Reflections of a Jazz Theologian

Becoming Strange Fruit (p2)

The English word "excruciating" comes from the Latin "excruciare" meaning "out of the cross."  It is a wrod invented specifically to describe the pain of crucifixion.  We must never minimize the cross.  it is the center of our faith.  In the same way the jazz never leaves the blues behind, Christians daily carry their cross.

The Christian life is to be excruciating, that is, out of the cross.  We are to take our cues from what Jesus was doing on that true and in the process become strange fruit.

In order to understand the excruciating life that we are called to I'm going to make use of John Coltrane's spiritual stages from his album, "A Love Supreme."

• Acknowledgement
• Resolution
• Pursuance
• Psalm

These will proved a prayer pattern to "examen" the cross.  Notice I didn't say "examine."  The latter is a scientific term in which we place ourselves in the role of questioner.  I believe that when we approach the cross we should not cross-examine rather we should cross-examen.

Becoming Strange Fruit (p1)

The Apostle Peter understood that we are to become strange fruit.  Legend says that he was crucified, literally, upside-down.  He in turn calls us all to see the cross as a pattern for our lives.

To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. (I Pet. 2.24)

The cross is not just about what jesus did but what we are to do.  That is, we recognize that Jesus, in his death, was showing us how to live.

The Apostle Paul said, "I resolved to know nothing...except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

God has a singular desire that he is working in every moment of our lives.  That we would become strange fruit.  This is the destiny that that all who love God have to look forward to “For we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.  Those whom God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed into the likeness of his son.”  The good that God is doing in all things is the molding and shaping us into the image of his son.  God uses every moment of the life devoted to him to see that it conforms us to Christ.  The goal is that would live and love like Jesus.  That we would speak as he would speak and listen as he would do so because “we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory…”

This idea is developed even further in Ephesians where we are called to “be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”  Our imitation of God is to extend to loving “just as Christ love us” on the cross.  Paul was so compelled by this call of God that he took it on as his deep desire.  Paul writes, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.”

Syncopating, Improvising and Responding to the Call of a Love Supreme (p5)

How do you follow strange fruit?

We must know the answer to that question.  It was Robert Lewis who wrote that, "We could not make sense of the New Testament in particular, or Christianity in general, without its central figure--Jesus Christ.  Christianity is not a philosophy or an ethic, but a person:  Christianity is Christ.  But neither can we make sense of Christ himself without his cross."

Christ was strange fruit indeed as he hung on the cross formed tree.  I was Paul who said, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it was written:  'Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree."  The cross was a scandal--the ultimate in degradation.  The Romans didn't invent crucifixion but they perfected it through practice.  They had crucified untold thousands of victims but Jesus, as he hung on that tree was different, odd...a strange and better crop.

How do we follow strange fruit?  By becoming strange fruit ourselves.  To be a disciple of Christ is to follow Jesus, even to the cross, for the cross is core to knowing Christ.  The goal is for us to be able to say, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me."

Syncopating, Improvising and Responding to the Call of a Love Supreme (p4)

Former slave Ida B. Wells launched a campaign against lynching.  She and her five brothers and sisters were orphaned after the death of her parents.  At the age of sixteen she stood for keeping her disintegrating family together and though she was in shool herself she applied for gained employment as a teacher.  "Ida believed that God--her Father as she called him--had put her through these 'trials' in order to 'fit her for his Kingdom,' as she wrote in her diary."

After a friend of hers died at the hands of lynch mob she put here skills as a writer to use and began to chronicle the practice for a lager audience.  Her campaign against lynching often made reference to the lynching of our Lord for the comparisons between the two forms of executions are obvious.

Jesus was arrested by a Judas led lynch mob.  Put through a mock trials and found guilty without following proper procedure.  Humiliation and torture became the goal. 

The cross was a scandal--the ultimate of degradation--a curse.  Jesus was stipped bare and hung in humiliation.  Unable to swat a fly.  Impaled in unfathomable pain.  Nerves irriated by the nails.  Lips and tongue chapped.  Family disgraced. 

Strange Fruit.

Syncopating, Improvising and Responding to the Call of a Love Supreme (p3)

That is the question isn't it?  How do you follow strange fruit?  We as followers of Christ wrestle with that everyday.  How do we follow strange--unnatural--fruit.  For the loveliest lynchee was our Lord!

Without Sanctuary:  Lynching Photography in America is a pictorial history of lynching.  Each stomach turning page brings home the reality of this form of execution.  Of the hundreds of photo's there are three of a man named Frank Embree that are forever seered into my memory.  He stands stripped bare in the back of a buggy.  Handcuffs on his wrists.  He was only 19 years old though the look in his eyes betrays centuries of suffering as he stands tall trying to maintain his dignity.  The only sign that he is in pain is the slight grimmace of his mouth.  His legs are lacerated on all sides.  Long deep cuts run in all directions over his body.  He has been whipped 105 times.  He is moments away from a humiliating death by hanging in front of a crowd of more than one thousand people.  A final photo shows him stretched out dangling...crooked neck...arms restrained...eyes still open...loin cloth covering.

Writing about a similar picture, one author says, "He had been stripped of all his clothing but what appeared to be a loin cloth positioned below his hip.  The figure was eerily reminiscent of the image of Christ being crucified on the cross."

How do we follow strange fruit?

Syncopating, Improvising and Responding to the Call of a Love Supreme (p2)

Abe Meeropol was a school teacher in the Bronx.  After seeing one of these pictures he put pen to paper and wrote the disturbing and undeniable poem Strange Fruit.

He convinced jazz singer Billy Holiday to lend her distinct voice to the haunting tale.  When she performed it in concert people didn't know how to respond.  It's beautiful but are you supposed to applaud given what the song is about.  Eventually she moved the song to the end of her performances.

After all, how do you follow strange fruit.

Even Sting has a version!

Syncopating, Improvising and Responding to the Call of a Love Supreme (p1)

Strange Fruit used to hang from trees in America.

Col. Charles Lynch was a Justice of the Peace with his own kind of justice in the late 1700's.  He would hold illegal trials and upon convictions, would tie the suspect to a tree and whip them.  By the late 1800's "Lynch Mob" was a part of the American vocabulary.  It was a term to describe the horrific practice of confiscating a "criminal" from the local jail or kidnapping him from his home in front of his family.  Without proper trial they would humiliate, whip with barbed wire, torture, emasculate and hang the strange fruit from a tree.

The crop of strange fruit was counted during the years of 1882-1968.  During that time 4743 people, mostly African-Americans were hung from trees with their bodies mutilated, lacerated, burned and riddled with bullets.  It was a community event.  A lynch mob was more than just the unmasked, yet usually never punished perpetrators.  Pictures show men, women and even children gathered by the thousands to witness the hanging of this strange fruit.  Children were often recruited to assist in the grotesque gathering.  After the hanging people would pose for pictures and even parts of the body would be cut off for memorabilia.

Strange--unnatural--fruit used to hang from trees in America.  Jazz legend Billy Holiday even sang about it...

What's a jazz-shaped faith? (review p2)

There are three fundamentals to jazz and thus a jazz shaped faith.

• Syncopation:  Accenting the offbeat.  This is what allows jazz to swing and when applied to prayer or bible study it brings to light, not hidden meaning but meaning that is often missed.
• Improvisation:  When we are so familiar with the basic groove of God's word and the way of Christ we are in a position to experiment and play a little.  Improvisation is the result of living in community with other practicing Christians who allow us the grace and encouragement to find our own voice..
• Call and Response:  The essence of a jazz-shaped faith is listening.  God calls to his creation on the first page of scripture and continued to call to Adam and Eve as they hid in shame.  When we develop our ear for the voice of God and the needs of others we place ourselves in a position to respond by dawning the towel and basin and serving others as Christ did.

These concepts can be applied to the various aspects of our faith.  For the foreseeable future I'm going to be syncopating, improvising and responding to the call of a love supreme.  That is, I'll be blogging often about the cross of Christ from a jazz-shaped perspective.

What's a jazz-shaped faith? (review p1)

When we realize that jazz is more than music than  whole new way of living the Christian faith emerges.  One that leads to creativity in our walk with God and relationships that resemble an ensemble so that we can find our voice and develop our ear as we pray, read the scriptures and serve Christ.

We do not need to be jazz musicians to practice a jazz-shaped faith.  All we need is to understand the basic concepts of jazz.  Rather, there are basic concepts that are most easily observed in music but are in no way limited to those who play instruments.  Once we are familiar with the basic elements we begin to notice them elsewhere such as art, literature and sports.

(To be continued...)