What Color is Jesus?--A case study in jazz theology (postlude)
So what color does jazztheo think that Jesus is today? Well, "Lightskinned Negro" guessed this pretty early on...
Blue, I think that Jesus is Kind of Blue!
(If you are new to this blog you'll want to scroll down to the posts on Kind of Blue)
posted by jazztheo at 10/06/2005 09:45:00 PM
10 Comments:
My Cool Daddy,
WHAT?!?!?
I stayed up ALL NIGHT for THIS?!?!
I've been robbed!
ZZzzzz...
-lsn
P.S. But I like your answer. Good one.
JT,
Growing up in a nonsacramental, evangelical church I absorbed the notion that incarnation was something that happened for 33 years, about 2000 years ago. In this view we might speculate what color (or height, or personality type) he was then, or is now in heaven. But now he is with us only in spirit, without form or color.
Later I began hanging out in the sacramental tradition where Christ is present in bread and wine... and by implication, in the rest of our physical experience with the stuff of the world and with other people.
That was an important stop for me on the road to Matthew 25 and other scriptures which imply that Christ is present to us in our encounters with people "on the margins" ...the hungry, the stranger, the sick, the imprisoned. His presence in this way is a mystical presence, but it is very much wrapped up in their physical experience. His color is their color.
Your blog is another welcome stop on the road of following Jesus for me. Your jazz metaphor reminds me that Christ meets me "in the moment." His incarnation is constantly emerging and changing, like oil on water or a campfire flame... and so, all the more worth my fascination. But as Cone so powerfully pointed out, the place for me to look for hints of his color is among the crushed of the world.
I spent some time last summer with a gypsy girl from a Romanian orphanage; due to abuse and neglect she doesn't speak and spends most of her life rocking back and forth. In the moments I was with her, Jesus had black hair, brown eyes and sometimes a crooked, quirky smile.
"My Cool Daddy,"
Why'd you imprison me in quotation marks? There's no need. I am who I am and I'm proud of who I am.
Unshackled and
Black & Blue,
-lsn
What shade of blue?
hi jazztheo...
how would you reconcile the idea that Jesus is "kind of blue" in the jazz metaphor, and the idea that He is unchanging? the same yesterday, today and forever?
http://soulimperialist.blogspot.com/2005/09/coltrane-banjoko-rock.html
After reading the above post, I thought of you :-)
Scott,
The incarnate Christ in every moment. Or the potential of Jesus showing up in any moment.
That's sacramental living!
Wow, digital Jane makes a post!
I'm not sure that these concepts need to be reconciled because I don't think they are in conflict.
God's immutability refers to attributes such as love, mercy, omnipotence. These are good helpful classical theology categories. However we do see "change" for lack of a better word in Jesus. The incarnation, the transfiguration,...just compare the Christ of the manger and the Christ of Revelation 1 and there is "change." Jesus "changes" the way he heals blind people. When one seeks the Christ of Matthew 25, it seems that because the least of these are different in any geographical and historical context then some things must "change." (ie. eye color, skin, color, etc)
To say that Jesus is Kind of Blue is to recognize another unchangeable attribute of Jesus. That being His solidarity with those who seek to break from the dominant paradigm and those who "hunger and thirst for righteousness." With the "least of these."
jt
Angevoix,
Royal Blue. After all He is the King of kings!
lightskinned negro...I'm about ready to call the club bouncer. Then you'll be free!
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