“Con Brio”
Introduction:
In his Letter to the Ephesians, the Apostle Paul writes:
Look carefully then, how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of the time...Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Will of the Lord is (Eph. 5:15,17).
Regrettably, many people view the Will of God as a ten-ton elephant, hanging over our heads. We say, “oh Lord Your will be done” and then peek to see what monstrous thing God is going to lay on us. And that’s the good side. Many people when they say “Your will be done” it’s more out of habit…I mean that’s what your supposed to say right?
Actually, the word translated into English as "Will" comes from both a Hebrew and Greek word which means yearning. Its meaning connotes the kind of yearning which lovers have for one another -- not a yearning of the mind alone or the heart alone, but of the whole being. It is a yearning that gives us a glimpse -- but only a glimpse -- of the depth of God’s yearning for us. And what’s the consequence of yearning for God’s Holy Will to take over your whole being? Paul says, it’s being filled "with the Holy Spirit," and singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart" (Eph. 5:19).
This would be a good place to explain a concept that has been around forever but was eloquently revealed to me as I read a quote from Henry Scougal, in 1677 he wrote,
“The worth and excellency of a soul is to be measured by the object of its love."
What is your driving force? I struggle with life’s trials and tribulations just like everybody else. I struggle with temptation, but the overarching purpose in my life is the desire, the love and the aching need to draw closer to God. If I preach well, it’s because I desire to be used by God. If I sing well, it’s because I can think of nothing I’d rather be doing than praising and worshiping my Savior and using the gifts that He has given me and that only He can use. If people see a difference in my daily life, it’s because I have had an encounter with God The Creator of the Universe and it is impossible for that not to change my life. God is the object of my love! How excellent is that!?!
In another place, Paul writes,
“...Put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony...and sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God”(Col. 3:14,16).
When we yearn to be overtaken by the Will of God, we find our life overflowing with goodness. And the song does not stop. It constantly receives new impetus, new reasons, along the way, as God acts again and again for our sake. As we desire God and experience His goodness, His faithfulness, our own level of goodness and faithfulness deepens. We, the faithful, we the Church, keep singing all the way to the throne of God. And we dare to imagine that even beyond our sight, the Church Triumphant, those who have gone before us, are still singing at the throne.
How do we sing that song? When a composer writes a piece of music there are various musical markings composers use to tell conductors and performers how they want their music played and sung. For example, "adagio" means slow; "allegro" means "fast/cheerful." Then there is "con brio." That means,
"with vivacity/spirited."
And that is the life to which Christ is calling us: vivacious...vital...vibrant! Excited!!! It’s responding with enthusiasm to Christ’s invitation to New Life. It’s being stunned, right down to the deepest recesses of your heart and soul by God’s astonishing, never-ceasing Resurrection Power to make all things new. It’s singing a joyful song unto the Lord of Lords who transforms darkness into light, sickness into health, sorrow into joy, death into New Life.
Let me ask you, what do you think would have happened in John chapter 11, if Lazarus’ friends or family had called him;
“Come out…Rise up…” (Elaborate…don’t you miss us…don’t you love us?)
NOTHING!! Why? Did Lazarus not miss them or maybe they didn’t ask well enough. NO! Lazarus couldn’t come out…Lazarus was DEAD! And there is only one call that can bring life out of death, and Jesus made it,
“Lazarus, come out!”
Now, we all need to come to grips with one important and vital truth. Physically we have been dying and decaying from the day we were born and spiritually, we who are now children of God, we were not unconscious in our sins…we were not in a C O M A in our sins, we were D E A D! But through the effective call and the amazing grace of God we have been brought from death to life and not just, LIFE, but life everlasting! Now that is life “Con Brio”! If you can’t get excited about that, then you can’t get excited about anything. I mean I had to get a digital fun meter because my old analog one was constantly pegged out!
Our "con brio" lives become vivid demonstrations of the Gospel Truth that ultimate empowerment comes not from any "Military Power," not from Presidents or dictators, not from self-styled ethnic-cleansers, not from moneyed self-interested lobbyists, not from practitioners of religious arrogance -- no, no, no! The ultimate empowerment comes from the God who creates…the God who liberates…the God who identifies us as sons and daughters of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords: We are His creative masterpieces. The ultimate empowerment comes from the God who looks at us and, despite our idiocies and impairments, blesses us, and whose only Son Jesus Christ still rises to call out: "I am here with you to stay! Take life and live it abundantly! Sing it -- con brio!" That is what Jesus means in John 10:10,
“The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full!”
(Use the cup and Niagara falls analogy)
In a book that literally sings with "con brio," called "Finally Comes the Poet" the author recalls that the great G.K. Chesterton once argued that because we are sinners, when it comes to ultimate joy, God alone is thoroughly childlike in Spirit. Chesterton asks us to consider how God might have created daisies. Did He create them all at once, with one swoop of His mighty hand? Or did He create them one-by-one, experiencing childlike delight in each new flower?
If you throw your toddler up in the air or bounce the child off your knee, the likelihood is that the child will shout, "Do it again!" and they don’t even notice the cringing mother! And if you do it again, you probably will get the same response. I think probably that, each time you toss the child in the air, the laughter will become more uncontrolled. Twenty times later, the child, never tiring of the fun; can’t say the same about the adult, can be counted on to be overwhelmed with hysteria while still shouting, "Do it again"!
So I think it might be that way with God. In the beginning, God may have created one daisy, and something within Him spontaneously whispered, "Do it again!" And daisy number two came into being. And once again God said, "Do it again!" And there was a third, and then a fourth, and then a fifth daisy. And so He went on creating daisies. Until after a hundred billion trillion daisies, the great Almighty Creator who spun the galaxies into space and created all the animals, that same God is still creating daisies, and with childlike glee, still saying, "Do it again!"
To experience salvation, to know that you are redeemed, to be free to become the creative masterpiece God intends you to be, you must reflect His image and likeness. To be a Christian is to transcend the sense of dullness and boredom that seems to prevail in our mundane modern world. Is that the kind of life you think God wants to give you? That’s a “Potato Chip Bag” life. (Elaborate) I want the life that is promised like in Luke 6:38. (Read and then Elaborate) I have heard even Christians talk about how church can get old, “we always do the same thing…Sing, Pray, Sing, Give, Sing, Preach…” well I say Praise God, because it has absolutely nothing to do with WHAT you are doing. But it has everything to do with WHERE is your heart and soul while your doing it. We need to be able to greet even that which is repetitious with joyous declarations of "Do it again!"
In Mark 1:40,42,45, a poor leper kneels before Jesus in an attitude of complete faith. "You can cure me," he says, "if you will to do so You can cure me." Jesus puts His hand on the leper and says, "I do will it. Be cured," and the man is healed. The cure meant that he would no longer live the life of an outcast, as lepers were forced to do in those days. He had been liberated from that burden. Moreover, he couldn’t help going out and spreading the great news about the transforming Power of Jesus. That’s that Niagara life; you can try to hold it in, but it doesn’t just fill you up it will blow you apart until everybody is seeing it without you saying a word. It will be oozing from your words, your actions and your spirit. -- Sing His praises con brio -- to the point where, in Mark’s words, "People from all around would come to Him"
Almost inevitably, people who experience the Christ Presence at a deep level of their being find their lives changed. Peter and Andrew; James and John; Mary and Martha; the Samaritan woman at the well; the woman taken in adultery; the blind who were cured; the lepers who were healed; people who were spiritually and emotionally out of control, just like you and me -- when Jesus came into their lives, they started to come alive to God. They experienced a whole new awareness of the God of all Creation, the God of ongoing creation. And it changed their lives -- their way of living. I will tell you again, because it bears repeating; it is impossible to have any meaningful contact with The God of the entire Universe, and not be changed!
The New Testament followers of Christ were a people of joy -- a con brio people, even in the worst of circumstances. Listen to this passage from the Book of Acts 8:1, 3-8;
“... A bitter persecution started against the Church in Jerusalem...Saul then worked for the total destruction of the Church; he went from house to house arresting people, both men and women, and sending them to prison. Those who escaped went from place to place preaching the Good News. One of them was Philip who went to a Samaritan town and proclaimed the Christ to them. The people united in welcoming the Message Philip preached, either because they heard of the miracles he worked or because they saw them for
themselves...As a result, there was great rejoicing in the town.”
Jesus said to His disciples,
"As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you...I have told you this so that My own joy may be in you and your joy may be complete."
Then He told them how to make their joy complete, saying,
"Love one another as I have loved you" (Jn. 15:9,11-12).
For whatever other reasons we come together in community, we do so essentially in order to satisfy a deep hunger for God. And, in so positioning ourselves to experience God and have our hunger satisfied, we discover one of the most joyful paradoxes of our Christian pilgrimage: that the more we are able to move out of ourselves to serve others, the more intensely we are able to experience the Presence of God within ourselves. John Piper in “The Pleasures of God” gives this servant model.
“When a reed is bent, the servant will tenderly hold it upright until it heals. When a wick is smoldering and has scarcely any heat left, the servant will not pinch it off, but cup his hand and blow gently until it burns again.”
Man, as I look at my life, do I see Jesus in that servant model in the trials and tribulations that I have been brought through. Notice I said, “Been brought through” because I don’t have the wherewithal to take my next breath much less guide my own life to the blessed point it is now. And so we respond with enthusiasm to the God who goes on creating not only daisies, but people of joy.
"Lord we give you thanks for this joyful worship experience. And we’ll do it again Lord...and again...and again -- con brio."
