A SUNDAY OF SURPRISES

“I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,” (Revelation 1:10)

I’ve often thought that a day in the life of a clergy person (especially a Sunday), might be an interesting subject for a television “reality” show. Such would certainly have been the case with this year’s Third Sunday of Advent: Sunday, December 13.

My Sundays usually start very early and yesterday was no exception. Around 6:15 a.m. I went over the the church facility, turned the heat up, made coffee, etc.
Back at home around 7:10 a.m. someone rang the doorbell. That’s most unusual for a Sunday morning. I quickly left the coffee and breakfast I was preparing for myself and opened the front door. Standing in the doorway was my father-in-law Don. Don is married to a Trinidadian and lives in Trinidad. Thus, THIS visit was most unusual and unexpected! I got him a quick cup of coffee and my wife, my son and I had a about a half hour visit with him.

Sunday School and morning worship service seemed to go O.K. For some reason the church building seemed colder than it should have and a bit darker than one would expect. Many of the people looked really tired. I guess part of it was just the fatigue from the whole Christmas rush. As I preached, I couldn’t help but notice it felt SO cold in the sanctuary. People were bundled up in winter coats. I had turned the heat WAY up, but it seemed to have no effect. Sunday’s service ended with Holy Communion. At one point during the Holy Communion time, I slipped into the boiler room and noticed the furnace was not running and was not hot at all. There was definitely a problem with the heating system. I knew we had a special business meeting coming up right after the service, and a cold room would not make things any easier for us. Even so, I tried to lead the Communion service like a professional.

The details of the Special Business Meeting are probably something I shouldn’t write about on the blog. I will say, however, that it was a very good meeting. We dealt with some very tough issues in a very gracious, mature, and Christlike manner. I have to say, in the best sense of the word, I was proud of how the congregation conducted themselves during this meeting.

Right after the meeting, I had Bill, a retired auto mechanic (and also a former boiler mechanic) come in and check out the furnace situation. It didn’t take too long for him to discover the problem. We were out of heating oil! I HAD placed an order for oil on Saturday which was scheduled for delivery on Monday morning. The gauge showed that we had about a sixteenth of a tank of oil, which SHOULD be enough to last 2-3 days. Unfortunately, the gauge was wrong and it was out. It’s a great blessing Sunday was not a “subzero” day or we’d have been in real trouble. At one time, I’d have been REALLY upset about running out of oil. I wasn’t thrilled about it, but my attitude was complacent and more like “whatever”...

Mary Ann had a Sunday afternoon commitment so Jon and I ate out at Kentucky Fried Chicken. May I recommend the new GRILLED chicken there? Seriously, it’s GREAT!

If you’re a Patriots fan, you know there have been some problems with the team this season. Watching the game, and having them WIN did make for a pleasant afternoon! I guess after the last couple of weeks, even that win was sort of a surprise!

I had committed to be part of a special Caroling and Scripture Reading event at 5 p.m. on Framingham Centre Green sponsored by Plymouth Church U.C.C. and opened up to the whole community. Well, Sunday afternoon’s rain kind of killed the planned Christmassy New England carol singing on the Green. It was moved to Plymouth Church’s sanctuary. I know it’s not the BUILDING that makes the church; if it WAS the building that made the church, Plymouth Church would win, hands down. They’ve got one of the most beautiful church sanctuaries I’ve ever seen. It looked SO nice decorated for Christmas. The attendance was small...much smaller than I think they’d anticipated. (Of course, since I pastor a small church, I was right at home with THAT part of it!) There were no more than 40 people present, IF that many. Even so, the service was QUITE NICE. We sang a number of Christmas carols, and several clergy and laity (including me) read aloud from Scripture. There was a time of refreshments afterwards. It had that “Old fashioned New England Christmas” feeling to it.

Overall, 2009 has been a hectic and rough year for me, and last week was a wild and crazy week.

Thank God for Sunday- the Lord’s Day.

This Lord’s Day was full of surprises; and in the words of one of singer Amy Grant’s songs from the early 1980s, I’m “SO GLAD”!