Questions of Dissonance

DAILY BYTE

There is a well known story about Bach the composer, that one night while he was in bed, his wife was playing the harpsichord in the music room. She kept playing an unresolved chord – an unresolved 7th. Well, this bothered Bach so much that he could not sleep. Eventually, he had to get up out of bed, go to the music room and play the appropriate resolved chord so that he could then sleep in peace.

There is something within most of us that cries out for dissonance to be resolved ... and there is much dissonance in our world.

There is discord and there is disharmony ... something not quite right with the world we live in. The parable that we will be focussing on this entire week echoes that dissonance back to us, so that even when reading the Bible, we are reminded of some of the harsher realities of life.

Today’s focus reading is a parable of dissonance and it all begins with Jesus being asked some hard questions. Some Jews had been slaughtered by the Roman Governor Pilate as they worshipped, so that their own blood was mingled with the blood of their sacrifices. As people questioned Jesus about this, you can sense they were thinking – how could God allow a thing like this to happen?

This questioning reflects many of our own struggles as we try to make sense of evil (dissonance) for ourselves. Why are there Pilates and Hitler’s? Why are there rapists and murderers?

Jesus then mentions the accident of the Tower of Siloam (in which innocent bystanders were killed). Perhaps he is pre-empting further questions about suffering such as why horrible accidents like that happen to innocent people. Why do car crashes happen? Why are there Tsunamis, floods and droughts?

There is a dissonance and disharmony that plays itself out in the suffering of ordinary people like you and me and it seems so wrong! It seems out of tune with how life should be - like someone is continually playing an unresolved chord or singing out of tune.

Notice that Jesus does not answer these questions directly – instead he replies with a parable. Elie Wiesel, the Jewish spiritual writer, was once asked why so many Jewish teachers respond to questions with a question of their own. To which Wiesel replied: “Well, why not?”

In this parable Jesus does exactly that. He answers a question with a question, or should I say he tells a story that by its very nature asks of our lives some hard questions. Remember that we don’t interpret parables as much as they interpret us. Parables are more meaning than answers, more relationship and encounter than neat explanations.

Parables are a little like kaleidoscopes, which if you shake will give you different patterns, except unlike kaleidoscopes we don’t shake them, they by nature shake us up and in so doing open our eyes and hearts to look at life somewhat differently.

This is exactly what this parable does. It shakes us up by not denying life’s dissonance, but rather in acknowledging it and then turning the hard questions right back at us and challenging us to begin playing our part in bringing everything back into harmony.

PRAY AS YOU GO

God of Life, I have often been left confused and afraid as to the harder questions of life. Help me to see more clearly how I can dedicate my life to bringing everything back into harmony with you. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Luke 13: 1-5 NRSV

At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.

He asked them, "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them--do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did."