Pastor's Pen

A Monthly Reflection

by

Rev. Dr. Ronald F. Rosenau

Dear Friends,

Have you ever had the experience of noticing something for the first time, only to see it popping up all over the place? That’s been happening to me for about a month now, ever since I read the obituary of an 87-year old man in the New York Times.

Laszlo Büch was born in 1922, to a Jewish family in Khust, Czechoslovakia. (It is today in Ukraine.) His parents were killed by the Nazis during World War II. As a young man, Lazlo himself survived Auschwitz and Buchenwald, and emigrated to the United States after World War II. It was then that he adopted an Americanized version of his given name, changing it to Leslie Buck.

Mr. Buck spent most of his working career as a paper cup salesman, which sounds like a perfectly uninteresting thing to have done, but it turns out he died rich and famous for a single idea that he had back in the early 1960’s — designing a paper cup to market to the many Greek diners, delis and food stands that were heavily scattered throughout New York City at the time.

He called the cup, the anthora. The cup was blue with a classical white geometric border around its top and bottom. On either side is a picture of a Greek urn, or amphora (which got twisted and turned into anthora). In the center, against a field of white are 3 gold coffee cups with steam rising from them, and above it all is the motto, “WE ARE HAPPY TO SERVE YOU.” Sales of the cup reached their peak at 500 million per year in 1994, by which time the cup had turned into an icon of New York City..

As I said, I’ve never noticed the famous anthora before (who pays attention to a paper cup after all!). But in the last week it seems to turn up every where I look, especially in movies set in New York. It also is ubiquitously present in television series like NYPD Blue, Law and Order and Nurse Jackie.

Now whenever I see this iconic blue cup, I take it as a call from God to give thanks for all of you. Why? Because of that motto, WE ARE HAPPY TO SERVE YOU. As our program year draws to a close, I think of all the forms of service that have taken place here at MPC over the past 9 months – hungry people are fed, anthems are sung, classes are taught, councils and boards guide the work of the church, strangers are welcomed, the poor are given assistance, the good news is proclaimed and lived out, all in the name of Jesus Christ who came “not to be served but to serve.” It is as though every member of this congregation bore the motto, WE ARE HAPPY TO SERVE YOU for the Glory of God!

So be on the lookout for the amphora, and when you see one, offer a brief prayer of thanks for this vibrant Christian community we call MPC.

The peace of Christ be with you all,

Ron Rosenau,
Pastor