The Bungee Cord   9-2-19

Hello,

     I was watching “Family Feud” the other day, as I often do just to lighten my mind, and the question that was asked was, “Name an event where it is not right to laugh out loud.”  When the answers were given, I was not shocked to hear a couple of the most popular ones to be “a funeral” and “a trial”.  But I was a little surprised to hear this one as being near the top: “a church worship service.”

       Maybe “surprised” is not the right word.  I think the right word would be “disappointed”.  It is disappointing to me that the weekly celebration of the greatest victory of all time, Jesus’ Easter victory over sin and death, has somehow become  known as a gathering where outbursts of laughter are deemed out of place.

     It is true that deep and profound matters are dealt with when Christians come together to worship on Sunday morning: the plight of the poor, the weight of our sins, the reality of failure, the emptiness of grief, the gloom of worthlessness, the prowling of death.  All very serious things.  

     But maybe when we come to church on Sunday morning, we see what happens to all of those serious and dour things.  When Christians bring the entirety of their lives with them to worship – the good and the bad, the easy and the hard, the smooth and the rough – nothing is swept under the rug.  Instead everything finds itself toe to toe with Jesus Christ….you know, the one who stretched out his arms, opened his heart and like a cosmic black hole of God’s grace drew into himself every enemy that might stake a claim on you or me, put an end to them on the cross, and then left them breathless in the tomb that he walked out of….and when those same things stand under the gaze of Jesus on the weekly anniversary of that tomb exit, like Steve Erkel nose to nose with Mike Tyson, they quiver and shake, because they know what is going to happen to them.  And in my mind, there is nothing in the world funnier than seeing the mighty ogres of this life cower and quake, slink their tails between their legs, and with terror in their eyes swirl, as if in a flushing toilet, deep into that Easter tomb’s abyss.

     I remember when I was a kid watching the TV Batman series, where Batman and Robin would take on the arrogant and sinister criminals of Gotham City.   I remember watching them tussle and wrangle with the likes of the Joker and the Riddler. And I remember laughing as the words “BAM!”, “SMASH!”, and “CRUNCH” lit up the screen.

     I am disappointed to hear that the world thinks that one of the top events that laughing out loud would be out of place is Sunday morning worship, because there’s a lot of “BAM!”, “SMASH!” and “CRUNCH!” going on.   Maybe we should invite someone who thinks that laughing out loud is out of place, and have them see if they can hold their laughter in!   

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Have a great week!

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord   8-26-19

Hello,

     I was watching a nationally televised Cub’s baseball game the other day.  Having grown up a Cubbie fan, I still find myself rooting for the Cub’s, maybe not as devoutly, and certainly not when they are playing the Pirates.  But in the days when Wrigley Field didn’t have any lights and all the home games were day games, I found myself often in front of our black and white TV watching the perennially 2^ndplace or worse Cubs.

     I grew up when Jack Brickhouse was the main announcer and, he was famously followed by Harry Carey.  Harry was noted for his big black rimmed glasses, his sloppy articulation, and his leading the crowd at the 7^thinning stretch in singing “Take Me Out To The Ball Game”.  Even though Harry passed away several years ago, his singing goes on as he occasionally appears on the Big Screen slobbering into the mic with gusto.  But the game that I watched the other did not feature Harry Carey singing at the 7^thinning stretch.  Instead the singers were a couple of Black Hawk hockey players.

     They were terrible singers.  Far worse than Harry Carey.  Their rendition of the melody was remotely similar to the written tune. When they held a note it sounded like a turn table that could not keep a constant speed.  Their tone was bellicose.  And they kept looking down on the table for the words.  Yet, when they sang, you could tell that they were having fun. And as terrible as their singing was, when the camera panned the stadium, there were smiles on everyone’s face, as the crowd bellowed out the song with them.

     You know, Christians sing every Sunday morning when they gather for worship, and depending on the congregation the joyful noise that is made sometimes can sound like the Wrigley Field singers.  Truth is, that public group singing is a seldom occurrence in our day.  It wasn’t unusual a generation or two ago for people to gather around a piano and sing songs together.  But not now. People might sing along to a CD or have fun doing karaoke, but to public ally sing songs accompanied by a piano or organ…..well, I think it only happens in one place in our society; in church.

     I know that there are many reasons that people find themselves not going to church, but if you asked people the honest truth, I bet a bunch would say, “I don’t like to sing.”  Still, non-singers would come to church, but when singing time came many in my congregations (usually men) would stand silently, arms folded and not sing. Nowadays, when the social pressure to go to church has decreased, I find fewer non-singers in my congregation, their dislike for singing keeping them home.

     Thing is, I doubt many, if any, stayed home from the Cubs game that I watched because they knew they were going to be encouraged to sing at the 7^thinning stretch.  And, as they panned the crowd…a crowd of 40,000 people…..I can’t say that I saw many arms crossed, mouths shut non-singers.  It seemed like everyone was singing….and why?  It was fun.  It was fun to get caught up in the excitement of the game.  Fun to add a voice to the crescendo of delight.  Fun to vocally thumb a nose at the visiting team, especially with the phrase, “root, root, root for the CUBBIES (or PIRATES).

     And although the songs that we sing in worship may not be as familiar to some as “Take Me Out To The Ball Game”, we sing our songs in church for the same reason.  It is fun. Fun to get caught up in the excitement of the biggest victory in history, Jesus victory over the cross. Fun to add a voice to the crescendo of delight, as we together watch sin and death slump away with their tails between their legs.  Fund to vocally thumb our nose at the world that thinks it can hold our joy down, especially  when we come to phrases like, “Christ the Lord is risen today!  Alleluia!”

     So, let me invite you this Sunday to come to church.  The seating is limited so get there early, and bring your singing voice, even if you sing worse than Harry Carey, because you and I are on the winning team.  What fun to sing with all the gusto you can muster, “Jesus Christ is risen today! Alleluia!”

Have a great week!

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord  8-19-19

Hello,

     Those of you who are regular readers of the Bungee Cord know that I spend my time before worship services out in front of the church waving at the people who pass by.  Sometimes people wave back.  Sometimes people don’t see me, or they act like they don’t see me.  Sometimes people tap their horn.  Sometimes those who are walking will stop and chat for a few minutes, and other walkers cross the street so they don’t have to chat with me. But this past Sunday my waving brought about an occurrence that has never happened before.

     A white SUV came down the street, and I waved.  Before it got to me, it slowed down, put on its turn signal, and came to stop right in front of me.  The driver of the car parked, and as I glanced in the windshield I noticed that this was someone that I didn’t know.  A visitor, perhaps.

     Out from the car emerged an older man, in his 80’s I suspect. He was tall, and had his grey hair trimmed close to his scalp, making him look almost bald.  Right above his forehead was a tuff of hair that he had let grow an inch or so, and it was combed up.  He had on dark rimmed glasses, wore a black suit, with a white shirt and a simply tied black tied.  I did not recognize him.

     “Good morning,” I said with a welcome note in my voice.

     “Good morning,” he said back, and before I could say anything further he said, “You know, I see you out here every Sunday and I just had to stop and say “hi” to you.”

     “Well, that is awful nice of you,” I said.  “Thanks for stopping.  Looks like you are dressed up for something.”

     “Yeah, on my way to church,” and he told me the church to which he was going, and I responded with a look of, “oh yeah, that church”, but I had never heard of it before.  We small talked a little bit, I asked him his name, and then  shaking his hand I said, “Yeah, I am out here every week waving, not so much to get people to stop, but to let them know that no matter how busy their lives are, someone cares.”

     And that is when he looked at me with a big smile on his face, his eyes looking skyward, and his finger pointing the same way, “Someone cares!”

   

      I said, “That’s right.”

      He turned around, headed for his car, and as he turned to open his door and get back in, I waved at him, and said to him calling him by his name, “Thanks for stopping.  Have a great day.”

     He smiled.  He waved back and drove off down the road.

     Guess my waving just might be making a dent of God’s grace in some people’s lives.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord   8-12-19

Hello,

     This past Saturday, I officiated at a wedding at the church that I am serving.  Weddings are part of the work of a Pastor.  When people come to me and say they are planning to get married, I say to them that that is wonderful news, “Let’s get together and get the ball rolling.” So, I meet at least a couple of times with them.  The first time I meet with them, my hope is to try and get to know them a bit and develop a pastoral relationship with them.  For some, this is already in place as they are members of the church, but for most, at least one of the couple is someone for whom I have not been their pastor.

     My second goal at that first meeting is to get on the same page with the couple regarding weddings.  Weddings, as I am sure you are aware, take many forms and expectations. I tell the folks that I hope to be a pastor at their wedding.  Knowing that there are many different types of people that can conduct a wedding, I tell them that when I am part of people’s weddings I try to make it a “pastoral” thing….that is, a matter of their Christian faith.  I say to them that I don’t want to be a judge who just makes things legal and says, “good luck”.  I want to be someone who helps secure their relationship with the One who has secured his relationship with them, and I want to be someone who aids the Good Shepherd, Jesus, in shepherding them through life. (If you read Psalm 23 you can get a picture of what that shepherding care looks like.)

     So, when I am part of a wedding, I see myself as being part of a great time of thanks, thanks to God.  Thanks to God for all the grace that he has poured into the lives of these two who want to travel through life together.  Thanks to God for the grace of his presence at the wedding, sealing the couple’s vows with his vow of steadfast love.  Thanks to God for opening up the future for them as they step out into the world with the power of his love.  Weddings, as I hope to be part of them, are far more than ceremonies, public degrees, family celebrations, or legal arrangements.  Weddings are worship services of thanks and praise to God whose grace and mercy is visibly at work in the lives of the couple.

     Usually, I don’t know most of the people who come to a wedding service, so, I don’t know where they are at in their relationship to God.  I am sure that there are a number of people at most weddings who regularly find themselves in church on Sunday morning, deepening their relationship with God and God’s people.  I am also sure that there are a number of people at most weddings who generally are not inclined to go to church on any given Sunday.  With people covering the continuum between these two groups of people, I try to keep in mind the opportunity that weddings give me to speak a word of hope and love that just might make a huge dent in their lives.

     At the wedding I conducted on Saturday, the couple chose Jesus’ prayer from the Gospel of John that people would become one in him.  It was a great passage to hear on a day when “two become one”.  What tremendous hope for a wedding couple to hear, that their hope of unity is also a hope that lies in the heart of Christ.  Not only will they be working at their oneness, Christ will be working toward it, too. Wow!

     And as we gathered in that church, I saw Jesus at work in creating unity.  Not just a unity in the couple who was getting married, but a unity amongst all who were gathered in that place.  As they crowded into that small church, strangers sat beside strangers.  Since there was no “bride’s” side or “groom’s” side, friends of both families rubbed shoulders.  A hymn was sung, and the people’s voices blended together.  The “peace of the Lord” was shared throughout the congregation as Communion was being prepared, and when it came time for Communion, everyone who wanted to receive the tangible grace of God was welcome, and most did even though they were of different denominations of the Christian faith.

     I told the people in my message that something was happening in that place that doesn’t happen very often in the world.  Barriers were being broken down, and bonds of love were being formed.  In a world that tends to build all sorts of barriers, we, who were in that place got to see Christ at work building caring relationships.

     That is one reason why we have worship services every Sunday.  As we live in our world and see more and more barriers going up between people, and we find ourselves more and more in isolation chambers, we come together every Sunday to have Christ open up our lives, connecting us ever more deeply to him, and connecting us ever more deeply to each other.  It is a hard job that Jesus has, because we who gather on Sunday mornings are quite different and often quite stubborn.  But Jesus is stubborn, too.  He is determined to unite all people in divine love and care, and he won’t give up until he does!

     So, let me invite you to worship this Sunday and see Jesus at work tearing down the walls that make life so small, and building up bonds of love that makes life so grand!

Have a great week,

God’s Grace and Peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord   8-5-19

Hello,

     I heard on the radio that this week a number of people will be inducted into the National Football League’s Hall of Fame.  Although I am certain that their induction would not be taking place if each of them was not an extremely great player in his day, but when their names were read, I did not recall any of them.  Maybe avid football fans would be able to recite the accomplishments of these Football stars, but as someone who simply enjoys watching football games, I cannot.

     It intrigues me that we live in a world where superior stardom is argued and noted.  Way back in my youth baseball days, the team would select a MVP (most valuable player). It seems that no football game, at any level, can conclude without the same selection being made, and for the MVP of the Super Bowl, the one named MVP gets a brand new car/truck (of course, the winner is in great need of another car/truck…).  With every new Olympics, handing out more gold medals, setting new world records the announcers carry on the debate of who has been the greatest of all time…..Michael Phelps, Mark Spitz?  And if you travel to a small town in Upper Minnesota, you can visit the National Hockey League’s Hall of Fame as you check off the hundreds of such places for nearly everything under the sun.  We are a culture that likes to discern that some people are the cream of the crop, and some people are Most Valuable.

     Why do we do that?  

     I suppose that there is something appropriate to noting excellence.  It encourages people to hone their talents and do their best.  That is a good thing.  But there is a flip side to this good thing that is not so good, and that is the judgments that fall upon those who do not find themselves in MVP or Hall of Fame discussions.  In its mild form such people are seen as valuable, but certainly replaceable. In its brutal form, some people are seen as having no value at all, but are simple leeches and burdens.  Wouldn’t we find it strange if people decided to give out an award for the LVP, the Least Valuable Player?  Or if shrines were constructed to house those who had made the biggest mess of their lives, Halls of Losers?  (It seems to me that as strange as these things sound, in truth, many a discussion provides a great list of names for LVP and Loser nominations.)

     I don’t know why humans tend to be driven to elevate some and crush others, but I do know this: God does not engage in this.  I know this because God did something that supersedes and judgment of worth or value that the world might give.  God sent his Son to die and rise, not for some people, but for all people.  To God, each person is a MVP, a Most Valuable Person.  What greater value could one claim than to be someone whom God sent his Son to die for and claim as his eternal child.  Think about that….not a coach….not a teacher….not a general….not a world leader….but God Almighty … God Almighty sent his Son for each person. Each person has a display booth in God’s book of life, God’s Hall of Fame, not noting the good or bad that each person has done, but noting the depth of love that God has for each person that led God to do what God did….sent his Son.

     Some people might say that to think this way makes it too easy and encourages laziness, spiritual and general laziness.   But not me.  For me, to know that I am already an MVP (along with everyone else) gives me the freedom to live out of my worth, rather than try and make myself worthy.  It allows me to get up when I stumble and fall and say, “let’s give it another try.”, instead of berating myself for my clumsiness and two left feet.  It gives me the eyes to see those who lay beaten on the roadside of life and stop and help them, instead of ignoring them on my own journey to greatness.  It gives me hands to clasp onto others’ hands walking together into dark and scary places, rather than hands that clasp the sides of a ladder that I think I need to climb.

     This week, no matter who you are and no matter what you have done…no matter how terrible or good the world or you think you are, know this: God sent his Son for you.  God has named you MVP.  In a world that wants to rate the relative degree of yours and my worth, I want you to know that God does not do that. So valuable are you to God, that in the words of Songwriter Michael Card, God could not live without you.  WOW!   You….You….are God Almighty….God Almighty’s MVP!

Have a great week,

God’s Grace and Peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

The Bungee Cord  7-28-19

Hello,

     As some of you know, I grew up in Hinsdale, Illinois. 17 miles from Chicago.  It was a quaint little suburban town, an idyllic place to grow up.  Except for learning how to drive.   At the time I thought nothing of the congestion, the highway speeds, and the assertiveness that I developed, but as I have moved into more rural areas, I wonder how I made it through my younger and learning years as a driver.  There are some with whom I drive now, who share my amazement by the way that I drive.

     So, I was driving home from visiting a friend in Maryland. It is major interstates the whole way. The traffic was significantly heavy the entire way with little open high way.   Even though it has been many decades since my suburban, highway driving, I still find myself easily provoked by “bad” drivers.  I don’t like it when semi’s venture into “my” lane, the passing lane, and slow me down as they inch their way past a slower moving truck.  I don’t like it when  someone drives in “my” lane at the speed limit and won’t move into the slower lane…. I confess that I always add a couple of mph’s to the speed limit when I drive.  And I don’t like it when people slow down….and even stop!...on an on-ramp!  The Chicago driver still has its foot on my gas pedal and my hands on the steering wheel.

     Anyway, as I was driving along on my way home yesterday, even I decided that I should slow down as I was coming up to a car in the outside lane.  It looked to me that the car was a convertible and its roof was coming off. Trouble!  But, as I neared it, I discovered that I was wrong.  In actuality, it was a Volkswagen Jetta station wagon with a foam mattress strapped to its roof.  The mattress had become a sail, creating a 45 degree angle with the roof, one end of it just above the back bumper, and the other end rising into the sky.  It was strapped to the roof by two straps, one crossing the first third of the mattress, and the other crossing the back third.  No part of the mattress was touching the car.  As I reached the car, I looked at the driver who was calmly smoking a cigarette, travelling at 70 miles an hour.  Not wanting to be the one upon whom this sailing mattress would take its flight, I punched my gas pedal and passed it.

     Surely, I thought, this person would be aware of the danger that they were causing and pull off the road, but no.  We passed a rest stop….the car did not exit.  We past several exits, and the car did not exit. And finally when I got off the turnpike at the Donegal exit, the car with mattress a-sail passed me on the interstate as I got off.  And as I exited, I thought to myself with my Chicago driving mind, “Where did that person learn to drive!?!”

     I suspect that the same thing could be said of me, not of my driving on highways, but of my driving in life.  “Where did you learn to drive.”  I say that because I am sure that there are many times in my life when I have driven foolishly in life, not thinking of the consequences of my driving (figuratively, that is).  Endangering people by decisions that I have made.  Causing fear in others.  Completely unaware of my foolishness, pressing on as if I was in the right.  

     And I am certain that there are many times in my life that God has come upon me and can’t believe what he sees.  I am sure that God has come upon me and wondered how I could be so foolish….and dangerous.  Do I intend to cause pain in the lives of others…in the heart of God?  Most often not.  Most often the pain that I cause is beyond my intent, a result of foolish ignorance of systemic entrapment.  But here’s the thing…as I look at the cross…the most foolish pain that humans could have ever brought upon the heart of God…I hear a word from Jesus, “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.”

     I trust in that word of forgiveness, for I know that I have much more in common that that foolish mattress driver than I would wish. I thank God that God forgives even my foolish ignorance.  But more than that, I thank God that God’s forgiveness gives me the courage to look honestly at my life so that I can without defensiveness see my foolishness and not be so foolish, and likewise be humble enough to forgive other people’s foolishness.

     Thank you, Lord, for forgiving me, even when I am a fool.  Thank you, Lord, for opening my eyes to my foolishness.  And thank you, Lord, for helping me look upon the foolishness of others with forgiveness, too.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

     

The Bungee Cord 7-22-19

Hello,

It is summer in Western Pennsylvania.  Hot. Humid.

Yesterday we had an outdoor worship service at the church that I am serving.  Good planning!  The church building is not air conditioned (I remember that most church buildings were not air conditioned when I was a kid.), and so on hot, humid days it gets quite stuffy inside.

On these hot summer days, I have taken to not wearing my robe, and I lead the worship service wearing my clergy shirt….you know the black thing with the white tongue depressor in the collar.  But even downdressed, I find that I sweat buckets up front.  Between the nervous sweat that comes from being up front, the sweat that comes from keeping my brain going, and the sweat that comes from the heat from the extra lights on the altar….by the time that worship is over, I am soaked.  And I suspect that even though I prepare myself with a generous application of deodorant, I stink.

But, of course, I don’t think that I was aromatically alone in church.  By the flurry of waving, fanning bulletins, and the sharing of stuffy space, I am sure that there were many engaged in sweating on those hot and humid days.  We all stank. At least a bit.

In some ways, though, having a church-full of stinking people is a good reminder to us about why we gather every Sunday morning, and that is, there is a stink to each of our lives that fouls our lives and the world.  A stink that only the shower of God’s grace and mercy can eliminate.

The stink of our lives, of course, does not come from sweating.  It comes from sin, and the stink from sin is far different from the stink of sweating.  The stink of sin is the stink that comes from rot and decay.  It is the smell that permeates the air when you drive by a deer that has been hit by a car and has been lying there for several days.  It is a smell that is nose curdling.  It is the stink that comes for the pain and agony of harsh and stabbing words.  It is the stink that comes from the pain from a child’s belly who hasn’t eaten in days. It is the stink of the pain that comes from betrayal and neglect.  It is the stink of rot and decay.  A stink that no amount of deodorant can eliminate.

But the good news is this:  Jesus did not come as a divine deodorant.  Jesus came as a death killing death-a-cide.  He didn’t come just to wipe on some sweet smelling salve.  He came to wipe out death.  “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!”2 Corinthians 5.17

That is what every Sunday is all about.  We who stink…not from sweat…but from the rot of the decay in our lives….we come to have that rot and stink taken away.  We come to have Jesus do to us that which only Jesus can do….wipe out death with life, his life..  We come a’ stinkin’….we leave a’ livin’.  It is true that death’s rot takes ahold of us as we walk back into the world, but it is also, or even more true, that Christ’s life spreads more fully into our lives every time we are re-invigorated by his grace and mercy.  Every time we walk out of worship and back into the world, we bring with us a sweet, sweet aroma of hope, peace, forgiveness, and love until the day when the stench of sin and death will be overwhelmed.

So, if you’re in the area (Ligonier, Pa), let me invite you to come and sweat with us, and don’t worry that you might sweat too much, or stink too badly.  Truth is, we all stink….and that is why we are there.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger