March 17, 2021
Hello, beloved members and friends of Epworth UMC!
I pray that your late winter and Lent has been filled with touches of God. I find I am seeing them and feeling them everywhere, little things that would be so easy to miss and forget about in the ordinary rush and bustle of life. My own Lenten disciplines are having the effect of making me much more mindful and…I don’t know, awake? Or something. I hope yours are, too.
In our Wednesday evening Bible study, we have been studying the seven last words of Jesus on the cross. This week (tonight, actually) we consider the moment when Jesus from the cross looked at his mother, and the unnamed Beloved Disciple, and said “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” There is a lot of really interesting stuff in the study that we’ll talk about, but what strikes me is an exercise at the beginning of the study that illustrates a really important Christian principle.
According to our author, an early Christian monk in the Sinai desert used this exercise to illustrate the connection between our relationship with God, and our relationship to each other. He put a candle on a small table, and arranged people in a circle around it. The candle represents God, he said. He asked them to all take 3 steps back, and to notice how this changed where each of them stood in relation to God and to the other people in the circle. Then he asked them to come back to their original position, and then to take another step or two forward, closer to the candle. Participants noticed that the closer they came to God (the candle), the closer they also came to one another.
Our relationship with God and our relationships with our neighbors are deeply interconnected. John 21:15-17, Matthew 25:40, John 13:34-35, Matthew 22:36-40 are great examples of how Jesus showed and taught about this truth. As I think about the candle exercise, and how inevitably we will be kind of on top of each other if we continue moving closer to the candle, it makes me wonder: is our relationship with God limited by our willingness to get close to each other?
I think the answer is yes.
“And who is my neighbor?” asked the young lawyer in Luke 10. Who is the “each other” that Jesus tells us our own lives will be interconnected with as we continue to draw near to God? Jesus responded by telling the story of the Good Samaritan.
If this pandemic has taught us nothing else, it has shown how much we need each other. We need to know that we matter to other people. We need to worship together, in our sanctuary and in our homes, lifting our voices as one in praise and prayer. We need to share what we have with those in need, and receive help from others when we ourselves are in need. God commands that we do all of these things, that we put aside all that divides us and allow our lives to be deeply interconnected with our neighbors’. When we do that, we inevitably draw nearer to God. And really, vice versa too.
In faith, hope, and love,
Pastor Dawn
Worship Any and Everywhere!
An Example, a Command, and a Promise
This week in worship, we continue our study of the gospel of John, in chapters 15 and 16. This is part of Jesus’ multi-chapter final sermon to his disciples, which begins with Jesus washing the disciples’ feet and ends with his arrest. In it, Jesus spells out exactly what he has been trying to teach them by word and example, encourages them not to be afraid of what comes next, shows them how to cling to each other and to God after he is gone, and assures them that he will return. It’s a lot for them (and for us!) to absorb. As you prepare your hearts for worship, you might like to read and pray with John 15:12-17, and listen for God’s particular message for you.
Thanks to the excellent work of our city and county in getting folks vaccinated, and thanks to the faithfulness and diligence of our members, we are able to welcome folks back in to worship at 50% capacity! We continue to wear masks when we gather, and keep socially distant, and sanitize our spaces before and after each use, and we plan to keep up those practices long into the future. But we are able to have hymnals and Bibles in the pews again, and cushions back in the pews! The Praise Team will be joining us in worship again soon, too, and we are so glad to be able to sing and praise the Lord again. Whenever you feel ready, we would love to see you.
In the coming weeks and months, we will be talking together and making decisions about when is the right time to safely begin Sunday School, nursery care, and coffee and goodies in the Fireside Room. Our priority is always the health and safety of everyone, while we live out our faith. Your thoughts are welcome and really helpful to us as we prayerfully discuss and consider. Please send your questions and thoughts to Grant Mills grantmfi@cccomm.net, Doug Coval grandpa.doug@yahoo.com, Kathy Fraker kathyfraker@charter.net, and/or Pastor Dawn at pastor@eumcfallon.org.
And as always, please join us for virtual coffee hour after worship at 10:45am. Because we are worshiping in person, it takes a bit more time before she can get away to start the Zoom call, so we have shifted the time by 30 mins. You will get the link in your email as always; if we don't have your email, reach out to us at office@eumcfallon.org or 775-423-4714 and we'll make sure you get the link.
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