Time to Tune
I am not a professional musician, but I certainly love making a joyful noise. Maybe that’s why one of my favorite parts of the symphony is, oddly, before the orchestra plays. One by one, musicians take their seats. Oh my heart! The thrill begins! In the Tuning of trilling floating flutes. In the Tuning of long deep base notes. In the cymbals (Actually. I don’t remember hearing cymbals tune. They are ever visible though.) Music pages rustle. Then. At last! Someone walks to Center Stage with head held higher than the Statue of Liberty. S/he raises the burning torch of First Chair Violin. Commanded respect gains undivided attention of fellow musicians and those gathered in this sacred space. The whole room changes. And notices. And listens……. The swirling humming notes come into unity. The entire orchestra tunes to one pitch of raised violin.
Untold hours of practice led to this holy moment. Heavenly harmonies follow this moment. It would likely be chaos in the sound waves, though, had the individual musicians not purposefully stopped to Listen Together and Tune Together to One Sound.
Even so, my heart yearns for this in the Body of Christ on Earth. Something in me will not give up. I sit and wait. I watch individual members, rightly so, take their places. I listen for pages to rustle in the music scores of their life. I admire and wonder and envy the practice and study and unique perspectives and sounds of their giftings. It is exciting and important. But oh! I dare to imagine what sounds we could make if only we would purposefully stop to Listen Together and Tune Together to One Sound.
If only! We would look up to see The One standing at Center Stage with head held high in Liberty. If only! We would honor the burning torch of God’s holy Presence among us. If only! We would give utmost respect and undivided attention to The head of the church. We might realize that our Being Together. In His Name. Is indeed. Sacred Space. Everything changes. When we notice. And listen. And come into unity!
May it be Lord according to the prayer of your heart from John 17:18-26 (English Standard Version)
As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.