Of Protesters and Rebels

We had a protester a couple of weeks ago.

He arrived just before worship and returned around the time we ended. He stood on the sidewalk outside our front doors, with a big sign and a headset microphone and speaker, to "greet" our members and guests as they arrived and as they made their way home. Several of us stood outside to welcome people in and out, to be sure they saw a friendly face and hopefully prevent him from yelling directly at them. We tried to talk with him, but (surprise!) he wasn't interested in conversation. Thankfully, he wasn't saying anything too extremely offensive...just that we were "harboring Democrats and baby killers" and that we supported "the Gay Agenda" and needed to REPENT!!

I won't deny, it did cause a bit of a buzz, a little tension and "what on earth? is he serious?" kinds of bemused conversation. But when I mentioned it as worship began, in order to further ease any discomfort and encourage people to be kind to him, a beloved member of our congregation spoke up and said, "It's OK, he is just telling the world how welcoming we are!" And the wonderful spirit of kinship we share at Epworth was further stoked, warming all of us from the inside out.

Praise God, I just love this place. So much. If he comes back, I am absolutely going to gather the entire church to go outside and circle around him, singing something fun about the love and grace of Jesus at the TOP of our lungs.

As he hollered outside, a thousand things were going through my mind. Things like, who is he? What events in his life have led him to this moment? What is his goal, really? What has led him to believe that this is an effective way to share the Good News? He evidently does this sort of thing a lot, at our summer parades and outside the high school, and has been spoken to by the police more than once. There is a wonderful pentecostal pastor in town named Jean who spends her early Sunday mornings driving to every church in town and praying for all of us (how amazing is THAT, by the way?); apparently she encountered our protester and tried to dissuade him to no avail, and let me know that he had been at Trinity Episcopal the same day, going back and forth between our churches. And, as he stood out there refusing to be in actual conversation, one thought overrode everything else: he doesn't know us at all.

When my kids were young, and before my youngest brothers and sisters had kids of their own and life kinda scattered all of us a bit, we spent almost every Sunday evening at dinner with my parents. It was crowded and loud and silly and joyful. I miss it. Sometimes we would get into very intense conversations about religion or politics, but not for one second do I remember feeling (or anyone else feeling) angry, or having any hard feelings toward each other. There was always laughter, and genuine affection, because we prized our relationships with each other above all else. That experience has given me a sense that people who disagree with each other can have whole, healthy, life-giving relationships.

Maybe that is why I feel so blessed to serve a church like Epworth. We are Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and Libertarians. We are as far Left (whatever that means) as you can get, and we are -- in the words of another beloved church member -- to the Right of Ghengis Khan. We are gay and transgender and straight; we are married and single and remarried and widowed. We are business owners and farmers, administrators and teachers and students, peaceniks and veterans and active military, nurses and musicians and bookkeepers and stay-at-home parents. We are not of one mind, on any pressing issue in our church or in our culture. We are put together in families as widely varied as you could imagine, and are as different as a group of a couple hundred people could possibly be. And we drive each other crazy, and love each other beyond all reason, because we know that none of those differences matter one iota. The things that bring us together are too important.

We share a passionate commitment to the transforming, life-changing power of Jesus Christ.

We love Scripture and believe wholeheartedly in the ability of God to speak through it into every part of our lives, and deep into our hearts.

We have experienced the movement of the Holy Spirit, and seen miracles of healing in bodies, spirits, and relationships.

We have been broken and made whole...we have sinned and been forgiven...we have been lost, and are found.

We have each come here to Epworth with a story, one that is uniquely our own, that has landed us in this place, with these people, in this moment. So we come here to worship, pray, serve, and sing, and learn with each passing day what it means to love one another.

"Here in this place, new light is streaming, 
now is the darkness vanished away. 
See, in this space, our fears and our dreamings, 
brought here to you in the light of this day. 
Gather us in - the lost and forsaken,
gather us in - the blind and the lame. 
Call to us now, and we shall awaken, 
we shall arise at the sound of our name.

Not in the dark of buildings confining, 
not in some heaven, light years away, 
but here in this place, the new light is shining; 
now is the Kingdom, now is the day. 
Gather us in - and hold us forever, 
gather us in - and make us your own. 
Gather us in - all peoples together, 
fire of love in our flesh and our bone."

~ from "Gather Us In" by Marty Haugen

So I pray that God continues to stretch and challenge us. I pray that we continue to learn from each other and teach other, sing together and pray for each other, and work together to serve those in need. Because we never feel the power of God more strongly than when we engage in that kind of holy, outrageous rebellion.

Love and blessings,

Pastor Dawn

The Beginning of the End of the Beginning

Hello, friends! 

It has been a long time since I have been able to attend to this blog, and I am glad to get back to it. Let's talk about Palm Sunday.

All season long, we have been talking together about Jesus' life and ministry as told in the Gospel of Mark. And since Easter falls on April Fool's Day this year, we have been inspired Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 1:25 when he describes Jesus' life, death, and resurrection:

For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

It is the ultimate foolishness, coming into Jerusalem, knowing all that would happen. And they did know, at least on some level. Back in Mark chapter 10, beginning with verse 32, we read:

They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them; they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles; they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise again.”

They might not have understood exactly what Jesus was saying here, but they knew enough to be afraid. They knew that the religious authorities opposed him, and that things were getting increasingly tense. 

Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, at around the same time, Pilate is entering Jerusalem at the head of a military procession. Knowing this, it would have been another reason Jesus' followers were afraid. Because this was something that happened every year at Passover, and maybe at other major festivals as well: Pilate and other Roman governors spent most of the year at Caesarea by the sea, but they came into town every year at Passover to make a show of force. Jerusalem swelled from 40k people to something like 200k at Passover, and the people of Israel had a history of rebellions against Roman rule, so for years governors had arrived in the city in full military regalia. In their book "The Last Week", John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg describe what the scene may have been like: “...cavalry on horses, foot soldiers, leather armor, helmets, weapons, banners, golden eagles mounted on poles, sun glinting on metal and gold…" The sound of “marching feet, the creaking of leather, the clinking of bridles, the beating of drums” meant to strike fear into onlookers.  And as Pilate led this fierce regiment into town, he did so with confidence knowing that he was backed up by several battalions of Rome’s finest garrisoned on the west side of Jerusalem ready to flood into the city at Pilate’s command. 

But on the other side of town, in something like a counter-procession, Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey, living out the words of the prophet Zechariah: 

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!  Lo, your King comes to you; triumphant and victories is he humble and riding on an donkey, on a colt, the foal of an donkey.” The people, waving palm branches, spreading their cloaks on the road as the people cried, “Hosanna! Save us!”

No wonder the disciples were afraid. Jesus had told them what they were walking into, and even if they didn’t fully understand it at the time, they certainly must have understood by the time he turned over the tables in the temple as they prepared for this incredibly important festival. It was a festival that celebrated God’s love, forgiveness, and freedom from slavery...and Jesus up-ends their tables, scatters the animals with whips, and accuses the religious leaders of turning God's holy place into a den of thieves and robbers.

It is the ultimate foolishness, isn’t it? For Jesus to enter Jerusalem this way, knowing what would happen. To subject himself to all that was coming, to be betrayed, arrested, beaten, and killed. All to convince us, finally, that the power of God’s love is greater than the love of power. That the power of God’s love is stronger than all of the forces of evil on earth. To teach us to proclaim with Paul in his letter to the Romans that "in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

And while Jesus is there in the city these few days before Passover, in sharp contrast to those who are plotting to kill him and those who are afraid, a woman anoints him with oil in the house of a Pharisee. She is this unnamed woman with an alabaster jar of expensive perfume, showing him tenderness and honor. All of the Gospel writers tell this story, so that what Jesus says about it is true: that whenever the Good News is proclaimed, people will tell this story and remember her. And we do. Luke's telling of this story is especially tender: it is in Luke's telling that we hear that the woman is weeping at Jesus' feet, washing his feet with her tears and drying them with her hair. It is an act not just of honor to Jesus, but of repentance, forgiveness, boldness, and tears of life-transforming gratitude.

It is a season of contrasts, this one, especially this week that begins with Jesus entering Jerusalem on what we call Palm Sunday. It contrasts peace with war, life with death, love with hate. Christmas comes just after the longest night of the year, as the light just begins to shine a bit brighter and a bit longer than the darkness, and we celebrate the coming of the Light. At Christmas, we read in John the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness will never overcome it. Now here, at the beginning of spring, the light and the darkness are just about equal equal. It looks as though they are equally matched at this point, and in the Gospel story the confrontation between the two is at its most intense as we begin this final week with Jesus. There have been skirmishes before now, confrontations that have been building in intensity as Jesus insists on healing, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, peace, hope… and the religious authorities resist. Now, that resistance is at its height. Because comforting the afflicted always afflicts the comfortable.

This conflict, it's not just happening to Jesus. It is inside us, too, and in our own world. There is a struggle between the light and darkness inside us all. We have sins to confront and hurts that need healing, truths to accept and obstacles to overcome, humility to learn, sacrifices to make, and abundant life to claim. It is a lifelong spiritual work, to turn away from darkness and toward the light of Jesus Christ. Stephen Garnaas Holmes, a United Methodist pastor and poet writes:

Earth tilts and spins,

turns another face to the sun, and today, mid-tilt, we all get the same light and darkness.


For we all are the same, light and darkness mixed. “Hosanna!” and “Crucify!” mingle on our lips.

South and North face into autumn and spring. My repentance looks one way, yours another, to face our darkness, or to live in our light.

It's true, isn't it? And so, as you enter into this difficult week, I encourage you spend it in  prayer. Pay close attention to your own heart. And as you do, as you remember the darkness that Jesus encountered and what it was made of, and how it acted, consider your own life and the darkness you need to turn away from. Be encouraged that, as you grapple with your own repentance, you can rely on the strength of the one even death could not defeat. We head into a dark time this week, and it is important that we go there fearlessly…we can do that because even there God is with us, and the promise of the resurrection is that darkness is never the end of the story. Rely on the strength of the one who conquered death, the one who loves you beyond imagining, the one from whom nothing can separate us, the one who knit you together in your mother’s womb, the one whose way always and only leads to life.

I hope that you will join us for a beautiful Tenebrae service on Maundy Thursday (March 29) at 7, and the Walk to the Cross on Good Friday (March 30) at noon at Rattlesnake Mountain here in Fallon. And then, I hope that you will join us for an Easter Sunrise service here at Epworth at 7am on Sunday, April 1, and stay for a little breakfast afterward! Or, join us for traditional Easter Sunday worship at 9am that same day, and come early for breakfast. We would love to celebrate this great day with you. 

Have a blessed Holy Week.

In the everlasting love of God,

Pastor Dawn

The Afterglow

Merry Christmas, beloved, and happy-almost-New Year!

I hope that you had a blessed Christmas season, friends, and a restful and thankful post-holiday week. As much as I love Christmas, the week afterward might be my favorite week in the entire year: the long days and frantic pace of the preparations is past; the day itself has come and gone, leaving memories of good meals, time with people important to us, and meaningful candlelit worship in its wake. This week the pace is slower, and feels like a lovely, easy stroll. There is time to put life back in order, to think of something other than Christmas, to (gasp!) read an actual BOOK. It's pretty great.

I wonder what it would have felt like for Mary and Joseph this week. Their long-awaited miracle child is born. The shepherds have come and gone, smelling of earth and animals and work, telling of shining angels filling the sky and singing, telling them:

"Fear not, for I bring you good tidings of great joy for all people. For unto you this day is born in Bethlehem a savior, which is Christ the Lord."

All who have heard the shepherd's tale are amazed, but Mary (Luke tells us), is treasuring these words, and pondering them in her heart.

The time for Jesus' circumcision on the 8th day, with its attendant prayer and sacrifices, hasn't happened yet; neither has Mary's rite of purification, and Jesus' dedication to God as the firstborn son. For Mary and Joseph, it is a time to rest, to ponder, to learn what it is to be new parents, to treasure all of these things. To begin putting things in order, in life and in spirit, as their new life begins. To fear not.

Soon enough, they will meet the Magi, the wise men from "the east", bringing gifts. Soon enough, the family will flee to Egypt at the direction of the loving God who guides their steps. But now is the time to rest, to gather strength, to pray and trust, to treasure. That is what this time can be for us, too. In the afterglow of candlelight and good tidings of great joy, I hope that you can take some time to rest, to gather strength, to pray and trust, to look forward to what God has in store for you, to treasure it all.

In worship, this in-between time lasts through Epiphany -- when we remember the arrival of the Magi -- on Jan 7. And then, back to ordinary life, but an ordinary life inspired and warmed from within by good tidings of great joy. So while you rest, and ponder, and treasure, consider these words from Howard Thurman to guide your life this year:

When the song of the angels is stilled,

When the star in the sky is gone,

When the kings and the princes are home,

When the shepherds are back with their flocks,

The work of Christmas begins:

To find the lost,

To heal the broken,

To feed the hungry,

To release the prisoner,

To rebuild the nations,

To bring peace among people,

To make music in the heart.

I hope you are able to join us for worship tomorrow at Epworth, in person, on the radio at KVLV, or on Facebook Live at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100015790988604. Worship begins at 9am, and our broadcast begins with the scripture and sermon at 9:30am. Have a wonderful, blessed weekend!

In the endless, miraculous love of God,

Pastor Dawn

Faithful.

Merry almost-Christmas, beloved!

It is a cold and quiet Saturday morning, here at the Blundell house. There is laundry to do, and plans to make, projects to complete and things that need addressing. I am sitting here, wrestling with the temptation to do all of the things, all of them, right this moment.

But a line from a movie keeps running through my head, and distracting me.

Now, that is not an entirely unusual occurrence. But as I sit down to write today, with that line running through my head, it suddenly occurs to me that it is a Christmas movie, though I really hadn't put that together before. In fact, it has suddenly dawned on me that it is a retelling of the story of A Christmas Carol, and Ebenezer Scrooge. The movie is "Hook," starring Robin Williams, about Peter Pan having grown up and become very Scrooge-like. Peter and his family have travelled to England for Christmas, to spend it with his wife's grandmother Wendy (yes, THAT Wendy), but Peter is obsessed with work, yelling at everyone, fearful of everything, barely able to tolerate the visit or the holiday. It becomes clear that his relationships are extremely strained, due to his inattention and rotten behavior. At one point, his frustrated wife says to him (and this is the line that keeps echoing in my head): "It's so fast Peter. Just a few years, and it's over. And you are not being careful. And you are missing it."

I think I need to put that movie on! Be right back.

This movie makes me so happy. 😍

It is so, so easy to miss it, beloved. When things are good and business is booming...when things are difficult, and we struggle to see past the present moment...when we have experienced a major loss or change, and we can't quite figure out how to be...when we are just sort of lost in the ordinary everyday, doing the things we always do and not really paying attention. It's so easy to allow this season to be over-filled with its tasks and events and projects that we miss the point of it entirely. It is so easy to miss the miracle.

But this is Advent. Amidst all of the rest of it, it is meant to be a time of stillness. Of preparing, yes, but of watching, and waiting, and hoping. A time to pay careful attention, to love all of those around us and look for miracles in ordinary things. A time to be still, and know that God is God. To taste and see that the Lord is good.

Tomorrow morning in worship, we will spend some time with Joseph, a man of righteousness, mercy, faith, and love. You'll find his story in Matthew 1:18-25; you might like to read it today, as you prepare your heart for worship. After worship, we will enjoy the kids' Christmas play! I hope you will join us. If you're not able, then I hope you will tune in to KVLV at 9:30, or find us on Facebook Live at my Facebook page (dawn blundell), and join us in spirit.

Life moves so fast, beloved. Be still, pay attention, and don't miss it.

See you in worship.

Steadfast love and countless blessings,
Pastor Dawn

Happy Thanksgiving!

Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh.

It's a good day.

Sitting here in our little room at the Lewis and Clark hotel in Bozeman, Montana at the end of a very non-traditional Thanksgiving with Dennis' daughter Emma-Leigh, talking with my brothers and sisters and kids via text where they are gathered in Reno with my Dad, with a marathon of The Godfather playing in the background for some reason, it is a very good day.

All day long, thoughts of Thanksgivings past. My mom's recipes, and all of us kids gathered around a noisy table. Her in the kitchen all day, from before we were even awake, making the different dishes. the whole house smelling so good. Our first Thanksgiving away from home, when we were living in San Anselmo while I went to seminary, and how sad we all were...but how we made it our own by letting the kids each pick their favorite thing to have for the feast, and laughed about how steak and tomato soup and macaroni and cheese and stuffing really didn't go together, but eating it anyway. How off-kilter holidays have felt ever since my mom died a few years ago, but how hard we have all worked to create a new normal. How happy we all are this year, that it is my sister's first holiday in 2 years that she hasn't been in the hospital!!

I keep thinking, too, of the happiness and love that filled the Wolf Center on Monday, while 250+ people gathered for Fallon Daily Bread's special Thanksgiving feast. I had to seclude my coughing self from most of it, but I wish I had better words to describe how meaningful that all was. The smiles on everyone's faces, feeling so...I don't know. More than cared for, and enthusiastically welcomed. More than gratified by doing a good thing. Just feeling...together.

I ran across this hymn the other day, written (and copyrighted) by a woman named Carolyn Winfrey Gillette for Thanksgiving. I just love it. It can be sung to several different tunes, but she prefers the "Hymn to Joy" by Beethoven. You know, the one that goes "Joyful, joyful we adore thee, God of glory, Lord of love..." Let that tune play in your mind, and sing these words:

All of life is filled with wonder, so we thank you God of love
For the crash of evening thunder, clearing clouds, then stars above;
For the night that turns to glowing as we feel the morning mist,
God, we praise and thank you, knowing every day we're truly blessed.

For the joy of daily waking, for the gift of each new day,
For the smell of fresh bread baking, for the sound of children's play,
For the ways we seek to serve you, as we work and volunteer,
God we humbly praise and thank you, for your presence with us here.

For the ways we're blessed with plenty, love and laughter, neighbors, friends,
Nature's wonders, season's bounty, life in you that never ends;
For the ones who've gone before us, giving witness to your way,
We rejoice in all you give us, every moment, every day.

However you have spent the day today, I hope that you have found something to smile about, something to be thankful for. The Carson river snaking through town. The sun coming through the last few leaves on the trees. Distant mountains with snow on top. Something warm. Something that smells good. Something sweet. Someone who was kind to you today. Someone who was kind to you yesterday. Someone who believed in you a long time ago. Someone who trusts you enough to tell you their troubles. Someone who forgave you. Someone who gave you something that you still treasure.

For your love in times of trouble, for your peace when things are tough,
For your help when hardships double, for your grace that is enough;
For a stranger's gentle kindness, for a doctor's healing skill,
God we thank you that you bless us, and you bless your world as well.

Maybe this Thanksgiving is especially difficult for you. Maybe something hurts, and maybe the hurt makes it too hard to be thankful right now. If that is where you are today, then I want you to hear this truth: the God of love and life hurts with you, cherishes you, and is beside you even now, giving you strength. That absolutely nothing could ever make God leave your side. That this present darkness is not the end of your story, and that as surely as the sun rises tomorrow morning you will find the light just a bit brighter, your heart just a bit stronger, and the love of God just a bit warmer inside you. God has a new gift for you, right around the corner. Just wait, and see.

For the baby in the manger, for the cross and empty tomb,
For each time a searching stranger finds at church a welcome home,
For your kingdom's great surprises, poor ones lifted, lost ones found,
God, we thank you! Hope still rises, for your gifts of grace abound.

It is a powerful thing that the Christian year begins and ends with Thanksgiving. The secular Christmas holiday tries to overshadow and overwhelm everything else, but -- whether the secular world is fully aware of it or not -- the birth and life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ IS THE REASON we celebrate Thanksgiving! So, I hope that you linger here, on this holiday that is rooted in all of that. Linger here, around the table, and remember Jesus eating with saints and sinners...

sharing meals with Pharisees and disciples, as a woman washes his feet with her tears and dries them with her hair,

sharing a few loaves of bread and a few fish, that became enough to feed thousands,

sharing a last supper with friends and betrayers,

sharing a breakfast of forgiveness and miraculous life on the beach,

making himself known to them in the breaking of the bread.

I hope you let a spirit of gratitude infect absolutely everything you do, from this moment onward. May the simply, powerful act of gratitude melt away the stresses in your life, strengthen your relationships, fill you with new energy, and enable you to walk through life fearlessly and joyfully.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Pastor Dawn

Madness.

Hello beloved,

I am sure that you have heard the news by now, of the shooting at First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas. And I know you are crying with them, and praying for them, because of course you are. Everything in us cries out when things like this happen, even as we are becoming horribly desensitized to it, protecting ourselves from hopeless despair by detachment and denial, steeling ourselves for the inevitable words, the predictable responses by politicians and citizens who just want to make it STOP.

The problem is, there is no easy, clean, simple solution. Because it is madness, spiritual madness. And madness defies logic.

So, the only solution is utter madness in response.

My first thought after hearing of this shooting, in the midst of impotent rage and stomach-turning sadness, was to batten down the hatches. To develop an emergency response plan for the church, a way to protect ourselves should these horrors come to our doorstep, and into our home. And we will do that, because we have to. And yet...

I say we throw the church doors open even wider.

I say we SHOUT love loudly and clearly, from the doorways and the windows and the rooftops, and dare the forces of violence and death to try to defeat us.

I say we add 100x to our spirit of welcome, on Sunday mornings and on every other day. I say we reach out even more readily, to bring every stranger into this place of care and kindness, mercy and generosity. I say we make our openness an act of radical defiance.

I say we refuse to cower, refuse to close ourselves behind steel doors, refuse to descend into anger or despair or apathy, and instead stand tall and strong and determined, like David met Goliath. Knowing that the battle is not ours but the Lord's.

"Be strong, and courageous," said God to Joshua, on his way to the promised land, knowing the dangers he would face. "Do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."

Steve Garnaas-Holmes is a brilliant Christian poet. I find these words, from a poem he wrote some time ago, to be powerfully comforting and deeply meaningful.

"Do not be afraid to live among people who love the sword,
who speak with iron hearts.
You have been sent to make gentle this wounded world, 
to live in peace among those who are afraid,
to bear healing to those who are captive
to the spirit of pride and violence.
Do not despair because of the oppressors,
those who judge and despise,
who will not listen,
who do not know how to join with neighbors.
Rejoice, for you have been given to them,
to shine light into the darkness of their world.
The Holy Spirit sustains you,
so that you may dwell as healers among fearful men.

Bear your outrage lightly; do not cling to it.
Let it lead you toward compassion, not anger.
Pray that you may not be defeated by vengefulness,
eaten by the appetite for power,
destroyed by the spirit of destructiveness.
Anger is not your weapon; it is your enemy.

The spirit of violence seeps into the world.
But you radiate Good News,
you breathe gentleness into the air that all others breath,
you establish trust on the earth.
Be broken hearted.
And through the cracks let light shine...
the light shines in the darkness
and the darkness cannot overcome it."

~ Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Fearlessly,
Pastor Dawn

Jesus Loves Me, and That's All I Need to Know

Good Saturday morning, beloved!

October is hands down my favorite time of year. If I were a better photographer, I would have a hundred pictures of the railroad bridge just as you come into Fallon from the west, with the trees all orange and yellow and gold. And of the view of the mountains and soft desert foliage at Camp Kelly (stopped out there for a bit to visit with Kay Knutson on Tuesday, on my way to Ely to officiate at their Charge Conference), and of the night sky between Fallon and Austin where I swear I have NEVER seen so many stars. 

I have heard it said that Hasidic Jews are taught to carry two pieces of paper in their pockets. One says "I am only dust and ashes." The other says, "All the universe was created for me." I find that to be a beautiful and powerfully important thing. It reminds me of how it feels for many of us when we see the ocean for the first time (or the thousandth time), or meet a newborn baby, or take in the vast expanse of the desert with the Ruby Mountains off in the distance, or turn the corner on Mt Rose Highway and see Lake Tahoe all lit up by the morning sun, or see the Milky Way stretching across the sky when the night is clear and so, so dark. We feel tiny. Small and overwhelmed and something like afraid. We have this urge to stop, to stop everything, to fall down on our knees, stunned. Overwhelmed by wonder, and gratitude, and humility, and this bone-deep understanding that we are a part of something absolutely incomprehensibly beautiful.

Awe. That's the feeling. Awe.

This week in worship we finish our series on Everything We Really Need to Know, the simple truths we learned long ago in the Sunday School classroom. Things like, share everything. Don't be afraid of the dark. Clean up your own mess. Say you're sorry when you hurt someone. Learn some, and think some, and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some. Take time to rest, and worship. Milk and cookies are good for you. And this week, the most important one, the one that is the basis of everything else: LOOK around you, let wonder overwhelm you, and remember that Jesus loves you.

Take some time, when you can, and read Psalm 147. And John 3:16-17. And Romans 8. And Zephaniah 3:14-20. And so, so, so many more. And then look around you. Go outside, maybe, and let  wonder overtake you.

See you in worship. :-)

Love and blessings,
Pastor Dawn

PS Sunday evening, October 28, is Singspiration! Join us and a bunch of our other area churches, just to sing together and enjoy each other's company. 6pm at Epworth UMC in Fallon.

PPS Our Church Charge Conference is on Wednesday, November 8, beginning with a pot luck supper at 6pm. Bring something to share if you can, and join us to celebrate our church, pray over our many leaders, and vote on important stuff.

PPPS Our annual pie auction is November 19 after worship! Call the church for details if you'd like to donate a pie of your own, and come to the auction to bid on DELICIOUS desserts made by our fantastic cooks to add to your Thanksgiving feast.

PPPPS (haha, all of these P's) Next week we begin a new sermon series called Methodist Pie! All about the history of our faith, the joy in our fellowship, and our LOVE of good food. :-)