Harmony

When I was a boy I learned a lot by going to church with my family each week. I learned the Lord's Prayer, the Beatitudes, and the 23rd Psalm. I learned that old saints with white hair and kind hearts give chewing gum to little kids. I learned to estimate how long the preacher's sermon would last, and how many verses of the invitation hymn we would sing.

I also learned to sing four-part harmony. Unless you were tone-deaf, you couldn't help it. Basses, tenors, and altos scattered throughout the congregation like strings and horns in an orchestra. On the farm my dad called the hogs, but at church he sang tenor. When I sat near Grandpa, I longed for the day when my voice would change and I could sing bass.

We used an old blue hymnal called Great Songs of the Church, and I still remember the page numbers of the songs our church considered great. "At Calvary" was number 322. I remember that one because it was written in the key of C and when I took piano lessons it was easy to play.

And of course I remember number 131, "Just As I Am." Right before the sermon the song-leader would say, "Turn to page 131 and hold it in readiness as our invitation hymn." On days when the sermon went long I not only held it in readiness; I held it in eagerness. Finally we'd sing "Just As I Am" just as it was—all six verses, unless the length of the sermon meant we only had time to sing verses one and six.

There was some beautiful harmony in those old hymns. And it's still there when Christians join our voices to sing a newer tune like "How Great Is Our God" or an old favorite with a similar message like "How Great Thou Art."

Harmony comes from the Greek word for "joint." It's related to our word "arm." Just as the bones of the arm join at the elbow and work together, musical harmony happens when notes come together in a pleasing chord. The Greek harmos appears in Hebrews 4:12, which tells us that the super-sharp Word of God can divide "soul and spirit, joints and marrow." A form of the word used in 2 Corinthians 11:2 means to join a couple in marriage.

More than a musical term, harmony is a measure of peace, cooperation, and unity. The 66 books of the Bible contain internal harmony as they all point to the central theme of God's saving grace. Though written from different perspectives, the four Gospels harmonize in their presentation of the person and work of Christ. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit demonstrate harmony of purpose and character.

Can we experience the same kind of agreement in our personal relationships and in our corporate worship? The apostle Paul thought so. He wrote, "Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other . . . . And sing, sing your hearts out to God!" (Colossians 3:15-16, The Message).

May the great Composer and Conductor, the Author of Beauty himself, fill us with wisdom and mutual forbearance so that our musical preferences don't create more disharmony in an already divided church.