Ongoing Response to COVID-19

Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2021-04-08

Thursday, April 8th, 2021
A weekday e-mailer from
Matt Matthews
 
To Members and Friends of 
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
 
Friends,
 
Last night, 13 of us gathered for Wednesday evening zoom vespers. I borrowed three songs from my friend David LaMotte, interspersed them with scripture and prayers, as the evening darkened beyond our windows. It was a prayerful evening-into-night. 
 
You may wish to read through this and listen to the prayers for your morning prayers.
 
Bless you all.
 
* * *
 
A Good Word/Genesis One
 
 In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
 
A Good Prayer/ St. Francis of Assisi
O Most High, all-powerful, good Lord God,
to you belong praise, glory,
honour and all blessing.
Be praised, my Lord, for all your creation
and especially for our Brother Sun,
who brings us the day and the light;
he is strong and shines magnificently.
O Lord, we think of you when we look at him.
Be praised, my Lord, for Sister Moon,
and for the stars
which you have set shining and lovely
in the heavens.
Be praised, my Lord,
for our Brothers Wind and Air
and every kind of weather
by which you, Lord,
uphold life in all your creatures.
Be praised, my Lord, for Sister Water,
who is very useful to us,
and humble and precious and pure.
Be praised, my Lord, for Brother Fire,
through whom you give us light in the darkness:
he is bright and lively and strong.
Be praised, my Lord,
for Sister Earth, our Mother,
who nourishes us and sustains us,
bringing forth
fruits and vegetables of many kinds
and flowers of many colours.
Be praised, my Lord,
for those who forgive for love of you;
and for those
who bear sickness and weakness
in peace and patience
– you will grant them a crown.
Be praised, my Lord, for our Sister Death,
whom we must all face.
I praise and bless you, Lord,
and I give thanks to you,
and I will serve you in all humility.
 
A Good Song/ Taste the Light, by David LaMotte
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jB-3v9bqPgs
 
 
A Good Word/ John 13 & 15 (Maundy Thursday words…)
 
John 13     12 After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. 14 So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. 16 Very truly, I tell you, servants[d] are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. 17 If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. 
 
34I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
 
John 15     12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants[d] any longer, because the servant[e] does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.
 
A Good Prayer/ based on a prayer of Origen (185-254)
 
Come to me,
O servant Lord,
pour water in your bowl,
and wash my feet.
I am bold to ask this
because of my longing
for fellowship with you.
Wash my feet, then,
and be my companion. AMEN.
 
A Good Song/ “Here For You” David LaMotte
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-71Mkqg9X_g
 
 
A Good Word/ Psalm 133
 
(The Blessedness of Unity)
 
1 How very good and pleasant it is
    when kindred live together in unity!
2 It is like the precious oil on the head,
    running down upon the beard,
on the beard of Aaron,
    running down over the collar of his robes.
3 It is like the dew of Hermon,
    which falls on the mountains of Zion.
For there the Lord ordained his blessing,
    life forevermore.
 
A Good Prayer/ attrib. Nels Ferre (1908-1971)
 
Come, O Holy Spirit.
Come as Holy Fire and burn in us,
come as Holy Wind and cleanse us within,
come as Holy Light and lead us in the darkness,
come as Holy Truth and dispel our ignorance,
come as Holy Power and enable our weakness,
come as Holy Life and dwell in us.
Convict us, convert us, consecrate us,
until we are set free from the service of ourselves,
to be your servants to the world. AMEN.
 
We Are Each Other’s Angels, song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H90ERQCagU
 
A Benediction/ adapt. Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu from Sir Francis Drake
 
Disturb us, O Lord
when we are too well-pleased with ourselves 
when our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little, because we sailed too close to the shore.
 
Disturb us, O Lord
when with the abundance of things we possess, 
we have lost our thirst for the water of life 
when, having fallen in love with time, 
we have ceased to dream of eternity 
and in our efforts to build a new earth, 
we have allowed our vision of Heaven to grow dim.
 
Stir us, O Lord
to dare more boldly, to venture into wider seas 
where storms show Thy mastery, 
where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars.
In the name of Him who pushed back the horizons of our hopes and invited the brave to follow.
 
AMEN.
 
* * *

Session will gather via zoom tonight at 5:30 pm to continue their discussion on Vision.

* * *

First Pres members are invited to join us for our monthly Zoom Café Time TODAY at 10am. This would be a great time for you to get to know some of our students and tutors. If you’ve ever wondered what the ESL program is like, this is a great place to find out.
 
Email esl@firstpres.church for the link.

If you have any questions, please email the ESL Director, Jeanette Pyne, at jeanette@firstpres.church

* * *

Don’t forget to let us know if you would like to come to church this Sunday, April 11.  Contact the church office by noon each week on Friday.


Read more...

Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2021-04-07

Wednesday, April 7th, 2021
A weekday e-mailer from
Matt Matthews
 
To Members and Friends of 
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
 
Friends,
 
Tonight, join us for our Wednesday Vespers. Let’s pray together. It’s an Easter thing to do. Here’s the link:  
Email zoom@firstpres.church for the link.
 
* * *
 
Tomorrow, join us for ESL Café. Come join us for conversation. Listen in. Join the chat. Our friends learning to speak English need conversation partners; that’s you. See you tomorrow. Here’s the link: 

Email esl@firstpres.church for the link.
 
If you have any questions, please email the ESL Director, Jeanette Pyne, at jeanette@firstpres.church
 
* * *
 
          Part of what makes Easter shine so bright is the troubles of Holy Week. I share this reflection about Holy Saturday. Because we don’t do Saturday mailers, I didn’t send it then. I hope it sharpens the meaning of Easter.
 
Thoughts from Holy Saturday
The Saturday before Easter                                                                                      
Psalm 31:1-4, 15-16
 
            Holy Saturday. A long, mournful day. A wandering day for the church, for on that day there really is no church at all, not between crucifixion and resurrection, not yet. Jesus lies in that tomb all alone. From the clay we have come, to the clay we return. No church soup kitchens, no church pews peopled with folk eager to hear the gospel. No church building. No church people. No church bells. No church steeple. Ash Wednesday ashes streak endlessly across a leaden sky, from that molten eruption of violence the day before. The world had gone raving mad, and we tried, weakly, to put on the brakes, but it was too late, and though the madness convulsed to a stop and the brakes finally held, it was too late. The smell of metal against metal, and heat, and loss. Too little, too late. And what on earth could we have done?
 
            Airless, still, and hot. Holy Saturday. We are sad, and a little afraid that they can still get us, can still kill us in a second just for knowing him, for loving him. Except it didn’t take Jesus only one second to die. It seemed to take forever. 
 
            Hoarse, nothing left to cry. We pace, we pace.
 
            Old rock-and-rollers know the feeling after the concert is ended and the people have gone home. Jackson Browne’s “The Load Out” (Jackson Browne, “Running on Empty,” 1977) describes such a late night, and becomes metaphor for this limbo space between Good Friday and Easter.
 
Now the seats are all empty
Let the roadies take the stage
Pack it up and tear it down
They’re the first to come and last to leave
Working for that minimum wage
They’ll set it up in another town
Tonight the people were so fine
They waited there in line
And when they got up on their feet they made the show
And that was sweet–
But I can hear the sound
Of slamming doors and folding chairs
And that’s a sound they’ll never know
 
            The women, of course, are the roadies. They’ll do the heavy lifting tomorrow when they make their way to the tomb with the burial spices, laden with their incomprehensible grief. And the fans at the concert, as the crowds at the cross, know little of how much humanity and hope went into what happened the night before. They might have been moved. They clapped their hands or jeered. The show lifted them to new heights, maybe. They were enthused or repulsed, but all are sleeping this early morning at home in soft beds. And they can’t know how broken our hearts are, how tired, how barely they beat now after pounding all night long. They don’t know how much we paid to be here.
 
            Tomorrow the women will trudge to the tomb, before the stench begins to rise. And the rest of us will wait for the trucks to be loaded, wait to get back on the road to our regular lives. Life without Jesus. We’ll drop Mary back home, as small as a fist, defiant, unbelieving, dazed by it all, stoned from insults that cut us all to the quick. We’ll kiss her lightly goodbye and drive through the dust.
 
            Tomorrow we’ll load up, as if any of this stuff is worth packing in the first place. Empty Hopes. The heft of Big Ideas. The Books Never to be Written of what he said to us, what he taughtAnd the Memories. Life back in the real world. The notion of love is better left for poets than tired fisherman and hangers-on like us.
 
Now roll them cases out and lift them amps
Haul them trusses down and get ‘em up them ramps
cause when it comes to moving me
You know you guys are the champs
But when that last guitar’s been packed away
You know that I still want to play
So just make sure you got it all set to go
Before you come for my piano
 
            The piano is The Dream. It’s the last thing we allow to die. It’s the last thing we can bear to see go. And, for awhile, it sounded so in tune with what the psalmists had said, and the ranting of the prophets, and God’s age-old promise for the future. Take the piano last. Please.
 
            Holy Saturday. Today we’ll rest. Then, tomorrow, we’re out of here. Scattered. Long gone.
 
* * *
 
            At the end, when he was on the cross, Jesus quoted the fifth verse of Psalm 31: “Into your hand I commit my spirit.” It was a final and complete affirmation of the trust he had in a God who would not let him, ultimately, be put to shame. Jesus knew that his future, as uncertain as it may have seemed to him and as utterly bleak as it was to his disciples, could be trusted wholly to God’s merciful care.
 
            “My times are in your hand; deliver me from the hand of my enemies and persecutors. Let your face shine upon your servant; save me in your steadfast love” (vv. 15-16). Jesus trusted God with his life.
 
            On Holy Saturday, we keep vigil. We lament because we are part of the sharp-edged chaos that wounds the world. We lament that shame, idolatry, wayward egos, and a host of other sins cripple our best efforts. We have every reason to be worn out and to bury our lined faces deep into our hands. But we have ample reason to be glad, too. We have hope because we trust a God unfettered by mockery and grave clothes. 
 
            “Jesus’ words from the cross are not simply an interpretation of how Jesus died but also an interpretation of how Jesus lived his whole life—trusting God, proclaiming and embodying the reign of God in word and deed” (McCann, The New Interpreter’s Bible, IV, p. 802.).
 
            Our calling is to live free from the hopelessness of Holy Saturday. Our consolation is that after the long vigil, he rose again sometime in the wee hours. We do not toast a dead hero. We serve a living Lord.
 
            And other stages await.
 
* * *
 
Much love to you all.
 
Matt Matthews
matt@firstpres.church
 
* * *
 
Jackson Browne sings it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNCuwUSPias
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiziLje8WYU
 


Read more...

Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2021-04-06

   
                                                       

 

The Heart of Mission
April 6, 2021

Photo: Easter Sunday at the Evangelical Theological Seminary, Matanzas, Cuba.
 
The Lord is Risen! He is risen indeed! What a Holy Week! The newsletter this morning shares a few of the Hallelujahs sent our way from our brothers and sisters around town and across the globe. From now to Pentecost, May 23, we are in the season of Easter. It is a time to rejoice in the grace we have been shown in Jesus Christ and are shown every day through the reconciling acts of love and service done in his name.. Love is powerful. It can change the world. Suffering does not have the last word. Love does.
 
Peace,
 
Rev. Dr. Rachel Matthews, Mission Coordinator
 
CU at Home:  Rick Williams celebrated the “amazing partnerships” between U of I students, faculty and alums and CU at Home. This was a photo that showed U of I and CU at Home partnerships:

 

 
 
He also referenced a Journeys article (November 23, 2020) for those at the University who are interested in work with the Homeless: https://journeys.illinois.edu/2020/11/23/health-of-the-homeless/?blm_aid=253367297
 
Environmental Stewardship Committee –  This is the month we celebrate the gift of God’s great Earth. ESC has activities planned which we will hear about more next week. Faith in Place has an Earth Day Sunset Vigil April 8 at 6pm. Their annual Spring Advocacy Day is April 26. Register for those at faithinplace.org. They always have webinars going that you might want to check out and a youth newsletter for young people interested in environmental concerns. And, finally, Fatih in Place added new staff, one of whom is a member of our Presbytery: Rev. Wade Halva from Marion is the new Southern Illinois Outreach Coordinator.
 
Friends of PEB – An Easter Message from Veda Gill. Our Pakistan friends encourage us to love our neighbor in an encouraging video from the PEB schools. “Together we are making a huge difference.”  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KitFjs2tA5c
 
Marion Medical Mission – In the recent Spring 2021 issue of Marion Medical Mission newsletter, Tom Logan, Founder and director, noted how the pandemic has kept volunteers from the U.S. from going to Africa to build wells with partnering communities. Yet, MMM has been so vital to the health of the communities in which wells have been built that the African MMM communities have partnered together with the MMM Board and committed to building 3000 wells for 2021. The budget has been set. “We are excited and optimistic over the limitless possibilities of God’s creation. Black people and white people, the poor and the not so poor, Muslim and Christian working together. Marion Medical Mission means loving your neighbor as yourself!” says Tom. He continues, “When we pray, we move our feet! In addition to your prayers, the next best, most powerful thing you can do is share MMM with your friends.”  Check them out at www.mmmwater.org.
 
Lifeline Pilots: Here this recent testimony about their work,

 
At the age of one, Aiden McWhorter was diagnosed with stage four Neuroblastoma, a childhood cancer that most commonly affects children age 5 or younger. The rollercoaster of childhood cancer put Aiden into remission, only to rear its ugly head again in the middle of the pandemic.
 
Hope came in the form of a clinical trial…but it was a 12-hour drive from their Indiana home. This military family didn’t know how they would continually get Aiden to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.
 
Sarah, Aiden’s Mom said, “We would be drowning in debt having to pay for commercial flights back and forth from Indiana and NYC for his life-saving clinical trial. More importantly, he has been kept safe from the COVID pandemic by flying in a private plane.”
 
Restoration Urban Ministry in celebrating 28 years wishes everyone a Happy Easter. In their Spring newsletter they shared testimonies from their staff and residents about what R.U.M. has meant to them. Mary W writes, “Restoration Urban Ministries has meant having the chance to learn and grow! It has meant seeing Jesus’ hands and feet and God’s grace! It has meant living, healing, and serving the community alongside people who have experienced that same grace!

 
Frontera de Cristo on their Coffee, Conversation and Compassion – Here are two screenshots of the Zoom FDC Good Friday Sunrise Service, a Border Walk of the Twelve Stations of the Cross. I attended. It was a powerful two hour experience walking along the border wall with people from all over the United States and Mexico, both sides of the border, reading scripture, praying and singing in Spanish and English. The songs were lament and the prayers were confession. As we walked along the border, we walked with Jesus walking to Golgoltha. The virtual “border” fell away and I was their with them, with Him. May God be with them in this vital and important ministry with our brothers and sisters who suffer at the border.
 

 
Here is the calendar for the rest of the Spring. Don’t forget you can order coffee from them as well. It takes about 2 weeks after your order. Here is the link for that:
https://fronteradecristo.networkforgood.com/events/26394-coffee-conversations-and-compassion

Let us keep all our mission partners in our prayers, those who are waiting to go back to their place of ministry and those who are able to work where they are. Listen for God’s call to you in their ministry.
 
Our PC(USA) Mission CoWorkers:
 
Mark Adams and Miriam Maidonado Escobar (Mexico)
Farsijanna Adeney-Risakotta (Indonesia)
Jeff and Christi Boyd (Central Africa)
Bob and Kristi Rice (South Sudan)
 
Our regional and global mission partners:
 
Kemmerer Village (and Camp Carew)
Lifeline Pilots
Marion Medical Mission
Mission Aviation Fellowship
Opportunity International
Friends of Presbyterian Education Board in Pakistan Presbyterian Cuba Partnership
Special Offerings of the PC(USA)
Theological Education Fund
Young Adult Volunteers
 
Here in Champaign – Urbana:
 
CU at Home
CANAAN S.A.F.E. HOUSE
CANTEEN RUN
COURAGE CONNECTION
DREAAM
eMPTY TOMB, INC
FAITH IN ACTION
JESUS IS THE WAY PRISON MINISTRY
THE REFUGEE CENTER
RESTORATION URBAN MINISTRY
SALT & LIGHT
 
Here at First Presbyterian Church
 
FPCC Amateur Preachers
FPCC Environmental Committee working with Faith in Place
FPCC Presbyterian Women
FPCC ESL
FPCC Children, Youth and Families
FPCC Mission Possible/Go and Serve
FPCC Mission Team, World Mission and Community Mission Deacons

 
 
A picture containing drawing Description automatically generated
 

  302 W. Church Street
  Champaign, IL 61820
  217-356-7238
  info@firstpres.church
 
 

 
   
Attachments:

Read more...

Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2021-04-02

Friday, April 2nd, 2021
A weekday e-mailer from
Matt Matthews
 
To Members and Friends of 
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
 
Friends,
 
It’s Holy Week. 
 
Sunday is Easter. Our in-person service is fully booked. Our on-line service has plenty of space; join us there at 9:00 for our live premier, at FirstPres.Live.
 
Last night was Maundy Thursday. Footwashing, Last Supper, into the sleepy night, full from dinner and warm with fellowship, singing a hymn.
 
Today is Good Friday. Our service is tonight at 7:00 at FirstPres.Live. We are joining in a joint service with our siblings in Christ across State Street at First United Methodist Church. Our choirs will sing. It is “Good” Friday only because of Easter, but on Friday, it doesn’t feel very good: Betrayal with a kiss, arrest, trial, mocking, crucifixion, anguish, sorrow. O Sacred Head Now Wounded, with grief and shame weighed down, now scornfully surrounded with thorns thine only crown.
 
O Judas, what were you thinking?
 
Judas
By Vassar Miller
 
Always I lay upon the brink of love,
Impotent, waiting till the waters stirred,
And no one healed my weakness with a word;
For no words healed me without words to prove
My heart, which when the kiss of Mary wove
His shroud, my tongueless anguish spurred
To cool dissent, and which, each time I heard
John whisper to Him, moaned but could not move.
 
While Peter deeply drowsed within love’s deep
I cramped upon its margin, glad to share
The sop Christ gave me, yet its bitter bite
Dried up my ducts. Praise Peter, who could
Weep his sin away, but never see me where
I hang, huge teardrop on the cheek of night.
 
* * *
 
O Mary, Don’t You Weep No More.
 
* * *
 
I’ll see you tonight at our “Good Friday” Service at 7 p.m.
 
I’ll see you on Easter for a celebration of resurrection hope.
 
PEACE,
 
Matt Matthews
864.386.9138
 
 
 * * *
Lenten Daily Devotion from “The Presbyterian Outlook”
Good Friday, APRIL 2, 2021
MARK 15:33-47
In Mark’s account of the crucifixion, Jesus is radically alone as he is publicly humiliated on the cross, subject to mockery. Soldiers ridicule him; passersby deride him, shaking their heads at him; religious authorities mock him; and even those crucified with him taunt him. Jesus’ final words from the cross are of abandonment even by God. Roman crucifixions were staged in public places, often along roads where all who passed could witness their horror, as a deterrent to bucking civil authorities. On Good Friday, we are drawn into this public place.
Practice: Prayerfully read this story, imagining that you are present in this public place. Note the senses and emotions the scene evokes as you meditate upon it.
Journal: Painful though it may be, note in your journal what emerged as you prayed with this story.

Holy Saturday, APRIL 3, 2021
JOHN 20:19-28
Holy Saturday is an occasion on which to reflect on the wounds of Jesus — and on wounds that linger in our own lives. When the risen Lord appears to his disciples, he shows them his hands and his side; Thomas even insists that he must touch the mark of the wounds, and the risen Lord invites him to do so. As theologian Shelly Rambo notes in her book “Resurrecting Wounds,” Jesus directs the attention of his disciples toward the wounds, inviting us to do the same, with a “readiness to hold pain and to stay with difficult truths.”
Practice: Prayerfully read this story with special attention to the wounds of Jesus. Reflect also on wounds that linger in your own life that mark you.
Journal: Note what emerges in your prayer with this story, and of movement toward God and away from God that you discerned.

Easter Sunday, APRIL 4, 2021
MATTHEW 28:1-10
Reflect on the women’s encounter first with the angel of the Lord and then with the Risen Christ. As you read the Scripture, think about how they experience these scenes with all of their physical senses. Imagine how they might have felt and contemplate their actions and responses.
Practice: What have you learned in these weeks of Lent? Are you “ready” for Easter — for meeting the Risen Christ yourself? Think about you how will live into the resurrection in a new way as you go forward into the Easter season.
Journal: Read over your journal entries from these Lenten weeks. What have you learned from thinking so often and deeply about “moving toward” and “moving away” from God? Is this just a pendulum, or does it bring a new awareness of your proximity to Christ? Note your observations and summarize what you have learned. List any practices you commit to continuing.

Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed!


Read more...

Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2021-04-01

Friends,
 
Tonight, join us for our Maundy Thursday service at 7 PM. Make reservations if you plan on coming in-person. We’ll meet in our sanctuary. The service will be streamed at FirstPres.Live. 
 
We’ll have communion and think about what Jesus said to his disciples when he shared the Passover with them in that upper room. Show up or tune in. 
 
* * *
 
We are at capacity in the Sanctuary for Easter morning. If you still want to come to church this Sunday at 10:15 AM, you are welcome to join us in our overflow space in Westminster Hall to watch the service on screens. We are limited to 36 in that area so reservations are still required.  Being filled to capacity is a good problem, but turning people away is an agony.
 
* * *
 
Today is April Fool’s Day. I’m not a big prankster. I love to joke around. I like corny jokes. I like satire. I like dark humor, limericks, jokes without punchlines, well done slapstick. But I don’t like to hurt people with humor. Sometimes I do exactly that with an inappropriately timed joke, and I don’t mean to. But pranks are designed primarily to shock, and some of us don’t like shocks. I’m one of those people. So, I don’t short-sheets beds at summer camp. I don’t set water cans above doors for people to walk in and get soaked. I don’t set people’s alarms for two in the morning. 
 
I know a man, who must remain nameless, who was the editor of his East-coast college newspaper. Their staff printed an April Fools edition of the school paper saying the president of the university had been fired, and he, the student editor of the newspaper, had been appointed acting president by the board. A member of that board who lived on the West coast got the news (and this was before the internet) and was livid that he had not been notified and included in that board meeting. Telegrams were sent to mobilize the board that had made this awful decision. Everybody soon got the idea that they had been had, and most thought it was funny. Nevertheless, it caused a real flap. Formal apologies were written. Assurances were made. Printing budgets were examined. Nobody got expelled, but the West-coast board member, who never saw the humor in the stunt, was also the father of the said editor’s girlfriend. That relationship was doomed after the prank, as the poor girl was forced to choose between her father (and tuition) and her innovative boyfriend who became a big time editor at a big time magazine. 
 
So, I don’t do pranks. They can go awry. But I rather like the idea of being a fool. 
 
Yes, a fool.
 
In an outdoor service of worship long ago in Virginia, I was juggling cans of food during the sermon talking about the Apostle Paul who described himself as a “fool for Christ” (First Corinthians 4). After the service Sondra Underwood, whose name I will use, came up to me and grabbed my arm. She said, “Today you helped me find my calling. There’s so much in this world that I cannot do. I’m just not worthy or smart or good enough. But I can be a fool for Christ.”
 
That metaphor spoke to her. She was a natural cut up. She liked to wear purple. Once she tried to sneak food out of a Las Vegas hotel breakfast buffet, and later had to explain a purse full of unwrapped breakfast fare to a TSA agent at the airport. Sondra was laughing so hard, they almost called an ambulance. Her husband had check through another line and came up to the TSA agent and said, “She’s like this all the time. I’m sorry.” But her wasn’t. Johnnie and Sondra are peas in a pod, and she’s a fool and owns it. She ran afterschool detention at the local high school, and Sondra turned so many kids around with her, well, foolishness. She made them laugh. She made them cry. She made them believe in themselves. She brought light wherever she went. She is a fool for Christ.
 
Be foolish today. Be extravagant in your love for others. Laugh at yourself. 
 
Happy April Fool’s Day—and I’m not joking.
 
* * *
 
(Today’s joke come from Gary and/or Linda Peterson: Why did the chili pepper have trouble being an archer? Because he didn’t habanero.)
 
 
* * *
 
Here’s today’s devotional from the Presbyterian Outlook:
Maundy Thursday, APRIL 1, 2021
MARK 14:32-42
In this story, we eavesdrop on Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane on the night before his death and witness the struggle of his disciples to stay awake with him while he prays. What does Jesus’ struggle evoke for you? What does the disciples’ struggle evoke for you? With whom do you most identify?
Practice: Prayerfully read this story, reflecting on the various struggles it conveys and their impact upon you.
Journal: Sense the movements of your spirit and the emotions that they evoke as you reflect on this story – both movements toward God and away from God – and note in your journal what happens.
 
 * * *
 
Good Word 
 
John 13:1-17, 31b-35
1Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper 3Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, 4got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. 5Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. 6He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” 7Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” 8Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” 9Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 10Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.” 11For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
12After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? 13You call me Teacher and Lord — and you are right, for that is what I am. 14So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. 16Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. 17If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. 
31When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. 33Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ 34I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Let us pray (maybe this poem will shape a prayer from you.)

 
Acquainted with the Night
by Robert Frost

I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain—and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-by;
And further still at an unearthly height,
One luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.

* * *
 
Much, much love to you all.
 
Matt Matthews
Cell: 864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church


Read more...