March 2023
Reflection
We find ourselves in the midst of Lent and our sermon series focusing on our disciplines of Contemplation, Relationships and Just Action.
As I consider our three disciplines, I am in the midst of reading a biography of Rev. Howard Thurman, a tremendously influential African American pastor and mystic of the 20th century. In his book, Disciplines of the Spirit, he digs into these disciplines and his understanding of love:
Behold the miracle! Love is no awareness of merit or demerit; it has no scale by which its portion may be weighed or measured. It does not seek to balance giving and receiving. Love loves; this is its nature. This does not mean that it is blind, naive, or pretentious, but rather that love holds its object securely in its grasp, calling all that it sees by its true name but surrounding all with a wisdom born both of its passion and its understanding. Here is no traffic in sentimentality, no catering either to weakness or to strength. Instead, there is robust vitality that quickens the roots of personality, creating an unfolding of the self that redefines, reshapes and makes all things new. Such an experience is so fundamental that an individual knows that what is happening to him can outlast all things without itself being dissipated or lost.
Whence comes this power which seems to be the point of referral for all experience and the essence of all meaning? No created thing, no single unit of life, can be the source of such fullness and completeness. For in the experience itself a man is caught and held by something so much more than he can ever think or be that there is but one word by which its meaning can be encompassed – God. Hence the Psalmist says that as long as the love of God shines on us undimmed, not only may the darkness obscure, but we may find our way to a point in other hearts beyond all weakness and all strength, beyond all that is good or evil. There is nothing outside ourselves – no circumstance, no condition, no vicissitude – that can ultimately separate us from the love of God or of one another. And we pour out our gratitude to God that this is so!
I find Rev. Thurman’s words an incredibly powerful reminder of God’s love for us. And how that is a love we are to live out with one another, no matter who. It is a powerful call. And our three disciplines are meant to be grounded in this love which Thurman describes and the disciplines help us live them out. Contemplation provides us space to connect with God in a focused, intentional manner. Relationships provide us the opportunity to give and receive this love with one another, to reach out to our neighbor and as Jesus deeply challenged us, even, to our enemy. Finally, Just Action is an opportunity to live out this love when dealing with the structures of our society and to work to address the gaps in these institutions and to hold these institutions accountable to care for everyone.