the CSO and the Christian gospel

Last weekend, while traveling to one of the local malls of Cincinnati, I passed a new billboard promoting the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO). I openly admit that I am a fan of classical music, and I have attended several performances since I have lived in the greater Cincinnati area. The CSO is a finely tuned (pun intended) and well-conducted group of astutely trained musicians led by the capable hands of Paavo Järvi. With this much "padding", one necessarily expects a "but" or a "however". Well, here it is:

But, the billboard I passed caused me to become a bit disappointed with the CSO and its means of advertisement. The slogan was quite simple:

Music you'd hear in heaven
without the high price of admission

My immediate thought was: They really have a poor understanding of "admission" into heaven; but then I reflected more on slogan and my initial thought and wondered: Is this poor understanding "our" fault? Are we portraying the gospel as something that comes with a price-tag more than $12? ("$12" because that's what the billboard says it costs to enjoy the quasi-heavenly music here on earth).

What the CSO has missed, either through ignorance or through mixed (or bad) messages, is that Christ stands at the door to the eternal symphony and has already "paid" the cover charge for those who wish to enter. From a different angle: the CSO has missed the fact that one cannot "buy" their way into heaven. (Jesus made that point abundantly clear). There is no monetary initiation fee that has to be forked over in order to secure one's place in heaven. If the CSO has been told otherwise, they deserve our deepest apologies, for such is not consistent with the Christian gospel.

However, if the advertisement is referring to the idea that salvation[1] has the "requirement" of one's life, then yes, that is a high price; because in a world of self-preservation and self-aggrandizement, what could be more valuable? But here again I think the CSO has been misinformed. It is true that when "Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die";[2] but this call is only costly if one places their entire value and worth in this life alone. By the same token, it would be utterly foolish to think that by paying this "price" one is going to be shafted on the other side--i.e., heaven is not going to be what they thought it would be.

Yes, sacrificing this life does seem costly; but that is only because many implicitly (or explicitly) tend to believe that this life is all that there is. But to believe such things is to ignore--at one's own peril--the truth about this life and the next (or, to use NT Wright's wonderful phrase: " 'life' after 'life after death' "). This life has infinite value because it was "paid for" by an infinitely gracious Benefactor. Again, this payment, for those who accept it, grants access into the eternal symphony to be experienced (and thoroughly enjoyed) in the life to come. And unlike the performances of the CSO, heaven is not dictated by a time schedule, nor is it limited to small range of octaves and possible note variations.

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[1] i.e., eternal life with God through Jesus, which is essentially what heaven "is".
[2] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Cost of Discipleship (1995), 89.