June 23, 2005
Tempo
A musician friend reminded me the other day that Arturo Toscanini put it this way, “To some it is Napoleon, to some it is a philosophical struggle, to me it is allegro con brio.”
It strikes me that this perspective might be useful for all those who find themselves in such a bind over the Episcopal Church doing its damnedest to translate canon law into love and justice. I’ll give it to all those 800-pound primates who currently are so concerned about our spin on the gospel that when they vow to guard the faith, etc, they at least have in mind similar goals, maybe even sharing in their propagating ever so often.
If so, and it’s difficult to concede, then their Napoleonic behavior and their obsession with orthodoxy are getting mightily in the way of moving on with Jesus’ allegro con brio. on the road to Pentecost. It’s a simple, perhaps occasionally exhausting tempo for us geriatrics, but all it means is not only fast, joyful, and cheerful, plus all the above doubled in spades. Of course, not without some occasional harmony thrown in for the balance.