Fermata Nov 12, 2021: Caring for God's Blues People

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!

Recap: Daniel 1:3-9

This week’s Fermata comes from Notes of Rest for Blues People & Their Neighbors, held this past week at Candler School of Theology in the class "Leadership and Witness" (whose professors are Drs. Greg Ellison and Will Gravely).  We sat with Daniel and his comrades as they negotiated remaining tied to their Israelite roots while being in the heart of the Babylonian Empire that had conquered and exiled Israel from their homeland. Though the Israelite young men were learning the ways of their colonizers, they resisted assimilation by not eating the food offered. I suggested they were biblical "Blues People," a term coined by Amiri Baraka to talk about Black folk in the Americas who remembered their pre-American existence and rooted their music in that lineage deeper than their slavery. For the church leaders on the call, we thought together about what it meant for us to take care of Blues People in our midst, and how the Black folk in our midst might grow into and sustain their identities as Blues Peoples too. We rested in the One who has continued to sustain the Blues People.

How do you look out for Blues People in your care? How is God calling you to maintain your cultural ties that otherwise are threatened by those in power?

May The Lord who came down to live a Blues People life sustain you for the journey this week. As an aid, here's Sweet Honey in the Rock calling and challenging us to remember: Motherless Child.

abundantly,
Julian