Beloved Community
Preached 2/7/2021 at SouthWest UU in N. Royalton OH
By Rev. Meg Mathieson
The theme for the month of February is Beloved Community. Or more precisely, what it means to be a people of Beloved Community. Let’s think about that this morning.
The phrase “Beloved Community” was popularized by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and I have to assume that it wasn’t a coincidence that the good people at Soul Matters chose this theme for February, as it is Black History Month.
So what is a Beloved Community? According to Dr. King, the goal of all social action, the goal of our lives, really, should be to create Beloved Community. Dr. C. Anthony Hunt has identified 9 features of Dr. King’s Beloved Community. Let’s look at them:
The first feature of Dr. King’s Beloved Community is that it is rooted in what he called “agape love.” If you were here in person I would put you on the spot and ask who knows what “agape love” is.
CS Lewis wrote of “the four loves” - that is, four Greek words for love that refer to different types of love. There is affection, like saying “I love ice cream!” That’s a different type of love from friendship. A third type of love is “eros” or romantic love. The first three loves: the way you love ice cream, the way you love your family, and the way you love a spouse or lover. The fourth type of love, according to CS Lewis, is “agape love.”
This is what Dr. King pointed to as the love that makes Beloved Community. It is more than the other three loves. It is stronger, deeper, and more profound, and it grows out of the other three loves. CS Lewis said that agape love is the way that God loves us, and the perfect love that we all long for.
Dr. King said that agape love is the love of God operating in the human heart, and it is what creates Beloved Community. I think that’s an important point. As we strive to be in Beloved Community with one another, and as we look this month at what it means to be, as Unitarian Universalists, a people of Beloved Community, we recognize that it means that we strive to be in a state of agape love with one another. This is a love that says “everyone is welcome here,” not out of a desire to be woke or cool, not out of a desire to see a wider variety of people in our midst or to add more melanin to our membership roles. Is it an openhearted, joyful love that welcomes from the deepest part of our heart. I would not hesitate to say that we do that here at SWUU. Being a beloved community does not mean that we constantly get along! But it means approaching one another with an open, kind agape love. Perhaps some might say metta or loving-kindness.
Whew, so there are 9 features of Dr. King’s beloved Community and I just spent like 5 minutes going over one of them? How long is this sermon going to be? Well, that first one, agape, is the most important. The others we can go over more quickly.
The second feature of Beloved Community according to Dr. King regards power. Even as a community that is committed to the democratic process, there will always be natural power imbalances. Dr. King says that power is always to be expressed within the context of love. He said, “Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”
So when the board votes and makes decisions, they are to do it from a place of love. Is this a Beloved Community? I’ll give you a hint: every Board meeting has a moment on the agenda for jokes. These are not terribly power-hungry people! In our Beloved Community, those with power strive to express it in the context of love. And levity.
Third, Beloved Community recognizes the inherent worth and dignity in each person. Our first principle.
Fourth, through agape love, Beloved Community offers radical hospitality, justice, and equity to everyone. This is our second principle.
Fifth, Beloved Community holds to Mahatma Gandhi’s policy of Satyagraha or “soul force,” which insists on non-violent resistance.
Sixth: Faith and action are inextricably intertwined in Beloved Community. We don’t just talk the talk, we walk the walk. The agape of Beloved Community doesn’t sit still, it requires action.
Seventh: Beloved Community affirms that all life is interrelated. I can’t hurt you without also hurting myself. When I help you, I also benefit. We are united. Ubuntu, the popular Zulu word captures this so well. I am because we are. I am who I am because of who we are. This is explicitly our 7th Principle.
Eighth: This sort of combines numbers six and seven: The action that is required by agape love must be taken on by everyone. It is not a singular action. We all have responsibility to do, to help. We may have different callings and different gifts to give, but we are all called by the action of agape, deep, real, holy love, to act.
The last one is that Beloved Community seeks to build increasing levels of trust among people across differences. It works to overcome fear of difference and fear of others through authentic human engagement and a striving toward community-building and peace-making.
You have probably heard me call our congregation a Beloved Community. People who are more careful with language might disagree with my just flinging the term around, but Dr. King himself acknowledged that Beloved Community is an aspirational state. As Unitarian Universalists, we strive to be in Beloved Community, even when we are not quite there.
We can always ask, how can we draw ever closer to this Beloved Community that Dr. King prescribed? And I think it’s helpful to start at the beginning, with that first feature I listed. Do you remember what it was?
Agape. Agape love. You can’t possibly go wrong with agape love. During this time of COVID, it’s more difficult than ever to do outreach. How do we volunteer? How do we march? How can we fight to eradicate racism and defend the environment and all of the action that agape requires of us? Perhaps, in this time of physical isolation, we are called to look inward for a while. We are called to read and to listen and to participate quietly in sending lovingkindness out to a hurting world.
Don’t worry - there will come a time for marches and knocking on politicians’ doors. Some of you are still doing that and good for you! For those of us who are in a state of stasis, that’s okay. It can be a time of turning inward and cultivating agape love. For yourself and for others. Because we are connected. We are united. Ubuntu.
Let’s end this message on Beloved Community together this morning by doing a quick lovingkindness exercise. As you feel comfortable, please close your eyes or soften your gaze. Your body can be in any position, as long as you are comfortable. Do a body scan. How are you feeling? Is there physical pain? Is there psychic or emotional pain? Try to notice how you feel without judgement. This is how you feel in this moment. It is not how you will feel forever. Good feelings, bad feelings, they all pass. Enjoy any comfort you may feel, but know that this too will pass. Now, remind yourself that any bad feelings, physical or otherwise are normal, are arising as part of the human condition, part of having a human experience. Now I’d like you to support yourself by saying out loud or quietly in your head to yourself, “may I be kind to myself” and “may I give myself what I need”
You need to take care of yourself, be kind to yourself, give yourself what you need in order to cultivate agape love, the love that recognizes that we are all connected, we are all one. Let the warmth of agape love touch you. Is it coming from within? Or do you feel it coming from outside - in?
Just breathe, allowing yourself to create or absorb agape love. Recognizing that we are all, together, in this moment, reaching toward the same thing, reaching toward Beloved Community, the end goal - the whole point of church!
And as you come back, wiggle your toes or fingers and let the universal lovingkindness of agape linger with you as we sing our final hymn.
Preached 2/7/2021 at SouthWest UU in N. Royalton OH
By Rev. Meg Mathieson
The theme for the month of February is Beloved Community. Or more precisely, what it means to be a people of Beloved Community. Let’s think about that this morning.
The phrase “Beloved Community” was popularized by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and I have to assume that it wasn’t a coincidence that the good people at Soul Matters chose this theme for February, as it is Black History Month.
So what is a Beloved Community? According to Dr. King, the goal of all social action, the goal of our lives, really, should be to create Beloved Community. Dr. C. Anthony Hunt has identified 9 features of Dr. King’s Beloved Community. Let’s look at them:
The first feature of Dr. King’s Beloved Community is that it is rooted in what he called “agape love.” If you were here in person I would put you on the spot and ask who knows what “agape love” is.
CS Lewis wrote of “the four loves” - that is, four Greek words for love that refer to different types of love. There is affection, like saying “I love ice cream!” That’s a different type of love from friendship. A third type of love is “eros” or romantic love. The first three loves: the way you love ice cream, the way you love your family, and the way you love a spouse or lover. The fourth type of love, according to CS Lewis, is “agape love.”
This is what Dr. King pointed to as the love that makes Beloved Community. It is more than the other three loves. It is stronger, deeper, and more profound, and it grows out of the other three loves. CS Lewis said that agape love is the way that God loves us, and the perfect love that we all long for.
Dr. King said that agape love is the love of God operating in the human heart, and it is what creates Beloved Community. I think that’s an important point. As we strive to be in Beloved Community with one another, and as we look this month at what it means to be, as Unitarian Universalists, a people of Beloved Community, we recognize that it means that we strive to be in a state of agape love with one another. This is a love that says “everyone is welcome here,” not out of a desire to be woke or cool, not out of a desire to see a wider variety of people in our midst or to add more melanin to our membership roles. Is it an openhearted, joyful love that welcomes from the deepest part of our heart. I would not hesitate to say that we do that here at SWUU. Being a beloved community does not mean that we constantly get along! But it means approaching one another with an open, kind agape love. Perhaps some might say metta or loving-kindness.
Whew, so there are 9 features of Dr. King’s beloved Community and I just spent like 5 minutes going over one of them? How long is this sermon going to be? Well, that first one, agape, is the most important. The others we can go over more quickly.
The second feature of Beloved Community according to Dr. King regards power. Even as a community that is committed to the democratic process, there will always be natural power imbalances. Dr. King says that power is always to be expressed within the context of love. He said, “Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”
So when the board votes and makes decisions, they are to do it from a place of love. Is this a Beloved Community? I’ll give you a hint: every Board meeting has a moment on the agenda for jokes. These are not terribly power-hungry people! In our Beloved Community, those with power strive to express it in the context of love. And levity.
Third, Beloved Community recognizes the inherent worth and dignity in each person. Our first principle.
Fourth, through agape love, Beloved Community offers radical hospitality, justice, and equity to everyone. This is our second principle.
Fifth, Beloved Community holds to Mahatma Gandhi’s policy of Satyagraha or “soul force,” which insists on non-violent resistance.
Sixth: Faith and action are inextricably intertwined in Beloved Community. We don’t just talk the talk, we walk the walk. The agape of Beloved Community doesn’t sit still, it requires action.
Seventh: Beloved Community affirms that all life is interrelated. I can’t hurt you without also hurting myself. When I help you, I also benefit. We are united. Ubuntu, the popular Zulu word captures this so well. I am because we are. I am who I am because of who we are. This is explicitly our 7th Principle.
Eighth: This sort of combines numbers six and seven: The action that is required by agape love must be taken on by everyone. It is not a singular action. We all have responsibility to do, to help. We may have different callings and different gifts to give, but we are all called by the action of agape, deep, real, holy love, to act.
The last one is that Beloved Community seeks to build increasing levels of trust among people across differences. It works to overcome fear of difference and fear of others through authentic human engagement and a striving toward community-building and peace-making.
You have probably heard me call our congregation a Beloved Community. People who are more careful with language might disagree with my just flinging the term around, but Dr. King himself acknowledged that Beloved Community is an aspirational state. As Unitarian Universalists, we strive to be in Beloved Community, even when we are not quite there.
We can always ask, how can we draw ever closer to this Beloved Community that Dr. King prescribed? And I think it’s helpful to start at the beginning, with that first feature I listed. Do you remember what it was?
Agape. Agape love. You can’t possibly go wrong with agape love. During this time of COVID, it’s more difficult than ever to do outreach. How do we volunteer? How do we march? How can we fight to eradicate racism and defend the environment and all of the action that agape requires of us? Perhaps, in this time of physical isolation, we are called to look inward for a while. We are called to read and to listen and to participate quietly in sending lovingkindness out to a hurting world.
Don’t worry - there will come a time for marches and knocking on politicians’ doors. Some of you are still doing that and good for you! For those of us who are in a state of stasis, that’s okay. It can be a time of turning inward and cultivating agape love. For yourself and for others. Because we are connected. We are united. Ubuntu.
Let’s end this message on Beloved Community together this morning by doing a quick lovingkindness exercise. As you feel comfortable, please close your eyes or soften your gaze. Your body can be in any position, as long as you are comfortable. Do a body scan. How are you feeling? Is there physical pain? Is there psychic or emotional pain? Try to notice how you feel without judgement. This is how you feel in this moment. It is not how you will feel forever. Good feelings, bad feelings, they all pass. Enjoy any comfort you may feel, but know that this too will pass. Now, remind yourself that any bad feelings, physical or otherwise are normal, are arising as part of the human condition, part of having a human experience. Now I’d like you to support yourself by saying out loud or quietly in your head to yourself, “may I be kind to myself” and “may I give myself what I need”
You need to take care of yourself, be kind to yourself, give yourself what you need in order to cultivate agape love, the love that recognizes that we are all connected, we are all one. Let the warmth of agape love touch you. Is it coming from within? Or do you feel it coming from outside - in?
Just breathe, allowing yourself to create or absorb agape love. Recognizing that we are all, together, in this moment, reaching toward the same thing, reaching toward Beloved Community, the end goal - the whole point of church!
And as you come back, wiggle your toes or fingers and let the universal lovingkindness of agape linger with you as we sing our final hymn.