“The Mirror of Erised, the Mirror of Flesym, and the Mirror of Evol”

January 28, 2007

Scripture Reading:  1 Corinthians 13

Rev. Dr. Carol  L. Kerr

 Blue Point Congregational Church

 In this sermon I would  like to talk about three different kinds of mirrors.  One is the Mirror of Erised.  This mirror is one of the magical objects found in Harry Potter.  The other kind of mirror I have named the Mirror of Flesym.  These mirrors are ones we have in real life above our bathroom sinks, but which may easily cast a spell upon us as captivating as Harry Potter’s Erised.    The third is a spiritual mirror and is one that Paul writes about in his letter to the Corinthians chapter 13.  He says, “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face.”   For the purpose of this sermon I have called this mirror the Mirror of Evol.    So we have the Mirror of Erised, the Mirror of Flesym, and the Mirror of Evol.

Let me start with Harry Potter’s Mirror of Erised.  It is one of the more interesting magical objects in the early part of Harry Potter’s career at Hogwarts.  The young wizard happens upon the mirror one day on an unauthorized exploration of the castle.  Harry looks into the mirror and sees other people, even though he is alone in the room.  He soon realizes that the images in the mirror are the smiling faces of his dead parents, and he feels a deep mixture of joy and sadness.  He can barely take himself away from the mirror, but is forced to when he is almost caught being out and about after hours.

The next night, Harry takes his friend Ron with him to visit the mirror:  When Ron steps up to it, he sees himself wearing the badge of Hogwarts head Boy – the office to which Ron has secretly desired to ascend one day.  He also sees himself holding up the Qudditch Cup (the trophy that goes to the winning team of the school’s favorite sport).  The boys are curious about the mirror and mesmerized by it and what it might mean.

On the third night, Harry returns alone but hears a voice behind him.  It is Dumbledore, who warns Harry about the Mirror of Erised, telling the young wizard that its power is that of “desire” spelled backward.  “D-E-S-I-R-E” spelled backward is ‘E-R-I-S-E-D.”  When people look into the mirror, they see the deepest unfulfilled desires of their hearts.  Harry’s desire is to know his family.  Ron’s is for fame and achievement.  A completely happy person, says Dumbledore, would look into the mirror and see himself as he truly is.

The mirror is dangerous, continues the headmaster, because people have wasted away staring at it, wondering whether their desires were really possible.  When Harry asks his mentor what he sees when he looks in the mirror, Dumbledore’s reply is telling. 

To Harry’s surprise, the old wizard replies that he sees himself – holding a nice thick pair of socks. 

Although Harry Potter is just a children’s story, the Mirror of Erised is captivating.  In many ways, when we reflect on what our deepest desires are we are looking at who we really are.  When you look, what do you see?  Harry saw his parents, for he was orphaned.  Ron saw himself holding the Quiddich cup.

 Many times what we see in the mirror is not bad or dangerous.  Figuring out what our deepest desires are can help us set goals.   Weight watchers suggest you paste a picture of a model wearing a size 8 bathing suit on your refrigerator to help motivate a person to loose weight.  Sports coaches have Olympic athletes visualize surpassing their speed records over and over.  This actually helps them break their records.

However, Dumbledore is right to caution us that there is danger in the mirror.  This is particularly so when our deepest desires turn into obsessions.  When this happens we look into the mirror of Erised and see something like a movie clip devised by the devil played over and over.  For instance, Ralph imagines himself as president of the company and walking into the corner office over and over again.  The problem is the mirror is activated when another voice of his father nags “Ralph’s a looser.”   Or, for some odd reason the mirror shows Helen over and over again a scene of her catching her husband involved with her best friend.  Jealousy drives this devilish clip. Lately, the TV hit series “American Idol” has started a new season.  I read that contestants will go from Washington to Miami, to New Orleans, to Chicago,… one city after another…auditioning again and again in hopes to get the chance to sing before the panel of judges Simon, Randy and Paula.  You can imagine the contestants practicing at home over and over again in front of their mirror and imagining that they are going to be this year’s American Idol.  Only to have their deepest desire mocked when they loose.  Such as when Simon told one contestant Kenneth Briggs that “You look like one of those creatures in the jungle.” 

It can be good to look in the mirror of Erised and see what is there.  What are your deepest desires.  What do you fantasize about?  However, beware of the mirror.  Is the fantasy attainable?  Does it bring joy and hope?  Or, does it leave you with a feeling of loss and depression.  Can you turn it off and return to your life?  Or, are you replying it so much in your head that you can barely be aware of the joy and life around you? 

There is another mirror that I would like to talk about.  This one can be found in the real world.  I would like to call it the Mirror of Flesym which is “myself” spelled backwards.  “F-L-E-S-Y-M”  is “M-Y-S-E-L-F” backwards. We have the mirrors of flesym above our bathroom sinks.  At first, there might not be anything magical about these mirrors.  Mostly I glance into mine to make sure I look OK.  But, these mirror can and do captivate us.  I remember the first day that Gavin entered adolescents.  He was in 7^th grade.  It was a school morning.  I am rushing around.  I hear a strange noise from the bathroom that is sounded like a small goat braying.  There Gavin stood holding a lock of his hair out in front of the mirror and making this strange sound…”ARRRRRRR.”  I asked if there was something wrong.  He didn’t reply.  He just said, “ARRRR.”  I asked if he wanted a brush.  He said, “ARRRRR.”  I asked what was he doing.   He said, “ARRRRR.”   I got ready, made some snacks.   I cautioned he should hurry up and he might miss the buss.  But, all he said was “ARRRR…”  Then sure enough I heard the bus stop, and then roar on without him.  I said, “You missed the bus.”  He suddenly threw off the spell and said, “How did that happen?”  I said it had to do with him holding his hair in front of the mirror.  He said, “What hair?”   From that moment on, I knew Gavin was a teenager.

At our family cottage there is a bathroom mirror that I have looked in since I was nine years old.  It is plain with a silver strip around the edges and a white bulb above to illuminate whoever gazes upon it.  It has shown me who I am for all these years.  My hair started as light brown with blond streaks in it, then as I got older it became dark brown, then as I became older still, it became brown with gray encroaching, then as I bought bottles of hair dye, it became brown again.  Now it shows light brown hair with blond streaks.  I like to think that the mirror shows the same face that was there when I was 17 years old.  But, there are those times when I am alone, and stare at myself.  So many wrinkles show up around my eyes.  I can count the pores on my nose.  There is a distinct double chin thing happening.  The mirror of flesym can mesmerize and be scary.  Teens agonize over pimples and hair.  Woman go botox crazy because of it. 

The first mirror was a cave man or cave woman looking at their reflection in a still pond.  They stick out their tongue and it sticks out its tongue.  They scratch their nose and it scratches its nose.  They squint their eyes and it squints its eyes.  A pebble drops in the pond and the image blurs and the depths beneath it emerge.  But, soon the surface becomes still and the image returns.  The very first moments of consciousness occurred as they gazed into their eyes gazing back.  Who is that thinking about this reflection right now?  Who am I?  Am I that image in the pond.  How does that person fit into the universe?  The Egyptians believed that each person had a doubled called a “Ka” which could be seen in the mirror.  The person’s Ka was the person’s genius, energy and identity.   We all wonder is this really me that is looking back at me.  Am I now a middle aged woman and no longer 17?  How did that happen? 

Confronted with how we look can be as dangerous to some as the mirror of Erised.  People can despair and be filled with a sense of emptiness,  “Is this what I really amount to?”  Or, as I attempt to do, the mirror can force us accept  reality.  As the Skin horse says to the Velveteen Rabbit in the children’s book by Margery Williams, “Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby.  But those things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.” 

It might seem that all there is are the two mirrors, the Mirror of Erised and the Mirror of Flesym.  It might seem that that is what life is all about- desire and myself.  We all get caught in these mirrors sometimes.  Many get caught in these two mirrors all the time.  There is peril in these mirrors and if that is all we have, they can drive us to despair.    But, there is a third mirror which Paul speaks of in his letter to the Corinthians.  It is the mirror that we as Christians must train ourselves to look into.  It is the Mirror of Evol.  “E-V-O-L” is “L-O-V-E” spelled backwards.   Paul is speaking about love when he writes:  “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we will see face to face.” 

Love is the ground of all meaning.  If we step back from even our most cherished projects and look into the mirror of Evol and ask “Why am I doing this?”  If we cannot honestly see love reflecting back then the legitimacy of the whole thing is in doubt.  If you are doing it because it is your deepest desire from the Mirror of Erised but it does not have love then it is worthless.  If you are doing it because it will make yourself look good from the Mirror of Flesym but it does not have love then it is nothing.  It is the mirror of Evol that shows us who we really are. 

Paul writes:  “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.  It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrong doing, but rejoices in the truth.  It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”  If you look at the greatest things you have done in your life, you will see that they all have their foundation in sacrificial, unconditional love:  parenting, justice, courage, friendship, charity, kindness, marriage, beauty, music, art, etc.

Love never ends.  The tallest building, the greatest empire, the richest fortune, the fastest plane, the most beautiful wife or husband,  the most valuable work of art, it will all end.  The building will tumble, the plane will rust, the empire will fall, the fortune will be squandered.   What matters in the end is how much we have loved and that we have scattered as much love as we can upon the world. 

For three months in 1917, Mahatma Gandhi set himself to read and read over again 1 Corinthians 13.  For a new year’s gift he sent his nephew a hand written copy of the chapter.  In an accompanying letter, he spoke of his own struggle to become truly loving.  He describes love as a dagger and says, “If we could get hold of this dagger of love and get also the strength to stab ourselves with it, we could shake the world.” 

Every day we as Christians must look in the mirror of Evol.   The love of God is everywhere and yet hidden.  Often we can only see it through the mirror.  When we choose to look in the mirror we will love spreads like fire.  Love is in all things.  It pervades all things. 

Moreover, if we look in the mirror of Evol long enough we will see a face looking back at us.  It is not our own face as in the mirror of Flesym.  Rather, it is the face of Christ.  Paul says, “Now we see in a mirror dimly but then we will see face to face.”   Christ is forever and eternally gazing in the mirror of Evol.  As the mirror shows us what we love it shows Christ what he loves.  Christ loves us.  We love Christ.  Christ loves us.  We love Christ.  As Paul says, love never ends.