Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2020-11-05
A weekday e-mailer from
Matt Matthews
To Members and Friends of
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
Dear Friends,
This just in: Matthew Santos, US Senator from Texas, narrowly won his bid for President of the United States in a tight race against California long-time Senator Arnie Vinick. And rumors are flying that Vinick, the Republican, will be tapped for Secretary of State. In the meantime, President Jed Bartlett is counting down the days to the inauguration and his return home to New Hampshire as a private citizen. End of term pardons may include that of his former communication director and speech writer Toby Sigler, convicted of leaking the existence of a secret military space shuttle used to rescue two Americans and one Russian in the disabled space station.
Some of you know that Rachel and I have been watching the television series The West Wing, and Santos (Jimmie Smits) and Vinick (Alan Alda) are fictional characters in a fictional election. One of the things Rachel and I often noted when watching this show (all 1,606-minutes of it) is how much politics now seem similar to twenty-years ago.
Psychiatrist Murray Bowen, pioneer of family emotional systems, suggested that emotional systems change only incrementally over generations. It’s hard to believe the topsy-turvy world of the last election cycle is a small thing in the larger scheme of things, and that changes born in these last days and weeks represent only incremental change. That might not, actually, be true, but according to Bowen’s theory, it is.
This notion helps me take a step back and think of the longer view, the bigger picture. Naturally, this gets me thinking about my faith. These words come to mind: Trust in the Lord forever, for in the Lord God you have an everlasting rock (Isaiah 26:4).
As I write this, I still don’t know who will win our very real election on Tuesday.
No matter who wins, God remains our rock, our holy comfort, our abiding hope.
Whew—Good news!
* * *
Daybreak in Alabama
by Langston Hughes
When I get to be a colored composer
I’m gonna write me some music about
Daybreak in Alabama
And I’m gonna put the purtiest songs in it
Rising out of the ground like a swamp mist
And falling out of heaven like soft dew
I’m gonna put some tall tall trees in it
And the scent of pine needles
And the smell of red clay after rain
And long red necks
And poppy colored faces
And big brown arms
And the field daisy eyes
Of black and white black white black people
And I’m gonna put white hands
And black hands and brown and yellow hands
And red clay earth hands in it
Touching everybody with kind fingers
Touching each other natural as dew
In that dawn of music when I
Get to be a colored composer
And write about daybreak
In Alabama.
* * *
Richard Rohr is a Franciscan Friar. Here’s an interesting essay about letting go of the things that hold us back and keep us down, the encumbrances that keep us from more deeply loving and living. Read slowly:
https://email.cac.org/t/
News
The Covid-19 Response Team met last night. We are curtailing face to face alternative worship for two weeks due to the spike of infections in region 6. The team has set parameters and is in process of pulling together a written statement. I hope to share that early next week. These last ten days have been a roller coaster.
* * *
SUNDAY IN THE PARK is this Sunday at Hessel at 11:00. If you feel safe to attend, please do. Physical distancing, masks, proper check-in/contact tracing will be operative. Bringing your own folding chair is optional. It’s supposed to be 73-degrees and sunny. WOW!
* * *
Grab a cup of coffee and your favorite sweet treat and join us Tuesday, November 10, at 7 pm for a “Virtual Dessert”.
* * *
SAVE THE DATE: Join me for a PCUSA Poetry Slam! Sunday, November 15th.
https://www.
* * *
Join us for Pickleball at 1:00 on Wednesdays. No experience necessary. Call Matt, Gary Peterson, Dave McNattin (Dave One), Dave Whitford (Dave Two), or Bill Stout for details.
Humor (Hard times really need godly laughter):
Some Covid one-liners:
Why do they call it the novel coronavirus? It’s a long story.
The World Health Organization has announced that dogs cannot contract Covid-19. Dogs previously held in quarantine can now be released. To be clear, WHO let the dogs out.
I ran out of toilet paper and had to start using old newspapers. Times are rough.
(I think Dave Hunter will like this one:) So many coronavirus jokes out there, it’s a pundemic.
Good Word:
Joshua 24:14-15
14″Now therefore revere the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15Now if you are unwilling to serve the LORD,
LET US PRAY: (THIS ONE IS WORTH HEARING AGAIN IN THESE DAYS.)
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled, as to console,
To be understood, as to understand,
To be loved, as to love,
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
— St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226)
Much, much love to you all.
Matt Matthews
Cell: 864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church
