Reflections on The Conference of the Americas: Conversation as a Path Toward Beloved Community
By Nicole Reinhart
“For if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there at the altar and go. First be reconciled with your brother and then come and offer your gift” Mat 5: 23-24 (ESV)*
* * *
In July I stood for the first time on the steps of Ebenezer Baptist Church, where our modern American saint Dr King spoke from the pulpit one of his most profound sermons, “Loving Your Enemies.” I had just stepped off public transit in Atlanta, surrounded by people who did not look like me. People whose lives had been fundamentally shaped by the Civil Rights Movement and the American legacy of enslavement in ways I struggle to comprehend as a white person from the rural places of New England. As I sat on the train, I could not help but be uncomfortable, acutely aware of the history of this place, my relative ignorance, and of course, the simple facts of such immense difference. As I sat there, watching the landscape shift from industrial wasteland to working class neighborhood, I turned my heart to Him. And I heard in resounding matter-of-factness, “You are all in my body.”
In these simple words I felt a new peace descend upon me, for we are all, in a very basic reality, held within His heart. In each of our individual stories, we shape the contours of His own body. The wounds of the past, and the differences between myself and my brothers and sisters before me did not fall away, but a healing doorway opened and a bridge to the other was revealed. I felt that no matter what encounter unfolded in the next moments, it would contain His peace within it, alongside such wounding, for His body is continually shaped by both.
I found myself in Atlanta through an invitation to join my fellow seminarians as conversation facilitators at The Conference of the Americas of the Christian Community. In our days there we met fellow members of our movement from as far south as Argentina, as far north as Ottawa, and all of the US, South America and Mexico in between. Within the vessel of the conference theme “The Body of Christ: Earth, Community, Sacrament” we gathered together each morning to receive a “seed talk” on a theme. From here we moved into conversation groups that were arranged by chance, or perhaps better said, “Destiny Groups.” These groups remained the same throughout the conference and took up the work of gathering questions that arose out of each seed talk. These questions were then offered to the entire conference to take into further conversation. In this way, the “Destiny Groups” stood in the middle of a sort of trinity within the conference format. Receiving a seed from the Father and sending a question into the working realm of a new community formed through the Holy Spirit. And in between, the working of devoted hearts that hold the receiving and sending, neither changing it nor distorting it to its own will. In this way we strive to reveal the image of Jesus who receives His task from the Father, and sends His apostles into the world to offer it to all nations.
The center piece of a “Destiny Group,” made up of items from each person’s place in the world and reflection words from the conference week.
This is of course the spiritual ideal that can live in the intention of a conversation facilitator, who receives not only the content of the seed talk but also the hearts who join together in the chairs circled around a single goal: what is the question that is longing to be heard? And, as all who have worked in community will know, this ideal lives and breathes through the fallen image of our individual unfinished-ness and our inherited brokenness from the Garden of Eden. Out of our own wounding, we cannot help but wound. These wounds may not carry the generational weight of oppressive violence that Dr King and his community experienced. And still, Jesus instructs us that in His upside down Kingdom, anger of the heart, even in the smallest dehumanization of another, brings back upon itself His highest judgement:
“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgement.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with their brothers will be liable to judgement; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says to his brother ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire” Mat 5: 21-22.
In these times it is a Sisyphean task to climb out of a heart of anger. When we look into the world there is a great deal to feed and nurture our anger. Many of us are deeply affected by the world wounds of the past. All of us know the interpersonal rifts that form within our own congregations. In his own words, Dr King did not set out to radically change the world. Instead he followed a call to serve his God in all ways, and he found that in following that will, he could only say yes to the most profound experience of forgiveness. Most of us are not called to destinies that reshape human karma on a world stage. Still, our longing for human intimacy—to be truly seen and heard by each other—calls us into our own transfiguration through the working of the Beloved Community. In a sense, the circle of chairs that seeks a shared question is “the ring (that) rounds off the corners of life.”*
We can be grateful that our inborn hope of reconciliation with God has now matured through the Cross into a hope to be reconciled with our brothers and sisters. And, we can be grateful that we are not alone in this task. Each of us who is called to support the forming of His body through community conversations may receive into our devoted hearts the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit who leads us into carrying the wounds of others with gentleness and steadfast love. We may breathe in the resting nature of His peace—not a peace free from conflict, but a peace reconciled with the ever-present cycle of wounding and healing. In our selfless striving we may receive the strengthening prayers of one of our greatest teachers, St Paul:
“May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God” Rom 15:5.
The center piece of a “Destiny Group,” made up of items from each person’s place in the world and reflection words from the conference week.
*All scripture excerpts are from the English Standard Version (ESV) translation
*As spoken in the Sacrament of Marriage in the Christian Community, that blesses and calls forth a unique community of life.
Nicole Reinhart is a “Knowing Christ” student in Toronto. When at home you will find her roping her family into her latest gardening project or walking the tide pools and pine forests of Maine.
This is a blog entry by The Seminary of the Christian Community in North America. These are posted weekly by the student blog team of Athena Masilungan, Nicole Reinhart, and Lincoln Earle-Centers. For more information about our seminary, see the website: www.christiancommunityseminary.ca and for more video/audio content check out the Seminary’s Patreon page: www.patreon.com/ccseminary/posts.
The views expressed in this blog entry are the views of its author, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Seminary, its directors, or the Christian Community.