Signs of the Times

Originally Posted at www.fccleb.org on June 29

When the Old Man in the Mountain fell from his rocky perch a few years ago, I idly wondered what that meant for all of the state road signs that sported his silhouette. “Would they be redesigned?” I wondered. As we all now know, the answer was no. After all, no good Yankee would waste a perfectly functional sign. And, on an existential level, the Old Man had become part of the state’s psyche; the fact that it no longer actually existed did nothing to diminish what it represented for and to the people of New Hampshire.

Symbols are like that, helping us connect with our past. The highly urbanized and ever-idiosyncratic Golden State prominently features the long-instinct California Grizzly on its flag, a reminder of long-ago pioneer days. Many nations in Eastern Europe have adopted old royal coats of arms in a bid to reclaim a past that had been torn away from them by war, revolution, and various conquerors.

We Christians have our symbols too. Most prominent is the cross.

In the Catholic Church, one will usually find Jesus on the cross, a reminder of his death, which atoned for our sins. In Protestant churches like ours, the cross is bare, a declaration that death could not contain Christ, that he triumphed over the power of darkness. In both instances, a symbol of terrible pain has been boldy transformed into one of life-giving redemption.

Another symbol is the fish. Peter and others among the disciples were fishermen, called by Jesus to leave their boats and lay down their nets, and take to fishing for men (and women!). The early church, recognizing this evangelical imperative, this call to spread the Good News, actually adopted the fish as a symbol before the cross.

Perhaps while sitting in traffic you’ve seen a fish logo on a bumper sticker (you may also have noticed the rejoinder it’s prompted: a four legged fish surrounding the word “Darwin”). You need not be cruising the highways and byways of the Upper Valley to see this symbol, though. If you look closely, you’ll also notice one atop our weathervane. This seems especially apt for our church as it seeks to welcome new members to the community.

In an age when we are increasingly caught up in what technology can do for us (and to us), when we talk about web pages and stand in line to buy new smart phones, it is imperative that we take a moment to think about that fish, about how you and I, with a smile, a word of encouragement, a casual invitation, can be like those early disciples: people who fish, people who bring others into the fellowship of love and life given to us by Jesus.