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I love to listen to orchestras. The music is always so pleasing to the ear and to the heart. Research even shows that music can be used to decrease our blood pressure. Ofcourse, I have and hang out with teenagers, so I’m pretty sure. . .it can be used to increase your blood pressure, as well.

To me, the fascinating thing about orchestras is how all of it comes together to make such beauty. So many different instruments, playing so many different notes, with different tempos, all of it comes together for this magnificent sound.

I especially love to watch those conductors that really get involved. You see some that just kind of stand there and move their baton, while others look as if they are about to jump right off the podium. Their arms are both moving, their body is swaying, the baton is dancing in their hand. Those are the ones that I like to watch. But what if, what if the conductor just stopped in the middle of the score and stepped off the podium? What would happen to the music then? I suppose that some of the musicians might say; “Hey, listen. We’ve been playing this music for six months, just keep going. We don’t have to have him waving that baton at us, just keep playing”. Others would just put down their instrument and stop, right there! No conductor, no music!

Lee made the jazz band at Consol this past week and here is an interesting thing about that band. Jason Rabinowitz is the band director for the jazz band and this is how he does it. He just walks over to the band, and you can see by the movement of his hands and his feet, that he already has the beat in his head. He just walks up and counts out a measure or two and gets them started. Then he just walks away. You can see that he’s keeping the beat, but the band better be keeping the beat, as well. At the end, he just walks back over and leads the last measure. I have to tell you, it’s really pretty cool to watch. The first time I saw him do this, I almost thought he was quitting his job.

Sometimes we act a little bit like that in the church, don’t we? We get pretty confused about who our conductor is and we place too much emphasis on our leaders. We take our eyes off of Jesus and we look only to the people that we have decided should be doing all the moving and the shaking. We need always remember that we are God’s instruments, designed for a purpose and our conductor is Jesus Christ.

Our scripture this morning is a blueprint for how the church should function. How the life of the church can be music to another person’s heart - when everybody plays their part, when everybody recognizes their call to leadership within the church. Everybody!

Philippians 2:1-11

If you have any encouragement from being

united with Christ,

if any comfort from his love,

if any fellowship with the Spirit,

if any tenderness and compassion,

then make my joy complete by being like-minded,

having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit,

but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of other.

Your attitude should be the same as that of

Christ Jesus:

Who being in very nature God,

did not consider equality with God

something to be grasped,

but made himself nothing,

taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

I will admit to you, today, that my attitude is not always what it should be. Believe me. I take my eyes off of Jesus and when I do, I am the most poorly functioning instrument of all.

Some of the words of this scripture speak so deeply to me that I can’t help but to experience an attitude adjustment when I hear them, when I think about them, when I pray about God wants me to hear and then act upon them.

Words like encouragement:

You know that euphoric feeling that you get when others are encouraging you to do your best or maybe just to get through. When I played softball, I was the pitcher. So, everybody knew that the pitcher can’t bat. Right? So, when it would come my turn to bat, my whole team would start with the whole encouragement thing: you can do it, you can knock it out of the park, etc. etc. I’d walk up to the plate feeling pretty good. Maybe I really can knock it out of the park. Stranger things have happened. Maybe. Then the other team would start their chatter. Batter can’t it, batter can’t hit, and worse when the pitcher would motion for the entire outfield to MOVE IN! Where did all that encouragement go? What happened here? Encouragement can mean everything to us in this life. Can we even begin to imagine the encouragement that comes from being united with Christ.

Phrases like: Comfort from his love. Most, if not all, of us can think of a time in our lives when it was the love of someone else that brought us comfort. Nothing else would seem to do, just the comfort of that love. When I was a little girl, my mother read to me every night. No matter what may have happened during the day, no matter how many fights I had with my brother, my Mother always read to me at bedtime and prayed with me. I had comfort from that love. In spending time with people as they draw near to the end of their lives, I have witnessed, first hand, the comfort that is experienced when people are reminded through scripture of the promises of God. In reading favorite scriptures, I have seen a peace that truly passes all human understanding come over a dying person. Comfort from His love.

Fellowship with the Spirit: this scripture goes on to tell us what true fellowship means. It doesn’t mean throwing a football around a gym, it doesn’t mean eating more pizza than any person thought could ever be humanly possible, it doesn’t even mean, and friends please forgive me for this: it doesn’t mean bringing the most delicious casserole. Sorry!

What it does mean:

Being like minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. This does not mean that we all see everything the same way, or that we are brain-washed. It doesn’t even mean that we will all always agree. But nothing is said or done outside of the context of Christ’s love. Nothing. And Never Ever would anything be done out of selfishness of self promotion. Only for the glory of God.

Fellowship means:

We actually put other people’s needs and concerns before our very own. In making out our prayer lists, we aren’t number one. Someone else’s concern is of more concern to us than our own.

We commit ourselves to the things that we are the most passionate about. Not out of obligation, but out of love, we make these commitments.

This is where the attitude adjustment must come in for all of us. We stop looking to the designated leaders to do it for us, we take on the very attitude of Christ - an attitude of servanthood and service.

I believe that these principles are best lived out in relationships. Would it not be impossible to have the best interest of others at heart, when you have pushed the others out of your life? How do we experience the encouragement, the comfort of love and the awe of unity, when we have placed all of our priorities on self and self promotion? We don’t, that’s how. . .we don’t! We become so busy with life, that relationships get excluded.

When you have become too busy for relationships, you have become too busy.

And let’s just face it, that it exactly what many of us have done. Because reality has shown us that relationships can be messy. They don’t always produce unity and oneness in spirit. Some of the greatest pains in life come as a result of relationships. But few joys in this world, even the joy of a great orchestra performance, can compare with the joy that is experienced when we are in the process of sharing Christ’s love with others – through authentic relationships - relationships that we are willing to become invested and involved in.

I hold a lot of things very dear to my heart. The dearest of them all are not really things at all. They are people. People whom I love and who love me. People who are honest and authentic with me.

It isn’t always easy being a Christian. On any given day, we are bombarded with messages that promote the opposite of the truth that this scripture holds. It’s almost never easy to adjust our attitudes to be like the attitude of Christ. Praise God that we are not called or even expected to do it alone. This beautiful blueprint for Christian relationships specifically instructs us to not do it alone. But to involve ourselves in the lives of each other, get all wrapped up in the joy and the complexities that come as a part of being in relationship with God and in relationship with one another.

The symphonies of our life exist in the relationships that we are involved in. We must look to our conductor, Jesus Christ, and we need all do our part in making this life a pleasure to the ears and to the heart of God.

Where are you living out this blueprint? Where are the authentic, Christ-like relationships in your life? Don’t wait for somebody else to do this for you, they can’t.

Step out, get involved in a Christian small group and watch as your attitude is adjusted to be more like that of Christ Jesus. All for the glory of God the Father.

Amen!