the practice of improvisation: accepting and blocking offers 1 Samuel 3:1-20

Transcription

1 W OODBROO K B A P T I S T C H U R C H 25 Stevenson Lane Baltimore, MD Every member a minister. the practice of improvisation: accepting and blocking offers 1 Samuel 3:1-20 an excerpt of the preaching experience at Woodbrook Baptist Church Sunday, January 15, 2012 a contribution to the conversation by the Rev. Dr. John Ballenger We continue thinking in our worship about the insights and lessons that the practice of improvisational theater and the practice of improvisational actors might offer us as followers of God in the way of Jesus. And we consider today the alternatives of accepting or blocking offers. And right off the bat I have to disabuse you of what is probably (and understandably) the first impression many of us here today have of blocking. Because these days today, here in Baltimore, blocking is all about those big guys up front who create a path for the runner to make forward progress. Blocking enables it facilitates forward momentum. Blockers are those who deal with what would interfere rather than those who themselves interfere. So you need to get all that out of your head for now. Think about football after church pretty much right after church, but not now! Because right now weʼre thinking about the stage, not the field. And in improvisational theater, an offerʼs an initiative one actor offers another or others an introduction, an idea, an action, a possibility a reality. Accepting an offer means the other actor or actors go with that initiative that offer.

2 According to David Alger, director of San Franciscoʼs Pan Theater, an improv theater and school, the first and second rules of improv (he offers twenty rules twenty rules of improv) ( ml the first and second rules of which can be summed up as, yes, and... You accept whatʼs offered (you say, Yes ), and then you build on it. You add to it. You say, Yes, and... So blocking, or denying an offer, is refusing to go with it. Itʼs an initiative offered and rejected, the possibility not taken, the road not chosen, the reality not pursued. Blocking is someone with an idea fixed in their head, and because they have their idea fixed in their head, they reject anyone elseʼs idea, and the scene, for such an actor, turns into a competitive struggle for whose idea will prevail who will dominate. Now it might well be that thereʼs some, or even a lot of humor in such rejection in such blocking. There might be some, or even a lot of appeal to such a development, but itʼs not humor or appeal conducive to the scene. The laughter comes at the expense of someone whoʼs supposed to be a partner. So itʼs short-sighted humor. Itʼs the appeal of immediate gratification. And you may get those immediate laughs, but then you have nowhere to go, and no one wanting to go with you anywhere anyway. Sounds a lot like Washington, DC, doesnʼt it?, where the rule seems to be block anything and everything thatʼs not your idea thatʼs not in locked, goose-step to your idea. But blockingʼs a big no no in improvisational theater. In fact, the third rule of improv is just donʼt do it donʼt block. Biblical scholars that you are, youʼre probably all thinking of Romans 14:13, arenʼt you? Where that master improviser Paul wrote his own version of the third rule of improv: Let us therefore no longer pass judgment on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of another.

3 As biblical scholars who are theologians as well, youʼve also no doubt made the connection with the first stories of our faith the genesis of our narrative in which Godʼs initiative Godʼs offer was extended to us but, in the unfolding of our primal narrative, was subsequently blocked. Humankind, in the exercise of free will, blocks Godʼs offer. Just donʼt do that. Rule # 3. You see, Paul knew, as does every good improvisational actor, you really cannot afford to stop the flow of relationship and dialogue and action. Because if you do, then nothing develops. Nothing flows. And your top priority your only priority, really, is maintaining the flow keeping the action going the story. Thatʼs your goal. Thatʼs your hope. Thatʼs your job. In improvisational theater, if someone says something, you go with it, and you go with it enthusiastically. What do we do with this? How do we develop this? What can I add to this? A lot of the practice of improvisation actually consists of playing various games. One of these games involves asking one actor to speak about something he or she is passionate about, but the other actor or actors are all instructed not to respond to return no emotional energy. they are to remain neutral offer the occasional nod, a non-committal Uh huh. You know, the basic, Iʼm sorta listening to what I donʼt really care about. And what becomes a monologue will begin to drag on the actor begin to feel heavy as the weight of carrying the momentum of the scene rests squarely on the one whoʼs speaking. Thatʼs hard to keep going. This game is then turned on its head when the reactive actors (who have been pretty much non-reactive) are all told to respond enthusiastically to the one speaking. And it doesnʼt take long to feel the growing energy of Yes, and... the growing energy of acceptance and advancement of a monologue that becomes dialogue as ideas are built upon and developed. And youʼre not just dealing with growing energy, but synergy.

4 Such good practice. Because we donʼt always get the option of blocking so much of what life sends our way, do we? We get the diagnosis. Weʼre told what the decision was. These are the circumstances. This is the reality of our living. Yes, and... Yes, and how do we keep going? Yes, and how do we bring ourselves to what life throws us and participate in a synergy of positive possibility? Weʼve noted before, do you remember?, that verse from Romans that oft misapplied verse from Romans Romans 8:28 actually reads: thereʼs a synergy for good within the experience of those that love God. So it is that we, biblical scholars and theologians, come to our text for today thinking already of the consistent initiative of God remembering how Godʼs initiative was blocked in one of the fundamental, primal stories of our faith. Now this text begins with the statement that the word of God was rare in those days. If we read the preceding chapter, we know that those who were to represent God (the priests, Eliʼs sons) had not done so had not represented God, but their own desires and greeds. So God was again, blocked. And Eliʼs own eyesight had begun to grow dim so he could not see. Visions were not widespread. Thatʼs where we start this morning. Thatʼs the reality with which we start this morning. But we believe in the persistent offer God extends, and God called out to Samuel, Samuel! Samuel! And we have the boy, Samuel accepting Godʼs offer waking up to possibility. Here I am! Now Samuel did run to Eli, thinking it was Eli calling, but thatʼs not a block. Samuel doesnʼt reject the late night offer. He just misidentifies it.

5 Eliʼs response is though a block. I did not call; lie down again. Itʼs nothing. Go back to sleep. It happens again the same exact way. Godʼs initiative Godʼs offer. Samuelʼs acceptance. Eliʼs block. The third time though God still offering, Samuel still accepting, Eli accepts too. He perceives that itʼs God calling. Samuel didnʼt know to identify God. Eli did, but had gotten used to not seeing and not hearing. To his credit, as soon as he perceives God, he identifies God for Samuel. Go back. Lie back down; and if God calls you again, you shall say, ʻSpeak, Lord, for your servant is listening.ʼ And then, as we keep reading, something fascinating happens! Because God has some pretty harsh words for old Eli. God takes the behavior of his sons so seriously and personally. And what happens? Did you see it? Samuel blocks, right? Doesnʼt want to tell Eli Godʼs word. And now Eliʼs the one who accepts Godʼs offer. So within our practice of Scripture our practice of learning not to block, we learn that we do block. We learn that no oneʼs exempt that in our Scripture text two prophets of God both block the word of God! Both the one rejected (Eli) and the one anointed (Samuel). The third rule of improv may be donʼt block, but, as a rule of life, we do. Everyone does even Godʼs chosen. Thatʼs another aspect of the reality with which we start this morning and every morning. Which brings us to the big question of the day shouldnʼt we? block.

6 I mean, donʼt block anything? Donʼt get in the way of anything? Really? Surely not. Thatʼs not it. That canʼt be it. Clearly there are things lots of things in our experience weʼre to say No to not Yes, and... Iʼm sure you, like I, have received lots of offers it was appropriate, necessary, healthy to completely shut down. Hereʼs the thing: you have to pick what it is you want to not get in the way of. You have to decide what story unfolding you donʼt want to impede. You have to identify your priority and then get out of its way. And that may well mean you do get in the way of another story. You do impede other priorities. Susie and I love the deep imaginative play of our girls. Theyʼll get to going and the living room is transformed into a class room and dolls and stuffed animals become students, or the front porch becomes a familyʼs house each imaginative offer accepted taking them deeper and deeper into another world. A while ago, we were amused overhearing them out on the front porch playing with a neighbor. The three of them were all members of a family. Sydney and Callie, the older sister and the mom. Audra was, apparently, at times, assigned the role of the baby, and, at times, that of the family dog both characters, Iʼm sure you notice, relegating her to pretty much non-activity. She was blocked from full participation... which didnʼt sit well with her. She had a dream, you see, of being fully included of being recognized as a contributing member of the family valued and honored as much as anyone else, and so in the unfolding of their story, she kept throwing curves into the imaginative play. Weʼd overhear her, to Sydneyʼs growing exasperation, making these dramatic offers: Letʼs pretend our mom is sick. Letʼs pretend one sister died. Completely changing the tenor of the game the direction of the focus claiming a power that had been denied her. Sydney wanted to block.

7 Audra kept offering. And they surfaced out of deep imagination into sibling bickering. You have to pick what it is you want to not get in the way of, and thus what you will get in the way of. You have to decide what story unfolding you donʼt want to impede, and thus which ones you will impede. You have to identify your priority and then get out of its way and into the way of other priorities blocking them. And if you identify the God story as the story you want to see unfold, then you block whatʼs not the God story. Clarence Jordan, great Baptist that he was, observed living as he did in the Bible Belt down on Koinonia Farms in Georgia, an interracial, Christian farming community he and his wife founded with another couple in As you might imagine, it was the target of much local ire and even violence in the fifties and early sixties. In that environment, Jordan observed how many parents raised their children in the church how many parents raised their children in the language and practices of the faith how many parents wanted their children involved in youth group involved in choir and worship how many parents wanted their children to walk the aisle how many parents wanted their children to be baptized, but when their children began to live into the implications of our faith began to live into the implications of justice and equality began to live into the implications of a radical concern for the poor, and the outcast the excluded, the widows, orphans and aliens how many of those parents then wanted their children to, in effect, say no to God, by saying no to what God wants and expects, even while still saying yes to church and worship and Sunday School. So itʼs really not so much donʼt ever block. Sometimes itʼs important sometimes itʼs vital to block. Itʼs donʼt block without knowing what youʼre doing. In fact, Paul, that great improviser, early composer of rule # 3 of improv, also wrote, you know whatʼs coming, donʼt you? also wrote in his first epistle to the Corinthians wrote of Jesus as what? a stumbling block (1 Corinthians 1:23)! For the message about the cross is foolishness

8 to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart. Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For Godʼs foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and Godʼs weakness is stronger than human strength. Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God (1 Corinthians 1:17-31, excerpts). So maybe weʼre back to that image of blocking with which we want to leave here to go to our TVs Jesus throwing down blocks on all that would get in our way as long as weʼre running in the way of God. And that means throwing down blocks at wisdom and strength and power as interpreted by the world. That means running in the face of the priorities of the world, and thatʼs kind of scary And itʼs the scared improviser who just says, No (remember Samuel was scared when he blocked God). Itʼs the scared improviser who shuts down the story suppresses the possibilities. Because itʼs about control, or, at least the perception of control. When weʼre nervous, when weʼre defensive, when weʼre feeling out of control which is what? usually, right? We want to impose control on the story. We want to make sure we make it turn out right.

9 We may have the best of intentions, but the deeper question then becomes: what do you trust? Ultimately, what do you trust? Do you trust your control of whatʼs to come? Do your trust your skill your skill at manipulating events and people to make them do what you want? Do you trust your knowledge and training? Do you trust your wisdom to know whatʼs best? Or do you trust the unfolding story and the God we believe is a part of that unfolding? Do you give up to it? Give yourself up to it? Let go and let it go? Do you trust the relationships and what will develop in their synergy? The truth of the matter is that most often I trust me more than I trust God. Thereʼs good reason for that. Godʼs more invested in the God story than in me... unless Godʼs investment in the God story is also Godʼs investment in me. But I know how the God story can turn out not so good for the me story... unless the God storyʼs more important to me than the me story... unless I want the God story to be the me story. What a me story that would be. What a mystery that is! Our text concludes with the affirmation that as Samuel grew up, the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. None of his words were blocked. And everyone knew that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of God. And the word of the Lord was not rare anymore. It never had been, had it? we believe. Just blocked. Which left the story Godʼs story unable to develop. But God persists. And God will prevail. This we believe. Thatʼs the story we believe. Donʼt we? Then embrace rule # 3: get out of its way.