Lecture: "Where are Your Roots?!” Biblical Ethics and Jazz (A Jazz-Talk from the Piano and a Bar Stool)

I spent this evening with three of my heroes, Jeff Greenman, Jenna Fabiano and Stuart Campbell - one President and two gifted pastors. The outcome of our time together was a lecture about biblical ethics and a fascinating discussion about intentional Christian community.

“"Where are Your Roots?!” Biblical Ethics and Jazz (A Jazz-Talk from the Piano and a Bar Stool)”

"'Where are your roots?!' jazz-master Mike Nock would shout to us as we played. My brother and I became jazz professionals while studying at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Our teacher would call this phrase out in the middle of a jazz performance, urging us to dig more deeply into the jazz tradition. We might liken the jazz tradition that runs deep within every good jazz performance to the ethical tradition that is expressed throughout the narrative arc of scripture in all of its variety. Biblical ethics, of course, reflects the loving and generous personhood of God. Our task is to discern the tradition, so to speak; the core ethical trajectories within the biblical story that also echo the loving character of God. Then we must ask: what fresh creativity is required of us today? What fresh and beautiful sounds and rhythms should the tradition birth in us? Let’s explore what can jazz teach the church about appropriating our scriptural tradition, with both creativity and also deep roots."