Something to start the New Year with, in thankful appreciation of the Great things of Old... Wishing everyone a deepening understanding of the Truth. QUOTED FROM TUNE in: TUNE IN 105: New and old ‘Therefore every teacher of the law who becomes a disciple of the Kingdom of Heaven is like a house owner who brings out of his treasure chamber things new and old.’ (Matthew 13:52) At New Year in the Netherlands, there are common everyday phrases which speak of ‘Old and New’. These refer, of course, to the transition from the old, almost finished year to the new, coming year. When, in a different context, we contrast old and new with each other, it is logical for us to speak first of ‘old’ and only then of ‘new’. Probably as a consequence of this, the words of Jesus from Matthew 13:52 have occasionally been quoted wrongly as ‘a house owner who brings out of his treasure chamber things old and new.’ But this, according to Matthew, is not what Jesus says. Jesus reverses the order and says ‘new and old’. EXAMPLE Matthew passes on Jesus’ words as the conclusion of a pericope in which Matthew brings together seven parables of Jesus regarding the Kingdom. In the middle of the main section, Matthew says (referring to Psalm 78:2) that Jesus, in his pictorial teaching, imparted new things: ‘I shall open my mouth in parables, I shall utter things hidden since the foundation of the world.’ (v. 35). Earlier in that gospel, Jesus had made it clear, however, that his purpose was not to abolish the old: ‘Do not think that I have come to cancel the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfil them.’ (Matthew 5: 17). As can be seen from the rest of Matthew 5, Jesus constantly draws dimensions out of the old which were completely new for his contemporaries. When Jesus, at the end of Matthew 13, after this series of seven parables, asks his disciples if they have understood his teaching and receives a positive answer, Jesus replies in the words quoted above. He calls on them to follow his example and states in advance that, in future, they will tell of new things in their own teaching. RENEWAL A distinguishing feature of us as members of mankind is that we are limited and that everything that we make or do simply loses its vital energy in a short time. As a result of our limitedness, we have great need of renewal. For anyone who is in a love relationship, it is not enough that the beloved says once, at the beginning of the relationship: ‘I love you.’ The reason that we want to hear this almost every day is that we urgently need this love to be renewed (ideally daily). Therefore, assuming Matthew reproduces literally what Jesus said, we must conclude that Jesus said this before the Holy Spirit was poured out (as described in Acts 2). On the other hand, it is a fact that Matthew wrote his gospel after the outpouring of the Spirit on the believers. Elsewhere in the New Testament, Paul describes the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives as renewal: ‘…that you, regarding your previous way of life, have put away the old man, who is being corrupted by its deceitful desires, to be renewed in the attitude of your minds and to put on the new man, made to the pattern of God in true righteousness and holiness.’ (Ephesians 4:22-24). Paul describes our renewal (here our sanctification is referred to, i.e. the growth process in which we become constantly more like Jesus) as something that happens to us at once – just like software being installed on a computer – but this renewal is ultimately realised in our lives by continuous ‘updates’ by the Holy Spirit. But the spirit does not only sanctify us. He is also the source from which our spirit is renewed time after time. And God has so arranged matters that we receive some of the renewal of our spirits from each other’s hands. Not only is it wonderful that our lives are regularly renewed, it is a great privilege to be able to renew the lives of others oneself. By His Spirit, He puts us human beings in a position to gain new insights with which we can renew the lives of others for the moment. Perhaps we may have to say, that the mark of someone who is filled with the power and the wisdom of the Spirit is that he / she is able to renew our lives with new insights and to offer new perspectives or new possibilities. What is to be thought of someone whose mouth is always speaking of the Holy Spirit, but from whom no stimulus for renewal ever comes? But the example that Jesus gives is renewal coming out of the old. The precondition for genuine renewal is a deep understanding of the ancient heritage. This can be observed in the history of music. Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps is partly the result of Stravinsky’s understanding of old Russian folk music. Schönberg’s atonality, finally culminating in twelve-tone music, is to a large extent derived from his insight into (and appreciation of) the counterpoint of the 15th and 16th centuries. This is also where we find the explanation why revolutions – in which ‘from now on everything must be different’, are not nourished by the old, but in which, with immediate effect, the ‘Law and the Prophets are abolished’ – are very seldom satisfactory in the long term. Whoever lives at war with the old will never be able to bring old things out of his treasure chamber. Nor will anyone who lacks the patience to amass a treasure have any old riches to offer – let alone that he will ever discover that which truly renews. The path to true renewal is a life-long quest for the true, the good and the beautiful, but also a quest in which we can be assured from the beginning that we seek in ourselves the true, the good and the beautiful and will be able to amass a treasure which puts us in a position to bring out both new and old things. NOURISMENT At the beginning of 2015, Jesus’ words are worthy of study by us musicians (and other artists). We are living in a time in which impresarios and CD producers overload us with ‘the new interpretations’ of old works. Mostly, this means little more than performing them faster than ever before. Performances ‘against the clock’ are perhaps stirring in the moment that one hears them, on a second listening it is all no longer so exciting, and the third time you see no sense in it anymore. What our world needs – perhaps more than ever – are musicians who renew the lives of people with their playing. Not musicians who simply overwhelm or whip up the emotions, but musicians who, with their interpretations, feed human souls in their spiritual hunger. In his advice to the disciples, who are called to follow in his footsteps, Jesus emphasises that we can achieve this when we seek the new in the old and, in the search for the truth, ask the old about the new. If we do not let ourselves be misled into simple formulas for short-term success, but follow Jesus’ long-term advice in a sincere search for the true, the good and the beautiful, we will build up an audience that returns constantly so that the knowledge of the interplay of the rich facets of human life can be renewed. One of the greatest musicians of our time, who has thought through the musical past of Europe in an unparalleled manner and has thus changed the world of music irreversibly, is the conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt, who once said: ‘If we have played a concert and nothing has changed in the world, we have not done our work well.’ As an inspiring example of how refreshing a new interpretation can be (nourished by a thorough understanding of the old), here is Harnoncourt’s unique interpretation of Johann Strauss Sr.’s Radetzky Marsch (op.228; 1848), with which he opened (!) the 2001 New Year’s Concert in Vienna, on which occasion he wishes us all ‘a blessed New Year’:
Posted on: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 11:00:03 +0000