Fermata Oct 22, 2021: Transitioning Well

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!

Exodus 16:1-12
 
This week’s Fermata comes from a Notes of Rest I held earlier this week for a church staff team on the West Coast in the midst of transition. We sat with the newly emancipated Hebrews as they moved out of Egypt and into the wilderness. We saw how sometimes nostalgia can indicate the need for healing, as was the case for the grumbling travelers who would have rather died slaves in Egypt, for at least in bondage they had three squares a day. Their desire signaled the internalized oppression from which they needed healing. The church and I gave God thanks for being The One who can sustain us amidst the unfamiliar (manna and Sabbath), even when we and our congregations grumble (and perhaps especially when we). 

During this season of transition, how is God restructuring your rest? And how is the Bread of Heaven giving manna to grumblers in your care?

May The glorious Lord who liberates and heals be with you in your seasons of transition. To help you move from glory to glory, here's an old hymn of many a Black Church: Hold To God's Unchanging Hand.

abundantly,
Julian