Beloved Is Where We Begin

by the Revd Hannah Cartwright

Last week on the feast of the Baptism of Christ, we heard the words of our Heavenly Father say to Jesus, as he came up out of the water: ‘You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.’ And we considered together how the knowledge that we are loved by God, and how we can help others discover their belovedness too, are a foundational part of our baptismal vocation. This knowledge is an essential starting point for all else in life and faith and it is how we come to value ourselves and others; it is what enables us to discover who we are and how we were created, and it helps us to learn what we need in life and what gifts we bring to it ourselves.

In the season of Epiphany we remember the journey of the Magi and the gifts they brought to the child Jesus. Their journey was no doubt a long and challenging one, with little information to go on, they just had to keep looking for the light of the star ahead of them. Their assumptions about what the outcome of that journey would be, took them to the wrong place initially and resulted in them having to return home on an unexpected path, but they held on through it all to discover the greatest joy and the most precious gift in just an ordinary place to an ordinary family. I wonder what kept them going as they faithfully followed the star? Perhaps, mostly, it was the promise of something great; perhaps sometimes it was their camaraderie as they encouraged one another and talked on the road; perhaps at moments it was simply that they had come so far it was more effort to go back than to go on.

As the new term stretches ahead of us, it can feel like a surprisingly long journey for just a few short weeks. I wonder what/who keeps you going and motivates you? I wonder who helps you to navigate the ups and downs of the path ahead and what conversations and encouragements you might hear along the way over the next few weeks.

To start us off on our journey into the new term, I share with you a poem from Jan Richardson’s Epiphany Retreat, which has been an encouragement to me to remember that being beloved is not the goal or a prize we win, but it is a gift we are given before we even start the journey and the very place that we begin.

If you would enter
into the wilderness,
do not begin
without a blessing.

Do not leave
without hearing

who you are:
Beloved,
named by the One
who has travelled this path

before you.

Do not go
without letting it echo
in your ears,
and if you find

it is hard

to let it into your heart,
do not despair.
That is what

this journey is for.

I cannot promise

this blessing will free you

from danger,

from fear,

from hunger

or thirst,

from the scorching

of sun

or the fall

of the night.

But I can tell you

that on this path

there will be help.

I can tell you

that on this way

there will be rest.

I can tell you

that you will know

the strange graces

that come to our aid

only on a road

such as this,

that fly to meet us

bearing comfort

and strength,

that come alongside us

for no other cause

than to lean themselves

toward our ear

and with their curious insistence

whisper our name:

Beloved.

Beloved.

Beloved.

Jan Richardson 2023