Wednesday December 16^th, 2020
A weekday e-mailer from
Matt Matthews
 
To Members and Friends of 
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
 
Dear Friends,
 
I had a great conversation with some old Richmond, VA, friends. Jeff was the best man at our wedding, and he and Joan have been some of those abiding friends with whom we share a lot of history. I hiked a tiny part of the Appalachian trail with Jeff and remember inserting all of the canned stew into his pack. He was stronger than me, but also smarter and made me divide the packs more evenly. 
 
Have you been connecting with old friends and family? Do you have some stories to share? Bill Gamble has one, below. Tomorrow, I have a special one by Nancy MacGregor.
 
I still keep thinking about last week’s dialogue sermon that Rachel wrote. Coming to God empty-handed is sticking with me. No ‘thing’ satisfies my longing for what only God can fill. It’s a lot to ponder at Christmas. At anytime.
 
* * *
 
Dave Bauer has a treat for tonight’s Wednesday vespers. See the longer announcement (and Zoom link) below.
 
* * *
 
Bill’s story:
 
Xmas 1962
by Bill Gamble 
 
            Christmas 1962 found Bill and Judy Gamble in Melbourne, Australia, far from kith and kin.  We did have small Christmas tree, somewhat better than a Charley Brown tree, which was partially decorated with sea shells from a nearby beach.  
 
            After trying at least a couple of dead churches, we found a live church, South Camberwell Methodist.  We were warmly welcomed, although some folks were puzzled about why we would drive seven miles to get to a church where many members lived within easy walking distance.  A few families soon included us in various activities, most especially the Rashleigh family (hope I spelled it right).  Three generations of the family were active in the church, with the youngest a small mob of pre-teens.  The elder Mr. R. directed the church choir, but also was the conductor of the Royal Melbourne Chorale Society, if I have name right.
 
            Christmas dinner at the Rashleighs was a traditional English Christmas dinner, even though Christmas in Australia is well into the summer.  The menu included a pudding with some six-pence coins cooked in it, and if you got a coin in your serving, it was a good luck omen.  We were seated next to the kids, and they were bemused by our very non-Australian handling of our knives and forks.  And we had conversations on sometimes very strange but amusing topics.
 
            And why were the Gambles in Australia?  Bill had a Fulbright Fellowship and was attached to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization ( C. S. I. R. O.), Div. of Building Research, where he was breaking concrete things, including building pieces.
 
* * *
 
Daily Advent Reading Wednesday Genesis 1:3-4
One of the refrains of Genesis 1 is: “And God saw that is was
good.” The light, the water, the land, the vegetations, all of
creation — God saw it all and declared it good. Imagine if we
surveyed all that we encountered and noticed — and saw that
it was good. Today as you see the world you inhabit, make a
point to notice its goodness and name it so.
Creator God, you make the world and call it good. As we
wake and work, rest and play, open our eyes to the holy
goodness all around and even within us. Do not let us take
for granted the goodness of the meals we eat, the goodness of
the people we encounter, the goodness of the air we breathe
and the landscapes we move through every day. May we,
like you, see and declare: It is good. Amen. 
  
News
 
Join us this Wednesday when Dave Bauer will lead a study for Advent:
 

•       Does the Advent Journey of 2020 in ISOLATION have you confused, apathetic, hungry for the spirit? 
•       Are you stuck somewhere on the journey to Bethlehem or still uncertain if you want to “go” this year? 
•       Looking for inspiration?  

Join us for our Wednesday Zoom Vespers, December 16, as the Rev. Dave Bauer encourages us to dig a little deeper and navigate that journey to the birth.            
 
Join the fellowship as Dave helps us:
1. Compare the different approaches each Gospel writer takes to Advent.  We’ll notice:
            -unexpected pregnancies of the old and the young, angels making announcements, a mute father
            -an abundance of “begatting”
            -a voice calling in the wilderness  
            -Word becoming Flesh
—all ending up in the same place??? No wonder you may be confused.
 2. Take a quick journey back to see what effect our Protestant Reformation leaders (i.e. Calvin, Zwingli) had on how we celebrate Christmas.
 3. Can Christmas traditions turn into idolatry? Examine our Brief Statement of Faith (printed in our new church hymnal).
 
We invite you to listen, learn, share, reflect, challenge, discuss, explore. You can even ask, “Are we there yet?” 

Let’s just take this part of the “trip” together and see where we go and what we learn along the way.
 
Email zoom@firstpres.church for the link.
  
* * * 
 
Humor (Hard times really need godly laughter): 
 
What’s the most musical part of a turkey? Drumsticks. 
 
Good Word: (Mary sings a celebration song.)
Luke 1:46b-55
^46b My soul magnifies the Lord, 
⁴⁷       and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 
⁴⁸  for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. 
          Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 
⁴⁹  for the Mighty One has done great things for me, 
          and holy is his name. 
⁵⁰  His mercy is for those who fear him 
          from generation to generation. 
⁵¹  He has shown strength with his arm; 
          he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. 
⁵²  He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, 
          and lifted up the lowly; 
⁵³  he has filled the hungry with good things, 
          and sent the rich away empty. 
⁵⁴  He has helped his servant Israel, 
          in remembrance of his mercy, 
⁵⁵  according to the promise he made to our ancestors, 
          to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”

LET US PRAY: 
 
These days are hard, O God. If we cannot make them happy, then help us make them beautiful. AMEN.
 
* * *
 
Much, much love to you all.
  
Matt Matthews
Cell: 864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church

Advent Daily Devotion Tuesday Acts 20:28-32
Pay careful attention to yourself and to the flock with
which you have been entrusted. Paul, as he prepares to
leave these new disciples, admonishes them to attend to
God’s instructions and be alert, lest false teachers lead them
astray. Given how much information and disinformation
comes our way on a daily basis, how do we pay attention to
God’s commandments and discern what is counter to the
will of God?
Jesus, you teach us the will of God and promise to send your
Spirit to remind us of all you said and instructed. At times,
we get overwhelmed with the relentless rush of headlines,
billboards and voices clamoring for our attention. Silence in us
any voice but yours, so that we might pay close attention to you
and therefore close attention to our own thoughts and actions
and close attention to the needs of the world you came to save.
Amen.
 

The Heart of Mission December 15, 2020   Friends,  If you have followed our mission partners throughout the year on Facebook or their websites, you will see that 2020 has been a rough year. Your Mission Team, Community Mission Deacons and World Mission Committee have identified three very worthwhile mission offerings this month that will make a significant impact on lives throughout our community and world for years to come. I have included all three in this issue of The Heart of Mission: 1) The Advent Offering (which will support the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance and our sister church in Luyano), 2) the Christmas Joy Offering coming up on Christmas Eve, and 3) the Angel Tree/Food Insecurity Drive. Also included is a very special thank you video from CU at Home, one of our mission partner in Champaign that was a recipient of a Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Grant. Can you see how all our gifts together makes a big difference? Make sure to click the links to read related articles and videos.   Peace,   Rev. Dr. Rachel Matthews, Mission Coordinator         The FPCC Community Mission Deacons Champaign County Food Insecurity Drive aka The 2020 Angel Tree   Food insecurity is the dry technical term for American households going hungry at least some of the time. It is at crisis levels all over America and very much so in Champaign County. According to Census Bureau data, currently, over 1 in 10 American adults did not have enough to eat last week. And, worse, for families with children, approximately 1 in 4 such families did not have enough food for their children last week! In Champaign County, rates are similar, and Food Stamps, Eastern Illinois Food Bank, and others are unable to meet the increasing need. For people of color the statistics are considerably worse.   With widespread vaccinations months away from distribution. Help is desperately needed now. The FPCC Mission perspective emphasizes supporting programs that actually help people lift themselves out of poverty. But, critically, FPCC also firmly believes that crises demand immediate responding. Therefore, CMD invites you to join in responding to this crisis. Our fund provides an immediate opportunity for FPCC to reach out to struggling Champaign County brothers and sisters who, through no fault of their own, are caught up in this crisis. The Eastern Illinois Food Bank has more information at this web site: Click here for link   So, if you are able to contribute to this fund, that would be wonderful. The amount collected will be contributed to Eastern Illinois Food Bank and hence put to good use via an organization expert in food distribution! As an encouragement, CMD has contributed $4000 and a member family has contributed an additional $1000. Because the need is so overwhelming and many of us have resources that can make a difference, we are optimistic that our church can contribute a substantial amount that will help relieve the hunger issue in Champaign County.   Thank you for your consideration and your generosity.   Thank you,   The First Presbyterian Community Mission Deacons (CMD)     THE 2020 ADVENT OFFERING will be taken for the whole month of December.   Christmas is the season of Advent. What love, joy and redemption we have in the birth of our Savior! And so, it is with thankfulness that each year at this time we have our annual Advent Offering. This year-2020- the year that is like none other we have experienced, your World Missions Committee is asking that our Advent giving go to 2 organizations that will help many people. The first organization is our own Presbyterian Disaster Assistance that is comprised of 2 components: National Relief and International Relief.   Several months ago, as fires were raging across the west and Pacific coast areas, your World Missions Committee was able to send $1500 to PDA and earmark if for U.S. fire relief aid. If you Google “ Presbyterian Disaster Assistance”, you will see how aid is distributed to United States and to international countries that are in crisis situations. Each entity has vital needs that are being addressed by PDA. We are very thankful that our denomination is able to help alleviate pain and suffering in so many places and in so many lives through your generous donations. 2/3 of your Advent giving this year will go to PDA.   The 2nd component of our giving will go to our own sister church, Luyano in Cuba. This is a year of isolation between our 2 churches due, among other things, to COVID19. None of us is allowed to travel between our countries this year. We are not able to carry supplies to them nor can we send money directly to them. The Luyano church is in dire need of help. We are able to aid them through PCUSA and our own church’s Cuba Committee is requesting this help. It is in gratitude to our relationship with our sister church that 1/3 of our Advent offering will be earmarked for our Luyano brothers and sisters.   We know this has been a tough year for each of us. However, we also acknowledge that God has continued to be our source of strength in these times. May we also be a source of strength to those who need to rely on us.   In Hope, Peace, Joy and Love,   The First Presbyterian Church World Mission Committee   PDA and CU at Home: Thank you to First Pres from Rob Dalhaus at CU at Home Back in the Spring, the Champaign-Urbana community was the recipient of a PC(USA) PDA grant, which a portion of our Advent Offering is going toward. Remember the PC(USA) PDA grant back in the Spring that we received for CU at Home and The Refugee Center due to Covid 19? Those dollars made a difference. The link above thanking you for your support from the director of CU at Home shows the impact of those dollars. The Refugee Center has been able to continue to help refugee families throughout these past months as well and has thanked us for that support.   The Christmas Joy Offering for Christmas Eve   Every year on Christmas Eve, First Presbyterian Church Champaign takes up the Joy Gift Offering, a special offering of the PC(U.S.A.). The Christmas Joy Offering reflects that God is with us, through the generous gifts that support church leaders among us, retired, present and future, who have pointed us to God. Even as we support our current and former church leaders through the Assistance Program of the Board of Pensions, God is calling new leaders for our Church and world, through the ministry of Presbyterian-related schools and colleges equipping communities of color — offering students the means for a brighter future and enhanced opportunities to use their talents and skills to serve God, the Church and the world for years to come. Because God is with us, we see the potential of students of color who will become our leaders and we seek to come alongside them, to encourage them, to be with them. 50% of your gifts make it possible for students to learn and grow in faith at Presbyterian-related schools and colleges equipping communities of color. Because God is with us, we see church workers who have critical financial needs and we come alongside them, to assist them — we are with them. 50% of your gifts provide assistance for current and retired church workers and their families with critical financial needs. Thank you for your gift to the Christmas Joy Offering — for when we all do a little, it adds up to a lot. Friends of PEB – In case you missed it last week, Friends of PEB sends thanks with a special online Advent Calendar. All you do is click the link and begin. https://calendar.myadvent.net/?id=b594e0aaf5cb14378b197c821b14b287   Let us keep all our mission partners in our prayers, those who are waiting to go back to their place of ministry and those who are able to work where they are. Listen for God’s call to you in their ministry.   Our PC(USA) Mission CoWorkers:   Mark Adams and Miriam Maldonado Escobar (Mexico) Farsijanna Adeney-Risakotta (Indonesia) Jeff and Christi Boyd (Central Africa) Jo Ella Holman (Caribbean and Cuba) – And, for the mission coworker you are preparing to take her place. Bob and Kristi Rice (South Sudan)   Our regional and global mission partners:   Kemmerer Village (and Camp Carew) Lifeline Pilots Marion Medical Mission Mission Aviation Fellowship Opportunity International Friends of Presbyterian Education Board in Pakistan Presbyterian Cuba Partnership Special Offerings of the PC(USA) Theological Education Fund Young Adult Volunteers   Here in Champaign – Urbana:   CU at Home CANAAN S.A.F.E. HOUSE CANTEEN RUN COURAGE CONNECTION DREAAM eMPTY TOMB, INC FAITH IN ACTION JESUS IS THE WAY PRISON MINISTRY THE REFUGEE CENTER RESTORATION URBAN MINISTRY SALT & LIGHT   Here at First Presbyterian Church   FPCC Amateur Preachers FPCC Environmental Committee working with Faith in Place FPCC Presbyterian Women FPCC ESL FPCC Children, Youth and Families FPCC Mission Possible/Go and Serve         302 W. Church Street   Champaign, IL 61820   217-356-7238   info@firstpres.church           Attachments: The_Heart_of_Mission_121520.pdf

Monday December 14^th, 2020
A weekday e-mailer from
Matt Matthews
 
To Members and Friends of 
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
 
Dear Friends,
 
We are all enjoying your Christmas stories. Please share them with me. I’ll post them here.
 
* * *
 
This is from Mary Jane Kelley:
 
We always went to midnight mass but left the house at 10:00pm to get front seats and listen to the hour of music before mass.  When we returned home about 1:30am everyone was pretty weary. Mother mixed up egg nog for everyone with a spike of Dad’s whiskey.  It was so special—also assuring my parents that we would not be up at the crack of dawn to see what gifts had arrived!
 
* * *
 
Beth Hutchens shares these memories:
 
December 21, 1960
Maternal grandmother died at home in Boonville, NC.  She had been an invalid at home for a decade.  We lived in Orlando, and it took 2 days to drive there.  We were going to NC the next day to pick up my brother at University of FL and drive up there; Mother was the only one of her 3 siblings who did not live in the small town.  Really bad trip to NC on highways 441, 301, and 601; no interstates.  Memory…white flower arrangement ‘frozen‘ by the front doorway of grandparents home.

December 18, 1971
I was living in Winston-Salem, NC.  Had a plane ticket to fly to FL for Christmas with flights on the 21st and 28th.  Had a call that evening from Mother that Daddy had a heart attack and was in the hospital, and it could go either way.  Changed flight and flew into Orlando, arriving at 3 a.m. on the 20th.  Brother was there at first from Orlando without his young family.  Mother and I spent the rest of the time together by ourselves. I was there with her till the 28th.  We could see Daddy, one person at a time, for ten minutes every hour. My hair was longer; fortunately, I could hide my recently pierced ears from him!  He was in a big room with about 9 cardiac patients in cubicles.  They said if he survived the first 48 hrs, it was good.  He missed his newspapers.  I made him a wall calendar for December and moved a little Christmas tree over the December days…sort of like I had done in my third grade classroom.  I flew back to NC as originally scheduled on the 28th.  Was getting ready for bed in my apt that evening when Mother called that he had taken a turn for the worse and would not live through the night; I frantically made preparations for return flight to FL.  Both times, a neighbor’s son, Tom Hahn, picked me up at the airport in the middle of the night; great neighbors who moved across the street from us when I was in 2nd grade and Tom was in first grade…never any partnership tendencies between us but great friends.
Upon second return, I couldn’t believe the difference in Daddy.  Always clean-shaven, he had the beginnings of a beard.  They said he wouldn’t live through the night but he lived several more days.  Never knew him to be sick before this…now his body was lurching on a respirator.

He died 3 hours into January 1st.  Funeral in Orlando, another funeral and burial in Boonville, NC.  Another long road trip with a grieving mother but the highways were better this time.  At usual overnight motel stop in SC, owner asked where Daddy was…he was on his final flight back home to NC on flight schedule I had arranged with NC funeral director, changing planes in Atlanta as was usual back then; they used to say that if you were going to hell, you had to change planes in Atlanta!

December 22,1974
Was still living in NC and flew home to Orlando for Christmas alone with Mother.  Went across the street that evening to see the Hahns, and Mother said that I should not stay long because they had a lot of company following a recent extended family wedding in West Palm Beach.  Their nephew from Urbana, IL was there along with his folks from Arlington Heights, IL.  I ended up playing bridge with Tom Hahn, ‘J. Pate’ Hutchens, and his mother.  The next evening, Tom, ‘J. Pate’, and I went out to Rosie O’Grady’s Good Time Emporium in downtown Orlando.  Tom was busy carousing; I drank a lot of beer to cool off because it was so hot down there.  I had been in the back seat with the two guys up front on the way to the bar but wound up in the front bucket seat with J. Pate on the way home!  And the rest is history.  J. Pate came to Winston-Salem to see me in early January after his long drive back in his VW ‘Bug’.  We were married in Winston-Salem on June 19, 1976.

PS
J. Pate…family name. I call him Pate. ‘John’ since he was in Army, Army Band in Germany.
 
* * *
 
Advent Daily Devotional Monday John 6:1-3
A large crowd is following Jesus because they saw
the signs he was doing, the miracles of healing he
performed. Do we see signs of Jesus at work in our
world? In our lives? What signs get your attention
and cause you to follow Jesus even now? Today, pay
attention to where you see Jesus’ healing power and
make note of it.
Loving God, we often fail to see signs of your healing,
neglecting to anticipate your miracles, thinking instead
that such divine transformation happened only long ago.
As we go about our day today, we pray for an openness to
your Spirit that reveals that you still intervene and bring
wholeness in surprising and grace-filled ways. Amen.
 
News
 
Join us this Wednesday when Dave Bauer will lead a study for Advent:
 

•       Does the Advent Journey of 2020 in ISOLATION have you confused, apathetic, hungry for the spirit? 
•       Are you stuck somewhere on the journey to Bethlehem or still uncertain if you want to “go” this year? 
•       Looking for inspiration?  

Let us pray: 

 
Good morning, God. We are rounding the corner to what some popular singers say is “the most wonderous time of the year.” What makes any time wondrous is the way your Spirit surprises and comforts us. Thank you for that gift. We’re looking for Jesus at the manger. With your help, there will be room in our hearts for him to be born anew. Help us to sing a celebration song. And we don’t want to sing like Mary. We want you to help us sing like ourselves. AMEN. 
 
* * *

Much, much love to you all.
 
Matt Matthews
Cell: 864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church

Friday December 11^th,  2020
A weekday e-mailer from
Matt Matthews
 
To Members and Friends of 
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
 
Dear Friends,
 
On Sunday Rachel and I will preach a dialogue sermon that she wrote about coming empty handed to God. Since I didn’t write it, I can say it’s lovely. We’ll explore the paradox of Christmas. Join us?
 
* * *
 
I know we can’t worship in person on Christmas Eve, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t worked hard (and are still working hard) to produce a beautiful service of worship. I hope you join us for that service. It will be available at FirstPres.Live at 4 p.m. You can watch it any time after that hour.
 
Advent is a time of active waiting and hopeful lament. I hope you are finding warmth and light as the bleak midwinter deepens and the longer nights have us craning all the more for holy light. 
 
Join us on Sunday as we look for light, light candles, and worship the one whom John called the Light of the World. 
 
Pay attention to God’s activity in the world around you. Be amazed. Tell somebody.
 
See you on Sunday, 
 
PEACE,
 
Matt Matthews
864.386.9138
 
* * *
 
From your Nurture Team — Judi Geistlinger was the first to recognize last week’s photo of Eric & Cathy Stickels (below).   

We’re taking a break on photo guessing until early January.  See you then!
 
* * *

Advent Daily Devotions

Friday Luke 2:36-38
What do we do when we are waiting for something promised
by God, but not yet visible or evident? Perhaps we are waiting
for healing in a broken relationship or waiting to be able
to forgive or be forgiven? Today we are told of Anna who
waits for the redemption of Jerusalem and while she waits,
she worships, fasts and prays. Is there a spiritual practice you
might try that could keep you connected to God as you wait?

Lord, we want to see your promises come to fruition: promises
of peace, justice and redemption. We do not want to grow
weary or cynical, hopeless or defeated. We long for our
priorities to reflect your character and our faith, even when we
cannot yet see that for which we yearn. Ground us in prayer,
fi nd us in worship, be present with us as we fast and focus on
you as we wait. Amen.

Saturday Mark 15:42-47
It may seem odd to read an account of Jesus’ death even as
we prepare for his birth. And yet, there are times in our lives
when our greatest fears are realized and it feels as if God is
absent. Joseph of Arimathea was waiting for the kingdom
of God, and despite Jesus’ death he took courage and asked
Pilate for Jesus’ body. Where do you need to take courage
and speak or act as you wait and look for God’s kingdom?

God of grace and glory, sometimes we look for you and
cannot fi nd you. You tell us that if we knock, the door will be
opened to us, and if we seek we will fi nd. Yet, some days we
pound on the door and it remains locked. Grant us courage,
especially in those times and circumstances when our waiting
for you feels as if it is in vain. Help us to do the next right
thing in your name, despite our doubts and pain. Amen.

Sunday Luke 1:18-24
Often, we see that for which we are looking and fail
to notice much of what is around us. A familiar route
that we travel regularly becomes mere background
and we arrive at our destination with no recollection
of what we passed along the way. Details in the spaces
we occupy fade from consciousness until someone
unfamiliar with them points them out. One of my
children has a gift for noticing patterns and anomalies.
The building where my office is located is historic with
a big staircase that I use instead of the rather aged
elevator. After years of this ascending and descending
these stairs, one day this child went to work with me
and pointed out the discrepancy in the stairs’ materials
between one of the floors: the treads went from black
to white. In all the many footfalls upon them, I’d never
before seen the marked difference. Once she pointed
this out, the contrast was absolutely obvious, and yet
I had missed it time and time again. It strikes me in
this passage about Zechariah’s angelic visitation that
in his inability to speak and tell those waiting for him
outside the temple what happened, they name that
he has seen a vision. How did they know? Were they
watching for such divine happenings? On the lookout
for the holy?
We need others to help us see and interpret things,
people and places we might otherwise miss. We need
the community of faith to discern the work of the
Spirit when we cannot articulate what is happening
within and around us. The members of the Body of
Christ possess different gifts, varying perspectives
and points of view. When Zechariah could not speak,
the people of God took notice and recognized that
something extraordinary had taken place that day
in the temple and named the truth that he had seen
a vision. This Advent, are we paying attention and
watching for the movement of the Spirit, for evidence
of God’s inbreaking and the angels’ speaking? Often,
we see that for which we are watching and miss much
of what we do not expect to see. This is the season for
noticing and naming the coming and present kingdom
of God. This is the season for listening to those around
us with eyes to see the holy that we may well walk
past daily until they point it out and it becomes utterly
obvious.

Lord of angels and visions, we often fail to see you at work
and present in holy spaces and everyday places. We forget
to be on the lookout for you and ignore your signs and
instructions. When we get distracted, send your Spirit to
arrest our attention. Remove the scales from our eyes that
prevent us from paying attention to you. Grant us the ability
to not only notice you, but act on your Word. Amen.

* * *

Pierce Pettis offers a haunting song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4UXHtzREzs
 
Here’s a concert that will lift you . . . skip ahead to the music, thereby dodging their pitch for student scholarships.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT4uUKaEkpE
 
Grace Ashenfelter shares A Corona Opera
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL52AuF4QzY
 
Much, much love to you all.
 
Matt Matthews
Cell: 864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church

Thursday December 10^th, 2020
A weekday e-mailer from
Matt Matthews
 
To Members and Friends of 
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
 
Dear Friends,
 
Tell me about your Christmas memories. I’d like to share them here. These stories will bless us.
 
* * *
 
A Beautiful Christmas Memory
by Jane Alsberg
 
As a child, Christmas was a small family event. We were not many as my father was an only child and his parents died before I got to know them. My mother had only one sibling, a brother, and his family lived on the east coast so we hardly ever saw them. Therefore Christmas morning was just our family. Later we would travel an hour or so south to my maternal grandparent’s farm – it was truly an “over the river and through the woods” trip as my grandparents lived right on the Kankakee River. And I so remember the excitement upon arriving to the “Norman Rockwell” beauty of their small farm at Christmas. My grandparents raised geese and so we had not only turkey, but goose for dinner and grandma always made the best pies!
 
Unlike today’s extended anticipation of Christmas for children with “The Elf on the Shelf” to keep them ever mindful of the coming celebration while curbing their “naughtier” excitement, our Christmas didn’t begin until December 22 when we put up our tree. That was my birthday and we celebrated it Christmas style. My two brothers and I got to help decorate the tree and I remember so well the careful placing of the tinsel – one strand at a time. It had to be perfect! But what a gorgeous tree and we couldn’t wait for the presents to be placed under its boughs.
 
One December 24th when we were all quite small, I remember the three of us just couldn’t get to sleep. So in the final hours of that Christmas Eve, my mother gathered us together, sat on my bed, and with the most gentle heavenly voice she told us the Christmas story of The Seven Miracles of Gubbio and The Eighth.  This is a parable written by Le Père Bruckberger, a Dominician and was first published in 1947, with the title Le Loup de Gubbio. (The Wolf of Gubbio)
 
It begins: And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.  I Cor. XIII, 2.
 
As a small child I listened with wonder as the ferocious wolf was calmed by St Francis of Assisi and made with him a pact to never again harm another creature of God. In return he was granted seven miracles. After several miracles of biblical proportion, and out of the goodness of his heart, he used one of his miracles to transform a deformed and hideously ugly child into a very beautiful girl, only to be used by her to perform miracles for her vanity. With only one miracle left, he put himself in peril to save the town from a conquering army. He was severely injured, but managed to gain their victory without using that last miracle. But the town assumed he had used his last miracle and so they abandoned him. In fact they thought, once a wolf, always a wolf, and they became afraid of him. In a moment of jealous weakness, the wolf killed a dog that was loved by the vain girl to whom he had devoted his reformed life. Immediately he regretted it and assuming he lost his last miracle due to this infraction, invoked St. Francis in his heart for mercy and protection. He was too weak to flee and the townspeople were now out to kill him. And with his last miracle he was transported to the forest. He hated at the people of the town, but on Christmas Eve when he heard the church bells of Gubbio, he snuck into the church and hid under the manger to be a part of the holy celebration of the birth of Jesus. 
 
*At the moment of communion, he saw all the faithful rise and go to the holy table…The faithful, after communicating, returned to pass again before him…Each time a faithful, carrying the Body of Christ that he had just received, passed before the manger, the Wolf could not but adore the majesty of the Presence and all his pain melted deliciously in his heart and in his being. It appeared to him that his wolfly soul too participated in this communion. He benefited, he also, from this Devine Presence…and his old savage heart resisted no more and broke from an overflowing of sweet serenity. 
 
After the mass, the children found the wolf and saw that his mouth was filled with honey. 
 
*They cried, again a miracle! But if it was a miracle it was but the effect of Charity, sovereign, all powerful, and very precious Charity.
 
I stayed awake for the entire telling of this story, but drifted off to sleep right after – perhaps another miracle of God’s doing. As an adult, I like to read the story each Christmas, and though I didn’t tear up as a child – it was just all wonder and excitement – I do tear up every time I re-read it. 
 
Christmas is a miracle.
 
(* words taken from the English translation)
 
* * *

Daily Advent Devotion Wednesday Jude 17-22 
Whenever there is a “but” in Scripture, pay special attention.
The “but” represents a pivot that points to how disciples of
Jesus Christ are to behave in the midst of challenging times.
Here we read that Christians are to keep ourselves in the
love of God as we wait for our Lord’s mercy. What might it
look like to keep ourselves in God’s love today? This week?
This month?
God of grace, while the headlines tell of turmoil and acrimony,
we who follow Jesus Christ are told by your living word to
keep ourselves in your love, to wait for our Lord’s mercy and to
be merciful to others. We know that your love is not theoretical
but embodied and tangible. The mercy of Jesus Christ saves
and transforms, perhaps especially during times of trial and
pain. Make us instruments of this love and mercy, even now,
especially now. Amen.

* * *
 
News
 
TODAY! Our Sanctuary will be open for private prayer today, Thursday,  December 10, from 7am to noon. While there will be no organized service, you may come and sit in the space to pray and meditate. Physical distancing, masks, sign in with temperature check, and registration/contact tracing will be operative. Our worship team will greet and assist you. Only 10 people at a time will be allowed in. Bring your own Bible or hymnals if you wish, as the pew materials have all been removed as a safety precaution. See you on Thursday! 
 
* * *
 
TODAY! ESL Café Time       
What? This is a monthly café time on Zoom for the students to see their friends and tutors from all of the classes. It’s a chance for them to practice English and interact with Americans who are not their tutor. We will split into small groups so that we can discuss and catch up. First Pres members are invited to join us for the ESL Program’s time of fellowship. Bring your favorite hot drink and a snack to café time. 
When? Second Thursday of every month at 10 AM. The first one is TODAY at 10 AM. 

Email esl@firstpres.church for the link.
 
* * *

Does the Advent Journey of 2020 in ISOLATION have you confused, apathetic, hungry for the spirit? 
Are you stuck somewhere on the journey to Bethlehem or still uncertain if you want to “go” this year? 
Looking for inspiration?   
Join us for our Wednesday Zoom Vespers, December 16, as the Rev. Dave Bauer encourages us to dig a little deeper and navigate that journey to the birth.            
 
Join the fellowship as Dave helps us:
1. Compare the different approaches each Gospel writer takes to Advent.  We’ll notice:
            -unexpected pregnancies of the old and the young, angels making announcements, a mute father
            -an abundance of “begatting”
            -a voice calling in the wilderness  
            -Word becoming Flesh
—all ending up in the same place??? No wonder you may be confused.
 2. Take a quick journey back to see what effect our Protestant Reformation leaders (i.e. Calvin, Zwingli) had on how we celebrate Christmas.
 3. Can Christmas traditions turn into idolatry? Examine our Brief Statement of Faith (printed in our new church hymnal).
 
We invite you to listen, learn, share, reflect, challenge, discuss, explore. You can even ask, “Are we there yet?” 

Let’s just take this part of the “trip” together and see where we go and what we learn along the way.

Email zoom@firstpres.church for the link.

* * *
 
Seeking a personal aide     
I am a widow in my mid-nineties, living alone in the home I have been in for over 65 years.  I am ambulatory with a walker and have no dementia, but I am increasingly concerned about falling.  I am hard of hearing and have issues with high blood pressure.
 
I am seeking a non-smoking woman to aid me in normal daily activities including personal care (such as showering and toileting), meal preparation, running errands occasionally, and helping me with other matters which may arise.
 
The woman may be of any age and background but someone with similar prior experience and perhaps a background or interest in nursing would be preferred.
 
I am very particular about how my kitchen and house are kept and my aide must be willing to accept my directions in this regard. 
 
Ideally, my aide would have a flexible approach toward hours but generally be able to spend two or three hours a day with me five or six days a week and also be able to spend an occasional night at my home if needed. 
 
Please be in touch with Pastor Matt if you are curious about this posting. And thank you in advance for praying for this ministry opportunity. 
 
 * * *
 
Humor (Hard times really need godly laughter): 
 
What did the Hamburger family name their daughter? Patty.
 
* * *
 
Good Word:
 
Psalm 126:5-6a
5   May those who sow in tears 
          reap with shouts of joy. 
⁶   Those who go out weeping, 
          bearing the seed for sowing, 
     shall come home with shouts of joy, 
 
LET US PRAY: 
 
Our prayer today is a whole “Lessons and Carols” service offered by Austin College singers and musicians. As you remember, their chaplain John Williams spoke at First Pres last year in worship, Sunday school, and Sunday afternoon with his “Activators.” 
 
Holy God, help us to celebrate with glad heart, through whatever pain that plagues us. We praise you that your light shines brighter than our dark.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OixeHxN8YT8  Austin College Lessons and Carols
 
* * *
 
Much, much love to you all.
 
Matt Matthews
Cell: 864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church

Emails claiming to be from Pastor Matt have been received again recently, but please note that these emails are NOT actually from him.  Please do not respond to such emails, as they are an attempt by a scammer to get money from you (often in the form of gift cards).  If you have already responded, please discontinue the conversation and DO NOT send any money or gift cards.  These scammers appeal to our generosity, and can seem legitimate.  However, they are not.

The bottom line is this: before purchasing gift cards or some other method of sending money, you should always attempt to contact by a different method the person supposedly sending the email (or phone call, as is sometimes the case). Or, you can check in with the church office to see if we have heard about any such need. It is unfortunate that we have to be leery of such requests for help, but we must do so in order to be able to help when genuinely needed.

You can learn about other email scams (often known as “phishing scams”) at https://techservices.illinois.edu/security/phishing. The Federal Trade Commission also provides a helpful page with information about a variety of different scams at https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/features/scam-alerts.

We hope this information will help you to stay safe!

News…
Join the Nurture committee tonight at 7 PM for a virtual dessert gathering over Zoom. Bring your favorite dessert, Christmas cookie or yourself for an hour of conversation.  
Email zoom@firstpres.church for the link.

* * *

Advent Daily Reading Tuesday Psalm 33:20-22
Our soul waits for the Lord. God is our help and our shield.
We wait not for some unknown future or presence. We
wait for the Lord. When have you waited specifically for
someone or something? This sort of directed waiting shapes
our hopes, expectations and behavior as we wait. If we are
indeed waiting for our loving, saving Lord this Advent, what
attitudes and actions will characterize our waiting? Today,
notice the tenor and content of your waiting.
God you are our help and our shield. We wait knowing that
our waiting will not last forever and that you will surely come
with good news of great joy for all people. We wait with a
hope that motivates us to sing your praise and tend your sheep.
Our hearts are glad as we anticipate and experience now your
steadfast love that endures forever. Amen.

The Heart of Mission December 8, 2020   The 2020 Angel Tree   I mentioned last week that the Community Mission Deacons hosts an Angel Tree every year for our community mission agencies. This is a picture of 2019 Angel Tree. Some of you have already contributed to the 2020 Angel Tree $25 gift card tree. This year we do not have an actual tree for you to take an angel tag off of and replace with a gift but we are $25 gift cards from Salt & Light, Target or Walmart to give to our mission agencies. You can identify which you would like your gift card to go to. Some of you have already done this. You can continue to bring the gift cards to the church office Tuesday through Thursday mornings before December 15 so we can deliver them to the agencies before Christmas.   There is more….   Community Mission Deacons is adding a gift, a large gift, to the Angel Tree that will be given to Eastern Illinois Food Bank, designated to the Champaign-Urbana area to help alleviate food shortage in our community due to Covid-19. Many of our agencies use the Food Bank in their food distribution ministries. You are invited to add to the starting gift of $4000 by going online or mailing your check to the church. We already have someone who has pledged $1000 to that amount. Don’t wait. We want to send our gift to them before Christmas.   Our agencies that we are giving gift cards to are CU at HOME CANAAN S.A.F.E. HOUSE COURAGE CONNECTION DREAAM eMPTY TOMB, INC FAITH IN ACTION JESUS IS THE WAY PRISON MINISTRY THE REFUGEE CENTER RESTORATION URBAN MINISTRY SALT & LIGHT (for their staff) Also for CANTEEN RUN we will be collecting gift cards or in kind items: large to 3x-l winter shirts, GLOVES, socks, LARGE-2 X-L MEN’S UNDERWEAR, coats, hats.   Peace, Rachel Matthews, Mission Coordinator   Mission Announcements:   Mission Team: Meets Dec.8, 4:30pm zoom       THE 2020 ADVENT OFFERING will be taken for the whole month of December.   Christmas is the season of Advent. What love, joy and redemption we have in the birth of our Savior! And so, it is with thankfulness that each year at this time we have our annual Advent Offering. This year-2020- the year that is like none other we have experienced, your World Missions Committee is asking that our Advent giving go to 2 organizations that will help many people. The first organization is our own Presbyterian Disaster Assistance that is comprised of 2 components: National Relief and International Relief.   Several months ago, as fires were raging across the west and Pacific coast areas, your World Missions Committee was able to send $1500 to PDA and earmark if for U.S. fire relief aid. If you Google “ Presbyterian Disaster Assistance”, you will see how aid is distributed to United States and to international countries that are in crisis situations. Each entity has vital needs that are being addressed by PDA. We are very thankful that our denomination is able to help alleviate pain and suffering in so many places and in so many lives through your generous donations. 2/3 of your Advent giving this year will go to PDA.   The 2nd component of our giving will go to our own sister church, Luyano in Cuba. This is a year of isolation between our 2 churches due, among other things, to COVID19. None of us is allowed to travel between our countries this year. We are not able to carry supplies to them nor can we send money directly to them. The Luyano church is in dire need of help. We are able to aid them through PCUSA and our own church’s Cuba Committee is requesting this help. It is in gratitude to our relationship with our sister church that 1/3 of our Advent offering will be earmarked for our Luyano brothers and sisters.   We know this has been a tough year for each of us. However, we also acknowledge that God has continued to be our source of strength in these times. May we also be a source of strength to those who need to rely on us.   In Hope, Peace, Joy and Love,   The First Presbyterian Church World Mission Committee   ESL Café Time    What? We miss seeing you and catching up like we did in person! This will be a monthly café time on Zoom for us to see our friends and tutors from other classes. We will be split into small groups so that we can discuss and catch up. This is a great opportunity to practice speaking in English. Bring your favorite hot drink and a snack to café time.    When? Second Thursday of every month at 10 am. The first one is December 10th at 10am. The next café times are:  January 14th at 10am February 11th at 10am  March 11th at 10am  April 8th at 10am  May 13th at 10am    Zoom Information: Please email jeanette@firstpres.church for the Zoom meeting information.    Faith in Place: Just a reminder to our Green Team and all those interested in God’s Creation: Join us at Light the Way, Faith in Place’s first ever virtual Annual Celebration and Fundraiser! Tuesday Dec. 8th | 7:00-8:00pm CT Join at 6:45pm CT for the Pre-Party with DJ Antonio Cesar. To register go to https://secure.everyaction.com/ZSDCSQkhsk6PVlhw_kvLZQ2    CU at Home: Update #5 for One Winter’s Night: One Winter Night 2021 is only TWO MONTHS away! We are thrilled that we already have nearly 60 committed Box Dwellers registered, five brand new Business Sponsors this year (23 total), and more than $30,000 has been raised thanks to a phenomenal response to our Giving Tuesday campaign!   As we move past the “early bird” phase of our OWN 2021 launch, we want to reach out to those of you who have participated in some way in the event in previous years with a personal invitation to join us again next February. Over the past nine years, hundreds of individuals have participated in One Winter Night. We would love to see this 10th Anniversary OWN become something of a reunion of all of you who have made this event an annual demonstration of faith, hope, and love to our friends and our community!   If you are already on board, be sure to come by our facility on any Monday to pick up your OWN 2021 yard sign. Of course, you can still join us with a simple click at our website: be a Box Dweller; be a Volunteer; or be a Business Sponsor. Keep the momentum growing! And now, here’s Rob . . . . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnuwn20feVo&feature=youtu.be&blm_aid=253367297 Friends of PEB – In case you missed it last week, Friends of PEB sends thanks with a special online Advent Calendar. All you do is click the link and begin. https://calendar.myadvent.net/?id=b594e0aaf5cb14378b197c821b14b287 Frontera de Cristo Dear sisters and brothers,   We celebrate Advent in a time of darkness, both literally as the days grow shorter, but also figuratively as we are seemingly dividing up more in more into our religious, social and political clans unable to recognize the humanity of and divine image in one another or speak to one another a word of love much less form part of the peaceable kin-dom.   We have three events coming up in the next two weeks―on December 8, 10, and 15– to help us prepare to welcome anew the Christ Child into our lives who comes to us in surprising and unexpected ways throughout the year. Your presence with us will be a blessing. The Zoom links for each of these events are shown below.   Thank you for your partnership in ministry that helps us share hope, peace, love and joy throughout the year.   Peace, Joca and Mark   Join us on Tuesday, December 8, at 5:15pm MST (4:15 Pacific, 6:15 Central, 7:15 Eastern) for our 1,040th vigil, as we witness to the presence of Jesucristo with our sisters and brothers who are suffering and dying in the desert. Email mark@fronteradecristo.org to attend the vigil in person, or participate by Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83852133901   Join this conversation by Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83011050532   Let us keep all our mission partners in our prayers, those who are waiting to go back to their place of ministry and those who are able to work where they are. Listen for God’s call to you in their ministry.   Our PC(USA) Mission CoWorkers:   Mark Adams and Miriam Maldonado Escobar (Mexico) Farsijanna Adeney-Risakotta (Indonesia) Jeff and Christi Boyd (Central Africa) Jo Ella Holman (Caribbean and Cuba) – And, for the mission coworker you are preparing to take her place. Bob and Kristi Rice (South Sudan)   Our regional and global mission partners:   Kemmerer Village (and Camp Carew) Lifeline Pilots Marion Medical Mission Mission Aviation Fellowship Opportunity International Friends of Presbyterian Education Board in Pakistan Presbyterian Cuba Partnership Special Offerings of the PC(USA) Theological Education Fund Young Adult Volunteers   Here in Champaign – Urbana:   CU at Home CANAAN S.A.F.E. HOUSE CANTEEN RUN COURAGE CONNECTION DREAAM eMPTY TOMB, INC FAITH IN ACTION JESUS IS THE WAY PRISON MINISTRY THE REFUGEE CENTER RESTORATION URBAN MINISTRY SALT & LIGHT   Here at First Presbyterian Church   FPCC Amateur Preachers FPCC Environmental Committee working with Faith in Place FPCC Presbyterian Women FPCC ESL FPCC Children, Youth and Families FPCC Mission Possible/Go and Serve         302 W. Church Street   Champaign, IL 61820   217-356-7238   info@firstpres.church           Attachments: The_Heart_of_Mission_120820.pdf

Monday December 7^th, 2020
A weekday e-mailer from
Matt Matthews
 
To Members and Friends of 
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
 
Dear Friends,
 
Please share your Christmas memories with me. Here’s one from John Muirhead:
 
* * *
 
A Christmas Memory/ By John Muirhead
 
            For many of us the celebration of Christmas begins the night before, Christmas Eve.
 
            One memory that stands out in my 73 years of celebrating Christmas is from the events of Christmas Eve, 1968.
 
Our family was gathered in the house where we had all grown up.  My mother was there along with my older sister and her husband, my wife and me and my younger sister who was home from college.  A big part of this memory is the fact that my dad was not with us.  He had died in September and this was my mother’s and our first Christmas without him.
 
We had attended Christmas Eve services at First Presbyterian Church Danville and had just returned home.  Our neighbor, who was the Protestant Chaplin at the Veterans Administration Hospital, stopped over after his services to share Christmas Greetings.
 
As teens and then in our twenties, it was a custom that we would tune in to WCIA Channel 3 for their annual showing of “A Christmas Carol.”  This was the old black and white version starring Alastair Sim.  
 
On this particular evening as we tuned in there was a special news story airing on CBS.  It was a live broadcast from the Apollo 8 Astronauts who were orbiting the moon.  This was the first Apollo space mission to the moon and this crew’s assignment was to orbit the moon, take pictures and help to find the best spot for a lunar landing scheduled for 1969.
 
As we tuned in we saw and heard live pictures of the Astronauts. When we began watching the Commander of the Apollo 8, Frank Borman, was about to begin reading a passage from Genesis on creation.  He read verses 9 and 10 of Genesis Chapter 1 from the King James Version of the Bible.  
 
^“9And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
¹⁰ And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called the Seas: and God saw that it was good.”
 
            Before closing the transmission he wished us all a Merry Christmas and asked for God’s Blessings on All.
 
            What a lasting impression this made on all of us and such a fitting way to end our Christmas Eve!
 
Given the fact that this is a memory of long ago, I did go to the internet to confirm what I remembered.  If you Google “Apollo 8 Christmas Message” you will learn more.  An interesting fact is that all three Astronauts took turns reading from Genesis and they started with Genesis 1:1 and ended with Commander Borman reading the final verses.  You will find that it is estimated that a Billion people world-wide saw or heard this transmission, approximately one-fourth of the world’s population at the time.  
 
YouTube videos:
 
The message in black and white:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFUx_KC1bHQ
 
A CBS Sunday Morning Remembrance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gL66BJdGQYw
 
* * *

Advent Daily Devotion
Simeon represents those stalwart, faithful people who
show up and serve week after week. Can you think of
someone who fits this description? The dutifulness of
these folks keep the congregation going through good
times and challenging ones. They serve out of loyalty to
God, not for accolades or attention. Today remember
and give thanks for the Simeons whose waiting to see
God is marked by consistent presence and service.

Lord, we give you thanks and praise this day for your
faithful servants, those whose loyalty to you is visible in
their service to Christ’s church and your beloved world. Sure
of your Word, they keep theirs and show up daily, expecting
to meet you face to face. Help us to do likewise, not only with
a sense of duty, but with an anticipatory joy. Amen.
 
* * * 

News

Prayer Time…
Our Sanctuary will be open for private prayer on Thursday, December 10, from 7 AM to noon. While there will be no organized service, you may come and sit in the space to pray and meditate. Physical distancing, masks, sign in with temperature check, and registration/contact tracing will be operative. Our worship team will greet and assist you. Only 10 people at a time will be allowed in. Bring your own Bible or hymnals if you wish, as the pew materials have all been removed as a safety precaution. See you on Thursday! 

* * *
 
Seeking a personal aide     
I am a widow in my mid-nineties, living alone in the home I have been in for over 65 years.  I am ambulatory with a walker and have no dementia, but I am increasingly concerned about falling.  I am hard of hearing and have issues with high blood pressure.
 
I am seeking a non-smoking woman to aid me in normal daily activities including personal care (such as showering and toileting), meal preparation, running errands occasionally, and helping me with other matters which may arise.
 
The woman may be of any age and background but someone with similar prior experience and perhaps a background or interest in nursing would be preferred.
 
I am very particular about how my kitchen and house are kept and my aide must be willing to accept my directions in this regard. 
 
Ideally, my aide would have a flexible approach toward hours but generally be able to spend two or three hours a day with me five or six days a week and also be able to spend an occasional night at my home if needed. 
 
Please be in touch with Pastor Matt if you are curious about this posting. And thank you in advance for praying for this ministry opportunity. 
 
Humor (Hard times really need godly laughter): 
 
What are doctors always calm? They have a lot of patients.
 
What trembles at the bottom of the sea? Nervous wrecks.
 
What do lawyers wear to court? Lawsuits, of course.
 
Good Word:
 
Mark 1:1-8
¹The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
²As it is written in he prophet Isaiah, 
     “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, 
          who will prepare your way; 
³   the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 
          ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, 
          make his paths straight,’” 

⁴John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ⁵And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. ⁶Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. ⁷He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. ⁸I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
 
Let us pray: 

 
Our Father, who art in heaven, 
hallowed be thy name, 
thy kingdom come, thy will be done, 
on earth as it is in heaven. 
Give us this day our daily bread; 
and forgive us our debts, 
as we forgive our debtors; 
and lead us not into temptation, 
but deliver us from evil. 
For thine is the kingdom, 
and the power, and the glory, forever.   
Amen.
 
Much, much love to you all.
 
Matt Matthews
Cell: 864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church
 

Friday December 4^th,  2020
A weekday e-mailer from
Matt Matthews
 
To Members and Friends of 
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
 
Dear Friends,
 
Last week I spent time wandering up and down Folly Beach collecting shells in warm sun with Rachel and our boys. I got 500-keepers. I pondered what I was thankful for over that Thanksgiving weekend, those long walks, that soothing surf. I couldn’t count high enough to number my blessings. 
 
The week was framed by the death of an old friend from growing up years in Hampton. Alice brought light to her friends. Thank God I was among that number. You’ll hear about her again, I’m sure, in an essay or future sermon. For whom are you thankful this season? Who do you miss? 
 
My family watched four movies over Thanksgiving that were fun for lots of reasons. You know I like films that are small, independent, character-driven, and, ideally, funny. “Person to Person” is the one below that I suspect you will like the least. It’s the rawest. I’d be interested to know which of the others you like the most? Here they are: “Fisherman’s Friends” (Head Gear Films), “Onward”(the Pixar film), “Person to Person” (Magnolia Films), and “Song of the Sea” (StudioCanal).
 
I’ve been told that you can’t appreciate Christmas until you live through Thanksgiving well. Gratitude is the attitude. Sometimes I’m moving too fast through busyness to ponder my blessings. This year, not so much. I’m trying to go slower. I am thankful for you, friends. FOR YOU.
 
I’ve also been told that we can’t get to the manger without going through John the Baptist. So, on Sunday we jump into Mark’s gospel and meet John preaching at the side of the Jordan River. I hope you join me at 9:00 a.m. for worship. FirstPres.Live
 
Pay attention to God’s activity in the world around you. Be amazed. Tell somebody.
 
I’ll say it again: Pay attention to God’s activity in the world around you. Be amazed. Tell somebody.
 
See you on Sunday, 
 
PEACE,
 
Matt Matthews
864.386.9138
 
* * *
Here’s an important invitation for YOU to consider from a member of our community. Please give it thought:
 
Seeking a personal aide        I am a widow in my mid-nineties, living alone in the home I have been in for over 65 years.  I am ambulatory with a walker and have no dementia, but I am increasingly concerned about falling.  I am hard of hearing and have issues with high blood pressure.
 
I am seeking a non-smoking woman to aid me in normal daily activities including personal care (such as showering and toileting), meal preparation, running errands occasionally, and helping me with other matters which may arise.
 
The woman may be of any age and background but someone with similar prior experience and perhaps a background or interest in nursing would be preferred.
 
I am very particular about how my kitchen and house are kept and my aide must be willing to accept my directions in this regard. 
 
Ideally, my aide would have a flexible approach toward hours but generally be able to spend two or three hours a day with me five or six days a week and also be able to spend an occasional night at my home if needed.
 
Please be in touch with Pastor Matt if you are curious about this posting. And thank you in advance for praying for this ministry opportunity.
 
* * *

News…Sunday in the Park for this Sunday, December 6, has been CANCELLED!  Stay home and stay warm and join us on FirstPres.Live.

* * *

Daily Advent Readings for December 4, 5 and 6

Friday, December 4 Jeremiah 29:10-14
God has plans for us, plans for our welfare and future. God
promises to hear us when we call out and be found when we
seek our Lord. When have you struggled to believe that God
had plans – good plans – for you? Can you recall a time when
you could not discern God’s providence in the moment, but
could see how God’s good plans were evident in retrospect?
Can this remembering give you hope for today?

God of our past, present and future, when present
circumstances baffle and challenge us, test and upend us, we
struggle to see your good plans and we worry about the future.
We know you promise to hear us when we call. We know your
word is trustworthy and true. When we cannot yet perceive
your providence, sustain us and give us hope until that time
when we see your good plans for us come to fruition. Amen

Saturday, December 5  Luke 24:21
This verse comes in the middle of the discourse between
several of Jesus’ bereft disciples and the risen Christ. They
voice their dashed hope to the One walking with them who
fulfilled it. They cannot yet see that their hope is not lost, but
found and present right in front of them. How often is this
true for us? Today prayerfully ask God for the vision to see
God’s fulfillment of promises right in front of you.

Lord of all that is seen and unseen, even when we hope for
that which you promise, we often fail to see your present
and coming kingdom despite the fact that you are walking
alongside us. Give us eyes to see and ears to hear the holy in
our midst. Do not let our human expectations blind us to
your divine inbreaking wherever and whenever it comes.
Amen.

Sunday, December 6  Psalm 62
Wait. Wait in silence. Wait patiently. Wait in hope.
Rarely, if ever, do we want the answer to be “wait.”
Rarely do we wait without engaging in distractions to
help the time pass. We stand in line and immediately,
most of us look to our cell phones to read the headlines
or check our email or play a game. We multitask. We
toggle from one website to another. Waiting makes
us anxious. Seeing buffering on the livestream causes
irritation. An image of someone frozen on Zoom
annoys us. Technology trains us to expect everything to
happen instantly, seamlessly, until it doesn’t and then we
get unduly angry. I always knew in my household the
moment the internet went down because my teenage
children would emerge from their room like whack-amoles
in an arcade game.
What is it about waiting that is so difficult for us? Did
generations before us tolerate waiting better or is our
impatience just more evident these days?
Of course, there are seasons of waiting that warrant
our fear and unease. Waiting for a medical test result.
Waiting for a loved one to come out of surgery. Waiting
for a job offer to come when we are desperate for
employment. Waiting for a family member to return
safely from military deployment. Waiting for a storm to
pass. We know this kind of anxious waiting, too.
But what are we waiting for this Advent and how
do our Advent hopes meet our current fears and real
worries? The psalmist writes: “For God alone my soul
waits in silence; from the Lord comes my salvation.
God alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I
shall not be greatly shaken.” This liturgical season is a
pregnant kind of waiting — marked by expectation of
new birth and new life that brings change, a transition
that alters our priorities and schedules and reveals that
some of what we have previously valued does not really
matter anymore. We are waiting for God, not in vain,
but in certain hope that with the birth of Jesus salvation
for all creation comes and reorders our world and our
lives. However, we may need to wait in silence in order
to quiet our minds, discern God’s near presence, and
trust that God is with us in all of our waiting, all of our
worrying, all of our distractions, anxieties and fears.

Lord, you are our rock and our salvation, our refuge and
strength, our hope and breath. As we wait with anticipation
and anxiety, with patience and with eagerness, even with
irritation and fear, silence in us any voice but yours. Grant
us confidence in your promises to never abandon us and
certainty in your power to bring light and life, love and
grace, to all places and all people. Amen.

* * *

From your Nurture Team — Lizz Pippin was the first to recognize last week’s photo of Dick & Carol Arnould (with many others close behind.) 

   
Here’s this week’s photo, another couple. 

Visit http://fb.com/groups/firstpreschampaign to make your guesses, or email them to photos@firstpres.church.  
 
Please join in the fun!  We are running low on photos, so we would like you to select a photo from your younger years (grade school, high school or early adulthood). Photos need not be professional. Candid shots are welcome. Please send your photos to photos@firstpres.church.
  
* * *
 
O Come, O Come…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtOi0IP0DCo
 
Much, much love to you all.
 
Matt Matthews
Cell: 864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church

Thursday December 3^rd, 2020
A weekday e-mailer from
Matt Matthews
 
To Members and Friends of 
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
 
Dear Friends,
 
This is worth saying again: “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” Howard Thurman
 
* * *
 
An important word from our Confessional record. 
From the Confession of Belhar, 10.5–6 We believe 

• that God has entrusted the church with the message of reconciliation in and through Jesus Christ; 
• that the church is called to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world, that the church is called blessed because it is a peacemaker, that the church is witness both by word and by deed to the new heaven and the new earth in which righteousness dwells; 
• that God’s life-giving Word and Spirit has conquered the powers of sin and death, and therefore also of irreconciliation and hatred, bitterness and enmity, that God’s life-giving Word and Spirit will enable the church to live in a new obedience which can open new possibilities of life for society and the world; 
• that the credibility of this message is seriously affected and its beneficial work obstructed when it is proclaimed in a land which professes to be Christian, but in which the enforced separation of people on a racial basis promotes and perpetuates alienation, hatred and enmity; 
• that any teaching which attempts to legitimate such forced separation by appeal to the gospel, and is not prepared to venture on the road of obedience and reconciliation, but rather, out of prejudice, fear, selfishness and unbelief, denies in advance the reconciling power of the gospel, must be considered ideology and false doctrine. 

Therefore, we reject any doctrine which, in such a situation sanctions in the name of the gospel or of the will of God the forced separation of people on the grounds of race and color and thereby in advance obstructs and weakens the ministry and experience of reconciliation in Christ. 
 
News

Daily Advent Devotion
Thursday 1 Corinthians 13:7,13

This most familiar of Bible passages reminds us of the
intimate connection between hope and love. Love bears,
believes, hopes and endures all things. The love of God made
manifest in our human relationships tethers us together and
binds us to one another in ways that will not be undone by
life’s myriad challenges. Consider those you love this day,
those you are called to love, those you struggle to love. What
are your hopes for them?

Loving God, you unite us in Christ. Such intimacy is not
our doing and we cannot undo it. Nonetheless, we often
test this oneness and fail to bear, believe, hope and endure
in love. Knowing your unfailing love for us, we pray to
exhibit a love that hopes all things even for those we fi nd
hard to love. May our stalwart love bear witness to your
love for the world. Amen.

* * *

All are invited to the Presbyterian Women Christmas Tea on
TODAY 2 PM via ZOOM!

Email zoom@firstpres.church for the link.

We will listen to the Christmas Story, sing carols, talk about Christmas memories, and have a wonderful time in each other’s presence. 

* * *

Humor (Hard times really need godly laughter): 
 
During the minister’s prayer one Sunday, there was a loud whistle from one of the back pews. Tommy’s mother was horrified. She pinched him into silence and, after church, asked, ‘Tommy, whatever made you do such a thing?’
 
Tommy answered soberly, ‘I asked God to teach me to whistle, and He did!’
 
 
Good Word:
 
NRSV Jeremiah 31:31-34               
The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.  It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt — a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, (1) says the LORD.  But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the LORD,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.
 
LET US PRAY: 
 
Our Father, who art in heaven, 
hallowed be thy name, 
thy kingdom come, thy will be done, 
on earth as it is in heaven. 
Give us this day our daily bread; 
and forgive us our debts, 
as we forgive our debtors; 
and lead us not into temptation, 
but deliver us from evil. 
For thine is the kingdom, 
and the power, and the glory, forever.   
Amen.
 
Much, much love to you all.
 
Matt Matthews
Cell: 864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church