11-21-04 Christ the King

Christ the King An Inch, A Penny, A Difference! 11/18&21/04

The date was October 17, 2004, a rather frosty and, at 5:45 a.m., a pre-dawn Sunday as I entered our Grace facility for a full morning of worship, learning, and prayer...including a stewardship Temple Talk, teaching 9th-10th grade Sunday School, receiving new members, meeting with our Music Staff, dedicating a tree in memory of Dean Birch, and spending the afternoon facilitating our 3-hour "Getting to Know Grace" event. As I usually do, I went directly to our kitchen to start a few pots of coffee...the first cup is usually mine, with subsequent cups for all who arrive early to prepare for the morning. Like most Sunday mornings, I entered our sanctuary, turned on the lights that illumine our suspended cross, spent a few moments in silent prayer, and went to my study to further prepare for the day. The sanctuary did seem a bit chilly, but, after-all, it was a frosty morning. The coffee would taste good!

Reviewing my sermon and Sunday School lesson, looking over our worship bulletin in order to distribute responsibilities to Pastor Beverly and our morning Liturgist, I returned to our sanctuary about 6:45 a.m. I immediately noticed that, compared to my study and our Narthex, the sanctuary was cooler than seemed comfortable. I unlocked our mechanical room, the location of our sanctuary thermostat, and pushed the proper buttons to increase the temperature in this worship space. We have a highly efficient heating system and I knew, from 5 years of experience, that the room temperature would rise to a comfortable level within 30 minutes. I filled my cup with a second "round" of coffee and returned to my desk.

Pastor Beverly arrived and we held our Sunday meeting to discuss the morning, our shared and individual responsibilities. Soon, people began to arrive for the morning...our Church Prep person was unlocking the doors, turning on the lights, and preparing adequate coffee for the first "wave" of arrivals...our musicians came next, meeting in rehearsal for our upcoming worship...Margot Simpson came next, putting out our worship bulletins and saving a few seats in our sanctuary and greeting all who arrived after her. I walked through our sanctuary to the Sacristy in order to put on my robe and go outside, under our Canopy, to greet our 8 o'clock community. The sanctuary had not gotten any warmer. In fact, the temperature may have even dropped a degree or two. Had I pushed the wrong buttons? Was the thermostat set on "cool" instead of "heat"? Standing, again, before the thermostat I saw that all was appropriately set, but that our temperature was falling. I pushed the buttons again, sort of like pushing the elevator button harder and faster, thinking this will somehow make the difference! Our 8 o'clock worship was celebrated in an admittedly cool sanctuary! Before preparing for Sunday School, I re-checked the thermostat and saw the frosty reading of 57 degrees! I directed Diana Stevens, our Office Manager, to call our heating contractor and request he come immediately.

Another morning hour went by, but our sanctuary was only growing colder. Seeing Diana, I learned that she was yet unsuccessful in reaching our heating man. She would keep trying. Meantime, I found Max Holly standing before the thermostat and speaking with someone on his cell-phone...it was Brad, just the man we needed. Brad was at another location, after a long night of emergency calls from people having first-time-furnace-fire-up problems due to the first touch of winter. Brad would come to Grace as soon as possible, and I knew he would, as he has faithfully responded to our every call over the years. Meantime, 10:30 worship began and people could nearly see their own breath. Our Sanctuary Brass members were actually wearing their coats! I did not announce, but knew, that our sanctuary was now at about 46 degrees...14 degrees above freezing! I thought, “Hurry Brad, before these 300 usually warm and friendly people freeze in this place and these brass instruments need to be surgically removed from our musicians' mouths!”

Worship continued, Brad arrived, diagnosed and fixed the problem, and the sanctuary reached a toasty 72 degrees by about 11:15 a.m. I thought it an encouraging sign when the Brass members actually removed their coats! What was the problem? What sort of mal-function could make such an incredible difference in this sanctuary? What actually "broke-down" in our rather massive heating system? And, thinking financially, what was this significant repair going to cost?

You were given a small, one inch piece of wire as you arrived for worship. I'd like you all to look at this small, 1-inch piece of wire, costing less than a penny. You are holding the incredibly small piece of our huge heating system that failed to function and so negatively impacted our morning together some 5 weeks ago. For some reason, this little piece of wire was not properly connected, thus unable to communicate to our system the need to transfer from "cool" to "heat" within our sanctuary. The entire system was ready to function at peak capacity, but could not because this little piece failed to do what it was created and intended to do! The entire system could not work properly and effectively without the contribution of all its parts and everyone in worship was affected.

I thought about this actual morning at Grace as I read our Second Lesson for this week, specifically vss. 11-12: "May you be prepared to endure with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father." We endured that frosty October morning, with varying demonstrations of "patience." We did, in fact, give "thanks to the Father," although the level of "joy" was a bit diminished due to our freezing fingers and frosty noses. I did notice, though, that the hand-shaking and hugging that occurs during our Sharing the Peace was even more enthusiastic than usual!

I also thought about how very important each of you are to the over-all working and mission of this congregation. No matter how well designed and deployed our ministries may be, they can be rendered ineffective when even the smallest contribution is withheld. More specifically, any of you who might consider yourselves unimportant to the mission of Grace, observe this tiny piece of wire...perhaps, now, you'll reconsider. Everyone of our ministries depends upon everyone of us doing our part! If you "dis-connect," we cannot accomplish the purpose for which God created us nor be the church God intends us to be! Amen.

Publish by permission only. Contact Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church 937.399.6257