Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2020-12-11
Friday December 11th, 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?
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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
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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!
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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?
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?
Grace Ashenfelter shares A Corona Opera
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Much, much love to you all.
Matt Matthews
Cell: 864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church
