{"id":629,"date":"2010-04-24T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-24T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jazztheologian\/2010\/04\/jazz-theology-practicing-christians.html"},"modified":"2010-04-24T08:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-04-24T08:00:00","slug":"jazz-theology-practicing-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2010\/04\/jazz-theology-practicing-christians.html","title":{"rendered":"Jazz Theology: Practicing Christians"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

We are practicing Christians.  We have spent time in the woodshed learning the old
\nstandards.  Now we syncopate,
\nimprovise and respond to the call of a Love Supreme. <\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\"trinity-rublev.jpg\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Christians are called to live out our faith in
\ncommunity.  <\/span>When Jesus called the
\nfirst disciples to follow him it was as a group of individuals–E Pluribus
\nUnum.  <\/span>Jazz is about community.  <\/span>The word ensemble means, “together at
\nthe same time.”  <\/span>God could be
\nthought of as the original jazz ensemble. 
\n<\/span>The Triune God has loved forever as many and yet one–Father, Son and
\nHoly Spirit–while never violating the ancient Shema, “Hear, O Israel:  <\/span>The Lord our God, the Lord is
\none.”  <\/span>Jesus calls us to live this
\nway, to be many and yet one in the body of Christ.  <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

We are a community of past, present and future.  <\/span>To enter into relationship with God is
\nto be invited to the table of the Triune and simultaneously with everyone else
\nwhom he has invited.  <\/span>That means
\nthat we live faithfully with the knowledge that we are not the first and
\nprobably not the last to follow the ancient way of Jesus.  <\/span>I sought to recognize this mystery in,
\nStrange Fruit.  <\/span>You might have
\nnoticed that when I was praying (chapters 3-7) I was in conversation with God
\n(Father, Son, Holy Spirit), while showing awareness that I’m not alone.  <\/span>I’m surrounded by those who have
\nfollowed Christ in the past (Adam, Eve and Peter for example) and with those
\ncurrently seeking Christ (you).  <\/span>I
\ndon’t think that I did a good job of considering and conversing with those who
\nhave yet to enter into the way of the kingdom, whether it be tomorrow or one
\nhundred years from now.  <\/span>I still
\nneed to develop that skill.  <\/span>Which
\nleads to another implication ensemble community:  <\/span>Life in concert assumes practice.<\/p>\n

            <\/span>When
\nwe take the stage together as God’s people we should be able to assume that we
\nhave practiced the basics of the faith, that we possess a fundamental knowledge
\nof God and his ways and that we understand the instrument that he has handed us
\nto play.  <\/span>Jazz theologians are
\nthose who have put in the hard work of rehearsing things like, turning the
\nother cheek and forgiving seventy times seven so that those around us can count
\non us, by God’s grace, to respond as Jesus would.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are practicing Christians.  We have spent time in the woodshed learning the old standards.  Now we syncopate, improvise and respond to the call of a Love Supreme. Christians are called to live out our faith in community.  When Jesus called the first disciples to follow him it was as a group of individuals–E Pluribus…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-composing-a-jazz-shaped-faith","category-finding-the-groove","category-jazz-theology"],"yoast_head":"\nJazz Theology: Practicing Christians - The Jazz Theologian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2010\/04\/jazz-theology-practicing-christians.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jazz Theology: Practicing Christians - The Jazz Theologian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We are practicing Christians.  We have spent time in the woodshed learning the old standards.  Now we syncopate, improvise and respond to the call of a Love Supreme. Christians are called to live out our faith in community.  When Jesus called the first disciples to follow him it was as a group of individuals–E Pluribus…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2010\/04\/jazz-theology-practicing-christians.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Jazz Theologian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-04-24T08:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jazztheologian\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/04\/trinity-rublev-thumb-100x122-12965.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Robert Gelinas\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Jazz Theology: Practicing Christians - The Jazz Theologian","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2010\/04\/jazz-theology-practicing-christians.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Jazz Theology: Practicing Christians - The Jazz Theologian","og_description":"We are practicing Christians.  We have spent time in the woodshed learning the old standards.  Now we syncopate, improvise and respond to the call of a Love Supreme. 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Author of Finding the Groove: Composing a Jazz-Shaped Faith (Zondervan) and the upcoming, Strange Fruit: The Cross as a Way of Life (2011). Founder of Project 127, a ministry dedicated to seeing the day when there are no children waiting for homes in Colorado's foster care system. Robert deeply desires to see the body of Christ mobilized to serve the least of these. The poor, the down and out, the disenfranchised and disabled, those deemed unimportant and the unborn. He believes that God loves all people yet he has a special heart for the poor and the poor in spirit, the miserable and the marginalized. A Contributing Editor for Leadership Journal and Urbanfaith.com. He acquired a B.A. in Bibilcal Studies from Colorado Christian University and a Master of Arts in World Christianity (Missiology) from Denver Seminary. Robert is married to the love of his life, Barbara, and they have six energetic children (3 boys & 3 girls--one bio, five adopted--two from Ethiopia). Friend of God...Passionate about the Body of Christ...Lover of this thing called jazz! Please visit Jazztheologian.com for contact info., speaking schedule, videos, Facebook and Twitter.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/author\/rgelinas"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}