Practicing God's Presence

Sermon 8-17-2014 by Ruthie Tippin

Psalm 46

Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God,  http://www.dunedin.elim.org.nz/uploads/1/2/7/8/12786940/brother_lawrence_-_the_practice_of_the_presence_of_god.pdf

Thomas R. Kelly, A Testament of Devotion – the Simplification of Life, Harper and Row, 1941, pps. 116, 117.

 God is beautiful.  God is Beauty.  God is Truth.  God is Goodness.  Where do you see beauty in your life?  Where do you see truth?  Where do you see goodness in your life?  In those places, you see God.  God is good.  God is holy.  God is beautiful. 

 God is love.  God is peace and compassion.  God is healing.  Where do you find love in your life?  Where do you find peace?  Where do you find healing and compassion?  In those places, you find God.  God is love.  God is holy.  God is beautiful.

 God is strength.  God is power.  God is energy.  God is spirit.  Where do you discover strength in your life?  Where do you discover power?  Where do you find energy and spirit?  In those places, you discover God.  God is strength.  God is holy.  God is beautiful.

Our lives move so quickly that we tend to see, hear, taste, touch, and experience very little of God.  Very little of God’s beauty, God’s love, and God’s strength. It’s said that when we breathe we use very little of our lung capacity. We tend to hardly breathe into ourselves the fullness of breath that we have. Might we all just this moment take a deep breath, and then release it... Take another now. A full, deep breath and then release it. Think how few times you breathe that deeply. Think how few times we take in all that God is.

We long for God’s goodness, for God’s peace, for God’s power.  We search for God’s truth, God’s compassion, God’s energy.  And always… always… God is ours.  But.  But we must develop practices in our lives that help us notice God – to welcome God who is within us.  So often, we see the ugly, the lie, the evil.  We find hatred, conflict, cruelty and woundedness.  We discover weakness, apathy, lack.  We find these things in the world around us, in the people around us, in our very selves.

Robert Barclay wrote in 1676, “For when I came into the silent assemblies of God’s people, I felt a secret power among them, which touched my heart; and as I gave way unto it, I found the evil weakening in me and the good raised up; and so I became thus knit and united unto them [the Quakers], hungering more and more after the increase of this power and life whereby I might feel myself perfectly redeemed; and indeed, this is the surest way to become a Christian…”  Barclay became the greatest apologist for the faith of the Quakers.

Drawn to God, drawn to God’s presence and power, to the ‘increase of this power and life’; drawn to redemption.  This is what Barclay found by entering into the experience, the breath, of God in waiting worship.  It is transformative.

 Brother Lawrence found it so.  In the preface to the collection of his ‘conversations’ called ‘Practicing the Presence of God’ we read this:  “The experiences of Thomas á Kempis, of Tauler and of Madame Guyon, of John Woolman and Hester Ann Rogers, how marvellously they agree, and how perfectly they harmonize! And Nicholas Herman, of Lorraine, [Brother Lawrence] whose letters and converse are here given, testifies to the same truth! In communion with Rome, a lay brother among the Carmelites, for several years a soldier, in an irreligious age, amid a skeptical people, yet in him the practice of the presence of GOD was as much a reality as the "watch" of the early Friends, and the "holy seed" in him and others was the "stock" (Isa. vi. 16) from which grew the household and evangelistic piety of the eighteenth century…”

 Nicholas was born into poverty, and served in the army because they would feed him and pay him a small stipend.  After an injury, he left the army and worked as a footman or valet, but wasn’t very successful.  He was awkward and clumsy. (You don’t want a clumsy valet!)  His conversion, or as Friends call it, his ‘convincement’ came when he was 18 years old.  During that winter, he saw a tree stripped bare, and wondered that it soon would put on leaves, and then flowers and then fruit.  And in that simple sign, Nicholas saw God’s power and providence.  It changed his life and heart.  He said it ‘set him loose from the world and kindled in him a great love for God.’  He chose to enter a monastery, thinking he would be ‘made too smart for his awkwardness and the faults he should commit’, and sacrifice his life to God.  Instead, and much to his dismay, he found that he was very satisfied with his life there! He took the name ‘Lawrence of the Resurrection’ and lived the rest of his life at the monastery in Paris as a lay brother, working mostly in the kitchen.  He died in 1691.

 Lawrence writes, "Men invent means and methods of coming at God's love, they learn rules and set up devices to remind them of that love, and it seems like a world of trouble to bring oneself into the consciousness of God's presence. Yet it might be so simple. Is it not quicker and easier just to do our common business wholly for the love of him?"  “The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer, and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the blessed sacrament.”

 These ‘conversations’ with Brother Lawrence came well into his life of faith.  He reflects that ‘in order to form a habit of conversing with GOD continually, and referring all we do to Him; we must at first apply to Him with some diligence: but that after a little care we should find His love inwardly excite us to it without any difficulty.’ 

 Thomas Kelly, one of my favorite Quaker philosophers and writers:  “If the Society of Friends has anything to say, it lies in this region primarily.  Life is meant to be lived from a Center, a divine Center.  Each one of us can live such a life of amazing power and peace and serenity, of integration and confidence and simplified multiplicity, on one condition – that is, if we really want to. There is a divine Abyss with us all, a holy Infinite Center, a Heart, a Life who speaks in us and through us to the world.  We have all heard this holy Whisper at times. At times we have followed the Whisper, and amazing equilibrium of life, amazing effectiveness of living set in.  But too many of us have heeded the Voice only at times… We have not counted this Holy Thing with us to be the most precious thing in the world… John Woolman did.  He resolved so to order his outward affairs as to be, at every moment, attentive to that voice.  He simplified his life on the basis of its relation to the divine Center… And the Quaker discovery lies in just that: the welling-up whispers of divine guidance and love and presence, more precious than heaven or earth…

 I should like to be mercilessly drastic in uncovering any sham pretense of being wholly devoted to the inner holy Presence, in singleness of love to God.. But I must confess that it doesn’t take time, or complicate your program… worship can be breathed all through the day.  One can have a very busy day, outwardly speaking, and yet be steadily in the holy Presence. We do need a half-hour or an hour of quiet reading and relaxation.  But I find that one can carry the recreating silences within oneself, well-nigh all the time… Our real problem, in failing to center down, is not a lack of time; it is, I fear, in too many of us, lack of joyful, enthusiastic delight in God, lack of deep, drawing love directed toward Him at every hour of the day and night… Religion isn’t something to be added to our other duties, and thus make our lives more complex.  The life with God is the center of life, and all else is remodeled and integrated by it.

 There is a way of life so hid with Christ in God that in the midst of the day's business one is inwardly lifting brief prayers, short ejaculations of praise, subdued whispers of adoration and of tender love to the Beyond that is within. No one need know about it. I only speak to you because it is a sacred trust, not mine but to be given to others.

One can live in a well-nigh continuous state of unworded prayer directed toward God, directed toward people and enterprises we have on our heart. There is no hurry about it all; it is a life unspeakable and full of glory, an inner world of splendor within which we, unworthy, may live. Some of you know it and live in it; others of you may wistfully long for it; it can be yours.   Now out from such a holy Center come the commissions of life.”

 How do we begin? I would say, like Brother Lawrence, start with a tree…One of the things that I know about Sara [serving on Facing Bench today] is that she loves to sit in the back corner of the Meeting Room because she can look at that tree.

Find something simple, something meaningful, in those quiet moments in your life when it seems so crowded. So chaotic. So hurtful. So wounded. So busy. Find something simple that speaks to you of God and start there. Stay there. And let God speak.

One New Humanity

Sermon 7-27-2014; “One New Humanity”

Pastor Ruthie Tippin, Indianapolis First Friends

Ephesians 2:11-22

http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1332

Every morning, no matter what website, television station, or radio call letters you turn to, you find stories of violence and hatred; stories of aliens, strangers, the ‘haves and have nots’, the powerful and the even more powerful. 

Today, we pray for: (move to candles and light each one)

·        The frenzied fighting in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas fighters

·        The children of Central American families who are crossing the borders of the US

·        Christians who have been forced from their homes and communities in Iraq by Jihadist forces.

·        The ongoing conflict in Congo, where mineral resources have become more highly prized than it’s people

·        The ongoing crisis between Russian and the Ukraine

God, grant us peace.  Paul’s letter to the Ephesians doesn’t ask for peace… it shouts about peace.  The apostle is not writing this letter as vapor in thin air.  He is writing it with intention.  A spiritual message?  A deeply political message?  It is both.  The policies – the choices governments make, people make, the early Christians make, you and I make, have spiritual consequences.  For Quakers, there is no distinction between the two.

The people of Ephesus lived in peace… a forced order of peace imposed by the Roman government.  Anyone stepping outside that order was done away with, literally.  The ‘pax romana’ was held in place by the Emperor for almost 200 years by men who were treated as gods: the Emperors. Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero…men who ruled over the citizenry and military might of most of Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia – the Roman Empire. 

Sally Brown, professor of Preaching and Worship at Princeton Seminary shares this:  “Imagine that we, a community of Christians in Asia Minor, are tightly packed into the largest home available for the first reading of a new treatise that has arrived -- the one that will later come to be known as the Letter to the Ephesians. We're gathered to hear it read out, of course, because most of us cannot read. As the reader gets to the part that says, "You who were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ . . . He is our peace," there is a quick intake of breath and glances toward the door.

Who may have heard? "He [Christ] is our peace" (verse 14) would be a pronouncement bordering on treason. What is being claimed, after all, is that despite all the swaggering claims of Rome's emperors, true peace has been inaugurated – [not by the Emperor] - but by a man the empire crucified. The dissonance between the chilling rhetoric of the state and the thrilling rhetoric of the Gospel would set any listener's blood racing.”

Remember those words that begin that wonderful story we tell each year?  “And it came to pass in those days, that a word went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed…”  Caesar may have been the god of Rome, but he would soon be trumped by the God of All.  To speak of God’s Son as the source of peace was a terrifyingly bold thing to do.  To speak of Christ breaking down walls that held people apart, gave power to someone other than the Emperor.  To speak of a reconciled community rather than one filled with hierarchy and hatred was the antithesis of the life these people knew.

Not only did Paul speak of Christ and the cross breaking down the wall of hostility, but of Christ becoming the cornerstone, the foundation of peace.  A wall only travels two directions – up and down, and side to side.  A cornerstone travels in three, literally ‘turning the corner’ and adding stability to a structure that it would not otherwise have.

Walls and borders separate people because of their race, their religion, their economic status, their ideas… some are in and some are out.  For the Ephesians, the distinction was Jews and Gentiles.  They refused to ‘turn the corner’, and only lived an up and down, side to side existence.  Families, churches, neighborhoods, peoples of the world live as strangers and aliens, rather than citizens of God’s world.

Sally Brown:  “Ephesians declares peace on new terms, the peace forged not by the "lords" of Empire in its manifold forms, but in the blood and bone of the Crucified. [What was meant for death brought life!] The cross undermined the wall dividing Jew and non-Jew, but that is only the beginning.”

“The new household of God is not a purely spiritual reality that we visit briefly on Sundays -- a weekly "time out" in which we pretend peace is possible by sitting next to people we scrupulously avoid the rest of the time. The church is the daring practice of a new politics -- a different kind of power, the self-outpoured, boundary-crossing power of Christ's cross.

George Fox called the cross ‘the power of God”.  Quakers do not display crosses in their meetingrooms, because as Fox taught us, “He that feeleth the light that Christ hath enlightened him with, he feeleth Christ in his mind, which is the power of Christ, and shall not need to have a cross of wood or stone to put him in the mind of Christ or of his cross, which is the power of God.” [Journal, 1655]  There is no need for an image of God’s power, when we have the actual power of God within us. 

 Brown, continues: “We trust this power, letting it undermine every wall, until we are "built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God" (verse 22).”

The sad thing – actually, the wonderful thing, is that God saw the people of Ephesus, sees us, sees all of us, as one, as the same, as God’s creation…  [Galatians 3:27-29]  “ For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. [There is no distinction!]  And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise.

We don’t have to be in the family line of the Emperor to be valued, to be listened to, to be cared for.  We are a part of God’s family – the one who created the Emperor!  We are one new humanity – the humanity of PEACE.

I invite you to add your prayers for peace – whatever the need for peace is in your life – to these that have already been spoken.  Light a candle, if you wish.  Hold the light of God’s invading, interceding, loving, living light within you, even as you extend it to others.

Amen.

Paying It Foward

Sermon 7-13-2014  ‘Paying it Forward’

John 2:1-11  please read this scripture prayerfully before reading the sermon

Friends Education Fund Scholarship Sunday

Pastor Ruthie Tippin; First Friends Meeting Indianapolis

Today is a ‘water into wine’ kind of day. A day when common things become uncommon.  Ordinary becomes extraordinary.  The usual becomes very, very unusual.  Every day can be a ‘water into wine’ kind of day… Early Quakers believed that because they lived lives like that.  They believed that they lived in the power of God… that God lived in and through them, and their example was the life of Christ Jesus, lived in the power of God’s spirit.  Water into wine may have been Christ’s first miracle, but it repeated itself, over and over again through the lives of all those who lived in the power of God’s spirit.  It still does.  Today is a ‘water into wine’ kind of day.

 Ordinary water became extraordinary wine.  How did this happen?  We know Jesus’ mother ‘suggested’ that he help out the wedding party.  But… who else was a part of this story?  The wine steward.  The bridegroom… we get in on their conversation, yes.  But there are others that are often neglected.  Who?  The common, ordinary, behind the scenes servants were the ones who brought the water to Jesus.  They were a part of this miracle, too!  So many times, the simple, ordinary tasks we do as a part of our daily lives become something much bigger than we would ever anticipate.  How many times before had the servants brought out those water jugs?  How many times have you done simple tasks, repeated tasks, routine things, and have thought nothing of it?  Have you ever waited to see their effect? Have you ever seen what Jesus has done with your simple, everyday actions? Have you watched to see your water turned into wine?

 John Williams would be amazed at the extraordinary wine that has come from the water he brought to Jesus, so long ago in Salem, Indiana.  John was a freed slave who worked in Salem as a blacksmith.  Salem was the county seat of Washington County, where freed slaves from Kentucky, Virginia, and North Carolina settled in the early nineteenth century.  John lived his life as an active part of the community.  He built one of the African Methodist Episcopal Churches there in the early 1850’s.  Tragically, he was murdered some ten years later.  His gravestone sits on that church’s property to this day.          

The founders of Salem, IN were Quakers – Mr. and Mrs. Lindley.  Mrs. Lindley named the town after her hometown of Salem, North Carolina, which we now know as Winston-Salem.  Mr. Lindley was a good friend of John Williams’, and before his death, had agreed to serve as the executor and investor of John’s estate – he had set aside $6000. (In today’s monies, his estate would be worth over $150,000.)  In his will, John proscribed that the monies were to be used for the education of young black children. 

Soon thereafter, [1870] the Home for Friendless Colored Children was opened in Indianapolis by Quakers at 319 West 21st Street at the crossroad with Senate Street.  (It is now a major intersection covered with an overpass for I-65 South.)  'When it opened, it was the only orphanage in the state of Indiana to care for African American children.  At the end of the home's first year, it had housed 18 children.  By 1922, it had sheltered more than 3,000.  Although most of the children came from the Indianapolis area, the orphanage accepted orphans from all over Indiana. In 1922, the management of the orphanage changed hands.' The closing balance became the basis of the Friends Educational Fund, a scholarship fund for black college students, administered by First Friends Meeting.  I will let Friend Dan Harlan share the rest of this story, when we meet him in Fellowship Hall after meeting for worship!

 Water into wine!  All those days in the blacksmith shop.  All that daily labor.  All those dollars earned – set aside to be invested, paid forward, for children not yet born.  A common, ordinary person became a not so common, very extraordinary person who has cared for orphaned children, and educated hundreds of students since his death, more than 140 years ago.  The water of his life has become wine… full bodied, good wine.

 Think for a minute… sit back and remember this past week – this past month – this past season of your life.  Think of all the simple, ordinary things that you’ve done, or that you do every day.  Maybe you care for a child.  Treat patients.  Cook in a restaurant.  Care for people’s legal concerns.  Work in a blacksmith shop.  Everyday – Ordinary - Show up and do your job kinds of things.  Perhaps you don’t realize how extraordinary they can be.  What great impact they can have over time.  And what a difference they can make, moments, days, months, years and years later.  No one may ever tell you.  You may leave the wedding reception before the wine of your life is served.  That does not matter.  What matters is the expression of God’s love and power known in others lives because of you.

 This last winter was incredibly snowy.  I had to buy a scraper, and because I’m so short, I got one that telescopes.  I could reach across my windshield better, and got pretty good at cleaning the snow off my car.  One day, I was at Kroger’s, and cleaned my windows off to drive home.  The car sitting next to me was totally covered.  So, I cleaned it’s windows off too!  It was so much fun to think of the reaction the person would have when they came out to their car!  From then on, I never could clean off my own car without cleaning off the one next to it.  It was so much fun!  

 You don’t have to pass a chemistry test to turn water into wine!  You can just have fun with the power of God’s Spirit saying to you, “Hey Ruthie – you’ve gotten pretty good with that scraper dealey… why don’t you have a go at that car next to yours?”   There are lots of ways to turn water into wine – no examinations needed.  Beth Henricks told me about a day she came home from work and discovered her lawn had been mowed, and she still hasn’t been able to figure out who did it.  Water into wine.  Drop a bit of change in someone’s parking meter.  Work this Wednesday at the Food Pantry.  Send someone a note, a text, an email, telling them what a great job they’re doing at work.  Hug your grown up children.  Pay for the person’s coffee in line behind you at Starbuck’s.  Water into wine…   

March 15, 2014

Dear Friends Education Fund Board,

I was a recipient of the Friends Education Fund scholarship for four years.  I graduated from Indiana University Bloomington and now live back in Indianapolis.  I have never forgotten the story about why the fund was established and the great benefit it was to me.  I’ve always wanted to donate but keep waiting for the right time.  So I have not won the lottery, so I thought I better do something now.  Please accept my small token of appreciation.  Please keep my gift anonymous… 

A $1000 check was enclosed.

 Today is a ‘water into wine’ kind of day.  But then, God reminds us that every day is for making water into wine… for taking the ordinary and turning it into the extraordinary.  For understanding that what may be common to us, may be something of great value to others.  For living fully in the power of God, not negating anything.  For living in the present, for the future.  For paying it forward…

 Have you ever tasted that kind of wine?

July 6, 2014; ‘The Law That Sets Us Free’

Sermon, July 6, 2014;  ‘The Law That Sets Us Free’

Scripture Reading: James 1:19-25, James 2:8, Romans 13:8

40 Day Journey with Howard Thurman, Augsburg Books, 2009.

New Interpreter's Bible Commentary – James; Abingdon Press, Nashville, 1998.

Pastor Ruthie Tippin, Indianapolis FFM

It’s been under our noses all the time.  Like an unspent firecracker waiting to pop.  Like a sparkler, waiting to be lit.  Like fireworks waiting to be sent into the sky, exploding their colors for all to see… the law that sets us free is the warrant that we must love.  We must love one another.  There is no choice, if we truly want freedom.  Personal freedom, freedom in our relationships, freedom in our communities, freedom for all peoples and all nations. 

What James’ slim treatise tells us is that freedom comes at the cost of love.  It is a choice.  It has been a choice.  Whether it was 1776, 1965, or yesterday… our freedom is determined by our choice to love.  And this is most costly.

Do we believe this kind of freedom is possible?  James believes it is so.  James believes we can.  And James – Jesus’ brother – has a very strange way of finding freedom... one that many people would resist.  We must follow the law.  But… what law is this?  It is not a law of death, but a law of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  It is not a law of oppression, but of freedom.  It is not a law of cruelty, but of mercy.  It is not a law that means a smaller life - a harsher existence.  Instead, this law means a much larger, more expansive life – a much more generous way of living.  This law is the law of love.

In the first part of James’ letter, he speaks of joy, happiness, and the receiving of gifts, and then goes on to remind us to listen.  To listen.  To remember, and then to act.  I love the way the New English Bible translates James 1:23-25:

‘A man who listens to the message but never acts upon it is like one who looks in a mirror at the face nature gave him.  He glances at himself and goes away, and at once forgets what he looked like.  But the man who looks closely into the perfect law, the law that makes us free, and who lives in its company, does not forget what he hears, but acts upon it, and that is the man who by acting will find happiness.’

The law that makes us free… not glancing quickly, but looking closely into this law, and then living in its company.  Making this law a part of one’s life.  What is James talking about?  What is he asking us to listen to?  To remember?  To act on?  He explains himself just a bit later…  In chapter 2:8, James advises, “You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  The royal law – the highest law – the most authoritative law.  The Apostle Paul puts it this way:  ‘Owe no one anything except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.’ [Romans 13:8]  To complete all law, follow this one command:  love one another.

So many of us glance quickly at this idea, like the person and the mirror.  “Oh, right, I get it.  This is one of those two-part exam questions about God, right?  That lawyer and Jesus thing a long time ago?  Right?”  Not so much…  We always remember part of the story, but we forget a lot of it too… kinda like the person, and the mirror!  Luke, chapter 10:25;

25A certain teacher of the Law came up and tried to trap Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to receive eternal life?” 26Jesus answered him, “What do the Scriptures

say? How do you interpret them?” 27The man answered, “ ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your

mind’; and, ‘You must love your fellow-man as yourself.’ ” 28“Your answer is correct,” replied Jesus; “do this and you will live.” 29 B The teacher of the Law wanted to put

himself in the right, so he asked Jesus, “Who is my fellow-man?”

We always forget the tough part… the man’s last question.  We always forget his qualifier.  Just who do I have to love?  Do I have to love that person?  That person?  THAT person???  And this is why, I am convinced, we do not live in freedom, in this world.  We qualify who we will love.  We qualify who it is God loves.  We qualify who Jesus would have us love.

We are glancing into the mirror, rather than looking closely for the true reflection.  Perhaps we don’t want to see what it shows.  Friends – Quakers – took the time for reflection.  For seeking.  For Truth.  Through the long slog through Civil War, civil disobedience, and civil discourse, they determined that God dwells in each person… ‘there is that of God in every one’.  From the start.  In the beginning.  Each person has value and worth.  It is intrinsic to who we are.  And because of this, we are to value that of God in every other person. 

When Friends look in a mirror, it is as if we are in a wonderful mirror room at an amusement park.  We do not see our own image alone.  Rather, if we look long enough, we see many images reflected, one after another, of all persons, looking into the same mirror with us, each holding their place as a person of God.  And it is from that reflection that we grow in our understanding of what love is.  Our sense of freedom – freedom to live, freedom to express ourselves without fear, and freedom to become more of who we are, multiplies.  (Imagine me in the center with a mirror, and a young person, and old person, a gay person, a straight person, a rich person, a poor person, etc. reflected in layers behind me.)

This is not an easy thing.  Seeing others as persons of worth and value – as persons who hold God within them is easier said than done… especially those who are difficult to love, like the one beaten and left by the side of the road.  Many of us don’t know how to love.  We don’t know how to love ourselves.  We don’t know how to love others.  We don’t know how to love God.  So I’m going to give you a lesson.

The secret is that God is love.  And love is God.  They are the same thing.  Scripture teaches us that.  If no one else has ever told you that, I want you to hear it today.  God is love.  Love is God.  If you know love, you know God!  It’s just that simple.  And if you know God, you know love… 

Here’s your homework.  You need a mirror, a piece of paper and a pencil, and piece of tape.  Stick the piece of paper up on a mirror with the tape, and then look into the mirror.  Find something about yourself that you love.  For some of you, that’s going to be really easy.  But for some of us, it will be really, really hard.  So, I’m going to give you the first one… your smile.  Everybody looks great with a smile.  Some of you smile with your lips closed… some with your lips open.  It doesn’t matter.  Your smile is beautiful.  So… write down ‘smile’ on your piece of paper.  All day long, think about how much you love your smile.  But don’t stop there.  Look for other people’s smiles.  You’ll be surprised how many people smile at you!  And then, think about how much God loves your smile.  How God gave you such a great smile.  And how many things you have to smile about.

Tomorrow’s homework… Look in the mirror, and write down one of those things that you have to smile about.  Now – go looking for that same thing in everyone else.  And think about how much God loves that, too.  It won’t be long before you start realizing what I already know.  As Friends say, we each hold the Seed of Light, the Seed of Christ, the Seed of Love inside us.  And if we tend that Seed, it will grow, and grow, and branch out, and bear fruit.  And before long, we’ll begin to see, and hear, and speak, and feel, and touch love, love for ourselves, for God, and for others… and freedom is not far behind.

It is not enough to listen, and forget.  If that were true, there would have been no discrimination, no war, no inhumane treatment, no poverty, no harm or fear of any kind in our world.  We must look deeply, remember, and then act.  We must look closely, continue to pay attention, live in love’s company, and practice – we must act out the law of love.  Then we will know true freedom.

36And Jesus concluded, “In your opinion, which one of these three acted like a fellow-man toward the man attacked by the robbers?” 37The teacher of the Law answered, “The one who was kind to him.” Jesus replied, “You go, then, and do the same.”  [Luke 10]

Let freedom ring.  Amen.

Cuban Friends 6.29.14

On Sunday, June 29th, we were visited by Odalys & Candido from Cuba. Below is the main body of their message, along with Beth Henricks’s message to the Children of our Meeting.

Children’s Message from Beth Henricks:

So what do I have here? It’s a beach ball, I know, but it represents the world. We have some special guests today, our Friends from Cuba. I want to show you where Cuba is in the world. See the United States? This green island right here is called Cuba. That is where our Friends are from. Do you know how Quakers got to Cuba? Over 100 year ago, that’s a long time, probably before even your grandparents were born, there were two men on a boat. One of them was named Zenus Martin, kind of a funny name, and the other was Lorenzo Baker. They were on a boat sailing around Cuba. Lorenzo had a fruit company and was going to Cuba to get bananas. Lorenzo said to Zenus, “You are a Quaker, and you need to go to Cuba and share the story of Christ and Quakerism there.”  Zenus, who was from Iowa, where Ruthie is from, said, “I can’t do that! Leave my home and go to Cuba and start a mission there? I don’t have the money to that.” So Lorenzo, who had the banana company, gave him money to start a mission in Cuba. The Quakers in Iowa gave some money, and then other Quakers around the United States gave money, and Zenus said, “I think God is calling me to Cuba.” And he went. He started a Quaker mission in Cuba and it’s grown since then. So I was thinking about how God talks to us. Sometimes, God talks to us through other people. God talked to Zenus, through Lorenzo, who wasn’t even a Quaker. Sometimes God talks to us through our friends, sometimes God talks to us through our parents. And you know what? Sometimes God even talks to us directly, and we can hear the voice of God.

Odalys:

The Lord calls us. The Lord congregates us. And the Lord unites us in faith. A faith, hope and love. He is present among us to transform our minds, to transform our lives, and to transform our ways. To fill us with hope and joy. In this beautiful morning we greet you, and we welcome you to the house of the Lord. Please receive warm greetings from Cuba Yearly Meeting. We give thanks for the opportunity to be able to share with all of you. We do not have words to gratify God for this special moment. May God bless you all in a very special way.

Scripture Reading of Matthew 16:13-19:

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’

Candido:

I give thanks to God for being here. In this community of Quaker faith, sharing with all of you, Quakers and non-Quakers. I give thanks because the spirit of God goes beyond language and any barrier. For the Spirit, there is only one language, one universal language, and that is the language of love. I am sure that’s the one we are feeling this morning. Before coming to the United States, I could speak, because I had seen movies, and I have spoken to people about this country, but not until I came, and I was able to share with my brothers and sisters my travels, I couldn’t speak certainly about what was lived in the United States. Let’s pray.

            Lord and good God, our Friend and brother, Father and Mother of all of our lives, we ask you that in this time you guide us with your spirit. That you will bless us. And that you illuminate the way in which we walk. Allow us to be filled by your spirit, in that we may be able to give thanks to you for the blessing that we are now receiving. In the name of your son, Jesus Christ, Amen.

Many times when we go through a path that we have never walked, we are afraid. We feel fear because it is unknown to us, and because we aren’t capable of what we can find there. It means that the fear, it goes away, when we come to know the place. We come to know a place when we live, when we share, and when we are able to feel the pain of others in our own lives. When we walk in their shoes. I ask myself, how much did Peter know Jesus? Peter had walked with him. Had come to know his teachings. Peter was a common man. Peter earned his living by fishing to feed his family. Peter did not know Jesus, and in the moment that he comes and shares his life with Jesus, in the moment that he shares his mistakes and virtues, He opens the doors of his heart to Jesus, so that He can live in him. He eats with him, he hears his teachings, he hears his silence, and he sees his practice of life. It’s when Peter comes to know him.

It is easy to speak about what other people say. Someone can say this, someone else can say that, this person can say something different, but it is very hard to come and say what we know and feel. It meant that Peter was coming into a relationship with Jesus. The knowing that He is the son of God, the living God. To come to know his humanity and his divinity. And to come to know his love for all humanity. To make mistakes and to suffer in that love. It’s when Jesus comes and says, ‘On you I will build my church’. I feel that now every one of us is Peter. In this time, Jesus asks us to have a rooted knowledge of him. We can see his face in all of the people that we see around us. I want you to look to your right and then to your left. You can see Jesus’s face on each one of us. There is the call of Jesus to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. From there, the Quaker knowledge of inner light, interior Christ, and why not interior fire. An interior fire that unites us all beyond the frontiers and barriers of faith. Beyond the barriers of knowledge. What unites us is the love of God and the celebration of the life of Jesus.

How can we now have the knowledge of Jesus? How can we aspire to this divine knowledge? The answer is very close to us. When we love without limits and barriers, and that’s what Jesus did. He loved until it hurt him. Mother Teresa said, “We should love until it hurts.” We will only be capable of loving when we come to know the people around us. When we know their problems, their joys, the things that make them sad and their celebrations, because that’s what Jesus did. He came to know what happen to his disciples and what happened with the people around him. We can only love the things that we know, the things that we can place a sacrificial value on. No one that has a piece of jewelry that is worth ten cents will take care of it like someone who has a piece of jewelry that they paid three thousand dollars for it. For that reason we have to consider our brother and sister like the Christ. In the moment that we can feel that love, that love that hurts enough, that will be the moment that our Lord, Jesus Christ will say, ‘On you, son or daughter, I will build my church.’ This is the great knowledge that Jesus gave us. All of the knowledge, all of the virtue, all of the truth are in these words. This is what I want to leave in your hearts this morning. A poem from Cuba, called Love Is.

To love is to forgive

What is more than to love is to comprehend

Love is to carry on the cross

And to nail yourself onto the cross

And die

And resurrect

Love is resurrection

Lets make out of love our resurrection.

That’s the message that Christ has given us for the rest of eternity. Amen. 

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If you would like to support the Cuban Friends, please send a donation to Friends United Meeting, 101 Quaker Hill Drive, Richmond, IN 47374. Secure credit card donations can be made at www.fum.org. 

Pastor Deborah Suess; Toward a Healthy Theology of Forgiveness...

June 8, 2014 Greensboro First Friends/June 15, 2014 Indianapolis First Friends        

Pastor Deborah Suess; Toward a Healthy Theology of Forgiveness...

resources: Return of the Prodigal Son by Henri Nouwen, When Forgiveness Doesn't Make Sense by Robert Jeffress, Don't Forgive Too Soon: Extending the Hands that Heal by Dennis Linn.

 My beloved state of NC feels incredibly polarized these days – politically, religiously and beyond.… But two Saturdays ago – it felt like our state was momentarily unified as we remembered and honored the life of our beloved Dr. Maya Angelou. Her memorial service was in Winston Salem and live streamed … and much of North Carolina watched, prayed and gave thanks.

 Maya Angelou was a survivor in many ways. Her childhood was described as “too rough for words.” Yet on numerous occasions she said that one of the keys to not only her survival but to living with joy – has been learning how to forgive.   My-ah said she was able to forgive as she began (in her words) “to internalize, ingest the truth that I am loved / loved by God.”

In my experience, offering and receiving forgiveness is one of the most challenging and liberating calls of the Christian life. So after watching the memorial service, I decided to look into a bit more of what Dr. Angelou had to say about forgiveness and faith.

She was interviewed in 2013 for O Magazine. Oprah was one of the many women My-yah adopted as “sister/daughter.”  Here’s a portion of the interview.

Oprah asks: What would you say, sitting here where you are now, to that young calypso singer (you were) in 1957?

Maya answers:  I would encourage her to forgive. It's one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody. I mean, we ask the Creator to forgive our stupidest actions. The cruelest mean-hearted things. …So then you too forgive. It relieves you. You are relieved of carrying that burden of resentment. You really are lighter.

Oprah: I know you often say that love liberates us, but actually, forgiveness does?

Maya: …. you can't forgive without loving. And I don't mean sentimentality. I don't mean mush. I mean having enough courage to stand up and say, "I forgive. I'm finished with it."

Oprah: … You have taught me over the years that when you forgive somebody, it doesn't necessarily mean you want to invite them to your table.

Maya: Indeed not.. …... No, no, no. … [sometimes] it just means  I'm finished ….   /  

(and that too is forgiveness…)

AS a person of faith, My-yah took Jesus’ call to forgive seriously. .. And so do I.

In the prayer that Jesus taught us -- we hear the words: Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.  As a forgiven people – we are called to forgive one another. But that does not mean it’s easy nor simple.  

I find it telling – that so very very much has been written about the topic in just the last 10-12 years. Books, articles, websites, blogs about various aspects of forgiveness now abounds …

And there is some incredibly helpful information out there. Unfortunately – there is also much of what I would call – kooky and even dangerous theology being taught and preached regarding the role of forgiveness in a person’s life. So … a good beginning place is to first consider:  What Forgiveness Is Not…

You are welcome to follow along in your bulletin.

First: Forgiveness is not indifference nor is it a pretense that an injury - an offense did not matter. Until we are honest about our actual feelings --   forgiveness has little meaning.  In other words –forgiveness is not denial. Rather forgiveness involves acknowledging the truth to ourselves, to God and (depending on the circumstance) sometimes to the one who caused injury.

Two: Forgiveness is not an antidote to hurting. Unfortunately – offering forgiveness does not magically take away the pain of injury. You may hurt for a long time … the good news is that forgiveness does help lead to healing and release. However, it is often slow, incremental, and a multi- layered process. I often think of the image of peeling away an onion.

Three: Forgiving is Not the same as forgetting. Thankfully hurtful memories often fade… but it is not required that we forgive and forget. Rather – I believe we can both remember and forgive.

Four: … Forgiveness does not mean a relationship will return to exactly the way it was before an offense.  By the grace of God, a relationship may indeed grow and become stronger, better, healthier… But the relationship will not be the same… ~ It’s been said that Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.”  (paul boese)  I love that.

Five: As My-yah Angelou puts it – forgiveness doesn’t mean you have to invite the person back to your table. Forgiveness is not the same as reconciliation. One can truly forgive and let go but also choose to not resume the relationship.

Six: Forgiveness doesn’t make a harmful action okay. Forgiveness is not justification nor condoning. While you may forgive, you may also say, “Never again …” 

Seven: Forgiving is not the same as pardoning. It is not letting a wrongdoer off the hook. There are often consequences to our behaviors … even though we’ve been forgiven. And it is not the same as accepting, excusing or tolerating. We may forgive what we cannot tolerate, overlook or ignore.

Eight: Forgiveness is not easy nor is it a one-size-fits all. What it looks like for you may be different than for me. The timing / the process/ the work/ the prayer that it involves … will differ from person to person / situation to situation.

Nine: Forgiveness is not something you have to do alone. It takes faith, courage and requires help. Help from God and often help from others – whether that be your best friend, spouse, your pastor, your therapist, spiritual director or your coach.  Forgiveness is not something you have to “journey through” alone….

Finally- Ten:  Extending Forgiveness is not primarily about the other but rather about our blessing, our release – (or as Dr. Angelou put it) our invitation to travel lightly.

To forgive another person from our heart is an act of liberation. We set that person free from the negative bonds that exist between us. We say, “I no longer hold your offense against you” But it doesn’t stop there. We also free ourselves from the burden of being the “offended one.”  In the words of Henri Nouwen - [When] we do not forgive those who have wounded us, we carry them with us or, worse, pull them as a heavy load. … Forgiveness, therefore, liberates not only the other but also ourselves.

 Amen.

Queries for Open Worship...

What does receiving/offering forgiveness look like in your life?

What is a “healthy theology” of forgiveness?

When in your life have you experienced forgiveness as grace, release or simply letting go?

Does the advice, "Don't Forgive Too Soon" speak to you?

Is the Spirit inviting you into the journey of asking for forgiveness, receiving forgiveness….or extending forgiveness to another?

Little Things Mean A Lot

Psalm 139:7-18
Ruthie Tippin, Indianapolis First Friends Meeting
 
Friends, this morning I had three different messages in my mind and one of them comes from my heart, so that is the one I am going to share with you today. The music that you’ve received this morning is a gift to you. A gift to our Mothers on Mother’s Day, but a gift to us all from our handbells, and from Eric and the Choir. This is the last time they will be sharing their ministry to us this school year, and I just want to add my thanks to yours, to all of the musicians for their kindness, their work, and their ministry to the Meeting. It’s been a very powerful year, under the direction of Shawn and then Eric for the Choir and Lynda for the Bells; it’s been an incredible experience, and I want to thank each one of them for bringing ministry to us in ways that sometimes speak to those who are gathered, in ways that nothing else can. I am very thankful for that.
 
Yesterday I was privileged to serve in ministry for the wedding of Tom Heusel and Lori Marshall as they gathered into union. After the wedding I was sitting in the hallway, and a little girl was there. I complimented her on her really pretty necklace, and I said, “I have a necklace, too.”  I showed her my heart - this locket. Before you know it, she pulled out of her little purse a locket - she didn’t have it on a chain – I was just the heart. I opened mine up and said, “Look what I have inside… these are my two boys. Here’s Matt and here’s Seth. They gave me this locket a long time ago.” She opened up her locket, and she didn’t have any pictures in there. She said, “I’m going to put a picture of my daddy and me in my locket.”
 
I’m going to ask you today to allow yourselves to put God and you in your ‘locket’ and allow God to be your mother today. Allow God to be your mother today. Some of us are blessed, some of us are so blessed, to have had mothers who knew God, who knew how to nurture, who knew how to love us, and we are so thankful today. We bring God praise and thanksgiving for the gift of mothering that we received.

But Mother’s Day is kind of “tricky,” because not everyone has had that kind of experience. There are some children who never knew their mothers, and they are very curious about what ‘mothering’ is really like. Some children were adopted, and if you think in those terms, you actually have two mothers. I’m asking you to allow God to be your mother, and to be thankful for the mother who gave you birth and then gave you away, releasing you to your adoptive mother, who raised you, and then to God, who mothered over and through all of that. 
 
Some of us have mothers who did not know how to nurture, and perhaps were even abusive. That’s very difficult, when you are celebrating Mother’s Day and it’s a ‘Hallmark Card’ kind of day - and you don’t have a Hallmark card kind of feeling. “When you care enough to send the very best.” Really, God? Was that the very best? So here is what I want you to think. Mother God… She was with you. She was with you, and you lived through it. You survived because of God’s strength in you. Now, allow God, in God’s love, to be your true Mother and love you through all of that. And understand that that person, your mother had choices, and perhaps her choices were informed by her mother’s choices. Allow God to mother her as well.
 
Some of us, are fathers who are mothers, and that’s a real challenge, but God knows what that’s all about! Scripture tells us that God knows how to gather…. God is like a mother hen gathering the chicks under her wings. God knows what it’s like to be a Mother. And we thank God for our fathers who raised us as mothers. God is loving us as mothers do.
 
As you move through Mother’s Day, allow God to be your mother. As you move through your life, and you see all the changes in your life, in the way God anticipates love, allow God to anticipate the love that you need. Allow God to be the love that you need. Allow God to bring you to that beautiful place of mothering, and open yourself to be free to accept the mothering of God with thanksgiving, with blessing. For those of you, who like me, have lost your mother to death, remember that nothing is lost to God. Remember that no-one is lost. None of your loving experiences are lost in God.
 
Now I’m going to ask you to do something today. I’m going to ask you to cup your hands together, and put yourself in the middle of your hands. And then I’m going to ask you to imagine God looking down on you as God does all the time, holding you. Now put one hand on top of the other, forming a hollow nest.  This is Mother God, one hand over the other, protecting you. And then I want you to open your hands, and make them fly, knowing that God is freeing you, in God’s love to move on, to move on in love, knowing that God always loves. Allow God to love you in those ways, and allow God to love through you.
 
Some of you have wanted to be a mother. Some of you have wanted to be a mother and that has not come. Allow God to mother through you and see that God, Mother God, is already doing that work. You cannot imagine how many of God’s children are being loved through your love. Come and find the quiet center in yourself and allow God to speak into that center, whether it’s the center of your heart, the center of your womb, the center of your mind, the center of your being. Allow God to center you, in mother love.
 
Let us sing together, ‘Come and Find the Quiet Center’… ‘find the room for hope to enter’, as we begin our time of open worship.  
 
Amen.