The Diamond Essence at the Heart of Us All
Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting
Pastor Bob Henry
September 6, 2020
Ephesians 3:16-19 The Message
14-19 My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.
It seems almost ironic that just before the pandemic I penned a set of devotions on the biblical concepts of “Selah” (which, if you remember, means to stop and listen or take a needed pause).
They were a devotional version of the sermon series I gave at First Friends last year. Barclay Press chose to publish them in Fruit of the Vine this past week not knowing what the state of affairs in our world would be at the end of August. I found that rather timely considering all that is going on.
Unbeknownst to me, a pastor in North Carolina had asked for permission from Barclay Press to send out the devotionals by email to the people of his Quaker Meeting since they were not able to go out during the pandemic!
From the responses I have received, it seems the devotionals were distributed much more widely, because I have begun to hear from several people about the applicability of the devotionals for this time.
I have heard similar comments regarding our Physically Distanced Meetings for Worship, Self-Led Worship Guides, Unprogrammed Worship, Vacation Bible School experience, and our Oak Leaf Meeting for Reading.
It continues to amaze me the widespread impact First Friends is having during these challenging times. The conversations that Beth and I are now having are not just among or within our Meeting, but they are happening across our country and world.
If you haven’t been to Fellowship Hour the last couple of weeks, you have missed people joining us from Africa and New York.
This should be exciting for us all! It is a sign that there is still a hunger for Quakerism and all Friends have to offer, today.
Especially if we are willing to make those connections and empower and inspire a new generation of people willing to Speak Truth to Power and embrace a relevant Quakerism for today.
In one of the conversations I had this week, a person shared how the topic of my devotionals reminded them of a teaching from Thomas Merton. As one who has studied and appreciated the work of Thomas Merton, I appreciated the connection.
Later during the week, as I was contemplating my own condition and the many things I was facing, I decided to return again to Thomas Merton for some insight.
Now, if you are unfamiliar with Thomas Merton let me give you a brief biographical sketch.
Thomas Merton was an American Trappist Monk, writer, theologian, mystic, poet, social activist, and scholar of comparative religion.
He wrote over 50 books in 27 years mostly on spirituality, social justice, and quiet pacifism. You may have heard or even read his famous autobiography, “The Seven Storey Mountain.” I highly recommend it – but be warned you may want to be a monk after reading it.
Thomas Merton was born in France to Owen Merton, a New Zealand painter and Ruth Jenkins (and this is where it gets interesting) an American Quaker artist.
I always wondered why I was drawn to Thomas Merton, but as I have learned more about his story and the influences in his life – it all makes sense.
Even though Merton’s mother died of stomach cancer when he was only 6 yrs old just after they fled World War I by moving to the United States – she had already instilled in him a Quaker spirituality, a love of silence, and a desire to seek one’s inner light as the heart or essence of life.
Much of Merton’s later writings and teaching strongly reflect the Quaker foundations his mother instilled in him.
So, as I returned to Merton this week, I was drawn to something he wrote in regard to having what he called, “a contemplative orientation to life.”
I think this spoke to my condition because I have become so tired of the reactiveness and lack of reflection and contemplation in our world these days.
To understand what this contemplative orientation to life meant, we have to understand that Merton believed that we are to seek a balance in our lives between being and doing or between what he labeled inner awareness and outward engagement.
Like I said, you can see in his terminology alone that he was very much influenced by Quaker spirituality.
What emerged from Merton’s contemplative teachings was what John Phillip Newell and others have described as Merton’s threefold pattern.
Just listen to how Quakerly they are as I describe them:
The first is his belief that spiritual practice (what we may call the spiritual disciplines) is about remembering our “diamond essence.”
Let me stop right there. I love the descriptor “diamond essence.” This is the term Merton used to remind us that what is deepest in us is of God.
The diamond essence is what we Quakers call our Inner Light – that in the human soul is implanted a certain element of God’s own Spirit and divine energy.
When we spiritually practice or discipline our lives to seek that “diamond essence,” it is as Quaker Richard Foster noted, we are “exploring the inner caverns of the spiritual realm.”
The second is Merton’s conviction that spiritual practice is about remembering that the diamond essence is at the heart of each of us and of all things.
Again, this should sound quite familiar to us as Quakers. This is the concept that Geroge Fox taught to seek “That of God” in ALL people.
Many later Quakers, and other spiritual seekers including Merton, expanded those thoughts to seeing that of God in ALL of Creation, not just in humanity.
It reminds me of how the mystic artist and poet Kahlil Gibran spoke of this in his bestselling book, The Prophet,
“And if you would know God be not therefore a solver of riddles.
Rather look about you and you shall see Him playing with your children.
And look into space: you shall see Him walking in the cloud, outstretching His arms in the lightening and descending in rain.
You shall see Him smiling in flowers, then rising and waving His hands in the trees.”
Folks, this is a beautiful example of what it means to embrace that of God in ALL of creation.
The Third aspect of Merton’s pattern is his belief that we will find true strength for the holy work of transformation in the world only by digging deep into the foundations of our being. Enduring strength will be found not in our ego but in our essence.
Again, this is very Quakerly as it means we identify ourselves not in terms of social status, race, religion, or sexual orientation, but by our truest identity. In the very ground of our being – the Diamond Essence.
Now, I share these insights from Merton because not only have they been speaking to my condition, they have also led me to some deeper insight.
Within the pandemic and the constant unrest in our world around so many issues, I find myself pondering and reflecting more than usual.
It almost seems the pandemic has afforded me the opportunity or given me permission to embrace a more contemplative orientation to life.
I have found that without many of the distractions, the fast-paced daily grind, the ability to keep myself busy just to fill my day, I have begun to hear again from my “diamond essence” – that deep voice inside me of the Divine.
To be honest, something I have been struggling to hear.
I have also had time to observe and perceive my neighbors and those around me from a new perspective and it is beginning to change and affect me more and more deeply. No longer can I ignore them or simply let them pass by.
I have also been able to visually see transformation taking place both in my own life and the lives of others in ways I would have never been able to see if I had not been given this time to slow down, assess, and become aware.
Now, please understand, this continues to be a personal discovery for me and I am still unpacking it in my own life, but part of the unpacking has had me reflecting on Merton’s words.
The other day I began to wonder if what he was describing needs to be applied much more broadly. That what Merton is getting at and what Quakers have tried to emphasize from the beginning is that we begin by seeking first our own awareness and then continue to a greater awareness that gets us out of ourselves and our own myopic thinking.
It made me wonder…what if the universe is forcing our world or even more specifically, our nation, to embrace this threefold pattern and to return once again to our “Diamond Essence”?
It seems lately, the conversations I am having are transcending the social issues, the unrest, the politics and news. They have evolved to a much more contemplative and even painstaking process of asking what is behind all of this?
We are beginning to dig down deep to the essence of racial issues, policing issues, violence issues, political issues, often knocking us completely out of our comfort zones.
More and more people are beginning to discuss the importance of morals, values, character, empathy and love – issues that spring from our “diamond essence.”
What if this is a call for us to remember our “diamond essence” for something greater than our own spirituality?
What if the unrest and violence we are experiencing is a symptom of a people wrestling to find their core again? To find what binds us all together – that of God in each of us?
Thomas Merton said that people should search not only their own hearts: but they also should plunge deep into the heart of the world of which they remain a part although they seem to have “left it.”
When we begin to contemplate or discipline ourselves it causes us to not only move to the diamond center of our own being, but it also plunges us deep into the heart of the world.
John Philip Newell in his book, “The Rebirthing of God” retells an inspiring moment in Thomas Merton’s life where his diamond essence had him plunging deep in to the heart of the world.
[Thomas] had been in Louisville, Kentucky, meeting with his publisher. Afterward, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut Streets [where today, there is an historic marker placed],
as he walked through the shopping district of the city, he was suddenly overwhelmed by the realization that he loved everyone around him, “that they were mine and I was theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness.”
He saw “the secret beauty of their heart.” It was as if they were all walking around shining like the sun. “If only we could see each other that way all the time,” he wrote. “There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed…I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other.”
And I sense that what Merton was saying in the end was that we would actually see “that of God in our neighbor” so much that we would begin to worship instead of hate or hurt our neighbor.
As I have taken time to listen and pause this week, I have sensed Thomas Merton speaking clearly to my and our condition.
My prayer right now is that, like Thomas Merton, the people of our nation would be overwhelmed by the realization that they love everyone around them. That they are not alien to one another. That they are awaking from a dream of separateness.
I also pray that we all would discover that we are most free when we do not lift ourselves up over one another, but when we remember that our true Center is at the heart of one another.
Let us now enter a time of waiting worship – I have prepared some queries for us to ponder.
What spiritual practice or discipline might I need to embrace to help me connect to my “Diamond Essence” this week?
Am I being overwhelmed by the presence of “that of God” in my neighbors and the creation around me?
What bondage might I need to be freed from in lifting myself above others?