“SINGIN’ THE BLUES”

 

 

A post-homiletical discourse delivered by the Rev. Dr. James R. Beebe

Rector, St. Patrick’s Church, Incline Village, Nevada, November 29, 2009

 

 

“But the woman rocks the cradle, I declare she rules the home…

But a man rockin’ other men’s babies, an’ the fool think he rockin’ his own….”

 

 

     That’s from a little ditty called, “The Crawlin’ Baby Blues,” a song which probably derived from something written by Blind Lemon Jefferson around 1929.  And, as the name implies, it’s from the old genre called, “The Blues.”  Legend has it that the blues go back to someone called “the griot,” a sort of West African wandering minstrel who, carrying an instrument that looked somewhat like a modern-day banjo, traveled from village to village, playing songs, telling stories, and giving advice.

 

     The Bantu, Wolof, Fula, Ewe, Akan, Mandingo, and Yoruba tribes all maintained the griot tradition.  So it isn’t surprising that when over 10 million Africans were sold into slavery and taken to the Americas, that the griot tradition came right along, too.  But the mood had changed.  Gone were the holy remedies.  Now, the griot sang about being chained below decks for months at a time.  About homes they’d never see again.  About the ignominy of the auction block and about the pain of families separated for life.  About backbreaking labor and jail and booze and hopelessness.  In other words, they sang about intractable problems – problems that wouldn’t go away.

 

     Jesus sang the blues, too.  Listen:  “You’ll know that the end is near when armies have you surrounded.  Woe to you who are pregnant and nursing.  Woe to the residents – you’ll be cut down by the sword or led away as captives….And there’ll be disruptions in the sun and moon and stars….You’ll be faint with fear about what’s going to happen to you….”  He sang the blues because the problems that we would run into would be intractable.  It would be the end.

 

     But wait!  Listen to the last stanza:  “And then you’ll see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.  So when these things begin to take place, LOOK UP and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

 

     Sooner or later, we all run into intractable problems.  Our world has fallen apart and there seems no way it can be fixed.  We’ve reached the end.  [C.R. Snyder, The Psychology of Hope]  Take Barry, for instance.  He’s singing “The-Nobody-Don’t-Love-Me-No-More-So-I’m-Outta-Here-Blues.”  Barry’s the 14-year-old 8^th grader who was expelled from school for fighting and threatening other students.  He is awaiting sentencing on a count of aggravated assault.  He also has a pending shoplifting case.

 

     Wandering the streets one night, Barry is approached by policemen in a squad car.  They ask him some questions, but all he can do is give them a mocking sneer.  When they deliver him to his home in a middle-class neighborhood, his mother answers the doorbell.  “Not again,” she says.  “What now?”

 

“We’ve tried everything with him,” his father joins in.  “Why don’t you just take him?”

 

“Can’t do that, sir,” says the officer, “because he’s your responsibility.”  After the police leave, the father threatens to discipline Barry.  The rest of the family, including a 12-year-old sister and a 10-year-old brother, all begin to shout.  They’ve heard all this before.  But everyone knows that no family rules are consistently applied – chaos is the norm.  And when things get especially bad, no one supports anyone else.  “I’m leaving,” says Barry.

 

“Go ahead,” says Barry’s younger brother.  So Barry walks out the door into the night.  He has no idea where he’s going.  The tears roll down his face, unseen in the darkness.  He’s singin’ “The-Nobody-Don’t-Love-Me-No-More-So-I’m-Outta-Here-Blues.”  Well…

 

…Look up, Barry.  Raise your head, because your redemption is drawing near….

 

     David is also singin’ the blues – “The-She-Done-Left-Me-An’-It’s-All-Over-With-Blues.”  David is a salesman who has worked the road for years.  And all that time on the road leaves him yearning to go home again to his doting wife, Katy.  She is 52 and they have two grown children.  They’ve looked forward to this stage in their lives when they can devote all of their attention to each other.  One day, a truck broadsides Katy’s car and, by the time David gets to the hospital, Katy has died from massive head injuries.  He sobs uncontrollably and his grieving…well, his grieving continues to this very day.

 

 

 

     David is lost without Katy.  He thinks about her constantly.  He still can’t imagine life without her.  He describes the unfairness of the accident and his grief as if it had happened yesterday.  In fact, it has been 21 years since Katy died and David is now a 73-year-old man, frozen in his time capsule of remorse.  Asked about his future, David says that he has none.  He thinks that he died with his wife….  He’s singin’ “The-She-Done-Left-Me-An’-It’s-All-Over-With-Blues.”  Well…

 

…Look up, David.  Raise your head, because your redemption is drawing near….

 

     There’s one more voice in the choir.  It’s Mrs. Brandt.  She’s 92-years-old and singin’ “The-Nobody’s-Got-No-Use-For-Me-An’-I’m-Just-a-Heavy-Load-Blues.”   You see, Mrs. Brandt has outlived all her friends.  In fact, she’s outlived three of her four children.  She did the spend-down routine with Medicaid and is now living in a nursing home.  She has no financial legacy for her remaining 70-year-old “child” or any of her 12 grandchildren.

 

     To add to her misery, she’s nearly blind, so she’s can’t do what she’s always loved to do – read.  She used to be very active in the women’s civic club and her church, but she can’t get around much anymore and no one seems interested in visiting her.  She feels trapped and isolated and longs to die.  She sees herself as useless and a burden to society.  It’s especially galling to her that she is incontinent and has to rely on nurses to clean her up.  She’s singin’ “The-Nobody’s-Got-No-Use-For-Me-An’-I’m-Just-a-Heavy-Load-Blues.”  Well…

 

…Look up, Mrs. Brandt.  Raise your head, because your redemption is drawing near….”

 

     It’s a fact:  there are dead ends in life – times when there just are no good answers or solutions.  Problems may be intractable.  No resources.  No future.  No money.  No prospects.  No hope.  So we sing the blues.  But it is just at this moment that we become capable of understanding that it is by grace that we are saved.  And it is this that is our hope.  Even at the end….

 

     Jesus told his disciples:  “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth distress of nations in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world; for the power of the heavens will be shaken…

 

…And you’ll be singin’ the “Last-Day-Sea-Roarin’-Fear-Faintin’-All-Shook-Up-Blues.”  Well…

 

…Look up.  Raise your head, because your redemption is drawing near….”