This summer, I participated in the Conference on Worship, Theology, and the Arts at St. Olaf College. The whole conference was deeply enriching, and I was grateful for the chance to worship, learn, and grow alongside so many gifted conference participants and leaders. It was a special gift to get to hear preaching and lectures from theologian Willie James Jennings as part of the conference. Jennings shared an image with us during one of his sessions that has continued to animate my imagination in the time since the conference.
Jennings described Christian hope as an act of improvisation. A skilled jazz musician takes pre-existing melodic and harmonic material, infuses it with their own set of skills, knowledge, and imagination, and creates something new. So it is with Christian hope. We live our own lives within the framework of Christ's own life, death, and resurrection; that is our pre-existing material. What we do within that framework is the act of improvisation. Our hope lies in the work of improvisation, of the Spirit's movement across time and space to do something new, grounded in the hope of Jesus Christ.
I'm reminded of this image as I reflect on one of the hymn texts in our September 25 Sing For Joy program. In José Antonio Olivar's hymn "When the Poor Ones," Olivar offers an invitation for us to improvise on the timeless call of Jesus to care for our neighbors. "When compassion gives the suffering consolation; when expecting brings to birth hope that was lost; when we choose love, not the hatred all around us: We see God, here by our side, walking our way."
Just as Christ's disciples were called to acts of justice and peace over two thousand years ago, we are called to pursue that same calling today. To borrow the hymn writer's language, how will we "bring to birth hope that was lost" in these post-pandemic days? How will we riff on the melody of Christ's liberating love?
Join us this month on Sing For Joy as we hear music that brings forth hope, with melodies both old and new.
Peace be with you,
