Oh, how good it feels to be living into the freedom to plan vacations or enjoy each other’s company in person a bit more. Thanks be to God! What are your plans this summer?
We do have plans to be together more, so note some of these great opportunities:
Contemplative worship, the last Thursday of every month, 5:30pm.
Lunch Bunch – First Wednesdays at 12pm
Outdoor Worship on the Patio, the last Sunday of every month — So, this will begin June 27th and happen each month as long as weather cooperates.
A “Welcome” class to new folks that have come to Faith Lutheran in the past year, leading toward an affirmation of baptism. We’ll meet for class at 10:30am on Sundays in June.
And “Thank You” party for interim pastor Stan and another “Welcome” party with me, things we’ve been waiting to conduct in person.
I hope you are encountering the hope and energy of this summer coming on!
One deeply encouraging aspect of all this activity, for me, is that I am a collaborator. I love to work with folks in thinking of ideas, in praying prayers, and in the action of mercy and justice among us and in our community. Understandably, this has been so much more difficult during the pandemic and while we were mostly distanced. With that easing comes hope and determination. So let me spark your dreams with the Holy Spirit:
In Faith Lutheran’s “profile” — the call documents that I was able to see as a candidate for ministry here last summer — there was a question of: “Where does your congregation hope to put their energy” or “What is driving your community these days?”
And as we embrace energy and work and hope these days, let’s see what it said:
Faith Lutheran community is excited to establish and discover new possibilities for service… Blessed with a large church facility with spacious parking and green lawns, Faith offers a tremendous venue for community gatherings and our various missions. We are excited about empowering others within the congregation to step forward into leadership roles in hopes of discovering all that we can be.
2021 NEWSLETTER
Wow! This was exciting to me then, and it’s very exciting now! This church, and it’s call team,
were speaking the language of the Spirit among us and saying: Blow, wind of God! Renew us!
And I loved that this community could acknowledge its assets: place, facilities, willing hearts—
and to point these toward blessing our community and to calling each other to live into lives of
service.
We each live our service in different ways, and blessedly! Yet, all of these extensions are part of
the WHOLE of the PEACE of God.
“As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one
body, so also Christ. . . . Now you are Christ’s body, and individually parts of it” (see 1 Corinthians
12:12, 27).
And here is the energy I’m sensing this summer: As we get to see and hear each other together
more, we can move in confidence toward that “empowering” of one another. We know there is
much work to do, and we know we have been given specific gifts for ministry in our time and
place. And we know the Spirit is a feisty lover that wants to let the proclamation of mercy abound!
And we know we have each other, our various gifts and personalities (and quirks!).
More than all that, we know the promise of God is Life and Freedom. We won’t climb the ladder of
good works into our heavenly rest at last, leaning on all we were able to accomplish. But Mercy
has made us so free that we would love nothing more than to give and proclaim, to spread this
love around town!
Body of Christ with you,
+Pastor Shaun

Spring has returned to the Truckee Meadows! And our liturgical season of Easter has returned. And some of us have been able to return to in-person worship. Reflecting this month, I’m sensing that hopeful return in my life.
And, honestly, it’s been delightfully surprising. Maybe it always is, and so I’m surprised again, but this Easter season following Lent and Holy Week— this time for me is turning into what it has always promised to be: hopeful, joyful, engaging, driving forward. I do hope you’ve felt it too.
New growth returns to landscapes and animal life. The “Alleluia” returns to worship. We’re always in this cycle, which is the cycle of our lives too––need and patience, change and transformation, hope and purpose, and need again.
And all of it is okay. And all of it is holy.
So I wonder if you have perceived any returns for you these days? The cycle continues, but we aren’t lulled into complacency. Rather, the Spirit enlivens us, in each return, for new joy and further hope!
In the gospel stories after Jesus’ resurrection, Jesus is returning to folks in different ways and at different times. He’s both in his same body—we know because it has scars of his death and he can eat food and converse with people—, but he’s also more/different in the ways he can appear to be alongside people. Remember (John 20) how they lock the door in fear but Jesus comes and stands among them? He’s returned! Same, and different all at once.
We all know ways that our lives have looked so different this past year, and hopefully some of the things we love and the ways we appreciate being—hopefully some of those are returning for you. I know they are for me. And, for one, it is good to be in-person for worship and fellowship and learning when we can. That’s just one “return”!
And the deeper blessing for us, I believe, is that God doesn’t leave or forsake us. We sense the gifts of the Spirit among each other and for each other, and the presence of Love is always with us in our changes and returns. In fact, it’s always been there. But what an Easter blessing: this is the time of year we can see it, sense it, hear it (and hopefully feel it and believe it).
Returning, with Alleluia’s, to God who is so gracious and merciful,
+Pastor Shaun

Friends in Christ,
This Easter season I find myself meditating on brokenness and healing. There are many reasons (and I believe you’ll hear some from me in the sermons to come!), and they include: the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection; the story of society healing from pandemic and death; and the creative activity of home renovations; and more. Yes, that’s right. My neighbors and I have been sharing stories on how we want to repair parts of our homes. There’s roots, and concrete, and water, and the need for organization all involved. And I’ve noticed how the story is sometimes circling around how some parts will need to change or go away — Break — so that what is new can be there now, and in a good/vibrant way.
And there is something about this that is also death and resurrection. I think there’s something about this that is also our own lives.
“It is good to realize that falling apart is not such a bad thing. Indeed, it is as essential to transformation as the cracking of outgrown shells. Self-protection restricts vision and movement like a suit of armor, making it harder to adapt. Going to pieces, however uncomfortable, can open us up to new perceptions, new data, and new responses.” – Joanna Macy
It’s springtime, and our worship and community life is also inviting us to living the baptismal story of Easter’s death and resurrection in openness, honesty, and brokenness — with trust in healing and goodness and wholeness too.
And think of how we even use that work — “Break” — to mean not just falling apart, but also emerging. Like, when there’s a viral “break out” (God, help us; hold us!). Or more encouragingly, like when our scripture and hymns mention: “The trees shall clap their hands; the dry lands, gush with springs; the hills and mountains shall break forth with singing!”
In the spirit of Easter, new life, and Spring, the world is breaking forth with praise to our God of love! Turn your heart with us; listen and lean into the promise. God is a God of creation, resurrection, and renovation. What breaks, breaks forth!
“We shall got out in joy, and be led forth in peace, as all the world in wonder echoes shalom.”
Blessed Eastertide,
+ Pastor Shaun

This past Ash Wednesday we did drive-thru ashes at noon and after our 7pm service. Many of our folks came out on that Wednesday, and received this strange, important, sobering blessing. And it was a blessing to know we were receiving it together.
Remember you are dust and to dust you will return.
The ashes remind us of our humanity, our dependence, and our brokenness too. From life through this past year, this can feel like a reminder upon a reminder upon a reminder.
But because you were there, I also knew we weren’t just reinforcing some personal sense of brokenness, but the collective. Because we’re in it together.
That I am dust is true. That I am not alone is also true.
This is continually my prayer for our Lenten journey now, our coming celebrations at Easter, and all that we will face this 2021 and beyond. Getting through a pandemic means we will still have much to process and to grieve. There is brokenness. We feel it in parts of our lives, and we know it’s in our systems.
And we have each other through it. We will hold each other up, face new questions together, share and pray and cry and celebrate.
Most of all, we have God. And the Spirit’s work and joy is to turn our mourning into dancing (see our Psalms from Advent time). Lent is a time to journey with Jesus, and may we see that this is our God—turning ashes into life again and again.
With you,
+ Pastor Shaun

Friends in Christ,
I write this to you as inches and inches, and in some places in our area — FEET — of snow are blanketing all our hills and yards and roads around Reno/Sparks/Tahoe. The kids have had a snow day off school, and with so much work at home in this Covid-year, a snow day is a special treat to get us to wake up even out of our “stay-at-home routine.” So I hope this finds you safe and warm and comforted and well!
For me, the snow has been comforting this week. But in an active way. I had to drive to Fallon to see hospice patients, and it’s been beautifully surprising to see those eastern hills all covered in snow. It’s remarkable to see this common landscape in a new way, fresh features. And it’s lifted my spirits toward thinking about how we all view our worlds, and our lives, and our existence. I find the comfort and presence of God in the times of life when I am surprised by beauty and inspiration. This week, it’s been the snowy hills.
When I got to my visit with a dying hospice patient outside Fallon, they wanted to hear some readings and poetry. We read John 8, where Jesus says, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”
And I thought of how the snow on the mountains makes them shine and sparkle a bit. Everything is brighter in the light of the snow.
And then I offered some of my favorite Wendell Berry quotes. And it surprised me in the moment—lifting us—and I thought of how seeing those snowy hills was a wake up to beauty and strength, moments I needed on my drive out to pray with the dying.
Berry writes,
“So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world …
Be joyful though you have considered all the facts …
Practice resurrection.”

I Sometimes scripture and grace and the simple beauty of the world almost doesn’t compute. But then there’s the truth of deep joy there too, hidden. I’ve felt it. And I’ve tasted it. And I’ve experienced it this week.
I pray it’s our experience even in the routines of “stay-at-home”; that we might sense the blessing of love that surrounds us in this life with God. And that love would surprise us, leading to joy!
And to strength for all the shoveling.
Blessedly with you,
+ Pastor Shaun