You Can't Whistle The Finale From Beethoven's Fifth Symphony!
Sermon
Sermons on the Second Readings
Series II, Cycle C
Object:
Halford Luccock, onetime professor of homiletics at Yale Divinity School, told of going to a children's musical recital when a program announcement caught his attention. The announcer said, "And now Daisy Smith is going to whistle The Finale from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony." In horror, Luccock muttered under his breath, "No she isn't. It can't be whistled!" Luccock had it right. It takes a full orchestra of strings, brass, woodwinds, and percussion along with an able conductor. The Finale from Beethoven's Fifth is no solo job!
I'm quite certain that our text from 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 would have been one of Luccock's favorites. Paul is writing about the gift of the Holy Spirit and how it endows Christians with diverse gifts -- teaching, preaching, healing, and others. Then, just to make certain that no one thinks the gift of the Holy Spirit is for one's own personal, private edification, Paul says that the Spirit is given only for the common good of the church. There is no receiving the Holy Spirit for one's personal enjoyment or edification -- it's no solo thing. Luccock must have loved this passage.
One of the biggest dangers to our secular or sacred lives is to think that we can live to ourselves, in our own private, little world. In response to some concerns about the future solvency of the Social Security System, it has been proposed that we allow a certain privatization of future individual accounts. Essentially, this means withdrawing monies that would be normally deposited into the system by all Americans. Many are alarmed at this proposal, for it moves toward an individualism that favors the well-to-do, and favors those of means at the expense of the less favored. Spiritually, it creates a pervasive climate where people are encouraged to think that they can manage their economic future apart from all others. Privatization does not reflect the best in American values or those of our major religious traditions. Even when there is no Revolution at stake, Benjamin Franklin's comment rings true, "If we don't hang together, we'll all hang together." Hanging together is not very high on the list of many Americans today, and certainly not on the agenda of many political types today.
Unfortunately, the church has a long history of "Daisy Smith-ism," concentrating on personal, individual salvation without any concern for others, or the salvation of nature and the cosmos. The Protestant evangelistic tradition has traveled along this unbecoming fault line, blind to contrary traditions like we have from Paul today. Protestants have allowed Christians to speak of "personal salvation in Christ" while having no developed sense that salvation means involvement in the church, and involvement in ministering to the personal and public needs of the world. Talk to many Christians in the Protestant evangelical tradition and they will speak glowingly about having accepted Jesus Christ as their personal savior, with the only obligation seeming to be bringing others to this glowing, private moment.
One of the grandest exceptions to all of this was John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist tradition. Wesley was no slouch on the matter of personal evangelism. But he didn't stop there. He knew it wasn't sufficient, he got off a famous saying that went, "There is no religion but social religion, and no holiness, but social holiness." Wesley, like Luccock knew that the things that really count are corporate, not private and individualistic. And, both of them were aware that any private and individualistic achievements came out of corporate backgrounds.
We may be pleased that many churches that have largely presented an individual gospel are getting involved in social needs around them. Most of them have become involved in world and national hunger. While they do not touch the "not button" issues like tax structures, affirmative action, homosexuality, global warming, or the care of the environment, their newly found sense is that salvation is linked to something larger. They know it isn't just hustling down to the altar and mumbling a few words about accepting Jesus while the organ plays, "Just As I Am," and this is refreshing. Not only the conservative churches but also the mainstream churches, caught in their frantic plunge into frantic efforts at church growth, have often muted their social concern and settled for a comfortable, individualistic faith. A recent news comment in The Christian Century makes the same point, in responding to some remarks by Sally Morgenthaler in Theology, News & Notes, Spring. She says:
The preferred form of worship in many congregations consists of a welcome twenty minutes of singing contemporary music, then a special musical performance and a sermon ... Whatever else happens in contemporary worship is secondary to "disseminating information people need in order to gain more control over their lives" and to ensure that they achieve "individual happiness. (Never mind that control is an illusion and happiness is transitory. See Ecclesiastes.)
Let us list four places where our salvation can be whistled more effectively. The first is within the local congregation. Perhaps this is already clear from what has been said. The local church is a place where we join with other Christians on a journey toward a personal Christlikeness, and a personal reality that will ultimately have an effect on the whole world. We must always remember that the Apostle Paul placed his converts into those tiny churches he found or founded in the cities wherever he went. Paul certainly knew the shortcomings of those churches, just as you and I know the shortcomings in the churches to which we belong, but we also ought to know that without the church, any church, our lives in Christ will wither and die. The church is the first place where the fullness of salvation in Christ is recognized.
The second place where our salvation can be more effectively whistled is in contact with other Christian traditions. These are Christians from styles of doctrine, worship and actions that often are quite different from our own. At first they will seem strange to us. Sometimes they will seem frightening or even threatening to our faith, but in time these encounters can enrich our own faith and witness. We will learn that there is a Christian diversity that fits Jesus' comment, "Other sheep I have, that are not of this fold" (John 10:16). Another scripture that would ground this experience is Paul's classic word, "In Christ there is no Greek nor Jew, no slave nor free, no male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28). Bridging over into our Christian traditions is the second place where a more full Christian salvation may be experienced.
The third place where our salvation may be more effectively whistled is opening ourselves to the many non-Christian religious traditions. To shield ourselves from these non-Christian traditions is becoming more difficult each day. A friend says he went out one morning to pick up the paper. As he looked up he saw a man dressed in a business suit and tie, with a turban wound around his head, coming around the corner in his Volkswagen. My friend said that one, single moment informed him that he lived in a much different world than the one in which he had grown up. He would have to grow into this new world.
Our salvation in Christ may mean discovering how the revelation of God's love in Christ fits in with the other revealings of God's love and truth in the other religious traditions. For many of us, at least initially, this may be very difficult. To do this may seem to give up too much of our own faith. It may not be something that we can do at first. Yet gradually, perhaps by the power of what we call the Holy Spirit, we find it within ourselves to join in this effort -- we want to discover where God has been sharing God's own love apart from our own biblical tradition. In doing so, we will not cease to be Christians, nor will we cease giving our witness to Christ, but we will find enrichment in knowing the wider mercy and love of God to all humanity. So, immersing ourselves in the traditions and scriptures and worship of non-Christian religions may be a third place for us to discover the fullness of salvation in Christ.
The fourth place where our salvation may be more effectively whistled is the company of right-minded unbelievers. It has often been noted that Pope John XXIII began his encyclical on world peace, Pacem en Terris, by addressing it "To All Men of Good Will." He wrote before our consciousness about politically correct language, yet we can think that had he propagated his encyclical some years later, his church Latin would have been translated, "To All Persons of Good Will." Either way, his was a radical statement. He was insisting that the issue of world peace was not just a matter for Roman Catholics to concern themselves. Nor did he seem to think that the larger Christian community was up to bringing about a peaceful world. Strikingly, he called upon all people of "good will," believers and nonbelievers alike, to give themselves to the task of making a safe and peaceful world.
John XIII, perhaps unknowingly, has set a precedent for modern-day Christians wanting to work out their salvation. There are these great issues threatening humankind in today's world. Pope John got hold of one: world peace. We might also name a few more -- hunger, AIDS, terrorism, global warming, disappearance of the South American rainforests, illegal drugs, crime, street violence, underfunding of public needs, and shortage of medical care. You may have a list of your own. The point is this -- our lists mean that we are all convinced that Christ calls us as much to these great public needs as to the private evangelistic moment. Furthermore, we are all at risk and there is no secure shelter from the consequences of not trying to solve some of these problems.
If Christians are going to join the effort to battle some of the problems that plague humankind we will soon discover that the effort will need more than just dedicated Christians. We will need those Pope John called "persons of good will." These will often be people of no faith. They do not belong to the church and if we begin to take church to them they will refuse to listen to us. If they were part of the church at one time in their lives, they have parted from it and have no intention of going back. Yet, they are as deeply concerned about these issues as are Christians. They will give of themselves as sacrificially to these causes as Christians, and sometimes more so. They may have a deaf ear for Christian doctrine and any talk about salvation in Christ, but for many of them they live lives of loving concern that can put us to shame. We need not fear that being with, and working with, these non-believing "persons of good will" will shatter our faith, or even lessen it slightly. Interestingly, it will increase our faith in Christ, for we will discover the miracle that Christ's love can come to us through those who profess non-belief in him. The fullness of Christ overcoming the falseness of an individualistic understanding comes to us as we give ourselves in great tasks alongside the good-willed non-believers.
No, Daisy Smith can't whistle The Finale from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, but she can play it if she finds someone beyond her solitary self. Might I suggest she drop down into the second violin section, or the cellos, or violas? Perhaps Daisy would prefer the clarinets or the oboes or English horns. If Daisy is the noisier type, we might go over to the trumpet or trombone or tuba section, and if she likes variety, she could join the percussion section, for they play all those wonderful instruments from drums to cymbals to chimes to marimbas. And, if she joins the orchestra in the Beethoven Fifth, then it will really be played with all the passion and wonder that such music has to bless us.
I'm quite certain that our text from 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 would have been one of Luccock's favorites. Paul is writing about the gift of the Holy Spirit and how it endows Christians with diverse gifts -- teaching, preaching, healing, and others. Then, just to make certain that no one thinks the gift of the Holy Spirit is for one's own personal, private edification, Paul says that the Spirit is given only for the common good of the church. There is no receiving the Holy Spirit for one's personal enjoyment or edification -- it's no solo thing. Luccock must have loved this passage.
One of the biggest dangers to our secular or sacred lives is to think that we can live to ourselves, in our own private, little world. In response to some concerns about the future solvency of the Social Security System, it has been proposed that we allow a certain privatization of future individual accounts. Essentially, this means withdrawing monies that would be normally deposited into the system by all Americans. Many are alarmed at this proposal, for it moves toward an individualism that favors the well-to-do, and favors those of means at the expense of the less favored. Spiritually, it creates a pervasive climate where people are encouraged to think that they can manage their economic future apart from all others. Privatization does not reflect the best in American values or those of our major religious traditions. Even when there is no Revolution at stake, Benjamin Franklin's comment rings true, "If we don't hang together, we'll all hang together." Hanging together is not very high on the list of many Americans today, and certainly not on the agenda of many political types today.
Unfortunately, the church has a long history of "Daisy Smith-ism," concentrating on personal, individual salvation without any concern for others, or the salvation of nature and the cosmos. The Protestant evangelistic tradition has traveled along this unbecoming fault line, blind to contrary traditions like we have from Paul today. Protestants have allowed Christians to speak of "personal salvation in Christ" while having no developed sense that salvation means involvement in the church, and involvement in ministering to the personal and public needs of the world. Talk to many Christians in the Protestant evangelical tradition and they will speak glowingly about having accepted Jesus Christ as their personal savior, with the only obligation seeming to be bringing others to this glowing, private moment.
One of the grandest exceptions to all of this was John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist tradition. Wesley was no slouch on the matter of personal evangelism. But he didn't stop there. He knew it wasn't sufficient, he got off a famous saying that went, "There is no religion but social religion, and no holiness, but social holiness." Wesley, like Luccock knew that the things that really count are corporate, not private and individualistic. And, both of them were aware that any private and individualistic achievements came out of corporate backgrounds.
We may be pleased that many churches that have largely presented an individual gospel are getting involved in social needs around them. Most of them have become involved in world and national hunger. While they do not touch the "not button" issues like tax structures, affirmative action, homosexuality, global warming, or the care of the environment, their newly found sense is that salvation is linked to something larger. They know it isn't just hustling down to the altar and mumbling a few words about accepting Jesus while the organ plays, "Just As I Am," and this is refreshing. Not only the conservative churches but also the mainstream churches, caught in their frantic plunge into frantic efforts at church growth, have often muted their social concern and settled for a comfortable, individualistic faith. A recent news comment in The Christian Century makes the same point, in responding to some remarks by Sally Morgenthaler in Theology, News & Notes, Spring. She says:
The preferred form of worship in many congregations consists of a welcome twenty minutes of singing contemporary music, then a special musical performance and a sermon ... Whatever else happens in contemporary worship is secondary to "disseminating information people need in order to gain more control over their lives" and to ensure that they achieve "individual happiness. (Never mind that control is an illusion and happiness is transitory. See Ecclesiastes.)
Let us list four places where our salvation can be whistled more effectively. The first is within the local congregation. Perhaps this is already clear from what has been said. The local church is a place where we join with other Christians on a journey toward a personal Christlikeness, and a personal reality that will ultimately have an effect on the whole world. We must always remember that the Apostle Paul placed his converts into those tiny churches he found or founded in the cities wherever he went. Paul certainly knew the shortcomings of those churches, just as you and I know the shortcomings in the churches to which we belong, but we also ought to know that without the church, any church, our lives in Christ will wither and die. The church is the first place where the fullness of salvation in Christ is recognized.
The second place where our salvation can be more effectively whistled is in contact with other Christian traditions. These are Christians from styles of doctrine, worship and actions that often are quite different from our own. At first they will seem strange to us. Sometimes they will seem frightening or even threatening to our faith, but in time these encounters can enrich our own faith and witness. We will learn that there is a Christian diversity that fits Jesus' comment, "Other sheep I have, that are not of this fold" (John 10:16). Another scripture that would ground this experience is Paul's classic word, "In Christ there is no Greek nor Jew, no slave nor free, no male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28). Bridging over into our Christian traditions is the second place where a more full Christian salvation may be experienced.
The third place where our salvation may be more effectively whistled is opening ourselves to the many non-Christian religious traditions. To shield ourselves from these non-Christian traditions is becoming more difficult each day. A friend says he went out one morning to pick up the paper. As he looked up he saw a man dressed in a business suit and tie, with a turban wound around his head, coming around the corner in his Volkswagen. My friend said that one, single moment informed him that he lived in a much different world than the one in which he had grown up. He would have to grow into this new world.
Our salvation in Christ may mean discovering how the revelation of God's love in Christ fits in with the other revealings of God's love and truth in the other religious traditions. For many of us, at least initially, this may be very difficult. To do this may seem to give up too much of our own faith. It may not be something that we can do at first. Yet gradually, perhaps by the power of what we call the Holy Spirit, we find it within ourselves to join in this effort -- we want to discover where God has been sharing God's own love apart from our own biblical tradition. In doing so, we will not cease to be Christians, nor will we cease giving our witness to Christ, but we will find enrichment in knowing the wider mercy and love of God to all humanity. So, immersing ourselves in the traditions and scriptures and worship of non-Christian religions may be a third place for us to discover the fullness of salvation in Christ.
The fourth place where our salvation may be more effectively whistled is the company of right-minded unbelievers. It has often been noted that Pope John XXIII began his encyclical on world peace, Pacem en Terris, by addressing it "To All Men of Good Will." He wrote before our consciousness about politically correct language, yet we can think that had he propagated his encyclical some years later, his church Latin would have been translated, "To All Persons of Good Will." Either way, his was a radical statement. He was insisting that the issue of world peace was not just a matter for Roman Catholics to concern themselves. Nor did he seem to think that the larger Christian community was up to bringing about a peaceful world. Strikingly, he called upon all people of "good will," believers and nonbelievers alike, to give themselves to the task of making a safe and peaceful world.
John XIII, perhaps unknowingly, has set a precedent for modern-day Christians wanting to work out their salvation. There are these great issues threatening humankind in today's world. Pope John got hold of one: world peace. We might also name a few more -- hunger, AIDS, terrorism, global warming, disappearance of the South American rainforests, illegal drugs, crime, street violence, underfunding of public needs, and shortage of medical care. You may have a list of your own. The point is this -- our lists mean that we are all convinced that Christ calls us as much to these great public needs as to the private evangelistic moment. Furthermore, we are all at risk and there is no secure shelter from the consequences of not trying to solve some of these problems.
If Christians are going to join the effort to battle some of the problems that plague humankind we will soon discover that the effort will need more than just dedicated Christians. We will need those Pope John called "persons of good will." These will often be people of no faith. They do not belong to the church and if we begin to take church to them they will refuse to listen to us. If they were part of the church at one time in their lives, they have parted from it and have no intention of going back. Yet, they are as deeply concerned about these issues as are Christians. They will give of themselves as sacrificially to these causes as Christians, and sometimes more so. They may have a deaf ear for Christian doctrine and any talk about salvation in Christ, but for many of them they live lives of loving concern that can put us to shame. We need not fear that being with, and working with, these non-believing "persons of good will" will shatter our faith, or even lessen it slightly. Interestingly, it will increase our faith in Christ, for we will discover the miracle that Christ's love can come to us through those who profess non-belief in him. The fullness of Christ overcoming the falseness of an individualistic understanding comes to us as we give ourselves in great tasks alongside the good-willed non-believers.
No, Daisy Smith can't whistle The Finale from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, but she can play it if she finds someone beyond her solitary self. Might I suggest she drop down into the second violin section, or the cellos, or violas? Perhaps Daisy would prefer the clarinets or the oboes or English horns. If Daisy is the noisier type, we might go over to the trumpet or trombone or tuba section, and if she likes variety, she could join the percussion section, for they play all those wonderful instruments from drums to cymbals to chimes to marimbas. And, if she joins the orchestra in the Beethoven Fifth, then it will really be played with all the passion and wonder that such music has to bless us.
