Wednesday July 8 2020
A daily e-mailer from
Matt Matthews
 
To Members and Friends of 
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
 
 Dear Friends,
 
            How many of you have seen the play “Hamilton”? I saw it on Friday evening on TV. I was amazed. Check it out and tell me what you think. (Some of you have already chimed in.)
 
            Tomorrow, in my Thursday emailer, I hope to include another essay by Ian Evensen. Remember, he’s a high school junior in our church. I’ve asked him to write about this: “What have you learned this week about racism?” 
 
            What have you learned? Send me your essay.
  
Take on Race:
 
            My friend Allen Huff’s sermons are so good. He preaches in East Tennessee in Jonesborough. I hesitate to tell you this lest you defect. Listen:
 
            The life of faith takes hard work. It takes determination and conviction, imagination and creativity, patience and forgiveness. 
            [R]econciling the hard work of discipleship and the gift of grace doesn’t take fancy theological gymnastics. It’s a matter of perspective. The hard work of discipleship is our grateful response to God’s gracious initiative . . . [T]he longer and more intentionally we follow Jesus’ ways of compassion, forgiveness, and justice, his yoke fits more naturally and his burden causes less strain.
            Yesterday I re-read Martin Luther King, Jr’s. Letter from a Birmingham Jail. In this profoundly eloquent, prophetic, and love-wrought epistle, Dr. King calls religious leaders of all faith traditions to task for their reluctance to take on the yoke and the burden of solidarity with God’s love for all humankind, and especially for those who suffer discrimination and oppression. 
 
* * *
            I, for one, am not eager to take this yoke of naming and ending discrimination. That burden seems too heavy and my shoulders are too narrow. But I’m reminded that with Jesus I can do anything he calls me to do. And it’s not my will that matters, but God’s.
 
            So, this is my song. Listen, again:
 
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5krFNUMQHI
 
News:
 
A service for Todd Lebetter, the homeless man murdered last week at West Side Park, will be in the parking lot of the Phoenix Center on Washington Street, home of CU at Home, at 7:00 p.m. I’ll be masked and physically distanced; join me if you wish.
 
That is also the exact hour of our Wednesday Vespers on Zoom. Online is the safest place to ‘meet.’ Rachel will be leading the program, and you gathered saints can pray as Langston Hughes teaches:
 
Gather up
In the arms of your pity
The sick, the depraved,
The desperate, the tired,
All the scum
Of our weary city

Gather up
In the arms of your pity.
Gather up
In the arms of your love—
Those who expect
No love from above.
 
(“Prayer,” Langston Hughes)
 
* * *
 
The Wednesday Vespers Zoom link is: 
Email zoom@firstpres.church for the link.

Thursday Youth Gathering 4 pm
Email zoom@firstpres.church for the link.
 
Good Word: 
 
Matthew 11:28-30    
“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Let us pray 
 
Our Holy Father, we confess the weakness and sinfulness of our lives. We have often turned away from thee to seek our own desires. And often when we have done no evil, we have undertaken nothing of good, and so have been guilty of uselessness and neglect. From this sin of idleness and indifference set us free. Lead us into fruitful effort, and deliver us from profitless lives. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
 
[Martin Luther King, Jr.]
 
PEACE to you all,
 
Matt Matthews
Cell: 864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church