Last Sunday was Pentecost, and, in my sermon, I talked about how no one other than an exuberant, extravagant, effusive God would mix together fire and wind in a locked upper room. So, given the dramatic action of God to empower disheartened people, I decided to revive a sermon series I preached 15 years ago.

On Sunday, I will start a sermon series called iGod: Downloading Tunes from Heaven. Although I am following the assigned lectionary texts, we will use a different genre of music each week as our modern lesson. What can we learn from the blues, or country music, or disco, or hip hop? I guess we will see.

In this week’s epistle lesson, Paul calls us to live in harmony. I think music can teach us how to do a better job of that. Given all the conflicts in the world, and in our personal lives, perhaps we all could use some lessons about living in harmony.

Although I don’t want to give away the point of Sunday’s sermon, the one key thing life has taught me is that, in order to harmonize our relationships with others, we must find a way to make our inner lives harmonious.

Alas, driving in Atlanta seems to make inner harmony impossible. Dealing with people at work might be what disrupts your peace. Listening to NPR in the morning and hearing what the Trump administration is up to seems strategically designed to destroy all inner peace and any hope that we can live together harmoniously.

Harmony is not a word we think about often; maybe that is why there is so little of it. As you listen to music today, tune your ears to hear the harmony. Then open your heart to honestly name what is keeping your life from harmonizing with the world and the people around you. Music has a lot to teach us.
Blessings,

Rev. Michael Piazza