Reconciliation

But the end is reconciliation; the end is redemption; the end is the creation of the beloved community. It is this type of spirit and this type of love that can transform opposers into friends. It is this type of understanding goodwill that will transform the deep gloom of the old age into the exuberant gladness of the new age. It is this love which will bring about miracles in the hearts of men.

                     Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “Facing the Challenge of a New Age,” 1956

 

Our goal is to create a beloved community and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives.

                     Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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today lets talk of love

not eros love, that “feeling you feel when you get a feeling you never felt before”

that’s not love, that’s hormones

 

not philia, reciprocal love, the friendship between people with similar values, beliefs and interests,

 

not storge love, familial affection where blood is thicker than water

 

but agape love

Love

which is tangibly present in our lives as Spirit

Spirit with a big “S” not a small “s”

 

Spirit, the presence of the Sacred within us

which is the “secret” Paul wrote, to everything

especially hope

 

I believe that we all carry Love within us

we all carry Sacred

we all have the seed of the divine

Sacred DNA

which makes us Sacred Children

AKA – Children of God

 

Martin Luther King Jr believed that when this Love is alive

when the Holy Spirit is rocking and rolling in our souls

we experience miracles of the heart

 

I agree

 

the presence of the Spirit changes us

that presence was so present and active in Jesus that the distinction

between the Sacred and the mundane (human)

became meaningless

 

I will never get there

Nor will you

Jesus was unique, and intentional “first born” Paul suggests

 

but still, as the Spirit moves

we are transformed

and one of the great transformations is this

 

we see other people a different way

 

most of the time the space between us is too filled

with the differences

 

political

religious

ideology

economic

 

the list is endless

 

and these differences are a challenge

the cause fear, and misunderstanding

the create hate and bias

they divide us

 

we struggle to be a “community”

we struggle to find the “bonds of affection”

to see ourselves as brothers and sisters

 

just as we cannot be “new creations”

transformed people

without the inner working of Sacred Presence

so we cannot become a “beloved community”

without that same spirit

which works within each of us

creating bridges of love and compassion

between one another

 

it is the Spirit in me

that connects with the Spirit in you

which connects with the Spirit of that person down the street

that is the secret

 

if we can begin to understand we all carry the same DNA

if we can begin to see with the eyes of Jesus, the eyes of the Spirit

and catch that glimmer of the divine in the person in front of us…

 

whoever that person might be

black, brown

rich, poor

LGBTQI or Cis

left or right

red or blue

 

then we can begin find the beloved community

that place where

justice rolls like a river

and righteousness like a never failing stream (Amos 5)