1 Peter 2:9–12
The Church as Instrument
March 18, 2007 (4 th Sunday in Lent)
University Christian Church, Seattle, WA
Rev. Sandy Messick

I. This has truly been a disappointing week. Botched lines, forgotten words, poor decisions and someone’s going home. And no I’m not talking about the Bush administration and the furor over fired U.S. attorneys. I’m talking about that which commands even greater attention and gets more voters to vote than any U.S. election. Yes, this is American Idol. Now, if you’re not following along, like I said, this was a tough week for the 12 finalists. Several of them forgot the words to their songs. And a couple others decided to rewrite classic songs.

a. Super diva Diana Ross was the guest artist and each contestant had to sing a Diana Ross song.

b. One of the contestants chose to sing Endless Love, which most people either love or hate. But in his effort to make it more contemporary, he completely rewrote the melody to the point that it was unrecognizable. Only the words seemed even a little bit familiar. Let us just say the judges were not impressed.

II. It made me realize what a risk a music composer takes each time he or she lets go of a creation and entrusts it to the hands of a musician.

a. The composer hears the music in his or her head of course. They know how it ought to sound. They know what emotions, images, or feelings it should evoke. And then the composer uses the best skills available to transfer that vision, that musical creation onto paper.

b. But then comes that moment of faith, that moment of trust, when the composer places the creation into the hands of the musicians. It must be like letting go of a child and sending that child out into the world. Will the musicians do it justice? Will they interpret it well? Will it have the same character when it is performed as the composer heard when it was created? Or will it be completely bungled and mangled, and left unrecognizable?

c. It’s a risk.

III. And it’s the same risk, I think, that God takes with us. Our faith affirms that it is God who composes the great song of life and then inexplicably, perhaps foolishly, places it into human hands. God wrote the song, and then invited us to play it for the world. Will the melody we offer come anywhere close to the beauty of the song God has written?

a. Today, continuing the theme of images of the church, we look at the Church as Instrument.

b. Now, there are two ways to interpret the word “instrument.” For us, we are both the tool that God uses in Christ to get God’s work done in the world. And we are also the instrument on which God’s song is played and heard in the world.

c. Mother Teresa recognized this role when she said, “I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world. We are all pencils in the hands of God.” Instruments. Called to play God’s song.

d. 1Peter describes it another way. We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that we may proclaim the mighty acts of the One who called us out of darkness and into God’s marvelous light.

e. We’re often uncomfortable with this language. We don’t necessarily like the term “Chosen people, or holy nation,” because they seem to proclaim a superiority over other people, or a stamp of approval on all our actions because “God’s on our side.” But as one commentary put it, “ Chosen race, or chosen people, can also be interpreted as God’s called out people, the community where the love and life of God are made clear to the world.”

f. In other words, we are a community that sings God’s love song to the world. It’s not our song. It’s not our revision of God’s song that so mangles the tune as to be unrecognizable. But God’s song. God is the composer. The church is the instrument on which God’s song is played.

III. So if that is true, what song does God want….no need to play through us? Isn’t that the question we’ve wrestled with for so long? And yet, in a very deep and real way, we already know.

a. Last fall, as we gathered in small groups and set about writing a statement of “Who we are called to be,” eight separate groups came up with eight very similar answers. The essence of each answer was combined into one statement of purpose that I believe sums up how we understand our mission and purpose in this time.

b. Essentially, you have said, University Christian Church is called to be a diverse and inclusive community seeking to be faithful, a visible sign of God’s grace and reconciling love for the whole human family, servants of the neighborhood, city, state, nation, and world; a church reaching out to, and being a special place of welcome for the poor and vulnerable; a body speaking and acting boldly for justice and peace; a community caring for and supporting each other; a congregation helping each other to grow in faith and live in continual relationship with God. This is the song we have been called to sing, and each piece of it bears witness to our understanding of the symphony God has written.

• We are called to be a diverse and inclusive community. We recognize that God’s symphony is not a one note monotone tuneless creation, but a work that is gloriously full and rich. And when we play it well, the world can hear it and say, “I never thought those notes could go together, but wasn’t it beautiful.
• We are called to boldly speak and act for justice and peace. Sometimes the notes we are called to play are jarring to the ear, the chords are discordant, and the music of God clashes with our culture.
• I remember an anthem I sang once as part of a choir in another church. The last chords of the piece didn’t resolve. The music was left unsettled. During practice our natural, unconscious inclination was to sing a different note because instinctively we wanted the music to end well, in harmony. It made us uncomfortable to leave it unresolved. But that’s the way the composer had written it. The music was supposed to leave us hanging. Sometimes, as God’s instruments, we are called to play music that leaves us, and our listeners, longing, perhaps with a holy impatience, for resolution.
• We are called to reach out to the poor and the vulnerable and welcome them in. In great compositions, even those scored for full orchestra, not all the instruments play all the parts, and oftentimes, the melody weaves in and out among the parts. Sometimes you have to listen carefully to hear where the melody is being played at any particular time. But it is in the mixing of parts, the artful weaving of low notes to high notes and loud to soft, that the music is made interesting, that the music becomes what it was created to be.
• We are called to be visible signs of God’s grace and reconciling love. The wise instrument recognizes that it is not up to us to compose the music. God has already written and continues to write the love song for the world. But we have a role to play too. We are called to be God’s instrument upon which God’s grace and reconciling love can be heard.

IV. Ignace Paderewski was a concert pianist and later Prime Minister in Poland during the first half of the 20 th century. The story is told of a young mother who, wanting to further her young son’s interest in music, took him to one of Paderewski’s concerts. Before the concert began, the mother became involved chatting with an acquaintance and the little boy slipped away. As notes arose from the piano, the mother gasped to see her young son sitting on the stage at the grand piano picking out the notes to “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.” Before she could react, the great pianist Paderewski quickly strode across the stage. “Don’t quit, keep playing,” he whispered in the little boy’s ear. Then reaching around with his left hand he filled in the bass notes. Soon, he reached around with his right hand and added running obligatos. Together the child, encircled by the Master’s arms produced beautiful music that filled the concert hall.

Today God whispers the same words to us, as we seek to be God’s instrument in the world. “Don’t quit, keep playing.” And as we do, it is God’s music that can be heard flowing forth from us.