Can You Hear The Music of Christ in the Culture of Community?
Good Morning Friends,
Today’s devotional is about how to maintain more than just harmony in the church, the ecclesia, the called out of God. The Apostle Paul, the writer of the letters to the Corinthians, lived in a time when communities had town meetings to decide the business of the day. This activity was incorporated into the language that described the church and in the case of Corinth really manifested itself in three ways: the universal church of all the redeemed that belong to Christ, a small worshiping and praying community, and all the believers in a specific geographic area, whether they all gather together to worship in one place or not. It is the later reference to the church that I think Paul was primarily speaking to in his letters to the Corinthians. The town had problems but Paul had some suggestions to help members who found themselves embroiled in the divisive issues. He taught them to balance their voices with those of others. Here Paul brings focus on the Messiah and the authority of the Holy Spirit, he brings focus on our individual voices in the mission and a focus on the message of salvation found in Jesus. Paul adds his voice to the community’s voices, and has them practice a heavenly harmony in balance, combined through love even as we hear the Holy Spirit blending in the tension between the parts. Can You Hear
The Music of Christ in the Culture of Community?
Scripture: By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
John 13:35 (NRSV)
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NRSV)
Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty firmament! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his surpassing greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with clanging cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
Psalm 150:1-5 (NRSV)
And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Hebrews 10:24-25 (NRSV)
Message: When it comes to love and music and our experience of God in community, the whole is much greater than the sum of the parts. Perhaps it starts with a Melody that is as a tune for our hearts we recognize as something unique and recognizable that helps us to perceive unity. Then there is the coherence of our convictions that cannot be heard in isolation as we experience the agreement between God’s mercy and truth resonating in the life of our Lord connecting us in His Harmony. And after sin and the cross we experience the Rhythm of redemption in the timing, pace and patterns of our very salvation and sanctification that gives movement to our lives in community. The Timbre of our unique gifts and expressions are gradually tuned to God’s perfect pitch to resonate in and through us. The Tone of our relationships is characterized by duration and intensity and pitch that moment by moment is perceived as to its quality which is reflected back on our attitude. Then the melody, rhythm, timbre, and tone combine in a creation of art as an expression of Christ in culture. This is the very Texture and fabric of our community woven together in sounds that smooth our rough edges. We feel the pull of the Holy Spirit on our hearts helping us to successfully structure our lives with God’s plan and strategy and this gives Form to the function of our faith. Here our worship is arranged in such a way that shapes us. The duration, pitch, intensity and quality of the expression steadies our nature with an attitude of trust. The texture of the feeling is realized in the melodic, rhythmic and harmonic expressions and we find the beauty of a new song sung in the tension of God’s love shared. Here the hope is that these waveforms of our love can combine to create something heavenly choirs might sing.
Pray we have a melody in our hearts that brings us joy. Pray that we practice to sing in harmony, finding our part in the music, watching the heavenly conductor, singing a voice that alone is nothing but when combined with others creates the balance creation intended. Pray we practice the rhythm of redemption in our daily lives pulsing with patterns that build the foundation of our faith. Pray we have the timbre of God’s perfect pitch for our unique instruments. Pray the tone of our attitude reflect God’s nature in us. Pray the texture of our music and community we woven together to praise and glorify God. Pray we each be as instruments of grace and love both unique and yet one in the spirit. Pray the form of our faith in our birth, life, death and resurrection be as eternal love made possible in Christ and someday sung perfectly with the body of believers universal in the heavenly choir.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 