Grace Notes 2025-01-29

The basics matter. But being basic, it may not always seem exciting or exceptional. And yet, exciting or not, when we become exceptional at the basics it will at some point become exciting.

Your Pastor struggled with the basics when it came to the piano lessons his mother insisted on. At first, the idea of being able to read and play music seemed exciting. The freedom to play a wide array of music, including the music that I liked listening to, was appealing. But then the lessons and practices began.

I remember having to memorize the notes on the musical staff. There were memory devices to assist in this. If memory serves, it went something like: ‘Every Good Boy Does Fly' for the treble lines, 'F A C E’ for the treble spaces, 'Grizzly Bears Don't Fear Anything' for the bass clef lines, and 'All Cows Eat Grass' for the bass clef spaces.

Then there was learning the scales and where the sharps and flats might be in each. Again, if memory serves, there are Major scales and Minor scales. And it is through sheer repetition, read practice, of the scales and chords that muscle memory is formed and reinforced.

I will not even mention the value of each note and keeping time and rhythm. But I will say that the skills just mentioned, and many others, only become automatic and helpful through practice, practice, and more practice. Sometimes this can be made fun and interesting, but the basics are just, well, basic. It is when you become increasingly exceptional with them that things can become exciting. But to stay accomplished, you never graduate from going back to the basics. And I was not only not exceptional in the basics of piano, but I was also lazy and I early on dropped the effort.

Christianity is not unlike learning the piano. And two of the basics are prayer and Scripture. Here we can ill afford to be lazy and to quit.

Since You Asked…

Why do we say in the Creeds that Jesus Christ “is seated at the right hand of the Father”? Does this mean that our Lord is far away from us?

This has little to do with Christ’s physical location. Instead, it has to do with the authority he assumes. For a King to be seated on a throne is a symbolic gesture of his rule and authority. Heaven itself is a reality that transcends time and space. It is the unseen and timeless realm that underlies the visible and temporal world. We confess Christ to be seated at the right hand of the Father because we believe him to be the rightful King of the universe. Indeed, Jesus is Lord!