Ongoing Response to COVID-19
Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2020-07-24
Friday 24 July 2020
Members and Friends of
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
Dear Friends,
This passage from Amos 5:21 as translated by Eugene Peterson has really grabbed me this week. What have you read this week that has inspired you? Share it.
“I can’t stand your religious meetings. I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions. I want nothing to do with your religion projects, your pretentious slogans and goals. I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes, your public relations and image making. I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music. When was the last time you sang to me? Do you know what I want? I want justice—oceans of it. I want fairness—rivers of it. That’s what I want. That’s all I want.”
And Prayers of Steel from Sandburg always stirs me:
Lay me on an anvil, O God.
Beat me and hammer me into a crowbar.
Let me pry loose old walls.
Let me lift and loosen old foundations.
Lay me on an anvil, O God.
Beat me and hammer me into a steel spike.
Drive me into the girders that hold a skyscraper together.
Take red-hot rivets and fasten me into the central girders.
Let me be the great nail holding a skyscraper through blue nights into white stars.
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On Sunday in worship, we who are tethered to the solid ground reach for the transcendent in song, prayer, and praise. Follow the links at FirstPres.Live and join us at 9:00 on Sunday.
See you on Sunday. Invite a friend.
Pay attention to God’s activity in the world around you.
Be amazed.
Tell somebody.
PEACE,
Matt Matthews
864.386.9138
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PHOTO Challenge!
From your Nurture Team — There were no correct guesses on last Friday’s photo of Rachel Matthews!
Here’s this week’s photo.
Visit http://fb.com/groups/
Please join in the fun! 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@
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Summer songs:
Knock on Wood!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Sing it, Sly!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
If you travel, take this along…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Thank you, Arturo O’Farrill!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
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Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2020-07-23
Thursday July 23, 2020
A daily e-mailer from
Matt Matthews
To Members and Friends of
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
Dear Friends,
Nathan Paul-Bonham took a wet corner too fast on his bicycle, crashed, fractured hip and pelvis, and contracted a bad case of road rash. He’s okay, but is just now feeling the bad pain that will only get worse before it gets better. (Nathan, if you’re reading this, take your meds and feel the love coming your way. Seriously.) His parents, as I write this, are coursing through Illinois. By the time you read this tomorrow, they’ll be leaving the Texas panhandle or thereabouts.
Nathan is a YAV—a Young Adult Volunteer for our church, the Presbyterian Church (USA)—serving in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This was to be his last week concluding a year of service to and with at-risk youth there.
Rachel and I and our sons love Nathan and his family. We met Scott and Donna almost 40 years ago at Union Seminary & the Presbyterian School of Christian Education. None of us had kids then, and we could not imagine how we would love each other’s kids and families.
Nathan is 6-feet 8-inches tall with his basketball shoes on, but he’s still our collective “little boy.” Join us in praying for him.
Sometime ministry is rushing through the night on a cross country drive. Sometimes it is a healing ministry of books-on-tape and slow walks around the house. Sometimes it is praying for strangers or feeding family. It’s preaching hope in the face of hopelessness, freedom in the face of quarantine, victory when the tide is decidedly not in your favor, resurrection around a hole and pile of fresh dug dirt.
Friends, pray for the Paul-Bonham family and the miles they have yet to drive. They have to make it back to St. Joseph, Michigan, after all, with a wounded son.
And let’s continue to be church together. “Being there” for one another. Caring. Reaching out. Challenging. Comforting. Taking seriously this ministry of presence during a season of separation.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Take on Race:
Interested in First Presbyterian Church becoming “multicultural”? It’s easier to talk about than to achieve. I would love it. But would the necessary changes be too tough on you? On me? Hum…. Here’s some food for thought from Beth Hutchens:
https://www.npr.org/2020/07/
News:
Wednesday Night Vespers was a special blessing last night. Thank you for the inspiration.
Friday
Men’s Prayer Group 8:30 am
Email zoom@firstpres.church for the link.
Friday Night Lights Bible Study 7:30 pm
Email zoom@firstpres.church for the link.
Humor: (Serious times call for re-creation, joy, and humor.)
We had dinner on the moon the other night. The food was good, but we didn’t like the atmosphere.
GOOD WORD:
Romans 8:26
… [T]he Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.
LET US PRAY:
Peace between nations. Peace between neighbors. Peace between lovers. In love of the God of life. Peace between man and woman. Peace between parent and child. Peace between brother and sister. The peace of Christ above all peace. Bless, O Christ, my face. Let my face bless everything. Bless, O Christ, my eyes. Let my eyes bless all they see. Amen.
PEACE to you all,
Matt Matthews
Cell: 864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church
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Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2020-07-22
A daily e-mailer from
Matt Matthews
To Members and Friends of
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
Dear Friends,
The book White Fragility is helping many of us think and grow. Check out the book and notice Bob Kirby’s review below. John McWhorter, a black reviewer, wrote a negative review in The Atlantic. What did you think of the book?
Take on Race:
White Fragility—Why It’s Hard for White People to Talk about Racism/By Bob Kirby
Tracy Dace told our small group years ago that we were not ready to talk to black people about racism because we first had a lot of work to do on ourselves. He implored us, “do not expect black people to go through the emotional pain of teaching you about being black in America until you understand what it means being white in America.” Thank you, Mr. Tracy.
Linda DiAngelo’s bestseller, White Fragility, is written by a middle aged, highly educated, privileged white woman for an audience of educated privileged white adults. Hers is not a scientific nor a religious work. Although scripture could be easily added to her important points.
DiAngelo challenges people who look like me to think about what it means to be white. I had never even thought about describing my white culture. Have you? The author shares her observations as a diversity counselor in an easily read book that makes sense to me and others who read it with me. It has given me a deeper, although unsettling, understanding of my whiteness and of the systemic racism of the past 400 years which has benefited me and almost everybody I know. I can now say out loud that I have been an active contributor to and a beneficiary of a racist society. I have power. I acknowledge my white privilege, my white attitude and that part of my personal racism of which I am aware. From White Fragility I learned things that help me better understand the black community’s continuing cry for justice. I am now a learning, striving but forever flawed antiracist in process. And I am closer to a time when I can discuss racism with black friends.
John McWhorter’s recent criticism of White Fragility [in The Atlantic] is interesting. Professor McWhorter grew up in an affluent family. His parents were academics. He was educated at a private Quaker school and then attended college at Rutgers, New York University and at Stanford where he earned his PhD in linguistics. He describes himself as “middle aged (57) and upwardly mobile”. He has written that “antiracism is worse than white racism”. McWhorter does not agree with Linda DiAngelo’s observations about whiteness and seems not to understand why it’s hard for white people to talk about racism. As a black man who opposes affirmative action based on race and believes our racial problems are the result of “black attitudes” it is understandable that DiAngelo’s book is not to his liking. He certainly he is in a place to interpret some of her vignettes as condescending. But, White Fragility was not written for him. It is an important bestselling book written for a majority of white Americans who want help understanding their white culture so that they can become effective antiracists and move closer to some wonderful spiritual time when they can talk about racism with friends of all skin colors.
News:
Wednesday Night Potluck! Bring your hunger tonight (and dinner) for our Wednesday night Zoom. Tonight, our Spiritual Formation team will deepen our faith.
Humor: (Serious times call for re-creation, joy, and humor.)
Every single day I get hit by the same bike.
It’s a vicious cycle.
If pronouncing my ‘b’s as ‘v’s makes me sound Russian,
Then Soviet.
(Thanks Erica John.)
GOOD WORD:
Romans 8:26-39
26Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. 27And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
28We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. 29For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. 30And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.
31What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? 33Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. 35Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
LET US PRAY:
A prayer for the morning:
O LORD,
help me,
help me,
help me.
A prayer for the evening:
O LORD,
thank you,
thank you,
thank you.
AMEN
(Anne LaMotte)
PEACE to you all,
Matt Matthews
Cell: 864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church
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Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2020-07-21
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Education is the Pathway to Peace 1:30 pm Midweek Online Gathering 7 pm
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Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2020-07-20
Monday July 20, 2020
A daily e-mailer from
Matt Matthews
To Members and Friends of
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
Dear Friends,
We have many people and situations to hold in prayer. Dick and Carol Ann Green could use our prayers now. See the note below from Nancy Bell.
How many people do you know who have had Covid-19? We all try to be so careful, and, yet, we all are susceptible to this illness. Larry Braskamp, a former member of our congregation who now lives in Chicago, was flabbergasted that he got Covid. Read his essay at the very bottom of this email.
Bill Marble wrote a great essay about race. Read it below. Also, follow the link to Chancellor Robert Jones powerful essay in the News-Gazette.
Mary and Steve Gritten have come to the humor rescue with the granddaughter’s jokes.
I hope your weekend was good. I’m around if you want to talk. My number is below, as always.
Take on Race:
‘It is time to stop hoping someone else will step up. And it is time to be unapologetically impatient.’ROBERT JONES UI Chancellor. Read his great article in the News Gazette: https://www.news-
* * *
Have you read the book “White Fragility”? If so, what did you think? How did it help you think about race? Here’s what Bill Marble wrote. Thanks, Bill:
My whole life has been, as a white man, claiming I am color blind, not prejudice, trying my best to not judge others, especially those of color. But after George Floyd, and reading white Fragility, I realize, simply because I am a white male in the USA, I am racist. This is a hard pill to swallow.
I grew up in Northern California in in the 1940′ s and 1950’s a logging community. When I was a junior in high school, our student president was a black person. I didn’t think anything about that. This person was a friend and just another guy I hung out with.
But as I grew up and moved out of this isolated mountain town, I discovered that there were people who were prejudice.
My first encounter with racism came in 1965 in Baltimore when I stopped at a bus stop and saw signs at the water fountains and bathrooms segregating white from black. I was taken aback with this. I did not know that even existed.
I have tried over the years to treat everyone as a human being, but being a white man, I know that because I am a white man, I am racist. I don’t have to like it, and I try very hard to not be a racist white man.
So, I guess what I am trying to say, is love one another, even those who don’t look like us. We are all in this together. Thanks for listening to my rambling.
Bill Marble
News:
As many of you know, Dick Green has been treating a rare form of cancer for 2 years. He and Carol Ann have been transparent and so easy to talk to about his ongoing and multiple treatments. They have been active and faithful members of our church for many years. They are still searching for new treatments but are a bit weary and need our prayers and support. They are grateful for our prayers. Nancy Bell
* * *
Tuesday
Men’s Bible Study 8 am
Wednesdays
Join your church friends for pickleball on Wednesdays at 1:00 at the courts of Hessel Park. Bring your paddle.
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Humor: (Serious times call for re-creation, joy, and humor.)
What’s the best thing about Switzerland?
I’m not sure, but the flag is a big plus.
I bet the butcher he couldn’t reach the meat on the top shelf, but he said he wouldn’t take that bet. He told me the steaks were too high.
A book fell on my head.
I only have my shelf to blame.
Doctor: I’m sorry, but I had to remove your colon.
Me Why? (Notice there’s no colon in that phrase. Get it?!)
Good Word:
Psalm 104:1-3
Bless the Lord, O my soul.
O Lord my God, you are very great.
You are clothed with honor and majesty,
2 wrapped in light as with a garment.
You stretch out the heavens like a tent,
3 you set the beams of your[a] chambers on the waters,
you make the clouds your[b] chariot,
you ride on the wings of the wind,
4 you make the winds your[c] messengers,
fire and flame your[d] ministers.
Let us pray:
Merciful God,
we confess that we have not loved you with our whole heart. We have failed to be an obedient church.
We have not done your will,
we have broken your law,
we have rebelled against your love.
We have not loved our neighbors,
and we have refused to hear the cry of the needy.
Forgive us, we pray.
Free us for joyful obedience; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
PEACE to you all,
Matt Matthews
Cell: 864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church
Coping with Covid-19: A Personal Perspective
By Larry A. Braskamp larry@sitbeside.
In late May, I tested positive (infected) with the COVID- 19 virus. After 29 days in quarantine, I “count it all joy” that I am now negative and have freedom. In this reflection, I share some highlights and struggles of my journey in isolation as context for making some suggestions for church communities as they begin to further open up in this new era.
I was shocked that I got COVID – 19, since my wife, Judi, and I had been very cautious, given our age and Judi’s preexisting health condition. I have no idea how I got it. I quarantined in our bedroom, with a bed, TV, easy chair and bathroom and a beautiful view of Lake Michigan. We communicated by phone. I opened the door three times a day to get my meals prepared by my very supportive wife, an excellent cook. During this period we celebrated our 56th wedding anniversary, waving to each other ten feet away. I can best illustrate my month by sharing the survey I completed each morning for my hospital. I indicated the frequency I have had a fever, a cough, shortness of breath, sore throat, muscle aches, trouble sleeping, lack of energy, feel ill, diarrhea, or stomach pain. I had no energy at the beginning, no desire to read, watch movies, or watch the news. I just slept most of the time, focusing on my survival. Since I had only a slight fever, I was judged to have a mild case. But a month before I tested positive I had begun to experience a constant lightheadedness, which stayed with me throughout my quarantine. Weeks later it has not completely gone away. All of my treatments were by telemedicine, except for the four times I walked six blocks to the hospital’s COVID-19 testing site.
My state of mind. However, my responses to three questions on the survey best describe my well-being during this time. They capture the emotional stress I faced (as is common with others I’m told). They are: I worry that the infection will get worse; I worry about spreading my infection; I feel overwhelmed by my condition. In the first two weeks I feared that my condition would get worse – I would land up in the hospital on a ventilator. It became a life and death issue continually on my mind. With one cough, I would panic and think that I am headed for the hospital soon. I also worried about my wife getting the virus, since she has a pre-existing health condition. And I felt overwhelmed especially at the beginning having brief moments of utter despair and complete hopelessness. My physical isolation and anxiety over the uncertainty and unpredictability of the virus had a multiplier effect. The treatment offered by the experts of “just wait it out” was not comforting.
Self-reflections. I took to writing self-reflections to better discern meaning and purpose in my life and my future. What has been and should be essential in my life? I started them with a short commentary on a selected Bible passage. My reflections, usually written from 1 – 3 am, were raw, very inarticulate, and grossly inadequate in describing my feelings and thinking. But the mere writing of these gave me some peace and insights. The first one was “Alone, together’” and the last one was “By the Grace of God.” I discovered, not surprisingly, that ultimate meaning in my life is still heavily based on my Calvinist worldview –God’s grace and providential presence in my life– which I learned growing up from my family and local church. But the Grace of God became more than some theological abstract term. Surprisingly and joyfully I found it very meaningful knowing that family and friends – persons of various faith traditions or no religious faith –were thinking of me. (Two church communities, Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago where we have been members for three decades, and First Presbyterian Church, Champaign, IL where we were members three – four decades ago were bountiful in their grace.) It provided comfort, at times considerable strength and motivation to endure – giving me hope through my uncertain, unpredictable, uncontrollable future. It was manifested beautifully by the daily thoughts and prayers, expressed in emails, cards, phone calls, zooms. I will never forget when one of my granddaughters (age 14) said, “Grandpa, I am praying for you to get negative.” As I write this now in my freedom, I am so thankful that “By the Grace of God, I am alive and well – I didn’t go to the hospital. I can play tennis again.”
Suggestions for churches
I wish to provide some suggestions based on my experience to churches which are beginning to open up. When I told my friends and family that I was infected, many replied with these two comments. “I now know someone who has it—I can check it off,” and “If you who have been so careful can get it, maybe I am next.” Unfortunately, many more may still be infected in the future. My suggestions range from the concrete to comprehensive initiatives.
Care for those with COVID-19 and their caregivers isolated by this virus. Both will no doubt experience loneliness and anxiety even being overwhelmed at times. Thus communication – emails, notes, zooming, and telephone — among those in and out of quarantine is helpful. The power of people cannot be overestimated. I experienced it so powerfully. Communication makes the virus more personal, which can benefit everyone in understanding and showing empathy. Communication must respect the privacy of those isolated and the church’s guidelines.
Care for older adults. Recognize that many, especially older adults, who have not been infected with the virus, have been forced to be isolated. They cannot enjoy the social relationships that they have had at church before the virus. Many are lonely and depressed they tell me. They need the support and prayers of others as well.
Engage church members of all ages. Provide opportunities for members of a church to reflect on their goals, aspirations, values, and of course their faith. Reflection requires us to look inward, not an easy endeavor. Are we being asked or even forced to adapt our lives to discover meaning and purpose given at this time? What is essential in our lives now and in the future? How adaptive do we need to be and for how long – maybe for the rest of our lives? Is there a new definition of well-being needed individually and for the church collectively?
Revisit the meaning of “Vocation.” This period is a good time to reflect on vocation as a useful way to think of our lives moving forward. I like how Frederick Buechner defines it, “The place where God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” It is this interdependence between our life and the lives of others that makes this definition so useful in thinking about how we can live a meaningful life during this era. We cannot take our vocation seriously or completely until we include our relationships with others in our thinking and actions.
Acknowledge and accept loss. Acknowledge that there is loss in the way we have been engaged in church. To plan to get back to normal, the way we have been, as soon as possible, is not a valid or useful mindset. Change is inevitable, which means accepting and moving beyond grief over what we will miss in moving forward as a church community. When I walked to my office at Elmhurst College to begin my day, I went past the statue of Reinhold Niebuhr, a graduate, which has these words printed on its base: “God, give me the grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.” Accepting the loss of where we were is needed as we think and experiment with new strategies to develop a new form of community in the church. “What is essential in our lives and in our religious communities?”
Recognize that individuals best develop in community. Hold steadfast to the fact that we best develop as individuals when we are in community — being engaged with others. Isolation is a dangerous thing from a developmental point of view. We grow and develop in our faith when we live a life surrounded by support and challenge. The church as a community of believers can play such an important role in developing each of us in our spiritual, social, intellectual life. The church is a community that supports – gives us comfort — but also provides the necessary challenge to grow. Our task as a church is this new era is to discover how to provide an optimal environment for each person to grow in their faith.
Welcome the opportunity. Finally, embrace the fact that the church is challenged and now has an opportunity to address three overlapping crises –COVID -19, collapse of the economy, and racial inequity. We are witnessing “history in the making.” How do we as a church community respond and act? The church can become a powerful voice in moving our society forward. But more than spoken words is needed. Institutional commitment and action is required. Church communities can contribute by offering understanding, based on our faith traditions, and be engaged in action-filled solutions working collaboratively with other institutions. Now is our opportunity.
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