Spirituality in the Slow Lane

by Paul Demant

A story about Pastor Ole Olesen

First Lutheran Church, ELCA

Baltch Falls, South Dakota

I try to write a new story every month, so please come back next month and get the next chapter. PD

Chapter 18  

The Christmas Tree Sermon 

Ole Olesen, the pastor of First Lutheran Church, Baltch Falls, South Dakota, is sitting in the dark, looking at the Christmas tree in the sanctuary. His Christmas Eve service is over.  

No one else is in the church. He is alone. The only lights that are on are the ones on the tree. He is dressed in his new heavy winter jacket (a Christmas gift from Minnie), his new red stocking cap with a white tassel on the end and white Santas all around the brim (a Christmas gift from his youngest), and his new fur lined leather gloves (compliments of Ole Jr.). He had been almost out the door when he remembered the lights on the tree were still on. He had come back in to turn them out. 

Everyone else left right after service to go home and finish opening presents or just to go to bed. It's late. Even Minnie and the kids are gone. They left right after service to go to visit the grandparents in North Fork. Ole will catch up with them tomorrow after Christmas day service. 

There was a good crowd for service. No, there was a great crowd for service. Biggest crowd in his seventeen years as their pastor! There were even visitors in church, real honest-to-goodness looking-for-a-church visitors. Ole was jazzed the whole service. 

The choir sang well. The sermon went well. It was the same Christmas Eve sermon that he had given seventeen years ago, his first Christmas in Baltch Falls, but no one had noticed, and they seemed to enjoy it as much as they did the first time. Minnie had noticed, but was too busy chasing the baby around to remember to tell anyone. Lucky for Ole. 

The church looked great. The poinsettias hadn't died yet. No one had burned down the church during the candlelight singing of "Silent Night." 

It was a great service. 

Even though he has to get up in just a few hours for the Christmas Day service, he is just sitting there. He was on his way up to the front of the church when he decided to sit down and bask in the glow of the great service. He has been sitting for 10 minutes. 

The tree is so beautiful in the dark, he notices. The lights twinkle, reflecting off of the tinsel and balls. All different colors of lights. One of them blinks. Arney Slivsgaard put the blinker on the tree, way up on the top, to tease Minnie who hates blinking lights and is too short to reach it to replace it. 

How many times has Ole looked at that tree and not noticed how beautiful it is? He is always so busy. Is the sermon ready? Is the choir ready? Is the children's sermon ready? Are the bulletins out? Which announcements need emphasis? Is the P.A. system working? There is so much for him to do during the services and the Holy Days that he had lost their meaning in the busy-ness. 

"Look how beautiful the tree is," he says to himself. "How did I miss that? I wonder if anyone else noticed the tree, really noticed the tree?" 

Maybe not. He's not the only one who gets busy, so busy that you forget why you are busy in the first place. Everyone does, especially at Christmas time. 

As he looks at the tree, he remembers how each light represents the Christ Child, the light of the world. My goodness! How long has it been since he thought that. The gifts remind us of the gifts that the Magi brought to the Christ Child. The star on top is the star that led them to Bethlehem so that they could give the gifts to the Christ Child. The beauty of the tree itself reminds us how beautiful is the coming of God into this ugly world (spiritually speaking). 

The cut Christmas tree stands for the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. The cross was a cut tree. The live Christmas tree stands for the living Lord, come at Christmas. The plastic tree stands for ...... nothing. The plastic tree stands for nothing. 

As he thinks these things, he is writing them down on the prayer request cards. He has to go to several pews to find a pencil that writes and enough clean cards. "That must be why I haven't been getting any prayer requests lately," he thinks to himself. He makes a mental note to do something about the dull pencils and the messed up cards. He doesn't dwell on that more than a moment. His mind races back to the Christmas tree. 

It will be his sermon tomorrow morning. He will save the one entitled, "Jesus, a Christmas Present and a Christmas Future.". It's a pretty good sermon. He will preach it next year. This one first. 

He will turn the lights off in the church and let every one just look at the beauty of the tree. He will remind them of the symbols and then say, "See the tree. See its beauty. Don't be so busy that you miss it. See the day. See its beauty. Don't be so busy that you miss it." 

The first person to come to church tomorrow, Christmas day, will, no doubt, be the head usher, Arney Slivsgaard. He always is. He'll get there about 10:00 A.M., thirty minutes before service, to turn on the heat and unlock the doors. Ole had better hope that Arney is not late. Arney will be the one to find Ole, sound asleep, on the front pew, a bundle of Christmas clothes. 

"Pastor Ole, is that you? Oh, man! You scared me half to death. I thought maybe you were dead. Pastor Ole, did you sleep here last night? Why would you go and do something like that? Boy! You look awful." 

Ole won't remember having fallen asleep. It will take him every bit of the 30 minutes to brush his teeth, brush his hair, shave and wash up. In his panic he will forget his great inspiration for tomorrow's sermon about missing the beauty of the tree and missing the beauty of the day because we get too busy. He will be too busy to remember. 

First Lutheran, Baltch Falls will hear a pretty good sermon on Christmas day entitled, "Jesus, a Christmas Present, and a Christmas Future." You and I will be the only ones to hear his other sermon, given to Ole in the solitude and silence of the sanctuary, shining from the Christmas tree. 

See the tree. See its beauty. Don't be so busy that you miss it! See the day. See its beauty. Don't be so busy that you miss it!