Now Thank We All Our God

Sunday, we gave our thanks and praise to God as we gathered following the lifting of the evacuation for Mariposa from the threat of the Detwiler fire. We continue to pray for all those affected by this fire and for the first responders who are working so hard.

After the Fire

What a way to start my ministry in Mariposa! The Detwiler fire is still burning and there are thousands of firefighters still here to make sure that it is contained and eliminated. The pictures of the devastation are horrific. It is like an alien landscape. I thank God for all those who thought less of their own lives and cared for others. I grieve for all who lost homes and possessions and irreplaceable heirlooms. Yes, things can be replaced, and some day they will know that, but today, they just know that their lives will never be the same. They have lost something that cannot be replaced – a sense of safety and invulnerability.

 The questions that always come up in these situations go something like this: “What can we do in this situation?” and “Where is God?” The two are not unrelated.

Henri Nouwen was a Catholic priest, a theologian, and a true servant for Christ. His many writings, such as this one, have inspired countless Christians.

 “When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it’s those, who instead of giving advice, solutions or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand.”

 God promises to be with us in our pain, to touch our hearts and wounds with God’s love. Jesus tells his followers, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.” (John 14:1) Jesus promises to send the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, to be with us. Paul describes the work of the Spirit in our lives at times of trouble in Romans: “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.” (Romans 8:26) God does not promise a life without struggle, wounds, or pain. But God does promise to be with us through the good times and the bad.

 Often God’s love and presence in those hard times comes through another person. Think of a hard time in your life and who was present for you then. I trained to be part of a United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) Emergency Response Team (ERT), if the need arose. Our primary purpose was to be a presence in the lives of those who had gone through whatever crisis has occurred. I wouldn’t be there to do search and rescue or repair homes. I would be there to assist in clean up and listen and care, to do what Henri Nouwen describes above – share the pain and touch the wounds with a warm and tender hand.

 If you want to know how to help, call the church office and I’ll give you the latest needs. As I write this, we are planning to get gift cards for distribution.

 In the meantime, give thanks to God the times when someone has been there for you when you needed it.

Podcasts from Sunday

We have a bonus podcast of music by the bluegrass band! Hope you enjoy.

How Big Is Your Jesus?

This week's devotion:

I once started a pastor’s book club that read books offering some new or different perspectives on faith.  One of the books we read was Bishop Will Willimon’s Why Jesus? The Willimon book opened up a new perspective on Jesus for us.  We realized that we had “tamed” Jesus, made him nice and safe.  And in the process, we made him more like us and less like God.  He remains a great teacher and prophet, but he’s not as edgy or offensive.  Willimon reminds us that Jesus was neither tame nor safe.  He is the Son of God and he was not crucified for being too nice.

As we talked about the book and the picture of Jesus there, I was reminded of a story:

A man was going through customs on the way back from Haiti.  The person ahead of him had bought lots of costly jewelry but was waved through by the customs officer with a mere glance.  The man had only an inexpensive carved head of Jesus.  But it was big, about knee-high, so he had wrapped it in several layers of towels in a burlap bag.  As the officer dug deeper into the towels, expecting expensive hidden items, suddenly he looked up and asked, “How big is your Jesus, anyway?”

It’s hard not to limit Jesus to what our human brains can handle, what our egos want to hear.  Jesus is bigger than that; he is bigger and wilder than we want to admit.  And that makes us uncomfortable.  So we try to bring Jesus down to our size.

God’s grace and love as embodied by Jesus are greater than we can ever understand.  That’s good news!  Our Jesus is bigger than we admit or know.  The writer of Psalm 103 tried to capture God’s greatness: “For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:11-12).  We cannot tame or limit Jesus and we don’t have to be afraid of the greatness of God.  Even when Jesus’ words step on our toes or point out the log in our eye.  His love for us is so great that it overcomes all.  As the apostle Paul writes in his letter to the Romans, Jesus didn’t wait for us to get our lives straight.  He died for us while we were yet sinners, and that proves God’s love toward us.

How big is YOUR Jesus?

We have a podcast!

Hi! We have created a podcast of elements of our Sunday worship. This first one is the sermon from July 10th - The Un-Reluctant Prophet. We'll also feature special music from time to time, like this coming Sunday when the Open Hearts Bluegrass Band plays. You can subscribe through iTunes and get each episode delivered to your favorite listening device.

Welcome!

Welcome to The Spire, the blog of Mariposa UMC! Come and check out weekly devotions posted by Rev. Allison Byerley, listen to podcasts of sermons and special music, and catch up on what is going on between issues of The Spire newsletter.

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