Making the Second Act Happen

What follows is a transcript of Guest Speaker Pat Immel's message from our Sunday morning gathering. We share these messages on our blog for those who appreciate the opportunity to read the sermon again—whether for deeper reflection, personal study, or a quieter moment of prayer and introspection. As you read, we invite you to linger with the words, notice what resonates, and remain open to how God may be speaking to you through them.

by Pat Immel

So before we start, I want to, we're going to read from our scripture today, which is 1 Corinthians 12: 12-17, 27.

Just as the body of the one has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one spirit so as to form one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free, we were all given the one spirit to drink. Even so, the body is not made up of one part but many.

Now if the foot should say, because I'm not a hand, I do not belong to the body, it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, what if I'm not an eye, I do not belong to the body, it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? Now you are the body of Christ and each one of you is part of it.

So good morning everyone. So everybody's right in here, but that's okay. That is a-okay.

Most of you know me, well for many different reasons, but up until spring you knew me as a faculty member, or one of the ways you knew me was a faculty member at Northwest. I'm comfortable with syllabi, structured lectures, and the orderly world of the university. The orderly world, okay.

But about a year and a half ago when I started thinking about retirement, I realized I wasn't quite ready to quiet down. I didn't want my white life to become a slow fade out, I wanted to start a new movement. So like you do these days, is I went to Facebook and I posted what-somebody actually said this, it's like, that's almost like a manifesto.

It's like, I don't know, I think manifestos are longer than like five sentences, but you know, God love you. But I want to share those words with you because it kind of shows where this journey started. Good morning everyone.

As you may or may not know, I am retiring soon and I'm trying to get together some people playing a rock band. I'm talking three chord, power chord, 70s, 80s, 90s, dance, rock. I think I have a drummer and I play bass to start with at a bare minimum.

I'm looking for a guitar player or two and somebody that can sing. Keyboard player would be nice. I want to make this as low impact as possible, maybe practice two hours a week.

My goal is to be Maryville famous and maybe at some point be able to play 15 or 20 songs set at the pub. Right now the working title for the band is Crazy Professor Hair. And where I got that, where I got that, is I was in class back in when I was in college a long time ago and I don't know, it was like an English, it's an English professor.

They're either bald or they have a bunch of hair. This guy would come in, his hair would be all over the place and it's like, that guy's got crazy professor hair. And it's stuck.

I've never forgot that. Now as I look around the room today, I see a lot of potential members of Crazy Professor Hair. We've all got years of wisdom and perhaps a few more power chords left in us than people might think.

When I posted that, I was a bass player with a dream and a lot of uncertainty. But as Gabriel Garcia Marquez once said, it is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old. They grow old because they stop pursuing dreams.

Now I wasn't sure if a group of retired academics could actually rock, but I knew if we worked hard enough and believed, something would happen. And 18 months later, we're actually getting gigs and people come to see us. It turns out, David Bowie, an English kind of rock star, was right when he said, aging is an extraordinary process where you become the person you always should have been.

This brings us to 1 Corinthians 12. So Paul is writing to the community trying to find its sound. He uses the metaphor of the body, the eyes, the ears, hands. It reminds us that the body isn't one part, but many.

In a band, I play the bass. If you listen to a song, you might not always hear the bass clearly, except when Kendrick Santos Briggs is mixing it, then you can hear the bass really well. But you always feel the bass.

You always feel it. So if the bass player decides to take a nap mid-song, everything kind of falls apart. The whole structure collapses.

As Spike Wells, a jazz drummer who actually became a priest, once said, playing in a group demands love and generosity. Making music together is a profound spiritual experience. And if you've done that, if you've played music before, I think you know that.

Sometimes in a church like ours, small, a little bit older, and we're wondering if we still have the volume that we used to. We start thinking we're the ear that doesn't matter because we aren't the eye. We think, well, I'm just a retired person.

I just got the coffee. But Paul is clear. The parts that seem weaker are actually indispensable.

A band without a steady rhythm is just noise. I was going to say something sassy there, but I'm not. A church without your specific quiet gift has no heartbeat.

You aren't just filling a seat, you're holding the groove for the rest of us. In my original Facebook post, I promised everyone this band would be low impact. I said, maybe practice two hours a week.

I wanted to make it sound easy so people would sign up. Suckers. But as you all know, there's no such thing as low impact if you want to create something cool, awesome, and beautiful.

Johann Sebastian Bach once said, music is an agreeable harmony for the honor of God and the permissible delights of the soul. I like that one. Agreeable harmony.

That'd be a good name for a band, for an a cappella band. Agreeable harmony. To get that agreeable harmony, you have to put in the work.

We had to fail. We had to fail as a band. We had to fail in rehearsal.

We had to hit wrong notes and laugh at ourselves. We had to show up even when the professor hair was looking especially crazy. As a congregation, we often want low impact faith.

But the second act of a church happens when we can commit to the practice of being a community. Howard Thurman famously said, don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it.

And I tell that to my students all the time. If you want to do something, well, dang it, go do it. Don't let anybody tell you that you can't.

So I think this is apropos. Well, I'm going to do the quote again. Don't ask what the world needs.

Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. Starting this band made me and my colleagues come alive.

And seeing this church support one another makes us come alive. We don't need 500 people in the pews to be Maryville famous for God's love. We just need to be a group of people who refuse to stop practicing the music of grace.

One of the best quotes I found during this working on this was Paul Simon, not the senator from Illinois, the rock star. Music is forever. Music should grow and mature with you, following you right up until you die.

Our church isn't struggling with an older congregation. We are maturing into a deeper and richer sound. The Bible tells us in Psalm 92, they will still bear fruit in old age.

They will stay fresh and green. Being fresh and green doesn't mean we're 20 years old again, although that's where I'm in my head. It means we're still connected to the source.

It means we're still loading in the gear. We're still showing up for rehearsal and still believing that our second act has purpose. As C.S. Lewis reminded us, you're never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.

Our second act as a church is being a community where if one part suffers, we all suffer. And if one part is honored, we all celebrate. So grab your instrument, whatever it is.

Maybe it's a prayer. Maybe it's a phone call. Maybe it's a smile.

The set list is over and the world is waiting for our song. So, and then amen. When I told Kendric I was going to do the message today, he said, that's awesome.

I said, well, that's so nice of you. I'm sure you appreciate the words that I share. And he says, but what came out was, it's like, your messages are always short and sweet and get to the point.

So that one was, that one was short and sweet. The one thing I want to do is, on last, last winter, the New Years, we played at my band, played at the pub. And I was a mess all night.

I was nervous. And a couple of things I forgot to do. I forgot to introduce the band.

And I forgot to introduce Kendric and Chloe and thank them. So I'm going to say, and I'm sure you all know this, but ladies and gentlemen, I want to introduce the rest of the band, Travis Johnson on vocals and guitar. Give it up for Travis.

And in the back, I want to thank Chloe and Kendric for their hard work. And give it up for Chloe and Kendric for Wednesday and for today and for, and for moving forward. I have a prayer if you wanted to bow your heads with me.

Gracious God, thank you for the music. Thank you for the reminder that you are the great composer and that we are all invited to play a part in your symphony. Bless this band of believers.

Help us to value every instrument in this room. Keep us fresh and green, bearing fruit, sharing your harmony with Maryville and beyond. Amen.