The Bungee Cord.  3-15-21

Hello,

 

NOMATTERWHAT!

 

That is the way with God and God’s love for us.  NOMATTERWHAT!

 

NOMATTER that from the very beginning of creation, humans rebelled against God, tempted and fell to a desire to be like God.

 

NOMATTER that humans messed things up so badly that God so grieved of what had become of the world that God wiped the board nearly clean with a flood.

 

NOMATTER that Abraham and Sarah could not believe the promise of bearing a child at their old age, and the generations that followed that amazing birth were littered with faithless acts by Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph.

 

NOMATTER that when Moses led the people through the wilderness to the promise land, the people constantly complained and even set up idols to worship.

 

NOMATTER that when God sent prophets and kings to lead and guide God’s people, the people didn’t listen and followed their own ways to their peril.

 

NOMATTERWHAT!  God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in him may not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

 

NOMATTERWHAT!  Jesus walked into Jerusalem, knowing that he would face suffering at the hands of those who hated him…. whipped, beaten, spat up, ridiculed, crowned with thorns…. knowing that he would experience the abandonment of all of those who loved him…. knowing that nails and spear would pierce him….and that he would die.

 

NOMATTERWHAT!  Into a lifeless tomb, God breathed life again and trampled death to death as Jesus walked out of the tomb.

 

NOMATTERWHAT!  That is the way it is with God and God’s love for us.

 

So…..

 

NOMATTER what you have done in your life, good or bad

NOMATTER what others think of you

NOMATTER the number of your successes of failure, be they great or small

NOMATTER the amount of faith or disbelief that you hold

NOMATTER how often you pray or how often you go to church

NOMATTER how much or little you give in your offering

NOMATTER how angry you may be with God

NOMATTER how often you have turned your back on God

NOMATTER how many other gods you have clung onto

 

NOMATTERWHAT God loves you with the love of God’s Son, Jesus.

 

That is why on this Easter, this Church is going worship God.  NOMATTERWHAT!  

NOMATTERWHAT…. we’re going to be worshipping outside.

NOMATTERWHAT the weather might be.

NOMATTERWHAT the temperature might be

NOMATTERWHAT the world thinks of us, crazy or foolish

NOMATTERWHAT our inside space might limit us; we’re going outside limitless

 

NOMATTERWHAT we are going to be outside celebrating the unstoppable and unrelenting love of God for us at 10:00 on Easter Sunday morning.  If you’re in the area, come and join us!  If you’re far away find a church at which you can safely worship.

 

On Easter Sunday morning, we are going to be worshipping God NOMATTERWHAT…. because on Easter Sunday morning we discover that we have a God who loves us NOMATTERWHAT!!!

 

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace (ggap),

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

 The Bungee Cord 3-8-21

Hello,

 

There’s a fox around!

 

A couple of days ago as my wife was walking around our property, she saw something move out of the corner of her eye.  With a quick turn of her head, she spotted the sleek, reddish-brown, furry tailed critter.  A fox!

 

In truth, they are rather beautiful animals, but they are not the animal you want to see roaming nearby if you have chickens.  Foxes love chickens…. love to kill them, that is.  We have had our run in with foxes.  Sometimes they have managed to strike one chicken, leaving a flurry of feathers on the ground, and carrying the chicken off to the den of awaiting pups.  Once, however, the fox got to all of our chickens (6) in one killing spree.  Most of the day, the chickens are in a fenced in area that has an electric fence, which the fox avoids.  But in the evening, my wife lets them roam around our yard (our dog, a bird dog, is, of course inside…. much to his dismay).  Their roaming makes them prime targets for any fox….and there is a fox around!

 

Interestingly enough, we find out from Scripture that Jesus, unlike chickens, is not afraid of foxes.  Some people came up to him one day, and told him that he needed to leave because King Herod was out to kill him.  To which Jesus said, ‘Go and tell that fox for me,^* “Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. ³³Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed away from Jerusalem.”

 

Jesus was not afraid of foxes!  As a matter of fact, when he went in to Jerusalem, he knew he was walking right into the fox’s den.  The reason that Jesus didn’t fear foxes is because he was driven by the reckless compassion of God for God’s people.  No fox was going to keep Jesus from saving God’s people, Jesus loved them too much.  Consider what a mother would do if she knew her child was in a burning home?  That is the kind of love that drew Jesus right into the fox’s den.

 

Remember that when you find yourself hunted by a fox …. the pressures of your world, the things that stain and stink up your life, the failures that deflate your soul, the illness that is drooling with hunger …. Remember, that because Jesus loves you more than you can ever imagine, Jesus is not afraid of those foxes.  And those foxes better look out, because Jesus will march with you right into those foxes’ dens!

 

Herod, that fox, caught Jesus, and he thought that he had gotten rid of Jesus when Jesus hung on a cross. But Herod was wrong!  There is another reason that Jesus isn’t afraid of foxes: foxes are no match to Jesus.  Herod pulled out all of the stops.  He crucified Jesus and sealed Jesus in a tomb.  But Jesus, with the power of God almighty, sat up after three days in that tomb, and he walked out of that tomb like a football player busting through a paper banner.  Foxes may be sly and determined, but they are no match to the power and determination of Jesus.

 

So, when a fox is around, listen to Jesus say to you, “Go tell that fox that he’s in trouble, because I, Jesus am here with you, and I am not afraid of a fox!”

 

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

 The Bungee Cord  2-1-21

Hello,

 

The thing that I think I miss the most in these mask wearing days is the smiles.  I miss the smile that awakens on a person’s face when I say, “Good morning,” to them.  I miss the smile that greets me from the cashier at the grocery store.  I miss the smile of engagement while I am talking to someone.  I miss the smile that comes with a good-bye wave, “See you soon.”  I miss the smiles.

 

They are there, at least I think they are, but I can’t see them.  To know, or guess, that they are there does not generate the same level of joy in my spirit as does seeing them.  If you are like me, a smile can the spark from a spark plug to get my weary engine going.  A smile can be the dabble of glue that secures a relationship.  A smile can be the thing that slices through a dark future, knowing that someone is there and truly cares.  To see a smile does powerful things , but  to guess that a smile exists, because of a mask,  is just not as powerful.

 

We Lutheran Christians say that God is one who we encounter wearing masks.  Even though they are certainly true attributes of God, all of the “omni’s” are actually masks that keep us from seeing God.  Omnipotent.  Omnipresent.  Omniscient.  They function as masks because they are things that our human minds cannot perceive.  Think how often you have heard, “If God is all-powerful (omnipotent), why did this tragedy happen?  Or from a young student trying to stump the pastor, “If God can do everything, can God make a rock too heavy for God to lift?”  Or, ”If God really knows everything about me, how could he love me?”  In a real way, these attributes of God hide God from us, like masks, making us hope and guess that there is a smile on God’s face behind them.

 

But just like we, who can hardly wait to get our masks off so that we might breathe easier and experience the depth of our connections to one another, God also takes God’s mask off.  When God sent Jesus into the world, God ripped off his “omni” masks so that we might see what lies behind all those masks.  And what do we discover?  A smile!  Jesus is God’s smile to us!  Jesus is the smile of God’s power that grins with God’s joy in loving us.  Jesus is the smile of God’s presence that is with us in every moment of life, good and bad.  Jesus is the smile of God’s shepherding care, leading us in every step of life, and even leading us out of the grave.

 

It isn’t that God started smiling upon us when Jesus came.  No, it is in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection that we see the smile that has always been there.  In Jesus, God took off God’s mask so that we need guess and wonder if God smiles when God looks upon us.  We know….we know…that God is smiling.  And in knowing that, there is a powerful effect that comes with that knowledge.  A spark to ignite our day.  A drop of super-glue to give us hope.  A high-powered fan to clear up a cloudy future.

 

The time will come when we can all discard our Covid masks and be empowered with our mutual smiles. But take a look at God, that time has already come with him , and that is what Jesus is all about!  Thanks be to God!

 

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

 Bungee Cord  2-22-21

Hello,

Today's Bungee Cord is a video....here's the link: https://www.facebook.com/jerry.nuernberger.3

Have a great week.

God's grace and peace, (gap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

 The Bungee Cord. 2-15-21

Hello,

 

What is so bad about sin?

 

The answer: sin is deadly.

 

Now that may seem a bit extreme, but when you stop and take a good look at sin, it becomes all to obvious that sin is indeed deadly.  Sin, of course, is a technical term used in the Bible, and at its heart, the Bible defines sin as turning in on one’s self.  It is an eyesight problem that keeps one from seeing beyond one’s own nose.  With such myopic sight one can see how deadly it is to speed through live sinfully.  People crashing into each other with fatal force, maiming one another, and deeply bruising those who get in the way.  Colliding with their creator.  Life becoming one cruel accident scene after another.  You see, sin isn’t bad because someone has said it is bad.  Sin is bad because it brings pain, and ultimately death.  Death to people.  Death to relationships between people.  Death to the relationship with God.

 

Some might say that turning in on one’s self is necessary in order to survive, as if life is meant to be one continuous demolition derby.  But God, the creator of life, would have us know that life doesn’t have to be that way.  God would have us know that there is one far stronger, far more powerful, and far wiser who’s entire being is focused on not just our survival, but upon robust living.  That one is God.

 

When God sent his Son into the world, it was as if God was doing LASIK surgery on our severely nearsighted eyes.  God was giving us vision to see that we don’t need to be self-consumed with survival, for the one who breathed life into us has taken that into his hands.  And with such vision, we can make our daily drive able to see the people around us, we are able to see the ditches and cliffs, and we are able to see the finish line and the one who is there cheering us on.

 

There’s not a day, though, where the road doesn’t kick up dust and bugs don’t fly across our paths, filling our eyes with blurring grime and creating irritating pain.  And to plow through life without doing some eye-washing turns us back into reckless drivers again.

 

That is why I am writing about sin today, because this Wednesday is the beginning of Lent.  Lent is forty days that we take to do some intensive care on our eyes.  The quick eye washing that we do every day has a tendency to miss a bunch of the specks that cause us pain.  The relentless disturbance of dust and bugs deepens the scratches and prevents the healing of the wounds.  Lent is a time to restore the corrective laser surgery that God has done on our eyes in Jesus Christ.

 

We take these Lenten days in order that when that which we most need to see is right in front of us, we can see it.  God wants us to see all those things that bring pain and misery to our lives and the lives of those around us breathing their last as he gathered them into himself on the Good Friday cross.   And God wants us to see Jesus leaving all those dead things behind in the grave when he walked out of the Easter tomb.  God wants us to see, see clearly, that God has taken our survival…. our life…into his hands.

 

I, for one, am looking forward to seeing that with crystal clarity, and then living life with resurrection vision, bringing life into the world instead of creating so much pain.

 

Have a great week.

 

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

 The Bungee Cord. 2-8-21

Hello,

 

Several years ago, when I was going to be interviewed to be the newly called pastor of a church, I was driving along, and the thought came into my mind out of nowhere, “Who is my favorite musical artist?”  Well, for me that is an easy answer; James Taylor.  And my favorite song he sings, “Shower The People”.

 

As it so happened when I was being interviewed, I was asked a question that I had never been asked before in such an interview; “Who is your favorite musical artist?”  Coincidence?  I don’t know, but whatever the case, I didn’t stumble a step and said, “James Taylor, and my favorite song is “Shower The People.”

 

I don’t know anything about James Taylor’s religious leanings, and “Shower the People” doesn’t seem to be an overtly Christian song, but as I hear it, it seems to be saturated with what I believe about the God who has revealed God’s self in Jesus Christ.  You see, in a world that wants us to believe that there is a scarcity of love and compassion, God would have us know that that is not so with him.  There is no end to God’s love.  It is never diminished.  It is ever flowing fountain of grace and mercy that not even the universe can contain.

 

It is true that love is risky.  When set your heart upon your sleeve, it can get easily bruised.  I believe that God experiences that every day with me.  God put his heart out in the open when he sent Jesus, and every day I respond in less than love-filled ways to God’s love for me.  But here’s the thing with love; when love is mighty river, love overwhelms risk.  When a child is caught in a burning building, just try and keep a loving parent from dashing into that building out of love for that child.  So it is with God.  In Jesus, we discover that God is unable to hold back his love for us, no matter the risk.

 

But more than risky, love is lifegiving.  It is the thing that puts strength back in your knees when you have messed up and fallen on your face.  It is the thing that opens up the window and fills your lungs with hope when the stuffiness of life is suffocating.  It is the thing that pumps purpose and direction in life when things are confusingly dizzy.  It is the thing that hold you in the palm of a hand when you are so wearied by life that you can no longer hold on.

 

And that is why love overwhelms risk, at least for God.  And as one who has experienced what the risky love has done for me, given me life, I find myself caught up in being likewise risky with love.  Drenched in the shower of God’s love for me, I can’t help but get others wet as my sopping wet life touches theirs.

 

There is no scarcity of love, at least not when it comes to God’s love.  There is no risk that God will not take to love you, and there is no barrier in all the universe that will keep God from loving you.  And there is no valve that the world can close that will keep God’s love from spewing out from you into the world…..and as James Taylor says…”will make things better.”

 

Of course, James Taylor says it better than I do, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfJWqjoekow.

 

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

 The Bungee Cord 2-1-21

Hello,

 

I thought a little bit of humor would help as we slug along through winter and the pandemic.  So, I found this joke on the internet.

 

During an impassioned sermon about death and final judgement, the pastor said forcefully, "Each member of this church is going to die and face judgement." Glancing down at the front pew, he noticed a man with a big smile on his face. The minister repeated his point louder. "Each member of this church is going to die and face judgement!" The man nodded and smiled even more. This really got the preacher wound up. He pounded the pulpit emphatically when he came to the ultimatum: "Each member of this church is going to die and face judgement!!!" Though everyone else in the congregation was looking somber, the man in front continued to smile. Finally, the preacher stepped off the platform, stood in front of the man and shouted, "I said each member of this church is going to die!" The man grinned from ear to ear. After the service was over, the preacher made a beeline for the man. "I don't get it," the preacher said in frustration. "Whenever I said, 'Each member of this church is going to die,' your smile got bigger. Why?" "I'm not a member of this church," the man replied. 

 

Snicker, snicker.

 

All laughing aside, I have never given an “impassioned sermon about death and the final judgement”.  It is not that I do not believe in “death and the final judgement”.  Death is very real, especially now, and every Sunday when I confess my faith in the Apostles’ Creed, I acknowledge that with the end of this life, I will be judged by God.  The reason that I haven’t impassionedly preached on these things is because in my relationship to God, God has impassionedly taken care of both of these things.

 

Death will come, but I do not fear it, because when Jesus stepped out of that Easter tomb, he crushed death under his feet like an ant on the sidewalk.  And my judgement will come, but I do not fear it, because Jesus will say of me, “I died for this one.  His sins claim him no more.  He’s one of ours.”

 

So, every week I hope to preach an impassioned sermon not about death and judgment, but about abundant life (life now and life forever) and God’s gracious mercy (now and forever).  I hope to help people catch a glimpse of the power of God’s love in their lives, a power that like a potter’s hand is shaping their lives to live with Christ-like hope, peace, joy and love.  And I hope, with the forgiving power of Christ’s resurrection, to undo the shackle on their leg that is dragging that ball and chain of sin, failure, tragedy and fear – that ball and chain that the world keeps on fastening back on.  And I hope that when I have done my impassioned best there will be smiles on the faces of all the members of my church that have heard my sermon, and I hope that if that man of the joke was in attendance there would be a smile on his face, too.  For what I have said is true, whether you are a member of my church or not!

 

Have a great week,

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger