to myself with aggravation, “You dumb chicken!”, and I carried it back to the fence over which it had dangerously vaulted, and dropped it in…..not from a potentially harmful height, but because I could not bend over the electric fence far enough to reach the ground….without getting shocked!  “Dumb Chicken!”

     All this has made me thankful for the God that has claimed me as his own, because I, like that chicken have a way of venturing over the fence in which God has set up to keep me safe.  Drawn to what looks like greener grass.  Wanting to spread my wings.  Rebellious to things that fence me in.  And so I jump…jump the fence.  More often than my wife’s chickens, and every time that I jump that fence, I do so foolishly.  Placing myself in dire danger.  Creating havoc in my life and in the lives of those who love me.

     And every time that I take flight over the fence, I soon find God coming to gather me in.  Sometimes I scurry….but God is quicker of speed.  Sometimes I cower.  But either way, when God gathers me up, I don’t hear the words that ran through my mind when I gathered that chicken, “Dumb chicken!”  Instead, I hear, “Beloved, let’s go home.”  And as I feel myself being gently gathered up in God’s arms, I hear, as Jesus says, “more joy in heaven” over the wanderer who has been found.

     So, if you find yourself dangerously wandering in life with bird dogs and foxes hoping to devour you…..fear not….for God is also out to find you.  To find you, gently gather you up, and say to you, “Beloved, let’s go home.”

Have a great week,

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord   1-20-20

Hello,

     The summer after my junior year of high school, I and three of my friends became entrepreneurs and started up a lawn mowing company. WumpKripBergerBuns Precision Lawn Care. We found an old rickety trailer to tote around our family’s lawn boy mowers, had our parents put a hitch on each of our family cars, and we spent the summer roving around our suburban Chicago towns of Hinsdale, Oak Brook, and Clarendon Hills mowing about 50 yards per week. To say that we were highly disciplined workers would be a bit of a stretch.  One of my friends, Bill, was always late, and so if we started by 10:00 in the morning when he was driving we were lucky.  Two of us played baseball, so it was a bit tricky getting all of our lawns mowed in the spring, and often we were mowing until 10:00 at night, in the pitch black, not able to see rocks and stakes that banged up our mower blades  But all in all, it was a great way to spend the summer with my friends, and earn enough spending money to carry me through my senior year.

     That was the middle ‘70’s, and if any of you remember those days, those days were the days of short cut offs, long hair, getting a great tan from never wearing a shirt…….and this is the most important thing, wearing tennis shoes with no socks.  And that is what all four of us did all summer long.  Mowed lawns wearing tennis shoes with no socks.  On hot steamy days with our feet sweating as much as our brows, on damp early morning dew covered lawns, on days when it was raining but the grass was tall…..50 lawns a week…..from spring to fall, each of us wore the same tennis shoes with no socks.  My pair of shoes was a pair of suede converse all-stars that I had worn during the basketball season.  Not canvas, but suede.  They were cool on the court, but I am not sure that cool is the right word as lawn moving shoes, because they were hot.  They amplified the sweat.  They soaked up the dew, and they never did quite completely dry out.  And so…they stunk!  They stunk so badly that my mom demanded that I take them off before I came into the house, and leave them out on the back porch.  They stunk so badly that after a day’s work, the car that we had all been riding in was un-ridable for a couple of hours.  They stunk so badly that I could leave them safely outside overnight, for no critter would ever think about gnawing on them.

     Bout mid-summer, my  mom decreed that I needed to get something to deal with their stink, because it was wafting its way into our house from the back porch.  So, I went to the grocery store and got some Dr. Scholl’s shoe spray.  I liberally sprayed the shoes, and set them out in the sun to dry, but the relief of the smell was only temporary.  The spray didn’t take the smell away, it just tried to overwhelm the stink with a fresher scent.  The stink always won.

     Have you taken a whiff of your life lately?  Although it may not smell as rank as those suede Converse All Stars that I wore when mowing lawns, but I bet it doesn’t smell like roses. Anger at someone that keeps on festering.  Greed that is deeply ground into your heart.  The mess that you have made of your life.  The stench of betrayal that clings so deeply.  The lack of care for those who are suffering.  Take a whiff and see if you don’t smell a bit like fermenting cut grass.  Everyone does.

     And people, since grass has been cut, have tried to deal with the stench of their lives the same way that I tried to deal with the stench of my shoes.  We try and spray them with sweet smelling spray, hoping that the sweet smell will overwhelm the rancid smell, and the spray that we use is a can of Dr. Scholl’s of being good and being right.  It’s not a bad product, this Dr. Scholl’s can of being good and being right.  The help we give to our neighbor….the donations to the food bank….the visit to the hospital of a friend who is sick…the willingness to give the shirt off of our backs.   All good and good smelling.

But when patience gets thin….when money gets short….when fear grabs ahold of your heart…when you’re lost and confused…when your defenses weaken and your hopes diminish….the stench comes back.  We find out that that Dr. Scholl’s spray of being good and being right just covers up the rancid smell.  The smelly stuff is so deeply engrained, so completely absorbed, and so baked into our lives that the sweet smelling spray doesn’t take away the smell.  It just covers it up….for a while.  The stink always wins.

     Now, some 50 years later, I understand that Dr. Scholl’s has a shoe spray and inserts that do more than just try and sweetly cover the stink of smelly shoes up.  Their product is dubbed, “Odor Eaters”.  Supposedly, this new product doesn’t just cover up the stink.  It eats it up.  When the rotting grass and infused sweat start to smell, supposedly this new product….these odor eaters….actually takes the stink out of the air by eating it up. Supposedly these odor eaters have an appetite for stench that is never satisfied, and that which was smelly no longer is.  I don’t know if it would have worked for my Converse All Stars.

     But I do know this, that when it comes to the stench in our lives, God goes one step further than Dr. Scholl’s.  God doesn’t just give us a can of Being Good and Being Right spray. God doesn’t even give us a can or inserts that eat up the smell that the molding grass of our lives is making. God gives us one, the Lamb of God, who takes away…who takes away….the sin of the world.  God doesn’t just deal with the smell….God deals with the cause of the smell…the stuff that is rotten, the stuff that is rancid, the stuff that … well…the stuff that stinks….and he takes it away.  

    When God sent Jesus into this world, Jesus was the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  He takes it away.  Removes it from our lives.  Gathers it upon himself.  On the cross takes it into the incinerator of death.  And turns it into ashes.  Ashes that stink no more.  Ashes that we wear on Ash Wednesday that tell us the powerlessness of our sins.  Ashes made in the sign of a cross that tell us the power of Jesus’ love.  Ashes marked on our foreheads where a cross was made when you and I were Baptized when you were washed in the waters of new life, fresh and clean life.

     Here’s the good news for you and me…and the good news for the world.  When it comes to people with smelly lives….God doesn’t just cover up the smell….God doesn’t just eat up the smell….God gets rid of the stuff that makes the smell.  “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”  

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord 1-13-20

Hello,

     I was driving into work this morning, listening to the Pittsburgh sports talk radio show that is always playing in my car.  Being an aged player of sports….my current playing is pickle ball three or four times a week….I enjoy listening to the banter that goes on in the world of sports.

    Today, the banter was about the Football Hall of Fame inductions, and the radio folks were debating the merit of the inductees. Where they really of Hall of Fame level? How about ….?  And they listed folks who I knew and others I had never heard of.

     Sometimes, it seems to me, the church is seen as a Hall of Fame.  People look in its doors and expect to see folks who are on the top rung of the ladder of goodness and holiness.  They enter its doors hoping to rub elbows with and to be counted amongst those who have their lives together.  They believe that those with whom they are sitting and singing are the kind of people worth being around and to be counted in their number.  

     Evidence of this Hall of Fame image of the church is what people say about the church when they see the arguments that go on among church folks, and they see the lack of goodness and holiness in the lives of church-goers when they are not in church.  “Hypocrites, the church is full of hypocrites,” they say.  Like the sports radio hosts, people spend a lot of time critiquing those who go to church debating the worthiness of their place in the church.  And even more evident of the church being seen as a Hall of Fame is when someone who is part of a church does something truly awful.    When that happens people often judge the church as totally despicable, no longer worthy of attendance, participation, or affiliation.

     Well, fact of the matter is that Jesus never meant the church to be a Hall of Fame.  Just think about the folks that Jesus rubbed elbows with.  They weren’t Hall of Famers…tax collectors, prostitutes, greedy, weak, confused, burdens on society, fishers, and failures.  The truth is that Jesus ran into the most trouble with those who thought that the church should be a Hall of Fame: the Sadducees, the Pharisees, and the scribes.  These groups of people were shocked and astonished that Jesus spent time and ate with sinners.  And when a woman of ill repute came and anointed his feet, they said of him, “If he knew who she was, he wouldn’t let her do that.”  He knew who she was!

     I don’t know how the idea that the church is meant to be a Hall of Fame got started, but it certainly was not started by Jesus.  The church that Jesus started was much more of a hospital for the hurting, a place where broken people found healing, and when healed sent out into the world to be people of healing.  It isn’t always easy to be part of a church.  Ask any hospital worker.  Hospital work and life is often trying and hard.  People tend not to have a great deal of patience when they are really hurting.  People can be a bit self-focused when they are in pain.  People can be a bit hard headed when they are frightened.  As a pastor, I often have to remind myself that when the church is what Jesus meant it to be it is a bunch of sinners in need of forgiveness, not a bunch of angels perfectly playing their harps.

     So, let me invite you to receive Jesus’ invitation to gather with him this Sunday in church.  It is an invitation not to come and gawk at perfect Hall of Fame people, because you won’t find any of that sort there.  It is an invitation to come as you are…tired, broken, bruised, confused…just like the rest of the people who are there, and in the presence of the One who is famous for his dying love experience the healing, wholeness, and hope that only he, Jesus, can give.

     If the church was a Hall of Fame, you would never find me there. But because it is a House of Hope,  I am there every Sunday.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord 1-6-20

Hello,

     Even though most Christmas pageants include the arrival of the Wisemen on the night of Jesus’ birth, the Biblical story does not have them arriving until sometime later.  How much later?  We don’t know, but to mark the span of time to their visit, Christians for centuries have celebrated the Wisemen’s arrival twelve days after Christmas, January 6^th.  There’s a name for this day, which is the day on which I am writing this Bungee Cord, and it is called “Epiphany”.  “Epiphany” means “making known”,  and it is on this day that Jesus is made known as the one whose saving grace extends to all people, because the wisemen were foreigners who were drawn to Jesus’ side.

     Over the course of the centuries, much speculation has been placed upon the Wisemen.  They have been given names.  They have been designated to be different races.  Their travel has been assigned to camels.

     In fact, though, from the Biblical witness we don’t know any of these things.  Truth is, we don’t know much at all about them.  We don’t know exactly where they came from.  We don’t know how many there were.  We don’t know how they travelled.  We don’t know exactly what they did for a living.  We don’t know if they had good reputations or if their past was a bit checkered.

     Other than the three types of gifts that they brought Jesus, the only thing that we really know about the Wisemen is that they were welcome at Jesus’ side.

     To me, that is the most important thing to know about them, because if the Bible does not place any descriptive details upon those first visitor’s to Jesus, then I can be confident that there are no descriptive details placed upon me when I come to Jesus side.  Nothing needed to be there.  Nothing possessed that would keep me away.  All we know about the Wisemen was that they …whoever, or whatever they were….were welcome at Jesus side, and so am I.

     Somehow that message has gotten lost, and people hear of limiting conditions.  If you struggle with believing in Jesus…if you have done something that the world has deemed absolutely shameful…if you are too busy to make time for Jesus in your daily lives…if you haven’t been to church for years, or decades…if you have a lot of money and you spend it all on yourself…if you have a temper that is hard to control…if you tend to gossip…if you are so confused in life about who you are………..on and on the list could go.

     On occasion there has been someone walk into a church that I have been a pastor, and when they walk in, you can feel the astonishment and you can hear the whispering (neither one of which apparently happened when the Wisemen came into Jesus’ presence), “What is he/she doing here?”  And when that person has taken a seat, you can see people making sure that they don’t sit to closely.

     That is not what happened on the first Epiphany.  Those Wisemen….no matter who or whatever they were…..were welcomed at Jesus side.  That is why in every church that I have been in I have worked hard to overcome the limits and conditions that people may place upon those who wish to draw near to Jesus.  After all, Jesus himself, didn’t just wait for outcasts (lepers, prostitutes, taxcollectors) to come to him…..he went to them!

    I know that there are lots of churches who work hard to be Epiphany people, people who place no limits or conditions to be welcome at Jesus’ side.  So, let me offer this Epiphany invitation…..no matter who you are…..no matter what you are….Jesus came to be with  you, and you are welcome at his side!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger