This month we take a break from my reflections on our church statement to reflect on something different…well, someone different. I’ll start with an account from the life of Jesus of Nazareth:
“6 And when Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, 7 a woman came to Him having an alabaster flask of very costly fragrant oil, and she poured it on His head as He sat at the table. 8 But when His disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? 9 For this fragrant oil might have been sold for much and given to the poor.” 10 But when Jesus was aware of it, He said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a good work for Me. 11 For you have the poor with you always, but Me you do not have always.” Matthew 26:6-11
For now, I want only to lift up one aspect of this story. In his words, Jesus acknowledges that there are times when love, to be most authentically expressed, can and perhaps needs to be expressed extravagantly.
We could say that love, at its truest, is about steady devotion. It expresses itself most sincerely in the quiet rhythm of day to day means: the reliable and faithful presence, the tender touch or embrace, simple acts of affection and appreciation, and so on.
Yet with all of that there are times when a person wants to express the full magnitude of their love for another in one grand sweep. Indeed the heart at times feels it must do so. It is as if the heart simply doesn’t have the patience to wait for the march of hours and days to make the cumulative expressions. Sometimes a person’s heart needs the person they love to know, immediately, if at all possible, the full extent of that love. Thus, the imagination and the heart conspire to make some grand effort; something more expensive or expansive either in scope or in detail than the usual expressions. Some effort, some expressions must sometimes be made that bring the steady work of love in the ordinary moments of life over into to the extraordinary.
Some people have a gift for very naturally infusing the “extra” into the ordinary. Whatever task they take on, they recognize what the task requires and then go a step, or ten steps, beyond whatever “enough” would look like. Thoughtful details accent their work in such away that their work always conveys the love and affection for whomever they have labored. Such people are “extra” in the best ways.
We have been blessed to journey in fellowship and ministry with someone for whom the description applies. Diann Nickerson came to this congregation as the Family Life Coordinator in early 2024. While I have only been with you for the past year, I have always enjoyed watching Diann tend to her work here and at West Liberty. Just outside Diann’s office door is a sign that says “elevator”. More than once I have commented that I don’t know if that sign is for the actual church elevator or is a part of Diann’s job title. In everything she does there is a generosity of heart and spirit that elevates the life of the congregation in some way. That also goes for the collective of area churches involved Messy Church and Vacation Bible School.
This month Diann transitions away from her role as our Family Life Coordinator. Diann’s grandson has recruited her for full-time employment as “Nana” and we simply cannot develop a compensation package to outmatch her grandson’s perpetual love and adoration. This is not quite a good-bye to Diann as a part of our church family. However, it is a farewell to Diann as our Family Life Coordinator and as a part of our daily and weekly rhythms. She will be dearly missed as she is dearly loved and appreciated by all of us.
Diann, our love and prayers go with you and your family. We celebrate with you and Isaac as you and he begin many full-time “Extra” Nana adventures. Family Life Coordinator, Elevator, “Administrator of ‘Extra’ Details” (AED), we send you with God’s blessings!
Pastor Joe and Christ UMC Family