Secret of the Blues
Excerpt from Mark 16:1-8
"Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?" (Good News Bible)
Reflection by William C. Green
The secret of the blues is strength in the middle of trouble. It brings to mind what Reinhold Niebuhr meant by "creative despair."
Listen, for example, to B.B. King, Muddy Waters, and Nina Simone. Amid dejection and lyrics like "can't do nothin'," or "love lies dead," there's something else: an unyielding defiance of those very feelings, disdain for whatever stirs them up. "Mississippi Goddam!" sang Simone.
The three women who wanted to anoint Jesus knew the stone to the tomb was in their way as surely as death stood in the way of the love of their lives. Stones—and death: "God---!" It turned out that the stone had somehow been rolled back and they were told they would see Jesus again. But, as happens to us, too, the first happiness of faith is subsequently interrupted by apparently insuperable obstacles. Some stones don't easily go away.
The songs of enduring faith are not only "gospel songs" of happiness. They include the blues at their best. Not just mournful and melancholy, but defiantly strong, making clear that I may be down but I'm not out.
Whatever stands between us and our strength in God cannot silence our faith. One way or another, that's what we can sing about. That's the spirit of Jesus himself who, facing the worst, outlasted it and lives among us in the spirit of God.
Prayer
May the obstacles in my way—the stones in my life—inspire greater faith, realistic and undeterred. Amen.
Excerpt from Mark 16:1-8
"Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?" (Good News Bible)
Reflection by William C. Green
The secret of the blues is strength in the middle of trouble. It brings to mind what Reinhold Niebuhr meant by "creative despair."
Listen, for example, to B.B. King, Muddy Waters, and Nina Simone. Amid dejection and lyrics like "can't do nothin'," or "love lies dead," there's something else: an unyielding defiance of those very feelings, disdain for whatever stirs them up. "Mississippi Goddam!" sang Simone.
The three women who wanted to anoint Jesus knew the stone to the tomb was in their way as surely as death stood in the way of the love of their lives. Stones—and death: "God---!" It turned out that the stone had somehow been rolled back and they were told they would see Jesus again. But, as happens to us, too, the first happiness of faith is subsequently interrupted by apparently insuperable obstacles. Some stones don't easily go away.
The songs of enduring faith are not only "gospel songs" of happiness. They include the blues at their best. Not just mournful and melancholy, but defiantly strong, making clear that I may be down but I'm not out.
Whatever stands between us and our strength in God cannot silence our faith. One way or another, that's what we can sing about. That's the spirit of Jesus himself who, facing the worst, outlasted it and lives among us in the spirit of God.
Prayer
May the obstacles in my way—the stones in my life—inspire greater faith, realistic and undeterred. Amen.
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