Pachebel’s Canon is one of my favorite pieces
of music. Debbie and I used it as the
prelude at our wedding, which gives it for me additional affective power. Early in my days at my church in Ohio, I
shared this with my church organist. He
countered that it was one of his least favorite pieces of music and asked that
he never be asked to play it in worship. (He was an extremely talented musician
and, therefore, fairly high strung and opinionated when it came to music. His talent purchased for him a lot of
patience on my part and the part of the congregation.) Not many weeks after that, he shared with me
that his wife played the accordion. I
confessed to him that the accordion was my least favorite instrument and asked
that his wife never play it in a worship service. These were two issues on which we were never going to find common
ground. It was healthy to get them out
in the open early in our work together.
Several
weeks later, he brought to me a cassette recording with 12 different renderings
of Pachebel’s Canon. He suggested to me
that I could listen to it whenever I wished and thereby get my fill of the
piece. I suggested that his wife could
play her accordion in worship when I was on vacation. I wore out the tape over the years, and his wife played her
accordion each year during my summer vacation.
We never agreed about Pachebel and accordions, but we did work together
in harmony.
Agreement
and harmony are not the same thing. We
sometimes make that mistake. We think
that harmony in our various communities—home, church, and civil
society—necessitates agreement; it does not.
We can live in harmony with people with whom we disagree.
Paul
writes:
As God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. (Col. 3:12-15).
Paul
writes about “bearing one another” in the same breath with “perfect
harmony.” The word translated “bear”
means: forbear; endure; or put up with.
It does not mean agree with one another on everything. He describes a reciprocal arrangement: I put
up with you, and you put up with me.
Harmony springs from a common purpose and mutual core commitments. It is fed by mutual concern and a desire to
seek the well being of the other. It is
a sign that we have taken the peace of Christ to heart in our living. Harmony is possible in the midst of our
disagreements. We don’t have to agree
on everything to live in harmony. We do
have to bear with one another. That is
what Paul is saying; he wants something deeper for us than simple
agreement. We seek agreement as a
substitute for harmony because it is simpler, easier, faster, and asks less of
us. Harmony, on the other hand,
involves forgiveness and love. In other
words, it is labor intensive. One of
the core values of our Region is connectedness. Forbearance that leads to harmony is a central feature of this
connectedness.
A
Footnote: When Debbie and I arrived in
Belgium and for the first time met with the house church that we were to
pastor, the church musician walked in with—you guessed—an accordion case—the
accordion, up close and personal, every Sunday in my living room for four
years. As the Psalmist writes: “He who
sits in the heavens laughs…. (Psalm 2:4).
Blessings,
Jim
Kelsey
Executive
Minister American Baptist Churches-New York State
Please
note: I will be on vacation until September 2nd. You can contact the Region office of Jerrod
Hugenot, Associate Executive Minister (518-380-4510 or jhugenot@abc-nys.org) if you have a
pressing matter.)
- - - -
-
As American Baptists of New York State, we will
embrace God's future with these core values: honesty, connectedness and hope.
We will uphold our operational values in every aspect of our common ministry.
