Lake Louise Church of the Nazarene

I like classical music. I know there are many types of music; rap, rock, blues, jazz and classical to name a few. And of all the music out there, the music I don’t get is Avant-garde. It is music that is full of discordant, non-existent rhythm or form. There are long sections of discord and few brief interludes of harmony. The harmony is welcome and all too brief. It’s almost as if you could pick the ‘song’ up anywhere and there would be no difference. Avant-garde is musical chaos. A symphony on the other hand is full of rhythm and harmony. Yes, there are moments of discord but they quickly or ultimately end in beauty.

Our lives without Christ are avant-garde. It is full of discord and disharmony. The brief moments of harmony are all too short and quickly resolve into nerve jarring and ear shattering noise.

With Christ our lives take on a dynamic that is full of challenge and change. It is full of beauty and harmony. The rhythm of our lives, just like a symphony and its many movements, will change. There will moments of slowing and moments of increasing tempo. There will quiet and imperceptible changes and subtle harmonies that will often go unnoticed. There will be passages that the volume will increase to the point of shear loudness but will resolve into tranquility and peace.

In the symphony of life our discordant notes are not the rule but moments or measures of our life where we feel the need for harmony most keenly. And the conductor of life will ultimately resolve those measures in beauty.

Our lives are sometimes the melody. We play our notes and there is a comfort in these notes, a familiarity. Sometimes our lives are harmony. We don’t understand the part we play. There is something vaguely familiar, but it escapes us. Sometimes our lives are the discordant note that is harsh, unlikable and unappealing. We play our notes and wince at the volume and tone. And those not playing the same tune will look at us like we are nuts. It is not until we play our notes in the company of others that the true wonder of the composers work is fully appreciated.

It is in a life with Christ that each of our parts come together and makes sense. But it is also in the playing the parts to the end. There are unfinished symphonies, there are unfinished lives. God has not written an unfinished work. There are movements, transitions, and different musical journeys and feelings. It is in the completion of the piece that one finds resolution to the conflicts introduced. You cannot listen to a symphony and stop at a conflict. It must be finished to understand why it was there. It must be played completely through in order to understand and see what the conductor’s ultimate goal was in the writing.

Each one of us has been given an instrument and notes to play. Each one of us has a part. Alone we may find the parts boring, tedious or too difficult. Alone we find our instrument lacks importance. In an orchestra, however, each part and note brings a splendor we hoped for. In an orchestra our single note takes on consequence. It means something. It is important. In the orchestra of life we shout that our notes and instruments matter.

While I believe that a child with a $5 toy piano could write an avant-garde piece of music, it takes a master’s touch to write a true masterpiece. I have heard different orchestras play the same composition of music and each had a slightly different interpretation, even though the music was the same. It was played with excellence and it pointed to the skill of the conductor and the skill of the composer.

Our symphonic lives bring glory to God, the Creator of our lives, and Jesus Christ the author and finisher of our faith. Your instrument matters, your note or notes matter. Play. Play with all that you have been given. Seek the orchestra and play. You will find beauty. You will find you matter. You will find that God knows what He is doing. And you will find purpose. I promise.

The sheer madness of life is stultifying. While I write this, crimes, deaths, abuse, sickness and accidents will take and maim lives. Children will be born and children will die. Other people will be determining where to take a family vacation. Life marches on and does not skip a beat regardless of life or death, sickness or healing. It is into this maddening monotony that we minister.

We have a calling on our lives to make a difference in the name of Jesus. We have been called and empowered by the Spirit of God to go forth and proclaim God’s favor to all the people. We have a heightened sense of the cruelty, injustice, bitterness and rage in the world. We see things that are wrong and desire to fix them because we carry within us the Spirit of the Living God. We know that we can make a difference with a word, a prayer or the laying on of hands. Yet, despite our fervent and sincere prayers, the parade of life marches on without a moment’s hesitation.

It must be me. My faith is fragile and weak. I need more of everything. Jesus raised the dead, healed the sick and on and on. We are supposed to do greater things than he did. So, I try harder. I jump in front of the parade and extend my hand in authority and command it to stop. No one flinches. No one stops. I am unable to stop the insanity to which I have been called to minister. I have failed, no matter the effort. In defeat, I sit and watch the parade.

The cure to my torment is the calming voice of Jesus. He beckons me to come to him for rest. Yes, life will continue to march on. I recognize that life went on when Jesus died. It marched along when we thought the world should stand still. My hope is to find my reality, meaning, identity and strength in Jesus Christ. He is gentle and humble in heart and will give me rest. I will burn out if I forget that the light I cast in this world marks my place with a shadow. In Jesus, however, my place is marked with blood in the Book of Life for all of eternity.

I am thankful for Jesus.

It is one of the first things I learned when I became a Christian. I have used them repeatedly. I don’t think they are wrong. It’s just that I am not sure what to do with them. They are the ‘Magic Words’ of evangelism.You know them I am sure. You may have heard of them as the “Four Spiritual Laws”. You may know them as the “ABCs of Salvation”. The “Roman Road” comes to mind. But they are almost all magic words.Let me explain.

When we lead someone to the Lord Jesus Christ and they want to be forgiven their sins and go to heaven when they die, we run through some sort of Scripture program of what it means to be saved. We lead them in the sinner’s prayer and they are saved, Praise the Lord! Then, we tell them they need to start reading their Bible, be baptized and worship (or some variation of those things). And that’s it.

There is a question that used to sit at the back of my head is now working its way onto this page. The question is, “Is that it?” I look at Alcoholics Anonymous and they do a whole bunch more to get sober than we Christians do to get saved. An Alcoholic admits that his or her life is unmanageable and that they are powerless. We do that, too. They come to believe in a power greater than themselves that can restore them to sanity. We are still tracking. They make a decision to turn their lives over to God. Ditto.

Then something insane happens. The person in AA make a fearless moral inventory of their lives. They confess their sins to another human being. I could go on, but it is just insanity. They go beyond admitting that they are a hopeless drunk and take care of business.Sure, I know there are Christians that go farther than simply admitting they are sinners saved by grace, but not a lot. If we are to truly become like Jesus, we need to do more than just get saved. I can hear some of you thinking that is blasphemy. Is it? What would happen if we truly got our garbage out in the open and let God deal with it? What would be the result if we began to deal with our broken relationships and make restitution for the things we have done wrong? I think amazing things would happen. It is imperative that we move past the “magic words” and started to do the hard work of letting God into our lives for real change. That is a journey and not a destination.

How about an example ripped from today’s headlines (Dramatic, yes?): A young Hollywood starlet just was busted for Driving Under the Influence even though she just go out of rehab two weeks ago. She probably learned a lot about addiction and alcoholism.  I am sure she didn’t drink in rehab. Obviously, sobriety is more than not drinking. How do I know? Because she gets out and goes right back to her old habits and ends up drinking and driving, again. She needs to change some habits and become a different person, not just quit drinking. It isn’t good enough for her to admit she has a drinking problem, she needs to face lifestyle habits and personal issues for real change to take place. The same is true for us. We admit our sins, and ask Jesus to forgive us. Then, we need to change our old habits and replace them with new ones. Transformation is more important than information. Without it, we, like this young starlet, will end up right back where Jesus found us. In other words, we need more than magic words. What do you think? Let me know.