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By Barry Buzza
 This true story presses home the heart of Christmas to me - see if it does for you also.
The incident took place over a hundred years ago in a large European Cathedral. Susan and I had the privilege of visiting some such edifices this past summer. On one of those tours, we got to hear the magnificent sounds of an organ recital. There was one of those large pipe organs in the cathedral where this story took place.
It was a Saturday afternoon. The church was empty of parishioners, as the sexton made one final tour of the massive stone building to make sure all was orderly and secure. When he got to the top of the high loft where the choir and organist served, the man was surprised to hear footsteps echoing up the stone stairway.
He'd thought the doors were all locked, and no one was around, but when he turned toward the sound he saw a man in old clothes, tattered from wear, walking toward him.
"Excuse me sir," the visitor said, "I have come from quite a distance to see the beautiful organ in this cathedral. Would you mind opening up the console, so I could look at it."
At first the sexton refused, but because the stranger seemed sincere and persisted, he gave in.
"Would you mind if I sat on the bench?"
"I can't let you do that my good man. If the organist came in and saw that you were there, I'd lose my job."
After further conversation, he relented, "But only for a moment," he cautioned.
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When the custodian saw how comfortable the man was, he was not surprised that he asked if he could play for a short while. He reminded the sexton that he'd traveled a long distance to be there, and assured him that he knew how to play it.
"Definitely not," was the first reply, but after a while, he relented and gave the visitor permission to play only a few notes. But then, he insisted, the man would have to leave.
Overjoyed, the traveler pulled out some stops and began to play. As his fingers swept the keyboard, the cathedral was filled with the most beautiful music the sexton had ever heard in all his years of service. The music seemed to connect heaven and earth in the ancient stone church.
In what seemed like only seconds, the visitor wearing old tattered clothes stopped playing, slid off the organ's bench, and started down the winding stairway.
"Wait!" cried the custodian. That was the loveliest music I've ever heard in this cathedral. "Who are you?"
The stranger turned for a moment and replied, "Mendelssohn, Felix Mendelssohn." And he left. The Cathedral sexton stood, minutes later, alone in the great stone edifice; the beautiful strains of the organ music were still ringing in his ears. "Just think," he said quietly to himself. "I almost kept one of the greatest composers and organists in Europe from playing his music in my cathedral!"
When I hear talk about removing Jesus, or even the word "Christmas" from the Christmas holiday, it reminds me of this story. How can we even consider removing the composer and master musician from his own birthday? Let him play the heavenly music of Christmas-you'll be glad you did!
Barry Buzza, www.barrybuzza.com a veteran pastor, is also the president of the The Foursquare Gospel Church of Canada. www.foursquare.ca
January 3/2008
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