Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2020-04-30
Thursday April 30th 2020
A Weekday Emailer from
Matt Matthews
To Members and Friends of
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
Dear Friends,
Last night’s Zoom Dessert was fun!
My friend Kevin Murphy writes to the flock he pastors every day. He wrote this about dreams. Not the dreams we dream when we are asleep, but our “waking dreams.” Dig it:
Waking dreams are our imaginations taking flight. They are the ideas that move us ahead. They are the new understandings that undergird our best inventions and innovations. They may be seen as undoable or unattainable or just silly, but how would things like vaccines or immunizations ever have been invented if someone hadn’t dreamed of a world without infectious diseases? Who would ever think that open-heart surgery or an organ transplant could be an effective way of extending a life? Every innovation takes a dreamer who won’t give up. Every dreamer dreams of a better world and then works toward it.
As we slowly and carefully come out of our COVID-19 dens after this spring-long hibernation we are going to need lots of dreams and dreamers to envision what the next chapter of our lives will be. Will we learn new lessons from this experience that make our world safer? Will we continue to appreciate all those front-line workers who have keep our society moving and kept us safe? Will we figure out how to pay them better for the hard and necessary work they do?
God-shaped dreams will be needed. God-shaped dreamers will be welcomed. Will we, as the dreamers in God’s loving and loved family, dream those God-shaped dreams? If we don’t, who will? We can dream God-shaped dreams and we can work for them to come to fruition because we know the love and grace and mercy of God is always with us, calling us to be the God-shaped dreamers this world needs.
I say, AMEN.
News:
Don’t forget the new fun photo challenge! Each Friday 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. Tomorrow I’ll share the NEW Challenge. Here’s the old one:
CHALLENGE #2
BAPTISM 3:13-17
As he grew, he gained respect from God and man
And his calling to save us, He began to understand
He declared He came to set the captives free
And baptized by John to begin that journey
John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the Jordan River
Take a photo of your family doing something with water.
Take some time to discussed what happened when Jesus was baptized, how God spoke from heaven, and what John said about him.
Post your photo to:
https://www.facebook.com/
live@firstpres.church
For Instagram @fpcchampaign
* * *
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. Laurie Jacob, Kena Jo Chapman, Rachel, and I helped yesterday and had a blast. Together we packed three pallets of food—possibly 1,500 grocery bags—for our public school children and their families. It was a WOW morning. Want to help? Are you between 18- and 60-years-old? You can, here: https://www.
Humor: How did Noah see the animals in the Ark at night? With flood lighting!!!!! (Thank you Gary and Linda Peterson.)
Good Word:
When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.” The Lord has done great things for us, and we rejoiced. Psalm 126:1-3
Let us pray:
God of experts and amateurs, in a time of great uncertainty, we begin to realize how little we each know. Yet you have placed within our community those who speak from reason, who know the science, whose profession it is to protect. May we hear the voices of informed wisdom, and give thanks for what is already here: the knowledge that overcomes ignorance, the love that overcomes fear, the community that includes the grace we all need.
Amen. (Alex Wimberly)
Much love to you all.
PEACE,
Matt Matthews
Cell: 864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church
