Broken link exercise (grab hands, break link, energy stops à rift in community)
Together: Beloved Community, what we’ve been learning to make à and how we’ve been learning to dismantle what happened in rounds 2 and 3 and to replace with the BC
One row: in-group/out-group = violence
All but one: isolation, marginalization, oppression vs. beneficiaries, in-group, power
Joshua Greene, Moral Tribes
This is a summary of everything we’ve done the last 8 weeks and a symbol of what could be if we put our learning into practice
What do I mean by that?
Well, in connection with that question, you’re probably asking – What have we been doing? What have we been learning? How does this all come together? What does what we’ve been exploring mean for my life?
This is our focus for today: Finding ourselves in the Beloved Community
Now, you may be saying “but what about the world?” “I’m fine, but the world isn’t.” “Focusing on myself is selfish.”
I get all that. I hear all that. à but we’re members of the world…and the world can’t be better, unless we’re better.
So, Jamie and I chose to spend an entire adult forum engaging in introspection precisely because the last 8 weeks have been so outwardly focused. They have been “action.” Today is our “reflection.”
Today puts into perspective how we find ourselves within the conversations we’ve been having and gives us a framework for how we can continue to asses our responsibilities, given our roles.
To do that, we’re going to approach BC from a slightly different perspective – and that perspective is from the bird’s eye view.
We’re going to take the definition of BC from TEC – and zoom waaaay out. We’re going to look at BC from the bird’s eye view, then figure out where we are within that community, here within our microcosmic universes.
Here’s the major takeaway up front: We find ourselves in the Beloved Community when we understand ourselves as in relationship with others.
Beloved Community
So, what is the BC?
“The BC is the body within which all people can grow to love God and love the image of God that we find in our neighbors, in ourselves, and in creation. It provides a positive, theologically and biblically based ideal that orients the work of racial healing, reconciliation, and justice.” (TEC)
While race and ethnicity have been at the center of our discussions and, often, at the center of TEC’s discussions, today we’re going to expand BC to be about how we relate to people – and creation – of all identifiers; because BC isn’t just about agreement across racial designations, but it is about being in relationship with people of different races, ethnicities, national origins, sexual orientation, religions, socioeconomic classes, gender identity, the environment, and yes…even denomination.
This reality is captured in three main concepts: that of ubuntu, the related concepts of shalom and agape, and a personal ethic of listening.
Ubuntu (may be familiar to some, or completely foreign to others + meshwork/interconnectedness)
Shalom/Agape (related terms, show how through language and culture, the theme of BC has come up throughout time of space)
Ethic of Listening (cultivating in personal lives, which too can transcend time and space and make theoretical concepts a reality, no matter what places we choose to inhabit)
In conversation with where we’ve been, and I promise we will get there
What this means for our own lives moving forward
[Explore top of triangle first, working our way down to the base à this is all experimental, but this is the theory with which working – we can’t get to the Beloved Community, the Ubuntu, without taking personal steps to get there and see ourselves within it]
So, without further to do, let us put what we just felt in our energizer activity into play and explore ourselves within the BC --> starting first, with ubuntu
Ubuntu/Meshwork (theory)
Nguni language spoken throughout Southern Africa
Oft associated with Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu during the Truth & Reconciliation Commission, post-Apartheid
Behaving well towards others or acting in ways that benefit the community
A soul force – an actual metaphysical connection shared between people and which helps us connect to each other
Can’t be seen, but a philosophy to be not just bought in to but embodied à believing that we are all interconnected; my actions impact you, and yours me
Various takes on Ubuntu:
“My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in what is yours” (Archbishop Desmond Tutu)
“Nobody’s free until everybody’s free” – Fannie Lou Hamer
I can’t be fully me, unless you can be fully you
“A person is a person through other persons” (Nguni Proverb)
Meshwork model (Tim Ingold)
Another way of thinking of this is by thinking about all of creation as enmeshed and intermixed in a meshwork
Anthropologist Tim Ingold has this theory about human connectivity. He literally writes about lines, like the distance between two points à like what you see here on the screen.
He argues that life is lived through way fairing, or journeying, not from point to point but “through, a round, to and from them, from and to places elsewhere” à as humans traverse, our trails become intertwined and create “knots” à knots are places of connection, are intertwined, andcreate an entangled or enmeshed web
This state of enmeshment forces us to understand ourselves as in relationship with others because we are deeply intertwinedà our connections create the above fungi-like meshwork, which replaces the linear network below --> this meshwork is ubuntu because no one exists within it without another
Now, there are dangers to Ubuntu - namely, it’s idyllic, but is it realistic?
This is the challenge of making the BC a reality
Sounds great on paper, but human tendencies creep in. We break that one, unifying chain we experienced earlier and instead turn to in-groups and out-groups. We see ourselves as individuals in this world, just occupying vacuous space à rather than interconnected beings inhabiting places together. From this occupation mentality, we experience war, division, pain, suffering, isolation.
Yet, we need to hold on to this ideal vision, to maintain hope à that’s our calling as people rooted in the Light and Love of Christ
So, how do we strive for Ubuntu, and use this philosophy to disrupt and dismantle the impediments to BC about which we’ve been learning? We own our responsibilities to society given our roles.
Shalom/Agape (ubuntu doesn’t tell us how to live, but agape and shalom do)
This looks like living into agape and shalom.
= biblical terms which speak to interpersonal relationships with humanity and creation; shalom comes from Hebrew and we are first introduced to it in the Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible; and agape is a Greek term frequently used in the NT by J’s disciples
Both terms show us how to live in striving to create the BC
All encompassing love, total self-giving love, unconditional
Love, as taught by Christ
Love is not something that just happens to us or a feeling for someone else, but it is action à the choice we make to seek the well-being for others above ourselves
Seeking well-being without expecting anything in return
Treating well the person we cannot stand à spark of Divine in everyone
Need to live this love to emulate Christ
Christ consistently showed love for the marginalized, the forgotten, the poor à his personal ethic of listening was to listen to those who are oft overlooked
Trusting that God is love, at the center of the world --> receive this love that has come to us in Jesus --> then give this love out to others in a self-giving posture
Scripture:
“He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matthew 22:37-39)
“But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
“For God so loved that world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16)
“Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.” (1 John 4:9-11)
Denotes the absence of war, enmity, quarrel, strife, peace amongst people, communal life à replacing these with wholeness or completeness, state of well-being, tranquility, prosperity, security, manifestation of divine grace
So, we can make a meshwork a reality when we live into peace or restoration with others and the self and show love to others, especially those who are overlooked.
Important to note is that while these terms enable introspection, they are namely played out and defined in community --> they push us to understand ourselves as in relationship with others.
Ethic of Listening
To be in relationship with others means that we must listen to others – whomever or whatever we deem as not ourselves. To do this, we must cultivate a personal ethic of listening.
Before we delve into this section, we’re going to do an exercise.
Partner with the person next to you. For one minute, one partner is going to speak and the other will say nothing – just actively listening. Then we’ll switch partners. Truly focus on what the other person is saying. Envision yourself enmeshed with them as they speak. 2-minute partner listening exercise: put into words your version of the Beloved Community here on earth
This short exercise was to remind us what it means to take time to listen with undivided attention to both someone else and ourselves. It is to show us agape in practice. And, I’m convinced, this exercise on a macro level is the key to overcoming division and creating shalom. Then, by creating shalom through loving with agape, we make ubuntu a lived reality which then enables the Beloved Community in this life, and the next.
In listening, this is where we truly find ourselves in the Beloved Community and make ubuntu a reality. As we…
Listen to God
Listen to others
Listen to self
Listen to creation
We learn that I am not I without you…so I need to learn how to listen well to you if there is any hope for me to flourish
So, this ethic of listening is the base for everything we’ve been working on building, are building, and will build --> it is the base for making God’s kingdom come here on earth
Conclusion: Way Forward
As we recap what we just learned, I’m going to leave the pyramid on the screen
Today I argued that we can’t get to the Beloved Community, the Ubuntu, without taking personal steps to get there and see ourselves within it.
What this means
Dismantling of American individualism
Intentional community (not a commune, but envisioning the world as an enmeshed community or ecosystem)
Given your role, what are your responsibilities?
Thinking critically and ethically about how I live impacts others
Way ahead/practical takeaways
Don’t forget about the birds and the bees (ie. creation)
Who do I include?
Who do I exclude?
Continue to refine our vision of the BC, and put this vision into words that can be shared with anyone we met
Consider how your gifts and talents can be used in the ministries of reconciliation, community building, and healing
Make a new friend
Smile at a stranger
Invite someone into conversation
Listen more, talk less (“You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger” James 1:19)
How could you use your insights, assets, and relationships for the sake of justice-making and healing?
Money
Time
Language
Assumptions/Stereotypes
Carbon footprint
This starts with cultivating an ethic of listening – because we find ourselves in the Beloved Community when we understand ourselves as in relationship with others.
Continuing to explore this concept of BC in Lent as we read Rob Bell’s book, Love Wins, and discuss the concepts of heaven and hell and who goes where – if either; then again in March and April as we hear of atypical ministries to communities that we may deem “unworthy”; and in our individual lives as we cultivate ethics of listening
Recap of energy/pulse
This is what we experienced with our opening pulse energizer. I couldn’t receive the energy without you, just as you couldn’t without me. Though a group of individuals beautiful in our diversity, we became one.
Since going to heaven and hell next week, I want to leave us with a Biblical vision of a Heavenly blueprint for a Beloved Community à because, if we’re called to bring Heaven on earth, then we are called to make oneness in our diversity, a reality:
“After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands.” (Revelation 7:9) Amen.