Ongoing Response to COVID-19
Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2020-04-20
Monday April 20th 2020
A Weekday Emailer from
Matt Matthews
To Members and Friends of
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
Dear Friends,
I’m getting a lot of emails from you thanking me for all I’m doing at the church.
I’d so like to take all the credit.
But as you well know, everybody on staff is rising to the occasion in amazing, mainly unseen ways. Eric is our technology guru making difficult things look easy. Ann Petry, our bookkeeper, just filed a billion pages of detailed info in our CARES Act application. Marcia continues to push and pull all necessary levers to make the office work. Ritchie checks our buildings during the week and responds whenever a thunderstorm triggers an after-hours alarm. Jeanette tutoring from home, Mindy (and her friend Jip), Blaise, Lizz, Patty—all willing to go the extra mile, as usual. Fred cut the grass last week before winter showed back up. George checks the church buildings on weekends missing worshippers and the smell of coffee from the Deacon’s Kitchen. Connor sings songs on Facebook. Robert is as faithful and as easy going as ever producing worship. Richard and Leslie have provided music; Joe (and Miranda) has provided song, wisdom, and perspective. I’m moved to tears.
The Session has put in extra hours. Our deacons are making and keeping community connections; Rachel is parsing the intricacies of new community-wide Covid-19 relief initiatives. At least three key lay leaders in our church had ‘retired’ from their duties, taking a well-deserved step back, hoping for a needed rest; each has stepped back up standing in the breach for us because they know the ropes and they know we need them. Our members are praying, reaching, learning new skills, refusing to be shut down, innovating, and loving each other and their neighbors. And God is still God: sovereign, gracious, amazing, with as much power as ten million nuclear suns—in just a sliver of a sliver of a sliver of divine fingernail.
O LORD, our LORD, how majestic is your name in all the earth.
I’m more tired than usual because of the grief we all share. Personally, I miss weekly pickleball games and friends. Rachel and I cancelled our trip to Montevideo. Our son’s study-abroad program was torpedoed. The Ebert Film Festival was cancelled and our theologian in residence stayed put in New York. They necessarily postponed the Boneyard Arts Festival, and we had big plans for unveiling some original, home-grown art. I can’t get dinner at Antica Pizza. Krannert and the Virginia Theatre are mothballed. My schedule is off. (Woe is me.)
I’m also more tired than usual because I often think I’m the captain in charge of steering our church through this, which would be crushing if it were true. Thankfully, however, it is not true. I’m only doing my part. And God is taking my part, rolling it up with everybody else’s part, and transforming imperfect graces into something holy, new, and possibly useful. To God be the glory.
This is as it has always been.
Pandemic certainly didn’t cause this. But pandemic has helped me (us?) to see it more clearly when I had either not noticed before or, worse, had barely cared. Ann Stout led devotions for our recent Session meeting. She asked us, “Where have you seen Jesus lately.” A few people spoke up. (Zoom technology has a way of chilling conversation.) I couldn’t speak up simply because my question was altogether different:
Where have I not seen Jesus lately?
Thank you for thanking me.
I’ll pass it on.
News:
CU-BetterTogether . . . Is a new community group (United Way, Community Foundation, YMCA, and local churches) coming together to fight hunger and give hope to area public school families in need. Ask Rachel Matthews for more info.Want to help? Are you between 18- and 60-years-old? You can, here: https://www.
I need help: Can you tell me where in Mount Hope Cemetery our former minister John S. Frame is buried? He died around 1876. I have found Rev. George. McKinley’s grave. Please help.
Humor: Family lock down boogie (Thanks Beth Hutchens)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
New fun photo challenge! Each week the Nurture Committee is challenging us to read an assigned scripture about Jesus and come up with a representation of the story using whatever you already have around the house and share it in photo form.
CHALLENGE #1 — BIRTH LUKE 2:6-12
This story begins in a different way
The baby Jesus was sleeping on hay
He was the Messiah, God’s only son
But his journey began as a quiet, humble one
With your family, create a scene with baby Jesus in a manger with anything you can find around the house and take a photo.
Think about what it meant that Jesus wasn’t born rich or mighty, but as a humble baby just like us. Talk about why that is important for us as we follow Him.
Post your photo to:
https://www.facebook.com/
live@firstpres.church
For Instagram @fpcchampaign
Here is an example thanks to Gary and Linda Peterson…
Good Word:
Psalm 8 O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouths of babes and infants
you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,
to silence the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;
4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?
5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
and crowned them with glory and honor.
6 You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under their feet,
7 all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9 O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Let us pray:
O Lord our God, how magnificent is the works of Your hands. You called creation into being with a single word. You divided the mountains and oceans with a single thought. You ran Your fingers through the dry dust forming river beds and spacious lakes. Trees point their heads to the sky in adoration. Flowers illumine the landscape with colors beyond our imagination. We stand in awe of Your holy craftsmanship. O Lord our God, how magnificent is the works of Your hands.
(Rev. Louie V. Andrews, III)
Much love to you all.
PEACE,
Matt Matthews
Cell: 864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church
Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2020-04-17
Friday 17 April 2020
Members and Friends of
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
Dear Friends,
Wynton Marsalis’s father, Ellis, died several days ago of Coronavirus. Wynton wrote this about his dad. I pulled it from Facebook (I think), but it originated from his blog and I’m using it without permission. I don’t think he’d mind. I hope. I’d like to meet Wynton. If you’ve ever grieved, you might resonate his words.
My daddy passed away last night. We now join the worldwide family who are mourning grandfathers and grandmothers, mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers— kinfolk, friends, neighbors, colleagues, acquaintances and others.
What can one possibly say about loss in a time when there are many people losing folks that mean so much to them? One of my friends lost both her mother AND father just last week. We all grieve and experience things differently, and I’m sure each of my five brothers are feeling and dealing in their own way.
My daddy was a humble man with a lyrical sound that captured the spirit of place–New Orleans, the Crescent City, The Big Easy, the Curve. He was a stone-cold believer without extravagant tastes.
Like many parents, he sacrificed for us and made so much possible. Not only material things, but things of substance and beauty like the ability to hear complicated music and to read books; to see and to contemplate art; to be philosophical and kind, but to also understand that a time and place may require a pugilistic-minded expression of ignorance.
His example for all of us who were his students (a big extended family from everywhere), showed us to be patient and to want to learn and to respect teaching and thinking and to embrace the joy of seriousness. He taught us that you could be conscious and stand your ground with an opinion rooted ‘in something’ even if it was overwhelmingly unfashionable. And that if it mattered to someone, it mattered.
I haven’t cried because the pain is so deep….it doesn’t even hurt. He was absolutely my man. He knew how much I loved him, and I knew he loved me (though he was not given to any type of demonstrative expression of it). As a boy, I followed him on so many underpopulated gigs in unglamorous places, and there, in the passing years, learned what it meant to believe in the substance of a fundamental idea whose only verification was your belief.
I only ever wanted to do better things to impress HIM. He was my North Star and the only opinion that really deep down mattered to me was his because I grew up seeing how much he struggled and sacrificed to represent and teach vital human values that floated far above the stifling segregation and prejudice that defined his youth but, strangely enough, also imbued his art with an even more pungent and biting accuracy.
But for all of that, I guess he was like all of us; he did the best he could, did great things, had blind spots and made mistakes, fought with his spouse, had problems paying bills, worried about his kids and other people’s, rooted for losing teams, loved gumbo and red beans, and my momma’s pecan pie. But unlike a healthy portion of us, he really didn’t complain about stuff. No matter how bad it was.
A most fair-minded, large-spirited, generous, philanthropic (with whatever he had), open-minded person is gone. Ironically, when we spoke just 5 or 6 days ago about this precarious moment in the world and the many warnings he received ‘to be careful, because it wasn’t his time to pass from COVID’, he told me,” Man, I don’t determine the time. A lot of people are losing loved ones. Yours will be no more painful or significant than anybody else’s”.
That was him, “in a nutshell”, (as he would say before talking for another 15 minutes without pause).
In that conversation, we didn’t know that we were prophesying. But he went out soon after as he lived—-without complaint or complication. The nurse asked him, “Are you breathing ok?” as the oxygen was being steadily increased from 3 to 8, to too late, he replied, ”Yeah. I’m fine.”
For me, there is no sorrow only joy. He went on down the Good Kings Highway as was his way, a jazz man, “with grace and gratitude.”
And I am grateful to have known him.
– Wynton
I’ll be talking about grief in my sermon on Sunday. Bring your pain, your hope, your joy, your doubt. Come as you are.
“See” you then.
FirstPres.Live
Pay attention to God’s activity in the world around you.
Be amazed.
Tell somebody.
PEACE,
Matt Matthews
864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church
Ellis and Wynton together:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB_-5-BQyqk
* * *
I’m pretty sure folk aren’t taking me up on my movie suggestions. I’ve been looking forward to a long time to the Ebert Film Festival. Alas, it was cancelled. Here are my last three film suggestions. Enjoy:
Friday night at the movies: “The Mission”
Mr. Ebert gave it only 2.5 stars out of 4, but I liked it a lot. On Sunday, you’ll hear a theme song of this film in worship. You’ll certainly love that.
Friday night at the movies:
Ebert’s take on the movie “Schindler’s List”
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-schindlers-list-1993
Friday night at the movies:
Ebert’s take on the movie “Smoke Signals”
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/smoke-signals-1998
Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2020-04-16
Thursday April 16th 2020
A Weekday Emailer from
Matt Matthews
To Members and Friends of
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
Dear Friends,
A lyric for you. The tune is “Be Thou My Vision.” Forgive me if I’ve shared this already.
All Present, All Future, All Past
tune: Slane, Irish folk tune
A gift in progress to our
Music Director Joe Grant
First Presbyterian Church, Champaign, Illinois
Gracious Creator, the world’s in your hands
mountains and forests, all waters, all land
stars in their courses, all galaxies vast
all life, all present, all future, all past
Tempest, pandemic—a world in dismay
humble and anxious, we turn toward your face
prayers in the nighttime, prayers in the day
seeking your mercy, your peace, and your grace
We rest in the myst’ry—the world’s in your care
great whale and microbe, our children so fair
trusting your promise to love to the last
all life, all present, all future, all past
News:
Your Session meets tonight (Thursday). Please pray for us.
Covid Grant from PDA: Presbyterian Disaster Assistance program of the PCUSA awarded First Pres a $5,000 grant (via the Presbytery of Southeastern Illinois) to be split between our mission partners at The Refugee Center an CU at Home.
CU-BetterTogether . . . Is a new community group (United Way, Community Foundation, YMCA, and local churches) coming together to fight hunger and give hope to area public school families in need. Ask Rachel Matthews for more info.Want to help? If you are between 18- and 60-years-old, you can, here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F044EAEA822ABFA7-cubetter
Good Word:
John 20:19-31
19-20 Later on that day, the disciples had gathered together, but, fearful of the Jews, had locked all the doors in the house. Jesus entered, stood among them, and said, “Peace to you.” Then he showed them his hands and side.
20-21 The disciples, seeing the Master with their own eyes, were exuberant. Jesus repeated his greeting: “Peace to you. Just as the Father sent me, I send you.”
22-23 Then he took a deep breath and breathed into them. “Receive the Holy Spirit,” he said. “If you forgive someone’s sins, they’re gone for good. If you don’t forgive sins, what are you going to do with them?”
24-25 But Thomas, sometimes called the Twin, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples told him, “We saw the Master.”
But he said, “Unless I see the nail holes in his hands, put my finger in the nail holes, and stick my hand in his side, I won’t believe it.”
26 Eight days later, his disciples were again in the room. This time Thomas was with them. Jesus came through the locked doors, stood among them, and said, “Peace to you.”
27 Then he focused his attention on Thomas. “Take your finger and examine my hands. Take your hand and stick it in my side. Don’t be unbelieving. Believe.”
28 Thomas said, “My Master! My God!”
29 Jesus said, “So, you believe because you’ve seen with your own eyes. Even better blessings are in store for those who believe without seeing.”
30-31 Jesus provided far more God-revealing signs than are written down in this book. These are written down so you will believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and in the act of believing, have real and eternal life in the way he personally revealed it.
Let us pray:
God of ages,
in your sight nations rise and fall,
and pass through times of peril.
Now when our land is troubled,
be near to judge and save.
May leaders be led by your wisdom;
may they search your will and see it clearly.
If we have turned from your way,
help us to reverse our ways and repent.
Give us your light and your truth to guide us; through Jesus Christ,
who is Lord of this world, and our Savior. Amen.
Much love to you all.
PEACE,
Matt Matthews
Cell: 864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church
Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2020-04-15
Wednesday April 15th 2020
A Weekday Emailer from
Matt Matthews
To Members and Friends of
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
Dear Friends,
Some of our hymns are undergirded by rich stories. Such is the case with Horatio G. Spafford’s “It Is Well with My Soul.” It’s the stuff of legend. Here are the highpoints, borrowed from Ace Collins, Stories Behind the Hymns that Inspire America (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2003).
In 1871 attorney and businessman Spafford wrote to some of his friends that he felt that he was “sitting on top of the world.” He had a loving wife, four beautiful daughters, a profitable business empire, and a successful law practice.
The Great Chicago fire reduced his real estate holdings to ashes.
Spafford arranged for an extended family trip to Europe, sending his wife a daughters ahead. In the middle of the ocean the Ville De Havre strayed into the path of a British ship. In twelve minutes, 226 people drowned. Spafford’s wife survived. His daughters did not.
Spafford booked the first ship bound for England. As he was sitting out on the deck, the ship’s captain approached him and said, “Mr. Spafford, we are approaching the spot where your daughters now rest.” Instead of being grief-stricken as he had thought he would be, Spafford said that a peace came over him and that he felt the girls’ spirit around him.
His poem poured out:
When peace, like a river,
attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea-billows roll;
Whatever my lot,
Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.
When the Spaffords returned to Chicago, songwriter Phillip Bliss wrote a tune for Spafford’s lyric.
Click here for a Nashville version of this song:
https://www.wsmv.com/video/
News:
In case yofu missed them yesterday, here are MISSION notes: firstpres.church/HoM20200414
The Illinois Conference of Churches meet today via Zoom. Pray for us.
Your Session meets tomorrow (Thursday). Pray for them.
Good Word:
Romans 8, selected verses:
18 I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. 27 And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
28 We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.
31 What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? 33 Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Let us pray
For me, be it Christ/
be it Christ hence to live/
If Jordan above me shall roll/
No pang shall be mine/
for in death as in life/
Thou wilt whisper/
Thy peace to my soul.
Much love to you all.
PEACE,
Matt Matthews
Cell: 864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church