I was drawn to the opening music after we sung it at our last service…the day that Dr. Dorsey Blake died. I was struck by a profound feeling of community when we sang that song. I felt the presence of…I’m not sure what. But this presence caused me to cry tears of joy. I didn’t realize at the time that this was perhaps the most appropriate music to celebrate Dr. Blake and his legacy in this congregation and in the world. The lyrics to this hymn were written by Carole Etzler Eagleheart and were inspired by Nelle Morton, a prominent theologian and professor. That we have probably never heard of either of these women is not surprising. Morton was born in 1905 in Tennessee and was active in the Fellowship of Southern Churchmen, an interdenominational and interracial group of southern church people (clergy and laity) interested in race relations, anti-Semitism, rural dependency, labor conditions and other social problems. These lyrics were not meant to take away from the power and vision of the original lyrics to the song, but to offer another perspective that might resonate as well. Matthew Fox wrote that Jesus continually operated from the consciousness of Sarah’s Circle. He continued:
How else can one interpret his saying,
“the first shall be last and the last shall be first”?
It is precisely in a circle that the first are last; the last are first.
And, what is more to the point, no one knows who is first, who is last–
and above all, no one cares.
Of course, Sarah’s Circle has been around all along. It has been seen in the work of organizations and groups of people throughout the world that are committed to collective justice and equality and are comprised of countless individuals working together. Still, we know that these groups have often had to work within the structures of patriarchy, racism, sexism, exclusivity and privilege for the few…a top-down hierarchical system…something that has become even more visible in recent weeks.
But it was this interconnected, relational perspective…the idea that we are living in the circle or spiral of existence that was ever-present in the writings of Dr. Howard Thurman and in the life of Dr. Dorsey Blake. It was, to a large extent, Dr. Blake who taught me this through the way he showed up in the world. And I know he has taught countless others. We may hear from some of them next week at the memorial service. Sarah’s Circle echoed much of my own experience in the world, the experience of so many of my teachers, as well as the model that I see and have internalized all around me in the human and more-than-human world.
Most hopefully, I see this model at Fellowship Church. It is the lesson that Dr. Blake taught us. That if you allow space for the genuine in each of us to arise…to grow, then there will be space for all in this circle. There is no need for the first or the last…for the hierarchy that is so present in most traditional churches.
And it is the principles of the circle that many of us thought we were working toward. Of course, now it seems that was perhaps an illusion or wishful thinking or denial. I have been, at varying points in my life, at the head of the pack in this regard. After living a mostly haphazard, unconscious and chaotic life, I seemed to finally make a decision to follow my heart and my teachers such as Joanna Macy, Luisah Teish, Starhawk, Jose Hobday, Russill Paul, Matthew Fox and Dorsey Blake. I literally danced in Sarah’s Circle in downtown Oakland and drummed in that circle, and sang in that circle, and practiced chanting and yoga in that circle…in the beloved community that was Creation Spirituality. I was convinced that the story told to us by Joanna Macy was true…that we were experiencing The Great Turning…the profound paradigm shift that I had imagined. Macy described this turning as a reconnecting…a coming back to life. She states in her book of the same title that we have repressed our love for the world because of the pain. It is too difficult to look at. This resonates with so much that I hear from people now. Macy writes of this time as a dark time, filled with suffering and uncertainty. She continues…
Like living cells in a larger body, it is natural that we feel the trauma of our world. So don’t be afraid of the anguish you feel, or the anger or fear, because these responses arise from the depth of your caring and the truth of your interconnectedness with all beings.
This is at the heart of what we know about the universe and about living systems…we are indeed like living cells in a larger body and we are interconnected with all beings. This is the understanding that what we do affects others…it affects the entire circle.
Another person who envisioned this turning back in 1975 was Bernice Johnson Reagon.
There’s a new world comin’, everything’s gon’ be turning over,
Everything’s gon’ be turning over, where you gon’ be standing when it comes?
There’s a new world comin’, everything’s gon’ be turning over,
Everything’s gon’ be turning over, where you gon’ be standing when it comes?
For far too many years I been marchin’, singin’ and talkin’,
Doin’ things I thought would make me free,
While people half way around the world have been fightin’ and dyin’ and bleedin’,
Now it seems that they are gon’ to be.
There’s a new world comin’, everything’s gon’ be turning over,
Everything’s gon’ be turning over, where you gon’ be standing when it comes?
There’s a new world comin’, everything’s gon’ be turning over,
Everything’s gon’ be turning over, where you gon’ be standing,
Where you gon’ be standing, where you gon’ be standing when it comes?
Reagon was hopeful like I was. She was hopeful that the meek would indeed inherit the earth…that we would be able to topple the powers that were laying waste to entire cultures and indeed our earth…that the tables would turn in what Tracy Chapman termed Revolution. (Even though the Beatles told us it would be alright). We might say that what we are experiencing now is a profound reaction to this thought…the thought that the nations of Asia and Africa are takin’ over their lives. Instead of turning toward that reality, it seems that we are now facing the push-back of what Matthew Fox has call the antichrist…an apparent complete and devastating negation of Sarah’s Circle…of the ideals of the work that reconnects that Macy spoke of.
But Reagon asks, Where you gon’ be standing when it comes? Where will we be standing indeed? Well, I can imagine how someone like Dorsey Blake might have responded. He would be front and center, hand-in-hand with the disinherited and oppressed who were takin’ over their lives. He would be standing here at Fellowship Church in the circle of Beloved Community, strategizing and inspiring all of us to keep fresh before us the moment of our high resolve. He would be teaching a new generation of religious leaders, inspiring them to find their voice. Rev. Dr. W. Hazaiah Williams of The Church For Today in Berkeley described the struggle to birth a new world like this:
A new world is trying to be born; a world that talks about peace and potential benediction. And, because of this, it will be a world even more full of danger. An individual caught in the nexus of a whirling new world attempting to come forth, will be victimized by the irrational.
We’ll be victimized by shallow men who will be frightened by the swirling trends of the new order. The shallow ones who feel they are doing society a service, will cut down good, peaceful people.
Dr. W. Hazaiah Williams was someone who introduced Dr. Dorsey Blake to Dr. Howard Thurman. Williams saw that this new world would be even more full of danger. He foresaw the shallow men who are acting from a deep-seated fear. Out of this fear, he said, they will cut down good, peaceful people.
I am not sure that Dr. Williams could have foreseen such a situation as we currently are experiencing, but I do think that he would agree with Joanna Macy who said…
If the world is to be healed through human efforts, I am convinced it will be by ordinary people, people whose love for this life is even greater than their fear.
People who can open to the web of life that called us into being.
The web of life both cradles us and calls us to weave it further.
Are we ready to be cradled by the web of life…to open to its mysteries and its power…the power that called us into being for a time such as this? Macy continues:
When you look at what is happening to our world-and it is hard to look at…-it becomes clear that unless you have some roots in a spiritual practice that holds life sacred and encourages joyful communion with all your fellow beings, facing the enormous challenges ahead becomes nearly impossible.
Our world is indeed hard to look at, yet with roots in this Beloved Community…one that holds life sacred and encourages joyful communion…one that holds a profound understanding of the interconnectedness of all life, it may be possible to join Sarah’s Circle…to reconnect to the love that called us into being.
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