Bungee Cord 1-4-14



Hello,

      For those of you who want to know how the Christmas story ended…..here it is…..

     Christmas Eve morning not only ushered in Christmas, but it also ushered in a Christmas snow storm, the like of which had never been known in his new town.  Of course where he used to live, it was just one of those winter storms that you lived through, so he had no idea of the surprise that was coming before him. Playing video games all day as the snow kept on falling, he had a harder and harder time concentrating on the video game knowing that the time to go to church, to feel at home, was coming near.
     “We’re not going to church tonight,” said Billy’s mother.  “The weather is too bad, and the roads have not been plowed.  We’ll never get there, and if we do, we’ll never get home.”  When he heard it, his heart sank.  He had waited so long to go to Christmas worship and finally not feel quite so lost.   Besides it seemed like silliness not to go to church.  Where they used to live, no amount of snow kept anyone from coming to Christmas Eve services.  He was sure that if he didn’t go, everyone would laugh at him when he got to school saying, “Why weren’t you at Christmas Eve services?  Is everyone a wimp where you used to live?”
     So, when the evening came, Billy got dressed up for church just like he always used to.  He went into the T.V. room where the rest of the family was sitting, and he said, “I am going to church.”  There was a surprised look on everyone’s face, and so he said it again, “I am going to church.”
     “Well, I told you that we weren’t going to go tonight,”  said his mother.
     “I know,” he said, “but I want to go.”
     “How are you going to get there,” his father asked.
     “I’m going to walk”, he said, because it wasn’t really that far away.
     “Ok,” his dad said, snickering a bit, sure that as soon as his son started off in the storm he’d come back home.
     So, Billy got his coat on, put on his warmest hat, put a scarf around his neck and gloves on his hands and walked out the front door to go to church on Christmas eve.  There were a couple of times when he thought to himself that maybe he should go back home, but no…he was tired of feeling lost and alone…..he was going to go to church on Christmas eve and not just feel at home…but be at home.
     When he got close he could see the light pouring through the stained glass windows, like rubies and sapphires sparkling from a king’s crown.  But when he got to the church he noticed something strange….the parking lot was completely empty….not a single car.
     “Mmm,” he thought to himself, “Maybe everyone parked someplace else because they couldn’t get the lot plowed.”  But when he walked into the church he found out that he had been wrong….it wasn’t that they had parked some place else….their cars were all still at home, because there wasn’t a single person there.
     “Maybe they’re just running late,” he thought, after all he was a bit early.  But as the minutes went by, no one else came through the door.  Not only was he all alone in that church, he now really felt all alone….all alone on a dark, cold night…in a town that seemed to not even know he was there…no one who he could really call a friend…and not even his family beside him now.  The loneliness was as dark as a lightless cave.  And then all of the sudden, all the lights of the church went off….darkness added to darkness.  What was he to do?  Didn’t anyone even realize that he was there?  Should he leave…he couldn’t…..it was so dark in there he couldn’t even see the aisles.  So he sat there…in the dark….in a daze….in despair.
     When all of the sudden a spot light broke into the darkness and shone on the cross in the front of the church, and from the back of the church he heard the familiar voice of the pastor yelling, “‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”
     When he heard those words, words that he had heard year after year, he heard them like he had never heard them before.  He knew that they were the words the angels spoke to the shepherds…but there in the darkness, there in the daze, feeling like a forgotten hillside shepherd….there where the only “you” was him…those words seemed to be aimed at him.  “I am bringing you,” …yes me….’”good news of great joy, for unto you,”  yes me….”is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”…..Do not be afraid!”  For the first time since he had moved he didn’t feel lonely and he didn’t feel alone.  Jesus had been born for him, Billy Johnson…for him!
     For the last 12 years Billy had heard those words, words that angels had spoken to Bethlehem shepherds….but this year heard them differently.  When Billy Johnson left that church that night, he left having heard those words spoken to him.
     Just the same, know this, tonight those words once spoken to shepherds were on this night spoken to you.  AMEN.
   
     The Bungee Cord will be taking a two week break as I will be wandering around in Israel  Looking forward to getting a lay of the Biblical land, get a feel for the way people lived in Jesus' day, and see the struggle that continues among the people who live there.

     Talk to you when I get back, but in the mean time, have a great week.

God's grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger