Isaiah 25:6-9
Last
night, in honor of Clark, I listened to Dave Brubeck. I thought about Jeanne
telling me about Clark’s awakening to jazz when he heard Blue Rondo a la Turk.
As I listened, I think I understood why jazz came together the way it did for
Clark. And especially why Clark was passionate about Dave Brubeck’s jazz.
Brubeck’s music, and jazz in
general, has an order and structure recognizable to the aficionado. It also has
a richness and depth that we hear in our reading from the Prophet Isaiah where
we are invited to a banquet of rich food and great wine. But, jazz, food, and
wine always leave room for improvisation. Right there, I believe, is how Clark
lived his life. Clark was a messenger for improvisational love.
Improvisation requires a deep
knowledge of what the composer intended. That knowledge allows the musician
freedom to improvise rhythms and tempos that echo the composer’s work, and to
add, enhance, and expand. The additions, enhancements, and expansions are not
there to make a better piece of music, but a piece of music that slowly unfolds
further and deeper and embeds itself in the heart of the listener.
Improvisation honors both the roots of the composer and the shoots of the
improviser.
You’ve heard members of
Clark’s family tell stories about him, and the common theme in those and all
the others I heard was Clark’s great gift at improvisation. Whether it was
digesting his father’s theology and making it more concise and accessible, or
praising his beloved mother-in-law for her care of their children, or
re-engineering something to be better or louder or more efficient, that was
Clark’s way in this world. A messenger for improvisation: A guy who couldn’t
resist tinkering with what he was handed. Clark was a partner with God in
making God’s dream for him come into being.
The Gospel reading we heard today
is Jesus’ improvisation on how we come to believe. We begin with the knowledge
that God never lets us go, even in those times when we are unsure of God’s very
existence. We can believe this because if everything God gives Jesus comes to
him, and no one is ever driven away, then all our life is a continual
improvisation on that theme. We may think we are moving farther or closer to
God, but we are always enfolded in that loving rhythm no matter where God’s
music takes us.
In marrying Jeanne and
finding himself with not only Jeanne but the gift of three children, Clark’s
improvisational skills gave him the wisdom and strength to be a father who
provided the underlying structure but also the ability to bring out the best in
each child in in the unique ways each was created. For Clark, that
improvisational skill extended to forgiveness as well. He knew some times it
takes longer to forgive than at other times, yet forgiveness was another tune
to improvise. After a wonderful wedding anniversary dinner, Clark wrote to Amy,
“…the point is we all have to forgive, and be forgiven. It’s part of living a
free life. I certainly have had to be forgiven many times, and I’m far better
off having been forgiven, than I would’ve been had those that forgave me
refused to do so.”
If you want to know to whom Clark
credited his strength and wisdom to lead his improvisational life, all you have
to do is read what he wrote to Jeanne as he proposed marriage. “I truly believe
we were meant to be together, that God is behind our union and will bless out
marriage.” The rest of what he wrote held both the underlying structure of what
he believed and also the brilliance of his tinkering skill to build an
improvisational relationship based on that core theme. Just like tracing his
roots in Enid, he always went back to the core theme to mine it for its
brilliance and power before he would improvise the rest.
None of us know what being
enfolded by God will be like for us when we depart this life, but I like to
imagine Clark like this. After he’s greeted into that great love that is God,
he’ll look up Dave Brubeck. And he’ll tell him he’s figured out a way to
re-engineer his instruments to sound even better as they accompany the angels
in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Do you want to honor God’s
wisdom and strength and improvise your life the way Thomas Clark Oden, Junior,
improvised his life? Go back to your roots, pleasant or unpleasant as they may
be. Be who you are. Honor what those roots have taught you. Improvise from
those roots, always remembering the core music of your roots. Tinker with your
life and figure out how to make it better. Be a good storyteller. Listen well
to someone else’s story. Light a candle in the darkness. Help raise a child. Be
someone’s structure when they need it. Be joyful when someone needs it. Spread
love lavishly. Ask for forgiveness. Forgive yourself. Forgive someone else.
Improvise! Improvise! Improvise! AMEN.
The Rev Nicolette Papanek
©2016
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