Jazz Theology

While working on a degree in biblical studies, Robert Gelinas headed to a local jazz venue that stayed  open late and offered bottomless cups of coffee. He would talk to the musicians about Jesus, and they would teach him in the ways of jazz. "It was there," says Gelinas, "that I realized that jazz is more than music and, when understood, can be applied to prayer, Bible study, and the way we do church."

Jazz theology is what happens when we express the basic elements of jazz in our relationship with God—syncopation, improvisation, and call and response. These allow us to experience life in concert with Scripture, with other practicing Christians, be used as servant leaders and sing the blues so as not to waste any pain.
Gelinas says "To sing the blues is to embrace the cross of Christ and the cross he calls us to bear. In the process we realize that Jesus not only redeems us from our sin and sadness, he also actually redeems our sin and sadness."

One of the best things we can do is listen to what others are expressing about what God is doing in their lives, so we can serve them as Christ would.
 
Within the dynamic of His eternal will, God improvises. God’s providential jazz liberates slaves and weeps over cities. God has been triumphant and also sad. Jazz portrays the diversity, freedom and eternal freshness of God. Something in us tells us that our knowing about God is to be more than an intellectual knowing. We long for the kind of knowing that goes beyond the intellect without bypassing the intellect. The kind of knowing of God and being known by God that made God take Enoch early. The kind of knowing that rivals Moses and Joshua as they spoke with God face to face. The kind devotion with God that kept Jesus up all night in conversation with his Father. Jazz theology helps with this kind of knowing.

Robert Gelinas spoke on some key features of jazz and how they harmonize with Christianity:


1. Syncopation accents the off beat and produces swing. God is concerned with those overlooked by others and acts in surprising ways.  Acts 17:28 "For in him we live and move and have our being."



2. Improvisation allows one to be creative within a pattern. God has revealed his "song" but we can improvise within the chord changes.



3. Call and response means that we respond to God's initiative. He calls us to love him and live in and through Jesus Christ.

 ”You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain” (John 15:16).

4. Jazz groups are ensembles in which the many function as one, without the members losing their unique identity. Christians are united in Christ, but can express their individuality in harmony with others as part of the Body of Christ. "But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. " I Corinthians 12:18

5. Jazz in rooted in the blues. The blues teaches us to embrace our pain until we smile again. Jesus embraced the ultimate pain on the Cross and turned it into our redemption.

Kirk Whalum: The Gospel According to Jazz