The Path of Peace
Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting
Pastor Bob Henry
January 25, 2026
Good morning, Friends, and welcome to Light Reflections. This morning the scripture text that I have chosen to support my message is from Philemon 1:3-9a from the New Revised Standard Version. It is a greeting, from Paul to his friend Philemon and speaks of the love which brings peace.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I thank my God always when I mention you in my prayers, because I hear of your love for all the saints and your faith toward the Lord Jesus. I pray that the partnership of your faith may become effective as you comprehend all the good that we share in Christ. I have indeed received much joy and encouragement from your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, my brother.
For this reason, though I am more than bold enough in Christ to command you to do the right thing, yet I would rather appeal to you on the basis of love.
With all that has transpired since the last time we gathered for worship, I have done a lot of reflecting, meditating, listening, and discerning. In the end, I found myself focusing a great deal this week on what it means to be a peacemaker in our world, today.
Making the choice not to go to Minneapolis for the March with the other clergy this week (which I wrote about in greater detail in our Friend to Friend newsletter) has caused me to ask some even deeper questions of how I am personally being a peacemaker in this place where I am called and set apart to minister here at Indianapolis First Friends.
What has become increasingly apparent to me as I have watched the news, or read social media, even in conversations with you or in my networks as a pastor, is how little is being said about peace or peacemaking – and how little is being done to seek any semblance of peace in our world.
Sadly, much of what I see or hear being discussed is revenge, gossip, payback, or people looking for groups or individuals to blame, all while often disregarding with what others are saying or feeling.
Too often we are simply closing our ears and secluding ourselves from our neighbors. And our lack of listening and understanding is leading to violence in many and various ways.
Author and pediatrician, Rachel Naomi Remen said it well,
"Because we have stopped listening to each other we may even have forgotten how to listen, stopped learning how to recognize meaning and fill ourselves from the ordinary events of our lives".
I remember having some of these same thoughts one summer when we took our family to visit the Little Big Horn Battlefield National Monument in southeast Montana. There we heard of a vision given to the First Nations Chief Sitting Bull that the white man who was taking their land had “no ears” to hear the desires of natives.
Sadly, I believe our country was founded by many who had “no ears” to hear or “eyes” to see the bigger picture of life together with people different than themselves. We too often closed our ears and moved forward – not listening, not waiting, not seeing, and not working out of love. And the sins of our past have now trickled down to our present time creating immense amounts of violence in our world, today.
We are constantly looking to pass the blame to specific groups of people – whether it is political parties or their candidates, religions, and yes cultures and races - because, let’s be honest, it is how we control or conquer for our own benefits.
Folks, this is just the opposite of being a peacemaker - actually when this happens peace is lost.
When we don’t listen carefully,
when we don’t seek to really understand, and
when we quickly pass judgements,
We perpetuate violence in our world.
Now, I have to be honest. For several years now, I have been doing some internal work in this area, personally. I have been working hard to acknowledge, admit, and even apologize for the times I have not listened, when I too have had “no ears” for people, their views or ideas, and have created more conflict or even a communication barrier.
Seeking peace and being a peacemaker has never been easy work, but it is a venture I believe our world, right now, is desperately craving and in need of.
We don’t need any more people with “no ears,” rather we are in need of peacemakers that will actually live out the change in their day to day lives!
I believe it is time for us to return to and embrace our Quaker distinctives - especially in the area of peacemaking.
A few years ago, I had a conversation with a former colleague who had started attending another Friends Church here in Indiana (in a different Yearly Meeting). As we talked, he shared of his frustrations with the meeting he attended. The biggest frustration being their lack of any visible “peace testimony.” What really hit me though was when he said,
“It is like these Friends are ashamed of being part of a peace tradition and now more than ever they should be embracing it.”
Honestly, the Quaker “Peace Testimony” has been a controversial part of who we are throughout our history. I believe this is mainly due to it being much easier to close our ears and point a finger than it is to listen.
Just maybe, we don’t embrace a peace testimony because it is simply hard work. I am reminded of the words of Eleanor Roosevelt who said,
“It isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it.”
Or Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh who said,
"To work for peace is to uproot war from ourselves and from the hearts of men and women".
Our America Christian culture has over emphasized for way too long “Peace with God” only to sidestep or even avoid seeking peace with our neighbors, our families, and our colleagues.
So, maybe as one who is called to this community to facilitate a better conversation, we should start this morning with a refresher course – and that means we will need to return to our own historic roots.
Let me read what it states in our Faith and Practice about our Foundations of Peace:
FRIENDS emphasize the fact that the most effective way to end war is to remove its causes, such as misunderstanding, the desire for revenge, the spirit of aggression, and economic, racial, and territorial rivalries. This calls for the utmost endeavor to demonstrate the working power of fair dealing, universal equity, friendliness, and sympathy. The intricate network of modern life demands that Friends use every legitimate means to influence the attitudes of their government toward other nations, that all may conform to the highest standards of justice and good will as taught by Jesus. They should equip themselves with knowledge of the needs and opportunities for whatever ministries of Christian friendship exist in the world family of nations. They should cultivate the personal skills and abilities that will enable them to become interpreters of the Christian way of life which alone is the sure foundation for enduring peace.
Folks, this is our heritage, this is one of our distinctives, testimonies, or S.P.I.C.E.S., and this is not new for us as Quakers, but it may be new for some of us…or maybe because of the way of American Christianity it has become hard to understand – especially since many Christians in America have embraced, even welcomed a more violent spirit, tied to nationalism or a specific political party’s beliefs.
And that violent spirit is not just in military campaigns or politics, Quaker Parker Palmer shows us that this violence is permeating not only our churches, but our culture, our families, our own minds, he says,
“Violence is done when parents insult children, when teachers demean students, when supervisors treat employees as disposable means to economic ends, when physicians treat patients as objects, when people condemn gays and lesbians “in the name of God,” when racists live by the belief that people with a different skin color are less than human. And just as physical violence may lead to bodily death, spiritual violence causes death in other guises – the death of a sense of self, of trust in others, of risk taking on behalf of creativity, of commitment to the common good. If obituaries were written for deaths of this kind, every daily newspaper would be a tome.”
Folks, our voices for peace and nonviolence are desperately needed again in our violent world, today. This is supposed to be our nature as Quakers – but I kind of feel that we have lost our edge. Maybe we are a bit out of shape or lacking discipline. Or maybe we have just gotten lazy and fat when it comes to peacemaking and taken it for granted.
We should not be ashamed or reticent of our stickers that read “War is not the Answer” or signs that read “No matter where you are from, we are glad you are our neighbor” or hashtag (#) Love Thy Neighbor (No Exceptions).
In her intro to the book “Practicing Peace: A Devotional Walk Through of the Quaker Tradition” by Catherine Whitmire she writes,
Quakers have been practicing peace as a spiritual discipline since the 1650’s. Their well-worn path to peace begins in prayer and worship, leads to recognizing God in all people, includes practicing nonviolence, and endeavors to make love the guiding force in all they do. This path which is available to everyone, celebrates life’s highest joys and witnesses’ life’s deepest tragedies amidst the beauty, uncertainty, and violence surrounding us. While practicing peace is not always easy, it is a spiritual discipline that expands love, generates hope, and satisfies our soul’s deep longing for peace.
Did you hear that? This path which is available to everyone, celebrates life’s highest joys and witnesses’ life’s deepest tragedies amidst the beauty, uncertainty, and violence surrounding us.
Folks, that is what I want for this community and for our world – and I hope that is the same for you this morning. Let’s again seek the path of peace together as a community of faith!
Back in October of 2001, Friends in the northwest participated in a Peace Conference held in Newberg, OR. They created a set of 7 queries to help us process how we can be better peacemakers in our world. Let these be the queries on our mind this week and as we enter waiting worship this morning.
1. Do you find ways to live peacefully in your daily relationships? Do you encourage others to do so by education and example?
2. Do you recognize, express, and dwell in God as your ultimate source of security?
3. In a spirit of repentance, confession, and forgiveness, are you willing to leave vengeance to God and pray for your enemies?
4. Are you active in a community that supports one another in following God’s call to peace?
5. Are you proactive in praying, speaking, and acting against the injustice that may bring on the occasion for terrorism and war?
6. Do you find ways to learn about and understand the Friends peace testimony?
7. Do you act in loving and respectful ways toward those who disagree with the Quaker peace testimony?