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Morning Devotion for the Season of Epiphany

January 19, 2024

Invitatory

Glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine: Glory to him from generation to generation in the Church, and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever, Amen.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

Reading from Brothers in the Beloved Community: The Friendship of Thich Nhat Hanh and Martin Luther King Jr., by Marc Andrus:

When I was a young priest, serving as a curate in a large suburban parish outside of Philadelphia, more than thirty years ago, I had one parishioner who would write me letters about my sermons……I will never forget one of her beautifully penned letters, after a sermon in which I made an equivalency between evil during the time of Jesus and in our own day. In sum, I had said things hadn’t gotten any better; perhaps given population and technology, things were worse. She chided me for a lack of faith (in the genuinely nicest way), and went on to write that Christ is inexorably moving the world toward its completion and that this was true–outward appearances to the contrary. It was crucial, she wrote, to lend our conscious efforts to the divine energies of Christ, out of loyalty and love, because it is our best nature. Dorothy Love Saunder’s message to me is the message of the Beloved Community, the beautiful reality tended to and explicated by King, taken up in loving friendship by Nhat Hanh, and–beyond him–given to us all. The responsibility for tending, healing, restoring, and fulfilling the Beloved Community is a fearsome gift, and one of infinite worth.

Meditation-Rebecca Northington

I chose this passage for many reasons. I love a subtle “shout out” to Redeemer from the Bishop of California. I also love that Marc included this bit about Mrs. Saunders, because if you know Marc, you know that every interaction, and every friendship stays with him and influences his heart and mind; even, or especially, an older woman who might have a radically different world view or experience than a young clergyman. But mostly, I chose this excerpt because it captures much of what Marc’s book is trying to explain through the exploration of King and Nhat Hanh’s friendship: the Beloved Community can be built through the hard work of loving ourselves and sharing that love, unconditionally, with the people and world around us.

Marc Andrus was the “Winnie” of my youth group days here at Redeemer. He was the curate, or associate rector, during the most formative years of my life, and really opened my heart and mind to the impact of loving God and loving our neighbors. I have stayed in close touch with him all of these years and was not at all surprised when I was given this book and read the introduction. As I prepared for Youth Group this past Sunday of MLK weekend, it seemed appropriate to introduce this vision of the Beloved Community to the youth. And no better spokesperson than Marc to help us to understand our role in effecting positive change. As Mrs. Saunders so eloquently conveyed, we can all be a part of this movement and it only enhances our own “best nature”.

I confess that many of the kids were uncomfortable with this term Beloved Community; and in fact some of the adults as well. It sounded ‘culty’ to them. My understanding from King, and from Marc, is less suspicious and more hopeful. Jesus pointed us all towards building the Kingdom of Heaven here on Earth, to the extent that we can, with any of our given characteristics or talents. At RYG, for example, these last couple of weeks, we have been talking at length about finding the gray, or in between, on polarizing issues. Our hope as leaders is that the kids can learn to reach across divisive “us against them” topics. We hope that they can talk about the kind of concerns that silence some, or devolve into bitter battles amongst others. For me, this is one approach to building the Beloved Community. If we can attempt to understand the perspective of the other, we can start to move towards them in friendship, with love and compassion.

There are so many wonderful passages in this book that elucidate King’s vision of the Beloved Community through his friendship with the Buddhist monk Nhat Hanh, and through their mutual love, compassion and work on behalf of others and because of their faith. I leave you with one that captures a critical aspect of building such a community and starts with each one of us, as Mrs. Saunders pointed out. Nhat Hanh was known globally for bringing the world mindfulness. “At the core of Nhat Hanh’s teachings about mindfulness is nonduality: as peace flowers in your heart, so it flowers in the universe. As the Beloved Community is repaired, built, manifested in your consciousness, so it is healed for all beings”. One Seminary professor explained it as a triangle, with God at the top, and ourselves and our neighbors on each of the other points. The goal is to love God first and foremost, and secondarily ourselves and our neighbors, in balance, with a constant connection between all three points. This visual for me represents King and Nhat Hanh’s version of the Beloved Community.

Epiphany Collect

O God, by the leading of a star you manifested your only Son to the Peoples of the earth: Lead us, who know you now by faith, to your presence, where we may see your glory face to face; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.