1 John 1:1-4, Psalm 133 "Life in Tune"

On Palm Sunday afternoon, I found myself at the Church listening to the community band practice for the evening worship service. I’ve got to say I absolutely loved the way the sound filled our sanctuary… I got my own personal concert and it was amazing. One thing that I got a kick out of was that when the instruments were tuning, they brought around a sensor that would listen to each of the instruments and tell them when they were in tune. I have a similar thing for my bass guitar. It allows me to trust that the instrument is tuned properly and I don’t have to rely on my imperfect ear to get it right.

This is a lot different than it was done when I was in band in junior high and high school. I remember that one of the trumpets would tune to the piano and then the other trumpets would tune based on the first trumpet. The same would then happen with the flutes and the French horns, then the clarinets and the oboes. Being a percussionist, I never had to participate in this long and drawn out ritual.

Being in tune was important. If instruments were not in tune they would ruin the music for the whole band. But there was a certain amount of human error that came into effect. The trumpet that tuned to the piano would be the one that was most in tune. But the other trumpets, which tuned off the first one wouldn’t quite be as accurate. It’s kinda like the old game, telephone, which tells us that as something is passed from person to person it gets off of it’s original message. That’s why this sensor that the band was using is so great. It made sure that the human error got minimized and therefore we had a band playing at our holy week service that truly was in tune with each other.

We try to live our lives in tune with each other and with the life that God calls us to. But sometimes we aren’t going back to the source. Sometimes we allow ourselves to listen to what somebody tells us they heard somebody tell them the Bible says. If we truly want to be living our lives in tune with God, we need to be going back to the source. So this morning we are going to do that very thing. We’re going to look at what the Bible has to say about unity. We are going to look at what the Bible says about fellowship. And then we can live our lives in tune with what the Bible says.

I. In Tune

Last week we talked about what it means to live your life in tune with the Resurrection. I argued that though we play lip service to the resurrection, most of us don’t truly live lives that say that we believe in it. We don’t allow the resurrection to be a central part of our lives and therefore affect decisions we make. Our belief that God raised Jesus from the dead and will do the same for us doesn’t change our behavior. And after all, it is our behavior that really shows what we believe.

As you can tell from my introduction, I really like this imagery of being in tune with the resurrection. You can tell when an instrument is out of tune. It is disjointed, it is sour. Though the fingers are playing the right notes, the sounds coming out of the instrument are all wrong. No matter how correctly you play the music, if your instrument is out of tune, it will sound like you are playing the wrong notes.

And we are called to live lives that are in tune with the resurrection. And if we each take up our instruments and tune them to be in key with the resurrection, we will discover that they are also in tune with each other. And this is what we are to be about as Christians, living lives that are in tune with each other. This is what the scriptures we read this morning were about. They were about living lives in tune with each other, they were about Christian fellowship and brotherhood.

We begin with Psalm 133, which tells us that it is good when kindred live together in unity. The psalm uses its own allegory, instead of talking about music or being in tune, the psalm talks about oil running down the beard. It is not an allegory that speaks much to us today. But when you look at the last verse in Psalm 133 you get a piece of what the allegory is all about. In verse three it tells us that it is when we live in unity, that is where the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore. Living in unity as Christian brothers and sisters brings blessing from God. This is what the oil being poured on the head was all about. It was a sign that God was giving his blessing to someone. Kings had oil poured on their heads when they were chosen by the prophets to be king. It was a way of showing God’s favor. And here the psalmist is saying that living together in unity, in fellowship, also shows God’s favor, it also shows God’s blessing.

Part of being in tune with the resurrection; part of being in tune with God is found in getting along with Christians around you. This is something that the church as a whole has really messed up ever since the Reformation. Don’t get me wrong, the Reformation was a vital part of our church history. With the Reformation, Christians were able to get back on track about what it means to follow Christ. But one of the repercussions that came out of the Reformation is that when someone doesn’t agree with another Christian they just go off and form another church. Unity is no longer truly valued in a church setting.

II. Disunity

I had a friend in junior high whose father did this. They were part of a Baptist church out in the country near where they lived. Their faith took up a large part of their lives. I remember visiting my friend and there were regularly Bible studies going on at his house. But at some point, there was a schism in my friend’s church. I have no idea what the argument was about, but my friend’s father left the church with about a third of the members and they started their own non-denominational church.

Now I don’t know exactly how this happened. I was an outsider and a child and don’t know the specifics of the situation. I do know that my friend’s father did have the call of God on his life to ministry. But I don’t think much of how his church formed.

Now another story: there was a Covenant church in northern California that felt that they could reach their community better. They prayed about it and invited families from their congregation to leave their church and begin worshipping together on the other side of town. This church ended up splitting, but it was a totally different experience. For though this church sent members of their congregation away to begin worshipping in a different place, they did so with their blessing and their support and their prayers. Instead of having people split from their church, they planted a daughter church.

Both of these churches had the same thing happen to them. Where there had been one church there were now two. But one of the churches did it in unity. One of the churches did it with love. One of the churches allowed the spirit of brotherhood to foster their relationships with each other rather than a mood that placed themselves as being better than those around them. Churches tend to be the most segregated place in America. We want to worship around people who are like us. We want to worship around people who are the same color, the same class, the same education, the same values as us. But this isn’t the unity that God has in mind for his church. Unity means that even though we don’t all worship the same way we are worshipping the same God and are working together to further his kingdom.

I went to a Lutheran college in Washington State. At the time the Lutheran church was looking at coming together with the Episcopal church. They weren’t going to join together completely, but they wanted to be able to share communion and share their pastors. There was a forum about this topic at our college. Pastors from around the area were there to discuss what this would mean. The bishops came to answer questions. And us students were invited to sit in on the discussion. It was an interesting discussion, to say the least. Both sides of the issue had good points to make. Those against the merge were worried about the Episcopal elevation of the pastor, which went against their understanding of the priesthood of all believers. Those for the merge talked about how ministry could be improved if the denominations worked together. I specifically remember one argument made along these lines.

A Lutheran mission was described in downtown Seattle. It was a homeless shelter that reached out to the lost in a bad part of the downtown. It was across the street from an Episcopal church. The person speaking about this mission and this church talked about how if the merge happened, these two entities could begin to work together and increase their impact on the community around them. It was a powerful and a practical argument for bringing these two denominations together. But then I realized something. If these two groups of Christians who were across the street from each other couldn’t put their differences aside to work together for the community around them, I’m not sure what the merge would do for them. If they aren’t working together already, a piece of paper won’t make them work together.

Unity doesn’t mean that we have to believe exactly the same thing. It doesn’t mean that we have to go about doing church in the same way. But it does mean that we have the same goal in purpose. And what is that goal? That goal is to bring Christ and his resurrection to those around us who need to know him.

III. Unity

God wants unity between his churches. But God also wants unity between individuals in his churches. God doesn’t want us thinking that we’re better than other Christians in our community and he doesn’t want us thinking we’re better than others in our church.

So how do we find that unity with our fellow Christians? The answer is found, at least in part, in 1 John 1. In 1 John we are shown the path to this unity, this brotherhood, this fellowship with our brothers and sisters. It’s right there in verse three. “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.” We find our fellowship in the proclamation of the Gospel. We find our unity in our relationship with God the Father and with Jesus Christ. 1^st John is a book that is all about relationship. In it we see that God: the Father, the Son and the Spirit all model relationship for us. They are doing this God thing that is the ultimate of what community is about. They are so much into relationship that they are three and one at the same time. They each have their role in the Godhead, but they share all the glory and praise equally. They have community down in a way that we can never come close to. They don’t have to have business meetings to figure out what to do next because they are of one mind. God is a God of relationship, but it is not enough that the Trinity lives in relationship with itself. God reaches down to us and invites us into that relationship with him. God gives us his unconditional love, his agape, selfless, giving love. And God gives us this love freely and completely. 1^st John makes this love of God so very clear. It tells us that God loved us so much that he gave us the Christ. And all we need to do is believe that Jesus is the Christ and we will be born of God. Jesus is the Christ. He is the Son of God. And in 1^st John we are told that God wants us also to be Children of God. Now this isn’t the same. But it does show how God is inviting us into the community of the Trinity. God wants to give us his love, and in doing this we will learn to love each other. 1^st John 4:7 and 8 are some of the earliest verses I memorized as a child. I think this is mostly because I learned them as a song. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God and everyone who loveth is born of God, and he who loveth not, knoweth not God for God is love. Beloved, let us love one another.”

We are called to follow the example that God puts before us. God loves us even when we are turned against him. And God calls us to this same sort of love. And when this happens it is a glorious thing. As the psalmist says, it is like oil dripping down Aaron’s face, through his beard. Or it is like a beautiful piece of music where everyone is in tune with each other and the melody and harmony is creating something that no individual instrument could possibly play. We are called to fellowship with our fellow Christians. Actually, we are called to fellowship with the whole world, but lets just start with our fellow Christians. Are there people who you need to make it right with? Are there people who you have wronged? Are there people who you hold a grudge against? What are you going to do about this? How are you going to make sure that your instrument is not out of tune? 1^st John tells us that if someone is not living a loving life, they are not truly following God. I must admit that I am convicted by that message. I am not following God as I should, for I hold grudges. I let myself step out of relationship with others because of my pride or selfishness or just because I’m too busy. And I’m not the only person in this sanctuary that has that problem. Let us live the lives that we are called to. Let us love as God commands us. Let us show the world that we are in tune with the resurrection by living lives that are in tune with each other. Amen.