Chris Howlett

Symphony for a Broken Orchestra

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” – Arthur Ashe

Hundreds of broken instruments sat in storage in the Philadelphia public schools. Due to tight budgets, the school district couldn’t afford repairs. Broken trumpets, worn-out violins, cellos in multiple pieces, all silently set aside, awaiting rehabilitation. Then a music educator at Temple University, Robert Blackson, received a spark of inspiration. How about a symphony for a broken orchestra!?

On a Sunday evening last December, 400 musicians, students, amateurs, and professionals, gathered to perform a symphony composed especially for them. Instruments that couldn’t be played as designed were repurposed, a trumpet turned into a percussion instrument, a new sound out of a violin with no strings, each one contributing, in its own way to a harmony that resulted in a forty-minute performance to raise funds to sustain the music program in the schools. (Check out the NYT story here).

The church is like a symphony of broken instruments. Each one of us struggles with our own flaws and fears. Yet, at the direction of the Divine Director, we add our own voices to the joyful song of redemption and hope. “We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us” (2 Cor. 4:7 NIV).

creatio Dei

“The ‘earth’ without ‘art’ is just ‘eh.’” – The Ink Society, Portland, OR

I recently shared lunch with Uday Balasundaram. Uday is currently finishing his Ph.D. at Asbury Seminary and several years ago he served as the Worship Leader at Christ Church. Uday came up with an amazing way of thinking about God and humanity that I believe is totally original with him. Theologians use Latin when talking or writing about certain aspects of God's personhood and work in the world, such as the imago Dei or “Image of God.” There is another popular one, missio Dei, the “Mission of God.” Uday lines these two up together with a third, creatio Dei, the “Creation of God.” creatio Dei - imago Dei - missio Dei.

Okay, that might that might not be the most exciting thing you've ever read, but wait! missio Dei is always expressed in terms of the ongoing mission of God that we as the people of God carry out when we join God in his work of building the Kingdom. We do this because we were created in the image of God. The addition of the creatio Dei, or creation of God, by Uday, is not a static creation event that is located in the distant past, but is the ongoing creative activity of God in the world today. Because we are created in the image of God and are called to participate in the mission of God, we are also invited to be a part of the process of the ongoing creative activity of God as he creates and re-creates, expressing his love, holiness, and grace in various ways, making known his regenerative character to the whole world.

God is a creative God and because you have the imprint of God on your character, you are also creative. Some of us leave that creative part of ourselves dormant, but when we activate it, God always blesses our efforts because when we are being creative, we are being more like him and who he calls us to be.

So, go about your business today and be creative. Think outside the box. Color outside the lines. Be free to be who you are and partner with God to do something fresh, new, and life-affirming.