“Hospitality is gold in this City; you have to be clever to figure out how to be welcoming and defensive at the same time. When to love something and when to quit. If you don't know how, you can end up out of control or controlled by some outside thing like that hard case last winter.” (Toni Morrison, Jazz , 1992)
Luke 10:5-16
These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay. Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics or sandals or a staff, for the laborer deserves his food. And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart. As you enter the house, greet it. And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town. Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town. “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. (ESV)
Improvisation is one of the hallmarks of many live jazz performances. Can you hear the quartet now in your ear? They state the initial melody at the outset of the song together as one band, each member contributing a part of the whole. Then, all of a sudden, a soloist emerges to play her rendition of the melody. At times, it sounds uncontrolled and off key. The untrained or unenthused ear will mistake the soloist for a rogue bandmate. Yet, all the while, the s oloist is constrained by the key signature, the time signature, and the tempo. The accompanying bandmates simply adjust with the soloist to accommodate her phrasing. This is the same advice Jesus gives us as we go out and do solo work. We are to stay wherever we are received. In other words, we will find many bandmates along the way who will accommodate our style of delivery. However, we must be keenly aware of pairings that are not favorable and beneficial for us. If we aren’t careful, we will find ourselves being disingenuous to our nature. When we find ourselves being led by a pack of wolves, it is time to get back to the basics and be who God created us to be by playing the song God told us to play.
As the Negro spiritual states:
Guide my feet while I run this race,
Guide my feet while I run this race,
Guide my feet while I run this race,
For I don’t want to run this race in vain, race in vain.
© 2020, Housescholar Ministries
