From the Pastor’s Heart

One Spring Sunday morning in 1996 when I was serving the Point Marion United Methodist Church a little boy came to worship with his mother. This young lad came with an agenda and with a great sense of anticipation. I am not sure that even his mother knew what was on his mind until they walked through the church doors and he turned to her and asked: “Where is God? I want to meet God?”

I saw this young family standing in the back of the church and with a hospitable heart I greeted them enthusiastically by introducing myself and welcoming them to the church. The young woman politely introduced herself and her son and immediately said: “My son wants to meet God.” The young fellow chimed in: “Yea, where is He?” Have you ever found yourself wondering where God is?

It was a tragic accident. A twenty-five-year-old man was killed in an automobile accident when he drove his vehicle into the Cheat River on Christmas Eve. I was called upon to conduct the funeral. Just minutes before the funeral was to begin this young man’s fiancé who was to give birth to their baby in a few weeks came up to me overwhelmed with grief. “I need to talk to you,” she cried. We went to the parlor and she sobbed: “Where is God in all of this? How could a good God allow such a horrible thing to happen to us?”

I had five minutes to give an abbreviated theology lesson about God to a devastated young woman whose world had been turned upside down. The only thing she was hearing was the pounding of her broken heart.

We are cognitive people. We have a great need to understand. We want to find God that we might understand the Almighty. Theologians have struggled for years trying to define (understand) God. Turn to the back of the hymnal and you will find not one but ten Affirmations of Faith all attempting to help us understand God. Many hymns make an attempt at explaining God.

The great theologian, Augustine, while puzzling over God, was walking along the beach one day when he observed a young boy with a bucket running back and forth to pour water into a little hole. Augustine asked, “What are you doing?” the boy replied, “I’m trying to put the ocean into this hole.” Then Augustine realized that he had been trying to put an infinite God into his finite mind.

There is an old story about the theologian Karl Barth (pronounced Bart), who was on a speaking tour of the United States. On college campuses all across this country, he was drawing huge crowds to hear his very complex answers to the questions of life. When he was speaking at Princeton University, the great hall was packed with faculty, students and visitors who came to hear Karl Barth speak. During the question and answer period one student asked, “Dr. Barth, may I ask you a personal question?” Dr. Barth smiled and said, “Yes, you may ask anything.” The student asked: “Dr. Barth you are a very educated man. What is the greatest truth you have ever learned? Dr. Barth bowed his head, thinking for a moment about how he would respond. Then he raised his head and looked out at the student who asked the question and he said. “The greatest truth I ever learned was at my mother’s knee: Jesus loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so.” Maybe that is all we need to know about God, God is love.

This Sunday we will observe Memorial Day by honoring our veterans. We will also pause and pay tribute to those who have given their all in the fight for freedom. God has given us the greatest freedom we will ever know…freedom from the penalty of our sin, just because He loves us. Where is God? God is here loving us in all seasons of our lives.

This Sunday the chancel choir will sing one of my favorite anthems, ‘In This Very Room’ by Ron and Carol Harris. The words always speak to my heart.

In this very room, there’s quite enough love for one like me.
And in this very room, there’s quite enough joy for one like me,
And there’s quite enough hope and quite enough power to chase away any gloom.
For Jesus, Lord Jesus, is in this very room.

In this very room, there’s quite enough love for all of us.
And in this very room, there’s quite enough joy for all of us.
And there’s quite enough hope and quite enough power to chase away any gloom.
For Jesus, Lord Jesus, is in this very room.

In this very room, there’s quite enough love for all the world.
And in this very room, there’s quite enough joy for all the world.
And there’s quite enough hope and quite enough power to chase away any gloom,
For Jesus, Lord Jesus, is in this very room.
Where is God? God is right here loving us!

Blessings,

Pastor Russel