Beloved Community | Worship in Time after Epiphany

Lucha Mural by Daruis Dennis (2746 N. Milwaukee Ave)

Beloved Community

God’s vision for justice, unity, and shared life

In Time after Epiphany, we see more clearly who God is—and who we are called to be. This series explores a vision of Beloved Community: a way of life grounded in God’s love, revealed in Jesus Christ, and lived out through justice, compassion, reconciliation, and shared responsibility. Beginning in the waters of baptism and moving toward the mountaintop of Transfiguration, we discover that Beloved Community is formed by God’s grace, sustained by faithful practice, and sent into the world for the life of all.

In a 1956 speech "Facing the Challenge of a New Age," delivered at the First Annual Institute on Nonviolence and Social Change, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said,

“It is true that as we struggle for freedom in America we will have to boycott at times. But we must remember as we boycott that a boycott is not an end within itself; it is merely a means to awaken a sense of shame within the oppressor and challenge his false sense of superiority. But the end is reconciliation; the end is redemption; the end is the creation of a beloved community. It is this type of spirit and this type of love that can transform opposers into friends. It is this kind of understanding and goodwill that will transform the deep gloom of the old age into the exuberant gladness of the new age. It is this love which will bring about miracles.”

Though Dr. King didn’t coin “beloved community,” the term is best known due to its usage in his theology and writings. For King, beloved community refers to a morally ordered social reality grounded in agape love, nonviolent action, and economic justice, in which racial and social hierarchies are dismantled. It envisions social transformation achieved not through domination or coercion, but through reconciliation, structural reform, and the creation of institutions that sustain human dignity and mutual responsibility.

Our Beloved Community worship series at St. Luke’s will unfold over six Sundays, bridging the time between the Advent-Christmas cycle (which ended on Epiphany of Our Lord, January 6) and the Lent-Easter cycle (which begins on Ash Wednesday, February 18).

Each Sunday will have its own focus related to the theme:

• JANUARY 11 | Baptism of Our Lord
  beloved community begins with beloved identity

• JANUARY 18 | Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday
  enmity and love in the beloved community
  *Author Dr. Marvin Wickware, preaching
  Coffee Hour Book Event to follow: More details on “Loving Through Enmity” Book Event

• JANUARY 25 | Annual Meeting Sunday
  Third Sunday after Epiphany
  beloved community as congregational calling

• FEBRUARY 1  | Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
  beloved community across generations

• FEBRUARY 8 | Fifth Sunday after Epiphany
  beloved community made visible through justice and repair

• FEBRUARY 15 | Transfiguration of Our Lord
  beloved community transformed and sent

You are welcome. Come to worship on Sundays at 11am and stick around for coffee hour to say hi and grab a snack. We’re working towards the beloved community together.

---