Living Theology in
the Metropolitan
Volume 9, Number 1
Spring 2004
The Vocation of the Laity
Andrew
Tecson
In
his congregation’s newsletter, Pr. Peter Marty of
For Christians, vocation arises out of
a response to a call from God to be a vessel of the Holy Spirit, allowing the
compassion and mercy of Christ to shine in a dark and troubled world. It follows that to be faithful in vocation,
one must listen for God’s call. One must
also be prepared for Christ to come charging into our lives with a new
opportunity for service at a time which we might consider inconvenient, or
downright implausible and impractical.
Our response to such a call will not always be carefully rehearsed. At times, the call may come in the midst of a
time of suffering or sorrow, and our response may force us to reach to the
bedrock of our faith.
Each of us has a way
of speaking about call and response.
Music—especially jazz—provides the metaphor I need. One of the essential elements of jazz is
that it involves improvisation. While
much jazz improvisation involves a “soloist,” the giants of jazz are always
listening and responding to each other.
Jesus describes the Holy Spirit as being like the wind; you can feel it,
but you neither see it nor know where is came from or
where it’s going. Similarly, both
creator and listener in a jazz improvisation are equally on an adventure of
feeling the joy or sorrow that is being expressed in the music, yet neither
knows where the next phrase will end, or what flashes of harmonic color may
emerge.
My personal faith journey has been
filled with the call and response of jazz and vocation. Virtually all of my composition projects for
the church are a response to a call expressed through the ideas and experiences
of friends and family.
I met Joel Marty, one of my close friends, in third
grade. We enjoyed activities at school,
on the cross-country teams, at church and in the community. Joel played baritone horn and I played tenor
sax in the school band. Joel’s mother,
Elsa, welcomed his friends in their home, and she gracefully found room to add
one more place setting to a crowded dining room table. When visiting with Joel’s family, his father
Martin would make it a point to put on one of his favorite jazz records. Martin’s collection ranged from Stan Getz and
Jobim to Bill Evans and Lenny Tristano.
During high school, a member of my family’s church, Ken Jandes, started giving me lessons in music theory and
composition at the American Conservatory of Music. One of Ken’s favorite composers was Charles
Ives. The career of Charles Ives was an
inspiration to Ken because Ives composed some of the most creative music in
history (e.g., “The Unanswered Question”) while he was, at the same time, a
successful businessman. Ken (at that
time a principal, now a superintendent) made it clear that a person can be
called to be active in many spheres of life, and that “avocation” might, in
fact, be part of “vocation.”
David Haas’ gospel hymn, “We Are Called,” boldly proclaims
that we are called to justice to and to serve.
This call to justice was evoked throughout my youth by the activism of
my parents, Joe and Caroline Tecson, in our church
and in politics and government. Between
them they served as elected officials at state, county and local levels of
government. Because of their example, one
of my callings was to contribute time and energy to efforts to help those most
vulnerable in our society. Although
music is deeply imbedded in my soul, the legal profession
held the promise of being able to comprehend, work with, and in some small fashion
improve our social and governmental institutions. Both music and law are components of my
vocation. I can best talk about that by
relating it to events and people.
When Elsa Marty was fighting cancer, the
Psalms were a source of comfort and strength to her and her family. During that struggle, her faith and spirit of
hope led to one of my first jazz compositions for the church, the “Grace
Phoenix.” The “Jazz Psalms,” first
celebrated on June 19, 1982 at
The Psalms are
filled with a pattern of call and response, which I have tried to
capture in their jazz setting. Psalm 42
tells the story of an individual (perhaps a cantor) who thinks back to leading the crowds into the temple, wild with joy. This section evokes a Dixieland jam on the
tune of “When the Saints Go Marching In.”
In another section, the Psalmist’s enemies revile him,
the full chorus taunting “Where is your God?” while a strident cacophony of
atonal instrumental improvisation builds to a cathartic climax. Yet throughout, the choir sings a steadfast
antiphon of faith, “Trust in God, I will praise Him still, my Savior and my
Lord.”
Community Care Options, a mental health agency, and Lutheran
Child and Family Services of Illinois have provided a call to use my legal
skill in supporting the extraordinary individuals who devote their lives to
providing counseling, foster care services, and adoption services. For the past twenty years I have served on
their boards. During this time our jazz
band has been privileged to participate in worship services, most of which were
dedicated to raising funds for those agencies and for Lutheran Social Services
of Illinois and Bridge Communities. We
collaborated with Paul Manz, Senator Paul Simon,
Bishop Paul Landahl, and Pastors Martin Marty, David
Abrahamson, Don Hallberg, Linda Lee Nelson, Jan
Erickson Pearson, Mark Bangert, Fred Aigner, Dean Lueking and others.
In
1985, Pastors David Abra-hamson, Jim Wind and Lee
Rosenthal met with me to discuss the possibility of a jazz mass. The word “liturgy” means “the work of the
people.” To sing the liturgy is to
intensify the participation of the people in the mystery of the Eucharist. Musically, the goal was to create something
simple enough for a congregation to sing, yet without losing the sense of
swing. Additionally, it was important to
respect and incorporate the tradition and text of the liturgy.
Out of those discussions came the “
For two decades, the master jazz musicians of our churchjazz ensemble have answered the call to sing God’s
praise with their skills: Bobby Lewis, Bobby Schiff, Jerry Coleman, John
Whitfield, and Ken Jandes. These artists have performed and recorded
thousands of times with jazz greats such as Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee and Tony
Bennett. They usually work late on
Saturday evenings, and Sunday morning comes all too quickly. Yet without fail, each has risen early and
attended the Sunday services. They have
gone out of their way to travel to many cities across the country for special
worship services. Bobby Lewis, in a
recent interview with Rick Kogan on WGN, said that
for four decades he has always felt called to bring his art into a worship
setting.
More recently, five of our jazz ensemble arranged fifteen
Christmas hymns for soloists, jazz band, and choir. The resulting music has been recorded as
“Holy Night,” a CD available at Churchjazz.com, a ministry of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church of St. Luke. This
project brought together our core group of master jazz musicians, my wife,
Nancy Hagen, my son, Luke Hagen Tecson, singer Joanie Pallatto, and Adolph Bud Herseth, principal trumpet for the Chicago Symphony.
Recently, another opportunity to serve presented itself in Soli Deo Gloria, a charitable
organization that promotes the composition and performance of sacred
music. Its principal mission is to
provide donors who desire to commission sacred music with the opportunity to
connect with the leading composers of symphonic and opera music of our
time. Although centuries ago the church
commissioned great composers (Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Handel, Haydn…)
to create extraordinary works to the glory of God, such commissions are rare
today, and the number of sacred compositions by the leading composers of our
time has diminished radically.
Jazz/law/church/social service – the specific
combination is not important. Each
person, whether lay or ordained, has the opportunity to listen continually for
God’s call. Each person will sense God’s
call in a different fashion, and respond in a different way. Like the great jazz improvisers, when we hear
God’s call we simply need to be prepared for surprising new endings, directions
different than we could possibly have imagined, and a continuous sense of
excitement and challenge as we celebrate Christ’s love and mercy in our lives.
SDG!
Andrew Tecson
Member,
Gloria Dei,