Groovin’ With God – beatnik process theology.

Our Creator God does indeed create. Mercy and how!

But She is not the only one who makes

the decisions about

what will be created.

If that were the case, blind obedience…

would be our only mission

we would merely be puppets who could only

do things when God

….pulls our strings.

Dig this. 

As children of God who’ve been

called to groove,

let’s groove on the metaphor

of “Jazz Music.”

In jazz there is an imperative

for listening to,

and respecting the composer and director.

However, for truly beautiful and

creative music to flow,

there must be room for the musicians

to play

off

the score.

We need,        to improvise.

Now God is the composer and lead

musician of all creation.

He sets the beat and the main melody lines,

and we humans,

well we’re asked to apply our gifts

and graces and to

playfully experiment

and create variations on the themes.

Check it out!  When we open-up and listen…

we can hear some cool and kickin’ riff

floating in from above…

“Dom diba dooba, dom diba dooba..”

We can groove on that wave for a while….

Dom diba dooba, dom diba dooba!

– then, one of us gets an idea of her own,

doobie doobie dooba, doobie doobie dooba…

she tries it out & adds a little bit of this…

zoobie dee dom, zoobie dee dom,

… and brings in some of that..

…zip zip zoi, zip zip zoi…

and before too long,

something new has been created

something that can only come from

the dynamic synergy

of God

and God’s People,

jamming       together!

However, we need to carefully listen to,

and work with, God and each other

otherwise….   all we have…

           is noise.

The fool notion that “there are no wrong notes in jazz”

is musically – false.

We can monopolize the act and not allow God or the others

their turns to play..

..we can play out of tune or in the wrong chords….

we might play too weakly  when it’s our turn to solo..

or try to “hide-out” by meekly playing behind the others…

or we might play in an inappropriate style, straight

– when it should be swung,

Dixie, when its supposed to be Cool…  Be-bop,

when it oughta be Smooth,..

and so on, and so on, etcetera, etcetera…    Man!

None-the-less, God desires this creativity on our parts

– you dig?

And She risks the sour notes.

She always attempts to make beautiful whatever we come up with.

Humph… Sometimes, well,

sometimes He has to work harder than others!

But no matter what, God is inviting us

to make beautiful music together.

It’s up to us.

Are we willing to open up our ears?,

to release the energies of our minds?,

to let loose the passion in our

hearts, souls and bodies?!

Now, Listen Up you Cats!

Let’s let God know that we’ve

tuned our horns,  freed our souls,

and that we’re ready

to groove with the Lord!     Amen!

—

A beatnik “poetry sermon” I wrote in 1994 during my years in seminary. I delivered it as part of a chapel worship service at the Iliff School of Theology. You might want to snap your fingers and make soft, high-hat cymbal sounds as you read this: “t-ttsss tt, t-ttsss tt, t-ttsss tt, t-ttsss tt, t-ttsss tt …”           Click for more on Process theology.

“We all must do just what Christ did. We must make our experiment. We must make mistakes. We must live out our own vision of life. And there will be error. If you avoid error you do not live.” – Carl Jung

xx – Roger

Rev. Roger Wolsey is a certified Spiritual Director, United Methodist pastor, and serves on the Board of Directors of ProgressiveChristianity.Org. He is a contributing writer for the Progressing Spirit newsletter, and author of Kissing Fish: christianity for people who don’t like christianity