Perfect Unison

Tonight I am posting the first of a series of articles written by a friend on the subject of unity. If you look back over past posts, you will see that this is something that the Lord has had me thinking a lot about lately. I suppose it is just where we are...at least in the body of believers that I am a part of. Anyway, I trust you will be encouraged by these articles by Ron Bergthold and I apologize that it has been so long since my last post. :)

~Jon


Perfect Unison
by Ron Bergthold

How do you get two piccolo players to play in perfect unison? (Answer: Shoot one.)

Unity can be difficult to achieve. Because unity often requires us to “give in” to another’s position, we will only submit when we truly honor the other person and expect that the end result will be worth our effort. Consider the difficulty of tuning two instruments – let alone an entire orchestra. Playing in and listening to middle school bands has taught me to understand that unity of pitch does not come naturally, but is only learned over time, and then only with help. How does this key learning take place?

Most musical groups tune everyone to one person. Whether this person has the right pitch is usually not questioned; the goal is unity. If the entire group plays sharp, at least they are together. Professional orchestras tune to the oboe, since it plays a consistent pitch. This works well unless you have an inconsistent or missing oboist. Then the task often defaults to the pianist or anyone who plays the best pitch. This “follow the best leader” process seems to work well enough for most organizations.

But today, technology has brought us the digital tuner! Science has eliminated one of the key purposes of the oboist and avoided the pain of coming to agreement with an on-site, but off-pitch, piano. However, the problem is still not totally solved. Musicians must still learn to match the perfect pitch presented. I personally like to believe that my own instrument was factory tuned and I can avoid this whole effort, but insisting that would only lead to the detriment of the music to follow.

The ideal must be to have players with perfect pitch – that internal sense and ability to play in tune no matter what. But players with this ability can be irritating and irritable; the former because their perfection points out our own imperfections and the latter because they have the ever-present burden of sensing all the off-pitch noises filling their imperfect world. And may two perfect-pitch players never disagree, for I am fearful that one may be compelled to shoot the other.

In 1 Corinthians 1:10, the Apostle Paul definitely encourages us all to play in tune: “I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.” As hard as it is to tune an orchestra, it is much more difficult to reach agreement within the walls of a church. Indeed, the very presence of Paul’s appeal points to a need at that time. So how do we accomplish this today?

We often take the “follow-the-leader” approach only to find out the leader is off-pitch. We may discover the “digital tuner” model, which brings us to realize that God provided His Word as the perfect guidance we need. However, this model still requires us to believe its truth to the degree that we are willing to make our will subservient to the stated will of our Father. Ideally, we would like to attain perfect pitch with the Father, and indeed, we do have this opportunity!

Jesus prayed for each believer in John 17:21 that, “…those who believe in me…would be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.” Can this really be possible? Please remember who is praying! God provided the material answer to His Son’s prayer by placing within each believer the Holy Spirit to interpret and assist us in finding the right pitch. The very first note that affirms His presence in us is a humility that produces an honor for and obedience to His Word. The ideal church is one in which all members are not only listening to the Holy Spirit but adjusting their minds and actions to conform to His Word. The Bible provides much more meat to this direction, and Peter provides a great start in 1 Peter 3:8: “Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble.” Are you in tune?

For the TRBC Orchestra on Aug 27, 2008