Monday August 24^th, 2020
A daily e-mailer from
Matt Matthews
 
To Members and Friends of 
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
 
Dear Friends,
 
Overheard:     It is not only prayer that gives God glory but work. Smiting on an anvil, sawing a beam, whitewashing a wall, driving horses, sweeping, scouring, everything gives God some glory if being in his grace you do it as your duty. To go to communion worthily gives God great glory, but to take food in thankfulness and temperance gives him glory too. To lift up the hands in prayer gives God glory, but a man with a dungfork in his hand, a woman with a slop pail, gives him glory too. He is so great that all things give him glory if you mean they should. So then, my brethren, live (Gerard Manley Hopkins).
 
I rather like the idea that work is prayer, especially when that work is offered to God. On my good days, I work like that. And while I might not have used many words that day in my prayers, I have used my hands, and, as Hopkins intimates, my heart.
 
How will you pray today? Let’s pray for each other.
 
News:
 
Join me in praying for Kathy Kinser, whose husband Dave died on Saturday night. A memorial service will be announced later. Give rest, O Christ, to your servant with your saints, where sorrow and pain are no more, neither sighing, but life everlasting.

 
* * *
 
You are invited to a congregation-wide book study on race.

• WHAT? White Fragility: Why Is It So Hard for White People to Talk        about Race? by Robin DiAngelo (Beacon Press, 2018). 
• WHEN? The study begins on the week of September 14 (either on Monday night at 7:00, or Thursday afternoon at 11 a.m. Exact times TBA).
• HOW? Sign up by emailing or calling Patty Farthing in the church office. We will meet on-line via Zoom. 217.356.7238 or  Patty@firstpres.church
• WHO? Everyone in our congregation and community is invited. Pastor Matt Matthews will facilitate. Our Compassion, Peace, and Justice Committee will host.              
• WHY? Having conversations about race may open us to whole new ways of being “neighbor” and give us ideas about how we can help heal the divisions that divide our nation along racial lines. 

A twenty-minute video, Deconstructing White Privilege with Dr. Robin DiAngelo produced by the United Methodist Church, introduces the author and some basic concepts about white fragility. View it here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7mzj0cVL0Q&feature=emb_title
 
I’m eager to be challenged by this book and our conversations around it. I have a lot to learn about race, about myself, and about our complicated, beautiful human family. I’m eager to grow. Join us!
 
Those who have studied the book say this:

• It is not a fluff book.It is thought provoking.
• There will be uncomfortable parts. 
• It will challenge us to think about things we’d rather not think about.  
• It is a journey of learning and awareness.
• I became aware of little things in daily life I never noticed before. 
•  It gives an understanding of our white culture I never had before.
•  It is an opportunity to consider cultural blind spots that might inhibit how fully we live out Christ’s call on our lives as His disciples. 
• Together we can identify and practice ways to build our capacity to listen and to speak about race, faith and justice in a manner that builds up the Body of Christ.  

* * * *                 

Humor (Hard times needs godly laughter):
 
(From Bill Gamble):  A guy, a bit hot under the collar, took a recently purchased chain saw back to the store, complaining bitterly that was the worst tool he had ever tried to cut wood with.  The clerk carefully examined the saw for a while, and finally said:” I don’t think this has ever been started.”  
 
To which the customer replied: “Started?”
 
Good Word:
 
Psalm 23 
The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.
 
Let us pray:
 
God bless us, everyone.
 
(Tiny Tim, from Dickens’ A Christmas Carol)
 
Much, much love to you all.
 
Matt Matthews
Cell: 864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church