The Point November 2004

After a year of hard work, after a poorer crop than last year, after a year that has been fraught with financial hardship…….sound like a page out of someone’s diary?  Just as we face hardships, those who have gone before us faced at least two serious depressions at the beginning of each of the last two centuries.

         Just as we get discouraged when we plan a big event and only a few hearty souls turn out, those who have done what we do many times in the past three hundred years would have so much in common were we able to have lunch or a cup of coffee with them.

        The same scriptures gave assurance to our ancestors.  The same message of hope, of Good News, our Gospel (the Good News of Jesus Christ) has been the gospel for millennia, now.

        We are a people of faith and we are peoples who need faith.  Individually, at times, the going is tough.  Collectively, it is always easier.  We face the new war together.  Our personal losses are hard, but the support we feel and the experiences we share, have been similar throughout recorded history.  God was and is always there.

Each Thanksgiving brings time for reflection.  We look at our Pilgrim ancestors with much gratitude when we realize they gave us Congregationalism in its purest form.  We are not only an autonomous church we celebrate individualism of each one of us.

        In our new face called The United Church of Christ, we not only celebrate our individual differences and beliefs we encourage the spiritual journeys that each one of us takes. 

        We have two groups in our church that I would like to recognize this month.  They are so very different but need each other so much, at the same time.  The subcommittee of the Deacons called the Heritage Sunday Committee has planned not only a rich service for November 28 but 15 more such services for the last Sunday in November until our 300^th birthday in 2020.  I wish to thank this very efficient committee for helping to plan this year’s kick-off.

The other group is this year’s confirmation class.  These half-dozen young adults have been the most exciting class, yet.  The difference is that they are all original Congregationalists.  They have all grown up at First Church.  They know how we do “church.”  Without some of the “transplants” as in past years, however, we must look even harder to examine how other denominations and other faiths shape their beliefs.  These kids have helped me to learn because it has taken much study to keep up with their learning.  Thank you all.

Both groups need each other.  The kids need the history to know their roots.  The Heritage people need the kids in order for there to be history to write in the future.  By the time we die, these young people will be doing what we do now, if we lead them right.  I hope they do it even better.  Look in their faces to see tomorrow’s trustees, deacons, and maybe even a preacher.

I wish you all a thankful season this year.  God is good, all the time. And as our denomination reminds us, “God is Still Speaking,” just listen!

 

Blessings,

Rev. Lou