{"id":3245,"date":"2023-12-13T07:43:22","date_gmt":"2023-12-13T12:43:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=3245"},"modified":"2023-12-13T07:44:11","modified_gmt":"2023-12-13T12:44:11","slug":"four-part-harmony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2023\/12\/13\/four-part-harmony\/","title":{"rendered":"Four-Part Harmony"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,<\/em> click here<\/a>
 
Tennessee Williams\u2019 most famous play, A Streetcar Named Desire<\/em>, debuted on Broadway in 1947.
 
A journalist who was able to find his way backstage asked one of the performers how he would summarize its plot. 
 
The actor replied, \u201cIt\u2019s about a guy who comes to take a woman to an insane asylum.\u201d 
 
To put it mildly, that barely scratches the surface of the whole story. The fellow who talked to the journalist just happened to be the bit player who came on stage during the final scene to help escort Blanche DuBois, the leading lady, to a local hospital.  He was confusing his brief and inconsequential role with the Big Story. 
 
Something like that happens every Christmas.  People are strongly tempted to confuse their own stories \u2013 their hopes, their needs, and their worries of the day \u2013 with the Real Story of God coming into the world as a human being twenty centuries ago. 
 
How can we better see the big picture?
 
Biblical scholar N.T. Wright has suggested that one of the ways to catch a glimpse of God\u2019s work in the world is by approaching it as four-part harmony. 
 
If you\u2019ve ever been part of a choir, you know the letters SATB:  Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass.  All four parts contribute to the dynamic fullness of a musical composition.
 
Let\u2019s illustrate this by looking at one of the most theologically rich of all the Christmas carols, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing<\/em>. 
 
Wright proposes that when we open the pages of Scripture, the soprano part \u2013 which is usually the melody line or the main tune \u2013 is the story of Jesus.  Everything, in the end, comes back to the meaning of Jesus\u2019 life.  If he really was God\u2019s Messiah \u2013 specially called to bring about the healing of this broken world \u2013 why would he make his \u201cgrand entrance\u201d into the backwater province of Galilee?  And why would he choose to be tortured to death and then say he was doing it for you and me<\/em>?  We need to get the melody right.
 
Most of us can sing the melody of Hark the Herald<\/em> without glancing at a sheet of music.  We know that tune by heart.  Likewise, we need to know the story of Jesus by heart.
 
Next comes the bass line.  This is what Christians call the Old Testament.  The bass line is how composers ground something musically.  It\u2019s how we keep a song solid and firm. 
 
If you play just the bass line of Hark the Herald<\/em>, however, you\u2019ll notice that it doesn\u2019t sound much like the familiar carol.  In the same way, the Old Testament is merely the musical foundation for the melody that would begin one day at Bethlehem.  On its pages we read, among other things, instructions for assembling a special tent or tabernacle for God, a sensual love poem, an ode to a hippopotamus, and interesting instructions like, \u201cDon\u2019t boil a goat in its mother\u2019s milk.\u201d 
 
The bass line is incomplete by itself.  But join it to the Bible\u2019s main tune of the story of Jesus, and you\u2019ve really got something.
 
Next comes the tenor line.  Wright suggests that we let that stand for the experiences of all the men and women who have gone before us \u2013 the saints and sinners in the Bible and in church history who have wrestled with the meaning of both Old and New Testaments.  We very much need to hear the tenor part.
 
If you turn to any chapter in church history, you\u2019ll find courage and amazing faith.  You\u2019ll also encounter tragic shortsightedness and brazen selfishness.  You can be certain that if we were to drop in unannounced at each other\u2019s churches, we would find the same two things. 
 
To experience God\u2019s Story in its fullness, we will always need the tenor line to learn from those who have gone before us.
 
Finally, there\u2019s the alto line \u2013 a line so humble that it\u2019s almost shy.  In Hark the Herald<\/em> it meanders over just a handful of notes.  But the alto line has to be heard in order to fill out the chords of this magnificent carol. 
 
Wright suggests that the alto line represents your part of what God is up to.  He writes, \u201cThe harmony isn\u2019t complete without it\u2026 This is your own personal story, your private bit\u201d of God\u2019s history-changing song. 
 
Now if you were to stand up and sing the alto line all by itself, most people would say, \u201cWhat in the world was that?\u201d  The notes that we sing as part of God\u2019s ongoing song were never intended to be a solo. They only make sense within the larger story of the Bible and the experience of other followers of Jesus.
 
Perhaps we can keep that in mind as we listen for the rich harmonies of carols like Hark! The Herald Angels Sing<\/em>.  Consider this inspiring version<\/a> by the singers of the group known as Celtic Woman.  Notice how the soloists begin with the familiar melody and then, along with the choir, begin to add in the other parts. 
 
By way of background, this 1739 song emerged from the ministries of John and Charles Wesley, the brothers who laid the spiritual foundations of the Methodist church.  John was the theologian and preacher.  Charles was the musician and songwriter \u2013 a man credited with more than 6,000 original compositions.
 
The tune was crafted by Felix Mendelssohn, one of history’s preeminent classical composers.
 
Wesley\u2019s text springs from the second chapter of Luke, where shepherds tending sheep near Bethlehem are confronted by a \u201cheavenly host.\u201d  A heavenly host is not the nice person who will greet you at your next Christmas party, but rather an angelic army equipped for spiritual combat.  It\u2019s no surprise that the shepherds are shaking in their sandals.  But this host of angels brings the good news of the Messiah\u2019s birth.  Here are the familiar lyrics:
 
Hark! The herald angels sing “Glory to the newborn King!<\/em>
Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled”<\/em>
Joyful, all ye nations rise, join the triumph of the skies<\/em>
With the angelic host proclaim: “Christ is born in Bethlehem”<\/em>
Hark! The herald angels sing “Glory to the newborn King!”<\/em>

Christ by highest heav’n adored, Christ the everlasting Lord!<\/em>
Late in time behold Him come, offspring of a Virgin’s womb<\/em>
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, hail the incarnate Deity<\/em>
Pleased as man with men to dwell: Jesus, our Emmanuel<\/em>
Hark! The herald angels sing “Glory to the newborn King!”<\/em>

Hail the heav’n-born Prince of Peace! Hail the Son of Righteousness!<\/em>
Light and life to all He brings ris’n with healing in His wings<\/em>
Mild He lays His glory by, born that man no more may die<\/em>
Born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth<\/em>
Hark! The herald angels sing “Glory to the newborn King!”<\/em>
 
What\u2019s the ultimate surprise of Christmas?  Jesus is the central character of God\u2019s redemptive story.  His life is the melody.  He is the star of the show.
 
Yet he arrives on the stage looking very much like a bit player, as if he\u2019s singing just the alto part \u2013 a helpless infant born to an ordinary girl in an obscure village. 
 
And how does that impact the meaning of Christmas?
 
We can now know that our own stories, brief and humble as they are, have eternal significance because they\u2019re part of his Story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Tennessee Williams\u2019 most famous play, A Streetcar Named Desire, debuted on Broadway in 1947. A journalist who was able to find his way backstage asked one of the performers how he would summarize its plot.  The actor replied, \u201cIt\u2019s about a guy who comes to take a woman to an insane asylum.\u201d  To put it… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3246,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[119,9],"class_list":["post-3245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christmas","tag-christmas-carols"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3245"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3248,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3245\/revisions\/3248"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}