Thanks be to God for the subtle and gentle peace-makers...

Today at worship we honored the subtle and gentle peace-makers:  the musicians and artists and diplomats and world citizens who feed the soul and create space for radical hospitality.  Ahmet and Eser joined the Sister City Jazz Ambassadors for a reflective time of worship, meditation, prayer, silence and beauty.  Then they spoke about the current conflict in Syria - how everyone has gotten involved (China, Russian, Iran, USA and Turkey) for once good reasons.  But now the drive to control precious resources and terrain has turned all our once noble intentions to dross.

The Jazz Ambassadors played flawlessly this morning - everything from Ahmet's favorite "Take 5" as the response to Isaiah's prophecy that one day the lion will lie down with the lamb - to "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and "All Blues."  My reflection on how jazz encourages cross cultural peace-making included the following:

Today we read of the time when  Jesus tells a young man who wants to go deeper that he has to learn to get over himself first if he wants to be free in the Lord:

As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: “You shall not murder; you shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.” He said to him, ‘Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth. Jesus, looking at him, loved him with a pure and compassionate heart and said, ‘You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money  to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

Now let’s be clear:

 

+ Jesus wasn’t saying money was bad – he couldn’t have conducted his ministry without it – and depended upon the generosity of many people just like this church does today.  And he wasn’t saying this young man was bad either. No, the issue wasn’t money; it was this young man’s obsession with it.  It ruled his heart – so what Jesus wanted him to practice was giving it away so that he might know how to live life as a beautiful and undeserved gift.

 

+ You see, his money made him think he was special – better than others – more valuable and important.  With money he could come and go as he pleased, do and think and say whatever without worrying about the consequences.  So with great compassion – and this is critical for this story – with great compassion Jesus said, “Brother, you need to learn to live as if all of life was a gift not something you control.  Become like one of the poorest and most vulnerable and then… maybe, you’ll get what God’s grace is all about.”

 

That’s what Brother Marsalis was getting after when he said that “the bandstand is a sacred place…”  You have been given a gift that you want to share – music – you want to share it for the sheer joy of sharing.  You want to share it with your musicians in the band because when it is received then they share something with you.  And you want to share it with an audience.  Now here’s the thing:  a gift is given away freely – you never know if what you have to offer will be received and valued – you can hope and pray but you never know – you just give it.  And that sacred giving is at the heart of jazz in a way that is unique and even sacred.

 

Let me give you another example with the classic Miles Davis tune from 1959:  “All Blues.”  This song is brilliant in simplicity and drama:

 

+ It takes a traditional African-American musical form – the blues – and plays with it in creative and unexpected ways.  It became the musical foundation for Dmitri Shostakovich’s Eleventh Symphony and went on to inspire the freedom and civil rights artist, Oscar Brown, Jr, to write a poem to accompany the groove.

 

+ That was the gift that Miles gave to the world – and he got it by receiving the gift of his own musical tradition as well as the creativity of the early bop giants in NYC – and when he passed it on others were blessed and kept the giving going on until today.

 

And our own 12 year old, Olivia Kinne, closed worship with the band singing Taylor Swift's "Safe and Sound."  I am grateful for these gentle warriors who nourish beauty in pursuit of peace.  There is already too much harsh posturing for my old soul - and I am not persuaded by mean-spirits and ugly insults.  No, grace is what I need and beauty gives shape and form to it in a unique and communal way.  As another old friend once said when challenged by the so-called realists, "You may say I'm a dreamer... but I'm not the only one."  Thank God for dreamers and poets and gentle souls who nourish peace. I am so, so grateful.