So with the message of Easter still touching our hearts, and knowing that we are trying to dwell “with” our community and offer them space, what happens when life gets in the way?
About 20 years ago, The Atlantic published an article by David Hajdu entitled, “Wynton’s Blues.” In the article David tells the story of jazz musician Wynton Marsalis performing “I Don’t Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You.” On the night of the performance Marsalis was performing masterfully. His trumpet was singing magnificently for everyone in attendance. The audience was mesmerized but what they were hearing. . . Until the unthinkable happened.
Right at the climax of the song, someone’s cell phone rang. It was a cacophony of electronic beeps and bleeps and it filled the room. Humiliated the person in question rose and headed for the back of the room to deal with the issue of their phone. I could not imagine that experience for that individual. If that happened to me, I would want to crawl under my seat and never. . . and I mean never. . . want to be seen again in public.
But Marsalis never missed a beat.
“Then he replayed the cell-phone ringtone, note for note. And he began to improvise on it, making variations on the tune. Slowly, the musical spell was cast again, and the audience returned to him. He changed the key, slowed the tempo. . . and then, incredibly, picked up exactly where he left off in the song. Without interruption, the audience would have heartily applauded the virtuoso performance. But thanks to the interruption and Marsalis’s graceful way of embracing it, the ovation was tremendous. He had head the obstacle with gracious ears and responded."
Life gets messy sometimes and we have to deal with it as evangelists. The people that we interact with derail and distract us. They say that they want to hear the message of Easter, but then when we attempt to share that message, the seem distracted.
I have been talking about God with someone only to realize that their eyes tell me that they stopped listening a long time ago. They are distracted. They are over-burdened—and that is not always their fault.
When these moments happen, and we know that they do, how we respond, and how we improvise, could be the difference between sharing the gospel message and alienating someone from it. We want them to experience God at work, but that sometimes seems like an impossibility given their distractions that sit with them.
I wonder what it would look like to share the gospel message in a manner similar to how Marsalis dealt with a distraction? Don’t run away from it. Don’t condemn them. Just keep sharing, keep playing, and trust God to handle the details. . .
Blessings
Rev. Derek
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