Friday, January 1^st, 2021
A weekday e-mailer from
Matt Matthews
 
The Seventh Day of Christmas 
(New Year’s Day . .  ). 
 
* * *
 
A Prayer for A New Year
 
Dear Reader, 
 
If you are among the number who believe the New Year requires at least one bowl of black eyed peas and one formal prayer, this message is for you. Listen to that calling to pray, even if you aren’t a “pray-er.” Pray today. Begin this year with a prayer. With your prayer. 
 
Here is a possible guide. It may work and help, or not. It may be too loosey-goosey, or feel too restrictive. The point is, offer to God a prayer on this first day of the year. Ready?
 
Use a prayer book, a psalm, a favorite hymn. Bruce Springsteen or Paul Simon can suggest lyrics to get you started. Stevie Wonder’s Songs In the Key of Life is a whole album of prayers. Let Leslie Odom be your high cantor, Aretha and Ella lead your chorus. Launch. Lift. Consider flight. However you begin, allow space for the words and prompts of others to become your very own words. 
 
If you don’t have words, pause and don’t speak. Allow yourself to feel the freedom of being mute, quiet, decidedly not on the spot.
 
Don’t think.
 
Don’t worry. 
 
Listen. 
 
Be. 
 
If you don’t have words for your prayer, consider that a gift. Relish it. Articulation is not limited to or bound by words. Sit up straight. Breathe deeply. Look up to the sky. A sun is behind those clouds. 
 
Go outside and pause by the mailbox. Let the cold sting your face. Don’t hurry. Allow the chill to slip between your shoulder blades down your spine. Horripilate. (Look it up.) Feel the frozen grass underfoot. Listen to the woodpecker, peck, peck, pecking. Do you hear distant traffic? Wind in tree tops? Running water? Your belly growl. 
 
Try on words like grace, thanks, wonder, awe. Say thanks more than once. You may wish to say those words out loud, but silence is fine.
 
Don’t let your neighbor or housemate know what you are doing. This is private. The moment you find yourself alone may be the moment you realize you are not alone. The Spirit may tip her hand, or not. Be still and be in a place where someone won’t ask you Are we out of eggs? or, Where did you put the tape? 
 
Save your prayer lists for later, your list of woes, your list of wants, your list of friends, their cancers, their wayward children, those struggling with Covid. These lists are good, but allow yourself to pray through them, beyond them. Let your prayer begin deeply within you, but let it transcend you, me, mine. Lift up your concerns and celebrations. Let them slip between your fingers. Feel them leave your fingertips as you let them go. 
 
You may wish to allow a scene from the Bible to enter into your brain. Allow yourself to walk into that scene. Still waters, green grass. A dusty road outside of Jericho. Magi with gifts. Shepherds with news. A garden. A mountaintop. A river’s water piled up on either side of a dry path. A manger. On an eagle’s wings. Moses conferring a blessing. Peter (or Amos) preaching a sermon. Jesus wiping a fevered brow. Daniel in a lion’s den. Ruth and a threshing floor. Ezekial in a valley of dry bones. Disciples on a boat. Whatever.
 
Is there a message for you there? 
 
A question? 
 
Don’t rush, and don’t take all day long because people need you. But, for now, pause. Cease. Wonder. 
 
If you doze, fine. But if you sleep, allow yourself to dream. Take stock of those dreams, those fleeting images, being chased, falling, leaning into the firelight—pay attention, then let them go. Wake more deeply into centered prayer. 
 
Thank.
 
Plead. 
 
Listen.
 
Be.
 
Give up.
 
Give out.
 
Let go.
 
Receive, absorb, soak it in, welcome.
 
Be open.
 
Be still.
 
Be ready,
 
and go out to
 
serve. 
 
A M E N
 
 
P E A C E ,
Matt Matthews
First Presbyterian Church Champaign
A (cool) congregation of the PC(USA)
Church: 217.356.7238; Cell: 864.386.9138
matt@firstpres.church