Jesus on the Main Line, Tell Him What you Want...

There's an old gospel song called "Jesus on the Main Line." In this song, the main line refers to a telephone line and not the upper class old money section of Philadelpia which is also called "The Main Line." Anyway, I thought of this song, when in the middle of our Tuesday Church service, someone's cell phone rang.

In most situations, I would be very annoyed if I heard a cell phone ring during a service. For the folks at The Welcome Church, however, a phone call could mean a house, a job, a lost relative, a doctor, a probation officer, or a slot in a rehab. And the phones are not easy to come by, even with SafeLink, a government program designed to provide limited coverage cell phones for low income people. So I am a bit more liberal about a phone ringing during Tuesday Church than I would be in most ther situations.

OK. We had just finished praying and the phone rang. The person answered it and respectfully stepped back to finish his conversation. He then came back to the group as I raised the bread to be blessed and he said, "I have an announcement." Because he was visibly upset, I put the words of Jesus on hold for a minute and let him speak.

His fiancee had been arrested.

The charges were old and it had something to do with reporting to her P.O., but my parishioner was struggling to remain calm.

One by one, the congregants began to comfort and encourage him, even sharing their own experiences and some pretty sophisticated legal advice. Someone looked at me and said, can we pray again?

So, there we were, a little out of order, but asking God to protect them and keep them safe, the community surrounding my parishioner with love and prayer.

I then went back to where I was before the call, raised the bread in my hands and said the words of Institution..."This is my body given for you..."

When my very worried parishioner took that bread and sipped that juice, I could see that he was eating the bread and drinking the juice in a way that he knew he would be strenghtened.

Afterwards, we made a plan for the next few days and I saw the calmness envelop him even in his worry.

Maybe, I thought, Jesus really was on the main line, sending that call at a time when my parishioner could be surrounded by support and fed with the bread of life.

It made me think that sometimes those annoying interruptions might be the Spirit's way of making us stop and pause for a moment of grace.

I left the service singing that song,
"Jesus on the main line,
tell him what you want
Jesus on the main line,
tell him what you want.
Jesus on th main line,
tell him what you want...
call him up and tell him what you want..."