Tues Dec. 13 - Riffing on Love (feat. Over the Rhine)

In this third week of Advent we are moving into a time of real anticipation: the Christmas and Advent carols are starting to feel more "right," the tinsel is glittering, and there's a feeling that the time is drawing near: we are truly making ready for the wonder and peace of Christ's birth to enter our lives once more.  This week, the Advent Music Project explores: How do we make ready?  What do we do (or not) to prepare for the Coming Light?

The Trumpet Child is one of my favorite Advent songs.  The image of a young Jesus calling in the Reign of God with a jazz solo is an image that's hard to top, of course:

The trumpet child will riff on love

Thelonious notes from up above

He'll improvise a kingdom come...
                                      -- Over the Rhine

Nonetheless, the genius of this song's image is that it plays with the wonderful alchemy that is great jazz music: improvisational jazz is a musical style that is deceptively spontaneous and chaotic.  It's true, the exact flow of notes are created on the spot, but always in a framework: the other musicians have their parts, know the cues to switch keys or let someone else lead, and know the structure to the song.  The best improv musicians are the ones who know how to riff on a theme or a format - not just go off on their own.  So in the end, improv is actually about mutuality, cooperation, and listening as much as it is about raw talent and creativity.

The Trumpet Child by Over the Rhine (lyrics HERE)

Improv is a great metaphor for God's power and intentions in the world: God is both sovereign and mutual, creative and cooperative.  God's promises are the solid framework, God's actions switch the keys, but within that structure both we and God and the forces of the natural world are "improv-ing" the present together.  The good news is that our reality is neither utter chaos nor set in stone: there's room for transformation, surprise, and even delight.  True, creativity and freedom can be messy (all good artwork usually is) and sometimes the notes grow discordant, but in the end, God's promises accompany us, the stories of God help us imagine new notes, and the Holy Spirit constantly guides us.


"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
                                         - Jeremiah 29:11


Maybe one way to anticipate and make ready for what God is revealing among us is to embrace our own creative and improvisational abilities.  As someone was saying to me today: sometimes life give you exactly what you'd never want, but the trick is to figure out how to change the rules, transform the game, and make what seemed to give no life flourish.  It's not easy - this is no cute "lemonade from lemons" proposition - but if God is transforming this world, may we not have faith that our own daily riffs and improvisations are a necessary part of the piece?

May we embrace our creativity and openness; our mutuality and listening; our dreams and curiosity in these days, preparing our hearts for the Advent of Christ - 'riffing on love' along with God and all of Creation.

                                    - Anna

Thurs Dec. 8 - As Seen on TV (Gil Scott-Heron)

      

In the dissonant ring of messy Advent reality against Coming Hope against media-packaged "Christmas preparation," active resistance helps. Joining the revolution of poets, justice workers, advocates and truth-tellers delivers us from the falseness of unending cheeriness or easily-abandoned charity to the deep and abiding movement toward transformed reality.

We resist what has been stolen from us in this season: the story of a homeless baby born in Bethlehem who would grow into a freedom fighter who exposed the workings of oppression and fought against the exploitation of people.* This part of the story of Christ’s coming somehow gets lost among our bright lights and peppermint mochas, our careful balance of charity donations and ‘December to Remember’ gifting. But the holy agenda begun in the manger was both the spiritual transformation of hearts and a dramatic overhaul of political, economic and social systems of injustice. This is not pennies dropped in a bell-ringers’ buckets, this is the revolution of Christmas, and the revolution is LIVE.

*Dr. Obery M. Hendricks, Jr.  The Politics of Jesus: Rediscovering the True Revolutionary Nature of Jesus’ Teachings and How They Have Been Corrupted

**Some strong language present. Also: jazz flute.  You are welcome.

With laws that betray human life We will not comply

With the pointing finger and malicious talk We will not comply

With the idea that happiness must be purchased We will not comply

With the ravaging of the earth We will not comply

With the principalities and powers that oppress We will not comply

With the destruction of peoples We will not comply

With the raping of women We will not comply

With governments that kill We will not comply

With the theology of empire We will not comply

With the business of militarism We will not comply

With the hoarding of riches We will not comply

With the dissemination of fear We will not comply

With the destruction of community We will not comply

- Catalyst Litany -Shane Claiborne, James Loney and Brian Walsh

                                               -Lindsey

Tues Dec. 6 - A Time to Speak (Eliza Gilkyson)

      

            Sometimes the beginning of an answer to our deepest needs is someone's invitation to name them, to speak them out, without fear or judgment. This kind of naming, this kind of speaking, this lamenting is a faithful, necessary model given by our ancestors of faith. Beyond that, it is an inherent human need.  But as someone who was raised in a culture devoted to self-sufficiency, stony strength and rationality, I am not prone to the kind of lament modeled for us in the Psalms or even in today’s song. As a young person, I observed people like my father (whose emotions still reside right under his skin, perhaps some around his very strong vocal chords, too), those who couldn’t restrict their emotions to the cultural box of reserve and control, dismissed, "dealt with" or boxed out by others. Message received, social/communal circles of my youth: weeping is for funerals, and anger, raised voices are not for us.

            So, now as an adult, I am on the LONG road to reclaiming this powerful gift that I’ve abdicated to the social status quo.  Most days I still feel severely limited in my capacity for public emotion sharing.  I have, however, learned to recognize and cherish those few blessed saints who, full of grace, invite, question and prod me, to pull out my laments; those who encourage hollering and even the occasional curse word (when the situation calls for it); and those who wait in the moments when I can not word my emotion, but can only sigh.

            There is an added burden that gets piled on top of our sadness, longing, or pain when we are unable to name them. Likewise there is some kind of release, easing, healing even, when our burden may be shared with another. In the church I come from part of our confessions claim that God helps us to hear the voices of people long silenced.  This confession points to the great sin of the silencing that happened/is happening to many people groups across history; it also affirms, for me, the great power of voice and the sacred gift of being heard. This advent perhaps we could take up this very important justice practice for ourselves, as well as those around us.

Word of God, give to us those who will listen us into our own language, releasing our laments, our frustrations and our confusions; Easing us out of the bondage of silence, into the blessedness of a shared journey.

                                    -Lindsey

**Today I offer a prayer of thankgiving and blessing for those who invite our voices and hear our laments. You are invited to add a comment with the names of those for whom you are thankful as a litany.