Wednesday, March 24^th, 2021
A weekday e-mailer from
Matt Matthews
 
To Members and Friends of 
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
  
Friends,
 
Join us for our Wednesday Night Zoom at 7:00 tonight for a discussion led by our Spiritual Formation Team. We must recognize compassion and reach out a helping hand, regardless of what someone has done. So says ER doctor Amy Ho. It may be hard to do after so much recent violence, including mass shootings; let’s talk about it. 
Email zoom@firstpres.church for the link.
 
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Here’s the Lenten Devotional from Presbyterian Outlook. 
 
Wednesday, MARCH 24, 2021
MATTHEW 25:31-46
The parable of the sheep and goats is not a scenario of individual judgment; “all the nations” are gathered before the Son of Man and held accountable. Have they tended to “the least of these,” feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, welcoming strangers, clothing the naked, caring for the sick and visiting those in prison? The parable invites reflection on the church’s engagement in civic matters and its public witness to God’s
concern for “the least” among us.
Practice: Prayerfully read this passage from Matthew, meditating on “the
least” in your community. How might the church embody God’s concern
for their well-being in its public witness?
Journal: Write in your journal of your experience reading and praying
this passage from Matthew.
 
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News:

* * *
 
I’m so glad to see you coming back for in-person worship. When you’re ready, when you feel safe, please come. Remember to preregister by calling the church office from Monday 8:30 to noon on Friday. A preregistration will guarantee your spot; if you come without a reservation, we may not have room to seat you. 
(Can you believe your pastor just wrote those words? We aren’t a restaurant, we’re a church, and we espouse a theology that there’s always room for one more. But not so when one is avoiding crowds to stave off infection during a pandemic. Such strange times. Forgive me for sounding like a maître d’. However you get there, via our on-line service or in person, I look forward to seeing you on Sunday.)

CYF will be hosting a Spirituality Center in the church chapel for the season of Lent. Open House hours will be Sundays 11am-2:30pm. 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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Humor (Hard times really need godly laughter): 
 
An annual competition is held by The New York Times to see who can create the best original lexophile. This year’s submissions (more coming):
  
Police were summoned to a daycare center where a 3-year-old was resisting a rest.
 
Did you hear about the fellow whose entire left side was cut off?  He’s all right now.
 
A bicycle can’t stand alone; it’s just two tired.
 
The guy who fell onto an upholstery machine last week is now fully recovered.
 
 * * *
 
Good Word 
 
Mark 11:1-11 (Palm Sunday is coming…)
[The Message]  ^1-3 When they were nearing Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany on Mount Olives, he sent off two of the disciples with instructions: “Go to the village across from you. As soon as you enter, you’ll find a colt tethered, one that has never yet been ridden. Untie it and bring it. If anyone asks, ‘What are you doing?’ say, ‘The Master needs him, and will return him right away.’”
^4-7 They went and found a colt tied to a door at the street corner and untied it. Some of those standing there said, “What are you doing untying that colt?” The disciples replied exactly as Jesus had instructed them, and the people let them alone. They brought the colt to Jesus, spread their coats on it, and he mounted.
^8-10 The people gave him a wonderful welcome, some throwing their coats on the street, others spreading out rushes they had cut in the fields. Running ahead and following after, they were calling out,
Hosanna!
Blessed is he who comes in God’s name!
Blessed the coming kingdom of our father David!
Hosanna in highest heaven!
¹¹ He entered Jerusalem, then entered the Temple. He looked around, taking it all in. But by now it was late, so he went back to Bethany with the Twelve.
 
LET US PRAY
 
Holy God, your son dares to ride into our lives on a colt. Not on a steed. Not in a golden chariot. Not even in a domestic convertible. But on a lowly colt, and not with armed guard and a fanfare of trumpets, but surrounded by a pick-up-parade of people waving palm branches and shouting like, like—shouters. No arias in Latin. No processional song sung in harmony. No marching band, but unruly shouts, like at a Black Lives Matter march or at a basketball game. Lacking a red carpet, some in the crowd threw their coats on the ground padding the way for this unlikely, but memorable, entry of Your holy son into the holy city on the hill. 
 
Forgive them, Lord, for they know not how to make a proper entrance.
 
You, O God, know Jesus deserved better, and had we been there, given a little time, we would have tried to arrange it. A rented chariot, perhaps. A rehearsed choir. We would at least have lined everyone up. It would have been more dignified.
 
But we weren’t on the committee that planned this Palm Sunday parade. As always, Jesus did it his way. The animal on which he rode was humble, yes, but pure, never having been ridden before. And what the crowd lacked in dignity they made up with joy and sheer volume. This was a celebrated entrance if not a dignified one. 
 
Open our hearts, Merciful God, that we might receive Jesus no matter how he comes. How ever he comes, might we take our cue from that Jerusalem crowd. Might we make a little joyful, unruly noise. Might we make room for him. And might we join the throng, 
     blessing,
          blessing,
               blessing
the One 
who comes 
in the name of the LORD.
 
AMEN.
 
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Much, much love to you all.
 
Matt Matthews
Cell: 864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church