Philosopher Josiah Royce first used the term Beloved Community in the early 20th century. He saw Beloved Community as an ideal, experienced as the participants fully dedicate themselves to the cause of loyalty, truth, and reality itself. He believed that loyalty to a cause is an essential quality of community.

Royce believed that individuals remain individuals in a Beloved Community, but they create a second-order life above and beyond their individual lives.

Emissaries of Divine Light is a Beloved Community for those who participate in it. We are devoted to our primal spirituality—the spirituality that we were born with and which is intrinsic to all people and humankind as a whole. This is the cause we are loyal to. This is the truth we know for ourselves and the reality we share with the world as a Beloved Community.

And what is the truth of our primal spirituality? When you strip it all down, past any cultural overlay and complexity, isn’t it this? We are co-creators. In sync with the universe and in harmony with our fellow co-creators, we are made to manifest something beautiful in this world.

Being a co-creator means that we are a physical embodiment of a creative power and intelligence that transcends who we are as a human being. Call it God, El Shaddai, Allah, or the Tao. Or call it the Creator. There is a source of creative power we cannot see. But we can tune into that Source and are empowered to co-create when we do.

A Beloved Community might manifest a physical creation. That’s what’s happening at Sunrise Ranch. And lately, it’s hard to miss all the physical creation going on, especially at the Pavilion—new floors, new paint, and a patio outside our downstairs meeting room.

A Beloved Community has some kind of form—if only our physical bodies. But it is far more than a physical manifestation. It is the manifestation of a collective heart, a field of consciousness, and a Presence in the world.

What gives us the power to manifest? Josiah Royce said it this way—dedicating ourselves fully to the cause of loyalty, truth, and reality. This is how the Beloved Community finds the taproot of its creative power. This is how we, as a community, come to know ourselves as co-creators and embrace our primal spirituality.

Jesus of Nazareth said this to his disciples, which is relevant to a community receiving the power and wisdom that allows them to create.

…tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.

Luke 24:49

To enjoy the somewhat archaic language in this translation of Jesus’ words, it is good to know that the word tarry simply means wait. The word endued means endowed.

Older Greek versions of this statement use the word clothed. 

…stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.

Luke 24:49, New American Standard Bible

Jesus’ instruction had a very practical application in the biblical story. As for any group of people undertaking something creative, the disciples had to come together physically and stay together long enough that they would come together spiritually—until they were fully charged with the power and wisdom that would allow them to sustain and grow as a Beloved Community.

As the story goes, the disciples did stay in Jerusalem for about ten days until the day of Pentecost, a Jewish holiday 50 days after the Passover. They gathered in an upper room with 120 men and women that included Jesus’ mother, Mary. And they had a miraculous experience.

And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.

And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.

And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.

And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Acts, 2:1-4

The Pentecostal movement today was inspired by this story, and the event is sometimes marked as the beginning of the Christian church.

It is a fantastic story. And unless we believe it was totally fabricated—and I don’t believe it was—something remarkable happened. People today sometimes attempt to replicate the experience. But is replicating the apparently fantastic elements of the story the point?

The purpose was to be endued with creative power from on high. Is that what actually happened for the disciples, who became the apostles of the newly-forming Christian religion? Did they stay together long enough for that to really happen?

It is hard to know from the story—except that they ended up going off in many different directions across the Roman Empire, being persecuted and jailed. All but one of the apostles were executed by the political powers of the day. In the process, they founded Christianity.

The significant matter for our Beloved Community is our coming together and our being together long enough in spirit—and in person, as needed—to be empowered from on high.

For us to co-create something beautiful in the world, we have to have empowered hearts and empowered minds. Neither is enough by itself. A Beloved Community is not a group of brainiacs figuring out what would be best for the world. True wisdom requires an open and understanding heart. Nor is our Beloved Community composed of emotionally charged people without mental stability and intelligence.

Mind and heart have to come together to become endued with power from on high. And when they do, something else happens which is more than brilliant thoughts or compassionate feelings. Mind and heart fuse to create a field of consciousness that conducts the activating power of Creation emerging from its invisible Source. That power enters the Beloved Community and begins to radiate to the world.

Here is how Jesus described this process:

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.

Acts 1:8

Mystical? Fantastic? Or is this simply a way of describing what has to happen for a group of human beings to be truly creative? We have to function in such a way that the power of Creation is moving through us into our creative field, whatever that might be.

So here is what I invite you to do, dear reader of this message. Come together spiritually and practically with this Beloved Community, whatever that might mean for you, if that is your heart’s desire. And if you are distancing yourself in a way that holds you back from participating in Beloved Community, close the gap.

Tarry in Jerusalem with us—in that place where we open to the wisdom and power on high. Show up with all your heart and all your mind, open and available for Creation. And then welcome the stream of creative empowerment to flow through.

How do we know when we are fully endued with power from on high? I can’t say. But let’s be together in spirit long enough for it to happen. I’m sure we’ll know it when it does.