Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2020-11-04
A weekday e-mailer from
Matt Matthews
To Members and Friends of
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
Dear Friends,
Several of you have told me that October is the most beautiful month in Champaign. Perhaps, but these first few days of November have been glorious. Rachel and I took the Hessel Park tree walk and now know the difference between a Douglas Fir and a White Pine. (https://champaignparks.com/
Nature has been a respite for me from pandemic and election news. I’ll say more in future emails. For now, important commentary from Robert Frost:
Nothing Gold Can Stay
by Robert Frost
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
News
The Covid-19 Response Team meets tonight to discuss how or if to move forward with our alternative face-to-face worship services. Please pray for them.
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Join us tonight at 7 pm for our Mid-Week Gathering via Zoom…
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SUNDAY IN THE PARK is this Sunday at Hessel at 11:00. If you feel safe to attend, please do. Physical distancing, masks, proper check-in/contact tracing will be operative. Bringing your own folding chair is optional.
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Nurture Team is inviting you to a virtual dessert on Tuesday, November 10, at 7 pm. Grab a cup of coffee and your favorite and…
Email zoom@firstpres.church for the link.
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I haven’t heard from many of you about this. Let me try again. KITCHEN, KITCHEN: What is your vision for our new kitchen? After Covid, should we have weekly Sunday brunches? Monthly dinners? Community meals? Sunday Night Jazz? What ministry awaits us? Ideas? Please be in touch with Gary Peterson (or me) with thoughts. Thanks.
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SAVE THE DATE: Join me for a PCUSA Poetry Slam! Sunday, November 15th.
https://www.
Humor (Hard times really need godly laughter):
Some Covid one-liners:
Now is not the right time to surround yourself with positive people.
The grocery stores in France look like tornadoes hit them. All that’s left is de brie.
What do you call panic-buying of sausage and cheese in Germany? The Wurst Kase scenario
Good Word:
Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-15
1Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel; and they presented themselves before God. 2And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Long ago your ancestors—Terah and his sons Abraham and Nahor—lived beyond the Euphrates and served other gods. 3aThen I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan and made his offspring many.
14″Now therefore revere the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15Now if you are unwilling to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”
LET US PRAY:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled, as to console,
To be understood, as to understand,
To be loved, as to love,
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
— St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226)
Much, much love to you all.
Matt Matthews
Cell: 864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church
