Being Attuned/In Tune

Greer took the lead in this week's lesson and showed us why Baptists believe the lay person (even if a foot doctor) can read and interpret and teach from Scripture.

The lesson was on spiritual discernment, which was loosely defined as being attuned enough to the Kingdom to recognize when things are happening.  Now, that's a pretty good definition, if you ask me.  And the examples given were the magi, the prophet Anna, and Simeon.  They were all attuned enough to the Kingdom to recognize the Christ-child.

Notice that attuned is very similar to in tune.  They sound similar, but, having the same root (tune), they can also mean similar things.

When we speak of being "attuned," we think of being in harmony, of being aware, of being at one.  When we are attuned, we hear and see and smell things that another might just miss or ignore.  There is nothing magic about being attuned; it's just something that happens over time, with work of course, the way spouses learn to read each other.  Such awareness is important, for it determines how we will act.

Now, think of how this is similar to being "in tune."  For a musician to be in tune, s/he must first develop an ear for pitch and harmony and rhythm.  A musician has to be able to hear certain things, things most of us don't even notice, which takes practice and familiarity.  And it is only when the ear is so developed that the musician can recognize when things are happening in the piece of music and act accordingly.

The point of the comparison is this: spiritual discernment is much more an art than a science.  (Recently, though, we have finally realized that science itself is much more an art than what we usually call "science.")  And, if spiritual discernment is more of an art, we need to become artists.

Greer looked at the four candles of Advent (hope, peace, joy, and love) and asked if praise wasn't the catalyst that caused them all to react.

I think he's on to something, although a legitimate question was raised as to the chicken and the egg.  Do hope, peace, joy, and love cause praise?  Or, does praise cause hope, peace, joy, and love?

The answer, I would suggest, is: Yes!

Yes, of course hope and peace and joy and love cause praise!  Yes, of course praise causes hope and peace and joy and love!

And yet there is something about praise the is central.  Something has happened in our lives and we cannot help but be grateful and thankful and full of praise.  So, each day, we awake and offer praise.  Maybe we were given hope and peace and joy and love first, but now we offer praise and thanksgiving first thing each day.  And that makes (almost) all the difference.

By remembering that which has been done, is being done, and will be done for us, we become attuned to the Kingdom.  We set our minds on the Kingdom and we hear its tune, its melody, its rhythm.  And, as we listen for the Kingdom's tune, we adjust ourselves accordingly and go out into the world in the tune of the Kingdom.

Developing an ear, an eye, a nose for the Kingdom will provide the horizon in which we live, toward which we must live.

It's more of an art than it is a science.

But it's crucial that we develop the art of recognition, for we cannot act if we cannot see or hear or think it.  It takes a certain training to see the a man left for dead on the side of the road, which is why most would just pass on by--all except for the Samaritan we call "good."  It takes a certain understanding to see the Messiah in a child, but that is what Simeon and Anna saw.  It takes some subtle discernment to distinguish between Neptune in the night sky and whatever that star in the East was, but the magi understood.

These are some of the great artists of Scripture and their stories belong to the pages of art history.  Let us study their stories, so as to learn what it means to see and hear and taste and touch the Kingdom, to be attuned to the Kingdom, to be in tune with the Kingdom.

May we be artists, beginning each day with praise.

May we be artists, bringing hope, the key of the Kingdom, into a hopeless world.

May we be artists, bringing peace, the harmony of the Kingdom, into a violent world.

May we be artists, bringing joy, the refrain of the Kingdom, into a world of sorrow and unrest.

May we be artists, bringing love, the rhythm of the Kingdom, into a world that needs it so.