A number of
years ago, a reporter from The New York Times went to Mississippi
to write an article about how, in the words of his article’s title: “The Blues is dying in the place where it was
born.” In the article, the reporter made
the point that it was “the very authenticity of the Blues that endangers
it.”
For the
article the reporter interviewed a number of Blues musicians, including an
elderly, African-American guitarist named CeDell Davis. This old-time bluesman
defended the integrity of the Blues in contrast to more recent forms of popular
music, especially one musical form that he particularly despised: hip-hop.
CeDell
Davis said:
"The Blues is about people, and as long as
there's people, there will be Blues. The
Blues tells a story. Hip-hop don't tell
no story. It don't tell no story about
women, men, trains, buses, cars, birds, alleys, stores. The Blues is about things."
·
“The
Blues is about people.”
·
“The
Blues tells a story.”
·
“The
Blues is about things.”
The Blues, then,
is a lot like our Christian faith.
·
Our
faith is about people.
·
Our
faith tells a story.
·
And
our faith is “about things”.
I believe
we have an opportunity offered to us by Christ to develop a faith that can sing
the Blues. This is an opportunity we
should not miss, because the alternative is a faith that is mere “hip-hop.” (And there really is a lot of “hip-hop”
religion in our world today.)
1. “The Blues is about people.” Our
faith is also about people.
In the
gospels, Jesus acted with compassion in the face of human need: disease,
poverty, fear, hunger, grief. In his
encounters with people, Jesus always sought to address the real needs of real
people.
At its best, the
Christian faith always seeks to address the real concerns of real people. Christianity takes very seriously issues of
·
the
relationship between couples,
·
the
relationships between parents and children,
·
illness,
·
fear,
violence, and our response to both,
·
dying,
·
bereavement.
Our faith seeks
to address these concerns with sensitivity and with the love of Christ.
·
A faith that can sing the Blues seeks to show support
to people in the times of life’s crises.
·
A faith that can sing the Blues rejects the temptation
to promote guilt in other people or to manipulate people’s emotions.
“The Blues
is about people.” So is our faith. A faith that is not about people is just so
much “hip-hop”.
2. “The Blues tells a story.” Our faith also tells a story.
In the
gospels, we see Jesus as a master storyteller.
Most of Jesus’ teaching took place as parables - as stories. Jesus’ stories have become a major part of
our culture. Even for people who are not
of Christian faith, phrases like “Good Samaritan” or “Prodigal Son” are still
part of the culture and the language.
As well, we find
this sense of story more broadly in our faith.
We are part of the story of the people of God:
·
from
the Hebrew Scriptures,
·
through
the New Testament,
·
through
the history of the Christian Church,
·
to
centuries upon centuries after us,
we are part
of the ongoing story of the people of God.
There’s a
theological word for this sense of being part of the broader story of faith:
“tradition”. Now, the word “tradition”
is too often treated as a dirty word in many churches. But in its most basic sense, the word
“tradition” is about this idea that we are part of the broad story of the life
of God’s people.
·
A faith that can sing the Blues gives us a story of
which to be a part.
·
A faith that can sing the Blues does not leave us
needing to reinvent the wheel every day in our life as God’s people.
“The Blues
tells a story.” So does our faith. A faith that does not tell a story is just so
much “hip-hop”.
3. “The Blues is about things.” Our faith is also “about things”.
The scriptures frequently
show how the ordinary things of life can make profound points about God and
about our lives:
·
In
today’s gospel lesson, Jesus spoke of the persistent nature of God’s love by
using images of a woman looking for a lost coin and a shepherd seeking a lost
sheep.
·
In
last week’s lesson from the Hebrew
Scriptures, Jeremiah watched a potter at work, correcting his mistakes as he
went along, and used it as an image of how God calls all people of faith to
renew their lives.
·
In
last week’s gospel lesson, Jesus spoke of a builder planning a project
intelligently, and used this image to encourage us all to give good attention
to our own priorities in life.
·
In
next week’s gospel lesson, Jesus told a story about the wheeling and dealing of
a dishonest manager and used this story to motivate people of faith – and other
people of good will - to expend least as much energy in doing good as the
villains of this world expend in doing bad.
Our faith
is “about things”.
In our Christian
faith, the most sacred moments involve ordinary substances:
·
the
water in which we wash;
·
the
bread that keeps our bodies alive;
·
the
wine that, for many of us, transforms our eating into dining.
In our
faith, ordinary substances are regularly given a sacred meaning. Our faith is “about things”
Our faith calls
us to get involved in the ordinary stuff of life:
·
in
the struggle for justice, peace, and human dignity;
·
in
living lives of integrity and humanity within the wider community.
Our faith is
“about things”.
·
A faith that can sing the Blues sees the presence of
God in ordinary things.
·
A faith that
can sing the Blues never makes us so heavenly minded as to be of no earthly
good.
“The Blues
is about things.” So is our faith. A faith that is not “about things” is just so
much “hip-hop”.
"The Blues is about people, and as long as
there's people, there will be Blues. The
Blues tells a story. Hip-hop don't tell
no story. It don't tell no story about
women, men, trains, buses, cars, birds, alleys, stores. The Blues is about things."
·
“The
Blues is about people.” Christ reminds
us that our faith is about people. A
faith that is not about people is just so much “hip-hop”.
·
“The
Blues tells a story.” Christ reminds us
that our faith tells a story. A faith
that does not tell a story is just so much “hip-hop”.
·
“The
Blues is about things.” Christ reminds
us that our faith is “about things”. A
faith that is not “about things” is just so much “hip-hop”.
Christ
calls us and enables us, I believe, to develop a faith that can sing the Blues.
