I recently went to San Francisco to hear the legendary jazz bassist Marcus Miller and other Miles Davis band alumni. I can’t think of any fancy words other than to say the show was so cool. The music was so good I found myself shouting “amen” at the end of each piece.
As I listened to the intricacies of each piece, I connected them to the elements of a sermon. I thought to myself, “Every sermon needs a dope bass line.” What would that look like, sound like, preach like?
Then you have the percussion and Mino, the percussionist, did not disappoint. The sounds he made were delicate and loud, subtle but always evident if you were listening. His beats were as essential as the bass line.
All this reminded me of a lecture the Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III gave at Virginia Theological Seminary. He said every preacher is a “homiletical DJ” and that we all need to expand our crates because every good DJ has a wide variety of music in theirs.
Moss suggested listening to a variety of music styles, reading different theologians and writers, even watching sports. However, I don’t recall him mentioning living.
Perhaps you would assume that if one is breathing, then one is, in fact, living. But that is not always the case.
After the concert, I recognized I am expanding my crate by living, by enjoying my life. In the past year, I have gone to the opera and the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater. I’ve seen shows on Broadway and attended a Ledisi concert.
I had never done any of these things before because I never had the financial means to enjoy them. Over the past two years, I’ve realized I haven’t truly lived until now.
Living, experiencing the full breadth of life, is essential to the preacher’s crate. One has to know more than survival, just as one has to know more than joy.
I have always struggled just to survive. All I have known is pain, trauma and scarcity. Yes, I’ve had moments of happiness, but they were fleeting. One can preach from this place, but it is limiting. I could only preach about joy coming in the “mourning” because that was all I knew.
But God! In these past two years, I have experienced love, the ocean, dolphins, otters, amazing performances, museums and Legos. Did I mention love?
In line with the elements Moss mentions, I have read extensively and I have always enjoyed music, but that is not what my crate was missing. My crate was missing joy—the joy of living.
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The Rev. Erika L. Jackson. is an Episcopal priest, writer, and public theologian whose ministry weaves together pastoral care, justice advocacy, and storytelling. She is the Rector of St. Francis Episcopal Church in San Jose, California.