Living the Resurrection

 April 13, 2021

 

Hello beloved members and friends of Epworth UMC!

 

This time of year, when the weather is getting nicer and the busy time of Holy Week and Easter Sunday is past, I always start thinking of new and exciting things we can do together as a church. I find myself wanting to find a new Bible study to lead, some kind of spring event to create or thing to do to bring some smiles and joy to our neighbors, creative ways to improve our ministry to children and families and homebound folks, neat new things we can do with video to improve our online presence and invite more people to experience the love and grace of God. All kinds of stuff. You all know me well enough to know by now that I have FAR more ideas than there is time and energy to accomplish. But still! I find this time of year very inspiring.

 

But now, I especially have to remember that, whatever new things we might begin together, we have to do them as a team. I can’t just run off and do whatever sounds interesting to me, and do it all alone, because I am the world’s most unreliable person on earth right now. As chemo continues, I find that it takes a bit longer to recover after each treatment, and the recovery isn’t as complete either. So I’m tired, and forgetful, and kinda anti-social too. It is very annoying, I have to tell you.

 

It is also a very good and important lesson.

 

I’ve been spending time reading the letters of Peter and Paul and the rest, and one of the VERY important themes that repeats often, over and over in different contexts, is that the early church thrived because of the active participation and leadership of MANY. They worshiped together, and rejoiced in it, lifting their voices together in song and prayer and praise, sharing their testimonies and talking openly about answered prayers and the ways God was working in their lives. They served together, sharing what they had to help those in need, leading and participating in ministries of mercy and service. They supported each other, leaned on each other, encouraged and advised and protected and uplifted and prayed for each other. They did all of this together, participating in the life of the church using whatever gifts and resources God had given each person. Church was not a building, but a community.

 

As we return to in-person life together as a church -- and continue to bring church to folks at home in some of the new ways we have learned over this past year -- let’s keep our eyes and hearts open to the new things God is doing. Let’s worship and serve and create, pray and praise and teach and learn and love one another in spirit and in truth. And rejoice, for Christ is risen! 

HE IS RISEN INDEED!

Pastor Dawn

Worship Any and Everywhere!

Living the Resurrection

This season, we will be spending our time in the letters of Peter and Paul, John and Timothy and the rest, as we take ourselves back in time to the earliest church. Written just a few short years after Jesus’ resurrection, when many people still remembered vividly Jesus’ miracles and teachings and expected his return any moment, these letters are a powerful witness to how the church lived as people of the resurrection.

 

We wil begin together in the letters of Peter. We will learn some history, some archaeology, some theology…and we will hear what the early church can teach us about being people of the resurrection today. As you prepare your heart for worship, you might like to read Peter’s letters in their entirety…to read them both will take you only about 10 minutes. Or, you might like to focus on the passage we will hear on Sunday, 1 Peter 1:22-25. 

Morning Has Broken

 APRIL 6, 2021

 

 Happy Eastertide, church family and friends!

Ya know, for my entire life I have always said that fall is my favorite season. Probably I will say it again in a few months, knowing me. And I do love it, as the world kind of starts winding down for winter sleep, and the colors change, and the weather gets cooler. I love all the sounds and smells and meaning of it. But I gotta tell ya, now that I have – in an extremely amateur, faltering way – taken up gardening, spring is giving fall a run for its money.

Seeing my 3 year old dwarf peach tree absolutely COVERED with pink blossoms makes me ridiculously happy. Hoping my first attempt at compost works out, and excited to learn how to do it well. Looking forward to planting new kinds of things, and being careful not to do my spring cleanup too early lest all the good pollinators lose their winter sleeping habitat. Seeing the earth start to wake up at church and at home, with little bits of green popping up all over the place promising fresh flowers. It’s all just so sweet and good.

I find a lot of deep spiritual meaning in the fall season, as human beings probably have from the beginning of time. While we as a species look toward winter and depend on the fall harvest to get us through, there is tremendous gratitude and hope and trust in God that infuses the season. In the spring, it’s much more like awe. Happy surprises everywhere. The fulfilment of the hopes we have held onto through the winter. Evidence of new life around every corner, like answers to prayer. It makes lines from the Song of Solomon echo in my mind, about the rains being over and the flowers appearing, and all the God-loving hope expressed in that…and that passage from Lamentations 3:22 about God’s mercies being constantly renewed.

One of my favorite songs to sing at an Easter sunrise service is “Morning Has Broken.” Though Cat Stevens made it popular 50 years ago or so, it was actually written as a Christian children’s hymn in 1931 by famed children’s author Eleanor Farjeon as “a song to give thanks for each day.” It is set to a beautiful Scottish tune first published some 50 years before that.

 

Morning has broken, like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken like the first bird
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning
Praise for them springing fresh from the world.

 

Sweet the rain’s new fall, sunlit from Heaven
Like the first dewfall on the first grass
Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden
Sprung in completeness where His feet pass.

 

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning
Born of the one light, Eden saw play
Praise with elation, praise every morning
God's recreation of the new day.

This is all just about flowers and rain and bees, and how sweet and good and even awe-inspiring all of that is. But 2000 years ago, a small group of women and men were just waking up to the impossible fact that Jesus had been raised from the dead. It changed absolutely everything. Everyday miracles of new life are astounding if we are paying attention, but this was – this IS – something else entirely.

It means everything God has been trying to tell us is true. Not just metaphorically true, religious-scholar-debate true…but literally, physically, right-here-in-real-life true.

For God so loved the world that He gave the Son, so that whoever believes him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save it.

What if we lived like we believed it?

Christ is risen, beloved. He is risen indeed!

Pastor Dawn

Worship Any and Everywhere!

Living the Resurrection

We are blessed to hear a sermon from our District Superintendent Rev Dr Blake Busick this Sunday! We love when he is able to bring us the message now and then. He will join us by video during worship, and the rest of worship will be filled with prayer, music, scripture, and the special joy of the Body of Christ worshiping together. Hope to see you there! If you will be worshiping from home, you can also find us on KVLV at 9:30 as always, and on Facebook Live (if the Facebook gremlins permit. It’s a frustratingly imperfect technology.) As you prepare your heart for worship, you might like to read and pray with our scriptures for Sunday, John 20:19-31 and Acts 4:32-35.

No Greater Love

March 30, 2021

 

Hello church family!

It is so good to be in worship together! As we move into the warmer weather and continue to love one another by keeping Covid protocols carefully in place, it is so good to be able to be in one place to pray and praise God and learn and worship together. We know that the church *never* closed, and the people of God never stopped praying and worshiping, we just did it mostly outside the building…but still, there is something special and powerful about being physically together in the presence of God. There is plenty of room for us to be safely distant, even when most of us are there all at the same time. And if it turns out that we get a bit too crowded, I am very prepared to add a second service at 11:15am when we need it. One way or another, I and your church family look forward to the day when even more of us will feel safe coming back to worship. It is such a joy.

Since preschools are authorized to be open, we hope to be able to open our nursery soon, too, and re-launch children’s Sunday School. We are exploring what we need to do to make that happen safely, so stay tuned.

We are going to hold off on coffee and goodies for now, because we can’t be separated enough in the Fireside Room. As the weather warms, I am thinking we can move the fellowship outside on the lawn with our tables and chairs and goodies and coffee served by our masked and gloved Hospitality Team. 

Slowly but surely, things will get back to normal…and, with the power and grace of God, an even better version of normal. Thank you for your love and faithfulness as we continue to be the church in God’s ever-changing world.

This Sunday is Easter Sunday, and in context I can’t help but think of the disciples of Jesus – not just his close friends, but the thousands and thousands who had gained hope and healing through Jesus – and how their entire world was turned upside down. In Jesus’ brief time with them, their whole understanding of life and God changed. For most, it was change for the better! But for many, including the disciples, it was confusing and frightening, and very hard to accept. And of course, for the religious authorities, it was terrible religious lawbreaking and blasphemy. No wonder there was so much conflict, despite Jesus’ consistent message of love and peace. And then he is killed, and the world is turned upside down again…and then, he is resurrected and – for those who believe – the world is not just turned upside down but absolutely explodes. 

And he appears to them, and their hearts are filled with joy. Impossible, explosive joy. And awe…that feeling of witnessing something impossible that is nevertheless completely real.

And what comes after is the need to embark on an entirely new way of life. Even different from the life they led when Jesus walked with them in person. Entirely new. But they did it. With the power of the Holy Spirit, they laid down their lives even while they were living became the seeds that planted the church. And here we are.

A new seed is planted every time a person says yes to following Jesus. Not just the first time, when we give our lives to Christ, but every time we go about in the world faithfully following his new commandment to love one another. When we do that, every time, we help plant a seed in another heart. 

Every time someone sees your car pull up to church on Sunday (or any other day!) a seed is planted in the hearts of all who see it. Every time we leave our doors open so that the sound of worship goes out into the neighborhood, a seed is planted. Every time we welcome friend and stranger with a real smile and genuine greeting, a seed is planted. Every time we serve selflessly and lovingly, a seed is planted. And the power of the resurrection is made real in a world that doesn’t believe in such things.

Friends, the obstacles we face are in some ways exactly the same as, and in some ways far less than what Jesus’ disciples faced in those days. With the power of the Holy Spirit they persevered and gave the world God’s greatest gift, and it grew and grew and grew until it covered the earth. Seed after seed was planted, every day for weeks and months and years and millennia, until someone shared Jesus with each of us and brought us here to sweet and wonderful Fallon, Nevada. No matter how our world is changing, the Holy Spirit is still alive and active, and we can plant new seeds every day. 

This is what it is to live as people of the Resurrection. Let’s worship every day in spirit and in truth, and give our lives while we are living in faith in Jesus Christ. 

Happy almost-Easter!

Pastor Dawn

Worship Any and Everywhere!

WORSHIP ON EASTER SUNDAY!

Join us for a worship service of joy, thanksgiving, and praise at 9:00am in our beautiful sanctuary. There will be music from our Praise Team, art that expresses our Easter joy, and an Easter message from Pastor Dawn. Hope to see you there! If you will be worshiping from home, you can also find us on KVLV at 9:30 as always, and on Facebook Live (if the Facebook gremlins permit. It’s a frustratingly imperfect technology.)

Good Friday Walk to the Cross

On Friday April 2 at noon, Kathy Fraker will lead a Walk to the Cross. We will meet in the parking lot of the Churchill County Cemetery, where you will receive the elements for Holy Communion and a booklet of the story of Jesus arrest and crucifixion from the gospel of John. Folks are invited to walk at their own pace, to take their time remembering these events in Jesus’ life, and praying as their heart leads them.

Also beginning at noon, the church will be open from 12:00 noon until 3:00pm for anyone who might like to come in and spend some time in prayer. Candles will be lit, and lights will be low, and Bibles will be in the pews for any who might like to read the story of Good Friday in John 18:1-18:42. 

Palm Sunday: The Power of a Suffering King

 Hello church family!

I’ve learned some very important things in the past few weeks.

1. It’s hard to find excuses to stay in the warm shower longer when you have no hair.

2. Buttered popcorn is the most horrible of the Jelly Belly flavors.

3. There is some kind of hormonal thing that happens when husbands turn 50 that makes them obsessed with Corvettes.

4. Very occasionally, when the dog whines to go outside at 2am, his intention is not to chase cats and dig holes and irritate his humans. Sometimes, he really needs to pee.

5. You won’t be able to find any cabbage at Walmart on March 17, no matter how much you want it.

6. Dennis literally just showed me another Corvette for sale, while I’m sitting here writing. It’s blue, and in Ohio.

Anyhoo.

This Sunday is Palm Sunday, when we remember Jesus coming triumphantly into Jerusalem, riding on a donkey like the King of Peace that he is, fulfilling the prophecy in Zechariah from 700 years before. In John, it all begins 6 days before Passover with Jesus coming to Bethany and having dinner with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus whom he had recently raised from the dead. The Jewish leaders are plotting to kill Lazarus, too, we are told, because of the testimony he gives about Jesus. The time they share together is colored by this tension.

At dinner, Mary “anoints” Jesus’ feet with costly perfume, and dries them with her hair. The other gospels tell this story, too, all a bit differently (Luke’s is my favorite). John (and Mark, too) intends us to see here not just a loving gesture but the anointing of Jesus as King and as Messiah, and a foretelling of his death. Then, after this anointing, Jesus rides into Jerusalem knowing that his time is growing short.

“Unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains a single grain; but if it dies, then it bears much fruit.” Nobody knows what he means, really, when Jesus says this. But we do. We live in the miraculous result of Jesus’ resurrection truth.

The thing is, this saying of Jesus applies to us, too. When a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies in fertile ground, it becomes more and more wheat. In the same way, when we give the best of ourselves in goodness and love, goodness and love is multiplied. But we, in Christ, are a new creation. When we give up what is not good in us for Jesus’ sake – our ego, our pride, our self-loathing, our anger or hatred or destructiveness – that, too, dies and bears glorious, miraculous fruit.

In this last week before Holy Week, what needs to die in you?

In faith, hope, and love,

Pastor Dawn

Worship Any and Everywhere!

PALM SUNDAY: The Power of a Suffering King

Join us on Sunday to celebrate Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, as Holy Week begins. We will sing Hosanna and praise the Lord, and then walk together with Jesus into the most important week of his – and our – lives. If you feel ready to join us in person, we would love to see you! We remain committed to healthy protocols including masks, distancing, and careful sanitation as we worship together.

The Way, the Truth, the Life

 March 10, 2021

Hello, members and friends of Epworth UMC!

Here I am, sitting in a comfy chemo chair wrapped in a quilt handmade by good friends, surrounded by other patients and amazing nurses. A woman was here just now finishing her last treatment, and brought flowers for the nurses. They gave her a big loud bell to ring and the whole place applauded. Brought tears.

I was given a gift of a beautiful devotional called “Psalms for Praying: An Invitation to Wholeness” by Nan Merrill. It is a sort of meditation on the psalms we know and love, using somewhat different language to express the same ideas from a bit of a different perspective. Rewording the parts especially that call for God to smite enemies and whatnot, and focusing more on the evil in us that comes from our own ego, on forgiveness, and on God as Love itself. I am finding it really wonderful. Here’s an example of a rewriting of Psalm 3:

O Beloved, how numerous are my fears! They rise up in me whispering,

there is no help for you.

Yet You O Beloved radiate Love around me, my glory;

gratitude becomes my song, When I cry out to You,

You answer within my heart. I lie down to sleep; if I should

awaken, my Beloved is there holding me with strength

and tenderness.

I feel secure.

Now, I shall forgive all illusions

that my ego tries to build.

For my courage is in You, O Love, You who are the Lover hidden

in every heart.

Rise up, Love! Set me free!

For through Your guidance,

My fears will fade into love. Free from fear, I will know

the Oneness of Being that encompasses everything!

I shall be free to serve Love with a glad and open heart.

I have been praying with that all morning, so I thought I would share it with you. So much trouble in our lives comes from fear. What if we forgave ourselves of it, and gave it all to God, and were free?

In faith, hope, and love,

Pastor Dawn

Worship Any and Everywhere!

I AM The Way, the Truth, and the Life

This week, while Pastor Dawn is resting and recovering from her latest chemo treatment, Jim Wieboldt is bringing us a message about the wonderful love of our lord Jesus Christ. Our reading comes from John 14:1-7, part of Jesus’ long final sermon to his disciples as he prepares for the culmination of his ministry. He is trying to prepare them for his departure, telling them that he is preparing a place for them where he is going, and reminding them that “you know the way to the place I am going.” Phillip protests. “We don’t know where you are going, how can we know the way?” And Jesus responds, “I AM the way. And the truth, and the life.” You might like to take some time before worship on Sunday, to read this passage and sit with it awhile, to see what God might be saying to you through it.

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.

A New Commandment, and a Promise

 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. 

I AM the Good Shepherd

March 1, 2021

 

Hello, members and friends of Epworth UMC!

 

I don’t know about you, but I am rejoicing in this beautiful pre-Spring weather. Tiny beginnings of buds on the dwarf peach tree in the backyard. Tulips in our prayer garden starting to poke up through the soil. Kids playing outside in the yards across the street from the church. Hints and beginnings.

 

A couple of you have asked me about a prayer practice I mentioned last year at this time, a practice known as “praying the hours.” Honestly I hadn’t thought of it this year, but now that you have reminded me I have begun it again. It’s an ancient thing, found in the records of the very earliest churches, and practiced especially in monastic communities that would gather to pray several times during each day, based on Psalm 119:164 that says “Seven times a day I praise you,” and Psalm 119:62 that says “At midnight I rise to praise you.” Traditionally, each “hour” is not just prayer but a mini-worship service, with hymns and psalms and particular prayers, and is meant to be a thing done in community. I have found it an incredibly beautiful thing, though, just to read a Psalm and pray.

 

It’s the deliberate stopping at weird times during the day, that I think makes it so beneficial. Personally, I don’t set an alarm for the traditional prayer in the middle of the night, but some do. The traditional hours are 2am, 5am, sunrise, 9am, noon, 3pm, sunset (known as vespers), and bedtime. It reminds me of Jewish prayer practices, now and in Jesus’ time and place…it’s not exactly the same, but the day of a faithful orthodox Jewish person was filled with prayer. At morning and evening, at every meal, whenever hands or body were washed, at leaving and entering the home, and many other moments of life. It may sound like a lot, but it had the effect of reminding a person of God’s presence and blessing even in the most ordinary, mundane parts of life. That’s what I find praying the hours does, too. 

 

When we set aside specific times to pray, and force ourselves to stop whatever we would otherwise be doing, even if just for a few moments, to focus on God, it has the effect of improving our spiritual eyesight. We find our attention more easily drawn to God’s presence and blessing all throughout the day. We find our hearts lighter, more full, more aware. We find ourselves noticing things like the tiny buds on trees and tiny wildflowers among weeds and kids playing across the street. And being very, very grateful.

 

I am so blessed to be in ministry with all of you. When you are ready, come join us in worship! You are so, so loved. 

 

In the arms of the Good Shepherd,

Pastor Dawn

Worship Any and Everywhere

I AM The Good Shepherd

This week, we continue in the Gospel of John by talking about the I AM statements of Jesus. It’s a deep and wonderful discussion, really bringing to light what John means when he says that Jesus is the Word made flesh, bringing true light and abundant life to the world.

 

We are worshiping in person, praise the Lord, and it is good to hear from so many of you who are looking forward to joining us after getting your vaccines. We are also worshiping on Facebook and KVLV as always, of course, for those who join us from home. Wherever you choose to worship, YOUR CHURCH LOVES YOU!! See you on Sunday. 

John: the Gospel of Life

February 23, 2021

 

Hello, members and friends of Epworth UMC!

So there I was, in a Methodist Facebook discussion group, when a person expressed surprise that Methodists mark the season of Lent. It’s not Biblical, she said. And she’s right, sort of...but of course, Advent and Christmas aren’t technically Biblical either. Neither is Sunday worship for that matter, nor a whole lot of essential Christian tradition that came into being after the time of Peter and Paul and the early church. She didn’t say so, but I suspect that underneath her concern was a familiar Protestant suspicion of things that feel Catholic, which I can understand. There was a reason for the Reformation, after all, and anti-Catholic sentiment lingers still in some ways. But Methodists have marked the season of Lent since the very beginning.

Personally, I find it a beautiful, restful season. It’s similar to Advent with the sense of preparation and anticipation, but it is so much more slow and easy, personal and prayerful. From our Ash Wednesday service:

 

       “Tonight marks the beginning of Lent: a season of self-examination.  Though the colors are muted and dry to remind us of all of the ways that we need God, it is a beautiful, and hopeful, and holy thing.  This is a time to ponder the depth of God’s love, and the lengths to which God has gone to bring awareness of that transforming love into the world.  It is a time to ponder what God wants for us and for the world, which the Israelites called “shalom”, the prophets called “justice”, and Jesus called “life abundant.”  And it is a time to ponder what God’s love calls us to do: to discover where God’s love leads us to forgive, and seek forgiveness.  Lent is a time to let life in again, a time to get rid of whatever might be blocking the fullness of life within us. Let us open ourselves to God’s wisdom and guidance, trusting that God will lead us, love us, fill us, renew us.

       So let us embark together on a journey of the heart. In these days the church is dressed in natural fabrics and earthy tones, purple colors that remind us of blessed dark and quietness, and barren branches that remind us of death that leads to new life. In this time, we look deep into our own humanness, our own hunger, our own flawed incompleteness. We must go there, because we cannot celebrate the glorious gift of New Life that God offers us until we know why we need it. It is a journey to take slowly, with great honesty, but also compassion and gentleness, knowing that we are held by a God of endless mercy and compassion. With gratitude and wonder, let us receive God’s gift of Love in our minds, hearts, and souls, allowing God to remold and remake us once again.”

 

There are a lot of different ways to mark the season, by giving up things or committing to new things. However you choose to spend these important days, I pray that they bring you more and more in love with God, one another, and yourself.

In faith, hope, and love,

Pastor Dawn

Worship Any and Everywhere

John: The Gospel of Life

This season of Lent, we are moving together through the gospel of John. You might like to make it a Lenten practice to add a reading of John’s gospel to your day, moving through it slowly, a bit at a time. We so often read the gospels in chunks and disconnected pieces that it can be really enlightening and wonderful to read it slowly, in order, not skipping the difficult parts or favoring the familiar ones. 

It has been said that Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell us who Jesus is, while John tells us what Jesus means. John’s gospel is full of poetry and metaphor and mystery that will be wonderful to explore. This week in worship, we’ll focus on the beginning of Jesus’ ministry through chapter 5, what we know about who John was, and what John feels is especially important for us to know about the lifegiving meaning of Jesus Christ.

We are worshiping in person, praise the Lord, and it is good to hear from so many of you who are looking forward to joining us after getting your vaccines. We are also worshiping on Facebook and KVLV as always, of course, for those who join us from home. Wherever you choose to worship, YOUR CHURCH LOVES YOU!! See you on Sunday. 

Dust and Ashes

February 17, 2021

Hello, members and friends of Epworth UMC!

Well, the first round of chemotherapy is in the bag. Woo hoo! God only knows what the next few days will bring, but in the meantime I am so thankful for all of the leaders who have jumped to help keep the church and her many ministries running. I am so thankful for the ways you reach out and help each other in so many ways, even as it has become a lot more difficult to do so during this pandemic.

Today, as I write is Ash Wednesday. Last night would have been Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday, where traditionally folks would use up all the fat and sugar in the house by making a big ol pancake feast. At the Blundell household, we had pizza. Close enough, we figured, haha. I swear, whenever we can, I REALLY intend to have a big ol celebration of every single birthday and every single holiday all at once in the church. We could even invite the whole neighborhood! Go around and give Christmas cookies and Mardi Gras beads and Easter flowers and birthday cards to every person in the neighborhood. One of these days.

Maybe we could even make it a fundraiser! Like years go, when people could buy Valentines from us, and we would deliver them all over town. Hmmmmmm an idea is forming...just to spread a little joy, ya know? We couldn’t do the meal yet, but we could do the delivery...hmmmmmmmmmmm.

Anyhoo, back to today. Tonight our Ash Wednesday service will be broadcast on Facebook and Youtube. No in-person service this year, too many of us are health compromised for the close contact Ash Wednesday requires. By now, you should have received a little gift bag of Ash Wed and Lent objects to help guide your prayer and worship. I will be joining you in watching tonight at 7:00pm. See you then!

Sunday, worship will be led by Ron Evans and Jim Foster, with Steve Russell sharing a word for the young at heart. The video and radio feeds are all ready to go for you who will be worshiping from home, and the church is all ready for you who will come to worship in person. I hope to feel well enough to join you in watching from home, and for coffee hour afterward, on Zoom...as always, the link to join by computer will be in your email.

Remember, even as Lent is a time of deep self-reflection and repentance, it is also a time to rediscover the joy of our relationship with God. By praying more often, or worshiping in new ways, or reading or studying in a different way, or committing to some work of help to someone...and by working with God to remove whatever hurts or obstacles in our life that may be blocking the fullness of abundant life Jesus promises, we find that the whole world becomes filled with wonder that has always been there, but that we had been missing. I hope this season is like that for you.

See you tonight for Ash Wednesday, and have a wonderful week!

      Pastor Dawn

Reverent.

 February 9, 2021

 

Hello, members and friends of Epworth UMC!

I admit it, I watch the Superbowl for the commercials. I barely even knew who was playing this year. Once upon a time, my brothers and sisters and I and our families descended en masse on my parents’ house to watch and eat and be the loud Italians that we are, but even then I had very little interest in the actual game. 

There were some hilarious ones, and some touching ones this year as always. The one that seems to be inspiring the most conversation (at least, among the pastors I know) is the Bruce Springsteen ad for Jeep. It references a chapel that sits in the almost-exact center of the United States’ lower 48 (more on that in a minute), and urges us to find hope “in the road up ahead” for the re-uniting of America. I found it really moving and good; it touched on a deep longing in many for an end to conflict and a rebirth of understanding and love for one another. Not sameness, but peaceful harmony. The Bible would call that “shalom.”

But the critique I am hearing is important, too. And just to be clear, the critique is not about the ad itself but about something much bigger. Just as we tend to rush past Good Friday to focus on Easter Sunday, we humans tend to want to rush too fast past the work of reconciliation to forgiveness. A disease in the body can’t just be wished away by human will; it has to be removed with surgery or medicine before healing can begin. A marriage broken by hurt or betrayal can’t be restored by pretending the hurt didn’t happen, as much as the hurt-er might prefer; it has to be carefully and honestly addressed with apology, changed behavior, recommitment, and forgiveness. And even then, healing isn’t instantaneous. It takes time and effort, faith and work, whether it is the body or the relationship that needs healing. The same is true of our country, our world, and the Body of Christ expressed in our churches. So the call to unity in the ad is striking some folks as a call to ignore all that may be broken for the sake of a false peace.

That is not the kind of peace Jesus promises, and not the kind of peace people of God long for. We seek a *true* peace, born not of the absence of conflict but of the presence of justice. In Jesus Christ we find the transforming power of reconciliation, in which repentance is an absolutely critical component. 

It turns out, the little chapel in Lebanon, Kansas is not exactly at the center of the lower 48. The exact center is disputed, but the strongest evidence appears to be a spot about half a mile from the chapel, right in the middle of a hog farm. Now THAT is Biblical. 

 

“So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ So he got up and went to his father.”

~ Luke 15:17-20

 

Forgiveness from God is as free as from the prodigal son’s father, who came running to meet him on the road. But the relationship is not truly restored and shalom is not found without the son’s regret and repentance.

Let’s not rush past the important work of reconciliation. If we do, we miss the incredible gift of true unity.

 

Leaning on the everlasting arms,

Pastor Dawn

Worship at Epworth and at Home

 

It’s Scout Sunday!

2021 is the 101^st anniversary of Scouting in America, and we are SO blessed to sponsor Scout Troop 1776 here in Fallon. We all know men and women who have been positively impacted by Scouting, and it is a strength of our community to have such a healthy, active, growing program.

 

To be “reverent” is a central ideal of Scouting, and part of the Scout Law that every Scout learns to recite from memory. According to scoutlife.org, “A Scout is reverent. He is faithful in his religious duties and respects the convictions of others in matters of custom and religion.” Another site, Scouts for Equality, expands on this saying, “Reverence is a deeply-held, constantly evolving set of beliefs and ethics. For some, it is embodied by organized religion. For others, reverence is represented by a respect for others and the world around us. Reverence is as much about respect for one another’s beliefs—or lack thereof—as it is about a Scout’s own beliefs.” 

 

What an outstanding concept.

 

This Sunday, Scouts from Troop 1776 will lead us in prayer and scripture, and share a lesson for the Young at Heart. It also being Valentine’s Day, we will wrap up our series about God molding and making us into sacred vessels of God’s grace by talking about the Biblical concept of love, and the courage it takes to live into it. As you prepare your hearts for worship, you might like to take a look at Ephesians 6:10-17 and see what God might have to say to you in it.

 

Worship with us at 9:00am in our sanctuary for those who prefer, and on Facebook and KVLV at 9:30am. Tell your friends! And then, after worship we will pray together and enjoy coffee hour in the sanctuary and on Zoom. The link will be in your email; if we don't have your email, reach out to us at office@eumcfallon.org or 775-423-4714 and we will make sure you get the link.

With All Your Soul

 February 2, 2021

 Hello, church family!

 

Well, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning. 6 more weeks of winter! Since we didn’t get any real snow until last week, that’s probably a good thing.

 

Where this whole Groundhog Day silliness came from God only knows, but it goes back to at least 1887. It involves an actual groundhog, a bunch of tophat and tuxedo-wearing people called the Inner Circle who are the only people who understand “groundhogese”, and thousands of “phaithphil phollowers” who gather to hear the prediction and enjoy a wonderfully silly festival. It all sounds hilarious to me.

 

But what Groundhog Day always brings to mind for me now, since the mid 1990s, is the Bill Murray movie by the same name. It’s a ridiculous and then surprisingly meaningful story where Bill’s character is somehow forced to live the same day over and over and over and over again until he unlearns his boorish and selfish ways and learns to love selflessly and honestly. There’s a whole salvation story in that, about how the initial pleasure of selfishness and sin bring us only misery, and generosity and self-sacrificial love free us.

 

There is a book on my nightstand that I started reading some time ago and then got pulled away from. It’s called “The Way of Love: Recovering the Heart of Christianity” by Normal Wirzba. I only got through the first third of it, but nearly every other page of it is marked. It’s wonderful. I just picked it up again from the beginning, so that I can re-read it and finish it. Here’s one part, where I put several markers:

 

“I think it’s possible to show up in a human life and not really live it at all. I mean, you can have a good life on paper, but then discover that what looks good on the page has hardly been lived from the heart and with a sense of the significance of what is going on...

 

“[T]o live a compelling life requires that you give yourself wholly to life’s depth. You have to let life’s goodness and sanctity take hold and move you from inside...That is what Christianity provides. It gives us entrance to a life in which the sanctity of things is front and center, a life that is truly worth committing to and cherishing...

 

“Christianity at its deepest level gives us a vision of the world as the manifestation of God’s love, and then provides us with the practices by which we can respond to this gift. It is an invitation to experience a life in which gratitude and contentment, peace and joy take their place alongside the difficulty and pain that will invariably come our way...Christian faith that is working properly produces people who nurture and cherish life. It produces people who are fully alive rather than comfortably numb.

“From a Christian point of view, love and life are inseparable, because divine love is the pulse and power at work in everything. Nothing is possible and nothing makes sense apart from God’s love. It is God’s love that first creates the world. It is God’s love that daily sustains life and heals it when it is wounded. It is God’s love that knits creatures together into a membership or communion of life when things come undone, and it is God’s love that redeems and resurrects the bodies of creation that have been degraded and wasted by violence and death.” pp 18 and 35

 

Movies like “Groundhog Day” and stories like Beauty and the Beast and many others preach a piece of the Biblical truth that selflessness, honesty, generosity, and love are better ways to happiness than self-indulgence. But we as Christians believe that consistently making those choices isn’t really possible without the power of Jesus Christ working within us. And even when we do make selfless and generous choices, there remains a major missing piece without God in our life. Because ultimately, it isn’t just about the choices we make, but about the soul-deep need for God in us and in the world. When we nurture our relationship with God, the Living Water fills us up and pours out from us unbidden, healing and transforming the world.

 

It’s what the world needs. It’s what we each need. And it’s what God offers in Jesus Christ, absolutely free for the asking.

 

Praising God from whom all blessings flow,

Pastor Dawn

 

Worship at Epworth and at Home

 

Sacred Vessels, Part 4: Soul.

“For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God, and does not come from us.” 2 Corinthians 4:6-7

And that is the key, beloved. We are clay vessels, molded and made by a loving God for the purpose of sharing God’s miraculous grace with the world. And that grace, that Light, that Living Water...it belongs to God, not to us.

 

Join us this Sunday as we continue our series about loving God, each other, and ourselves well so that we can be filled up to overflowing with grace. This week, we will talk together about a love that is soul-deep, an agape love that only comes alive when we are in touch with the Living God.

 

And then next week, on Valentine’s Day, it’s Scout Sunday! We always look forward to the scouts of Troop 1776 joining us and helping to lead worship. They will be doing a bunch of stuff on video, and some will be able to join us for in person worship, too.

Worship with us at 9:00am in our sanctuary for those who prefer, and on Facebook and KVLV at 9:30am. Tell your friends! And then, after worship we will pray together and enjoy coffee hour in the sanctuary and on Zoom. The link will be in your email; if we don't have your email, just reach out to us at office@eumcfallon.org or 775-423-4714 and we will make sure you get it.