Gordon E. Ellis
September 30, 2007
JUST KEEP ON PLAYING !
I’m not sure where I first HEARD this story, but let me SHARE it with you. The evening was BILLED as a very FORMAL evening, a very expensive BLACK tie and EVENING gown affair, a special FUND-RAISING concert in a WORLD-famous CONCERT hall, featuring the one of the world’s greatest PIANISTS: Jan PADEREWSKI. Well, the evening was as GLORIOUS as anyone could have IMAGINED, and AS the concert hall began filling up, you could literally FEEL the sense of EXPECTANCY and EXCITEMENT in the AIR.
Well, IN the audience that night was a young MOTHER and her 9-year old SON. She HOPED that by bringing the boy to a CONCERT by the great PADEREWSKI, she could INTEREST him in playing the PIANO. She had TRIED every OTHER way she KNEW to CONVINCE him to take PIANO lessons, but he had successfully RESISTED every ONE. So THIS was her LAST hope! MAYBE, just maybe, Paderewski would EXCITE the boy.
The PROBLEM was that her son was an extremely ACTIVE child. His ATTENTION span RARELY exceeded 15 minutes. THAT’S why, EVEN as they sat there for that half hour, WAITING for the concert to BEGIN, the boy began to FIDGET, growing more and more IMPATIENT with WAITING. Well FINALLY, the house lights went DIM and the CURTAIN opened. And AS it did, a SPOTLIGHT shown down on the BIGGEST, most BEAUTIFUL grand PIANO that you can POSSIBLY imagine. And it was OPEN and ready to PLAY. Well, ALL of a sudden, this 9-year old boy LUNGED out of the AISLE seat that his mother had BOUGHT him so that he could SEE better; and he RAN down the aisle, UP the stairs and ONTO the stage! Then he JUMPED onto the big, leather PIANO bench and began banging out Chopsticks!
Well, the audience was STUNNED, of course! And they began SHOUTING: GET that child OFF the stage! WHAT is he DOING? WHERE are his PARENTS? And then, JUST as SUDDENLY, the audience became QUIET, as the great Paderewski HIMSELF calmly walked up BEHIND the child, LEANED over the boy’s shoulders, and WHISPERED in the his ear: Keep on PLAYING, son, keep on PLAYING! And then, on EITHER side of the BOY’S hands, Paderewski placed his OWN hands. And he began to play a BEAUTIFUL harmony! Well, the two of them played together for the next 5 or 6 MINUTES, and AS they DID, Paderewski took that child’s very PRIMITIVE version of Chopsticks, and TRANSFORMED it into glorious, CONCERT-quality music! And the AUDIENCE was just BLOWN-AWAY by it!
Well friends, in a SENSE, that’s what JESUS did at that WEDDING in CANA, when He took those ORDINARY jars of water, and TRANSFORMED them into the best WINE of the DAY, in order to SAVE the FEAST and SALVAGE the HONOR of His HOST. And to ME, one of the many MESSAGES in this WONDERFUL story about Jesus’ FIRST miracle is the conviction that THIS is the way that God works in OUR lives as well! GOD takes the SIMPLE things, God takes the ORDINARY people, and God takes our NORMAL, everyday EVENTS, and LIFTS them OUT of the ORDINARY, out of the ROUTINE. GOD takes our FEEBLE and faulty attempts at playing CHOPSTICKS, and TRANSFORMS them into glorious, CONCERT-quality music! And THAT’S why the CHURCH gives VALUE to people who spend their lives doing UNEXCEPTIONAL things, like STUDYING and WORKING, SHOPPING and raising CHILDREN, and those THOUSAND and one OTHER things that make up the tiny STRANDS in the FABRIC of our everyday lives. It’s because God is ALWAYS at work in the MIDST of them, always TRANSFORMING what is ORDINARY, in order to USE it for GOD’S purposes.
And we SEE this message expressed OVER and over again in JOHN’S gospel! Every time JESUS shows up, ANYWHERE in the gospel of John, HOLD onto your HATS, because there is going to be SOME kind of MIRACLE! The OLD is going to become NEW! Things are going to get turned UPSIDE down! WATER will become WINE! That which is DEAD will come BACK to LIFE! Yes, you can BET on it EVERY time in JOHN’S gospel! And one of the underlying MESSAGES of John’s gospel is that WE need to trust GOD to be DOING this kind of work at EVERY moment, and IN everything that we DO! We need to TRUST God to be PLAYING over our shoulders and TRANSFORMING the MUSIC of our lives.
I heard a good EXAMPLE of this kind of TRUST recently. A friend and colleague of mine SHARED with me how, shortly after he graduated from SEMINARY, back in the 1960’s, he joined BUSLOADS of high-minded, very sensitive ACTIVISTS from the NORTH, who went to MISSISSIPPI in order to help OUT in the struggle for CIVIL Rights. And he said that he WENT in order to LAY himself on the LINE, and to risk IMPRISONMENT and even DEATH if necessary, in order to join HANDS with his African-American sisters and brothers in their struggle for FREEDOM and justice. When he ARRIVED in Mississippi, however, he was DISAPPOINTED! He asked me: WHAT do you think was the FIRST thing that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his cohorts DID? They GATHERED us into this hot, CROWDED little BAPTIST church, and had us singing and praying, and singing and praying, and singing and praying some MORE! And this went ON for HOURS! And he said: ALL I could THINK was: ‘WHAT in the world does ALL this SINGING and PRAYING and PREACHING have to do with the REAL reason I’m HERE, which is promoting Civil Right for African-Americans? And then he said: SOME of us even went so FAR as to wonder out LOUD WHY we were STUCK in this HOT sanctuary, when we OUGHT to be out in the streets MARCHING!
So, did you get a RESPONSE? I asked.
And he replied: Yes, we DID! In fact, Dr. King HIMSELF responded to our question! He said to us: ‘LISTEN! We BLACK folk have been AT this LONGER than you WHITE people. And we KNOW that more than 200 years of EVIL will NOT be eradicated by ONE march to Jackson! And DURING that 200 years of evil, WE’VE found OUT that it’s our PREACHIN’ and our PRAYIN’ and our SINGIN’ that KEEPS us GOING. Don’t you SEE? WITHOUT the power of GOD, and WITHOUT the VISION of God, and WITHOUT the HAND of God, WE won’t last very LONG out there on the BATTLEFIELD! So, WHAT we’re doing NOW is the most IMPORTANT thing that we DO!’
Well friends: Martin Luther King, Jr. was RIGHT! OUR very BEST, in the grand SCHEME of things, is like a 9-year old banging out CHOPSTICKS on a piano. But IF we can keep in mind that GOD is right here WITH us, LEANING over our shoulders, HANDS extending out on either side of OURS, and lifting OUR feeble and faulty ATTEMPTS at Chopsticks to CONCERT-level QUALITY music, then we are APT to keep on PLAYING. And as LONG as we KEEP on PLAYING, God can keep on working THROUGH us, and WITH us, to accomplish DIVINE purposes.
And you know: that’s ONE reason why we keep getting TOGETHER for all this preaching and praying and singing WEEK after week! It’s BECAUSE it REMINDS us to keep on trying our BEST as we LIVE our faith out THERE. WORSHIP is our TIME to hear God WHISPERING in our EARS: Keep on PLAYING, child, keep on PLAYING! Yes, as LONG as we continue doing our BEST, whether it’s out on the BATTLEFIELDS of JUSTICE, where we fight against RACISM and SEXISM, AGEISM and HOMOPHOBIA, VIOLENCE and discrimination of EVERY kind; OR, whether we’re simply GOING about our DAY-to-day BUSYNESS, working and studying, shopping and raising kids -- as LONG as we keep doing our BEST, God will keep USING what we DO for GOD’S purposes! And of course, the MORE we keep WORKING at it, the more we keep NOURISHING the Spirit of God that is WITHIN us, and therefore, the more CHRIST-LIKE we BECOME. And we NEED to become more and more CHRIST-LIKE! Otherwise, HOW can we fulfill our calling to BECOME the Body of CHRIST in this world? HOW can we become HIS hands and HIS voice in OUR world TODAY? It’s by becoming as CHRIST-LIKE as possible, because AS the QUOTE at the top of your bulletin says: Anytime JESUS shows up, be it at an ORDINARY wedding in CANA, OR in our ORDINARY church, OR tomorrow morning while you’re at WORK, things become TRANSFORMED. There is GLORY. And IN the LIGHT of such GLORY, despair turns into HOPE, DOUBT is transformed into BELIEF, DEATH is made into LIFE, and WATER into WINE. It’s A MIRACLE! (William Willimon) And WITH the help of GOD, with GOD’S hands playing right alongside OURS, it’s OUR miracle to OFFER this world! And it’s FABULOUS!
You know: as I prepare to take my LEAVE from this church soon, I keep HEARING people expressing FEAR that this church will FALL apart without Gordon Ellis. Well, TRUST me: THAT’S not going to happen! YOU, as a church, are too STRONG for that. I KNOW all of you, and you all LOVE this church! And you WILL keep it strong! HOWEVER, I suspect that there WILL be times when, as a CHURCH, you will begin to FEEL like CHILDREN, banging out CHOPSTICKS on a piano, and NOT so SURE how GREAT it’s coming out. Well, that’s OK! I’VE been here a VERY long, calling most of the shots, and YOU haven’t had THAT much of a CHANCE to DO it (which is ONE reason that I need to LEAVE). But I’ll TELL you: AS you begin taking charge of the church yourselves, it MAY seem UNCOMFORTABLE at first, but KEEP on DOING it! KEEP on PLAYING Chopsticks! And TRUST that GOD is leaning over your shoulder, TRANSFORMING your FEEBLE attempts at CHOPSTICKS into a BEAUTIFUL work of art, an AWE-INSPIRING concert, because THAT’S what God will be DOING with ALL that you’re DOING as a church! GOD will be USING it, every BIT of it!
LISTEN .... Can you HEAR it? I can! It’s BEAUTIFUL, concert-quality music. SO, just KEEP on playing, my friends! Just KEEP on playing! And do the SAME in your INDIVIDUAL lives. STRIVE to be Christ-like, and GOD will do the REST. Amen.