The Bungee Cord   5-28-19

Hello,

    Today, I have decided to do two dangerous things as I write this Bungee Cord.  First, I am going to write about something that happened decades ago.  Second, I am going to write about something involving sports.  So, if you weren’t around in the 80’s, and if you could care less about baseball…..well, I hope you hang in there with me.  

     Bill Buckner died today.  Bill Buckner played baseball for the Cubs when I was younger.  I remember him well.  His thick moustache, his wobbly ankles that could barely carry him to first base, and his amazing ability to hit a baseball.  For us Cub fans, Bill Buckner was a ray of sunshine in a century of cloudy to partly cloudy skies.

     Thing is, though, that most people do not remember Bill Buckner for these things.  He is most remembered (I am remember it, too, because I watched it happen) for a ground ball that went through his legs during a World Series game played in the 80’s, a game that Boston wound up losing….and eventually losing the World Series.  I remember it as if it were yesterday.  It was a soft ground ball that a fledgling Little Leaguer could have fielded with ease, and just as all the Boston fans who were watching breathed a sigh of relief for the impending out, a gasp went through the stadium and every living room as the ball trickled through Bill Buckner’s legs. And that error that happened several decades ago is the thing that Bill Buckner seems to be remembered for by most people.  I was listening to a sports radio station on the way to my weekly Pastor’s Bible study, and the announcer made note of this when he said that in every Obituary that he read, the second sentence was “former Boston Red Sox player who made a critical error in a 80’s World Series game.

     The announcer said that it was a shame that Bill Buckner’s remembrance was spotlighted on this one error, but, he said, that is the way Sports is.  Despite the courage, grit, and talent that Bill Buckner evidenced for all of his years of baseball, when his name is brought up, the first thing that people tend to say, “Oh, yeah.  I remember the ball going through his legs.”  But, agreeing with the announcer, that is the way Sports is.

     But I don’t think that Sports is the only thing to work this way, I think that life works this way, too.  Life has a way of putting a spotlight on our errors….our blunders….our failures, and it keeps the spotlight on those things through our whole life, and even when the life is gone.  The good, the grit, the courage, the talent is often recalled, but the errors and blunders are always remembered.  That is the way it is with life.

     Thank God, though, that that is not the way it is with God. The Bible tells us that God, when God thinks of us, does not focus on what we have done, instead God focuses on what God has done.  As far as the east is from the west, so are our sins in God’s eyes.  God remembers them no more, says the Bible.  Likewise the good and great things that we might want recalled at our funerals, the Apostle Paul says they are really to be considered refuse (that is a polite translation of the Greek word).  When God thinks of us, God thinks of what God has done. God sent his Son to die for each one. Each day of our lives, be it a good day or a terrible one, God looks upon each of us and says, “My Son, Jesus, died for that one.”  And on the day of each of our deaths, God will say, “My Son, Jesus, died for this one so that not even death can take this one from me.”

     Thankful that God looks upon me this way, I pray that God would give me eyes to look upon others in the same way.  The world has a way of constantly reminding me of what people have done as I look upon them.  Thank God, that God is constantly reminding me of what God has done as I look upon others…..even Bill Buckner.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord   5-20-19

Hello,

     “Have you been watching any of the PGA tournament?”, I asked a fellow pickle ball player as we were waiting our turn to return to the court.

     “Nope,” he said.  “Don’t watch any golf.  Play a little.  But don’t watch it?  How about you?”

     “Well, as far as golf goes, I watch better than I play.” We chuckled together.

     I know that many people find watching golf as exciting as watching grass grow, but I find a quiet intrigue in watching golfers hit shots that I only dream of hitting, handing the pressure of making a putt that means hundreds of thousands of dollars, and on occasion duffing a shot as badly as I do with much more regularity.  

     One of the things that amazes me when I watch golf is what happens when one of the golfers hits a ball into the crowd.  Often times the people stand there as if wack-a-moles, unaware of the projectile that has been launched their way.  It  is amazing to me that direct hits on the fly seem to be rare exceptions.  Hit or miss, when the ball comes to a rest, the crowd flocks around it forcing the security people to create a tunnel so the golfer can reach the ball.  And here’s the thing that I find most intriguing, the people actually want to be in the first row of that tunnel as the golfer prepares to hit the ball.

     I know that I would not be in the front line.  You wouldn’t have to ask me to move to the back of the crowd.  I would already be there.  The thought of standing just yards away from a hard little ball that is going to be struck with muscle-car torque is not on my list of things that seems at all wise to do. But people do it.  All the time.  It doesn’t seem to matter to them if the ball is sitting in a precarious hitting position or not.  People scramble to be in the front line, and they don’t seem to be very willing to move the line back to make the tunnel wider.

     “Ah, but the pro’s never mis-hit.”  It is true that I have never seen a person standing in the front line of a human tunnel get hit by a pro’s mis-hit ball (although I did see such a thing happen when Charles Barkley teed off, one time).  Even so, I see that person wielding a club possessing a characteristic that draws my fear.  That person is human….just like me….and humans are never perfect.  Sure, by the amount of practice and skill that a pro possesses, I would far more trust the likelihood of a pro’s accurate hit, than someone like me.  Relative trust….not ultimate trust….do I give humans.  Golfers or otherwise.

     That is where the mystery of the incarnation comes into play for me.  One of the main tenets of the Christian faith is that Jesus, although fully human, was also fully divine.  Over the centuries people have tried to make reason of this dual nature of Jesus, but when people have done that their conclusions fall short of the Biblical witness….a witness that tells me that because Jesus was fully human, I know that he understands and cares for the frustrations and pain of human life…..and a witness that tells me that because he was divine, I can trust him fully to do something about it.

     Humans can do amazing things….doctors, plumbers, government leaders, teachers, parents, friends….and I find myself putting a lot of trust in what humans can do.  But even in the best of situations, my trust is not ultimate, but relative.  My ultimate trust, I place in the one who wonderfully and mysteriously knows what the holes are like that I hit myself into and with the power of God himself, never mis-hits.

     Fore!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord 5-13-19

Hello,

     I live out in the country and so I get a lot of country sights….deer, groundhogs, turkeys, vultures, hawks, crows, and colorful song birds.  But this past Friday, I saw a country sight that I have never seen before.

     My son, who was visiting from NYC, and I were sitting on my back patio, and as we were talking above us we spotted a large bird being chased by a couple of smaller birds.  I had seen sights like this multiple times before, and so I assumed it was a vulture or hawk that had stirred the ire of these two followers. But my son said, “Hey, that’s a bald eagle.”  And sure enough, as I looked more carefully it was clear to see the white head and white tailfeathers.  I was unaware that bald eagles lived in our area of the country, but with my own eyes I can say that they obviously do.  It was a wonderful and exciting sight to see.

     Thing is, if my son had not been with me, I would not have noticed the white heat and white tailfeathers.  As I said, I just assumed it was a sight that I had seen multiple times before.  Thus proving a point that has been made many times before, sometimes it takes another set of eyes for us to see the things around us.

     So common are the hawks, crows, and vultures that hover around our lives, that when something flies into our lives, we (at least I know that I) tend to assume the usual…another hawk, crow, or vulture. When someone speaks kindly, we wonder what they might want from us.  When someone does something nice for us, we wonder what they expect in return.  When someone is critical of us, we  wonder what might come next. Not all the time, but certainly some of the time.  I don’t think that I am alone.  If there’s an adjective that seems to apply more and more to the world that we live in, it is “skeptical”.  Truthfully, it would be naïve to not look at things with a somewhat skeptical eye, but it seems to me that the world we live in puts glasses of skepticism on us so that skepticism is all we can see.

     That is why, I think, God’s grace is so hard to see.  It is hard to see, in Jesus, one who comes into our lives with unconditional love because our eyes are skeptically spectacled. When Jesus says, “I love you. Period.”, we start look for a conditional comma.   When Jesus says, “There is no sin beyond my forgiveness,” we see the things in us that we can’t forgive and start looking for the fine print in Jesus’ words.  When Jesus says, “I will never give up on you, as a matter of fact I would leave 99 sheep to search for you until I find you,” we say, “What kind of fool would do that?”  Don’t I have to do something do receive Jesus’ love  - believe enough, do enough, be sorry enough, try enough? Skeptical spectacles make grace hard to see.

    That is why we need another set of eyes, unskeptically spectacled.   Someone who notices grace when they see it.  I am thankful to a couple of specific professors in seminary who detected pure grace in Jesus’ words and deeds, and pointed it out to me.  And I hope that I can do the same for others in this grace skeptical world.  Every time I step into the pulpit, I hope that I can help people see God’s grace in Jesus.  Every time that I send out a Bungee Cord, I hope that it helps you detect God’s grace in Jesus.

     Jesus died and rose for you to enfold you in the eternal embrace of God.  Grace. No conditions.  No “if only”. No “except for”.  I know that that is hard to believe, but thanks to my son’s set of eyes, I not only believe, but I know that bald eagles live near me.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord 5-6-19

“Take me out to the ball game Take me out with the crowd Buy me some peanuts and crackerjacks I don't care if I never get back Let me root, root, root For the home team If they don't win it's a shame Aahh. For it's one, Two, Three strikes you're out At the old ball game”

     No it’s not.  Well, maybe it is when it comes to baseball.  But it is not when it comes to Jesus.  When it comes to Jesus, it is not three strikes and you’re out, we see that this morning in our Gospel lesson.  (John 21:1-19)

     It was no accident that Jesus gathered his disciples, especially Peter, around a charcoal fire that day after he rose from the dead.  Remember back when Jesus had gathered the disciples for their last meal together, and Jesus said that one of them was going to betray him.  And when Jesus said that, Peter, full of self-confidence and devotion for Jesus said, that even if all the rest would betray him, he, Peter would not.   And when Peter said that, Jesus said to Peter…”yes…yes, you will….before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.”  So that very night, when Jesus was arrested, when he went before Herod and Pilate, when he was scourged, spit upon, mocked and given a crown of thorns…three times, Peter found himself near a charcoal fire, and when Peter was confronted, three times Peter said with much conviction as he could muster, “I don’t even know the man.”  Three times around a charcoal fire that he denied him saying, “I don’t even know the man.”

     Not exactly a home run that Peter hit.  Actually, he struck out.  Big time. When the game was on the line. When the one who Peter had believed was the long promised Messiah…the one who God had promised to send to rescue his people and bring them back to him…when everything was at stake….Peter denied Jesus three times.  He struck out.

     So, it was clearly no accident that Jesus walked over to Peter that day on the seashore as they all stood around that charcoal fire.  And it was no accident that Jesus asked Peter three times, “Do you love me?”  And it is no surprise that Peter felt hurt when Jesus asked him three times, “Do you love me?”  After all, when Peter had to choose between his love for Jesus and saving his own skin….he chose saving his own skin….three times.  “Peter, do you love me?”  It was a question to which Peter knew the answer….well, not as much as thought I did. “I guess, Jesus, I struck out.”

     But notice what Jesus said to this strike-out king…to his clean up hitter who whiffed when the bases were loaded…he did not say, “Go find a place on the bench and sit there.  He didn’t say, “I am tired of looking at you.  Go hit the showers, go home, and don’t come back.”  He didn’t say, “You ruined it for us.  We’re trading you away…after all, you’re pretty good at doing the enemy’s work.”  He didn’t say, “You had your chance, and you blew it…three times and you’re out.  And don’t let the door hit you when you leave.”

     No, he didn’t say any of those things….things that we hear from others when we strike out on them.  What Jesus said was, “Follow me.”  You see, with Jesus, it is not three strikes and you’re out, its “follow me.”  Its pick your head up.  Its shake the dirt off of your shoes.  Grab your bat.  Step back up to that plate, and try again..  Follow me.”

     I don’t know what went through Peter’s mind  when he heard Jesus’ reply to Peter’s game ending whiff, but I know what would have gone through my mind.   I would have been thinking, “But Jesus, I just struck out.  I just let you down when you needed me the most.  I blew it for you and us.  What if I strike out again?”

     And what would Jesus reply to those fears and shame.  This is his reply to Peter and to you and me.  “Listen Peter, we’re already won this one.  When I walked out of that Easter tomb, I hit it out of the park…a home run….a walk off grand slam.  We won….and now….well, we’re just running up the score.  Every hit that we get and every run that we score….well, its just one more time that we get to rub the devil’s nose in it…to humiliate his defeat more and more….to turn up the agony of defeat that he feels.  It doesn’t matter how many times you strike out. I already won the game.  So, follow me…..follow me to the plate, and lets have some fun running up the score!”

Take me out to the ball game Take me out with the crowd Buy me some peanuts and crackerjacks I don't care if I never get back Let me root, root, root For the home team If they don't win it's a shame Aahh. For it's one, Two, Three strikes you're out At the old ball game.

No…no, it’s not.  Not with Jesus.  Amen.

The Bungee Cord   4-29-19

Hello,

     Back some time ago when I was the pastor of a church in a small town with a major two-lane highway going through it, on which the church stood, I took to the streets before the service to wave at those who were driving by.  Why? Well, in this time and age when people are not flocking to churches to experience the grace of God, we, the people of God, need to get out of our churches and bring the grace of God to the people.  (That is not to say that going to each church is unnecessary, for if we are to be people of God’s grace in the world, we need to regularly refill our tanks so that we have the spiritual energy to accomplish our goal.)

     Anyway, ever since then, when the weather permits, I have been taking my place outside the church before worship and waving at people, a wave that is meant to carry a gesture of God’s grace.  It is my hope that when people see my wave, though the world may have them spinning in life on an ever-whirling hamster wheel, that they see that God’s love for them is spinning with them.  It is my hope that when people see my wave, though a person might feel like an invisible nobody in a world that tells you that you have to be somebody to be cared about, that they are noticed by one, the Lord, who would give his life for them.  It is my hope that when people see my wave, though the world might shun them for the mess that they have made of their lives, that there is one is never ashamed to call them “friend”.  I hope that my street waving just might make a dent of God’s grace in the lives of those who drive by….a dent that I hope will grow.

     I am now the interim pastor of a church in Ligonier, Pa., a medium sized town settled in the rolling hills.  The church sits on the main street, and so there is always some traffic going to and fro.  Last Sunday, Easter, was warm enough for me to venture out to the street and do some resurrection waving.  As is always the case, some people waved back, some people gave me a gentle honk in return, some people were so consumed with their driving that they didn’t see my wave (I think that some people just acted that way because they didn’t know quite how to respond to some white-robed guy waving at them on the street), and some people actually did roll down their windows and return a greeting of God’s grace.

     One who drove by on Easter Sunday morning was a panel van that was the travelling workshop of a lock-smith.  I don’t remember the name that was written across it’s sides, but I snickered a bit when I saw the characature of one applying his unlocking trade.  It was an old van that had obviously made many an emergency call to open a locked door.  As it drove by at 7:30 on that Sunday morning, I gave a wave to the guy who behind the wheel.  He didn’t wave back, but I could see his face through the windshield.  He was wearing an old weathered baseball cap, the hair that came from under the hat was disheveled and frayed, his shirt was a well-worn sweatshirt, and a slight scowl was on his face.  I imagined when I saw him that he wasn’t very thrilled about this early morning trek to rescue someone from the foolishness of their ways.

     I couldn’t help but recognize the parallel to the one who early in the morning on this very day many years ago had rolled the stone way and unlocked a three-day-death-sealed grave.  Although I wasn’t there to see the face of that divine locksmith, I doubt that there was even a hint of a scowl on his face.  Instead, I bet that there was a snicker of delight as he pushed that boulder away as if it were a mere pebble, and a burst of laughter when out of that tomb walked the one who was crushing death under his feet.  It occurred to me as I waved at that Easter morning locksmith, that on Easter morning (and every Sunday) we celebrate the work of a locksmith that has come to rescue us from the locks that entomb us from the foolishness of our ways….locks of our deeds, and even the lock of death.

     The job that that panel-vanned locksmith had been called to was apparently not too difficult, because within 10 minutes he passed me again, going the opposite way.  I waved at him again.  He still had a grumpy look on his face, and he still did not wave back.  But I hope that my wave might have jiggled the tumblers of his life and the lives of all who caught my wave, and that they might hear the snicker of delight coming from the divine locksmith for whom even the toughest of locks is no contest to his unlocking love.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord  4-22-19

Hello,

    Since last week I posted my Good Friday message, I figured that I should post my Easter message this week.  After all, can’t leave you hanging on Good Friday…..when Easter has come!

                                                                                    Luke 24:1-12

                                                                                    Easter 2019

I can imagine this happening.  I can imagine a bunch of exhausted, out of breath women bursting into a secluded room, and saying, “You won’t believe what we just saw.  Notre Dame is burning down.”

And everyone in the room responds with the same words, “O come on.  You’re kidding.  You know this isn’t something to joke about.”

“No, really.  Notre Dame is burning down.  We saw it with our own eyes.”

Finally, someone brave enough to be made the fool to believe such a unbelievable story says, “Ok, you guys wait here.  I’ll go see what’s going on.”  And so he goes outside, hops in a cab, makes his way to the island in the middle of Paris where they had seen Notre Dame standing, and when the cab turned the final corner, he saw the flames shooting from the roof.  His heart sank at what he saw, and he told the cabbie in despair, “Take me home.”

Of course, I wasn’t there, and neither were you, but I bet that when Peter went home after witnessing with his own eyes what some exhausted out of breath women had told him...that when they got to Jesus’ tomb, the stone had been rolled away, and that it was empty, when suddenly two glistening men…must have been angels….said to us, “Why are you looking for the living among the dead.  Jesus is not here.  He is risen.  And when he saw himself that empty tomb and the graveclothes lying by themselves….I bet he didn’t say, “Take me home.” (Despairingly)  I bet he said, had there been a cabbie to say it to, “Take me home!” (Enthusiastically)

As I watched the news reports of the burning of Notre Dame, over and over again the commentators were saying how tragic this burning was…

·      .it was the burning of a place where thousands and thousands of people had come for strength and peace,

·      it was the burning of a place that was the emblem of the finest artwork and architecture in history, 

·      it was a place that had been an anchor through wars, and revolts, and disasters…

·      it was the burning of one of the most valuable things humans have ever made..

·      .and there it was engulfed in ravenous flames.  

I have been to Notre Dame, and I agree with all those commentators.  It is an amazing work of human talent and skill.  My heart sank as I saw it burning.  Sure, they say it will be rebuilt…maybe even rebuilt to its old glory…but even when it is rebuilt it, as we have seen with our own eyes, like all things human made, it will still stand dangerously on a cliff of potential destruction and ruin.

But here’s the thing about what those Easter women and Peter witnessed on that first Easter day, and that is the things that God makes and that God values..his finest handiwork …they do not stand on a cliff of destruction and ruin. God will not let that happen.  

 What could be finer divine handiwork than Jesus. Compared to the artistry and wonderment of Jesus, the Son of God, Notre Dame doesn’t even compare.  And although humans, who had seen their finest handiwork destroyed by flame and fire,  thought they could destroy and ruin this one who embodied divine beauty by hanging him on a cross and sealing him in a tomb, they found out otherwise.  God isn’t about to let the finest of his handiwork be destroyed and ruined.  

Though people hung Jesus on a cross, though people stabbed him with a spear in the side, though people saw him breath his last and hang his head in death, though people laid him in a rock hewn tomb, though people sealed that tomb with a huge bolder, God did not hang his head in despair…no, God rolled away that stone….God opened that tomb….God breathed life into that lifeless and decaying body…and Jesus walked out of that tomb…not just fixed and repaired….but with life so strong and mighty that not even death could take it away.

And this is God’s promise to us on this Easter morning; that which God has done for his Son, Jesus, he will also do for all his sons and daughters, for you and for me upon whom God has staked his claim and name, who God says are the apple of his eye, the pride of his handiwork. 

·      So, though your life may be wrought with struggles and pain, 

·      though the world may throw embers of guilt and shame  upon you, 

·      and though death will one day take hold of you with a smothering grip … 

God is not about to watch you go up in smoke.  When you are brought to your knees, when your lungs fill no more with air, when the cover of the casket slams down with the super seal of death….God will do for you and me what he did for Jesus…he will pry open that tomb as if it were a paper bag, he will gather the dust of your life and breath new life into it, he will stand you up on legs that will never lose their strength again, and he will ignite a beat in your heart that beats with eternity.  

That first Easter was God’s megaphonic pronouncement into all time and space: God is not about to let his handiwork go up in smoke.  And today that decree echoes again in this place.  When it comes to that what God values and treasures the most, his sons and daughter, you and I,  God he will use everything in his power, and that is certainly power enough, to  preserve it forever.  And when that happens, when that day comes, you and I will say to God in a tone quite the opposite from that Paris cab rider watching Notre Dame go up in flames, we will say, “Take me home!” (Exuberantly!!!!!)

Christ is Risen.  Alleluia.

He is risen indeed.  Alleluia.

AMEN

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord 4-15-19

Hello,

     This week is Holy Week, the week that God changed everything. Sin no more sting.  Death no more power.  That makes Easter a grand day of celebration like none other, but to get to Easter we need to go through Good Friday, the day of Jesus crucifixion. For this week’s Bungee Cord I am printing my sermon for this year’s Good Friday Worship Service.

Luke 23:35-43

Good Friday 2019

     “What’s the problem?  Don’t you like pie?”

     That was the response by one of my seminary professors to the grilling of a bunch of other professors at a seminary that he was visiting to deliver a presentation.

     “So much of what you write,” they said, “speaks of the culmination of God’s grace in heaven, about until God gathers us in heaven we cannot expect  things to go very well.  You seem to be resigned to the pain that is part of this life, and you keep on turning our eyes to the peace and joy that awaits us in heaven.  You talk a lot about the wonder that lies ahead in the sweet by and by.  What you seem to offer is a lot of pie in the sky.”

     “What is the problem?”, he responded with a pregnant pause, “Don’t you like pie?”

     As we gather here on this Good Friday, we need little reminder that this world in which we live is far from perfect.  Pain and suffering is part of our daily forecast.  Sometimes it pours into our lives like cats and dogs, and sometimes it is there as a misty haze.  Sometimes, we like cloud seeders bring it into our lives and the lives of others.  Sometimes it seems to just blow in from nowhere.  But this is certain, there are no cloudless days as we live this life. We need little reminder that this world in which we live is far from perfect.

     It was certainly a far, far from perfect day for the three who hung on those Golgotha crosses.  The clouds of suffering a pain darkening by the moment.   Two who hung were criminals who had stirred up a deadly storm in their lives.  The crowds around them and one who hung on his own cross, rumbled with thunder, mocking the seemingly powerlessness of the one who hung innocently on his cross.

     But what the crowds and the one who hung next to Jesus did not know was that this storm in which they found themselves had not happened by accident or chance.  What they didn’t know was that the one who hung in the middle was the cause of this great storm.  For he, whose heart was a low pressure center of God’s uncompromising love, was like a black hole of grace, suctioning every sin and evil into it, gathering into itself everything  of every time and place that brings pain and suffering.  The storm that was stirring on that Golgotha hill was being gathered from every corner of the universe by the one who had created the universe.

     It is true, there is still pain and suffering in this world, but we who gather here on this Good Friday see all those clouds of pain and suffering moving in a crossbound direction, a destination from which they cannot escape, a destination that will be their end.  From every corner of creation, being drawn to the cross, so that the day will come when pain, and suffering, and tears, and sorrow will be no more…and joy, peace, and love will shine with endless light.

     Unlike the crowds who were gathered on that hillside and mocked Jesus for the swirling storm…unlike the crowds who still gather on the hillside and mock Jesus for the storms that swirl in life…Jesus knew why those clouds were there….Jesus knew why those storms were circling around……Jesus knew that those clouds and those storms were being sucked into his heart by the power of God’s love….and that is why he said to the one who hung next to him….that is why he says to you and me who gather around him, “Truly, I tell you today, you will be with me in Paradise.”

John 16.33:

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me you may have peace.  In this world you shall have tribulation.  But be of good cheer.  Be of good cheer.  I have overcome the world.

     You’ll like the pie!  

AMEN.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger