That’s an odd question, I know. And in a technical sense it is an absurd question. A sound cannot look like anything. Yet there ways that you could in some ways show what a sound looks like. If you take an artistic creative approach you may think of movies like Disney’s Fantasia. There viewers heard different pieces of classical music while a whole variety of animations were shown. Some of them were abstract. Some were life-like.
You could take a scientific approach to show what a sound looks like. You could use various gauges to measure a sound’s volume and its frequency. You could then turn those readings into numbers or graphs. The image of a someone talking into a microphone, which is attached to an oscilloscope comes to mind. You could then use that data to recreate a sound quite precisely. So, in a sense you would have shown what a sound looks like.
In many ways, modern musical notation does just that. If you know how to read music you know through patterns of lines, dots, and symbols you can precisely communicate a sound on paper. You specify the type of instrument, the volume, pitch, and the speed. You can visually communicate melodies, harmonies, and rhythms. Again, if you know how to read music you can create a visual image of a sound.
Yet ultimately the process only works one way. You can create an image of a sound, but you cannot truly know what that image sounds like until you actually hear it. That’s especially true for complex things.
I want to take this approach to help us grasp something that is going on in many of the situations where Jesus is conflicting with the more wealthy and prominent people of his day.
In the back of your bulletin is the image of a sound.
It is the first three measures of a Bach organ piece called Come, Holy Ghost, God and Lord. Later on we’ll listen to the first third of the piece and as we hear it the music will appear before us a few measures at a time. We will be able to see what the sound looks like that we are hearing.
Even if you know nothing about music, musical notation is pretty easy learn. Organ music is especially easy because, while playing the instrument is very difficult skill to learn, understanding its music is not. I believe it was Bach who said that all you have to do is press down the right key at the right time and the organ plays itself.
On the music at the back of the bulletin there are three sets of five horizontal lines that run across the page. You read music left to right, just like you read words in English. The little ovals designate what key to press and when. The set of lines on top is what you play with your right hand. The middle set of lines is what you play with your left hand. The bottom set of lines is what you play with your feet. Again, it’s all simple enough to depict the sound.
However, just seeing the music on the page does nothing to help you actually know what the sound is that it represents. The only way to know that is to hear it.
Perhaps you have some musical training and you can see a note on a page and be able to hum it, or recreate its pitch in your mind. You could then look at the music and think, “Well, I don’t have to actually hear it, but I can imagine it.” Looking at it you could discern that the very first sound you will hear is a very low note from the feet. That note is held. Then almost immediately the right hand will start playing something that is fast and high pitched. And shortly after the left hand will also join with something a little bit lower in pitch but also fast. All the while the feet are holding a note steady.
That’s all good logical deduction based upon the image. You’re able to get a bit of a feel for the sound, but you still don’t actually know what it sounds like.
Perhaps you are someone with a PhD in Bach’s music. You may be able to talk in great detail about the way Bach blended melodies and harmonies, and that his music often uses mathematical formulas. You may be able to talk about the way Bach’s music stretched the limits of what humans could play and what organs could do. You could study the paper music and see all of that at work. Yet you would still not know what it sounds like. The only way to truly know is to hear it. You cannot actually by your own knowledge and skill, no matter what that level is, know what sound that represents without its sound coming to you from outside.
After that lengthy introduction, let’s see what is taking place in our gospel reading. Jesus is criticizing some Pharisees, who are described as lovers of money. At first he seems to jump around among several topics. He tells them that they justify themselves in the sight of others, but God knows their hearts. He talks about the law and the prophets. He makes a reference to divorce and adultery. Then he moves on into the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus.
We’ve studied this parable in great detail in years past. It is indeed a rich and detailed parable. I was not going to go into the details this time. We can talk about them some other time if you’d like. What I want to focus on is how the rich man’s attitude mirrors the criticisms Jesus has just been giving. Jesus says that the rich man feasts sumptuously every day, and that he wears fine clothes. Yet just outside his gate lies Lazarus, who is desperately hungry. Dogs come and lick the sores on his sick and emaciated body. Don’t picture these dogs as cute little puppies offering him sympathy. Picture them as a hungry pack looking to have Lazarus as a meal as soon as he’s too weak to fight them off.
The rich man dies and is buried. Lazarus also dies. Given that Jesus does not include the detail that he was buried, we’re left to conclude that the pack of dogs finally got their meal.
Then things get interesting. Lazarus goes to be with Abraham. The rich man goes to Hades, where he is being tormented. He cries out to Abraham, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and come and cool my tongue.” So, the rich man recognizes Lazarus and even knows his name. He was not ignorant of the plight of Lazarus’ life. He also says, “Father Abraham.” That means that this rich man also has, in a sense, gone to Sunday school. He recognizes Abraham. By calling him father he knows what role Abraham plays in Jewish history and theology. As his pleading with Abraham goes on he also reveals that he knows about Moses and the prophets. In other words, this rich man is not without knowledge. He’s been taught. He makes a plea of logic with Abraham for his disbelieving brothers who are still alive. He says to Abraham, “If someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.” But Abraham points out that even someone rising from the dead will not be enough to convince them to change.
What we have here in the rich man is someone who is smart and educated and who thinks that by his own smarts and education he can know what a godly life looks like. Or perhaps using our example with music, he thinks that because he can see the image of a sound and study it he can know what the music sounds like. But it is impossible.
I can almost promise you that unless you know the piece of music we will hear, even if you know music well, you cannot begin to imagine what it actually sounds like.
Belief in God and faith in Christ does not come to you by proofs and knowledge alone. You cannot know what a sound is like by looking at it. You must hear it. You cannot come to God by your own logic. Faith is not something we can develop by our own power. It is something that must come from God. It must come from outside us.
Perhaps the root problem of what Jesus is trying to get across to the Pharisees is that they think they can get to God by skills and abilities that reside within themselves. Since they believe that they become subtly smug, and ultimately feel superior. That gives them license to become exploitative. People like Lazarus are the result.
The Pharisees need to truly open themselves to God. Then they will be able to, in a sense, hear the music. Those of you who grew up Lutheran and went to confirmation class know these words of Martin Luther’s Small Catechism well, “I believe that by my own understanding or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him, but instead the Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, made me holy, and kept me in the truth faith…” That is hearing the music coming from outside. That is the humility to know that faith comes, not from within us (as if it’s a possession we can boast about), but from God alone. Everything can come into place from there, but it cannot come into place otherwise.
It is time to hear what the sound looks like. Why have I chosen this particular piece of music? Many reasons coincide. Bach wrote this music almost 300 years ago. But he did not invent it from nothing. It is based on a famous hymn that Martin Luther wrote about 200 years before Bach. And, as is the magic of music, we still have the original hymn. We can and will sing it. And, what is that 500 year old hymn about? Inviting the Holy Spirit to inspire faith within us!
I do have to make an apology to all of you. We’re only going to listen to the first two minutes of this piece. For those of you who love organ music you’re not going to like that we abruptly cut out in the middle. For those of you who do not like organ music, and that is probably the majority of you, you won’t like suffering through even two minutes of this! Whatever the case, here is what the sound depicted on a page actually sounds like. The notes will appear line by line as it goes on. For those of you who can actually read music, you’ll probably be able to follow by following the base line in the pedals. It is a clear and low sound.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5isYiTEUE4&list=PL2C2EB2EC7B65F072&index=1
That’s Bach’s fantasy on it. Now we sing the original – Come Holy Ghost, God and Lord. Hymn 395 in Evangelical Lutheran Worship.
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