Coltrane (a final note)

John Coltrane was not a Christian.  Though he was reared in his grandfather’s church and was familiar with the ways of Christ, he pursued God outside of Christianity.  Why he did not he come back to the church we don’t know, but I think the church has something to learn from him.

All too often, we as Christians assume unbelievers have had no experience with God.  Coltrane shows us that perhaps we should examine our evangelistic methods.  Instead of trying to get people to have an encounter with God, maybe, we should assume they have already had one!

Coltrane had had a profound encounter with God that was catalytic to his becoming drug free and had an acute effect upon the rest of his life.  What if getting people to repent of their sins is not the only way to convince someone to come to Christ?  What if the opening question is more along the lines of, “Tell me when you first experienced God?” ( I have been utterly amazed at the responses I have been receiving to the latter question.)

            That’s what Epiphany is all about…some wise men that were doing something they were not supposed to be doing…seeking guidance in the stars, astrology, instead of God.  God met them in their sin and gave them an astronomical experience of the Christ.  The woman at the well didn’t need to be convince of her sin all she wanted was to know how, where and who to worship.  Jesus told us that the work of the Holy Spirit is to convince the world of it’s sin (Jn. 16.8-11) this frees us up to focus on what it means to know and be known by God.

            Coltrane had experienced God and was in search of a religion that could reconnect him with God...the classical approach to evangelism seeks to convince people about who they are and what God says about them.  Maybe that’s the problem…people want us to present God not facts about God...when you've experienced God only God will do!

Comments

[orrin]

I think you are correct. There are many people who experience God without a direct relationship (and/or belief) with him. All of creation is setup to give glory to God so we should find God in many places. I enjoy your writing. Thank you.

[Pete Gall]

In fiction and in movies, the vast bulk of stories are built around the structure of the "Hero Myth."

Oridinary world is interrupted and the hero (most often a reluctant hero) is launched out into the world to find the magic elixir. There is usually a gatekeeper character who explains some of the rules and who often shows up in at least one more "narrow place" in the journey. The journey involves trials and eventually grasping the magic elixir, followed by a journey home. Sometimes the hero has been so changed by the journey that the hero can't return to the former life (in Hollywood sometimes the big explosion and a kiss is enough to put a bow on it... which is fine because we don't really see the character as all that real anyway).

I think the Hero Myth is all about exploring what happens at the ends of ourselves. Ultimately it is about exploring what will happen if we follow God.

But I think the Hero Myth falls short because it is always told from the hypothetical human perspective - the journey has to make sense to people who still live in the hero's pre-adventure, ordinary world.

Our real stories are not about a hero's journey - even though they often take place within a hero's journey. Our real stories are not about where we go or what we accomplish but about what we admit. What we confess. Who we say He is.

Romans 1:20 talks about there being enough evidence of God in the world that there's no excuse for denying Him. This is true in our lives as well, and should be - to your point, at long last - a larger portion of how God is discussed. He does not take place in a parallel world, or in some Far Away Land - He's been with us the whole time. Sometimes it takes the departure from the ordinary world for a person to see Him, to admit - to confess - to seeing Him. And even then it takes another huge leap to believe what Jesus says to do about it.

The Hero's Journey sells because it makes sense to the Hobbits who still live in the Shire. Classical Evangelical tactics sell for much the same reason.

Here's the rub I find when I think about a different sort of story... testimony is unfair fiction (because you can't make God a character, and you can't very well leave Him outside of the Machine, able to just drop in and fix everything... because then the tension means nothing) and it is lousy non-fiction too, because its core causes can't be fact-checked and it demands a certain level of faith from the reader.

A faith that seems to have to be built by personal credibility, which happens either in personal relationshp, or else through a display more like Coltrane's, where there's something - some ache - created by his music that makes a person willing to believe his story when they ask what that ache is.

Almost like we're supposed to let our light shine before others because that light somehow helps us see God.

[Rod]

What it be right then to classify him as an "unbeliever"?

[jazztheologian]

Rod,
That is the question...technically speaking I think that would be accurate. What I think though is that while people may be unbelievers they are not "unpursued" by the hound of heaven and most likely have encountered Him many times in their life.

I like the category of "God-fearer" that the Jews had in new testament times. An in and yet not in mentality. A "Court of the Gentiles" in our conversations with unbelievers.

[Forrest Drennen]

I have been studying the spirituality of Coltrane for a few years now And have just discovered your site. I have included a link to your site on my Saint John Coltrane page that I have on my church's web site. As I write this I am listening to Meditations I have to turn the record over!

[jazztheologian]

Forrest,

Thanks for stopping by and even more thanks for the link on your web site. I'm jealous, I've always wanted to listen to jazz on vinyl.

blessings and I look forward to continued discussion.

robert

[tim atwater]

hello
does this strand continue...?
i was blessed to grow up listening to Trane in my teens and a small batch of us got to hear him live with the classic quartet in a small club (Jazz workshop) in boston...probably this would have been winter or spring'66 (when i was 17)...
I believe for this unchurched white kid from the suburbs, hearing John Coltrane was a very big part of getting me to believe that God is real... and God is Good...
John Coltrane deeply believed in God... (and even if he was a bit hyper-inclusivist, better than the other polarity)...
Didn't he do an album with a cut titled The Father The Son and the Holy Ghost?

I believe also that its not so easy to 'categorize' folks into believers and unbelievers... ala Romans 2, Acts 17... we may be believers in formation not yet knowing where we are...(prevenient grace)

anyhow -- i've given away my vinyl but still have a half dozen or so albums taped and sprung for the Live version of Love Supreme a few years ago... which doesn't quite measure up to my memories of hearing him in a small club... where the room was whirling the whole time...

thanks for this website!
blessings
tim atwater

[jazztheologian]

Tim,

I'm jealous! I wish I could have heard him live.

You asked if this strand continues. It does. What you read was the final piece of a strand. Either look at the right hand column of the blog under categories and find "John Coltrane" or go to this link http://jazztheologian.typepad.com/findingthegroove/john_coltrane/index.html

thanks for stopping by,
robert

[tim atwater]

Robert,
we were v fortunate to be in a right place for somethings at a right time... we also heard Mingus live (at Lenny's on the turnpike in Lynn Mass), Dexter Gordon... Sonny Rollins... Monk... Charles Lloyd (i heard a few cuts from a recent spirituals albume a few years ago)... Sunday matinees were a dollar cover and a one drink per set minimum (a buck a coke for us) -- multiply times maybe 5 for inflation, and we were working minimum wage jobs $1.25/hour after school... still -- quite affordable compared to today...

We grew up w an odd mix of jazz classical etc... in our house, Bechet, Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman (my dad knew Jimmy Rowles in high school who pianoed w BG and that made a big impression), also Jimmy Rushing... Ella...
as i grew up i went through a heavy New Orleans stage, then small band swing, then moderns and beyond, all running together then w soul and rock...

It is a good affirmation to find this strand of God working through jazz... as i struggle now as a still pretty new to pastoring small church pastor... i find texts yield much more for me if i can think and feel out the changes like, for example, now a Lester Young, now a Sidney Bechet, then a Johnny Hodges... Trane... Ellington... not that i am literally able to do this... but the Holy Spirit does help me remember riffs and rhythms that breathe interpretatively through the text...and help me connect w the 'text' of congregations and 'fields' of people...

I will go look again at your Sabbath post... because Come Sunday is always playing... somewhere...

Bless!
tim