Play the Music
Acts 2:42-47
by Jim Westmoreland
Last Sunday they played the final round of the Master's Golf Championship. It was tied at the end of regulation, and they had to play extra holes. Tiger Woods, who seemed to struggle some in recent years, won the Masters.
In an interview with Newsweek last Fall, after the worst summer of his professional life, he said, "I'm working toward something, retooling my swing, fixing a bunch of things, and it's taken time for me to get it to gel. But, I'm starting to see results. When you're playing your best, you don't even think about it. I'm still thinking about it. When I can just step up to the ball and hit it, get the ball flight I envision without really thinking about it, then I'll know I'm there. But I'm not there yet."(1)
When we are playing our best, we don't even think about it. I believe that is true about a lot of things in addition to golf. It is not that the details are not important or worth thinking about. Rather, it is that we become so involved in the process, we are responding and reacting as we go, rather than analyzing every detail as we think it.
Pablo Casals, the great master cellist who died in 1973 at age 96 always taught his students: "not to play the notes, but to play the music." Surely, this is a metaphor for how to live the Christian life. We have all known people who say all the right things, but, somehow, there is no "music" there. Their scripture references are right and their teaching is correct, but, somehow the Spirit is missing.
As our church seeks to have a witness and ministry in our community, we should all seek, not just to play the notes-to do the religious things, perform the expected rituals, externalize the proper religious forms, but we should seek to play the music as well. It is the music of the Spirit in our lives that causes us to celebrate His presence in joyful service and beckons others to "come and see" this Savior who produces such wonders and changes in our lives.
Having said that, there are some notes to be played to live the Christian life. There is also timing, rhythm and harmony in doing our part and in being a part of the Body of Christ. According to brain-imaging studies, professional piano players don't actually think about hitting the keys on the piano; instead, their brain neurons fire in areas associated with mechanical motion rather than consciousness. Professional basketball players, golfers and pianists don't have to think about what they are doing. They just do it.(2)
Being able to "just play the music" is the result of much practice and visualization, two techniques used in many disciplines.
So what does the playing the music look like for those of us on this journey?
We're playing the music when the fruit of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control - continue to have a larger place in our life (Galatians 5:22-23).
We're playing the music when we're abiding in him and he in us (John 15:5).
We're playing the music when we have joy and peace in spite of adversity and suffering.
We're playing the music when we're supporting our "faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love (2 Peter 1:5-7).
We're playing the music when we're able to turn the other cheek, when we're able to forgive 70 times 7 and when we're able to turn away from temptation.
We're playing the music when we are serving God with our spiritual gifts and passion.
We're playing the music when we are sharing the Good News with others.
We're playing the music when our only business, as Brother Lawrence puts it in The Practice of the Presence of God, is "to love and delight ourselves in God."
We're playing the music when love flows out from us to others as freely as water from a tap.
There are disciplines that create the possibility that you, too, every once in a while, will get in the Zone and play the music that the apostle Paul calls, "walking in the Spirit."
Those disciplines are visualization and practice.
Visualization. Notice that the apostles and the new Christians spent a lot of time in prayer. In prayer we're able to express our longing for a deeper walk with God. We're able to "picture" what kind of experience we want and hope for during the day ahead.
Morning prayer helps us set the tone for the entire day. Evening prayer allows us to express thanks, and "review the film" as it were, to look for spots where we stepped out of, or away from the zone. It allows us to consider why what worked, worked, and what didn't work, didn't work.
Practice. They "devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers" (Acts 2:42).
The word "devoted" is a rather long, compound Greek word. It means to "be strong toward." No one learns to play the music without being "strong toward" something. If it's golf, you have to be dragged away from the practice range. If it's basketball, you're shooting hoops at midnight.
The early Christians were "strong toward" certain things, namely, the apostles' teaching, fellowship, breaking bread and prayer."
In other words, they were people of the Word and people of Community.
They knew that to play the music, they would need to learn the fundamentals. The apostles were their coaches. And they were "strong toward" their teaching. They couldn't get enough of it!
Which is strange all the way around, because the apostles as disciples in the gospels were not really known for their clarity of thought and the richness of their vision. They didn't get it most of the time, themselves. They seldom had ears to hear what the Spirit was saying to them.
But the resurrection and Pentecost changed all that. Now they taught with authority. The pieces had all come together. And the early Christians couldn't get enough of what they had to share. They were people of the Word - unabashedly and without apology.
And they were people of Community. They hung out together, which no doubt was a source of strength, courage and support. They ate in each other's homes. They sold their possessions and shared with each other. How strong is that!
They knew that to play the music they would need support from the community. So they ate together, prayed together, studied together, and no doubt began to observe the Lord's Supper together.
The result was that the church experienced phenomenal growth - as would any church that had Christians in this kind of a zone.
The problem is, of course, getting to a place where we can experience this kind of spiritual skill.
It's not easy.
But it might be helpful to remember the playing the music is a Spirit-generated state of mind and soul. It's not about us "trying" to be better any more than Yo-Yo Ma tries to remember where fingers and bow combine to strike a D on the cello.
It's the music, it's the practice, it's the Spirit. It all comes together. When a person is walking in the Spirit, he or she doesn't "think" about how the love comes, how the joy comes, how the service comes.
It's just there, because the Spirit is within us, empowering us and moving us with ease toward this spiritual level of life in which practicing God's presence, experiencing God's power, just seems to come naturally.(3)
So, let's not just play the notes, let's play the music!
Amen.
Century Christian Church, April 17, 2005 - Sermon by Jim Westmoreland
1. Newsweek, October 4, 2004.
2. Homiletics, March-April, 2005, vol. 17, "The Effortless Present," p. 63.
3. Ibid, p. 63-64. I substantially used the application section changing the metaphor from "the effortless present" to "playing the music."