Fashioning Harmony Out of Diversity

Among my fondest memories from my high school days was participating in the marching, concert and dance bands. Even though I was far from the best musician in our bands, I played in the percussion section with gusto and pride. 

On football Saturdays (that’s when they played high school games in my day), many of the spectators came not to watch our football team – which was mediocre – but our marching band, which was undefeated. Among the bands in our region, we had no equal.

 

The snare, tenor and bass drums and cymbals in our section could make the loudest sounds, but every instrument in the band was essential. That included the tubas, trumpets, trombones, saxophones, French horns, clarinets, piccolos, and even the glockenspiels. I’m sure every musician was just as enthusiastic about his or her part as the drummers were. Some might have even thought they were most important. But when we stepped onto the field, we were a single unit determined to march and perform at our very best, just as we had during many hours of grueling practice.

 

And how did we know we were doing our best? We knew by looking to our band director, an earnest perfectionist named Jack Pirone. We loved the applause of the fans, just as we did from the audience when we gave our annual Christmas and spring concerts. But it was the approval of Mr. Pirone that meant the most to us – by far. 

 

This desire to please our band director, as well as entertain everyone in attendance at our performances, resulted in a powerful sense of unity that transcended our musical differences. The brass instruments couldn’t play the percussion parts; the sousaphones didn’t try to drown out the woodwinds. Because we were performing together with a common goal, we always managed to fashion ear-pleasing harmony despite our diversity. 

 

We find ourselves in a place called the United States of America, but today we seem anything but united. Rather than appreciating our differences and seeking to dialogue and understand each other, we’re like members of an orchestra who want to dominate the stage. News commentators try to outshout each other. Protesters exchange angry words. I think of the phrase from the old Buffalo Springfield song, “For What It’s Worth,” describing the scene: “…A thousand people in the street singing songs and a-carrying signs, mostly say hooray for our side.” 

 

This phenomenon isn’t new. A verse from the Bible, written many centuries ago, provides a similar description: “The assembly was in confusion: Some were shouting one thing, some another. Most of the people did not even know why they were there” (Acts 19:32). Everyone seemed to be in an uproar, but many of them weren’t even sure why. Just as it is today.

 

We find this even within the Church – pastors, religious leaders, congregations and denominations all at odds, convinced they’re right and everyone else is wrong. If the apostle Paul were to see what’s going on today, he’d probably tell us the same thing he told believers of his day: 

“My brothers, some…have informed me that there are quarrels among you…. One of you says, ‘I follow Paul’; another, ‘I follow Apollos’; another, ‘I follow Cephas’; still another, ‘I follow Christ.’ Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul?...” (1 Corinthians 1:11-13).

 

According to many reports, God is working in wonderful ways across our land and around the world. But despite the millions of people who profess to be followers of Jesus, our impact on society appears to be proportionately small. One reason for this is our disharmony. We’re like a band or orchestra in which instruments are out of tune and musicians are trying to upstage one another.

 

Paul often wrote about the importance of achieving harmony within the body of Christ. To believers in ancient Rome he said, “May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Chris. Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God” (Romans 15:5-7).

 

In my high school band, our foremost goal was to please our director. He served as our inspiration and motivation. The mission of advancing the Gospel of Christ is so much greater and more important than a band performance. Rather than focusing on our agendas and disputing over our differences, we need to be “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2).

 

If we can succeed in doing that, how much brighter the light of Christ we could cast upon our increasingly dark world; how much greater would be the savor of the Gospel for those around us embittered by circumstances and godless ideologies. As the apostle wrote to the church in Philippi, “make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose” (Philippians 2:2). If we can please our Conductor, the Lord Jesus, nothing else matters.

Considering How You Would Want to Be Treated

We see it all too often: People berating a customer service associate or cashier. Students displaying disrespect to their teachers. Faceless individuals typing insults or mercilessly bullying others on social media. Protesters shouting epithets, sometimes engaging in acts of physical violence.  

TV commentators showing little patience or respect, shouting down each other’s statements and opinions. Athletes spitting on each other. In some cities, looters breaking into stores and carrying out goods of all kinds. Hostile politicians grandstanding to demonstrate opposition to the speaker.

 

The list could go on. Depending on who they happen to agree with, observers either applaud such actions or condemn them. A couple lines from the 1966 Vietnam-era protest song by Buffalo Springfield, “For What It’s Worth,” summarized what we’re still seeing 60 years later:

“There’s battle lines being drawn

Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong…

A thousand people in the street

Singing songs and a-carrying signs

Mostly say hooray for our side….”

 

Sound familiar? Why has our society come to this? What has spawned this age when incivility has become the norm; acrimony is viewed as acceptable, even commendable behavior; and common manners and decorum have been cast into the dumpster?

 

In a time when people across the political spectrum build arguments based on their own interpretations of “the rule of law,” it seems we’ve forgotten – or dismissed – a far greater rule. It’s what we commonly know as “the Golden Rule”: “In everything, do to others as you would have them do to you” (Matthew 7:12, Luke 6:31).

 

Jesus Christ addressed this in a variety of ways. Matthew 22:36-40 records an occasion when the Pharisees, religious leaders who prided themselves on external rules-keeping, asked, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Perhaps they presumed He would select a particular favorite from the Ten Commandments.

 

His response wasn’t what they expected. “Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

 

The first is foundational for everything, but let’s focus on the second. Jesus’ words, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” were another way of saying, ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,’ as the King James Version translates it. The phrase is repeated elsewhere in the New Testament, including Romans 13:8-9, Galatians 5:14 and James 2:8. 

 

Unfortunately, the prevailing mindset these days seems very different, more like, “do to others before they can do it to you.” Do whatever you feel like doing; worry about the consequences later.

 

What does it actually mean to “do to others as you would have them do to you”? Maybe the best way to answer that is to look at the last part and ask, “How do you want others to treat you?”

 

Would you want people to politely hear and respect your opinions, even if they don’t agree with them? Whether in your home, at work or another setting, would you want someone to genuinely listen to what you had to say? If you were a teacher and had spent hours preparing the lesson for the day, would you want your students to be attentive and desiring to learn? 

 

Looking at it another way, if you were a sales associate in a department store, would you want someone angrily accosting you about some grievance, even if you had nothing to do with it? If you were a law enforcement officer, would you want folks throwing objects at you simply because you’d been assigned to that area to maintain order? If you owned a retail business, would you want people breaking windows and stealing everything within reach?

 

This brings to mind the adage attributed to native Americans about walking a mile in the moccasins of another individual. Doing to others as we would have them do to us involves putting ourselves in their place, trying to understand their needs and feelings, and responding appropriately.

 

Jesus’ parable about the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37) illustrates this perfectly. A man, a Jew, had been robbed and beaten, left for dead. Two upright religious leaders, a priest and a Levite, saw the man but moved to the other side of the road, acting as if they hadn’t noticed them. Obviously, they never considered what if they had suffered the same plight.

 

Then a Samaritan came along and even though Jews and Samaritans weren’t exactly bosom buddies in those days, he attended to the wounded man, took him to an inn nearby and promised to pay all expenses for his care. Whether he knew the commandment or not, the Samaritan literally did for another what he would have wanted someone to do for himself.

 

Years ago, people wore WWJD bracelets representing the question, “What would Jesus do?” Maybe we need to start wearing bracelets that read, DUOAYWHTDUY – “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” It could help to usher in a new season of civility and compassion.

Surviving Trials and Turmoil for Nearly 250 Years

This stirring image from a Jacquie Lawson e-card speaks volumes.

Two years from today, the USA will observe the 250^th anniversary of its founding – barring the calamity of calamities. The way things have been going in recent years, who knows? Hopefully we’ll remain the United States of America and not the Untied States.

 

Every Independence Day, July 4, is a good time to pause and reflect on the rich heritage of our nation, the wonder that it even came to be, and its inherent qualities that have drawn millions of men, women and children from around the world to this unique expanse of geography.

 

Having been born on the Fourth of July, almost by default I’m what George M. Cohan termed a “Yankee Doodle Dandy.” The strains of John Philip Sousa marches like “Stars and Stripes Forever,” “The Washington Post,” and “The Thunderer” never fail to give me goosebumps. 

 

And whenever I observe fireworks shows, whether on TV from New York City or Washington, D.C., or local displays in person, I can’t help but think of the courage, determination, vision and sacrifice required to create and sustain this nation. It seems the term “patriot” has become an epithet in the minds of some, but to echo the words of Lee Greenwood, I’m “proud to be an American.”

 

Conflict and unrest the United States is experiencing today remind me of the 1960s, when protests and demonstrations for civil rights and against the Vietnam War set our country’s teeth on edge. Consider some of the lyrics of “For What It’s Worth” by Buffalo Springfield, one of the best-known protest songs of the mid-60s:

“There’s something happening here

But what it is ain’t exactly clear

There’s a man with a gun over there

Telling me I got to beware…

 

There’s battle lines being drawn

Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong

Young people speaking their minds…

 

Singing songs and they carrying signs

Mostly say, ‘Hooray for our side’…”

 

That song seemed revolutionary during my college days, but a similar scenario was played out in the first century A.D. The apostle Paul’s arrival had ignited a great disturbance among the citizenry of the ancient, polytheistic Greek city of Ephesus. Acts 19:32 describes the situation this way: “The assembly was in confusion: Some were shouting one thing, some another. Most of the people did not even know why they were there” (Acts 19:32). The same could be said about some of the demonstrations we see on the evening news.

 

The teaching of civics and social studies is no longer practiced in many public schools, but even a casual study of U.S. history reveals political and ideological infighting has been a staple of our society. Battle lines always being drawn, people speaking their minds (typically with great zeal), and often declaring, “Hooray for our side.”

 

Nevertheless, in many ways the United States remains the “go-to” destination for countless thousands. Why else would so many people be endeavoring to gain entry, whether through legal or illegal means? Our materialistic way of life may be one of the magnets, but so are our freedoms – of speech, religion, assembly, the press, and many others.

 

Some of our cherished freedoms seem in jeopardy, and I believe we should do all we can to protect them. But for followers of Jesus Christ – citizens not only of this temporal nation but also of the eternal kingdom of God – the freedoms we have received from Him are secure. Here are some of them:

 

Freedom from the power of sin. “It is for freedom that Christ set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery [to sin]” (Galatians 5:1).

Freedom from the judgment of sin. “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:1).

Freedom to live as God intends for us to live. “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Galatians 5:13-14).

Freedom from fear of death. “In My Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you…that you also may be where I am” (John 14:1-3).

 

We could cite many others. While we rightfully celebrate the anniversary of our nation’s founding, every day we can and should celebrate our citizenship in an everlasting kingdom, described in 1 Peter 1:14 as, “an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you.”

 

On Independence Day, we remember the sacrifices of many brave, selfless individuals to preserve our freedoms. As we do so, let’s not forget the One who made the greatest sacrifice of all on our behalf. “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).