We Are the Music

This Sermon is based on Matthew 16:21-28.

As some of you are beginning to find out, music is a big part of my life. It follows then that one of my favorite quotations is all about music. In the novel detailing her walkabout journey with an aboriginal tribe of Australia, Morgan Marlow recalls one of the tribal members stating, “A musician carries the music within him. He needs no specific instrument. He is the music.” He is the music, what a powerful statement. Now I want you to repeat after me, “We are the music…” All together now...

So if we are the music, then it follows that we are all musicians. It’s true, we are all musicians. We walk through this world making music. Whether it be our words, our actions, our attitude, or our general disposition, we all make music as we move through this world. We create the soundtrack to our lives.

Now just like the music we listen to, the music we create has certain characteristics, namely harmony and dissonance. Harmony is a pleasing sound. The notes fit together to make sounds pleasant to the ears. Dissonance is a clashing sound. It builds tension, perhaps it makes us uncomfortable. The music we make carries these qualities. We can create harmony, dissonance, or a combination of both, just like music. Our God is no different.

Harmony is what was being sung the last time we encountered Matthew’s Gospel. Peter has just confessed Jesus to be the Christ, the Messiah of God. Jesus tells Peter that he is the rock upon which the church will be build, a foundation so strong that not even the gates of Hades will prevail against it. God’s song, the Messiah, is breaking into the world, the theme music is full of rich chords, harmony pouring out with every note. The disciples are beginning to join the chorus. And then Jesus continues talking.

After warning the disciples not to tell anyone that he is the Messiah, Jesus unveils the next leg of his earthly journey, his passion. In a moment of clarity, we get a glimpse of where Jesus is headed and of who will be there to welcome him, the next verse of the song is revealed. Jerusalem, the city that kills prophets, the city that Jesus weeps over, the home of the powers of this world, shall be the stage upon which his passion will play out. The premier players are to be the religious leaders, the elders, chief priests and scribes. Jesus is to be handed over to suffering and death at their hands and he is to be raised after three days. The music, it seems, has changed. Dissonance fills the air, the theme is now dark and foreboding. The tension is too much. Peter steps in.

Of course it had to be Peter. Fresh off his shining moment of confession, a revelation straight from God, Peter steps in to set Jesus straight. There is to be no suffering and death for the Christ, the Messiah of God. That is not how the song of the Messiah is supposed to be sung. The Messiah is supposed to restore Israel to power, to end the suffering brought on by the hands of Rome. Peter is about to take a stand for his faith, a stand for what he and many of the Jews believe in. Jesus has to be set straight.

So Peter takes Jesus aside and has a few words with him. He contradicts Jesus, “God forbid it, Lord!” “May God in his mercy spare you this!” This is not how the song goes he tells Jesus. Peter is trying to evaporate the sudden tension that has filled the room. The newly revealed passion of Jesus does not jive with how Peter’s song of the Messiah is supposed to be sung. It seems that Jesus and Peter are no longer singing the same song.

The response of Jesus is quick. He turns to Peter and abruptly states “Get behind me Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” Peter, you are not in harmony with me, you’re not singing God’s song anymore, Jesus says. Your mind is in harmony with human things, not divine. Your song for the Messiah is not God’s song.

This is what happens when we try and sing our own song, we tend to get out of rhythm with God. Broken relationships, revenge, greed, abusing each other and creation, the struggle for power, self-centeredness, these are the verses of the song of this world, the song we so often sing. When we forget who we are as people of God, our song grows louder and a trail of busted stuff is left in our wake. When we try and live by our own means, when we stay focused on human things, when we let our song get in the way, we lose sight of Jesus Christ and his call for us to follow. We forget the song of God and we sing in dissonance with God, not harmony.

Sometimes we do not even know that we’re singing in dissonance with God. Sometimes we sing our own tunes so well that they get stuck in our heads and drown out the music that gave us life, the very song of God. Peter thought he was in harmony with Jesus, he thought he was singing the same tune. But his song was not in harmony with God. Peter’s song was to keep Jesus alive, God’s song is to give the world life through Jesus. Peter’s mind was on human things.

And so it is with us. It’s the struggle we face every day. How do we use our lives to sing God’s song amidst the dissonance of our world? For this we only need to be reminded of God’s song, a song that contains both harmony and dissonance: A harmony that sets us free and gives us new life, a dissonance that reminds us of how to live when we start singing our own song. Since the beginning of it all, our God has been writing music to bring life as we know it into harmony. God’s voice sung the world from chaos into goodness at the birth of creation. God sung the people of Israel to new life again and again in the Old Testament, singing both dissonance and harmony in the ebb and flow of their relationship. God sent Jesus Christ into our world, writing a new harmonious song into the fabric of history through the Messiah. Jesus is God’s response to the dissonance we create with our songs. Jesus is the harmonious tune sung by God, the song that sets us free.

Through his ministry of teaching and healing, Jesus teaches us how to sing a new song of mercy and love. He teaches us how to sing in harmony with God and with one another. Through our baptism into Jesus Christ, we are set free to join into the song of God. Our voices are united with the saints of every age in the never ending chorus that proclaims Jesus Christ as the gift of new life to the world. And we are already singing it this morning.

In our worship, our reading of scripture, and our sharing in the Lord ’s Supper. In our being a part of a community of faith, our voices come forth singing notes of God’s song. We are put back in tune with God. When we worship with one another, we come together to honor our God who gives us new life and a voice to sing in this world. When we dig into scripture, we hear God’s song in action in the past, so that we can recognize it and sing it into our lives today, so that we can sing it boldly into the future of our world to come. We come to the font and the table to be filled with the gifts of God’s heart that set us free and strengthen us to sing the song of God as we walk through this world.

For that is the place where we must go, back out into this world that has its mind set firmly on human things. Into a world that sings its own song, often times in dissonance to the song of God. But remember, we are all musicians, we are the music. We were created to sing the song of God. So lift up your voices and sing. Sing out dear people of God. Sing your hearts out. With your hearts and voices, actions and lives, sing the song of God that proclaims new life in Jesus Christ. Let your journey’s of faith write songs that are in harmony with the song of God. Be the musicians you were created to be.