The Fermata Weekly: What shall be your response to violence?

Recap of Retreat Amidst Gun Violence, Playing at Lollapalooza

Jul 29, 2022

The Fermata Weekly 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,

Given the recent spate of mass shootings in the US, I hosted Notes of Rest Amidst Gun Violence, a free virtual retreat for people to process how they were dealing with the pain of these events. I was thankful to have such a space myself given the unique difficulties of this time and the uncertainty about when this will ever end. Much flowed from our time.

To get us thinking about rest from war, we sat with Jesus’ predictions about violence in Matthew 24:4-14. There he warns his disciples that war will be plentiful before the end of all time and that this violence will lead many to believe in false saviors. Such predictions would have been relevant to his disciples who would face much persecution after Jesus ascended, both the original followers ca. 33 AD and the communities of Christians who would live through The Jewish War of 70 AD, a brutal war where Rome put down a massive Jewish uprising. (Scholars believe that The Gospel of Matthew was probably finished after this war, so the violence that people were experiencing would have resonated with Jesus’ words from decades earlier.) And yet, even with this violence on the horizon, the true Messiah urges his followers to hold on and endure until the end in faith.

Photo by Charl Folscher on Unsplash

Jesus’ prediction and exhortation remains just as relevant now as it did when initially spoken and documented. When Jesus will come back is just as unknowable for us as it was for the original communities of antiquity, but his predictions remain the same. The world will suffer much violence before he returns, and many will be led astray as a result of the violence. Moreover, I believe Christians will experience violence for their faith because of how we are trying to intercept violence and run towards the burning buildings.

We see that with gun violence today. There are different ways communities are led astray as a result of what they’re witnessing. Some become numb. Some let their love grow cold. Some become warmongering. Some yield to hopelessness. Some double down on pleasure. Some choose other saviors such as police states or the prison-industrial complex. In other words, the wars around us can just make us more brutal or more avoidant.

But those aren’t our only options. We can yet persevere in faith until the end as communities of hope, introspection and action, holding onto the notion that there is a different world possible and coming, one where rest from war is forever. And we can use contemplation and creativity to point to that new world, even if that means our faith subjects us to more violence from those who don’t understand us or who would rather see evil persist. Here are questions to help you think about what means for you:

Where are you and your community susceptible to being led astray by the violence? Amidst all of this death, what can you creatively birth to counteract?

I live in Chicago, a city rife with conflict of all kinds. Part of my response to this violence is to think about how to bring Notes of Rest retreat to communities in need of rest. I want to see Black folk on the South and West sides rest from the wars that we are caught up in due to historical trauma from political and economic disenfranchisement. (This means being close to the pain of Black folk who feel they have to have guns for the sake of protection. Lord have mercy!) And on the North side where there’s less gun violence, I want to use Notes of Rest to help people see what redistribution of resources looks like, helping them see their weapons of whiteness and greed. All to say, rest from war looks different for all of us.

With words and music, I want to create in a way that brings joy and introspection, pointing people toward a world where creativity never ends, the world I believe Jesus has started and is expanding. This reminds me of Leonard Bernstein’s beautiful quote about music: “This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.”

I pray that music help can you contend with these questions about how you and your community respond to violence, even if that means you have to move towards it as opposed to away from it. This instrumental song Eternal (an old family favorite) may help. It’s this incredible lullaby of guitars by the group P.O.D. (which stands for payable on death.) Let me know what you think of the music and/or your response to the war we’re in. We’re in this thing together.

Julian's Note

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