John: It's wonderful having Willie Sordillo, his trio and, the amazing Zoe! It's great, as well, to have our own Mark Annati on drums. It was an inspiration to have them with us in worship a year ago, and it is equally inspirational to have them here today.

Trumpeter Miles Davis dominated the jazz scene in the 20th century. He had the coolest trumpet. Sad to say, I only heard Miles Davis live one time. It was at a Boston Globe Jazz Festival in the 1970's. Unfortunately for me, he was in his fusion period, combining jazz, rock and pop music. It was not pleasing to my ear, and my friend and I were disappointed until out came the incomparable Sarah Vaughan, and everything was wonderful.

Mile Davis was an innovative musician. With his sextet, he recorded one of the masterpieces of all time, and it had some new approaches. The album is "Kind of Blue," and was recorded in the spring of 1959. It's one of the all-time best sellers of jazz music. I play it when I need a boost in morale, and Quincy Jones plays it every day. He says it's like his orange juice.

The album, for me, is very spiritual. Not that Miles Davis was religious. He grew up in East St. Louis, and stopped going to church, when he discovered that all the churches in East St. Louis were segregated.

The first piece on that album is "So What." It is so Miles Davis. It was one of his favorite expressions. It was his way of cutting through pretensions and hyperbole.

 Willie could we have a little "So What," to get us started? Listen for the two beat "So What?"

Jesus of Nazareth was also very effective cutting through pretension and hyperbole. Jesus showed some "so what" in his ministry. Matthew 6 alms giving; praying. There's even a little "so what" in today's scripture reading from the Gospel of Luke. The disciples ask Jesus; "increase our faith." Jesus doesn't say "so what," but he makes it quite clear that faith is not something you measure: faith as small as a mustard seed can do amazing things. And, then, Jesus teaches his disciples how to think and behave faithfully. Faith is about loving God, living well, and being kind.

There's one more thing we can learn from "Kind of Blue." Miles Davis's put together a group of jazz all stars. They became a community that cared about each other, and that spurred each other to excellence.

Miles called his band members to the recording studio on short notice. The musicians had no idea what they were to record; Miles didn't have much written down to give the musicians. Not much more than a few Post-it type notes. Once the musicians were assembled, Davis gave brief instructions for each piece, and then set to recording and the emphasis was on spontaneity and improvisation.

Segue to Anna on improvisation and community. Willie demonstrates improvisation, and community in music.

Anna: I love what you're saying here, John, about how Miles Davis put together his band, and how the band really make the music come alive together.

You know, it reminds me of the time when I played piano for my High School Jazz Band. There were no Miles Davis's there, I can assure you. But I certainly learned something about making music together.

I didn't have much experience playing in bands before then. But I had taken some years of piano lessons and so when the girl who used to play the piano for the jazz band - and play it very well - when she had graduated - they asked me to play. The pickins' were slim so they picked me.

I remember the first piece our band leader gave us was Birdland by the Weather Report. Can we hear some of that Willlie? It's a great upbeat tune, and I spent some time practicing it to get it just right before our first rehearsal.

But when I showed up at that first practice and joined the group of about 10 trumpeters and 5 saxophone players, and flutes and drums, and all the rest - I quickly realized that I couldn't hear the piano at all above the din of all that brass! At first I was disappointed, but then as time went on it was sort of liberating. I could just pound away on the piano and whether or not I was playing all the right notes it never seemed to make a difference. But boy I felt cool sitting there doing it!

But unfortunately, thinking that no one could hear me made me a lazy band member. So when we go our next piece of music, The Girl from Ipanema - can you play that Willie? You can hear it's a decidedly quieter tune. So when we got GIrl from Ipanema, I showed up at practice having barely glanced at the music, ready to just pound away as I'd been doing the past few weeks. But this time when the band teacher raised his baton and we all launched into the tune, it became quickly apparent that I was killing it. And not the cool kind of killing it! But actually killing the music.

"Stop!" the teacher yelled. And then proceeded to give me a tongue lashing.

Let's just say I never came to practice unprepared again....

It can be the same here at church. In community we make each other stronger. We can cover our weaknesses. We can hit some sour notes and make mistakes. And plenty of times you can just come and enjoy the ride - bang away to at the tune and have some fun! But never forget that you matter. That each person in this community matters, and that your contributions here - every note of them - are important to the music we play together.

Segue to John. Letter to the Hebrews.

 Miles Davis was a leader who provoked the members of his sextet to perform better. He had hired and fired and hired again his tenor saxophone player, John Coltrane. He coached him actively. Cannonball Adderley was an alto saxophone player who played the blues. Miles Davis provoked him to color his solos with his joyous spirit.

The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews aimed at pumping up Christians, encouraging them not to lose heart in tough times; and provoking them to love one another. Hebrews 10:25 reads: "And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another ....

At United Church, we are all about searching for the meaning of life, and much of what we do is in community. Love God, live well and be kind!

Segue to Anna for close

Anna: Absolutely. Our band makes us better! I always like to say, "you can't be a Christian alone." One of the tenets of Christian life is practicing our faith in community - whether that community is as rigid as a monastery or as relaxed as a monthly bible study or pop-up dinner church. As Christians we believe our band makes us better - that we are better at improvising and taking what life throws at us when we have a community around us to support us, challenge us, and help to make up for our flaws!

Here are United Church in Walpole, we are a community that cares for one another, roots for one another, and dream together. Your music here matters.

And now as a community of music-makers, let's join in singing Amazing Grace!

Willie plays Amazing Grace.

"Finding Our Place in the Son"

When I was living in New York, I would walk by homeless people every day. Sometimes they were people we knew or recognized, like the woman who slept under the scaffolding of the seminary where we lived.

But mostly they were people we did not know - nameless faces and bodies hunched over or curled up sleeping on cardboard pallets. People fighting demons and addictions and life stories that had knocked the wind out of them - leaving their shoulders bent and shrouded with too many layers of warm clothing, even in the summer heat - like they were building up an extra layer of insulation against the coldness of the world.

And every day as I would walk by these homeless people, I never felt like I knew what to do. Or how to act. Nothing ever felt good.

But there were other times when I would just walk by. Just walk on by and not say or do anything - because I was in a rush, or on the phone, or checking Facebook, or the baby was fussing in her stroller. And to be honest, to make a completely honest confession of my sin to you: it was the times when I was so absorbed in myself and hardly noticed the bent over person lying on the ground right beside me that I felt the least bad. It was easier for me not to see them.

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I have a feeling that the bent-over woman who came to see Jesus teaching in the Synagogue that Luke tells us about in our gospel text - I have a feeling that she was also someone that folks were more comfortable ignoring.

The scripture tells us that Jesus had already begun teaching in the synagogue when this unnamed woman appears. Maybe it was her custom to arrive late. Avoid the meeting and greeting with neighbors. Perhaps she preferred to go unnoticed, to shuffle along the wall until she found her usual place in the back.

Unlike so many of the healing stories in the gospels, this woman does not approach Jesus for healing. She doesn’t have a relative or family member beg Jesus on her behalf. She may have heard about this powerful healer and thought she just might come to check him out, but she would have also been observing the Sabbath along with everyone else. And she probably assumed that no work of healings would be done. The leaders of the synagogue certainly made it clear that that was their expectation.

But maybe there were other reasons this woman didn’t ask for help from the healer. Maybe she felt that after 18 years this was just the way life was going to be. Maybe going 18 years so bent over you can’t even look someone in the eye does something to you. Makes you think you might have more in common with the dirt on the ground than with the people around you. Makes you think you’re unworthy.

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Or at least that’s what the spirit that’s crippling her would want her to think.

Jesus identifies the spirit as Satan. He tells the Synagogue leaders criticizing him for the healing that it isn’t old age, or scoliosis, or any number of ailments that have left this woman bent over for so long. But it’s Satan himself.

And it makes sense really, if we look at who or what Satan is. Before Satan was interpreted as a demonic being, Satan was not a person really but a way of being - or a role. In the Hebrew of the Old Testament ha-satan meant literally The Accuser. To be The Satan was like being the prosecutor in a courtroom, charged with bringing accusations against people so that God’s justice may be served.

And, to keep our courtroom analogy going - if Satan is the Prosecutor, trying to nail us down for our sins, then Jesus is the great Defender, setting us free from those past transgressions.

So what was this woman’s sin? What kept this woman bound and bent?

The Scripture doesn’t say. All we see is the result of 18 years of constant and persistent accusation. Accusations that have long surpassed whatever sins this woman may have committed. Accusations that have kept her bent over with shame.

And shame - shame is the life-sentence that Satan wants to bind us in.

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Dr. Brene Brown who researches shame tell us that: “Shame is the intensely painful feeling or experience of believing that we are flawed and therefore unworthy of love and belonging.”

Guilt is the feeling that you did something wrong, but shame is the feeling that you ARE something wrong. And feelings like that are truly crippling. It’s painful to experience. And it’s painful to watch.

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One hot summer day in the city last year, when I was pregnant with Vivian, and Andrew and I were meeting up-town for a birth class, Andrew came up to me and told me that on the way to the class he had seen something horrible. He was jittery and seemed really rattled.

Apparently there was a homeless man on one of the side streets he was taking who - perhaps because of illness, or substance abuse, or because he was older and couldn’t get to a public bathroom in time - he had soiled himself and was frantically attempting to clean himself up, crouching there for cover between two parked cars.

And it wasn’t the physical mess that was so jarring. It was that moment when this man who so desperately was trying not to be seen, it was that moment when this man looked up and saw Andrew. And their eyes met in the heat of the evening. And in that moment Andrew saw this man experience an overwhelming shame.

And that shame, my friends, that shame is hard to see. We don’t want to see it. We avoid it at all cost.

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Because seeing someone else’s shame brings up all our own feelings of shame. We all know too well what it feels like to be convicted by Satan’s accusations of unworthiness. To be given a life sentence with a shame story that we keep bottled up - praying it will never see the light of day.

I think that may be the real reason that seeing another person’s shame is just so painful for us. Because we all have shame. We all have feelings that we are not worthy, that we’ve done something so wrong or so disgusting that no one can possibly love us.

And then we hide those feelings and those stories away. And we pray that we won’t be reminded that they’re there.

And when someone or something DOES remind us?

We run away. We look away. We try our best to pretend they aren’t there. Because those bent over people are us - and we are they.

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That Synogogue, like this church, was full of bent over people. Some of them better able to disguise it than others.

But the good news, my friends, is that as much as we try to hide there is someone who always sees us. Someone who sees those crippled pieces of our souls even when they show up late, shuffle along the back, and try their best to blend in.

There is someone who sees those parts of us with laser focus, someone who calls them over, brings those pieces to down to the front, right here before the altar, and says: You are set free.

And friends, when you feel that. When you feel that in your depths of your souls. When you encounter a LOVE like that, there is nothing left to do but stand up straight - to feel the sunlight on your face for once - and to begin praising God.

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May it be so. Amen.