This past week Sirius XM had a preview promotion to entice people like me to sign up for the music service. I'm too cheap to pay for the music channels, but I absolutely love it when there is a free preview week. The two stations I listen to the most are Radio Margaritaville and the Grateful Dead channel. As I spent more time than usual driving my Dad's old Yukon listening to the music service, I was reminded how much I miss him at different seasons of the year. Last night, driving home with my oldest child, we listened to the Billy Joel channel and I found myself getting a little emotional thinking about riding with him when I was about her age listening to the Billy Joel Greatest Hits Volume 1 and 2 on cassette, that's right cassette. One of the songs we heard, Lullaby, was one of the songs I would sing to my girls when I rocked them to sleep. The road began to get blurry, so I changed the station.
Listening to some of the deep cuts and Parrothead favorites of ole Jimmy reminded me what an excellent storyteller he is. Aside from his ability to transport you to beaches, paradise, lazy breezes, and hammock naps in the shade of palm trees, Jimmy Buffett is one of the most gifted songwriters of the last 40 something years. (Yes, that's a reference to one of his famous tunes). He weaves a story together in such a simple yet profound way, that you get lulled into the island sway and often miss the insight into human nature and life that Jimmy serves up to all who listen. Like when we were teenagers and heard our parents tell us what to do and only half listened to what they said, we can miss the truth of Jimmy's songs.
The best sermons tell THE STORY in such a way that the listener is confronted with the truth of the gospel without feeling attacked and beat over the head. In telling THE STORY, the Jesus story, preachers tell other stories to point to the only one who gives our stories purpose and meaning. Have you ever noticed that most preachers can string a few thoughts together but very few can tell a story that point us to the JESUS story. Preachers, if you are reading this, do your congregation a favor and work on your storytelling. Read novels and short stories not just theology and church history. Listen to songwriters and musicians that are masterful storytellers like Jimmy Buffett, Billy Joel, James Taylor, Bob Dylan, and Bill Mallonee. Don't simply duplicate these storytellers, find your own voice in telling your stories, even as you tell the Jesus story to a world that desperately needs to hear the good news! Trust me, your congregation will thank you and Jimmy!
I know what your thinking, your a pastor and you listen to Jimmy Buffett and the Grateful Dead? Yes, I am and yes, I do. I'll admit that sometimes the Grateful Dead channel can get on my nerves slightly if I tune in during the middle of an extended jam and I can't readily recognize the song. The Dead are one of the most unlikely bands for someone in my vocation to listen to, but I have been listening to them for years, long before I entered into ministry. Like Buffett and some of the other songwriters listed above the songwriting duo of Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter and others that composes the Dead's catalogue are subtle reminders of basic human truths and even at times gospel truths in disguise. As interesting as the songwriting is for the Grateful Dead, the complex layers of instruments and the improvisational nature of their music makes the Dead another unlikely source of sermonic inspiration. They can elaborate on a theme for several minutes and still allow the listener to hear complex aspects of each note and chord much like a sermon that drills down into a single doctrinal truth and allows us to see it from different sides. Preacher, don't take the temptation to skip over a complex truth in exchange for felt need sermons that your people don't really care about anyway. Mine the truths of the Bible and the Christian faith, bringing them to the surface for your hearers to hear and see again or for the first time, but do it in such a way that each truth is explored in its entirety. Like the Dead's live performances, no song sounded exactly the same way twice. So to, as you preach on doctrinal truths and exegete the scriptures faithfully your sermons may hit on the same doctrine or truth at different times, but it will be received differently each time, in part because of the status of the heart and mind of your listeners.
Like the Dead, don't be afraid to improvise in your sermons. The Grateful Dead masterfully explored the nether reaches of musicality because they weren't afraid to go off in a given direction as a band as longs as they came back to the steady rhythm of the song that helped guide them to the conclusion. Structure your sermon well, but build in room for improvisation, for exploration, for the Holy Spirit even in the midst of the structure.
I don't always quote from Jimmy Buffett or Jerry Garcia and friends in my sermons (though I have on occasion) but their music has shaped my preaching and teaching, I believe for the better...so I'll keep tuning in to the free previews as long as they are available.
