Plymouth Magazine-Winter24-DIGITAL - Flipbook - Page 14
Julian Reid Visits Plymouth Church
By Julian Reid (he/him)
Photos By Alex Cooney (he/him)
Musician Julian Reid returned to
Plymouth with “Notes of Rest” over the
Nov. 9 and 10 weekend. “Notes of Rest”
invited the weary into the rest of God
practiced in the Bible and Black music.
Definition of the Notes
Sabbath (rest from work)
The weekly gift of rest that God gives
us was first created as the seventh day of
creation. Then it was established in the life
of God’s people the Hebrews as liberation
from their exhaustion under Pharaoh’s
thumb. We are still invited to honor this
day of rest as anticipation of God’s eternal
rest to come in the New Creation.
Sleep (rest from consciousness)
This is a daily gift of rest that God gives.
Sleep births new life, holds us accountable
to the vulnerable, reminds us of our
mortality, and enables us to dream of
God’s New Creation coming into view.
Stillness (rest from movement)
This is the act of staying still in mind,
body, and soul. Amidst the chaos of
life, we are invited towards clarity that
insists that only God is God. Such
remembrance takes great focus, but no
matter our lot, we can stand in the midst
of this Old Creation and peer over the
ledge into the New One Jesus begins.
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Solitude (rest from others)
It is good to spend time in community,
but it is also important to rest from
others. Though we can hear from God
amongst others, we can be exhausted by
others’ demands on our time and energy
too. Solitude and Sabbath speak to each
other, for we are made to be apart and to
be together. Jesus modeled this rhythm
excellently, moving from wilderness to
dinner parties seamlessly, as the Spirit led.
Silence (rest from sound)
A comrade of solitude, silence is the
practice of pausing the sounds and noise
we hear around us. When we draw quiet,
God can speak in a new way, and we can
be refreshed. Since time immemorial,
sound has been used to exhaust us and
others. “Did God really say you cannot
eat from the tree of good and evil?” We
should be wary of too much noise for
too long. And to be clear, this is a silence
chosen, not a silence imposed.
Simplicity (rest from needless acquisition)
A natural partner to Sabbath, simplicity
invites us to pause from the exhaustive
work of constantly acquiring. Our desire
to acquire might be due to needless
ambition, or due to a love of vanity
or possession. When we rest from
consuming that which we do not need,
others rest too, people and earth.
Sanctuary (rest from idolatry and danger)
This is space set apart for worship and
safety. Sanctuary can be physical buildings
– e.g., temples and synagogues in Scripture
– our bodies, and any other space that
we designate as a space for safety and
protection. Practicing sanctuary prepares
us for the New Creation where all creation
will worship God continually and will be
free from danger.
Black Music
These are the sounds of freedom. These
are the captivating sounds of those
captured, wafting up from the hull of
the slave ship to bring rest amidst the
watery chaos of the New World. These
are sounds of invitation to those on the
deck to study war no more. These are
the sounds of resistance: I am somebody.
This is the breath work for the next
blues scale. This is “What’s Goin On,”
“Young, Gifted, and Black,” and “A Love
Supreme.” This sound moves towards the
ancestors and descendants simultaneously
in the oceanic flow of time. This rest
subverts the trappings of the house built
on sand, because in declaring “Give Me
Jesus,” we “Steal Away.”
