Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2020-04-24
Friday 24 April 2020
Members and Friends of
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
Dear Friends,
Sometimes less is more.
Read this poem twice, slowly, with a southern accent, then at the bottom of this email, you’ll find a link to the page from which I stole it. There, Wendell Berry himself reads it. I’ve been noticing nature more lately. Tulips are my latest joy, preceded by daffodils, surrounded, all, by grace.
“The Peace of Wild Things”
By Wendell Berry
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
* * *
On Sunday, we celebrate Earth Day with a special, special preacher. You know her and you’ll be super glad to see her again.
See you then.
Same time (9:00 a.m.). Same place. Leave early, or the commute will get you. Turn on your “device” and find us at: FirstPres.Live
Pay attention to God’s activity in the world around you.
Be amazed.
PEACE,
Matt Matthews
864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church
* * *
Wendell Berry:
https://billmoyers.com/story/
* * *
New fun photo challenge! Each Friday the Nurture Committee is challenging us to read an assigned scripture about Jesus and come up with a representation of the story using whatever you already have around the house and share it in photo form.
CHALLENGE #2
BAPTISM 3:13-17
As he grew, he gained respect from God and man
And his calling to save us, He began to understand
He declared He came to set the captives free
And baptized by John to begin that journey
John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the Jordan River
Take a photo of your family doing something with water.
Take some time to discussed what happened when Jesus was baptized, how God spoke from heaven, and what John said about him.
Post your photo to:
https://www.facebook.com/
live@firstpres.church
For Instagram @fpcchampaign
Thanks to Gary and Linda Peterson for today’s example of baptism…
* * *
Whitman: I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world…
https://billmoyers.com/story/
* * *
And if you’ve read this far, a treat. April in Paris with Ella:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
