Hello,
I’m spending Christmas in Denver, Colorado where my two older sons
live. Since I am not currently
employed, we took this opportunity to celebrate Christmas on their turf, rather
than mine. A unique joy that comes
with watching your kids grow up into adults.
My youngest son flew in from New York City at 8:00 p.m. on Christmas
Eve. After picking him up from the
airport, we regrouped in time to go to the 11:00 Christmas Eve worship at
Bethany Lutheran Church in Denver.
We didn’t know if it would be a packed worship service, so we arrived
about 15 minutes early, which turned out to be plenty early enough as the crowd
was far from sardine-ish. The
people gathered quietly in the large sanctuary, and at about 5 minutes to
eleven the organist began the prelude, a light but contemplative rendition of
several Christmas carols.
I think that the Pastor thought that the organist was going to play one
more rendition because after a clearly unanticipated silence he got up from his
seat and with a smile made his way to the center of the front of the
church. He welcomed us and
informed us that we had made the right choice of services for the evening as
several of the ones earlier in the evening were overflowing and a bit
chaotic. This smaller gathering would
provide a great way, he said, to end the day in peaceful contemplation.
Then he did something that
I had anticipated as I walked in from the parking lot. He pulled out his cell phone and held
it up, and I thought to myself that I was already one step ahead of him, having
silenced my phone right after I passed through the outside doors. Needless to say, I was caught a bit off
guard when he said as he held up his phone, “Now, I don’t want you to turn your
cell phone off.”
“What!” I thought to myself.
“What I want you to do is to text someone with the message, “Joy to the
World”.
Mmmmmm. Interesting
thought. Just think of the endless
number of texts that we send that really leave little bearing on the world, but
on this night there was a text to send that once sent would leave the world
changed forever. “Joy to the
World”.
So, I opened up my address book and looked at the names listed there,
and fired off a text message, “Joy to the World”. After sending it, I thought to myself, maybe I should not
have followed the pastor’s direction, after all it would be after midnight that
the text would be received. Would
it wake the receiver? Would it
seem like a silly thing to do? But as it goes with text messages, once the send
button is hit….there is no taking it back.
About half way through the service, I felt my phone vibrate in my
pocket, and when I opened up the message, I discovered it was from the one whom
I had texted, and the text back to me was, “And Joy to the World to you.”
I wonder how God would have brought the news of the birth of his Son if
Jesus would have been born in our day.
Who knows…..maybe he would still fill the sky of angels (“angel”
literally means “messenger) singing their heavenly song of “Joy to the
World”….. or maybe he would fill the airwaves with text-angels awakening
hillside sleepers all over the world with a world changing message, “Joy to the
World.”
I know that the Bungee Cord is a bit longer than allowed in a text
message, so let me boil this Bungee Cord down to the simple and short message
that has come to you, a message that carries with it the power to change your
world forever, a message about a God who is so entwined with his people – with
you - that he would enter into their lives….. “Joy to the World!”
Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace,
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
p.s. – why not pull your cell phone out of your pocket and
fire off a short text to someone….or why not everyone in your address book…..
“Joy to the World!”
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