“If one member suffers, all suffer together with it, if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.”
1 Corinthians 12:26 NRSV.
During Charge Conference season last year, I reflected on the meaning of belonging. Specifically, I reflected about moments in which I felt that I fully belonged to a community. I realized that the different spaces where I was embraced, loved, accepted, and where my faith and my call was nurtured, made a huge difference in my life. Unconsciously, we often diminish the power of creating spaces where people’s sense of belonging is nurtured. I am convinced that more than ever our world desperately needs places of belonging. Many people keep isolated and disconnected from places of belonging. Many people are increasingly indifferent to belong to a worship community, and that reality should become an opportunity for us, the Body of Christ, his church, to offer safe and brave spaces where people are loved, accepted, and where people’s faith is nurtured.
In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he talks about the Church being the Body of Christ, and he emphasizes how this body is composed for many members. In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians we find a guideline that can help us as we strive to create spaces of belonging: “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it, if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.” Fostering a culture of belonging requires from us to adopt a posture of solidarity, identifying those who are suffering in our midst, and celebrating with those being honored.
This week we celebrated the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, and one of his many contributions that have impacted my live is the notion of the Beloved Community. Here is a great piece of this notion[1]:
Dr. King’s Beloved Community is a global vision, in which all people can share in the wealth of the earth. In the Beloved Community, poverty, hunger and homelessness will not be tolerated because international standards of human decency will not allow it. Racism and all forms of discrimination, bigotry and prejudice will be replaced by an all-inclusive spirit of sisterhood and brotherhood. In the Beloved Community, international disputes will be resolved by peaceful conflict-resolution and reconciliation of adversaries, instead of military power. Love and trust will triumph over fear and hatred. Peace with justice will prevail over war and military conflict.
Dr. King’s Beloved Community was not devoid of interpersonal, group or international conflict. Instead he recognized that conflict was an inevitable part of human experience. But he believed that conflicts could be resolved peacefully and adversaries could be reconciled through a mutual, determined commitment to nonviolence. No conflict, he believed, need erupt in violence. And all conflicts in The Beloved Community should end with reconciliation of adversaries cooperating together in a spirit of friendship and goodwill.
The notion of the Beloved Community is a powerful tool as we think about creating spaces of belonging. In short, the Beloved Community is about making sure that everyone belongs, especially those who have been historically marginalized. It is also about honoring all the members of the Body of Christ, so that if we suffer or celebrate, we do it together.
Almighty God, keep nurturing our sense of belonging to you, so that we can make others feel that they belong. Amen.
[1] Taken from: https://thekingcenter.org/about-tkc/the-king-philosophy/
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