Work & Grace: The Spiritual Music of John Coltrane (Open Forum)

Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life

Tim Keller

Religion & Spirituality, Religion, Religion & Spirituality:christianity, Christianity, Spirituality

4.8 • 15K Ratings

🗓️ 30 June 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What can the music of John Coltrane tell us about the relationship of art to God, and of our own work in general to God? We can all learn quite a lot from Coltrane, actually. And what we can see in his approach to his music applies not just to musicians and artists, but to us all. In this open forum, 1) Tim Keller shares two things we can learn from Coltrane, 2) John Patitucci, a jazz bassist and composer, discusses Coltrane’s music, and 3) Keller and Patitucci hold a question-and-answer time with their audience. This talk was given by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 9, 2007. Series: Redeemer Open Forums. Scripture: Ecclesiastes 2:17-26. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Gospel and Life.
0:05.8	If you have a job, it's likely that you think about it, a lot.
0:09.7	But how much have you thought about the biblical approach to your work?
0:13.7	Today on Gospel in Life, Tim Keller shows us that the Bible has incredibly helpful and practical wisdom we can apply to the work we do.
0:21.6	Wisdom you may find surprising, even life-changing.
0:32.5	I want to talk about two quotes, two things that John Coltrane said about the relationship between God
0:38.3	and his music. And I think each of them tells us something very significant. The first one tells
0:42.9	us something about the relationship of music and art to God. And the second one talks about
0:47.2	our relationship of our work in general to God. Another way to put it is this. Coltrane's first quote, points to music as evangelism, and the second quote points to music as service.
1:02.0	Now, when I use the word evangelism, I hope for a moment you can sort of shake free your mind from any association of that word with politics, fundamentalism, and remember that evangelism means
1:13.1	good news of hope. Here's the first quote. John Coltrane says, overall, I think the main thing a
1:19.3	musician would like to do is give a picture to the listener of the many wonderful things that he
1:24.0	knows and senses in the universe. That's what I would like to do. I think that's
1:28.5	one of the greatest things you can do in life, and we all try to do it in some way. The musician,
1:34.0	the musicians is through his music. Now what Coltrane is saying is that music, not just the words
1:41.5	to a song, but the music itself is a form of evangelism.
1:45.8	Music can tell the most hopeless heart that there's hope, the most meaningless heart that there's meaning.
1:54.9	Music, no matter what you believe with your head, music tells you that your life is not a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
2:03.0	signifying nothing. Music has a way of coming to you and saying, in spite of how you feel,
2:08.9	there is hope. There is meaning. Stephen Jay Gould, the late Harvard paleontologist, wrote this.
2:17.3	He says, we are here simply because one odd group of
2:20.4	fish had a peculiar anatomy that just happened to be able to transform into legs for terrestrial
	...

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