Making way for something new to be born.
We’ve been working on getting a new sign up on the front lawn of the church. The old one doesn’t represent us anymore—it’s a little world-weary, a little plain-jane, with coded and mysterious language that means little to outsiders, and no art in sight in our image-driven world.
It takes time to do things in church, like get a new sign envisioned, designed, paid for, post holes dug, panel delivered and installed. I figure it’ll finish happening sometime between the fourth Sunday in Advent, and the Rapture.
But today I came home to see that the old sign had fallen down, of its own accord. The sign of the times? I’m thinking of putting up a vinyl banner in the meantime, hung between the two old posts, which are still standing: “First Church Somerville UCC ~ Building the Beloved Community ~ A (sometimes vinyl, but always authentic) work-in-progress since 1874.”
I can’t say I’m sad about it. I was a comp lit major, and it was drilled into me in undergrad days in my semiotics classes that signs are vitally important in what they communicate, they have the power, like names, to shape the reality of the person/community/thing they’re attached to. Our old sign served us well for many years, but no longer represented who we’ve grown into.
We have some infant ideas for what the new sign will look like. Certainly, it’ll have our new logo, beautifully designed by your own Communications Team, a new representation of our lovely old rose window, the Holy Spirit entering a tattered but sweet flower-world, and our tagline, “Building the Beloved Community.” It’ll proudly bear the name, United Church of Christ.
Beyond that, what? What are your ideas? What should be on the first face of First Church that our neighborhood sees?
Beloved,
It’s another rainy day, a warm one. Hope you are able to be cozy and reflective, wherever you are, let the rain slow you down, keep you in, ponder things in your heart, from the sofa or the cubicle. It’s good to reflect, to be and not do.
Sunday in church, we’ll finish the sermon series on Extraordinary Relationships. Perhaps you’ve had a eureka moment, been able to reflect on family dynamics or patterns, get insight into where you’re stuck, and been able to move, incrementally. Perhaps what you’ve noticed, reflecting, has frightened or overwhelmed you. Here’s the thing: God has put into our minds, it says in Ecclesiastes, a sense of past and future. Not just past. The past informs the future, but does not control it. We control, or at least direct, our futures. That little thing called free will.
I’ll be preaching this sabbath on spiritual maturity: the willingness, according to rabbi Edwin Friedman, to take responsibility for our own emotional well-being and destiny. As we get ready to travel or make holiday plans with family, we need not be ruled by ghosts of Thanksgivings past.
This Sunday, if you like, bring a picture of yourself as a child, to put on the altar–and write on the back a single word that you want to define your future. We’ll bless the pictures before you bring them home. Chet is our intrepid liturgist. Lisa C. offers the last of this season’s stewardship messages. Laura Ruth and other Firsties are on the road to bring good news and great music to Williamstown; we’ll pray for them. We’ll dedicate your pledge cards during the offering–bring it, with joy! and thanksgiving for a church like ours.
After worship: bell choir rehearsal! cantata rehearsal! Godly Play orientation for parents! A vigil for immigrant rights field trip! And of course, good coffee and new friendships.
Christlove, all,
Molly
Beloved,
We’re wheeling into November, and Thanksgiving looms at the end of the month. We must decide who to spend it with, if we don’t have ironbound family traditions. You might be sucked in by the Family of Origin Tractor Beam. You might be cooking for a few close friends, chosen family. You might be serving at a shelter, a close observer or participant in God’s motley human family. Whatever you are doing, you’ll have to make a decision: whether or not to return home at some point for the weekend, geographically and/or emotionally. For some of us, that’s easy, a pleasure, a balm. For others, not so much. It’s always at least a little complicated, and fraught.
This Sunday continues our Extraordinary Relationships sermon series. I’ll preach on the Prodigal Son, and on the dutiful white sheep brother, disappointed by the extravagant welcome the prodigal receives. I’ll be talking about severed relationships in families, and how to begin to repair them. I invite you to bring a picture of someone in your own family who has become cut off from the rest, and to place it on the communion table or altar during the passing of the peace. It could be a brother, a sister, an uncle, a child, a parent. It could be you. We will pray over these photos.
Rebecca H. is our newbie liturgist! Give her love. Laura Ruth will pray with us. Choir sings! Steve M. visits, and offers the Stewardship Moment, and at the end of worship, the next step on the stewardship journey: you will receive this year’s pledge card, and a gift, to help you reflect on the nature of abundance and gifts freely given.
After worship: a new 4-part series of New Old Fashioned Bible Study: Dysfunctional Family Edition, led by Matthew, and All Church Work Day! Roll up sleeves, blast the music, make new friends, put sweat equity and Gandhian communal work ethic into the church that does so much for you.
Christlove
Molly
