Pastor's Message - January 2026

~ Those Were the Days ~

Do not say, “Why were the former days better than these?”

For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.

~Ecclesiastes 7:10

Dear Members and Friends,

When my kids were little, I didn’t let them watch “Sponge Bob Square Pants,” a popular cartoon back in the 2000s. Other parents thought I was being too strict, but I was not a strict father at all. I was playful and silly…but I didn’t like Sponge Bob. I found the show sarcastic and noisy with not a single admirable character. Other kids’ shows, like “Dora the Explorer” and “The Backyardigans,” always had a simple, positive message: cooperate, be kind, be patient, respect nature, see beauty. Sponge Bob was just a parade of spastic deep-sea creatures with crippling personality disorders. Of course, there were shows I was not allowed to watch as a child. I’ve been thinking about that

old sitcom “All in the Family,” which aired on CBS for much of the 1970s. “All in the Family” was forbidden at our house, along with “MASH” and “Dallas.” And yet, despite their being banned, I remember all three shows quite well. Archie Bunker, on “All in the Family,” played the classic role of the wise fool, and he actually had some surprisingly

witty and insightful lines. One of my favorites is, “Everybody’s scared of death until it hits you… After that, you never give it another thought.”

Looking back, I stand by my decision to ban “Sponge Bob Square Pants,” and I get my parents’ desire to shelter us from “MASH” and “Dallas.” But why was “All in the Family” censored? Much like the best children’s shows, “All in the Family” advocated for things that matter, like equality, women’s rights, inclusion, tolerance, and the need to change. Archie was backward, but he always landed in the right place eventually. This was the genius of the show: It depicted an unimaginative traditionalist amid all the changes of the late 20th century, trying to hold fast to the things he valued, but often learning, grudgingly, to accept new things, too. A small child might not understand this kind of nuance and moral ambiguity, but offensive it was not. Who could forget Archie and Edith singing the theme song at the start of each episode, a song that perfectly captured the sentimental, backward-looking views of the show’s main character? The song was “Those Were the Days,” and it touted the glories of traditional gender roles and LaSalle cars (extinct since 1940), while railing against the modern “welfare state.”

Humankind idealizes the past. We look fearfully at the trials of our current times, then longingly backward at a seemingly perfect yesterday (that memory has largely rewritten). But memory is self-serving. Our brains know that regret does a lot of harm, so they highlight those things that make us happy while downplaying all else. We are called to learn from the past, celebrate it, and then live into the new day that God sends.

A little-known line from the book of Ecclesiastes says, “Do not say, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’ For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.” And so, ill-placed nostalgia for a misremembered past is at least as old as the Hebrew Scriptures. As we welcome the New Year and celebrate our 75th anniversary as a congregation,

let’s fully embrace the day we’re given. It might pale in comparison to a day we think we recall. But memory is not always accurate. And today? Today is a good day, too. Its blessings and struggles were made exactly for you and for

me.

Christ’s Peace to You in the New Year,

~Brian