Church News – Weekly Scripture Reading

Getting to Know Joaquin Arambula

Written by Dale Buchanan

Good afternoon, Big Red friends. I am with Dale and Gayle at Teazer World Tea Market in the Tower district. With another meeting scheduled in the next hour, I was accompanied by my local Office Manager Anna and Felicia, my Director of Communications. We found a big table and settled down for the interview that would allow me to tell what Dale called, “my story.”

Dale had an official website biography that ended with a one sentence paragraph: “Dr. Joaquin Arambula and his wife Elizabeth live in Fresno with their three children.”  Dale preceded to explain that he was looking for a personal picture—more like a Brownie camera snapshot than a studio portrait, so the following is my informal snapshot biography.

It seems to me that the best place to begin is at the beginning and that would be Delano, California, a small town north of Bakersfield whose main industry is agricultural—mainly growing table grapes. The original Spanish word “delano” means of the night or may be translated “dark.”  I was born in Delano and my memories are at the very best “dark” in the sense that I have no clear memories of my beginnings and my first six years. My story begins when we moved to Fresno at age six. 

To explain my story, it is necessary to lift the curtain of darkness to even before my birth in Delano. My parents met as students at Harvard University, and my favorite story from that long ago says much about my dad Juan and my mom Amy. It was my dad’s birthday and a girlfriend dared Amy to throw a piece of birthday cake in Juan’s face. To the delight of everyone, she did! As Dad tells the story, he had two choices —either he could hate this feisty, opinionated young woman, or he could marry her. He chose marriage and they became lifelong partners.

Mom remains feisty and opinionated and we all continue to draw support from her strength and ability. Dad remains our inspiration. An original glass-ceiling breaker, he was the first in the family to go to university, the first Latino County Supervisor, a trail-blazer, and champion of his community. Dad and Mom are in reality the beginning of my story.

I am proud to call Fresno my home and my roots are firmly planted in the Tower district. I went to Heaton Elementary School across from Fresno City College, and Edison Computech, and still I felt unprepared when I went to Bowdoin College in Bruinswick, Maine. This feeling persisted and for the first time I felt motivated to help those who had no one else to help them. 

Next it was the University of Minnesota Medical School. Following graduation, I returned home and served for ten years as an emergency room doctor at Selma Adventist Hospital. As an ER doctor I saw the underbelly of society and became firsthand acquainted with the acute shortage of doctors and services needed to care for the underprivileged. 

I loved being able to help people directly in ER and never wanted to give it up. There is nothing like walking into a room and being able to ask, “How may I help you?”  Standing by a patient’s bed is problem solving at its most basic level. I never wanted to leave that environment but as the years passed, I was reminded how my parents involved me and my brothers and sisters in political campaigns. We were part of the action. We felt empowered and experienced the heady sensation of knowing that we could actually bring about change in our community. Slowly, but surely, I became convinced that in the transformative climate of politics, I could serve more people more effectively than I could in ER. It is true that the hands-on thrill of saving a life is an exhilarating experience, but it is also true that the groundbreaking of a community college in an impoverished Fresno neighborhood will over the years lift untold numbers out of poverty and into functioning members of our community. Serving as a state legislator makes such groundbreaking ceremonies possible and that too is exhilarating.

After an earthquake in Haiti, a friend and I did volunteer medical relief work. It so happened that this friend had a sister. When we came home, he introduced me to Elizabeth and I fell like a ton of bricks. We had one date, a thirty-day tour of Europe, and I was convinced she was the one for me. We were married and have been blest with three wonderful daughters: Avianna, 10, a budding pianist, Scarlett, 7, conquering the violin, and Kennedy, 4, figuring it out.

When I was a young boy walking to Heaton Elementary School, I passed through the beautiful Wilson Island neighborhood and promised myself I would someday live there. That dream has come true, although I did not get to pick the house. Elizabeth called me a couple of years ago and informed me that we had bought a house and gave me the address so I could get home. 😊

Big Red Church is my spiritual home. The most grounding thing I do is take my girls to church every Sunday. I am drawn here by the diversity of people who are to be found in the pews. There is an obvious ambiance I feel each time I step through the front doors. I love the location. I literally grew up across the street. And last but not least, the music is artistic, dynamic, and powerful.

Thank you, Big Red Church for giving me the opportunity to step from the pews and tell my story.

Advent Devotional • January 6

Monday, January 6
Written by Corvin Wayne Brown
First Congregational Church of Fresno
Matthew 2:1-12

O Magi, I stand outside in autumn haze,
Of night lights, dust, and dark, talking to you,
And long I’ve wondered what struck you as new.
What star was born that night

that whispered winds commanding you to follow
the spire of fire from Persia to Palestine
and bear the gifts fit for a Jew and King,
treasures that prove you knew what you’d see.

Zoroastrians, I confess, a wild star
led me to believe in shortcut songs and
nativities with you kneeled on the day of birth.
I’ve been wrapped in tangles of front-yard truth,

my keystone missing — you three wise men
yet to arrive. My insight tonight: you. So now,
it’s your turn to tell me what startled you.
In the crib, did you see a better world

to come? or a new chart for all time?
or future blame heaped on him? Was myrrh
to anoint or embalm? Please tell me your epiphany
that would make you drop down to your knee.

Your insight had to be new and fresh—
as fresh as a bright born babe.

***

You can download a PDF of the devotional here.

Advent Devotional • January 5

Sunday, January 5
Journal
John 1:10-18

He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.” ’) From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

Journal Prompt:
Today is the last day of Christmas, but rather than drummers drumming, we are
confronted with the word made flesh. What does it mean to you personally that God has
become knowable though the human birth and life of Jesus?

***

You can download a PDF of the devotional here.

Advent Devotional • January 4

Saturday, January 4
Written by Rev. Raygan Baker
First Congregational Church of Fresno
Isaiah 60:1-6

“Arise! Shine: your light has come, and the Lord’s glory has shone upon you.”

This promise sounds wonderful, except then the prophet goes on to admit that we can still see much of the darkness that we are much more familiar with. But even with this deep truth, the prophet lift our chins up to see the far brighter glory God is bringing into the world.

144 years ago today (1875), the German-language poet Rainer Maria Rilke was born. His birth not technically the what we celebrate during the Christmas season, but Rilke can be an especially helpful companion with us. Rilke’s conviction was that one of our deepest purposes as human beings is to find the beauty in everyday things. In a letter to his protégée, Franz Xaver Kappus, Rilke famously wrote: “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”

What are you willing to sit with, to not give into isolating darkness, in order to more fully see the emerging beauty?

 

***

You can download a PDF of the devotional here.

Advent Devotional • January 3

Friday, January 3
Journal
Hebrews 1:1-12

God Has Spoken by His Son (vs1-4)
Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the
prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed
heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is the reflection of
God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by
his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right
hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the
name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

Journal Prompt:

This is the introduction to The Letter to the Hebrews. What does it stir up for you?

 

***

You can download a PDF of the devotional here.

Advent Devotional • January 2

Written by Rev Ara Guekguezian
Community United Church of Christ
Psalm 8

So small am I. I recall, bemused, when my first born, says to his mother, Dad is so big, he can crush me. Now that he is a father, he knows to the core of his being that is an action that would never occur.

But

As I am dwarfed by the heavens, I recognize my weakness. Do I matter in any significant way? Do I have agency?

In the old, and maybe familiar language, we are in the midst of the celebration of this song. For God so loved the world, that he sent his son… I, among we all, do matter.

The one, so great, that They are above the heavens, is mindful of us and cares for us. This is the very heart of the matter. And has endowed us with agency (and responsibility).

So loved am I, so loved are we, that we get to act in ways that influence one another and the world. I pray that I am a good and faithful actor.

***

You can download a PDF of the devotional here.

Advent Devotional • January 1

Journal
First Congregational Church of Fresno
Revelation 21:1-6a

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first
earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city,
the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a
bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,

‘See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;
he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.’

And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ Then he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.’

Journal Prompt:

In what ways is God making things new in your life?

***

You can download a PDF of the devotional here.

Advent Devotional • December 31

Journal
Isaiah 63:7-9

God’s Mercy Remembered
I will recount the gracious deeds of the Lord,
the praiseworthy acts of the Lord,
because of all that the Lord has done for us,
and the great favor to the house of Israel
that he has shown them according to his mercy,
according to the abundance of his steadfast love.
For he said, ‘Surely they are my people,
children who will not deal falsely’;
and he became their savior
in all their distress.
It was no messenger or angel
but his presence that saved them;
in his love and in his pity he redeemed them;
he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

Journal Prompt:
It’s New Year’s Eve. How can this reading from Isaiah help you to set an intention for the year ahead?

***

You can download a PDF of the devotional here.

Advent Devotional • December 30

Monday, December 30
Written by Kymberly Lindsey
First Congregational Church of Fresno
Psalm 148

Psalm 148 Re-Imagined (God Did! 2015)
Who made the mountains sprout from the earth? Who made the oceans go back and forth? Who covered the ground with flowers and dirt? Our Lord and Master, God did!
Sing hallelujah, Praise His name; Sing hallelujah, for what God did!
Who dotted the sky with planets and moons? Who created the sun not to rise too soon? Who blasted the dark with millions of stars? Our Lord and Master, God did!
Sing hallelujah, Praise His name; Sing hallelujah, for what God did!
Who gave us His son, to die on the cross, to forgive our sins, without Jesus we’re lost.
Who loves us and gave us everlasting life? Our Lord and Master, God did!
Sing hallelujah, Praise His name; Sing hallelujah, for what God did!
Who gave me the voice, to sing to you? Who gave me the words and blessed me too?
Who lifted me up and helped me to see? Our Lord and Master, God did!
Sing hallelujah, Praise His name; Sing hallelujah, for what God did!
*******
When I quiet my thoughts to a whisper, I can hear God sing!
Praise ye the Lord!

***

You can download a PDF of the devotional here.