In my relatively short tenure as a pastor here in Morden (a scant 2 ½ years) I have come to notice a couple of things. One of the things I have noticed is that whenever two or more churches in our community work together (i.e. the Community Christmas Dinner spear-headed by the St. Paul’s United Church) people become enthusiastic and somewhat optimistic. There is something attractive in these periodic shows of harmony that draw people’s gaze.

Now I am hardly what you would call a "musical" person in the sense that I have absolutely zero capability in terms of musical instruments (we won’t talk about my singing). That being said I recently attended the Brian Doerksen concert in Gretna and on the way home had a great and varied conversation on music with my friend T. The conversation wandered all over the place (as conversations with me are wont to do) and hovered for a while on musical concept of harmony; more specifically the incredible harmonies of the Beach Boys and the Beatles. With Christmas coming the idea of harmony rises briefly to the surface of people’s minds and my conversation with T. led me to think about harmony and its meaning.

The Oxford dictionary defines harmony as follows:

 harmony
  • noun (pl. harmonies) 1 the combination of simultaneously sounded musical notes to produce chords and chord progressions having a pleasing effect. 2 the quality of forming a pleasing and consistent whole. 3 agreement or concord.

This definition works well (harmoniously one might say) when considering ways to describe a vision of a healthy community (or family for that matter), one that has a “pleasing effect”.  A community built on the principles of harmony is a community that recognizes that such harmony cannot exist in isolation. Individuals, alone and in concert with no one, cannot create harmony, as beautiful as a solo can be it cannot compare to the harmony of many voices (to feel the full effect of this idea buy John Rutter’s new rendition of Handel’s Messiah on CD). So – with this in mind the individual who steps into the community must recognize that in order to lend their voice to the chorus they will have to adjust the pitch and tone of their life to the unique sound of the larger group. If they do not, the result is divergence and eventually a parting of ways.

As true as this is for the individual it is just as true for the community. Harmony cannot exist without many and diverse voices. When a new voice enters the chorus the chorus itself must adjust to allow for this new sound. If the community and the individual do not adjust to each other’s uniqueness through a certain compromise – what arises is dissonance and discord.

Harmony is a mutual recognition of value, a mutual willingness of the individual and the community to change for the sake of one-another. Out of this mutual sacrifice arises harmony.

Of course in our many (and often failed) attempts at harmony God Himself has played no small role and leant no small voice the grand chorus. You might say that the voice of God is foundational to the dream of harmony being realized. God has demonstrated how participation within a harmony works by offering Himself as a sacrifice and emptying Himself through Christ (the divine kenosis). This act of sacrifice is God’s work in the harmony, it is God’s voice being made accessible to our voices, without which (or against which) discord reigns supreme in lives.

Our discussion of harmony has now happily become a trinity – God sings and sacrifices holding, surrounding and enlivening us with His voice while we attempt to do the same with Him and our fellow brothers and sisters all the while offering Himself as the perfect example of harmony in the eternal three-in-one relationship between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

So what can we say at this point? As we enter the Christmas season and Advent approaches we are distracted on all sides by rampant consumerism and worldly noise that threaten to drown out the harmony. In this time we would do well to ask ourselves (individuals, churches, families, towns etc) what we need to sacrifice for the sake of harmony.  Harmony requires personal, corporate and Godly sacrifice for the sake of the other…always…but the peace and beauty that results is worth it.

This season I urge you to join in community and with the heavenly host in harmonious praise and sing of the advent of God’s voice to the grand chorus –

“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” Luke 2:14