Searching for Salt

After Jimmy Buffett died, I wrote to some clergy friends who, like me, have the fortune to serve churches in gulf coast towns. I proposed having a Sunday School class for adults reflecting on the music of the Havana Daydreamer. "If not us, who?" I've personally had quite a journey as a fan, first hearing him on a boat cruising around Bolivar and the Galveston waters, and covering his songs, then later being resistant to his music and the whole scene surrounding it, and then digging in deeper to his music, starting with a record a friend gave me after the storm took most of mine. 

My rebellious side didn't want to play his music when I first moved here because, a colleague told me I had to, "learn Jimmy Buffett music because they only want to hear Margaritaville." Alas, we do hear that song quite a bit in this island town. That's also what started me thinking about that lost shaker of salt, and why the song so captivates our imaginations; even the non-margarita drinkers. 

"You are the salt of the earth." Jesus told his followers. Jimmy Buffett crew up in the church, but parted ways and was still feeling burned out when he wrote the line in "Pencil Thin Moustache" about neither going to church nor cutting his hair. It sounds like he and John the Baptist would have gotten along well. Just listen to his song "Bubbles Up" which reveals his spiritual depth, even if he remained outside any institutional church. 

The Sundays School class "Searching for Salt" has been a rich conversation not wondering what Mr. Buffett meant when he wrote his songs, rather what the symbolic poetry of his lyrics touches in our own religious imaginations. In the class (and parhaps in a sermon or two) we have used his songs as a launching point to notice what our own souls are drawn to in his music, and most importantly, what the Holy Spirit may be revealing through those songs and our conversation. Listening intentionally to music, or paying careful attention to any art form can lead us into a spiritual conversation. 

We call that theological reflection. It is a way of looking at the world, especially art and music, that makes associations with scripture, hymns, prayers, or other parts of our tradition. God is relentless in seeking to catch our attention and helping us grow and learn. Themes of sin, forgiveness, reconciliation, grace, and unconditional love show up in unexpected places when we start to pay attention. The Bible is, of course, a good starting place, and fuels the quest in the wider world. 

We are focused on the music of Jimmy Buffett in this series, but we are learning to do theological reflection, which we can use in countless contexts. It doesn't take a seminary degree to do theology. We believe that the Holy Spirit empowers us, and reveals truth deep within us. We are a priesthood of believers in this kingdom of God; we have been given the amazing gift of imagination to help us make the connections.  As we search for salt, and discover our associations with that symbol and others in the music, we will learn how to pay attention to the work of the Holy Spirit, who is always out there, working, reconciling, revealing truth in ways we can understand.