In reading Dr. Peter Leithart's fantastic Against Christianity, his mention of the common "already/not yet" description of the nature of the Kingdom of God and his use of the word "anticipation" brought the following to my mind.
In music, an anticipation is a passing tone in which a note from the upcoming chord is struck early. Say you're moving from a C to a G chord. While the C chord is sounding, you move its E note to the D which will be part of the G chord. The function is to create dissonance which will resolve when the other notes move to their places in the G chord. Now, the D is a real part of the upcoming chord; it's just here a little early. Notice the D does not fit in with the currently sounding C chord. It is in conflict with the current harmony.
This is exactly what's going on in the world. The Church is a real manisfestation of God's Kingdom in the world. We aren't just "kind of" the Kingdom waiting to really become It some day. God has struck this note to usher in the fullness of the resolution to come. Until then, we are to create dissonance with the fading notes of the current chord.
2 comments:
Fascinating, and beautiful writing.
Nice! I love disonance... there are so many different kinds!
Much better than what Donald Miller says about music (God is like jazz... doesn't resolve?). Is it supposed to be profound to compare things we don't understand about art to things we don't understand about God?
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