When I listen to jazz I often feel like the notes being played are the notes between the notes.
Jazz seems to be about the in-between spaces rather than what already exists.
There’s a playfulness, an exploration happening and from that new melodies are created in a way that defies logic, well-trusted structure and predictability.
On this Pentecost Sunday It reminds me of the Spirit. The Spirit moves in the in-between places looking for new possibilities that counter well established mores and rules. Out of those spaces, new things are given a platform and expression.
What comes to the light can be exhilarating but it can also be disruptive.
Here is a prayer to the Spirit on Pentecost Sunday;
Spirit come and play in the in-between spaces that we so often avoid, ignore and marginalise because of the distraction, noise and ego in our world.
Create something new as we allow you into the crevasses of our lives and neighbourhoods where possibilities lie hidden yet are manifold.
Help us to crave disruption as unnatural as that is for us, so that we avoid addiction to the status quo. Challenge those parts in us and our world that have become so calcified that we have forgotten how to thirst for water and instead have become accustomed to drought.
Give us a spirit of adventure so that we too will become explorers of the in-between spaces. Soothe our queasy stomachs that grow anxious when change looms close by. Instead, grant us your resolve that we might be witnesses to beauty such as we have never seen before in our world.
Come play, Spirit.