Word of Salvation – Vol. 18 No.14 – April 1972

 

Unfinished Symphony…!?

 

Sermon by the Rev. A. I. de Graaf, B.D. on Ephesians 1:9-10

Scripture Readings: Isaiah 11:1-13; Ephesians 1:1-14

Psalter Hymnal: 204:1,2,3; 204:4,5; 304; 336; 490

 

Brothers and sisters, boys and girls, congregation of our Lord Jesus!

I put above this sermon the title, “UNFINISHED SYMPHONY”.  Now you all know that a symphony is supposed to be some kind of piece of music.  As a matter of fact, the literal meaning of the word is, “SOUNDING TOGETHER”, for that is what a symphony is meant to do: some 100-odd instrument players making a sound that is ONE BEAUTIFUL WHOLE, – one glorious singing togetherness of harmony.

The opposite of SYMPHONY is CACOPHONY: and sometimes I think that much modern classical music (so called) could well be called by that name.  CACOPHONY means: what does NOT sound together.  Again one hundred fiddlers, thumpers, blowers and screechers, but with notes clanging, clashing, jarring against each other, each wailing his individual wail until the tormented listener feels like chipping in with a wail of his own as well.

Maybe that’s what some of these composers want exactly, for they write in a broken world and tell us OF a broken world, which means some of that music can make you cry.  Cry in compassion and at times in terror and despair: LORD HOW LONG, HOW LONG?

* * * * *

Well, our Lord in His Word in fact in our text today, tells us that He has heard the cry from a broken world, rising into His holy ears, and He has set out to do something about it.  He has sent His Son into the brokenness of our world to be broken Himself!  He has let go His dear One into the jarring cacophony of earth until He Himself became the bitter jarring note of a crucified criminal with waves of black hate washing and whirling up against His dying form, IN ORDER TO RESTORE THE SYMPHONY, THE SOUNDING-TOGETHER, not just of a few Christians, AND NOT JUST OF A SOUL WITH ITS GOD, but of all things in heaven and on earth.

That is the secret of the plan of God.  The Great Composer writes a symphony and here in Ephesians we are reading the score!  And the Great Conductor to make that symphony sound under His mighty baton, which really is a sceptre, is the Son of God Who died and rose again, and sent His Spirit to begin the job of rehearsing NOW.  That rehearsal: we’re right in the middle of it.

* * * * *

Well, at present you would agree it looks a mighty UNFINISHED symphony!

The clanging and clashing is well-nigh unbearable.  Every newspaper has that CLASHING as its main theme.  It clashes in Viet Nam and it clangs in the Middle East.  It clashes between employer and employees and it clashes between catholic and protestant in Northern Ireland and it clangs violently between white and black in America and Africa.  Powers of nature clash in a polluted world, and ever since Cain and Abel the clash is right within the family even, which is supposed to be a unit of love!  Husbands against wives in love-turned-into-searing hate; children and parents jarring into one another over the generation gap.

Capital against labour… bang, bang, go the drummers out of time all the time.  East against West.  Man against animal; yes, even church against church; and WITHIN THE SAME CHURCH often man against scheming man.  Earth jars against heaven and the worst modern cacophony cannot be as bad as what the angels surely must hear when the combined sounds from this earth reach the sensitive antennae of the heavens: BROKEN. . . BROKEN. . . BROKEN, O GOD HOW LONG, HOW LONG?

* * * * *

But the angels do not stop praising and heaven does not cease rejoicing, for THIS – says God – THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT JESUS CAME TO DO!  To UNITE what was broken, and bring all, heaven and earth, man and woman, parent and child, capital and labour, east and west, nature and human civilization TOGETHER.  But then: TOGETHER UNDER THE ONE HEAD.  And that head is Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of Man.  Even my own broken heart shall be UNITED; and the prayer of Psalm 86 answered in that at last I shall NO MORE be divided in my mind between
            flesh and spirit,
            love and hate,
            grief and joy,
            obedience and rebellion.

You know, Jesus’ greatest work on earth is NOT just to get ME into heavenly Bliss, into the joy of peace with God.  That’s where Mary Magdalene was wrong when she wanted to keep the Risen Christ just for herself (never mind the others!); that is where pietism has lost the vision!  When it wants to save souls and keep Christ nicely talking with me in some inner room!

But outside the world jars and jangles on; too bad…!

DON’T HOLD ME! says Jesus!

I must go up to your father and My Father; Your GOD and my God, I must go to the throne for the Symphony must be conducted: IT MUST ALL BECOME ONE UNDER ME AS HEAD!  O church of Jesus, don’t make your nice fellowship a ghetto.

* * * * *

But on the other hand, NEITHER is Jesus’ greatest work on earth the bringing of bread to the hungry, and welfare to the poor.  That’s where the Jews were wrong when they wanted to make Jesus the Multiplier of Bread and Fishes, their “Super-Duper-Welfare” King!  When Jesus saw that, He withdrew from them.  That is where the SOCIAL GOSPEL has lost the vision!  As if man can live by bread and welfare cheques alone!  Nicely sharing material bliss with other recipients and growing fat in front of soothing television.

But: DON’T HOLD ME! says Jesus!  I must go to conduct a greater symphony than man sharing with man.  HEAVEN AND earth must be united!  ALL UNDER THE ONE HEAD!  The Ecumenical Movement dreams of all being one.  They catch a glimpse of the vision.  But Jesus wants to go further than they: because they are not just to BE together; but they are to PLAY AND SING a song of praise together; a song that has CONTENT; a song that has a THEME, and that theme is the GREAT WORKS OF GOD.  After all that is also the theme of the first Ecumenical gathering of the Christian Church on earth: on Pentecost Day!

And the jarring note that says “BUT THAT I CAN’T BELIEVE” does not fit into the symphony of the Son of God!

* * * * *

You see, the dream of heaven and earth being One, and all mankind inside it being one, has been dreamed by many.  It has been dreamed lately by a French Jesuit who died a few years ago: Pierrre Teilhard de Chardin.  He was a biologist who studied early forms of life and fossils of long-bygone-ages.  He believed in Evolution: and his dream was that all beings on earth, including man, are developing, evolving, growing;.. through trial and error, through pain and dreadful mistake, by struggle for life and survival of the fittest, towards a point which – and that is where religion comes in with him – towards a point which GOD has set: Point Omega.  For had not Jesus said, “I am alpha and Omega, beginning. . . and COMPLETED END?

We will grow towards point Omega, and when at last we get there, then God shall be all in all.  Then heaven and earth shal1 be indeed together under the one Head: Jesus Christ!

But Paul speaks a different language here: Jesus is not just the final goal for a pilgrimage of nice idealists; Jesus is not the final fulfilment of a dream of evolution supervised by God; Jesus is in Ephesians 1 and all the Bible THE GREAT DESTROYER OF SIN!  We shall be to the praise of the glory OF HIS GRACE says Paul!

God allows us never to forget that our CACOPHONY, our BROKENNESS, our JARRING NOTES, are caused by SIN.

Our ignorance is IGNORING, our tragedy is REVOLUTION, and if this cacophony of a clashing world become a symphony again, then it will NOT BE BY DEVELOPMENT, but by REDEMPTION.

When the Great Conductor is already in heaven having the praises swirling around him in beautiful togetherness of saint and angel, creature and starry universe, then the song is TO A LAMB STANDING AS SLAIN!  The song is to HIM THAT BOUGHT US BY HIS BLOOD!  Only as Lamb can He be the Lion of Judah!  The mystery is always the mystery of the CROSS in which we glory.  Not as idealists full of humanist goodwill, or workers for an evolving kingdom, but as born-again, blood-washed, spirit-cleansed erstwhile sinners now called to be cross-bearing disciples, can we – and must we – bring this message of THE COMING SYMPHONY.  We must bring this message of a world being made one again, to a broken earth, and seek, where we are, to begin realizing that oneness.

* * * * *

Whatever you do!  Whatever your Christian program!  NEVER AWAY FROM THAT CROSS!  But carry THAT cross into the world: yes the world of labour and industry, the world of business and social concerns, the world of science and art, the world of race relations and generation gaps.

The Christians in Ephesus to whom Paul wrote this letter had a race problem of their own: Jews and Gentiles pitted against each other in distrust.

The Jew looked at the Gentile and said: “How can HE belong?  He has not kept the Laws of Moses and his blood is unclean.  Who can ever change him?”  But the gentile looked at the Jew and said: “The silly, stuck-up snob!  Who does HE think he is!  His people even crucified the Lord Jesus!”

But Paul told them: “Jesus has broken down that wall and now HE IS OUR PEACE!”  And he got them, Jews and Greeks, to begin the symphony of togetherness there in that local church, each playing his part, oh yes, even his OWN part.  And they differed too!.  After all a Jew IS from a different race and how can he wipe that out?

DON’T wipe that out!  says God, but play your part in a symphony and then it sounds together, and then it is BETTER that not all instruments are violins.  It is beautiful that there are trumpets too, and harps and bassoons with their funny snort, and kettledrums with their hilarious thump, and even a little boy hitting a simple triangle; but it sounds together because the Conductor has it well in His pierced hands!

HE IS OUR PEACE.

* * * * *

And then CHRISTIAN marriage shows what a man and a woman can do and be, TOGETHER.

And religion and life do not clash any more but all of life BEGINS TO BE RELIGION.

And boss and worker begin to seek for that wonderful togetherness you can already find in the book Ruth.  And Christians try to get good labour relations going NOW ALREADY even though powerful unions dislike it, and many disillusioned workers laugh them to scorn.  Parent and child know that there is a greater truth than the generation gap.  One made a BRIDGE OF LOVE over it, and He says: Parent you are different from your child; and young fellow, young girl, of course you are different from your parents.  I want you to be!  But you play together, each your own distinctive part, but let ME conduct and the cacophony becomes a symphony all right!

East and West; they both have their own approach.  The Easterner is like John, says a history professor; and the active, striving Westerner is like Peter.  But Jesus had them both preaching the same Gospel and he even had them both write in the ONE Bible.  The Symphony has started, and yet, yes – it is unfinished.

* * * * *

Heaven and earth?

Even earth itself seems far from it and many are hoping that our space travels will not export our bad pollution into worlds untouched by its blight.  Christians are praying here and there that God will please keep our earth in quarantine a bit, for it is sick.

But Paul has seen something else, and heaven and earth get poised to play ONE SYMPHONY and JESUS CHRIST THE HEAD, THE CONDUCTOR, will call forth one unbroken Hallelujah from it.

* * * * *

With that vision the Lord sends you into your weekly work.  That vision and that hope: DO NOT GIVE UP!  That vision and that PRAYER of a sighing creature: “Come, Lord Jesus, oh come quickly.”  But I pray that not only with my heart.  I also pray it with a born-again life, a born-again business, and a praying, hallelujah-ing science.  For the mystery of God’s will is a world that is ONE again.  A life that is healed!  A Symphony which THEN shall be finished.

Amen.