Reflections of a Jazz Theologian

What is a Christian? (p4)

James Cone, the father of Black Theology, also indicts the Christianity of this land.  In 1999, he took 21st century descendents of slaves to task, in his book "Risks of Faith." (p111)

"Our church is an impostor, because we no longer believe the gospel we proclaim.  There is a credibility gap between what we say and what we do.  While we may preach sermons that affirm the church's interests in the poor and the downtrodden, what we actually do shows that we are committed to the "American way of life," in which the rich are given privileged positions of power in shaping the life and activity of the church, and the poor are virtually ignored.  As a rule, the church's behavior toward the poor is very similar to the society at large:  The poor are charity cases...It is appalling to see some black churches adopting this condescending attitude toward the victims, because these churches were created in order to fight against slavery and injustice.  For many slaves, the Black Church was God's visible instruments for freedom and justice.  Therefore, to have contemporary middle-class black Christians treating the poor as second-class members of the church is a disgrace not only to the scripture but also to our black religious heritage."

What does it mean to be a Christian?  Yes, there is an aspect that must include repentance of sin and forgiveness...but does your definition also take into account Jesus' first sermon in Luke 4 and his announcement of "good news" to the poor, imprisoned, blind and oppressed? 

To paraphrase Carl Ellis, A Christian doesn't just "bear" the good news, a Christian "becomes" the good news--especially to the marginalized.  A Christian is someone who brings a smile to the face of the poor, oppressed and the orphan.  Do you sense their smile?

What is a Christian? (p3)

Born in 1818 as a slave in Maryland, Frederick Douglas struggled deeply with the true definition of a Christian.  He wrote the following in, "A Narrative Life of a Slave."

"Between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognized the widest possible difference--so wide, that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked.  To be the friend of the one, is of necessity to be the enemy of the other.  I love the pure, peacable, and impartial Christianity of Christ:  I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land.  Indeed, I can see no reason, but the most deceitful one, for calling the religion of this land Christianity.  I look upon it as the climax of all misnomers, the boldest of frauds, and the grossest of all libels."

Our context is different but should we be making the same distinctions as Douglas?  Is there a difference between the Christianity of Christ and the Christianity of our land?  If so, what are the distinctions?  Frederick Douglas felt that to be and American and a Christian was impossible...has anything changed?

What is a Christian? (p2)

I once had a conversation with Carl Ellis in which he led me through the Salvific Paradigms of Jesus.  We usually want to know if someone is “born-again.”  But how many times did Jesus ask someone to become “born again?”  Only one time when he was talking to an older man, Nicodemus, who’s deepest need/desire would have been to become young again. (John 3)

Then there was the woman at the well who he offered living water.  When she realized that Jesus was the Christ, she ran into the town and told everyone about the man who “told her everything I ever did.” (John 4)  She didn’t get “saved” by Jesus, she got “saw” by Jesus.  To others he was “bread” and still others he was “light.” 

The task of the Jazz Theologian is not to get people saved necessarily--though that is a paradigm that God will use in many cases--rather to help people become Christians the way Christ did.

What other Salvific Paradigms to you see in the scriptures?

Domestic Missiology (part 4)

So what is unique about America?  (hmmm...The Constitution...Baseball...and???)

The answer to reaching a culture is not without but within.  In the same way that the Apostle Paul used the unique cultural setting of Mars Hill we must learn to exegete American culture for it's contrubutions to the gospel.  Athens had a shopping mall for commerce, an intellectual elite and a spiritual side as well.  Paul engaged the culture on its' turf and was able to pull out of the culture the keys to explaining faith in Christ.  (Acts 17)  Daniel and his three friends studied in Chaldean Seminary, took on the names of Babylonian gods and worked for the pagan king and experienced the power and presence of God.

What is unique about America?  It has been said that America has three original contributions to the world...The Constitution, Baseball and Jazz. 

Churches vote and largely operate with democratic tendencies.  Rick Warren has shown us what happens when Baseball is applied to the church and whether or not you adopt his Purpose Driven form of spiritual formation (which I do not), we learn that there is benefit to thinking through corporate discipleship.  But what about Jazz?  The church in America has yet to mine one of it's national treasures for the purposes of the kingdom of God! 

If we are truly going to have a Domestic Missiology, we can not ignore this truly indigenous American invention.  There is a reason why the church in America has been impotent when it comes to truly engaging a pluralistic racialized society...

Domestic Missiology (part 3)

It’s hard to know where to begin when it comes to describing the culture in which we are immersed.  We are as much Modern as we are Post-modern.  Modernity has taken root as it pertains to urbanization, economics, individualism and science.  Post-modern in that we hunger for relationships while simultaneously making less long term commitments.  The American Dream has allowed us to enjoy unprecedented affluence, causing us to be loved and despised around the world. 

The LIE is alive as many are living lives that are…

Domestic Missiology (part 2)

If we are going to reach our nation we must understand it.  If we are going to make the gospel accessible to every person in a wholistic and culturally relevant way, then we have some hard work to do so that we might be true to the Great Commission.  The challenge for any Christian is contextualization, that is, being able to distinguish between what is or is not compatible with the gospel.

Let's begin by answering the following questions...

What is unique about American culture?  What challenges to the Gospel are unique to our context?  What is compatible?

Tell me what you think...

Domestic Missiology (part 1)

Domestic—Indigenous to a particular country

Missiology—The study and practice of Christian mission

American Christians need a Domestic Missiology!

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 Stations (part 6)

I’m not a lover of Coltrane’s music; truthfully, I find it a bit annoying .  So why do I find myself listening to it all the time?  Specifically his signature album, A Love Supreme.  Recorded in 1964, seven years after he heard "The sound," Coltrane teaches us something about how we can keep pursuing God for a lifetime.  What do you do when you have experienced God and the yearning remains to experience him again?  Coltrane developed his own set of spiritual stages to sustain him to the end.

Coltrane's transformation in his own words. (part 5)

"A Love Supreme" the original Liner notes

"Dear Listener:

All Praise Be To God To Whom All Praise Is Due.

Let us pursue Him in the righteous path. Yes it is true; “seek and ye shall find.” Only through Him can we know the most wondrous bequeathal.

During the year 1957, I experienced, by the grace of God, a spiritual awakening which was to lead me to a richer, fuller, more productive life. At that time, in gratitude, I humbly asked to be given the means and privilege to make others happy through music. I feel this has been granted through His grace. ALL PRAISE TO GOD.

As time and events moved on, a period of irresolution did prevail. I entered into a phase which was contradictory to the pledge and away from the esteemed path; but thankfully, now and again through the unerring and merciful hand of God, I do perceive and have been duly re-informed of His OMNIPOTENCE, and of our need for, and dependence on Him. At this time I would like to tell you that NO MATTER WHAT…IT IS WITH GOD. HE IS GRACIOUS AND MERCIFUL. HIS WAY IS IN LOVE, THROUGH WHICH WE ALL ARE . IT IS TRULY—A LOVE SUPREME--.

This album is a humble offering to Him. An attempt to say “THANK YOU GOD” through our work, eve as we do in our hearts and with our tongues. May He help and strengthen all men in every good endeavor…
May we never forget that in the sunshine of our lives, through the storm and after the rain—it is all with God—in all ways forever.

ALL PRAISE TO GOD."

Signed John Coltrane

The Sound of God (Coltrane Part 4)

It was a sound, a droning sound unlike anything he had heard. God met him, revealed Himself to Coltrane through a resonance. “It was so beautiful,” he told his wife as he hopelessly tried to reproduce it on a piano. That is the key to Coltrane.

“With this event, the search for the mysterious sound began. It was a search that would continue throughout his life and would cause him to create some of his most intense and emotional music.” writes Fraim.

After this experience he still played solo’s with amazing speed but they were not frenzied rather they were searches for ultimate meaning. When he picked up his sax and played, he was trying to reproduce the sound of God. Sometimes he would solo for thirty minutes!

The question is what was he doing? He was searching for that sound of God that was playing at his lowest and yet most transformational moment of life. That magnificent murmur, that melody that met him when he was at his weakest and yet somehow was becoming his strongest. He was searching for the sound of God not to play to him, but to have it played by him and through him as a witness to his audiences.

When you listen to his music you either love it or hate it but remember the meaning is not found in what he was playing but in why he was playing the way he was playing.

Our lives will be meaningless to those around us until we are willing to tell them the story that reveals our search for God. Others will always baffle us until we are willing to pursue the meaning behind their music.

Talkin' Trane (part 3)

The key to Coltrane is found not in how or what he played but why he played the way, he did. Musically he was a genius and a trendsetter. Practicing for hours a day, he developed unprecedented speed that awed all who heard. But why did he play the way he did? What pushed him to play scales at such mind-boggling, even manic speeds?

In, Spirit Catcher: The Life and Art of John Coltrane, John Fraim chronicles the struggles, triumphs and spiritual transformation of this man who was reared in his grandfather’s church and was familiar with the ways of God. He had a substance abuse problem and eventually he moved in with his mother and began playing less and abusing drugs and alcohol more.

“However, this time he must have sensed that some final decision had to be made if he was going to reach his full potential as a musician: he would have to decide once and for all if he was going to live the rest of his life as a drug addict or as a musician.” (p33) He sought the support of his wife and mother and then sought sanctuary in his room, praying and seeking God’s help to withstand the pain of withdrawals. Four days later he emerged a changed man, God had met him in a most unusual way... the result being that he began to play his instrument for a different reason.

To truly truly hear Coltrane we must know what happened to him in that room.

Have you ever had an experience with God that was so personal, so utterly amazing that you couldn't describe it? How has it affected you? Do you savor the moment or has the moment sent you on a pursuit to find it again?

To be continued...

People get ready there's a Trane coming (part 2)

I started this series of posts on Coltrane but my real life has me a bit busy. Sorry. I should be back to the blogosphere soon.

Coltrane is a fascinating man who had a God-experience in 1957 that changed his life and his music. I think we can learn from him...

Talkin' Trane (p1)

Let's talk some Trane...John Coltrane. Talented...struggler...and spiritual seeker.

There's even a church named after him. (www.saintjohncoltrane.com)

Over the next few posts we'll talk about his music, his demons and what he might teach us about a jazz approach to spiritual formation.