Sermon: Gospel Symphony

Lectionary: Proper 9(A)

Text: Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

Jai Krist
Wesley, Frank, 1923-2002

Among the artistic disciplines, I think that music has the most rigid fundamentals. After all, music can be reduced to mathematics and time. It would be technically accurate to say that music is mathematics being performed in time and space.

But that isn’t how our ears and brains take in music. We sense harmony and dissonance. We sense excitement and contemplation. We sense joy and sadness, love and conflict. We sense life and death.

We know these things because music follows rules, and rules that are quite rigid. But if all music did was to follow rules, it wouldn’t be very enjoyable or have emotional effects. Music that simply follows rules can become tedious and repetitious. Good music works within the confines to add variation and interest. Composers of great music understand the rules so innately that they know when and where to break them to bring surprises to the audience and to delight them through these unexpected changes.

Music can be performed only because there are rules. The notes and notations on a sheet of paper are a language that communicates the composer’s instructions and intent. It allows the one performing to interpret the composer's instructions and bring the page to life.

In performing music, the number of performers matters to how much liberty is afforded to each performer. A solo performer has the most freedom to be creative and go “off the page” and add their own personality and interpretation. A small group or ensemble still has freedom to improvise, but they need to remain cognizant of one another, and music provides the rules for staying together. A large symphony or choir affords almost no individual freedom, but through the conductor and director, allows a communal and collective interpretation through which each performer gives their all to a collective expression of a great composition.

Finally, there is the audience. True, music can be performed for one’s own enjoyment. But music is meant to be heard. Music is meant to elicit a response from the audience. Music is communication from the composer, through the performers, to an audience. Ideally, the audience responds to the music in ways intended by the composer and the performers.

Today’s gospel reading begins with a short parable from Jesus.

¹⁶ “But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, ¹⁷ ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’ (Matthew 11:16-17 NRSVue)

The parable paints a picture of two groups of children: one performing music and a second expected to respond. The first group of children performs a polka, but the second group is unmoved, impassionate. The first group switches to a requiem, but the second group remains unmoved and impassioned.

I’m sure all of us have seen how quickly children normally respond to music. They have yet to develop social and emotional filters and guards. They hear the music and act upon how the music affects them.

So, it seems rather unusual for a group of children to remain unaffected and unresponsive to music that they hear. Jesus offers an interpretation of the parable.

¹⁸ “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; ¹⁹ the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.” (Matthew 11:18-19 NRSVue)

I see two ways in which to understand this, and I think both apply. The first is the most obvious in which the second group is actively resisting the music coming from the first group. The second way is to understand that the two groups are operating under two different sets of rules, and thus the second group is unable to interpret the music.

When Jesus refers to “they”, we should understand it to mean those who previously were opposed to John the Baptizer and now opposing Jesus. They are the guardians of religious and social tradition, religious and social acceptability. They set up the boundaries and they enforce them. They are the keepers and wielders of power and control over everyone else. They define what music is supposed to sound like. Anything outside of what they know and have defined is both a threat and something that is incomprehensible to them.

Our reading skips a few verses and resumes at verse 25.

²⁵ At that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; ²⁶ yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. ²⁷ All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. (Matthew 11:25-27 NRSVue)

Infants have no control over what happens to them. They have no interest in power games that develop and which are played by older people. And they respond instinctively to the music around them. The music of the gospel, the symphony of good news, is most readily heard and accepted by those who are the victims of power and control games, and by those who refuse and battle against their toxic enticements.

It is for these that Jesus offers the following invitation:

²⁸ “Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30 NRSVue)

The invitation is to take on Jesus’ yoke. It is for those who are bearing the burdens of other yokes. But it is also for those who thought that going alone would be freedom, but instead found their burdens increased with no one to help them.

The greatest symphony and choral performances are not individual pursuits, but a collaborative, team effort. It is not individuals trying to harmonize and stay together on their own, however. There is a conductor, a director. This individual directs the performance, keeps the individual musicians together, guides the interpretation of the music, and helps bring the music together for the enjoyment of the audience. By following the director, the musicians have less to worry about. Their place the burden of staying together and overall interpretation onto the conductor so that each individual can perform at their best.

We are invited to hear the gospel music and respond to its invitation. To hear it, we need to learn the rules of God’s kingdom. We need to learn to let go of our need for power and control. We need to learn to set aside appearances and acceptance by the world’s rules.

Instead, we are to become as infants, in the way they instinctively respond to music, unconcerned about what other people might think or judge. We are to help others learn and respond to the music of the gospel. We are to take up Christ’s yoke and teach others that genuine freedom comes not from casting aside all restraint, but comes from taking up the yoke that binds each of us together in Christ, to become part of the symphony and chorus performing the greatest music ever heard across the universe.

In the name of God the Composer,

In the name of God the Conductor,

And in the name of God who urges us to dance together, Amen.