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June 27, 2004
Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Bluegrass
I Corinthians 12:4-11
A meditation for worship held in Bever Park,
Cedar Rapids, featuring a bluegrass trio.
This is not the first time I've preached in casual clothes. In fact, the first sermon I preached after my ordination was at an annual church picnic — held in a barn somewhere out in the country on a hot summer night in West Texas. I was an Associate Pastor who had just started at the church and had not yet preached on a Sunday morning.
When it came time for people to finish their Texas bar-b-queue, toss their paper plates in the blue barrel, gather their children, the moment I had been waiting for years finally arrived.
Now during the sermon, I noticed that people seemed to be bobbing their heads up and down — like that — up and down, up and down, up and down.
I didn't think much of it until after the sermon, a bowlegged elder in white cowboy hat and said:
Preacher, what you had to say was pretty good; but we couldn't get it cauz' you kept bouncing,' up and down, up and down, up and down. I wanted to drive a railroad spike into your heels and anchor them to the ground.
As disappointed as I was, that cowboy elder did me a favor. I have never again bounced up and down!
I.
For this picnic/worship service, I want to share with you something a member of the church shared with me about bluegrass music, which we are hearing today for undoubtedly the first time ever during worship at First Presbyterian:
Bluegrass songs are played with each melody instrument switching off playing the melody each time through, while the other [instruments] revert to backing; this is in contrast to [other types of] music, in which all instruments play the melody together…[1]
I hear three distinct options for music described in this paragraph.
- One option is for each instrument to play in harmony. Just as a choir sings an anthem in harmony, a congregation tries to sing hymns in harmony, and a crowd at a baseball games lamely attempts to sing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" in harmony, many if not most types of music seek to have voices or instruments play in harmony.
- Another option for music is the solo. Growing up in the era of hard rock, I remember guitar solos by Keith Richards, vocal solos by Janis Joplin, anti-war solos by Joan Baez, and on the opposite end of the political scale, even Kate Smith singing "God Bless America." In solos one musician sings or plays, while others are virtually silent and invisible.
- A third option is found in bluegrass. In bluegrass, one instrument presents a solo, then retires to a supportive role as another instrument steps forward, followed by a third instrument, and on and on. While this is somewhat like the concept of "taking turns" we teach our children, bluegrass slows each instrument to use its best sound — supported by other instruments — and in turn support other instruments as they offer their best sound.
II.
This character of bluegrass — each instrument offering its best sound — supported by others — then in turn supporting other instruments as they offer their best sound — comes awfully close to being a picture of the church of Jesus Christ at its best.
The apostle Paul speaks to this character when he writes words we often read at youth camps, ordination services, and training events for people we elect to serve as Session members, Deacons, and members of the Christian Education Board:
There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit
[ Paul writes]There are varieties of services,
but the same Lord…Thee are varieties of activities…but…the same God who activates all of them in everyone.
To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit
for the common good
Paul continues:
To one is given through the Spirit
the utterance of wisdom…
To another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit,To another faith by the same Spirit,
To another gifts of healing by the one Spirit,
To another the working of miracles,
To another prophecy,
To another the discernment of spirits,
To another various kinds of tongues,
To another the interpretation of tongues.
All these are activated by the one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.[2]
a.
In this rhythmic passage, Paul names nine gifts given by the Spirit: that are given: wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracle-working, prophecy, discernment, tongues, interpretation of tongues.
- He lists these in such rapid-fire succession it is clear he is not trying to be exhaustive.
- It is as if a father reassures his daughter about her upcoming first day of school by saying, "You're going to meet a whole lot of new friends: Billie and Bobbie and Ted and Mark and Megan and Denise and Madison and Kim and Brian."
The father doesn't know for certain that these are the exact names of the children his daughter will meet, and she may in fact meet more. But by listing the names of potential playmates in rapid-fire succession, he is opening the daughter's mind to all kinds of potential she is not yet considering.
Likewise, when Paul list these gifts in rapid succession, he invites us to look at our own lives and add our gifts to his list, to add the instrument we play to the trio already making music.
b.
In this passage, Paul also speaks of the source of these gifts.
"There are varieties of gifts," Paul says. "But it is the same Spirit [that gives them]."[3] Eight times in sixteen lines Paul credit to the third person of the Trinity — the Holy Spirit — as the source of our gifts.
I invite you to consider for a minute your best gift.
- Is it wordworking?
- Is it accounting?
- Is it organizational planning?
- Is it playing tennis?
- Is it painting or writing poetry?
- Is it getting to the bottom of a situation quickly?
- Is it confronting someone with a hard truth?
- Is it facing conflict before conflict escalates into open warfare?
Maybe this gift has been given you as part of your DNA. Maybe it comes from your hard work and discipline. Maybe it grows out of the environment in which you were raised, the experiences — beautiful and ugly — that your have encountered along the road.
No matter which of theses — genetics, effort, environment — has brought your gift to the surface, ultimately all our gifts come from
- Somewhere beyond ourselves
- Someone larger than us
- Some Power beyond our power
- Some Force higher than our own force.
I believe with Paul that the source of all our gifts is
the Holy Spirit —
- The Spirit of Jesus Christ
- The Advocate
- The Comforter
- The Witness
- The Third person of the Trinity.
c.
A third aspect of gifts Paul calls to our attention is their use.
Buried in Paul's litany of gifts is a explaining the purpose of all gifts: "To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good." [4]
One of the founders of Bluegrass was Bill Monroe. His music was known for "highly distinctive vocal harmonies" that incorporate a variety of traditions:
- Songs and rhythms from string bands
- Black and white gospel music
- Works songs and 'shouts' of black laborers in the fields
- Country and blues music repertoires. [5]
In Monroe's bluegrass, all these come together in one composition. All these come together for "the common good."
The same is true for spiritual gifts.
Whether in a family or classroom
A church or work group,
A nuclear submarine or the
National Security Council,
The only way gifts and talents of each can create a "highly distinctive vocal harmony" is if they work for the common good under God.
IV.
A recent article in Smithsonian magazine talks about the relationship between the bow and the violin whose string it graces in making music. Says one conductor:
The bow [is] more essential to expressing the soul of the music than the violin…it's better to have a fine bow and a mediocre violin than a fine violin and a mediocre bow.[6]
The truth is that it takes both the well-known violin and the little-noticed bow to make music.
In the matter of spiritual gifts, God has given each of us a gift to be either the bow or the violin so that together we can make music pleasing to the ears human listeners on earth and the Holy One in heaven.
Amen.
1 "History of Bluegrass Music: The Roots," available at http://www.discoverbluegrass.com/history.asp go back
2 I Corinthians 12:4-11. go back
3 I Corinthians 12:4. go back
4 I Corinthians 12:7. go back
5 "Bluegrass music," available at http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Bluegrass%20music go back
6 Russ Rymer, "Saving the Music Tree," in Smithsonian (April 2004), 54. go back
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First Presbyterian
Church of Cedar Rapids
310 Fifth Street SE Cedar Rapids, IA 52401
Phone: 319-364-6148
E-mail: church@fpccr.org
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