Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2021-06-18

June 18th, 2021
A daily e-mailer from
Matt Matthews
 
To Members and Friends of 
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
 
Dear Friends,
 
Have you ever been in a storm? Have you ever had to pull off the highway in a driving rain? Have you ever been afraid, in a storm, in a terrible wind or rising tide? 
 
I’ve been in storms and weathered the edges of many hurricanes. When Isabel made a direct hit in my coastal home town in Virginia, I found it to be thrilling: the wind, the sideways rain, the crack of tree branches. We were safe inside. It was fun. The next day when we drove from our house in Portsmouth to my folks’ home in nearby Hampton and saw the damage, my heart sunk. My mother sat in the back seat and wept from Newport News Point all the way to Alleghany Road. Our little boys were silent, transfixed by what the saw, the downed trees, the arborist cutting the trees out of the road, the beleaguered families standing in humid front yards looking up to crashed roofs.
 
Have you ever been in a storm? Have you ever been afraid?
 
Listen to this:
 
Gospel Mark 4:35-41                     
 
35On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” 36And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. 37A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. 38But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” 39He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. 40He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” 41And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
 
* * *
 
See you on Sunday at 9:00. The in-person service will be live-streamed at FirstPres.Live
 
After worship, we’ll have a brief congregational meeting to vote to concur with Eric Corbin’s desire to end his pastoral ties with us in order that he can accept the call to First Presbyterian Church, Woodstock, IL. 
 
* * *
 
God is with us in life’s storms. Even when we are afraid, we can trust that we are in excellent hands. 
 
See you Sunday.
 
9:00 a.m.
 
PEACE,
 
Matt Matthews
matt@firstpres.church

* * *

From your Nurture Team — For our final photo guess, your editor shared a photo of himself.  Yes, Amy Born, Brandi Lowe, Kathy Schoeffmann, and Emily Beach, you correctly guessed that last week’s photo was of Eric Corbin.  From bowl cut to bald.

It’s been fun sharing photos!

* * *

The Choral Division at UI is completing a week of intense study and rehearsal several works of J. S. Bach with a live streamed concert Friday night, 6/18. They begin at 7:30 and continue with half hour breaks through 9:30 PM.
 
Follow the link below for concert times and the connection.  
 
Joe Grant
 
https://music.illinois.edu/event/illinois-bach-academy-young-artists-recital
 
 * * *
 
Eternal Father, Strong to Save…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7o4Ltq_Dz8
 


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