That off-centered thought may not be as callous as it seems on your first reading, because in my past I was the interim at a church which had, in fact, burned fifty years before and rebuilt. While I was in Watkins Glen, lightening struck the Glen Baptist Church, which burned to the ground; they built a new and more useful building on that site, as well.
The Chappie was a familiar landmark and a place generations of graduate students frequented, and in the last week lots of people have reminisced about it, and many efforts have begun to house the displaced and help them financially get back on their feet.
So, I asked myself, if First Congregational Church burned, would anyone miss it? or even notice?
I’d like to think people would.
Would people reminisce about the good times they’ve had in this building? Easter and Christmas services? Boy Scouts in the basement? Sunday School? Taking their children to the Community Nursery School in the basement over the years (or maybe being a kid at CNS themselves!)? Choir or band or play practice here? Community meetings in our building? The beauty of the sanctuary? The thunder and delicacy of the organ? The huge production that was the Feed My Starving Children Mobile Pack? Wonderful hours in committee meetings? (OK, that one might not have been serious.) Baptisms or weddings or funerals marking the transitions of our lives? Workbees or tending the gardens? Worship in the chapel area in the woods? Would people tell each other stories about the great times and wonderful people they were with as if they were reminiscing about a favorite gathering place or tavern? I’d hope so. Lots of ministers hope that the congregations they serve feel like walking into that television tavern, Cheers, “Where everybody knows your name.” That sort of communal gathering place would be so welcome by so many.
Would the community think of the programs and ministries and missions left homeless if our facility was gone? Would they scurry to help the Ithaca Concert Band or Scouts or Community Nursery School or Music Together or the toddlers playing soccer on the lawn or FA or a dozen other “tenants” find new homes? I’d hope so. There is a lot of living that happens in this place.
I was reminded of a funny (really!) event from early in my career, when a pastor was telling about a Pentecost celebration at their church with helium balloons released in worship. He was awakened from his Sunday afternoon nap (yep, ministers are tired after worship) by sirens followed by a frantic phone call from a parishioner, “I just heard on the scanner that it’s the church!” He dashed back over, only to discover the fire crews walking out shaking their heads and laughing. He was relieved to hear that as the helium balloons caught in the ceiling lost pressure and started to sink, they broke the smoke detector beam and set off the alarm. The pastor said that was forever after known as “The time the Presbyterian Church caught fire.”
So are we so aflame with spiritual excitement and love of neighbors and world and community that we could set off our fire detectors without actually having the building burn down like the buildings on Stewart Avenue? Are people talking about First Congregational like Cheers or The Chapter House, a place of true human contact, a place from whence important mission and ministry happens? Would Ithaca miss First Congregational if this building wasn’t here? I’d hope so.
Remember: Pentecost is coming in six weeks. Are we “on fire?”
In Christ,
David
Texts For Sunday Worship:
From the Acts of Apostles Acts 3:12-19
From the Epistles 1 John 3:1-7
From the Gospels Luke 24:36b-48
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