“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever!”
Have you ever been to a symphony and noticed what happens before all the playing begins? All of a sudden you hear the first violinist play a note and everyone tunes their instruments to that one particular and distinct note. This note is the note “A 440.” Without hearing it at the beginning the instruments would be in their own tuning instead of tuned together. Without being reminded of this note at the beginning of the show, the show wouldn’t be a show.
All the notes which the orchestra will play will relate to this one note. If you know this note, you will know all the others. If you don’t know this note you will know none of the others. In a special way A 440 will give meaning to the whole piece of music.
We were reminded in both the epistle and gospel today that Christ is this first unifying principle in our lives. Jesus is our A 440. He gives meaning and purpose to everything in our lives. Everyone who hears the truth hears Christ’s voice. We tune to Him, and realize that we are out of tune in comparison to Him. He is the Law which has been fulfilled, and although we may be tempted to think that Christ has changed depending on the situations of the world, it is actually exactly opposite. It is He who has never changed and we who must change.
Last week my choir sang a beautiful piece by Hayden. We were all together and it sounded pretty good if I do say so myself! The conductor walked over to the piano afterwards and sure enough we had dropped more than a tone. The note we tuned to had slipped away from us. Without constant vigilance and without the unchanging note to check ourselves by, it is impossible not be moved, even when we don’t feel it happening or when we don’t want it to happen. Our lives as Christians is a constant battle of trying to stay in tune, failing, and retuning ourselves to Christ. It is a temptation to decide that the music we play sounds good enough without staying in key.
In Tolkien’s ‘Silmarillion,’ basically his mythology of Middle Earth, we find the creation of the world, and the subsequent Fall caused by a heavenly being who decided not to follow the conductor and to sing his own song, causing the others in the choir to go out of tune. The harmony was broken.
Anyone who has tried to keep to a note when your fellow singer has gone sharp or flat can relate to how difficult it is to stay in tune. Your brain does not like that dissonance and you want desperately to just give in to the note that they are singing, or else to stop them and tune them up (hopefully peacefully!)
“Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God; consider the outcome of their life, and imitate their faith.”
When I was young I had no idea why we needed conductors in the first place. All these people lined up with their instruments playing away, reading the music, making the notes and this one guy standing at the front wildly waving his arms around. Someone get this guy something to play, he must feel so left out of there, wanting to get into this song! It wasn’t until I started singing in choirs that I realized why we needed conductors. You realize pretty quick that no one will be singing or playing together without one. The conductor sets the tempo, keeps the instruments playing at the appropriate volume and coming in at the right times. From where they stand they can hear the piece as a whole, something which can be lost when playing a particular instrument in a certain section.
The conductors in our lives should be our bishops. The Lord has not left us orphaned because He has given us these ‘hierarchs’ to keep us in tune and together- “where the bishop is, there the church is!” Today we commemorate three of the most incredible bishops in the history of the church. We should be thankful for their witness and continue in gratitude to God by not only remembering them, but by praying for our own bishops, who are tasked with keeping us in tune in the world we live in. When we pray in the liturgy that our bishops “may rightly impart the word of [Christ’s] truth” pray for strength and courage for our bishops.
The truth of our situation, brothers and sisters, is that we are not a performing choir. We are a competing choir. To be a Christian is to “go outside the camp with Christ to bear the abuse he endured.” We must hold to our notes when the world sings something else. When the world turns to us and says “you’re out of tune” we have to first check with the Conductor and then lovingly and patiently invite them to sing the song He has chosen. St. John Chrysostom was marched to death by his own people because he refused to “change his tune.” Are we ready to suffer for the truth and for love? We are a city on a hill which cannot be hidden, and yet we are a city within a city, a city outside the cities of this world, and we must never forget that.
During the Holy Time of Lent which we are about to enter, let us pay special attention to how “in tune” we are with the Gospel, and how well we are following the overseers-the bishops- who Christ has put in our lives as an extension of His direction in our lives. If we keep our eyes on The Great Conductor throughout this time of the Fast we will have the opportunity to practice real righteousness and witness to Christ’s unchanging love and truth in the world!
Christ is Born!
