Dissonant Chords

During the Festival of Homiletics, Otis Moss III gave a lecture titled "Preaching the Prophetic Blues in the Post-Modern World."  This is my brief reflection on his lecture.


"Blues is a motif to deal with life in a world that refuses to recognize tragedy." - Otis Moss III

"Blues looks tragedy in the face, and refuses to give in to despair." - Otis Moss III

These two sentences about the blues embrace the message of the Gospel.

In fact, if we were to switch blues with "The Gospel" we would have two equally important and powerful statements.

"The Gospel is a motif to deal with life in a world that refuses to recognize tragedy."
"The Gospel looks tragedy in the face, and refuses to give in to despair."

What incredibly powerful and liberating sentences.  The Gospel embraces the terribleness of the world and refuses to give in to it.

The Gospel refuses to let death have the final say, but the Gospel does not deny the reality of tragedy.  The Gospel is grounded in Good Friday and Holy Saturday in all things.  God embraces the pain of the cross, completely.

Jesus doesn't abandon the pain and suffering of the cross - even though he had the power to remove himself from the cross at any point.

Instead, Jesus opens himself up to the horror of the cross.

Jesus deals with life in a world that refuses to recognize tragedy.  Jesus looks tragedy in the face.

Jesus embraces the dissonance of the world - the pain, the suffering, the horror and shows us the terrible beauty of God that is still present in the midst of it all.

Isn't that why the blues are so effective?

They embrace the dissonance of the way the world is - in their very chords, and then have lyrics that continue to say "this is not the end."

Are we doing this?

Are we naming the pains and fears?  The sufferings?  Are we able to look them in the face and say, "You are not how the world is supposed to be."

Can we take these dissonant chords that we find in life and see that there is deep beauty in spite of, or perhaps because of, them?

Can we preach the blues?  Or perhaps, we should allow the blues to preach to us?