​There are many things that happen on Christmas Eve at EPUMC each year that are very moving. The children at the early service play their part at the manger scene. Their innocence calls each one of us back to a simpler time when we were angels flying up to the baby. Singing the familiar carols stirs each one of us to hear in our bones the message of God with us.  As candles glow on the faces around us, we experience the wonder God’s light coming into the world
 
Something else happened after the 10 o’clock worship this year. Just as our families gather together from all over around Christmas, so does our church family. This is a picture of a group that called themselves “EPUMC Alumni.”  They are all 20-somethings who are back home for Christmas and attended our service. Everyone in this Christmas Eve picture stuck around for over half an hour after the service was over. They wanted to be here.
 
It is so exciting to stand back and watch and listen to all of these now young men and women who were once all kids growing up at EPUMC.
Watching and listening to them helped me to understand what a church family is about. It helped me to understand in my bones the value of a faith community.
 
I was talking about this to one of these 20-somethings a couple of years ago when the same thing happened. What she said inspires me. I had expressed a sense of surprise at how many had showed up so willingly.  This young woman looked back at me with such a surprised look on her face, that I was embarrassed by my own comment. Then she said, “Pastor Dan! This is our home!”
 
In a time when so many question the validity of faith communities what that young woman had to say gives me cause to hope. And the hope is not that those pictured here will become active every Sunday attendees at EPUMC someday. No, the hope is that something about their time here has stuck with them and has become something worth coming back home for…
 
What makes something home is often very hard to put your finger on… maybe for a few of these folks it is the memory of being an angel standing by the manger on Christmas eve or a youth sitting in the back row of the van on a mission trip. Whatever it is, I am grateful to be a part of a church home like EPUMC that they can come home to…
 
Keep the Faith,
Pastor Dan
 

In the “you can’t make this stuff up” file of stories I have to tell….A couple of Saturdays ago I gave up on my 20-year-old snowblower and bought a new one. The thing that tipped the scales in favor of this purchase was that my snowblower repair guy was willing to come and get my old snowblower and give me cash money for it. A couple of days later I put the old snowblower out in my driveway and told my snowblower repair guy to come and pick it up.
 
The next day he called and said there was no snowblower in my driveway. First we made sure he was indeed looking at my driveway. After making sure with my wife that she had not put the old snowblower back in the garage, we decided someone had procured our old snowblower for use without asking permission. I hesitate to call it stealing because frankly, I was glad to get rid of it.
 
Still my wife was concerned to text our neighbors about this incident.  When she did our newest neighbors texted back that in a strange coincidence their snowblower repair guy, who was a different guy than my snowblower guy, had not come to pick their snowblower up for repairs as expected. After a few more texts, we discovered that our neighbors’ snowblower guy had indeed mistaken our driveway for theirs and had taken our snowblower in for repairs. The next day he bought my old snowblower back where it still sits today.
 
Our new neighbors, who are a great family, felt terrible. We were all laughing about it though because I mean really, you couldn’t tell that as a story unless it really happened. No one would believe you if you tried. It is all too coincidental, too fortunate in the end. The only thing that would have made it any better would be for my neighbor’s snowblower guy to have fixed my old snowblower, which reminds me, I need to check on that.
 
There are other times, more important times in our lives when what happens in the end is too fortunate to have anticipated. The cancer goes into remission or the other car misses our car by “that” much. Although we may not laugh at what happens, there is a sense of joy that fills every unanticipated moment that is too good to be true.
 
I think it is the same kind of joy that something is too good to be true that fills this time of year surrounding the approach of Christmas. As we hear the story of the birth of Jesus, although it is not without it’s unfortunate moments, in the end it’s all to good to be true:  the angels, the shepherds, the new family huddled together. Not only does it turn out right for everyone there, it turns out right for all of us who are here to retell the story.
 
Christmas is a time to smile or even open your heart wide and laugh out loud. Only a God who loves and cares for all of this world, and all of us would do something like become one of us. You can’t make that kind of love up; you can only receive it.
 
Keep the Faith,
Pastor Dan 

Sunday is Cantata Sunday, which at EPUMC is a very big deal. If you have not been to Cantata Sunday, it is a great experience. We devote the entire worship service to a choral and orchestral presentation of the Christmas story. The only thing I do is listen.
 
This has got me to thinking about how it must feel to be Don Prestly (director of worship and music) up there on Cantata Sunday.  He has strings and woodwinds to his left and brass and percussion to his right. This orchestra is made up of some very well-known people in the Twin Cities music scene, some who have been coming back to play with him for close to 20 years. Add to that are all the people who make up the choir. This year we have more choir people than we have choir chairs. I’ve forgotten the number, but let’s just say they will be creating quite a sound.
 
It’s the sound that he directs that must be amazing to hear with Don’s ears. Don has been listening and preparing for this one experience for quite some time. I know, because his office is just across a very thin wall from mine, and sometimes he forgets to put his headphones on when he plays the CD. I can’t imagine the feeling of leading those talented musicians and all those people as together they all create something so moving and beautiful.
 
As I’ve watched my friend Don direct over the years, there is a sense in which it’s all one extraordinary moment for him. In real time, the Cantata lasts about 35 minutes and is a lot of work. And yet to me anyway, Don is so caught up in what he is doing, so connected to every note and word, in all the right ways consumed by what is being created, that my guess is that to him it is over in a twinkling of an eye.
 
Most of us know that this is the last Cantata that Don will direct as the Director of Music at EPUMC. He’s done so many, offered so much of himself. I don’t mean to embarrass him here. I want to hold up my friend for his faithfulness and dedication of sharing his gift of music. I also want to encourage you to attend and listen with me this year. As we listen, let us be grateful for all the Cantatas and musicians and choirs that have come together to create all the extraordinary moments of beauty Don has been at the center of creating.

Keep the Faith,
​Pastor Dan