Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2021-01-20
A weekday e-mailer from
Matt Matthews
Inauguration Day
To Members and Friends of
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
Friends,
Yesterday by noon we had gone over the punch list.
Tim Young, Joanne Walther, Gary Peterson, Ritchie Drennen, and a team of contractors, supply professionals, and architects reviewed the drawings and took a careful walk-through of our new kitchen. They turned every knob, rolled down and rolled up dividers over the serving window and the dish return, checked thermometers, and tried out every appliance. All the faucets work. The drains drain. The floor is a shade of maroonish-red I might call russet, or, maybe, brick red. They gleam. The appliances are shiny, silver. They purr. The ice machine is full of ice. The workspaces are clean and spacious. The crew was thanked and prayed over. We are ready for a new day. When the small list of last things is fixed, the final few checks will be authorized, signed, and mailed. A new chapter officially begins. The ways we can serve the world through that brand-new kitchen is limited only by our imagination.
I hope we dream big.
The transformation I describe happening in our kitchen is happening this very day in our nation. Every four years we come to this moment. There is an inauguration or a second inauguration. Speeches are made. Parades roll up and down Pennsylvania Avenue. Flowers are placed at Arlington, respects paid, promises made. People are thanked and prayed over. There is a wave of elation or a deep sigh. We as a nation have been entrusted with a new day.
We’ll do it four years from now. And four years hence. And hopefully long beyond our lifetime and that our our children’s children.
Every four years we take a deep breath and allow ourselves to see beyond what is to what could be. We allow ourselves to dream.
I hope we dream big.
May God bless our kitchen. And our country.
So much has been entrusted to our care.
AMEN.
News
Join us for our Wednesday Night Zoom. Let’s connect, pray, and celebrate a new offering from our Gathering Band, as well as, perhaps, a few surprises. 7:00 this evening.
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Pray for our Session. They meet tomorrow evening.
Humor (Hard times really need godly laughter):
Tom Ulen shares this old chestnut:
A minister in a large city was short of time and couldn’t find an available parking space; so, he parked in a no-parking zone. He put a note under his car’s windshield wiper that read, “I have circled the block ten times. If I don’t park here, I’ll miss my appointment. Forgive us our trespasses.”
When he returned, he found a citation from a police officer, along with this note: “I’ve circled this block for ten years. If I don’t give you a ticket, I’ll lose my job. Lead us not into temptation.”
(Bill Marble and Gary Peterson have shared some dillies. Tune in tomorrow for the first dose of those funnies.)
Good Word:
Psalm 118:24
This is the day that the Lord
LET US PRAY:
A poem-prayer by
Matthew Joseph Thaddeus Stepanek
submitted by Nancy MacGregor
Nancy writes this: Matty was 11 when he wrote this. He died of Dysautonomic Mitochondrial Myopathy, a form of Muscular Dystrophy, an affliction his mother also has. Sadly Matty’s 3 elder siblings also died before Matty of DMM. Between 2001 and 2003, Matty published 5 books of Heartsongs poems – Heartsongs, Journey through Heartsongs, Hope through Heartsongs, Celebrate through Heartsongs, and Loving through Heartsongs. I am always impressed by the sensitivity and perception of children. Too bad we don’t take time to really hear what they are saying to us.
For Our World
We need to stop.
Just stop.
Stop for a moment.
Before anybody
Says or does anything
That may hurt anyone else.
We need to be silent.
Just silent.
Silent for a moment.
Before we forever lose
The blessing of songs
That grow in our hearts.
We need to notice.
Just notice.
Notice for a moment.
Before the future slips away
Into ashes and dust of humility.
Stop, be silent, and notice.
In so many ways, we are the same.
Our differences are unique treasures.
We have, we are, a mosaic of gifts
To nurture, to offer, to accept.
We need to be.
Just be.
Be for a moment.
Kind and gentle, innocent and trusting,
Like children and lambs,
Never judging or vengeful
Like the judging and vengeful.
And now, let us pray,
Differently, yet together,
Before there is no earth, no life,
No chance for peace.
September 11, 2001 Matthew Joseph Thaddeus Stepanek 1990 – 2004
from Hope Through Heartsongs, Hyperion, 2002
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Much, much love to you all.
Matt Matthews
Cell: 864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church
