Beloved Community

07/28/2024

Growth.
Galatians 5:22-23
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

07/21/2024

Joshua 14:12

Give Me This Mountain.

Preaching with some audacity this morning in a season where courage and wisdom is desperately needed. I have followed Black women all my life. I am the product of womanism from the womb.

The longer I live, the truer it seems and the deeper I understand my grandmother and mother.

In many ways I am a part of my grandmother's deepest hopes and she loved me before she got to see and understand its full fruition—but she believed in my potential to be a different kind of man.

I am still in thrall to her love.

It is the attitude that is a core pillar of my faith.

I fear nothing.

I love ferociously.

I laugh constantly.

I work tirelessly.

I rest in my the sabbath of my creative powers and imagination.

Thank you Pearl and Sarah.

06/16/2024

Fathers as wounded healers.
Mark 5 and Mark 9

The powers of deep loving.

05/13/2024

The core and heart of Beloved

05/13/2024

I feel this morning the profoundest appreciation for my own mother and everyone of my great friends and teachers and colleagues that share in the divine power of the DEFINITIVE form LOVE takes.

I love you Pearl, Sarah, Tiny, Bernadean, Sarah Joyce, Aileen, Bernadette, Sarah Elaine, Ms. Tanner-Price, Ms Sprott, Ms. Sledge, Ms Lelah Wilson, and Deirdre, Joleta and Leslie and Barbara.

Cheryle Renee Chapman Hanna, Jacqueline Glass Burch, Jacqueline Lyde, LeQuita Porter, Nell Quest Curran, Sharon Redding, Leslie Callahan, Charisse Tucker, Antionette Ellison, Avril Somerville, Rhonda Rhone, Nia Tuckson, Alisa Blair, Elesa Commerce, Sharan Bell Miller, Nafeesah Goldsmith, TJ Crute,

Wanda Madison Minor, Margaret Quern Atkins, Terri Dawn Tanner,Sharan Bell Miller, Carla Jones Brown, Kay Moses, Bridgette Willie Granson and —indeed every incredible woman that had added so much to my life and story and definition and articulation of love...even the nameless vital courageously grieving women of the "Nains" of my life that changed my life and remade my destiny with their prayers and faith and their "the-Lord-will-make-a-way-somehow" importunity! .

Thank you each and every soul.

May today's miracle find you.

05/01/2024

Every just protest is illegal and offensive to otherwise decent people.

04/29/2024

I know there are others
feeling a madness
swirling ragefully
in their bellies
because of lies
believed, cancer chosen
in lieu of a healing shame.

Because we know
we are not alone
I am calling out to you
softly, urgently
with the whisper
of keys struck
seriously watered by words read

truths on scaffolds
that may yet topple
enthroned wrongs
on "demonic grounds"
resacrilized by lonely deaths
remembered and sung
wearily.

02/06/2024

If we are honest with ourselves, deeply imbedded within most of us is an appetite, even a desire for subtle forms of violence in play, intimacy and exercise, exertion, sport etc.

This rule and care bound violence is akin to the death and destruction dealing wages of war and domination at the center of our most profound social challenges.

More courageous thought and conversation is necessary before we can heal from the wounds we have woven into the fabric of what we call a society and culture.

We lack generally a maturity to admit fault and commit to forms of redemption that are not punitive but restorative.

Because we have made sports our new religion, I am hopeful that our rooting interests might help us grow closer to each other, somehow, eventually.

01/31/2024

I just listened to Rev Dr. Gina Stewart's very fine sermon at the National Baptist Convention https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XApzUZXNriY, I am thankful for her courageous witness. It has restored a good measure of my pride in my Baptist ordination (one of three professional affiliations I hold and wear as rather loose garments). I have always admired this courageous thought leader and a few conversations with her have served, like this message, to remind me of why I treasure my connection to this prophetic heritage in all its complexity. She continues to inspire me to not give up my voice and claim with pride my confidence of this reading of the gospel of Jesus and its vital importance and relevance in these troubled times. Thank you Leslie Callahan for bringing it to my attention. I will press on..."Claudia, indeed!"

Dr. Gina Stewart 2024 National Baptist Convention Memphis, TN

01/14/2024

King Sunday @ Beloved Community 2024

Matthew 2:12

And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way. And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.

Shared Dreams

01/07/2024

January 7th 2024

Commit Connect Contribute
Beloved Community Theme 2024

What is Epiphany? And Why Is It So Important?

Matthew Matthew 2:1-12

12/24/2023

At the center of every holy festival is a miracle that represents the cooperation between the divine and the human.

This holy season represents another gracious opportunity for us to rededicate ourselves to the highest ideals, virtues (habits) and our submission to the power of the ultimate reality in the universe: LOVE.

It is sustained by LOVE. Remembered in LOVE. Expressed most faithfully in LOVING.

God chooses love not empire to transform the world.

We must do likewise.