Ruining a Symphony
The word ‘symphony’ is derived from the Greek word symphōnos, which means 'harmonious'. Harmonious means an 'agreement or concord of sound', or, even better, 'a concert of vocal or instrumental music'.
Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word symphony had taken on the meaning common to us today: a musical work commonly used in the context of an orchestra, usually consisting of multiple distinct sections or movements.
According to Classical-music.com, 'Symphonies are almost always scored for an orchestra consisting of a string section (violin, viola, cello, and double bass), brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments which altogether number about 30 to 100 musicians.' It seems to even someone such as myself, who is very uneducated in the area of classical music (our brother Wayne is an expert, so maybe he can chime in and correct me if I'm wrong), but the most important element to the sound of an orchestra, is the harmony or symphony of all these instruments, is it not?
Maybe I'm just overstating the obvious. But after listening to some of the greatest symphonies of all time, it seems that if any instrument, at any given time, plays louder or longer than it's supposed to, the entire message, poetic beauty and energy of the piece becomes off kilter. The symphony becomes ruined. In rehearsal, this is usually when the conductor throws their hands in the air (sometimes frustrated :-) ,corrects the musician and begins again.
I believe we can be guilty of this in how we view Jesus and the gospel. The various elements or 'doctrines' of the gospel of Jesus Christ are like instruments in an orchestra. The sound they play are beautifully and poetically harmonious, until one of them gets overemphasized and played too loudly.
For example, the gospel speaks to personal salvation and the deity of Christ (among many other doctrines). However, if either gets 'played too loudly' when we're studying the scriptures, you only hear the doctrine you're emphasizing and you lose the full message of the writer.
The amazing thing about John chapter 9, verses 1-7, the passage for tomorrow's teaching, is that it addresses several aspects of the 'works' of God in sending Jesus, and each harmoniously play at just the right volume.
The gospel should speak to us as a symphony that touches many areas of doctrine throughout the scriptures, but at the appropriate level for the 'music', i.e., topic or context, that is being played. I believe this is what John does in these first seven verses by telling us about Jesus' encounter with a man who was born blind. Jesus uses this one man's blindness to explain several works of God being displayed in the text, each playing at the perfect volume for the situation.
I hope you can join us tomorrow as we begin John chapter 9. Remember, there's no Sunday school tomorrow, so sleep a little later and get here for our first 11:00 AM service of the year!
Enjoy your New Year's weekend. Know the Lord is going to do an amazing work this year in the symphony of your life. You are His instrument. You may feel out of sync sometimes, but know God is the one writing the music and playing the tune. He's the Master Musician (not sure that's a biblical name of God but it should be right? :-)) Have a great night!