Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2021-02-04
Thursday, February 4th, 2021
A weekday e-mailer from
Matt Matthews
To Members and Friends of
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
Friends,
Carol Penka answered this question correctly, and I’ll be gladly sending some Jarling’s Custard Cup ice cream her way. I’ll gladly send some YOUR way if you want to take a stab at answering this question. (I’ll share the answer in my March 7th sermon…)
What do these folk have in common?
- Astronaut Buzz Aldrin,
- the musical genius Ludwig von Beethoven,
- the football quarterback Terry Bradshaw,
- Winston Churchill,
- the singer Judy Collins,
- Monica Seles the tennis pro,
- Abraham Lincoln.
BOOK STUDY! You are invited to a congregation-wide four session book study on race.
- WHAT? Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (One World, 2015). A father talks to his fifteen-year-old son about the realities of inhabiting a black body.
- WHEN? Thursdays, February 18 and 25 and March 4 and 11 at 11:00am to 12:00 noon.
- HOW? Sign up by emailing or calling Patty Farthing in the church office. We will meet on-line via Zoom. 217.356.7238 / Patty@firstpres.church . Borrow books from our public library in paper, digital or audio form. To order through the church request copy by February 10 and transmit check to Patty.
- WHO? Everyone in our congregation and community is invited. Pastor Matt Matthews will facilitate. Our Compassion, Peace, and Justice Committee/ Spiritual Formation Committee will host.
- WHY? Jesus asks us to love “the other. A first step is listening to understand “the other”.
One of our friends said this about Coate’s book. “I know I will never fully understand the emotional trauma of racism. But, Coates’ book has helped me better understand. His writing has made me more sensitive and more deeply empathetic to the black experience.”
News
The Annual Meeting of the Congregation will be held Sunday, February 14, at 10 am. Watch for the zoom link in next week’s mailers.
* * *
In-person Worship begins on February 21st at 10:15. After careful discussion and prayerful deliberation, the COVID-19 team and the Session have recommended that we resume limited in-person weekly worship on the First Sunday of Lent, February 21st at 10:15 a.m.
For those of you who feel safe to attend, please pre-register by calling the church office at 217.356.7238. Registration will run from Monday morning to Thursday noon the week before each service. (We are preregistering not only as a means of contact-tracing, but also to keep attendance at or under fifty [50] people, including worship leaders and ushers. That is the limit prescribed by state public health guidelines.)
Remember, your Session is doing everything it can to keep everyone safe during this season of pandemic. While the end may be in sight with local and statewide numbers trending downward, not everyone is vaccinated yet and Covid-19 is still deadly. Some experts guess our nationwide death toll due to Covid may total over 600,000 by later this Spring.
The best way to safeguard against getting Covid is to limit one’s exposure to it and to get vaccinated; while we have prepared as safe a worship environment as possible, and all participants will be required to check in, wear masks at all times, and sit at a distance of six feet from other families, we cannot guarantee that somebody won’t get sick. Those who come to worship come at their own risk.
These in-person services will be, essentially, services of welcome, scripture, prayer, and preaching. These brief—40-minutes, or less—services will include no spoken liturgy, no congregational singing, and no choir. The preacher will speak from behind a plexiglass barrier. There will be no indoor fellowship, and no coffee or food service before or after the service.
This may not sound like a very welcoming or, even, friendly invitation, does it? You know what I mean. So, make wise decisions for you and your family, stay away if you are high risk or don’t feel well, and know that I look forward to “seeing” some of you online at 9:00 a.m. on Sunday (FirstPres.Live), and others of you face to face at 10:15 a.m.
God is good.
* * *
Humor (Hard times really need godly laughter):
True story? Rudolf was a communist leader in the former Soviet Union. In retirement, he lived in a concrete high rise among other concrete high rises in Russia. Looking out the window of their small apartment one grey, wet day, he noted to his wife that it was raining.
She looked, and said, “No. that’s not rain; it’s sleet.”
He looked more closely, and said, “No, it was definitely rain.”
She said, “No, it was sleet.”
This went on as they leaned their noses close to the cold window glass.
After a long moment, he looked to his wife, and insisted it was rain. He said sternly, “Rudolf the Red knows rain, dear.”
* * *
Good Word:
Faith, hope, and love abide—these three. The greatest of these is love. (I Corinthians 13).
LET US PRAY (JESUS KNEW THIS SONG.)
The Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou
A free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wing
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.
But a bird that stalks
down his narrow cage
can seldom see through
his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and
his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn
and he names the sky his own.
But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing
The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
* * *
Much, much love to you all.
Matt Matthews
Cell: 864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church
