The Music Man: An Instrument of Change
The Music Man: An Instrument of Change
Genesis 32:22-31
August 16, 2026 God on Broadway
Rev. Cynthia Cochran-Carney, First Presbyterian Church of San Rafael, CA
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22 The same night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had.
24 Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26 Then he said, "Let me go, for the day is breaking." But Jacob said, "I will not let you go, unless you bless me." 27 So he said to him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob." 28 Then the man said, "You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed."
29 Then Jacob asked him, "Please tell me your name." But he said, "Why is it that you ask my name?" And there he blessed him. 30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved." 31 The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.
The Music Man is one of the most popular and enduring shows. 69 years it has run on Broadway in revivals, community theater productions, and movie versions. Why? It speaks to the human condition and it gives us hope.
The setting is a small town in Iowa in 1912. Meredith Willson grew up in Iowa in small towns. In the 1950’s he was looking around at small towns and at the people and he noticed something. It seemed people had a chip on their shoulder. People seemed harsh with each other and critical of any newcomers. He even writes a song “Iowa Stubborn.”
Oh, there's nothing halfway About the Iowa way to treat you
When we treat you Which we may not do at all
There's an Iowa kind of special Chip-on-the-shoulder attitude
We've never been without That we rеcall
We can be cold As a falling thermomеter in December
If you ask about our weather in July And we're so by God stubborn
We know this kind of human tendency is amplified these days with social media and some news outlets. Who do we trust? Are we insiders or outsiders? Our culture has a constant barrage of divisive language, conspiracy theories and tribalism.
So Willson sets up the story about a salesman. But maybe this is not a story simply about Harold Hill, but about the people and how they need to change.
Prof. Hill is supposedly an incredible musician with extensive background. But the truth is, he does not know how to play any instruments. He’s a con man. A swindler. He comes into a town and immediately tells the people – You’ve got trouble. Your boys are going to get into trouble. Look what they are doing. Pool hall. Here’s what you need to do. Get them into a marching band. Teach them how to play an instrument. Get them into a uniform. It will help take care of your boys. Every parent wants that. So people start buying the instruments and the uniforms. As soon as he has all the money, he leaves town. He does it over and over again. Then he shows up in River City. He’s going to pull the scam one more time.
His life is a mess. He has no friends. He’s a con man. And although he smiles all the time, something tells the audience that he is lost and maybe wants a way out of this life.
That’s where we find Jacob. Jacob’s a con man. And he is struggling. We find him on the banks of the Jordan River wanting to go home. But he has done so many things. Then he wrestles all night long with a man… a messenger from God…– to try to understand – Who am I now? Who is God? What is my purpose? He is in a hard place. Let’s look at how he got there.
God spoke to Abraham and Sarah, Jacob’s grandparents, and calls them to go, to leave for a new land. They leave the land Huran and go to the land Ur. There Abraham and Sarah have two sons – Isaac and Ishmael. Isaac marries Rebekah. They have twins – Esau and Jacob.
In those days the first born got most of the inheritance. When Esau is born, the text says that Jacob is born second holding onto Esau’s heel. It is as if they are already fighting in the womb and whose is going to be first! Jacob becomes known as the clutcher, the grabber. He was fighting to be first but winds up being second.
The boys grow up. Esau enjoys being outdoors and hunting. Jacob likes being home and learns to cook with his mother. Years go by. Their father Isaac is getting older. He does not know if he will die soon, but decides it is time to officially offer a blessing to his oldest son, Esau. Rebekah hears what is about to happen. She loves Jacob the most so she talks with him and they devise a scheme for him to go into his father’s tent and pretend he is Esau. And they pull it off. And Jacob leaves having received the blessing. Then Esau shows up only to find out he has lost the birthright and the blessing. He wants to kill his brother.
Jacob flees and goes to stay with his uncle Laban. Jacob put in twenty years of hard work for him, gained a couple of wives and a truckload of kids and animals. After 20 years, they leave in the middle of the night and flee Laban and go to River Jordan. That’s where we find him this morning. Tricked his brother, tricked his father, fled from his father-in-law. Now what? What is his life supposed to be? He is struggling.
Times we struggle with our past, we regrets, with coming to terms where and we are now. How to go forward. A struggle for Jacob. A struggle for Prof. Harold Hill. What can we learn?
Don’t be an Alarmist
Harold Hill: Mothers of River City, heed that warning before it’s too late! The minute your son leaves the house, does he rebuckle his knickerbockers below the knee? Is there a nicotine stain on his index finger? A dime-novel hidden in the corncrib? If so my friends, ya got trouble!
Harold is indeed an excellent marketer. He creates a problem, offers a solution, and intends on giving everyone a run for their money. That is a problem – in Broadway musical and in Washington DC. The people of River City believe the lies. He makes them afraid & they react.
We are called to pause. Find the truth. Yes, find a band, a community, a church where we can belong but take the longer, deeper view. What is the call, the invitation based on? Jacob has been on the run and a con man, but eventually faces the truth about himself, embraces his new name and becomes a foundational part of the family tree of the Hebrew people.
Seize Today
Marian Paroo: No, please, not tonight. Maybe tomorrow.
Harold Hill: Oh, my dear little librarian. You pile up enough tomorrows, and you’ll find you are left with nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays. I don’t know about you, but I’d like to make today worth remembering.
Harold Hill eventually wears Marion down and she realizes that putting off her own happiness is not the best thing to do. Pause and make today count. You never know how many tomorrows you’ll have. Embrace today. Gratitude. Awareness. Jacob faces the present.
Transformation
The Music Man is about transformation. The traveling huckster Harold Hill becomes an instrument of change. He takes a sleepy and rude, closed town and makes it an energetic, musical and positive place. He takes a shy, stuttering boy and gives him a reason to smile, and to express himself without fear. A quartet of naysaying city officials becomes a harmony-singing quartet. He meets a standoffish librarian and they eventually fall in love. In the end he tells the truth about himself – Yes, I have been liar and no, I don’t play an instrument. And yet, the seeds he planted for hope and being a band of belonging does transform the boys and girls and the whole town.
He offers them thoughts that they can do it be a band and they believe him. They feel proud and confident. Their confidence moves them to learn to play instruments and march in their spiffy uniforms. The boys think of themselves as competent and proud musicians. Finale of the show. They are changed. The town is transformed.
God’s grace gives us a new beginning. Different ages and seasons of life. Losses… many times we need a new beginning.
Jacob wants to come home. He wants a new beginning. He wrestles with God. The new beginning is marked by a new name – your name is no longer Jacob. Your new name is Israel.
In the Bible, to know someone’s name is to know something about a person. And when people change, people are given a new name. Simon becomes Peter, Saul becomes Paul, Jacob becomes Israel. You Jacob are no longer the clutcher, the grabber. You will be the father of a family of faith. His children become the founders of the 12 tribes of Israel.
Walk with God - walk away from selfishness and ego and walk in love.
Jacob is seeking a new beginning. As he wrestles through the night, the messenger touches hip and puts it out of joint. Jewish theologians say the divine visitor did this because he wanted Jacob to limp into the future so with every step he took he would remember how he wrestled with God. He felt it in this body. He saw the world differently. He acted differently.
How do we move in the world? Walking or limping in love, kindness, compassion? Harold Hill’s character only sees his greed and his needs. Only when Marian sings to him does he imagine seeing himself and others and the world differently She sings – “there is love all around and I didn’t see it, didn’t see it at all until there was you.” When he feels her love, he begins to be transformed. He realizes does not want to swindle these people. He opens up to the possibility of a new reality – a marching band. He wants to be part of community. That song reflects on many levels how love changes what we see and hear.
When Paul McCartney heard that song, he loved it and wanted the Beatles to record it. They did and they performed it Till There Was You – the Beatles on Ed Sullivan show.
Love is all around and we don’t see it. But we can. God’s gift of love to give you a new beginning.
In Genesis we read that Jacob learns that Esau has a long memory and is waiting for him, with plenty of troops. On the night before he faces his brother Esau, Jacob is most vulnerable. He is alone. He has no armaments, no possessions, no community. But he emerges with the blessing of God as he stands up and limps toward the dawn. Jacob wrestles, holds on, is wounded, is blessed – and in the end, his struggle means he has a new name and is a different person.
Jacob’s story is an invitation to look at the times we when we struggle, we wrestle, we wonder and we experience deeper parts of ourselves and the Holy Mystery.
May we be people who seek the truth, seek to be authentic, are willing to be transformed as we follow the ways of Jesus as people of compassion, justice, and love. Amen.