Three Threads|Love, Upliftment, & Encouragement

Love’s Unfolding

Hello friends,

Thank you for the honour to offer a few reflections to those graduating – Jim and Keith – and to the Circle in general. I am grateful for Nancy’s inclusion and Kathleen’s invitation to again share space and time with you.

Nancy helpfully suggested three areas that might be a thread that runs through both the liturgy and programme marking the end of another Circle. These three areas also highlight the milestone of Keith’s and Jim’s completion of journeying in the Circle. Such an ending is fraught with the emotions that come with all endings and new beginnings, so I hope these threads are hopeful in this time of reflection: Love, Upliftment, and Encouragement.

Love: Let me begin by sharing the first academic passion that set my course to be with you today. As a young Classicist, I was always struck by the fact that the Ancient Greeks had no less than six words to try to capture the reality that love is not simply an entity or thing, but an energy, a form, a way of being in the world:

• Eros (Sexual Passion);
• Philia (Deep Friendship);
• Ludus (Playful Love);
• Agape (Love for All);
• Pragma (Longstanding Love); and,
• Philautia (Love of Self).

These words do not create boundaries or limitations; they are simply ways to try to understand the breadth and task for which you have been preparing. As those who bear the Good News, being in places that embody Love, such as this Circle, you have been afforded time and space to learn how to bring that energy into the world.

This is both a great responsibility and a burden light. Letting Love in, modelling Christ in the World, is a Call to which you have all responded, and Keith and Jim are now well prepared as they leave the sacredness of the Circle. I pray that as you depart this space, you will be intentional in building networks that ensure you stay true to Love in the world, so you can continue to live into the two other threads: Upliftment and Encouragement.

The Circle is one place where you are being uplifted – where you are exploring and embracing the reality that you are truly blessed, Creator’s Child, and that you possess a spark Divine. This is not an easy spiritual awakening. It can be hard as we deconstruct narratives of hurt and harm, diminishment and trauma. As with all Circles, we are reminded that there is a balance required that comes with the humility of such awareness.

Advent|Love

As you leave this Circle, strive to uplift those with whom you walk, whether in formal ministry or in the spaces where church and the world meet. Those with whom you build relationships will have internalised painful messages, and you will find ways to offer healing. Such uplifting allows each person to be transformed into the disciples they are invited to be. In this task, you must be one who offers encouragement.

In the Circle, you have learned that encouragement is often offered as a gentle challenge, a naming of the work you must do to bear Love, to share the Good News. In the Circle you have been asked to look inward and outward; you have had to confront your own issues and challenges and find ways with which to reconcile and integrate the shadows in your lives.

This integration and reconciliation are vitally important in the practice of self-care. Leadership roles require wellness. If we are not well, that shining Divine Spark can become obscured with the temptations of the ego and the world.

You have been encouraged to recognise your own assumptions and biases, as well as those of the world and our United Church. This faithful digging allows you to wrestle with such challenging topics as engaging in reconciliation, being a Settler institution, and discovering the work that needs to be done to heal Creation. With this wrestling, we are invited to embrace learning as a lifelong commitment that will always challenge us to be true to the path upon which we have been set.

From this inner Circle work, you now go forth into ministries that also require such encouragement. And this task is ultimately central to Love. How we help people and churches to be not mired in apathy, privilege, and cynicism is important in order to unlock Creator’s universal and unconditional Love in our homes, places of worship, and work. In this encouraging, we begin to turn away from narratives of deficit and violence, toward living in a good way embraced by abundance and promise.

Ultimately, Love, Upliftment, and Encouragement are threads of how to be honest with ourselves and offer leadership that is authentic. This time in the Circle is one way you have lived into your discipleship. May this practice carry you forward into a world where Good News reveals Hope in the midst of human shadows.

May It Be So.