[Propertalk] 5 Epiphany a 2017 - Part 1

[Robert P Morrison]

Here's the first part of the draft for Sunday.
Bob

	THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY THE FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER THE
EPIPHANY a

	ISAIAH 58:1-12 5th FEBRUARY, 2017

	1 CORINTHIANS 2:1-16 PSALM 112

	MATTHEW 5:13-20

	 What do you and I expect from a sermon? What do you and I WANT from
a sermon?

	 A couple of less flamboyant headlines caught my eye this past week.
One was about a recording of a couple of pieces of classical music
written relatively recently. Alfred Schnittke was a Soviet and German
composer [1] who died in 1998. 1 He wrote a wide range of music, from
formal symphonies and concerti to party pieces and scores for twenty
films. Although his later style was described as somewhat bleak, it
seems to be quite approachable and intelligible to non-musically
trained people. “He once wrote, ‘The goal of my life is to unify
serious music and light music, even if I break my neck in doing
so.’” That latter comment, I think, shows how his sense of humour
played out in the most unexpected places. Which brings me to the
magazine reference I saw. It was about a recording of his Concerto
Grosso No. Five for Violin, an Invisible Piano and Orchestra. Yes, you
heard that correctly – he wrote a part for an invisible piano! 2

	 The point Schnittke was trying to make was that the piano part was
absolutely necessary to the meaning and the significance of the whole
work, but he wanted the pianist to be working behind the scenes, out
of the public eye.

	 Sometimes those on a concert stage can be quite distracting. Those
who sit or stand there have a specific purpose. They play their
instruments at the designated time, then they sort of withdraw from
people’s attention. They don’t leave the stage. They remain there,
ready for the next passage, the next moment when they have a
contribution to make. But they don’t jump up and down, they don’t
wave their hands or do anything to take attention away from where
it’s supposed to be focussed.

	 So Schnittke wanted to be sure that neither the pianist nor the way
that that person actually played the piano and produced the required
sounds would come between the audience and the music. Hence an
invisible piano – off-stage, ready, prepared, but purely at the
service of the music without any distractions. It’s interesting that
Isaiah should choose to call people into the role of trumpet players,
rather than pianists. Trumpets aren’t the shyest of instruments and
yet I can think of several works in which the player is instructed to
be off-stage – sometimes at a great distance from everyone else.
Nonetheless, no matter how distant, the trumpeter and the player need
to be effective. They need to be heard, no matter how faintly or
softly, because, without them, the composition simply wouldn’t be
complete.

	 Now where have we heard something like that? Well, the first words
Deacon Peggy read from the Gospel. “You are the salt of the earth;
but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored?”
And Jesus went on to talk about the use of having a lamp, and some
means to ensure that it would light, if it were not going to be placed
prominently in such a place where the light would do some good.

	 There’s a contrast between salt and a lamp, obviously. Lamps have
to be near the action and prominent. Salt is to IN the action, though
seldom identifiable as a separate ingredient. If neither are there,
however, they might as well not exist.

	 THAT’S Jesus’ point. It doesn’t matter who you are. It
doesn’t matter what you are. It doesn’t matter where you are –
well, maybe not that last one, completely, at any rate. There’s so
much that isn’t important, but each ingredient in the great dance of
life has a role to play. Without one of us, things simply will not and
cannot be the same. Whether you and I are crawling on the floor,
looking for some hint about how to walk; or whether you and I are
looking to do what it takes to have money coming in; or whether you
and I are working with a community of some sort; OR whether you and I
are dependent on others doing many things for us; it doesn’t matter
who we are, we have a role to play in creation. That’s why God has
issued us the invitation – at birth – at baptism – from the
altar – in so many different places and times.

	 Jesus and the early church writers can be pretty severe at times,
and this is one of them. “unless your righteousness exceeds (those
in authority) you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

	 That’s incredibly fierce! That ought to make some blood run cold.

	 But what is righteousness? It’s “justice, uprightness, …
conformity to the requirements of the divine or moral law.” 3
Righteousness, said Jesus, is nothing new. It’s what everyone with
half an ear has been hearing about since the first prophets spoke out
on God’s behalf. It could have been discussed under any number of
leaders, the leaders themselves weren’t important. Administrations
come and go. Righteousness is what is sure, what should be certain,
what, according to all that is Holy, MUST remain as the standard
against which everything is measured. And not righteousness based on
human standards. They change as often as the wind blows in different
directions. We – you and I – are called, as Suzanne Guthrie puts
it, are “to see the whole (all of society, all of our communities,
all of our being – we are to see the whole) in its layers and depth
and meaning and context; to love the spirit of the law over and beyond
the letter of the law.” 4

	 And, just the invisible pianist whom Schnittke expects to be there
and to play according to the script offered, so we are called to love
righteousness till we feel we’re on the point of bursting; to love
righteousness whether anyone sees us or not. All that’s required is
to ensure that God’s composition is revealed to the world, that,
however faintly, the word of the Gospel is to be heard in such a way
that no one will be able to say, “God is no longer here. God no
longer cares. God no longer matters.” God’s composition, and our
role in presenting it, must continually sound out.

	 

Links:
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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composer

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