Me, Us, and Them - Spiritual Movements of Hospitality

Me, Us, and Them

Mark 12: 30-31

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” The second is this, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.’

                The transformation of SCUCC into an Urban Abbey is going to take us from a place where like-minded people gather on Sunday morning to experience lively worship into a community of people committed to each other and committed to becoming fully human. Full humanity is what we become when we nurture our best selves, and open ourselves to the Divine presence. It means living our lives in search of a balance, and it means doing this every day of our lives. It is Sunday plus plus plus.

                In her book, “Radical Hospitality”, Loni Collins Pratt describes the spiritual rhythm of a monastery as making time for Cloister, Community, and Hospitality. She defines these terms in this way:

“Cloister refers to the time a monk is alone, or you are alone. It is the apartness of solitude and silence. Community refers to your closest relationships, the people with whom you share your life. The monk shares life with his community of brother monks. You have friends, family, maybe a spouse or partner. Hospitality refers to your interactions in all other relationships, especially those outside the security of your comfort zone—relationships with the stranger.

OSB, Fr. Daniel; Loni Collins Pratt (2011-11-01). Radical Hospitality (Kindle Locations 1475-1480). Paraclete Press. Kindle Edition.

                SCUCC’s Urban Abbey is not asking everyone to become a monk or a nun. It will require us to adopt intentionality about melding our daily lives and our spiritual lives. Urban Abbey provides people the support, the means, and an opportunity to live a fully human life. To be fully human integrates the aspects of cloister, community and hospitality. Or, to use language more common to us, “Me, Us, and Them.”

                There are six Sundays until Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. That gives us two Sundays each to explore Me, Us, and Them.

                “Me” is the aspect of our interior lives. It involves the spiritual disciplines of solitude, meditation, and prayer. It asks us to engender hospitality for our own selves.  The love Jesus asks of us (to love God, and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves) begins with a love of self that is honest, thorough-going, and unflinchingly grace filled. It means to enter the shadows of our own heart even if we are afraid of the dark. It means to learn to love the ugly parts of our self just as much as the beautiful ones. Knowing ourselves deeply and honestly and meeting God in the depths of our being is the central importance of “Me” time.

                “Us” refers to our common understanding of community. It is nurturing the relationships in which we are supported and support others. It is in the best sense of the word, family. We dream the best for each other in this community and hold each other accountable for those dreams. Community for the monks means taking a vow to live and seek God with those brothers in the order. Our community is just as intentional though much less formal. In this often frightening, painful world we need a community to keep us safe and give us the strength to go on.

                “Them” are the strangers, the others we don’t know yet. Some may be enemies; some may be friends we haven’t met yet. “Them” are the opportunities to practice the hospitality that changes us and the world. They are “them” until we open our hearts to them.

January 6 – The feast of the Epiphany

Matthew 2:1-12

Common English Bible (CEB)

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in the territory of Judea during the rule of King Herod, magi came from the east to Jerusalem. They asked, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We’ve seen his star in the east, and we’ve come to honor him.” When King Herod heard this, he was troubled, and everyone in Jerusalem was troubled with him. He gathered all the chief priests and the legal experts and asked them where the Christ was to be born. They said, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for this is what the prophet wrote:

You, Bethlehem, land of Judah,

            by no means are you least among the rulers of Judah,

            because from you will come one who governs,

            who will shepherd my people Israel.

Then Herod secretly called for the magi and found out from them the time when the star had first appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search carefully for the child. When you’ve found him, report to me so that I too may go and honor him.” When they heard the king, they went; and look, the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stood over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were filled with joy. They entered the house and saw the child with Mary his mother. Falling to their knees, they honored him. Then they opened their treasure chests and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  Because they were warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they went back to their own country by another route.

                On the Christian calendar, January 6 – Epiphany – is the last day of the Christmas season. In many parts of the world it is Epiphany that is the big deal, not Christmas. Epiphany (which means “manifestation”) heralds the arrival of the Magi (foreigners, strangers, non-believers) who come and recognize that this nondescript peasant baby is in fact the foretold Messiah.

                I envision this week as an overview of the whole “Me, Us, Them” theme.  Some aspects of this are easy to name: The Magi are the “them,” those who are strangers to us who nevertheless recognize Christ in their own ways.  The “Us” are those of us who already believe in Christ, the community for whom this story holds no surprises. We are the “us” who named this Sunday the Feast of the Epiphany because we have in one way or another already seen the manifestation. The “Me” is a different telling or hearing of the story: we are the Magi, we are the voice of the Gospel writer, and we are the Christ-child. The “Me” recognizes that we are all too often strangers to ourselves and that it is miraculous indeed that we can catch a glimpse of our own Christ-likeness even if only on an obscure church holy day relegated to living in Christmas’ shadow. If we read the story further, we may also discover that there are times we are also Herod himself, hell-bent on killing the Christ we have just found.

                There are lots of examples in recent news reports that tell us how far we are as human beings from being Christ-like. The woman who hated Muslims and Hindus so much she pushed people onto the subway tracks in New York. The shooter at Newtown. Even the ineffectual Congress which plays politics with taxes but can’t seem to offer any real help when it is needed. And if we are honest, every one of us has to own some aspect of these people in our own beings. Saint Benedict’s Rule tells us that every stranger is to be received as Christ. That affirms that there is at least a little bit of Christ in every person, even us.

                So, “Me, Us, and Them” as seen through the eyes of the Wise Men and Women. Where do strangers to the church find Christ in this world? How can Christians make Christ available in surprising and wonderful ways to a world that couldn’t care less about our holidays? How can we see Christ made manifest even in ourselves? Epiphany affirms that there is a Christ waiting to be found, if anyone is looking.