Years ago I was sitting, waiting for the symphony to strike their first note. I am sure you have heard the chaos of noise that fills the hall as the great variety of instruments start tuning up and mouthpieces start to get warmed. Some musicians just strike random notes as they prepare, others play their own little tunes.
As I sat there listening to the cacophony of noise, I distinctly heard the “Imperial March” from Star Wars come from the trumpet section while a violin gave a muted rendition of “Happy Birthday.” Happy Birthday to Darth Vader? It made no sense, but when all of the players are playing their own songs, none of it is going to make sense. The musical chaos continued until the conductor came strolling out and everyone but a distracted tuba player put down their instruments and became silent. Tube Blast! It is always the tuba player!
Order soon emerged out of the chaos, though, as the conductor lifted his baton and set the beat. The beauty of the instruments soon filled the air. The piece was beautiful, everyone contributing their own musical harmonies to the overriding melody; the diversity of instruments and tunes playing as one. The glorious thing about the symphony is the beauty that comes from unity.
And, it is unity that Jesus prays that we, his followers might have. “Holy Father,” Jesus prays, “protect them in your name that you given me, so that they may be one, as we are one” (John 17:11).
As Jesus’ last moments on this earth approached, I imagine that Jesus could have prayed for a great many things. He could have prayed that someone else go to die on the cross. He could have prayed that his followers live moral lives and strive for moral perfection. He could have prayed that Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups be free for the world to enjoy…and that they be invented before he died.
“That is a ridiculous prayer, Pastor Jira,” you are undoubtedly mentally chastising me, and that is the point. What Jesus prayed during his last moments on earth was not frivolous. Quite the opposite, Jesus prayed the one thing that he thought was most important before he left: that his followers be one, that they have unity.
Now, why would he pray that? It is not like there is any division and disagreement in the world or in our nation. It is not like Christians would ever disagree and refuse to worship together. It is not like the Christian church could possibly fracture into 41,000 different Christian denominations. That is the current number by the way. Christianity has splintered into 41,000 different ways to be Christian worldwide.
I hope that you heard all of that as sarcasm, because our world is anything but unified.
Did Jesus know that would be the case? Did Jesus realize that we would become so fractured as a world and as a church; so unable to pull together? Is this why Jesus prays for our unity so fervently?
There is a reason that unity has been so elusive for us Christians: and it has everything to do with that symphony that I described. We tend to live our lives as if we are tuning up, playing our own songs. It is like we have convinced ourselves that our own individual songs are what are most important in life. It seems that we have forgotten that we have to look up at the conductor, and join in the music that he has chosen.
In fact, this very thing is what Jesus prays for first: that he be glorified (that he reflect the heart and purpose of God the Father), and that his name be made known to those the Father has given him. I know that the prayer as we read it from the Bible gets a little confusing here, so simply put; Jesus prays that we stop playing our own songs, look up at Jesus, and when we look at him we will see God. When we look to him we will lift our instruments and become a part of God’s glorious symphony.
That is what living life in harmony with the eternal is all about. Jesus prays, “This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3).
But, this is hard. We love our own songs. And, some of your songs are awesome. Some of your songs drip the sweat of hard work and effort. Some of your songs have a melody that others love to hum, again and again. Some of your songs become an ear worm that plays over and over and over and over again until they eat away at your brain and soul. “Stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive…” You are welcome. There are other words to that song right?
I am telling you the truth though: ideologies, and philosophies, and traditions, and personal spiritualities, as beautiful as they can be, are so often out of tune with what our conductor is trying to have us play. Jesus is up there directing a song of love for God and neighbor and we are sitting there playing Darth Vader’s theme song.
Pastors are not exempt from this either. For another project I am working on for a children’s ministry, I Googled the phrase, “Ten Bible verses every child should know.” And, one of the most prominent preachers in our culture, a preacher who will remain nameless, had a blog that read, “Ten Bible Verses Every Child Should Know.” You cannot get a better Google hit than that!
So, I clicked in to the article and read through the list of Bible verses. There were lots of really good ones in there. “Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you,” from 1 Peter 5:7. What a great reminder. “For the Word of God is living and powerful,” from Hebrew 4:12. Having just preached that you all should fall in love with the Bible again, I certainly agree there. But, as I went down the list I was shocked to find something missing. There was a voice missing from the list. With exception to one lonely Bible verse, none of those words came from the mouth of Jesus Christ.
How could that be? Jesus is the one we look to so that we can together play God’s symphony. It is Jesus who reflects who God the Father is, and it is Jesus to whom we look to find out about the things that God cares. How is it that a list of the most important Bible verses for children to know almost completely lacked the words of Jesus?
As harsh as this seems to say, it appears that even this highly regarded, national preacher was singing his own song. He was taking bits and pieces from the Bible to construct a symphony that was his own. Somehow this preacher of God’s Word almost entirely forgot to look up at Jesus and listen to his song.
Now, I am not picking on him, because we all do it. We all tend to pick and choose the tunes that we want to hear rather than participating in the song that God has written for us. It might be that we do not always agree with what Jesus has to say.
This has hit home so clearly for me as I frequently allow one of my children to choose the music in the car. She will remain nameless, but her name rhymes with Xfinity. She is much better about it now, but about a year ago when she got to choose the music, we would start listening to a song, I would start to get my groove on as the was beat established, and I would just be getting into the song when she would change it! She kept changing the songs half way through!
“Why did you change the song?”
“I don’t like that part!”
Understand, I do not have that great of a groove to begin with, so destroying my groove is not a good thing. But, this nameless child was not interested in my groove nor anyone else’s for that matter. She was more interested in creating her own monstrosity of a musical creation.
And, we do that. We create our own symphonies with their own movements, and we expect everyone to like them and we expect everyone to jump into our grooves. More than that, we hear other people’s music, and we decide that it needs to be changed because it is not to our liking. Entire cultures and peoples are disregarded and disrespected because their music is not like ours. And, so we fight over what music we should be playing and, what we continually forget to do as we fight about our music is to look up to see that there is a divine conductor, leading us in another, more beautiful song. And, that song has different parts, but when the parts are played together, it transcends anything that we could have done alone.
The conductor has arrived on the stage, and we recognize him. We know him. We see Jesus. We know him. Further, when we pay attention, we know the song he wants us to sing. We have heard Jesus and his song before, many, many times before. Jesus prays, “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word,” (John 17:6).
We are his people. We are his musicians. We know his song that has movements of forgiveness, and love, and grace, and justice for the downtrodden. We know the movements of his song. We have played it before. If only we could bring ourselves to quiet our instruments and look up so that we could, together, play the Lord’s song…so that we could be the Lord’s symphony. If only…
I guess that is why Jesus is praying. We are that bad at it! It is like we are in rehearsal mode rather than performance mode. And, that is OK if we are rehearsing Jesus’ song. There is nothing wrong with rehearsal. You have to try and fail, and try again and fail again in order to finally play your part well in coordination with others. The fingers and the brain do not always want to function together, and you sometimes you play it all wrong. But, the best conductors are very forgiving because it is only through forgiveness and trying again that they symphony starts to resemble a sound that is heavenly.
Jesus is very forgiving. He died on a cross so that we could start again, and again. Jesus is very forgiving, and hopeful. Jesus is very hopeful. Jesus prays that we be one just as he and God the father are one. Jesus is very hopeful that God will be able to catch your attention, raise your head to see the conductor, Jesus, and make your unique part be a part of God’s larger symphony of love and abundant life.
To that end, let us join our Lord in prayer.
“Lord, we join in your prayer. We are your people, and you are our Lord, you are our conductor. We are the best when you, Lord Jesus, are glorified in our lives. Lord, help us to play your song, and only your song. You are no longer in the world, but we are in the world, and so is your song. Help us to practice and play your song well. Protect us and protect your song, so that we may be one in the same way that you Lord and the Father are one. Help us to join your symphony of love. Amen.”
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