Sharing Gifts in Harmony
Dear friends,
I loved absolutely everything about the John 17 Awards Afternoon Tea that Christian Associates hosted on August 30. I loved the opportunity to recognize Bishop David Zubik and Bishop Kurt Kusserow for their longtime service to church and community. I loved seeing a room full of ecumenical and interfaith colleagues greeting old friends, making new connections, and enjoying each other’s company. And I absolutely loved the scones with clotted cream and the petit fours!
Best of all, though, was the opportunity to absorb the wisdom of our honorees. Pittsburgh Theological Seminary President the Rev. Dr. Asa Lee moderated a conversation between the two bishops, drawing out the ideas that shaped their ministry. In his remarks, Bishop Kurt Kusserow introduced a metaphor that I found particularly apt:
“I've long held a vision for unity that is available to us tangibly to see and to experience all the time, and that is the image of a symphony orchestra,” he said. The instruments in the orchestra are vastly different from one another, from a tiny piccolo to an enormous bass violin, from a brash trumpet to a soft clarinet. Each musician, understandably, thinks her own instrument is the best of all.
“But here's the thing,” Bishop Kusserow continued. Before a concert begins, the symphony musicians come on stage and begin to warm up, as the audience is arriving. Each one of these players is a virtuoso, bringing years of study and practice to his instrument. And yet, the sound of the group warming up together is cacophony. Notes clash and compete. It’s not music; it’s just noise.
At last the concert is ready to begin. The bishop continued, “The concertmaster comes out, and everybody claps, and the conductor comes out, and everybody claps, and then it's dead quiet. If there is a dream for unity that I carry, it's what happens the moment after that dead quiet, when the conductor raises the baton, and now everyone is playing the same thing. Each part is still different. But they're playing together.”
Rivalry turns into cooperation. The sounds of individual instruments become the sound of one, unified ensemble. In melody and harmony, the symphony takes shape.
“I'm not sure that we can make that happen,” Bishop Kusserow said. Unity is God’s gift to us, not something that we can force through our own efforts. “But I think we ought to be ready for when it does happen, to receive it with joy and to play with gusto.”
May each one of us, holding our separate instruments, keep an eye on our Conductor as he raises his baton, cuing us in turn, adjusting our volume, refining our tuning, and turning our separate noise into cohesive music. Sharing the gifts given to each of us, at Christ’s direction we can rejoice in a still greater gift: the gift of unity.
Your sister in Christ,
The Rev. Liddy Barlow
Executive Minister
