Today’s Lectionary Readings: Psalm 68; Jeremiah 32:16-25; Matthew 13:18-24; 1 Corinthians 14:1-12; Psalm 21
I started taking piano lessons when I was in the fifth grade. I had a marvelous piano teacher who did a tremendous job of opening the world of music to me. I only had one small complaint about her approach to music: she was a bit of an elitist. My teacher felt that the only “good” music was that written by the masters hundreds of years ago. She looked down her nose at much of the music written after 1900. An amazing thing happened during my junior year of high school that challenged her approach to the core; the movie “Amadeus” was released. Of course my piano teacher hated the movie because it had the audacity to take on one of the masters – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – and portray him as an actual human being. The film went so far as to suggest that Mozart wrestled with many of the same things that all of us do – things like lust, jealousy, and pride. What I loved about the film is that it reminded folks that the “masters” of their day were deeply loved and valued not because their work fed the souls of the elite; rather, they were loved because their music had the capacity to touch all the people. In many ways, their music WAS the popular music of their day. As a teenager that helped me break down the artificial barrier that some construct between good music (i.e. which usually means “music that I like”) and bad music (i.e. which usually means “music that I don’t like”). A similar principle is at work in today’s passage from 1 Corinthians where Paul explores the phenomenon of speaking in tongues. It is clear from Paul’s words that there were those elitists in the community who were like my piano teacher and valued the ability to speak in tongues because it set them apart from others. Paul doesn’t mince words in addressing such an approach. He wrote, “It’s more important that everyone has access to the knowledge and love of God in language everyone understands than that you go off and cultivate God’s presence in a mysterious prayer language…” (1 Corinthians 14:5 – The Message). The beauty of cultivating spiritual disciplines in our lives that speak not to just SOME of the people but ALL of the people is that by doing so “you’re letting others in on the truth so that they can grow and be strong and experience [God’s] presence with you” (1 Corinthians 14:3 – The Message). So what is your approach to your spiritual life? Do you find yourself gravitating toward experiences of God that are reserved solely for yourself, or do you look for ways of experiencing God that invite other people into your encounter as well? Til next time…
I started taking piano lessons when I was in the fifth grade. I had a marvelous piano teacher who did a tremendous job of opening the world of music to me. I only had one small complaint about her approach to music: she was a bit of an elitist. My teacher felt that the only “good” music was that written by the masters hundreds of years ago. She looked down her nose at much of the music written after 1900. An amazing thing happened during my junior year of high school that challenged her approach to the core; the movie “Amadeus” was released. Of course my piano teacher hated the movie because it had the audacity to take on one of the masters – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – and portray him as an actual human being. The film went so far as to suggest that Mozart wrestled with many of the same things that all of us do – things like lust, jealousy, and pride. What I loved about the film is that it reminded folks that the “masters” of their day were deeply loved and valued not because their work fed the souls of the elite; rather, they were loved because their music had the capacity to touch all the people. In many ways, their music WAS the popular music of their day. As a teenager that helped me break down the artificial barrier that some construct between good music (i.e. which usually means “music that I like”) and bad music (i.e. which usually means “music that I don’t like”). A similar principle is at work in today’s passage from 1 Corinthians where Paul explores the phenomenon of speaking in tongues. It is clear from Paul’s words that there were those elitists in the community who were like my piano teacher and valued the ability to speak in tongues because it set them apart from others. Paul doesn’t mince words in addressing such an approach. He wrote, “It’s more important that everyone has access to the knowledge and love of God in language everyone understands than that you go off and cultivate God’s presence in a mysterious prayer language…” (1 Corinthians 14:5 – The Message). The beauty of cultivating spiritual disciplines in our lives that speak not to just SOME of the people but ALL of the people is that by doing so “you’re letting others in on the truth so that they can grow and be strong and experience [God’s] presence with you” (1 Corinthians 14:3 – The Message). So what is your approach to your spiritual life? Do you find yourself gravitating toward experiences of God that are reserved solely for yourself, or do you look for ways of experiencing God that invite other people into your encounter as well? Til next time…
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