The Voice – part 17

Getting in tune with each other and the ‘Master Conductor’

Time was when I was a passable singer. In fact I auditioned for the Bournemouth Sinfonietta Chamber Choir … and got in! I was a Curate in Poole at the time and one of our choirmen challenged me to ‘have a go’. He had auditioned and failed, but I managed to succeed: much to my own complete astonishment (and his thinly veiled annoyance)! I shall never forget my first rehearsal. The Librarian gave out binders with our names on them. Each binder contained a sheaf of musical pieces: all of them fiendishly hard to sight-read.

But here I was: I had truly arrived and thought myself very grand. My reverie lasted until the moment when the choirmaster raised his baton and the accompanist struck up. I had scarcely opened my mouth for breath when my fellow singers were “off”! They sang those pieces for the very first time and the sound was remarkable. You would have thought they had sung the pieces many times before, but they had not. Their sight reading was impeccable. Mine was a disaster!

I had made a dreadful mistake: thinking myself a tenor capable of holding my own in such exalted company. Two minutes into the rehearsal and I wanted to go home. At the end of the evening I sidled up to the choirmaster and expressed my embarrassment. “I’m afraid I’ve made a mistake. I’ll never cope with this. Thank you for the experience, but please excuse me and thanks for the coffee, but I shall not be returning.” The choirmaster gave a faint, indulgent smile and said, “well, Chris, do you think these others could sight-read with their present level of skill when they first joined the choir? Give it a month and then leave if you still feel you can’t cope.” Needless to say, I stayed. Within weeks my ability to sight-read had advanced rapidly and when we began the second season of rehearsals I was running with the best of them.

A red-letter day came when the orchestra came in to rehearse with the choir. We singers were standing behind the players and together we faced the conductor, the “big boss” to whom the choirmaster had now transferred responsibilities for the concert. We were anxious to please and launched into the programme with gusto. It was thrilling when our voices and instruments fused together and a new dimension of sound was created.

I shall never forget my amazement when watching a clarinettist from behind. His musical score was printed with his part, but then between entries there were spaces with a figure in place of notes. This showed the number of bars between the playable sections when he had simply to count and wait. When he wasn’t actually blowing into his clarinet he was expected to count the bars before his next entry, all the while keeping an attentive eye on the conductor. When his next entry was due, the maestro shot a glance at him and with a deft wave of his baton brought him in to play his next sequence of notes. It was the same with all the instruments including our own voices; the conductor working wonders as he wove all our parts together to produce the harmonious sound intended by the composer.

A larger orchestra …

It was immediately obvious that here was an unexpected but moving demonstration of the Church Jesus intended to build. As I watched it all playing out, my mind raced to Paul’s great teaching concerning the body of Christ in 1 Corinthians 12:12ff, “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptised by one Spirit into one body … Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”

The image presented is of a body of believers, each personally gifted in a particular way, each having a ministry of his own. In the same way as a human body functions properly when it is coordinated, so too the body of Christ functions when each part is working properly under the direction of the Head – Jesus Himself.

Paul speaks further on the unity and function of the Church – the body of Christ – in Ephesians 4:16. He writes, “From Him (Christ the Head) the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”

It’s an astonishing description and so easy to understand. Indeed, some of us might feel that it is all too easy to understand because it carries implications we would prefer to avoid! Not least the insistence on each part doing its work.

… all fulfilling their function

If a musician took a personal decision to doze off during a concert, he would miss his entry and spoil the piece for everyone performing and everyone listening. Furthermore, if he woke suddenly in a panic and seized his instrument for a quick blast he would create a spectacular moment but a disastrous one! Imagine the withering glare from the conductor!

In the matter of exercising our gift(s) in and through the local church, our attention to the Holy Spirit’s leading is key. He orchestrates everything and directs the performance of the body of players to create harmony in ministry. This was picked up by Paulwhen writing to the Philippians, the church where harmony was a genuine and wonderful feature. In fact, the only discordant note was struck by two of the sisters named Euodiaand Syntyche who seem to have had a slight contretemps that needed to be put right (Philippians 4:2). I once heard a preacher suggest that the meaning of their names was “you’re odious and so touchy”. Somehow I doubt that translation, but it certainly has its appeal!

In Philippians 1:3-5, Paul writes, “I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.”

Alec Motyer (1) says the phrase “partnership in the gospel” should properly be translated, “fellowship in the furtherance of the gospel”. This means that the believers in Philippi recognised their privilege in furthering the gospel together, side by side. It was not left to the select few. They were not trapped by the notion that church life is simply a matter of individuals expressing their faith through their own personal relationship with Jesus, as in “you in your small corner and I in mine”! On the contrary they lived every day in the reality of fellowship (KOINONIA) and that included harmony in ministry – each member using his spiritual gift under the direction of the Holy Spirit to present the beautiful and corporate ministry of Jesus to bless the world.

Something has been lost …

A few decades ago, we were much more conscious of the need to be the body of Christ and to express that unity over the whole spectrum of church life. It appears to have faded. The Book of Acts, however, is a continuous demonstration of it. Unity in ministering the gifts, unity in the sharing of resources, unity even when there were differences of emphasis between the believers, unity without rejection when anyone was in trouble. The list is impressive … and very, very costly. Living in fellowship always is costly and that is why it has become a rarity. Often spoken of but rarely experienced. In consequence Christianity is in trouble. True fellowship between believers is not an option. We are given no choice by Jesus. He insists upon it because His chosen intention is to bless the world through His Church and it is the ministry of the body that makes that real.

Having a travelling ministry, Lindy and I visit many churches and groups of believers yet, to be frank, we see little evidence of body ministry. Indeed, many believers are unaware of gifts the Lord has distributed among them. This is hugely serious. If we do not know what our gifts are we are completely unable to enter into the fellowship of furthering the gospel, the good news that Jesus saves and makes whole. Many of us have the form of discipleship but completely lack the function.

When that is the case we are like orchestral players who have no idea how to read music or play their instrument! As long as we are sitting on the platform or in the orchestra pit we can look the part and the audience can think we are there on merit! But it’s all a pretence and the state of our country is a tragic consequence. Surrounded by churches in form but deprived of functioning churches.

… but is worth striving for

Excellence in music does not come easily. It requires disciplined and hard work. It requires choices in the use of time. When a small boy I thoroughly resented having to practice the piano every evening before being allowed to go out to play with my friends. They would hang about by the garden gate calling out rude comments and laughing while I toiled away at my scales and arpeggios. I well remember my dear Mum coming from the kitchen and saying, “now, Chris, you stay there until you’ve finished your practice. The day will come when you will be able to play the piano well, but your friends will still only be able to loiter by the gate!”

Mum was right, of course. Mum usually was!

There is a wonderful thrill that comes when musicians create music together. Fusing my voice with the Sinfonietta Choir and Orchestra lives in my memory even after all these years. The sound we produced was marvellous but it was only possible because of our hard work and the consummate skill of our conductor and choirmaster. We were trained and took our opportunity to perform.

Perhaps we need to take note. Are we believers submitting to the training we call discipleship? Are we honing our gifts? Are our eyes on the Holy Spirit who longs to direct us? Do we aspire to be doers of the Word and not hearers only?

The world is waiting … so is the Lord Jesus.

1 “The Message of Philippians” IVP: Alec Motyer p 47