Jazz as the portal to spirituality

Yesterday, I went to a church service at St. John Coltrane in San Francisco. Only about fifteen people were attending the service and at least five of them were actually running the church. The preacher looked like Richard Pryor and was almost as funny. His sermon was genuine, simple and surprisingly deep. He spent two hours exploring a single scripture allowing for a multitude of fantastic tangents. Every sentence ended with "amen" inviting the audience to respond with "amen," "that's right" or "hallelujah." The gist of it was about the importance of keeping an open mind, an open heart, open eyes and open ears. He said we spend so much time asking for things from the Lord we don't always notice what he's delivering (because we didn't always request it.)

I was invited there by one of my co-workers and it was a friend of hers visiting from France who had suggested it. Ironically, he had seen the church perform in a jazz festival in France and wanted to see them here. Immediately following the sermon, a jazz ensemble from the audience formed: three saxophonists (including the preacher), a woman on bass, someone on keyboards, a drummer, and an electric guitar. Still others got up to sing "praise him, praise him, praise the Lord" over and over while the jazz music belted out all over the city. It was too loud for me in the tiny room so I stepped out and got to enjoy the reactions of those passing by.

Two bicyclists stopped, turned around and had a listen at the door. Several homeless people sloughing by stopped to listen - looking as though salvation was right around the corner. A car stopped at the red light and the cutest dog sat sniffing intently at the air in the direction of the church as if he could smell the music. It garnered a shared giggle between me and the driver. Inside, a new member was being blessed and another apparently regular customer whipped out a board and was tap dancing to the jazz (yes, he had tap shoes on).

Our French friend explained that John Coltrane's music, without any words, is so spiritual to those who love and appreciate it that he was fascinated by the idea of a church that used it as a portal to spirituality. We all enjoyed the service immensely and were both amused that the preacher used a microphone hooked up to a full sound system for this tiny crowd and amazed that the crowd was in fact, so tiny. If you're in San Francisco any time soon, a service is worth attending.