Knowing
that our organist, Christoph Bull, enjoys a wonderfully eclectic range
of
music and also knowing that he is quite gifted at improvisation, I
invited him to create and offer a musical gift to our confirmation
class this morning. He said “Yes” immediately, and then
wanted to know more about the confirmands—what are they like,
what are they into, what music do they listen to?
And
so you’ve heard this wonderful music, drawing from the riches
of our tradition and making it contemporary in ways few might have
imagined.
That’s
improvisation. The word comes from a Latin root which means “not
seen ahead of time.” In music, improvisation creates something
brand new out of something known and familiar. And that’s exactly
what you confirmands are doing with faith as you join the church this
morning. You’re brand new. The way you will live the faith will
be your improvisation. In your life, you will create a way of being
Christian “not seen ahead of time” because you’re
you and you’re a new generation.
But
in music, of course, improvisation doesn’t come out of nowhere.
Especially in jazz, for example, when you’re improvising in
a group, it’s not just one person sitting at the piano or with
a saxophone or drum set or whatever and doing whatever happens to
come to mind. Can you imagine? You’d have chaos and it would
sound pretty awful.
When
I was in college, during a pretty anti-establishment era, our marching
band used to have fun at football games by trading instruments with
one another about half-way through the half-time show. They’d
be out on the field. They’d still look like a marching band,
more or less. But they didn’t have a clue what they were doing.
So they’d toot and honk and bang away until everybody stopped
laughing and then they’d get their own instrument back and go
back to playing music. It was fun in a weird kind of way but it sure
wasn’t music.
I’m
saying this because we’re living in a time in which a lot of
people think that being a Christian is just something you do or don’t
do in a kind of “whatever…” sort of way. Little
of this, little of that. Just do whatever makes you feel good.. And
all that might be interesting, but it’s not music. It’s
not faith. It doesn’t have a whole lot to do with what church
is really about.
Any
musician who wants to improvise must first learn how to play music.
Study hard. Practice a lot. Learn the repertoire, that is, all the
old masters and standards. Because only when you’ve made that
foundation and that tradition your own and internalized it thoroughly,
only when you’re deeply grounded in something, can you do your
own thing in such a way that it has real value and beauty.
Faith
is like that, too. When you know your place in the big picture, when
you learn what generations before you have loved and cherished and
even been willing to give their whole lives for, then you can improvise.
Then you’ll be prepared to live the faith in a way, in a world
“not seen ahead of time”
It is our prayer that all you’ve done in your Confirmation Class
has helped give you some of those basics of the Christian faith and
of the church. That it has helped you get a sense of the big picture,
the tradition you’re becoming an official member of this morning.
Because while you’re a brand new generation, you’re part
of an unending succession of generations that goes all the way back
to the time of Moses when the Israelites were on the verge of finally
entering the Promised Land.
Moses
said to them: “You shall teach these things to your children,
speaking of them when you are at home or on the way, when you lie
down and when you rise up.” Moses knew that this little band
of folks, God’s people, who had been slaves and now were free,
who had been wandering in the wilderness and were about to enter the
Promised Land, Moses knew that they had the potential to make a huge
impact on the whole world—but only if they took it upon themselves
to pass on their beliefs to their children and their children’s
children.
And
so, in synagogues and in churches, we’ve been doing it ever
since. Passing on our beliefs to the next generation, generation after
generation, and now it’s you. We love you. And we want only
the best for you. And we trust you enough to say—here is the
gift of our precious faith. Claim it and make it your own. Live into
it. And keep it going. Because we’re trusting you to carry the
faith forward into a time and a world that we can’t even see.
There
are a few rules for how you do improvisation in life that might be
helpful. They might sound a bit surprising at first.
First: be interested, not interesting. That is, care so much about
others that you really listen to what they telling you, what they’re
saying, even sometimes when they can’t put it into words. The
Bible way of saying this is “to love your neighbor as yourself.”
Be a friend. Especially to people who don’t have many friends.
Second:
be willing to take risks—which I already know you do. Not stupidly,
but taking on the things that need taking on. Stand up for what you
believe and what you know is right. I know you visited the Museum
of Tolerance a few weeks ago. One of its lessons is how critical it
is for people to speak out against things that aren’t right
in this world and to look out for the welfare of others.
Third:
celebrate failures. Yep. Our mistakes teach us much more than our
successes. Defeat is not falling down. Defeat is falling down and
not getting up again. So when you fall, don’t try to hide it.
Look for the learning in each mistake and become a smarter, better,
more faithful person.
Fourth:
reach for more. Don’t be content with what is. Never give up
on your dreams for your own life and for this world. God put them
in your heart. And God will work with you to make them come true.
And
fifth: remember that life isn’t a solo act. That’s the
really cool thing about church. Together we’re the body of Christ.
And through thick and thin, it’s our job to be there for each
other. I know that you’ve already experienced how this can work
and how it makes all the difference in the world, when everything
goes wrong and the sorrow seems too much to bear. We will always be
there for you, from generation to generation. That’s promise
we make to each other when we join the church. I’m going to
be there for you and you’re going to be there for me.
In
a few minutes, you will have the high privilege of serving the other
members of congregation communion. From your hands we will receive
the bread of life and the cup of healing and wholeness. There is no
more powerful way to demonstrate the bond we now share in God through
Jesus Christ.
As
your fellow Christians, your brothers and sisters in Christ, we trust
you, we’re counting on you to improvise our faith going forward,
to live into it in such a way that you will create it new for the
future which we cannot yet now see.
May God bless you and keep you and make his face to shine upon you.
May God be gracious unto you and give you peace.
©Patricia
Farris, 2007. Permission is given for brief quotation with attribution.
All other rights reserved.
For
All Generations