Dear sisters,
Margun Warem
On this first Sunday in Advent I want to share with you an experience I had a few years ago.
In the newspaper I read an advert that on the coming Sunday there would be a special concert in one of the Lutheran churches in our region.
In this concert and service there would be a consecration of a new big pipe organ. I love the pipe organ. Maybe it is special to me since my husband is an organist. Playing the pipe organs in churches is his profession. I suggested to him that we go to this concert, and he agreed immediately.
The concert was beautiful, but what I remember the best, is the sermon, which was held by a former bishop of the Lutheran State Church of Norway.
The whole sermon was about the organ, but I will share with you only a small part:
It was sometimes around 1840, in a town somewhere in Germany. In this town was a big cathedral, and in this cathedral was a famous organ. The organist of the cathedral was very proud of the organ, and he only let special musicians play on it.
One day the organist was practising. The door of the church was open, and a man came into the church. He sat down and listened to the music. After a while he went to the organist and asked if he could play the organ. The man looked ordinary, and the organist was very arrogant when he answered that only special people would be allowed to play on this extraordinary instrument. But the man was very persistent, so finally the organist let him play.
When the man started playing, the organist had to sit down, perplexed. This playing was the most brilliant and divine he had ever heard. After a while he asked: “Who are you?” “ I am Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy,” the man answered.
Telling his friends afterwards, the organist was very excited, but at the same time he was sad. “Because,” he said, “I was not able to recognize the Master when he came to visit me, and I would not let him play my instrument.”
My question in this time of Advent is: Are we able to recognize the Master when He visits us, and are we willing to let Him “play” our instruments?
In this time of Advent it is my prayer that we will open our hearts for the little child Jesus who wants to be the Master of our lives. It is my prayer that we will recognize the Master when He reveals himself to us, and that we will trust in Him and let Him inspire us to do good.
I greet you with Isa 9:6. “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Margun Warem, Norway