     |
|
| Doing It to be Seen |
by Rev. Andrew JJ Paton |
Why something is done can often be more important than how well it is accomplished.
The tiny crowd of mourners huddled around the grave in Leipzig as
his sons lowered the casket into the earth of his native Germany. Two eye
operations had failed to correct the blindness that took away his means
of employment. Then came the stroke that ushered him from this world.
For most of his life he was a church musician. A few of the royals of his day knew him, but he thought of himself as a humble craftsman. He was serving God to the best of his ability with his music.
His church leaders rejected many of the innovations he tried to bring to the Lutheran Church.
He wrote no operas, which might have brought him fame and fortune.
Personal glory was abhorrent to him.
At times he wrote "J.J."(help me Jesus) on his compositions. There was no money for a headstone. He lay in an unmarked grave in the St Thomas Church for 150 years.
*****
He was born in Eisenach. About 50 miles away one month earlier in the town of Halle another German musician was born. He started as the church organist at Halle Cathedral. Then he took a post as violinist in the Hamburg Opera House. He wrote 4 operas and the town's people began to take note of his talent.
He moved to Italy. Here he wrote both secular & sacred music. He returned to Germany and was hired as chapel musician to George, Elector of Hanover.
George became king of England.
Before that happened this German musician moved to England and was the darling composer of Queen Anne.
Many of his operas enthused the crowds. The Grenadier Guards adopted his music as their regimental slow march. He wrote anthems for King George's coronation ceremony. One of these is played at the crowning of every English monarch.
Fame attended him on every hand. He made and lost a fortune. The king stood up in respect during one of his oratorios.
George Frideric Handel was buried with much pomp and ceremony in Westminster Abbey. Beethoven said of him: "Handel is the greatest composer who ever lived. I would bare my head and kneel at his grave."
*****
Who was the other man in the unmarked grave? Johann Sebastian Bach.
Two giant composers. Their music lives on. Very few would venture to say who was the better musician. How can one judge between Handel's Messiah or The Toccata and Fugue in D minor by Bach? Time has equally honored both men, but you wouldn't have guessed it if you stood among the family in that Leipzig churchyard.
I have discovered that "now isn't forever."
Indeed, I expect that the number of people who might attend my funeral will be in direct proportion to the state of the weather that day!
Bach was a devoted family man. He was laid to rest by the tender hands of his surviving children.
Handel died unmarried and was attended by admiring crowds. Adulation is a poor substitute for love.
Why something is done can often be more important than how well it is accomplished. In 1708 Bach declared his ultimate purpose in life was to create "well-regulated church music to the glory of God." Though Handel also loved sacred music I believe he often wrote for the praise of the crowds.
What is it you do well? Let's take something as simple as giving aid to the needy. Jesus spoke of the need to be careful that we do not do "acts of righteousness" in the hope of being noticed by our peers. Things were so bad in his day that the wealthy had trumpeters whom would draw the attention of the passing crowd to the fact that their masters were about to help a beggar.
All too often the act so performed has its praise in the immediate moment.
The bumper sticker ahead of me read: "Do random acts of kindness." What a motto! It comes from a humble attitude to serving others. Imagine a city where people are constantly on the prowl, hoping to find some need that can be quietly met. Mr. Lennon this is the better kind of imagining.
Now stop imagining it and go out there and do it. Do your giving in secret for be assured the God who sees what is done in secret will reward you, maybe even in this life.