Julian's Note 15 Jul 2022
Fermata: Saved to Rest
Fermata is the weekly recap & preview of my artistic activity, with special attention given to Notes of Rest, my contemplative-musical retreat, and The JuJu Exchange, my jazz-electronic fusion band.
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Hi everyone,
This past Sunday I had the joy of being in-person for Notes of Rest at The Practice Church in South Barrington, IL. I love how this church is so contemplative. In fact, they’re taking all summer to just meditate on and experience the character of God. On Sunday, Pastor Jason Feffer wanted us to experience the character of God’s love, so we sat with Romans 8:31-39, where Paul writes to the church in Rome about the undying love God has for us in Christ Jesus. In my retreat I connected this undying love to rest. In this case I’m thinking about rest as the response to purpose. Core to our purpose in this world is responding to our loving God by moving towards God and neighbor in love. One way to think about restlessness, therefore, is as movement against God’s love and not demonstrating love ourselves. But Paul reminds us of key good news: not even the restlessness of all of the lovelessness in society these days is enough to keep us from the love of God in Jesus. I don't know who needed to hear that today, but I know I am at least preaching to myself!
Pastor Jason and I at the sign-up table after service.
Another kind of rest that I drew out of the passage was rest from needless conflict. Paul uses rhetorical questions to teach the church that they should be unconcerned with the accusations of those who do not have the power to ultimately condemn or save. Who can bring charge against whom God has chosen? Only God. Who can set our relationship right with God? Only God. But for Paul to ask these rhetorical questions suggested that there was somebody trying to accuse or condemn that local church. A question I therefore asked the congregation flowed from this presumption: what charges are being leveled against your community that keep you from resting in the purpose God has for you?
The answers were powerful. One person said that she discerned no issues or charges against her in her life. She took this utter absence of conflict as a red flag. Was her life sanitized of problems such that nobody would be close enough to accuse her of anything? She then realized that her main angst came from disagreements with other Christians. I thought this was an excellent question emerging from her inner teacher, and I appreciated her using that as a reason to invite further introspection.
Another person noted that many Christians think that their tribe loves well, and that the other side of the aisle doesn’t. The conservatives accuse the liberals of getting love wrong, and vice versa. Meanwhile, many people beyond the church look at the church and think that American Christianities are anything but loving. So there’re all kinds of charges being leveled at one another based on misperception or disagreement.
I found this observation perceptive. I know firsthand that all of the infighting and mudslinging can obscure Christ’s love for the church which is altogether imperfect. Moreover, all of the infighting that happens amongst Christians and the way the Church comes off to so many others beyond the church can ironically call into question the love of Christ to the world. Both of these comments reminded me of how important yet elusive rest can be when it comes to understanding your purpose in God and when it comes to refraining from needless conflict. It reminds me of that old adage: familiarity breeds contempt.
Towards this end, this week I encourage you to check out my homie and bandmate Nico Segal’s tune, Nothing Came to Me. Listen for the tension, for the winding and turning, for the call and response and for the resolution. I think in listening to this I pray you hear something about tension and release in your own life, no matter the conflicts emerging.
abundantly,
Julian
P.S. Notes of Rest at The Practice Church came from somebody recommending me from another past Notes session. So thank you for passing along the good word!