Steve's Letter: "And something happened...!"

If I owned New York and hell, I would live in hell and rent out New York!

If you're reading this and live in and love New York, you're probably ticked at what I just said. I understand that and I also understand that what I said probably says more about me than it does about New York. I'm from the mountains of North Carolina. New York is just too big, too scary, too confusing and too impersonal for a guy from the mountains.

I'm somewhat familiar with New York. I have a bunch of friends who live there and think that when Christ comes back, he will come first to New York. I've spoken at Carnegie Hall after 9/11 for the Encourage America rally. I've ridden on the subway with friends who were delighted to share their love of the city with me. For a lot of months I was in New York on a regular basis taping a television show there. I read Neuhaus in First Things and his "over the top" comments about his love for New York. I know that it is the cultural and financial center of the entire universe and that the church there is making an impact far beyond the city...just because it's New York.

Okay?

I love Tim Keller (the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian) and Jim Cymbala (the pastor of Brooklyn Tabernacle) and I listen when they praise New York and express their love for the city.

I just think they're crazy.

I still don't like New York.

You say, "Brown, where are you going with this?"

Let me tell you. Erase everything I wrote above in reference to New York...

...when it's Christmas.

At Christmas time, New York turns into the most magical and wonderful place on the face of the earth. It starts with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and from that time on, it doesn't stop.

Riding through a snowy Central Park in a horse-drawn carriage, having dinner at the Tavern on the Green, the magnificent Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center with 30,000 lights stretched out on five miles of wire...It's all beautiful. There is ice skating, silver bells and music everywhere. The Nutcracker by the New York City Ballet, The Messiah at Trinity Church, The Radio City Christmas Spectacular, A Christmas Carol at Madison Square Garden...and it goes on and on.

Something happens to New York at Christmas! People are kind and helpful, there is laughter everywhere, and a big, angry city becomes a whole different place.

And something happened to the world that first Christmas for which New York is a kind of metaphor.

And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:9-11).

Do you know what my second favorite thing in the world is...right after jumping off buildings? It's riding in a cab in New York. The driving technique of New York cabdrivers is called "Speed and Weave." In other words, put the "pedal to the metal" and try not to hit anything bigger than you are.

Riding in a New York cab is as close as I'll ever come (this side of heaven) to achieving entire sanctification. Do you know why? Because by the time I get to my destination, I've repented of every sin I ever committed or ever thought about committing, and have cried out for mercy so much that only a very calloused God could ignore me.

The last time that happened, the cabdriver couldn't speak English and got lost. I ended up working through the dispatcher who then gave instructions to the cabdriver in whatever language they shared. When it was obvious that both of them didn't know what they were doing, I decided to take my life in my hands and get out of the cab.

"Tell him to stop the cab!" I shouted at the dispatcher through the radio transmitter.

"What?" he yelled back over the speaker.

"Tell him to stop and let me out!"

The cabdriver finally stopped and I got out only to find that I was standing in front of the building that housed the studios where I did the television show.

And they say there's no God!

Do you ever feel like that? Do you ever just want to shout, "Just let me off!"?

Cyprian, the church father and a third century African bishop who was the first bishop to die a martyr, wrote to his young friend, Donatus: "This seems a cheerful world, Donatus, when I view it from this fair garden, under the shadow of these vines. But if I climbed some great mountain and looked out over the wide land, you know very well what I would see...It is really a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad world..."

Still is!

Except for Christmas!

In Lewis' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, you will remember that the White Witch had abolished Christmas. And the witch punished anyone who wanted the restoration of Christmas. When Lewis wanted to describe the horror of Narnia in those days, he said it was "always winter but never Christmas."

Can you imagine winter in New York where it was never Christmas?

Can you imagine a world that had never experienced Christmas?

But Christmas isn't a nice story to be celebrated by naive people who are hoping with the celebration, to make winter better.

There really is a God and he has come.

In the beginning was the Word...

And the Word was God...

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us...

For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1).

I still don't like New York much and I'm not altogether happy with the fallen world.

But it's okay. I'm forgiven, I'm loved, I'm accepted and acceptable...

...and I'm his.

Because of Christmas, you are too!

He asked me to remind you.

In His Grip,