Minister’s Column
Each month in the congregation’s calendar we are called to reflect on a different theme, and January’s theme is Liberating Love. I will be exploring this theme in Sunday worship services; we are holding a Saturday retreat to rewrite our covenant as a congregation (which must be grounded in love); we are celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King (whose message and technique were rooted in love).
Here is what James Baldwin says about love:
The longer I live, the more deeply I learn that love—whether we call it friendship or family or romance— is the work of mirroring and magnifying each other’s light. Gentle work. Steadfast work. Life-saving work in those moments when life and shame and sorrow occlude our own light from our view but there is still a clear-eyed loving person to beam it back. In our best moments, we are that person for another.
Friends, partners, and co-workers in our lives can play this vital role for us, and I do call it Love. They can
mirror for us who we are. They can remind us of our best selves. And we have to be willing to look into the mirror to receive the love. Hearing a compliment can be like that: a person is telling us their truth, that they appreciate something about us. Too often we brush off these compliments. A better practice is to stop and let it sink in. This is someone mirroring and reflecting who are, giving a chance for Love to exist in the space between us and for Love to thrive within ourselves. May we take life’s moments, and the interactions with others, as opportunities to grow Love.
PRAYER:
May we learn the ways of Love this day.
May we mirror and magnify the courage, strength, compassion and beauty in those around us.
May we transcend shame and sorrow to embody more fully the Love and light within us.
Blessed be.
Rev. Drew Frantz
January 3, 2024