Let's let one of my favorte jazz theologians take a solo for the next two posts. James Cone is a bit controversial but he'll had some creative tension to the conversation

In 1975, Cone, wrote, "If twentieth-century Christians are to speak the truth for their sociohistorical situation, they cannot merely repeat the story of what Jesus did and said in Palestine, as if it were self-interpreting for us today. Truth is more than the retelling of the biblical story. Truth is the divine happening that invades our contemporary situation, revealing the meaning of the past for the present so that we are made new creatures for the future."

Cone is describing what I think the essence of jazz theology. When our hunger for God, the song of God, our questions, joys and pains, converge with Jesus "the divine happening that invades our contemporary situation."

Cone asserts that our Christology must know Jesus as He was, as He is AND also as He will be.

So what color is Jesus? Well, we know what color he was (a middle-eastern man with all the telltale characteristics); we can only imagine what color he is now(with feet like brass and eyes like fire…Rev. 1) but what color will he be…to you…to me…today?

(quotes taken from, "God of the Oppressed" by James Cone)