Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2021-02-24
A weekday e-mailer from
Matt Matthews
To Members and Friends of
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
Friends,
Remember to register for in-person worship on Sunday. For now, we’re keeping numbers limited to 50 souls. Call the church office. When you feel safe, come on back.
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Join us for the Wednesday night mid-week Gathering. Our Spiritual Formation Team has some good conversations in store for us. Our lives and our cultures are composed of many overlapping stories. Too often we focus on a single story, excluding cultural influences, other perspectives and the rich tapestry of different experiences in the world. This single story is limiting and makes us misinterpret people, their backgrounds and their lives. It can also lead to judgement, disconnection, and conflict.
Join us tonight at 7:00 to explore how our faith invites to deepen our relationships to more than a single story. A popular TED talk will be followed by reflection hosted by our Spiritual Formation and Compassion, Peace and Justice Committees.
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(An Ash Wednesday essay that is still useful for Lent…)
Enough of Dust and Ashes
by Dean Myers
On Ash Wednesday 2020, I knelt before a priest as his thumb inscribed a black-as-death cross on my forehead. His words captioned my rough cross with the ancient admonition, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
For Ash Wednesday 2021, my church is offering my wife and me a baggie of blessed ashes for in-home use. We may impose them upon one another while that priest and those words are Zoomed to us. If I lived alone, I could impose them upon myself.
I think, Something about self-imposed ashes, or about a couple imposing ashes upon one another, feels emotionally and liturgically crass.
I also think, How could I possibly not remember that I am dust in this, our long season of pandemic? How could I, denied access to my community of faith, not remember that even the best moments of our one life shall in time return to dust?
COVID-19 has imposed dust and ashes upon me forever.
I am wondering what to do this Ash Wednesday.
… God! I have had enough of dust and ashes!
I’ve had enough numbers of COVID-19 cases and death, hospitalizations, and ICU capacities. I’ve had enough news of climbing positivity rates, and agonizing, lonely deaths, and symptoms that linger for months.
I’ve had enough of the dust and ashes of economic crisis and emotional trauma and daily family stresses and month-upon-month separations and schools struggling to do their best and masks and controversies and political posturing and the denial that made it all worse.
And, imposing even more upon us than COVID-19 has, are the dust and ashes of our assaults upon ourselves. I have had enough of Black citizens killed by police, of police killed by anarchists, of democracy threatened by self-serving power, of our planet suffocated by greed and indifference, of too many of us captivated by callously-crafted conspiracy theories, and of all of us likely to distrust anyone distanced from us ….
Nevertheless, I confess that I cannot let Ash Wednesday slip by unacknowledged. In the face of the suffering and death COVID-19 and the rest have imposed upon us, my face will bear witness to my trust that the cross triumphs over dust and ashes, including mine. Remembering my dustiness, I will repent of my despair, and trust Jesus. Forever.
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CYF will be hosting a Spirituality Center in the church chapel for the season of Lent beginning this Sunday. Open House hours will be Sundays 11 am-2:30 pm. Come for some quiet reflection time by walking the labyrinth, contemplating scripture, and creating at your own pace. One household will be admitted at a time. Check in and temperature recordings will be necessary as well as face masks while in the building and chapel. Sanitizing wipes will be at each station for further protection between visitors. We hope you will find it a blessing for this season of inward contemplation and examination.
Sunday School continues. Follow this link for a virtual version of the Lenten Spirituality Center Lenten Spirituality Center
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News
Have you seen this labyrinth?
https://labyrinthlocator.com/
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Circles meet Thursday, February 25
Circle of Joy 9 am…
Email zoom@firstpres.church for the link.
Circle of Faith 1 pm…
Email zoom@firstpres.church for the link.
Email zoom@firstpres.church for the link.
Humor (Hard times really need godly laughter):
From Jane Alsberg…
A man went fishing but quickly ran out of worms. He thought his day’s fishing was over until he saw a cottonmouth with a frog in his mouth. Remembering that frogs make a great bait and realizing that he was unlikely to get bitten by a snake whose mouth was full of frog, he grabbed the snake behind its head, grabbed the frog, and put it in his bait bucket. Then he realized he had a problem. How could he release the snake without being bitten? Being a problem solver, he found a solution. He grabbed his bottle of Jack Daniels and poured some whiskey in the snake’s mouth. Once the snake relaxed and went limp, the fisherman released him, and continued with his fishing. A little later, he felt a tap on his foot and looked down. There was the same snake with two more frogs in his mouth.
From Marilyn Shimkus…
Intelligence is like underwear. It is important that you have it, but not necessary that you show it off.
From Bill Marble…
I hate it when people say age is only a number. Age is clearly a word.
From Claudia Kirby…
Two boys were walking home from Sunday school after hearing a strong preaching on the devil. One said to the other, ‘What do you think about all this Satan stuff?’ The other boy replied, ‘Well, you know how Santa Claus turned out. It’s probably just your Dad.’
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Good Word
Luke 12:48b
From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.
LET US PRAY
Lord, I read that from everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required . . . Compared to a billionaire, I don’t have a lot, and I’m glad less might be required of me. But compared to the rest of the world, I’m wealthy; so, more will be required of me?
More?
Less?
Forgive me for thinking my way out of discipleship.
My cup runneth over. Let every thing I do be another way of saying thank you, thank you, thank you.
(Help me.)
AMEN.
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Much, much love to you all.
Matt Matthews
Cell: 864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church
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Lenten Daily Devotion
Wednesday, FEBRUARY 24, 2021
PSALM 104:14-26
Psalm 104 is a majestic creation psalm, describing the interdependence of the creatures of the earth and God’s manifold wisdom in creation. The psalm evokes a sense of wonder and awe as we consider the creation that surrounds us.
Practice: Read Psalm 104:14–26 slowly, two or three times, and consider its many references to the creation around us.
Journal: Note in your journal any movement toward God or away from God that is evoked as you pray this psalm.
