CONNECT

A quarterly Newsletter of the First Presbyterian Church of

Murphysboro and Pinckneyville Illinois

Fall Newsletter 2016

(From the Pastor) Faith is the Victory

This has been a horrible, violent summer. More questionable killings of African-American men

in police custody. Assassinations of police officers in Baton Rouge and Dallas, by African-

American military veterans, no less. The murder of fifty people in the Pulse Nightclub in

Orlando, a club that caters to a LGBTQ clientele. The shooter purportedly had ties to radical

Islamic groups but may have also been gay himself.

On top of all this, ISIS and individuals loyal to ISIS carried out deadly terror attacks in

Bangladesh, Baghdad, Istanbul, and Nice, France, killing hundreds. If you are like me, you are

sitting on pins and needles, waiting for the “next shoe to fall,” if you’ll forgive me for mixing

metaphors.

I feel kind of helpless; I don’t know what to do. Our governmental leaders don’t seem to have

any good answers either, except to increase security everywhere and drop more bombs on

suspected terrorist targets. In other words, the only thing the authorities seem to know to do are

the same things they’ve done in the past that haven’t seemed to slow down the violence at all.

It would be easy to give up in such a situation, to check out, to isolate oneself, and take on the

philosophy of “eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we shall die.” That’s a tempting response,

I must admit.

And if WE are downhearted and discouraged, what about members of the African-American

community who think they are not being heard and that their concerns for their safety at the

hands of law enforcement are not being taken seriously? What about the police officers in this

country, who must be afraid for THEIR lives as well and probably feel like they are under siege?

What about those who serve in our military forces, particularly the ones who ae battling

terrorism on the front lines in the Middle East? I cannot imagine the stress they are under and

how futile and thankless some of them may feel their work is from time to time.

continued from page 1 of From the Pastor

Yes, it would be easy to give up in the face of such discouraging scenarios. Easy, but wrong.

See, all of these things are bad, evil. But God was around before bad things and evil things and

people came into being and God will be there when such things have gone away forever. Evil

doesn’t last; God does.

But evil is still here with us now with all of the attendant horror and suffering that goes with it.

How does knowing that one day it will be gone help us now?

Well, I could think of a number of reasons, but here are a few. One, evil, then, is contingent,

unnecessary, temporal. Now that doesn’t minimize the harm it causes in the interim. But evil

isn’t eternal, not like God, love, peace, joy and the many other divine blessings that we get to

experience in this life.

And because of the eternal life that we have by God’s grace been given through the life, death,

and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we are eternal too. So, as powerful as evil

and its sidekick suffering seem to be, we’ll outlast them. We will win the race. Victory will

ultimately be ours, because Christ is already victorious over sin, death, and hell. Two, evil does not have ultimate power. The power of God, the power of Christ, is greater by

far than the power of evil. Evil is a product of this world, not the next world, the spiritual world,

and like all things of this world, its power to do harm, while great, is still relative. Jesus reminds

us in the Gospel of John, “Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” Because of our

relationship to God through Jesus, we have access to that same power as we struggle against evil.

Furthermore, if we equate evil with darkness, as the Bible does, in the Gospel of John we are

also reminded that light, especially the light of God as wielded by Jesus, always overcomes the

darkness. When Jesus’ light is shining, darkness always has to flee. And Jesus shares his light

with us. He has given us his light as a mighty weapon in our struggle with evil.

But here’s the thing. The power of God, the power of love and light and peace, does not work in

the same way as the power of evil. It is not as “in your face,” as it were; the power of God is

more subtle and not as overwhelming. God’s power is immense, no doubt about it. It is strong,

but it is a kind of controlled strength.

I am reminded of something the wizard Gandalf says in the movie version of “The Hobbit:”

“Saruman believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have

found. I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay.

Small acts of kindness and love.” That’s the kind of power I am talking about.

The power of God, and since God is love it is essentially the power of love, is a kind of “soft”

power. It is the power of goodness and of sacrifice, of meekness and humility. As such, it may

not sound like much, but one underestimates the power of God at one’s peril.

continued from page 2 from the Pastor

Jesus on the cross demonstrated the effectiveness of this power. Evil in all of its raw

malevolence and bloody violence threw everything it had at Jesus, and its power hammered at

Jesus on the cross with all its fury. But Jesus won, not evil.

The power of evil was broken by the power of love. Jesus took all of the world’s hate, envy,

greed, and idolatry, indeed, all sin, into himself and absorbed it and destroyed it and made it as

nothing. Jesus won the field, won the day. Christ was the victor.

However, his victory went unobserved by all except those who had the eyes to see. His was a

quiet victory, but it was victory nevertheless. And now his victory is ours. We appropriate that

victory by faith; as the hymn says, “Faith is the Victory That Overcomes the World.” May we

remember that when what we see in the world is less than encouraging. Evil may have its day in

the sun, but one day the sun’s going to go down.

GENERAL NEWS Pastor Sam is leading a six week study featuring Reading the Bible for Understanding this fall.

This study is part of the “Being Reformed: Faith Seeking Understanding” series published by

the Presbyterian Church USA Store (www.pcusastore.com). This study introduces important

means to consider when interpreting different parts of the Bible: narratives, poetry and wisdom,

and letters. It also reviews what Reformed and Presbyterian Christians believe about the nature

of the Bible, and texts and translations that are available to us. The study meets on Sunday

nights at 5 p.m. at Murphysboro and on Mondays at 1:30 p.m. at Pinckneyville.

Both churches recently purchased new copiers, Secretary Connie at Pinckneyville and Secretary

Phyllis at Murphysboro are elated, elated I tell you!

Who is the Presbytery of Southeastern Illinois?

Article Submitted to by Cindy Bean, Stated Clerk

“Southeastern Illinois Connection Newsletter”

As we move through 2016, we are 83 congregations, 99 Teaching Elders, and

Camp Carew. Our churches span from Hoopeston to the North and cairo to the

south from communities all along the Indiana border from Paris, New Providence,

and Shawneetown to Tilden and Chester on the west.

We also have within our bounds, two service organizations –Kemmerer Village

and the Illinois Presbyterian Home –that have board members from the Presbytery

of Southeastern Illinois and our neighbor to the north, Great Rivers Presbytery.

We even have a university in our midst that has roots in the Presbyterian church –

Millikin University.

The Presbytery comes together in meetings four times a year in which

commissioners appointed by each congregation and the minister members make

decisions concerning the ministries of the Presbytery.

The Presbytery of Southeastern Illinois was formed in 1972 from three

presbyteries. Our oldest churches include Donnellson and Golcanda, both were

organized in 1819. Our newest one, copper Creek, was organized in 2012.

We look forward to celebrating 45 years in faithful ministry together in 2017.

The Presbytery committees are composed of volunteers from Ruling Elders from

the 83 churches and the 99 minister members. There are 22 churches being served

by full time called and installed pastors. As of today, our smallest church has 5

members and the largest church has 687 members.

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF MURPHYSBORO, IL Address: 51 Crescent Drive, Murphysboro, IL 62966 Phone: 618-684-3466

Secretary e-mail: neacephyllis@yahoo.com Office hours: Tuesday, Thursday – Friday, 12:30 pm -4:00

Wednesday, 8:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

MURPHYSBORO NEWS

PRESBYTERIAN WOMEN OF MURPHYSBORO by Peggy Carpenter, Current President

Presbyterian women meet on the first Tuesday of most every month at 10:00 a.m.

The women begin the meeting with the Bible study, Fruit of the Spirit. It is

exciting and informative. Following that portion of the meeting, there are

refreshments, and fellowship. Then the group continues their meeting to discuss

activities we are involved in. All women are welcome!

This is our busiest time! It is the time of year we start planning for Christmas. We

start collecting items, like small bottles of shampoo, conditioner, lotion, small

packages of Kleenex, etc. to take to area nursing homes and the Women’s Center

in Carbondale.

We also will be collecting winter outerwear, such as gloves, mittens, scarves, hats,

and socks for the mentally challenged who live in Murphysboro.

PW women also send out birthday, get well, and miss you cards.

Hope you can join us!

In response to the June flooding in West Virginia, and the more recent catastrophic flooding in

Louisiana, our church put together a number of “health kits,” kits collected by Presbyterian

Disaster Assistance, to send to survivors of the flooding. The kits are shipped to a warehouse in

Little Rock, Arkansas, and from there are sent to disaster zones. First Presbyterian of

Murphysboro collected enough items for three cleanup buckets. The buckets included such items

as all-purpose cleaning solutions, masks, gloves, clotheslines, clothespins, scrubbing brushes,

detergent, and so forth. Way to go church!

continued Murphysboro News

Our new pictorial directories have been ordered and are on their way. They are beautiful! Julia

Morrill has done a good job as the editor with the able assistance of Murphysboro secretary

Phyllis Neace, among others. If you want a directory, we'll be glad to order one for you. Just let

us know by October 25. The directories will not cost more that $15 a copy, and will probably be

less than that with various discounts that Walgreen’s offers. Call or email the office if you want

one; we will also have a sign-up sheet on the table in the back of the sanctuary.

M’boro Prayer List Peggy Carpenter / Bill Mitchell Donita Bailey-cancer treatments Sonja Crain Naomi Potter Nancy Baker Outreach Committee Labyrinth Project The Government Ellen Thomas Flooding in Louisiana Jim Bolton Anna Mae DeRossett Starletta Kerley Wendy Neal Bill Craig the family of Bill Mitchell’s granddaughter Jessica Carlotta Ahlfield (Matthew’s Mom) heart surgery Victims & Survivors of Hurricane Matthew

NOTE: If you are receiving this Newsletter in the mail, and have a computer with Internet,

we now have the Newsletter on-line to view. To save on postage if you could call us to let

us know that you know longer need it by mail. Thank you!

FIRST UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF PINCKNEYVILLE, IL Address: 3811 State Route 13/127, Pinckneyville, Il 62274 Phone 618-357-8017 Secretary Connie Moore e-mail: fupcpville@frontier.com Office hours: Monday, Tuesday 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. And Friday 9:00 a.m. – noon

PINCKNEYVILLE NEWS P’ville Prayer List Karen Lopez John Nehrkorn Doris Rottschalk Ruth McDaniel Cyrus Keller Family of Larry Hardin Family of Alice Giacomo Chuck Dobrinick Daughter Moving to Hawaii

Louisiana Flooding

Henry Walton

Victims & survivors of Hurricane Matthew

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In response to the June flooding in West Virginia, and the more recent catastrophic

flooding in Louisiana, our church put together a number of “health kits,” kits

collected by Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, to send to survivors of the flooding.

The kits are shipped to a warehouse in Little Rock, Arkansas, and from there are

sent to the disaster zones. First United Presbyterian collected seventeen hygiene

kits (consisting of items such as nail clippers, wash clothes, soap, toothpaste, and

so forth) and twenty-three school kits (bags filled with various school supplies).

Way to go church! We had almost one-hundred percent participation from those

who attend Sunday worship services.

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There will be a church wide breakfast followed by a congregational meeting at

Pinckneyville on November 13 beginning at 8 a.m.

Our new pictorial directories have been ordered and are on their way. They are

beautiful! Julia Morrill has done a good job as the editor with the able assistance of

Murphysboro secretary Phyllis Neace, among others. And good news! A generous elder,

who wishes to remain anonymous, has agreed to purchase enough for everyone. We are

very grateful.