Mark #4: Living in Harmony

There is a deep desire within each and every one of us to see authentic community–to see and live in a place where we have peace with one another without strife and conflict.  You can see this longing throughout the history of humanity: in its songs; in its literature; in its artwork.

“Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me!” goes the great folk song.

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” says the golden rule which is a part of every major religion and philosophy.

When we see senseless violence and destruction, we ask, “What’s wrong with people?”

And we say the immortal words of Rodney King who spoke in the early 1990's concerning the riots which bear his name, “Why can’t we just all get along?”

Why can’t we, indeed?

And such peace and harmony ideally should be one of the greatest marks of the church.  St. Paul lays it out for us this morning as the fourth mark found in Romans 15:1-6, “May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus.”  Paul earnestly prays and admonishes the church at the same time with these words.  He prays and admonishes that we live together in harmony.

Yet...Paul had just finished chapter 14 in the book of Romans–and chapter 14 was all about a church that was not living in harmony.  In fact, if you read through Paul’s letters to the churches, you will find that most of them are dealing with churches who are experiencing some sort of conflict.  1 and 2 Corinthians deal with a church that is divided because of different pastors who have served it.  Galatians deals with a church that is divided because of misunderstandings of the Gospel.  Romans shows division over misunderstanding how the Gospel is lived out.  The Thessalonians are dealing with people who refuse to work.  And so on and so forth.

If you read the book of Acts, you will also see the church divided at times, culminating in the first great council of the Church in Acts chapter 15 where a division regarding whether Gentiles should be added to the church is addressed.  And this is just what is in the Bible.  If you read church history, you will find all sorts of divisions and arguments.  The church is just like the rest of the world when it comes to its divisions and sects and groups and denominations.  There are tens of thousands of different denominations within Christianity, and there seems to be very little harmony.

Just about every congregation knows this.  Just about every single congregation has experienced conflict in its lifetime.  Why can’t we get along?  Why can’t we concentrate on simply being the church; worshiping; reaching out with the Gospel?

Oh, we could spend a lot of time on this–a lot of time. There are many, many possibilities.  But let me read to you, this morning a particularly insightful word from Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  For those of you unfamiliar with the name, Bonhoeffer was a German pastor and theologian who was extremely bright and who died because he dared stand against the Nazi party in Germany.

Bonhoeffer wrote several Christian classics including a little book titled, Life Together, and in that book he says this:

Innumerable times a whole Christian community has broken down because it had sprung from a wish dream.  The serious Christian, set down for the first time in a Christian community, is likely to bring with him a very definite idea of what Christian life together should be and to try to realize it.  But God’s grace speedily shatters such dreams.  Just as surely as God desires to lead us to a knowledge of genuine Christian fellowship, so surely must we be overwhelmed by a great disillusionment with others, with Christians in general, and, if we are fortunate, with ourselves.

By sheer grace, God will not permit us to live even for a brief period in a dream world.  He does not abandon us to those rapturous experiences and lofty moods that come over us like a dream.  God is not a God of the emotions but the God of truth.  Only that fellowship which faces such disillusionment, with all its unhappy and ugly aspects, begins to be what it should be in God’s sight, begins to grasp in faith the promise that is given to it.  The sooner this shock of disillusionment comes to an individual and to a community the better for both.  A community which cannot bear and cannot survive such a crisis, which insists upon keeping its illusion when it should be shattered, permanently loses in that moment the promise of Christian community.  Sooner or later, it will collapse.  Every human wish dream that is injected into the Christian community is a hindrance to genuine community and must be banished if genuine community is to survive. He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial.

I think Dietrich Bonhoeffer was writing those words about me.  Honestly, because I know that I have and had a dream about what a Christian community should be; should look like; should operate like.  I had a dream about how a church should function and how people should act within that community. 

But what Bonhoeffer points out is this: this is MY dream.  It’s not God’s dream.  And if we are to truly experience Christian harmony, we must give up our dreams and submit them to God’s dream and God’s will.  If we pursue our dream, the results will not be pretty, but if we submit to God’s dream.  If we submit to Jesus and His dream for the church, beauty will take place, and this is exactly what Paul tells us.  Hear that verse one more time and pay particular attention to the last part of the verse.  “May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus.”

We must submit ourselves in accordance with Christ Jesus if we want to live in harmony.  Let me show you how this works.  Please remember, I am not a trained musician, and I don’t know music terminology.  I just play my guitar and sing, but here is what I know.  Each string needs to be in tune.  And each string sounds pretty good by itself.  Each makes a nice sound when it is picked.  But if you strum all six strings together, the sound isn’t exactly good.  It’s just some noise.
But, when different strings submit to the will of the musician, harmony appears.  Chords appear.  The sound comes together beautifully.  And as the musician begins pressing down on different strings in different sequences, music begins to appear.  The strings must submit to the will of the musician, or there is no music.  There is no harmony.  But when the Great Musician is working and His people are submitting, there is harmony; there is beautiful music that arises from His Church:

(Sing “Shout to the North)

Oh, my brothers and sisters, if we are going to make music that draws the world to Jesus, we are going to have to submit to Him.  We are going to have to be in accordance with Him.  We are going to have to be in harmony with Him!!  I mean, I am no big fan of T.D. Jakes, the televangelist, but he was absolutely correct when he said, “You can’t learn to be in harmony with other people until you learn to be in harmony with God.”

But here is the good news, God has acted so that we can be in harmony with Him.  God has acted through Jesus so that we may be brought into a right relationship with God.  Jesus has taken our disharmony–our sin–upon himself and put it to death with Him on the cross.  Jesus has taken our disharmony into Himself and tuned it to righteousness.  Jesus has taken our disharmony and transformed it into His beauty, not by any work of our own–not because we deserved it–or anything about us.  He did this through sheer grace; through sheer mercy; because of His great love for you and for me.  You don’t have to worry about tuning yourself.  You don’t have to worry about getting everything together.  Simply put your trust in Jesus, and He will bring you to the place you need to be.  Simply trust in Jesus and what He did on the cross and you will be led into a place of ultimate harmony; first with God, and then with your brothers and sisters in Christ.

As we submit to Jesus more and more in our lives; as we are captured by his grace and mercy; we begin to show this mark more and more as a church.  We begin to live in harmony, and we make beautiful music that proclaims Jesus to the world.  Amen.

The Music of the Spheres

Yesterday, I was tuning my guitar.

My ear is not quite good enough to accomplish this task without a tuner, so I sat, strumming one string at a time until the lights moved from red to green.

To ensure a proper tune, I strummed a 'G' chord.  The vibrations, frequencies, and harmony of the strings told me the guitar was indeed properly tuned.

And I asked myself at that point: why is this so?  Why is it so that certain frequencies come together to produce sounds which are pleasing to the human ear?  And why is it that if a certain string on the guitar is pressed improperly, there is dissonance and dis-harmony?  How is it that humankind can pick out the harmony between frequencies and then see that something is out of tune?  Why should such harmony exist in nature?

And it led me to reflect on the nature of music.  I do not know of a culture that does not have some sort of music in it.  Going back to recorded history, I do not know of a culture that did not have some sort of singing or dancing in it.  Why does humankind want or even need music?  What is the reason behind it?

As I thought of such things, I tried to approach it from an evolutionary standpoint.  Some research led me to a couple of fine articles here and here. 

There are a couple of evolutionary theories floating around as to the origins and then continuance of the use of music, but I cannot help but think there is something deeper.  I mean, I am a music lover, and quite often I find myself singing a long to a song or having it playing in my head over and over and over.  And from an evolutionary standpoint, this is not good.  Not at all.  It is a distraction from the world around.  Perhaps you are like me in that you have been so caught up in a song that you fail to take notice of the world around you.  Traffic accidents have happened this way.  People have crossed into the street while walking and jogging failing to take notice of the changing of traffic lights.  The consequences in nature can be even more devastating--particularly for those living outside of the concrete jungle.

Singing and humming in nature can cause one to miss some tell-tale sounds of death--a rattlesnake rattle, the stealthy stalking of a predator.  Such sounds can alert prey when on a hunting expedition.  Neither of these things are helpful to survival.

Perhaps there is a sexual connotation to such music, but honestly, does music and dancing always lead to sex?  Apologies to those fundamentalists who believe so, but no, it doesn't.

Music definitely taps into the human soul and spirit.  It taps deep into the recesses of the heart.  It comforts, excites, inspires, enrages, and so forth.

I believe God has gifted humanity with a world in which those frequencies can be produced in harmony.  I believe it is one more example of His handiwork, and ultimately, music should be used to praise Him.

When I lead kids at a local pre-school in singing praises to God, I find a wondrous thing taking place.  Transformation.  Smiles.  Joy.  Radiance.  Music taps into these things--especially when directed toward the Creator.

Yes, I am sure there are other "explanations", but I think them unsatisfactory.  Take a listen to a recent rendition of "The Little Drummer Boy" which has gone viral.

Tell me the reason it has gone viral is due to some sort of longing for sex or other such thing.  Not there.  This song, along with others, touch something deep within our spirits--a "voice" of God.

I Have Been Ruined

I know that sounds like a strange title, but I found out something about myself this past weekend.

On Saturday, the family and I traveled to Camp Lutherhill in La Grange, TX.  This year, my oldest will be attending summer camp, and we wanted to give her the chance to see camp and become a little more comfortable before leaving the nest for a week.  It just so happened that Lutherhill was having "Open Camp" this Saturday, so not only did we get to see the camp, we got to experience it.

Open Camp gives folks the opportunity to engage in camp activities including swimming, archery, ropes, worship, and dining--all for free.  It's a fantastic idea and one that really put my eldest at ease.  As we were leaving, she even remarked, "I want to stay for two weeks!"

Now, enough of the advertisement for camp.  Let's address the title of this post.

At 11:00 a.m. we gathered at the main outdoor chapel for worship and a sing-a-long.  The camp counselors provided the music as we sang a host of camp songs, and in the midst of that sing-a-long, I discovered I had been ruined.

The song leader would get up to lead a song.  He played guitar.  He would play in one key, and he would sing in another key. 

Musicians are cringing at this moment.

Those with little to no musical background are probably thinking, "What's the big deal."

Well, for those who have trained ears, having someone play in one key and sing in another is tantamount to:

nails on a chalkboard
rubbing a cat the wrong way
squeaking a balloon for hours
rubbing sandpaper on your bare butt

Yes, it's that bad.

I found that I couldn't sing along.  I couldn't get into the music.  I was ruined.

Years ago, this wouldn't have made a difference at all to me.  I'd have simply followed the voice and not worried about the music.  Heck, I'd have probably even sung in a third key, but things have happened to me over the years.

I began playing the guitar.
I began singing in a choir on a regular basis.
I began singing in a gospel band on a regular basis.

My ears began to change. 

• Whereas I used to have difficulty finding my part in singing in a choir--it comes with much more ease.
• Whereas I used to strum my guitar without worrying if a string were a little off--because I couldn't hear it, now, I stop and adjust if things are wonky.
• Whereas I used to sing and not worry about hitting pitch, I can immediately tell when I am off, and I have to adjust.

Because of all these things, my ears have become sensitive to music.  And when things are off, I have difficulty joining in.  I know I'm not alone in this.  As the sing-a-long was going on, I looked at my wife only to see her cringing as well.

Perhaps this is a stretch theologically, but I don't think so.

I believe developing an ear to listening for God and developing an ear for music have several similarities:

• The more you are around music, the better you become at hearing the harmony.  The more you immerse yourself in Christian disciplines--prayer, study, worship, fasting, etc.--the better able you become at distinguishing God's voice in the crowd.
• The more you are around music, the better you become in hearing that which is off key and out of tune.  The more you have immersed yourself in disciplines--leading to distinguishing God's voice--the more you can tell when something is out of tune and out of line with God's will and desire.
• To truly develop your musical ear, you need to work with people--in a choir, in a band, with a coach.  Going it alone only gets you so far.  Ditto with developing your relationship with God; we need worship, coaches, pastors, scholars, those who write books, spiritual directors, and others who help in discerning God's voice.
• When you develop that ear, you are ruined.  No longer do certain things satisfy.  No longer is singing off key acceptable.  No longer is it acceptable to allow a guitar string to be flat or sharp.  Constant adjustment is needed.  Same with living a live tuned into God.  Constant adjustment is needed (repentance, forgiveness, absolution).  No longer do the same things satisfy--"Man does not live by bread alone."  You can see things which are out of tune with God--injustice, hunger, sickness, suffering.  You desire to bring things back into tune and do so to the best of your ability.

I've been ruined in one respect when it comes to music, but it is because I have become a better musician.  I've been ruined in one respect when it comes to growing in the life of faith, but I hope it is because I have become a better Christian.