Looking in the Mirror

      In The Who’s rock opera, Tommy, there is a song called “Go to the Mirror.”  Tommy, for those of you not so steeped in classic rock history as some of us (well, OK, as people like me!) has shut down in a form of selective mutism, blindness, and deafness.  It takes a couple of more cuts for him to break out of his traumatized condition and break free.

      Mirrors are one of Paul’s illustrations, of course, and we interim's like to say we are holding up a mirror to the congregation so it can see itself as it is.

      The downside is that sometimes when we look in the mirror we are not so fond of what we see, but the fact is that mirrors are an accuracy check.  Once in a while, we may need to wipe the accumulated haze off our mirrors to see clearly.  If you shave or put on makeup, fogginess is not a good thing.  Nor is nostalgic haze good for a church.  Sometimes a bit of magnification of a blemish is distressing, but it helps you deal with things.  That’s also true for shaving and makeup!

      This Sunday, as part of our all-church self-study, we turn to who we are as a congregation now and what our general priorities are as First Congregational and the people in it moving forward.
A large part of our time Sunday will uncover the activities and programs and caregiving and such that we value, but we also have a few hopefully fun ways at learning more about who we are right now.  (Think of your favorite vacation places, favorite foods, and television show or music, and bring your phone downstairs with you.)

      Then, on the 17th, we will be doing the U.S. Congregational Life Survey at the end of worship.  This is a well-normed survey that will help us see where we are in the wider religious spectrum of the country.  It, unlike many surveys done during interim times, builds up from members’ responses instead of starting with lists of programs or activities in a congregation.  If you are the kind of person who groans when given a survey, this one should be more interesting than most, and the data is really, really, really valuable to our search process.  Most people find the questions thought-provoking and interesting.  So please make a serious effort to attend on November 17 to contribute.  We can make special arrangements for you if you cannot attend that day, but even the blank surveys must be returned to the data company, so we have to make sure they are accounted for.   Call the office at 607-257-6033, and we will work something out!  For what it’s worth, the last church-wide survey was in 2003.  Some things have happened since then.

      I remember when I realized that the image I had of myself from photographs was not looking back at me from the mirror, and I’m familiar with the sort of sigh and shrug church members have when they get clear on who the congregation actually is now.  Kind of the same.  For what it’s worth, I didn’t mind the graying at my temples, but the first gray hairs in my moustache made me wince.  But most days, the actual truth seems better than the out of date memory.

      Please join us as we look at ourselves a bit.  Even if you cannot stay for the discussion, please stay long enough to have lunch with each other!  I hear there may be ice cream for dessert…

                                                                          In Christ,
                                                                          
                                                                                    David

And remember to change your clocks back an hour Saturday night!!


Texts For Sunday Worship:
   From the Epistles          2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12
   From the Gospels         Luke 19:1-10