Fermata Apr 22, 2022: Letting the Preacher and the Earth Rest

Candler School of Theology and Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary

Fermata is the weekly newsletter describing some of the past week’s highlights from Notes of Rest, which is my spiritual retreat ministry that interweaves text, music, and questions for the sake of cultivating stillness, introspection, and creativity in communities so that all may rest. I'd love to host a Notes of Rest for your church, seminary, or affinity group. Feel free to reply to this email to start the conversation!

Candler School of Theology and Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary

Hi everyone,

This past week I had the chance to host sessions at two seminaries, Candler School of Theology at Emory University (my alma mater) and Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary here in Evanston, Illinois (where I first answered the call to ministry back in high school). At Candler, my dear friend Professor Nick Peterson invited me to host a session as a capstone to his Intro to Preaching course. This was a special request because I had once been a student in and teaching assistant for this very course! I returned to these familiar stomping grounds with a Psalm very close to my heart, Psalm 16. This poem is about seeking refuge in God despite pending threats. Given what preachers face in today’s climate, Prof. Peterson wanted me to help the students rest in Scripture so that they would prioritize waiting on God’s gracious spirit over their desire to exercise their human agency as preachers.

One question that I posed to the students was: what do your sleep habits teach you about preaching? This question flowed from the verse halfway through the Psalm where the psalmist celebrates that their “body rests secure” because of God’s presence, protection, and joy. Sleep, I submitted, is one of the most vulnerable acts we do as humans, because we are utterly defenseless during it. Thus sleep is one of the places where we need to rely on God as refuge most blatantly! A student talked about how vital her 8 hours of sleep were to her awareness of God throughout her day and in her preparation for sermons. When her nightly routine is thrown off, so are her other spiritual disciplines needed to prepare adequately to mount a pulpit. It was an encouragement to see sleep regarded as a spiritual discipline equal to prayer and Scripture study.

What does reliance on God during your time of sleep teach you about the activities requiring your human agency?

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At Garrett I preached on Psalm 96 during their special afternoon chapel service that was in recognition of the launching of the Center for Ecological Regeneration. You can watch the hour-long service here (I start at 20:30). It was an honor to be asked to be a part of such vital work and I hope to do much more with ecological initiatives around the country! This was the principal question that grounded our time: what practices did the congregation (of students, professors, and staff) need to cultivate in order to join the Earth in the song of God’s salvation? I especially encouraged them to think with the wisdom of Psalm 96 about practices of constraint because modernity makes it far too easy to think about practices of acquisition and production. Put simply, where are we called to do less - not more - so that we can join the earth in singing her notes of rest?

May we hear our note alongside the rest of earth’s and work harder to blend into creation’s chorus instead of taking a never-ending solo.

peace,

Julian

P.S. My band The JuJu Exchange has a new single coming out on Wednesday (Apr 27) called Walk Cycle. Pre-save it here!

Photo by Olha Tatdot on Unsplash