O come, o come emmanuel...

Fr. Richard Rohr wrote in today's Advent reflection that the reading from Isaiah is "precisely the quote that Jesus uses to announce the exact nature of his ministry in Luke 4: 18-19: "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me…he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners.”

In each case Jesus describes his work as moving outside of polite and proper limits and boundaries to reunite things that have been marginalized or excluded by society: the poor, the imprisoned, the blind, the downtrodden. Jesus’ ministry is not to gather the so-called good into a private country club but to reach out to those on the edge and on the bottom, those who are “last” to tell them they are, in fact, first! That is almost the very job description of the Holy Spirit, and therefore of Jesus…and for that matter of us as bearers of Emmanuel, God with us!

That is what today's worship felt like to me: not only did we begin with Dave Brubeck's "Take Five" as our prelude - something way outside of the polite - but we then morphed into the Advent carol built on the Isaiah/Jesus connection - and the O Antiphon for today - O come, o come Emmanuel. The church was packed - something that doesn't happen a lot in our parts any more - and I think it became clear that LOTS of people are aching for a connection with God's gracious spirit - they just don't want all the harsh bullshit that usually goes with the church. And I'm not talking about people who are self-absorbed or addicted to navel-gazing. Just ordinary people who know intuitively that Jesus is good news, but have been put off by his messengers.

Like Gandhi once said, "This Jesus of yours I like. I do NOT like your Christians - they are so unlike Jesus.... The message of Jesus as I understand it is contained in the Sermon on the Mount unadulterated and taken as a whole... If then I had to face only the Sermon on the Mount and my own interpretation of it, I should not hesitate to say, 'Oh, yes, I am a Christian.' But negatively I can tell you that in my humble opinion, what passes as Christianity is a negation of the Sermon on the Mount... I am speaking of the Christian belief, of Christianity as it is understood in the west."

My jazz buddies helped us give this truth shape and form. We jammed and played - followed the charts and improvised - and celebrated the blessings of God's truth in beautiful and life-giving music. My church band buddies - Sue, Dianne, Brian and Jon - knocked us on our butts with their beautiful harmonies on "Bring In the Wonder."

And it just kept cooking... At one point, when Dianne began to sing Irving Berlin's, "Blue Skies," a woman whose father had died just one year ago found her tears flowing like a flood gate had been opened. She hadn't been in worship since then - and "Blue Skies" was her poppa's favorite song. "What a sweet connection we made today," she tenderly said to me after worship as she wiped away still more tears. Our drummer, John, was going to the wake of his beloved mother later this afternoon - with a funeral mass tomorrow - and he played though his tears, too, helping us all experience the healing and renewing power of beautiful music played with open hearts.

As worship unfolded, the band spoke about why they feel called to Istanbul - and music. The congregation got a chance to experience a whole new "soul music" for church. And the Spirit was blowing within and among us as we left yet a few more rules and inhibitions behind. I like the saying, "Jesus was in the house" - and I certainly felt him today. "O come, o come Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel."