Defining Embrace

I leave tomorrow afternoon for my first summer adventure. I’m excited for the scenery, the company and our itinerary. Here is a hint of where I will end up:

I am done.

I am through.

I am accomplished.

I am finished.

Well, for now.

Tuesday evening I finished all of my requirements for my Master of Arts degree.* I now wait for the little box next to degree meet turn from a bold ‘x’ to an under-dramatic green check mark. I feel accomplished, but I am still curious. That curiosity leads back to the formation of this blog. I want to define embrace. I want to look to what role does community have in the lives of people like Martin Luther King, Jr., Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Desmond Tutu, Oscar Romero and others. I want to see how they define embrace. Luck for me, I have been given the space to be curious about embrace and community. 

*This does not mean I am done for the semester, though. I still have an independent study  for my Master of Theology that I have to make sense of. 

Cantor: The bread which we do not use 

All: is the bread of the hungry.

Cantor: The garment hanging in our wardrobe

All: is the garment of one who is naked.

Cantor: The shoes that we do not wear

All: are the shoes of one who is barefooted.

Cantor: The money we keep locked away

All: is the money of the poor.

Cantor: The acts of charity we do not perform

All: are the many injustices we commit.

Lord, I am no longer my own but Yours. Put me to what You will. Put me to doing. Put me to being. Put me to suffering. Let me be employed for You — or laid aside for You. Let me be full — let me be empty. Let me have all things — let me have nothing. Help me to open my eyes when others close theirs; to hear what others don’t wish to listen; to look when others turn away; to seek to understand when others give up; to rouse myself when others acquiesce; to continue to struggle even when I am not the strongest; to cry out when others are silent; to be Christians in Community. First of all that, then further, to live when others are dead and Be Love when society is mean and self-obsessed to remember. We love You Lord and so give ourselves. Amen. 

[Adapted from the words of St. Basil the Great by Holy Transfiguration Monastery]

At the start of the semester I made a goal to read 100 - 150 pages each night for my thesis and independent study. I then got realistic and told myself I needed to read 641 pages a week to be granted any sewing time during the week. And at this point, I am only 321 pages behind from the start of the semester. I would be impressed if I were you. I keep a little tally on my fridge but have thought many times that I should have made a chart with stickers.

I then realized I needed to order three more books for my thesis. 

I checked the bookstore and iBooks, but realized neither was helpful and made my way to Amazon. I put the three books in my cart and was faced with how soon do I want these books at my door.

I get free two-day shipping with my student account with Amazon. It is great, but I decided I wanted to wait the five to seven days for books. I wanted the weekend to paint, sew, seek out some murals in Minneapolis and do my decade-annual Spring cleaning. As much as I love King and Bonhoeffer, we all needed some time away from one another. One of my dear friends even noted that I was sounding a little “Bonhoeffer-y” in my texts. It was decided. I would not make the Amazon elves rush to fulfill my order. In five to seven days I would receive some books to my door.

So, on with my tale.

I just finished an afternoon at the coffee shop and was excited for my reading free weekend. But as I approached my stoop, I noticed two Amazon books. I was suspicious. One was a large Amazon box with goodies from my parents, including Zitner’s coconut creme and the other was the books I ordered yesterday. Not five to seven days ago. Yesterday.

I think this all shows that Bonhoeffer, King and myself really value community and our time together. Even the very idea of a weekend apart may be too much.

I will allow myself some art and cleaning time this weekend, but there will also be a lot of beloved community and communio sanctorum because I am clearly gotten the hint.And let me also note that cleaning and sewing time include listening to podcasts about community development/engagement. 

What can I say, the three of us are look those three chatty school girls. 

Bonhoeffer + King + Troyan = BBF 4 Eva

P.S. I am grateful that I currently have the opportunity to be in dialogue with Bonhoeffer and King in my academic work this semester. I have been waiting for this opportunity and I can only describe it as exciting, imaginative and real.

“… a group of us feel called to stop, to look, to listen, and, above all, to wait. We want to wait on God, be aware of his presence, attentive to his purpose,  and enter into his response to our area. We want to wait on our neighbours; not setting any agenda or setting up any agencies, just helping out in any way we can.

We have a dream We dream of a world in which all the resources of the earth will be shared equally between all people of the earth, so that even the most disadvantaged among us will be able to meet basic needs with dignity and joy. We dream of a great societ of small communities cooperating interdependently to practice personal social, economic and political compassion, love and justice, and peace.

We dream of people developing networks of friendships in which the pain we carry deep down can be shared openly in an atmosphre of mututal support and respect. We dream of people understanding the difficulties we have in common, discussion our problems, discussing the solutions, and working together for personal growth and social change in the life of love of Christ.

We yearn to make this dream a reality in our own locality….”

David Andrew’s vision for intentional Christian community present at Waiters’ Union in Brisbane, Queensland quoted in Community of the Transfiguration: The Journey of a New Monastic Communityby Paul Dekar.