Reconciliation Music Apologetic from the Apostle John

I have to give a talk this summer to our summer ministry teams about reconciliation music. Here's the gist of what I think that I'll say.

Why reconciliation music?

John shared the High Priestly prayer of Jesus with us in his gospel. It includes a prayer for believers who will come after the apostles (that's us). Here's part of what Jesus prayed for:

"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me." -John 17:20-23

The unity of the believers reveals Jesus glory, His one-ness with the Father, The Father's love for us. As a display to the world that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, sent by the Father. So, we need to be unified as believers, and that unity includes every part of our lives including our worship music. When we have services and churches that splinter off from each other based on music preferences, are we truly unified? For some reason, music is a huge battleground for people. Here's a classic example:

At this point, I'll show the classic Bugs Bunny cartoon, "Long-Haired Hare" in which Bugs exacts revenge on the opera singer, Giovanni Jones. I hope to use the cartoon to illustrate the absurdity the "worship wars" in the church.

How do we pursue reconciliation music?
Let's look at John's first epistle to get an idea for what reconciliation requires.

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth." -1 John 3:16-18

Jesus showed us how to reconcile: He laid down his life for us. He deliberately, intentionally, set his life aside to bring us close to himself. This is repeated by Paul in Philippians 2 which says that Jesus humbled himself to become a human like us in order to bring us back to himself. This is the glory and the miracle of the incarnation, that Jesus would deny himself to become a newborn and submit his life to the culture he was trying to be reconciled to. So we as believers, lay down our lives for each other.

So in terms of music, this means that I laid down my musical preferences to be reconciled to my brothers. I humble myself to be incarnated into a new culture in order to love with actions and in truth. I might have my idea about what is aesthetically good and bad about music, but I have to lay those aside in order to be able to love and understand another culture. Of course, this is a two-way street; my brother in Christ is called to do the same thing. Together we produce something new.

What is the product of reconciliation music?
We can get a idea of the product of reconciliation music from John again, but this time from his prophetic vision recorded in the book for Revelation.

"After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice:
"Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb." - Revelation 7:9-10

John looks at this multitude of people and sees diversity. This is significant because he also says that they are all dressed the same, in white robes. So we can infer that he must have been able to tell that they were different because the were praising in various languages in different styles of music. They were not just praising in English, with perfect counter-point, and pipe organ accompaniment. The worship of the Lamb will be a wonderful gumbo of music flavors. By practicing reconciliation music, we end up with a mix of different styles, languages, and expressions that create a new thing. This new thing becomes the culture of New City Fellowship that binds us together as a community. We produce new songs and new ideas that come out of the crucible of reconciliation. This is a picture of heaven that is manifested on earth. Many times the world looks at the segregated church and says, "that's a lie." But, when people see us fulfilling Jesus' prayer for us to be unified, they will be amazed and will see the glory of God revealed through our reconciliation music.