Gordon E. Ellis
March 4, 2007
DIVINE IMPROV
My son, Ryan, is a jazz piano player. He began playing piano at age 4 and has never stopped. We did, however, go through a few DIFFICULT years during MIDDLE school, when he wanted to STOP playing the piano, but we INSISTED that he keep practicing and WORKING at it. What we DIDN’T know at the time was that the kid had A.D.D. He was clinically-diagnosed later, in COLLEGE. WE just knew that he couldn’t seem on FOCUS with the PRECISION required for CLASSICAL training on the piano, but we kept PUSHING him anyway. And by the way, he THANKS us for it TODAY. But all of a SUDDEN, Ryan discovered JAZZ. Suddenly, Ryan discovered IMPROVISATION! And he TOOK to it like a DUCK to water. And the PIANO immediately became his LIFE. Improvisation is the act of SPONTANEOUSLY composing music, AS you are playing it, ALL centered around a THEME. In OTHER words, you MAKE it UP as you go along. It’s very COOL! It’s very INTENSE! AND, it’s very DIFFICULT to do WELL! But Ryan just fell in LOVE with IMPROV! It gave him the FREEDOM that he NEEDED. And very quickly, he became pretty GOOD at it, good enough to get himself accepted into one of the TOP jazz colleges in the country, The University of Miami, with a pretty good SCHOLARSHIP.
Well, through the years, Ryan has had an opportunity to PLAY with a NUMBER of great jazz musicians, like Nestor Torres and Ira Sullivan, Paul Brown, Duffy Jackson and Kirk Whallum. But by FAR his FAVORITE experience was with the legendary trumpeter, Wynton Marsalis, who is one of the exalted RULERS of the jazz universe. It seems that Ryan was bringing Ira Sullivan to play a gig with him at The University of Miami, and Ira said, Gee, Wynton Marsalis is in town! Why don’t you CALL him and see if HE’LL play too. Ryan said, ME, call Wynton Marsalis??? And Ira replied: SURE, here’s his number. Just tell him that I told you to call. SO, Ryan did. And Wynton said: You mean I’M going to have a chance to play with Ira Sullivan? I’ll DEFINITELY be there! And that evening, a limousine pulled up and Wynton Marsalis stepped out. And they had an INCREDIBLE night together, and the MUSIC was PHENOMENAL!
Well, IF you were to ASK Ryan to describe IMPROV, he MIGHT tell you a STORY about Wynton Marsalis. One Tuesday night, Wynton Marsalis was playing there with a small combo at the Village Vanguard. They started off in a rather UNREMARKABLE way, but then Marsalis stepped up to the microphone to offer a SOLO called, I Don’t Stand a Ghost of a Chance With You. It was a MELANCHOLY song, full of murmurs and sighs, and Marsalis performed it with deep FEELING and expression. And at the CLIMAX of the song, he played the FINAL phrase in such a way that the trumpet seemed to give actual VOICE to the HEARTFELT words, I don’t… stand ... a ghost … of ... a ... chance .... And the AUDIENCE just SAT there in AWE. But THEN it HAPPENED. In the MIDDLE of the sacred SILENCE between the notes, at the song’s most DRAMATIC point, somebody’s CELL-PHONE erupted in a CHIRPING, sing-song electronic MELODY. Well, in an INSTANT, the SPELL in the room was BROKEN. People in the audience GIGGLED nervously, turned to their drinks and RESUMED conversation. Marsalis PAUSED, and stood there motionless. The embarrassed cell-phone owner FLED the scene, and the conversation in the club began to grow LOUDER. Now, Wynton Marsalis COULD have just stepped DOWN at that moment and quit the GIG, rather disgusted. No one would have BLAMED him. After all, he IS a KING of jazz! He doesn’t NEED to perform in little clubs with RUDE cell-phone users. But Marsalis didn’t MOVE. INSTEAD, he put his lips to his TRUMPET again, and REPLAYED that stupid cell-phone MELODY, note for note. And then, he played it AGAIN and again, and he began improvising VARIATIONS on the tune. And the audience stopped CHATTING and began to LISTEN again. He changed KEYS once or twice, and then seamlessly EASED back into the TEMPO of a BALLAD. And in a few moments, he was FINISHING his moment of IMPROV, EXACTLY where he had left off: I don’t… stand … a ghost … of … a … chance … with … you …! Well, the OVATION from the audience was just DEAFENING! You see: Wynton Marsalis had TRANSFORMED a RUDE interruption into a MOMENT of GLORY. He didn’t ALLOW an unexpected SHOCK to STUN him, or STOP him, or SILENCE him, but INSTEAD, he twisted this SETBACK into a COMEBACK! It was the WORK of a MASTER musician!
Well, all I could think of as I heard this STORY is: there’s a SERMON in that story! There’s a MESSAGE in it for ALL of us, because it REMINDS us that GOD does the same thing in OUR lives EVERY day. You see: GOD is the Master of DIVINE improv! That’s what PAUL is telling the Philippians in our Scripture Lesson today. He INVITES them: JOIN in IMITATING me (3:17). He invites them: DO a spiritual RIFF with me. And then he PLAYS the tune! And what’s the NAME of Paul’s TUNE? Well, he’s teaching them a song called TRANSFORMATION, because it includes the lyrics, He will TRANSFORM the body of OUR humiliation, that it may be CONFORMED to the body of HIS glory, by the power that also enables HIM to make all things subject to himself (v. 21). LISTEN to those WORDS! The BODY of OUR humiliation, the BODY of His GLORY; the POWER that ENABLES Him, ALL things SUBJECT…. Friends, DON’T you SEE? THIS is stuff of IMPROV! THIS is JAZZ stuff! THIS is the stuff of LIFE! Now, there are a number of VARIATIONS on this theme. FIRST, Paul’s POINT is that God is playing a divine improv IN and THROUGH Jesus Christ. Go back to the BEGINNING! You have the CREATION theme, right? OOPS! The cell-phone rings: the FALL happens! BIG interruption! But the TUNE goes ON! You have the NOAH theme and the ABRAHAMIC theme. Again, INTERRUPTIONS, but the TUNE plays ON! THEN, there’s the promised LAND theme, the FREEDOM theme, and the Hebrew COMMUNITY theme. And still MORE interruptions! THEN: the PROPHETIC theme and the MESSIAH theme…. And then, JESUS comes INTO the world in a powerful IMPROV called the INCARNATION, GOD becoming FLESH! Then, another INTERRUPTION: the CRUCIFIXION! But THEN, we hear the EXPLOSIVE sounds of the RESURRECTION: Jesus in ALL His GLORY, the RISEN Lord! Yes, it’s ALL a divine IMPROV, isn’t it?
ANOTHER variation begins with US, you and me. And the GOOD news IS that, in and through CHRIST, God CONTINUES to play this tune called Transformation for OUR benefit. Yes, Christ is ALWAYS at WORK in our lives, transforming the body of OUR humiliation, that IT may be CONFORMED to the body of HIS glory (v. 21). And THIS means that our undeserved, unexpected and unwanted INTERRUPTIONS and SETBACKS are CONTINUALLY being TRANSFORMED, CONTINUALLY being WOVEN into unexpected NEW life and NEW joy. It means that PAINFUL interruptions are CONTINUALLY becoming, for us, moments of GLORY. AND it means that even death ITSELF is NOT the END! No, IN the hands of the Master IMPROVISER, DEATH becomes an INTRO to LIFE everlasting. Yes, the truth IS that God, through CHRIST, can improvise ANYTHING, turning ADVERSITY into TRIUMPH, AGONY into EMPATHY, and SETBACKS into COMEBACKS! OUR God is a REDEEMING God! After all: God NEVER promised us just a BEAUTIFUL little TUNE – just a nice, uninspiring little life with no VARIATIONS, no SETBACKS, no INTERRUPTIONS and no TENSIONS to resolve. NO! But God HAS promised to be WITH us IN and THROUGH the pain, in and THROUGH the interruptions, in and THROUGH the challenges, and in and THROUGH the suffering that we ALL must FACE in this life! God doesn’t GIVE us ANY of these things, but God DOES go to WORK in the MIDST of them, that OUR body of HUMILIATION may be CONFORMED to the body of CHRIST’S glory!
And it’s TRUE! I’ve seen it TIME and AGAIN in the lives of people right here in our OWN church family, AND in my OWN family! The Spirit is ALIVE and MIRACLES happen – again and again! And like GOOD musical INSTRUMENTS, WE can HELP God PLAY this great IMPROV tune called TRANSFORMATION! HOW? Well, we can BEGIN by not expecting life to be PERFECT and EASY all the time, but instead, TRUSTING that struggle, pain and sadness have a REDEMPTIVE nature. And they DO! Secretary of State, Condoleeza RICE, ONCE reflected in a SERMON on the significance of suffering. She said: STRUGGLE and sorrow are an opportunity to find a renewed spirit and a renewed strength to carry on. She said: How ELSE but through STRUGGLE are we to get to know the FULL measure of our Lord’s capacity for INTERVENTION in our lives? If there are no burdens, how can we KNOW that God can BE there to LIFT them? And she went ON to say that this point was ILLUSTRATED by the experience of the SLAVES in America, recalling that, under the most OPPRESSIVE of conditions, when it seemed as though there was NO way OUT, the slaves raised their voices and sang songs like, Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen, JESUS Walked This LONESOME Valley, and Glory, Glory Hallelujah. And you know: she MEANT those words, because generations later, on the weekend following the terrorist attacks of September 11th, a group of TOP presidential advisers gathered at Camp David to discuss the administration’s RESPONSE to the attacks. And AS the meeting ENDED, Rice stood up in front of them ALL and sang 2 HYMNS: Amazing Grace and His EYE is on the SPARROW. You see: AS she had said in her sermon: suffering is REDEMPTIVE because it opens us more FULLY to the PRESENCE and POWER of God. SO, friends, we need to TRUST in God’s redemptive power.
We can ALSO help God PLAY this IMPROV tune in our lives, this tune called Transformation, by ASKING and allowing the God to REFINE us. As I SAID: God doesn’t GIVE us our struggles, pains or crises, but God does USE them for the purpose of REFINING us. And WE need to ALLOW God to REFINE us! What do I mean? Well, a Bible study group was focusing on the book of Malachi, and a PARTICULAR verse STRUCK them. It was the verse: he will sit as a REFINER and purifier of SILVER (3:3). They WONDERED what this statement SAID about the character and nature of God, so ONE of them actually went and WATCHED a silversmith at work. The silversmith held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up, explaining that, in refining SILVER, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire, where the flames were HOTTEST, in order to burn AWAY all the IMPURITIES. And then, he went ON to explain that he HAD to keep his EYE on the silver for the ENTIRE time it was IN the fire, because IF the silver were left in the fire for just ONE moment too LONG, it would be DESTROYED. The woman was SILENT for a moment, and THEN she asked: But, HOW do you KNOW when the silver is fully REFINED? He smiled and said, That’s the EASY part: I KNOW it’s fully REFINED when I can see my own IMAGE in it.
Well, according to Paul, the SAME is true for us: God will CONTINUE refining and transforming us until God’s OWN image is visible WITHIN us! God will make us PURER and STRONGER as God transforms the body of OUR humiliation that it may be CONFORMED to the body of HIS glory. Yes friends, God’s TUNE is Transformation, and it’s a FABULOUS divine IMPROV. SO, let’s TRUST God, and WATCH and listen with AWE as the song UNFOLDS.
Amen.
Sources:
Blunt, Sheryl Henderson. The Privilege of Struggle, Christianity Today, September 2003, 44-45.
Hajdu, David. Wynton’s Blues. The Atlantic Monthly, March 2003, 43-44.