The Lord's Day and all that jazz...

Currently I am reading a mixed bag of books that are bringing new and sweet insights to

me about the marriage of heaven and earth - and the common thread is jazz. 

Listen to the sound of my horn...
     this note you have longed to hear.
Listen to the sound of my horn, I say,
     this music you have hummed by ear.

I sound the time to rise for the fields.
I moan the rhythm as the congregation kneels.
     I am the note of air,
     the voice of your despair.
I cry long nights for you, my people.
I rise early, pull on my coat of cotton
     and my shirt of tears
     and a smile to mask my fears.
I tote water to sun-baked trembling lips,
     and I sing away the pain
     oozing from hips lashed by the chair of years.

But now, my people, I have a new song.
Listen America, listen every songless ear:
     Now the congregation rises,
     Now a burdened land sings.
     Now the air breathes fresh.
     Now the rain fills the buckets.
     The note makes a song.
     The pain washes away.
     And my horn of clay airs a long signal motif.

Listen to the sound of my horn, my people,
     this rhythm of years long past.
Listen to the sound of my horn, I say,
     Great music and I... have come at last!
(Henry Dumas, "Listen to the Sound of my Horn")

+ The first is a Jazz Poetry Anthology:  The Second Set, eds. Sascha Feinstein and Yusef Komunyakaa.  There are two volumes that span the scene since the early days through our current groove.  A wonderful collection that I find inspirational and challenging - often at the same time - like much of good jazz itself.

+ The second is Resurrection City: A Theology of Improvisation by Peter Goodwin Heltzel. This volume got a rave review in the Christian Century - and a blast of praise by brother Cornel West - but it is slow going for me.  Maybe if you are unfamiliar with Liberation Theology this book will be insightful, but I am still waiting for something to pop.

+ The third is Van Gogh: The Passionate Eye by Pascal Bonafoux.  It is visually lush and mildly insightful about this incredible but broken visual genius.  Last summer we saw the Van Gogh exhibit that was moving through North America while we were in Ottawa and I was blown away by the vibrant intensity of these paintings in their original state.

+ The fourth is Liturgy and a Way of Life by Bruce Ellis Benson - and I am loving this book! It is creative, passionate, learned and wise in a way that has grabbed my soul.  Unlike Resurrection City (so far), this slim volume is hard to put down.  One paragraph is illustrative:

One can read the renewal of the arts in the church - including new concerns about the arts in worship - as evidence that Christianity's complicity with modernity might be waning... Over the past couple of centuries, the church's worship... unwittingly mimicked the rationalism (and dualism) of modernity. Assuming with Descartes that humans are primarily "thinking things," worship has been centered on didactic teaching. A few songs merely function as a preface to a long sermon, the goal of which is the dissemination of information to brains-on-a-stick, sitting on their hands. The body has no role in such worship; it is worship for the proverbial brains-in-a-vat of philosophical fame. And because the body has no essential role in such worship, there is also no place for the arts which are inherently sensible - even sensual. One can sense this in the pragmatism of church architecture, or the stark minimalism of interior design in Protestant churches, where the only adornment was scriptural texts emblazoned on the walls.  In rationalist worship spaces, even the wall paper is didactic.

Well, there is a LOT more going on here - on multiple levels, too - and this cat knows and loves jazz.

+ The fifth is Better Get It in Your Soul:  What Liturgists can Learn from Jazz by Reid Hamilton and Stephen Rush.  Half this book is a lesson in why the wisdom of jazz might matter to the contemporary church, and the other half a collection of jazz liturgies from Canterbury House in Michigan.  This is a practical and clear guide that can help pastors and congregations move from discomfort to experimentation - with a variety of helpful road maps to guide the path, too.

This Sunday in worship, we will be living into some of the wisdom articulated in these

various volumes in an organic way.  As my worship notes make clear, I'll be talking about the importance of "memory bank hymns and prayers" for the healing of our souls.  In fact, I would be so bold as to say these hymns and prayers are ways for heaven and earth to embrace and humans to sense/experience something of God's grace.

With that as our foundation, my musical director started to explore how we might weave various settings of the Lord's Prayer throughout the liturgy.  He wrote a chart taking a medieval chant from the Vatican as the "melody" while the piano and bass vamp and improvise freely.  The woodwind "voice" enters and exits with the melody as she feels it while the piano and bass keep things moving a la Miles Davis' "So What?"  We'll take about 10 minutes at the start of worship to set this up and let it ripen.  During my message, we will also say the Lord's Prayer as we know it and then chant it to a modern folk almost trance-like melody.  Then at the close of worship, we'll use another jazz chart my music director has written based on Malote's setting of the Lord's Prayer:  we'll improvise it instrumentally, have our vocalist sing it under the jazz chords and then play with it again on piano and bass.

Three things are going on here (and maybe much more) that should be noted:

+ First, there is a playful coherence to this liturgy that uses music, scripture, tradition and various styles of sound to support the theme.  Not "theme-itis" as sometimes happens in an oppressive or heavy-handed way, but gently and with a sense of humor and affection.

+ Second, this liturgy embodies collaboration:  as pastor/preacher I first wrestled with the scriptures in light of the congregation's context. Next my musical colleagues talked about my insights with me and found ways to deepen and strengthen them. We also took time to listen to all the musicians reactions during rehearsal to see if our "hunches" were on target or we needed to change direction.

+ And third, there will be a dialogical part to Sunday's message:  I want to know how the gathered community feels and experiences the totality of our creativity.  I want to know what they sense in doing the Lord's Prayer as a spoken prayer, as a sung prayer and as a meditation in music prayer.

Today is a good day for Sabbath rest - and then onward to the Lord's Day and all that jazz!
credits:
+ http://fr.ee/article/free-jazz-music-lessons-for-different-jazz-instruments
+ www.allposters.com
+ www.etsy.com