The Motion of Love 10.12.14

Sermon 10-12-2014; “The Motion of Love”

I Thessalonians 1:2-8  NRSV

Philip Moulton, edit., The Journal and Major Essays of John Woolman, Friends United Press, 1971.

Sterling Olmstead, Motions of Love – Woolman as Mystic and Activist, Pendle Hill Pamphlet #312, Pendle Hill, 1993.

Leonard Kenworthy, Quakerism, A Study Guide on the Religious Society of Friends, Prinit Press, 1981.

Paulette Meier; Timeless Quaker Wisdom in Plainsong,CD, Quaker Press, 2010.

Welcome home to First Friends Meeting.  It is a blessing to welcome you to the Meetingroom today…  Fifty nine years ago, on an October morning much like this one, a group of Friends gathered here on a rough parcel of land, to break ground for this Meetinghouse.  The Ground Breaking Ceremony was held at 11:00 in the morning, Sunday, October 2, 1955.  We, and our Quaker forebearers have been breaking ground for a long, long time…

George Fox with his earth-shattering discovery that God speaks directly to each person.

William Penn with his crazy, wild and wonderful idea of an ‘Holy Experiment’ called Pennsylvania. A sign painter named Edward Hicks with a never to be forgotten vision of a Peaceable Kingdom full of animals, Indians, and Friends. Lucretia Coffin Mott, who angered her Hicksite Friends for working with non-Quaker reformers to abolish slavery and allow women legal rights. An orphan named James, adopted by a Quaker farm family – the Michener’s of Pennsylvania; he sold over 100 million books, all reflecting a Quaker aversion to racism and oppression. And of course, our friend, John Woolman. 

From The Living Witness of John Woolman: “Woolman was born in New Jersey in 1720.  He became a recorded minister in 1743.   He was married and had two children, only one of whom survived infancy.  Brought up on a farm, he pursued a variety of occupations: orchard grower, merchant, tailor, surveyor, scribe, conveyancer, teacher and author.  More important: he was the most notable of hundreds of traveling Quaker ministers in America and England between 1700 and the Revolutionary War.  In that capacity he traveled, during a period of 29 years in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Long Island, and New England… he died of smallpox [at the age of 52] while visiting England in 1772.”

John Woolman knew how to break ground… not with a shovel, but with a consistent life of integrity and love.  Woolman never stepped outside of himself.  A sensitive, caring person from the time he was a child, Woolman heard and felt God speaking in a direct and personal way. Again, Philip Moulton: “Basic to both his character and his methods of social action was the depth of his experience of God, leading to a sense of divine guidance, of providence, and of God’s love.”  Woolman’s concerns centered around slavery, participation in war, and the economy.

The Evils of Slavery: ‘Woolman’s larger desire was that persons should do the will of God in every aspect of life, thus fostering the spiritual and material well-being of all his children.’ Moulton

John Woolman:

‘My employer, having a Negro woman, sold her and directed me to write a bill of sale, the man being waiting who bought her.  The thing was sudden, and though the thoughts of writing an instrument of slavery for one of my fellow creatures felt  uneasy, yet I remembered I was hired by the year, that it was my master who directed me to do it, and that it was an elderly man, a member of our Society, who bought her; so through weakness I gave way and wrote it, but at the executing of it, I was so afflicted in my mind that I said before my master and the Friend that I believed slave-keeping to be a practice inconsistent with the Christian religion.’ P. 33

It wasn’t long before Woolman decided he could no longer work there – even though he was quite successful. He’d had several offers to establish himself in business, but chose instead to become a tailor, allowing more time for travel, and to work as he chose – not as the market forced him to.  He wrote in his Journal, ‘There was a care on my mind to so pass my time as to things outward that nothing might hinder me from the most steady attention to the voice of the True Shepherd.” And that voice was the motion of love. 

Just as God spoke to George Fox, to Rufus Jones, to Elizabeth Fry, to Levi Coffin, to Bayard Rustin, God spoke to Woolman, and God speaks to us.  And it always sounds like love.  And it often sounds like ‘move’.  Seeing a Friend buying a slave in that store sounded like ‘love’ to Woolman… love the slave, and love the man buying the slave… love the Quakers who knew that it was wrong to own a person just as you would own a plow or a some farm animal. But don’t just love these people… move to change the way they live.  Leonard Kenworthy writes, “By 1780, no Friends in the American colonies were slave owners – 80 years before the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. Such action by Quakers was the result of the slow growth of a corporate consciousness and concern, due in large part to Woolman’s efforts.”

Women’s Quartet – Sung in Canon; Music by Paulette Meier

“May we look upon our treasures, our furniture and our garments,

May we look upon our treasures, our furniture and our garments,

And try to discover, whether the seeds of war

Are nourished by these, our possessions.” 

Participation in War: ‘The ethics of participation in war also claimed much of Woolman’s attention, especially when the French and Indian War reached his territory.’ Moulton 

John Woolman:

"Twelfth of sixth month being the first of the week and a rainy day, we continued in our tent, and I was led to think on the nature of the exercise which hath attended me. Love was the first motion, and thence a concern arose to spend some time with the Indians, that I might feel and understand their life and the spirit they live in, if haply I might receive some instruction from them, or they might be in any degree helped forward by my following the leadings of truth among them.”

The economy: ‘The material needs of all would be met insofar as each person was guided by universal love to seek only what he really required… He was no devotee of poverty for its own sake, but sought to live on the lowest economic level consonant with fulfilling the life and mission to which he was called of God.’ [Moulton]

Woolman always identified himself with the oppressed.  One example is that he refused to wear dyed clothing. Another?  He removed sugar from his diet.  Both of these were produced by slaves.

He wrote in his Journal that God, in the perfection of his power, wisdom, and goodness had provided enough labor for each person’s support in this world.   P.120  One of his most loving instructions is that to ‘turn all we possess into the channel of universal love becomes the business of our lives.”

Always seeking, always listening, always moving… always motivated by love.  Just as the Christians in Thessalonica, John Woolman, Elizabeth Fry, William Penn, Edward Hicks, were drawn by the motion of love to break new ground… in prison reform, in governance, in the abolition of slavery, in women’s rights, in peace and justice, in economic reform… and especially to the understanding that God is present among us… the kingdom of God is at hand.  “For we know, brothers and sisters beloved by God, that he has chosen you, because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.”

A little boy was at that Ground Breaking Ceremony in 1955.  His name was David Comer.  After the Clerk of the Meeting - Verne Osborn gave his greeting, after Isaac Woodard - the Clerk of Ministry and Counsel gave his, after Marilyn Overman - the Chairman of the Committee on Christian Education gave hers, and Jhone Anderson spoke for the Young People, David Comer spoke for the Children.  He recited a poem he had written:

Our dear church will be built

With love and work and prayer

So that all our friends and neighbors

Might find welcome there. 

David Comer spoke of the work it would take to build the church, yes.  But he first spoke of the love that would build it.  Love would be the first motion.  Every time we respond to the motion of love in our lives, be it direct or indirect, be it personal or corporate, be it immediate or waited upon for clearness before we act… every time we respond and move forward in love, we are fulfilling the message of the Gospel… and breaking new ground.  My question to you is, ‘Who’s got a shovel???’ 

The Life That Really Is Life

Sermon 10-5-2014; “The Life that Really is Life”

1 Timothy 6:17-19

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_life

Clarence Jordan, The Cotton Patch Version of Paul’s Epistles, New Century Publishers, 1968, p. 146.

Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit, George H. Doran Company, 1922.

“The life that really is life.”  Wikipedia says “Real life is a phrase used to distinguish actual events, people, and activities from fictional worlds or characters, from interactions on the Internet, or, pejoratively, from certain lifestyles or activities that the speaker deems less important, less worthy, or otherwise less "real".  On the Internet, "real life" refers to life offline. Online, the acronym "IRL" stands for "in real life", with the meaning "not on the Internet".[1] For example, while Internet users may speak of having "met" someone that they have contacted via online chat or in an online gaming context, to say that they met someone "in real life" is to say that they literally encountered them in a common physical location.”  Today, we gather ‘IRL’ in Meeting for Worship.  Friends – this is real life!

Real life, for Quakers, is a life experienced… a life of fullness and expression.  A life of interaction with both humankind and the Divine.  A life that really is life.  To live a life only with God, cloistered from the needs and sense of the world around us is not real life.  To live a life only with humankind, ignoring that of God within us, is not real life.  Real life is the interplay between who we are, and Whose we are.  Between recognizing God living in us and our living out God. 

How do we do that as a Meeting?  As individuals?  How do we recognize God, how do we live God in real life?

Margery Williams gives us a lovely answer in her children’s book “Velveteen Rabbit”.  One Christmas, a young boy receives a stuffed rabbit as a gift.  The Rabbit is snubbed by the more expensive and mechanical toys in the Nursery, who think of themselves as real. 

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, [of Skin Horse.] "Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real." "Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit. "Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?" "It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

The Velveteen Rabbit becomes the boy’s constant companion.  “And so time went on, and the little Rabbit was very happy - so happy that he never noticed how his beautiful velveteen fur was getting shabbier and shabbier, and his tail becoming unsewn, and all the pink rubbed off his nose where the Boy had kissed him.”

"You must have your old Bunny!" [Nana] said. "Fancy all that fuss for a toy!" The Boy sat up in bed and stretched out his hands. "Give me my Bunny!" he said. "You mustn't say that. He isn't a toy. He's REAL!"

“When the little Rabbit heard that he was happy, for he knew that what the Skin Horse had said was true at last. The nursery magic had happened to him, and he was a toy no longer. He was Real. The Boy himself had said it.”

We are loved into Real Life.  God loves us into being Real, showing us through the world God made for us, the life God gave for us, God’s Spirit that lives in us, and the resources God has given us.  It is for those of us who have been ‘richly worn loose in the joints’, who have become ‘splendidly shabby’, who have had ‘most of our hair loved off’, to reach out to those who are aching inside their Velveteen coats, their mechanical clockworks, and their shiny, bright steel.  God calls us to love them into Real Life, just as we have been loved.

To become real is to become rich – not in the ‘mirage of wealth’ that Timothy describes, but in God ‘who liberally offers us everything needful for our well-being.’ The reading doesn’t say God offers us everything we want, or everything we could ever dream of.  God offers us every needful thing.  And it isn’t just for pleasure.  It’s for our well-being. 

To stay real is to do good, to be noble, to share, to act as full partners, and to build a strong foundation for the future.  If we are real, we can’t ignore those who are not – even those who think they already are.  It’s difficult sometimes to deal with sharp edges, fragile figures, and people that need to be carefully kept.  It’s much easier to leave them in the toy cupboard.  It’s far easier to deal with them online than in real life.  But God calls us to generosity, to partnership, to caring, to share our lives with those who have just as much of God in them as we have of God in us.  How dare we choose who should become real, and who should not?  God asks us to love everyone into real life.

That is what we try to do at First Friends Meeting.  Our budget reflects that.  Your money, your riches, your gifts and offerings, make people real, and here’s how:

About 60% of the budget pays Amanda, Beth, Rocio, Dan, Shawn, and me.  Together, we greet people, prepare spaces for community groups, worship; connect and educate families and children, clean and maintain the building, serve those in need at the Meetinghouse door, care for the dying, plan and prepare worship, maintain the website, encourage newcomers, and much more - all in an endeavor to make God real, to make life real, to love God and love others for you, with you, and through you.

We spend about 14% of the budget on our building and grounds… keeping our habitation in good order so that it can be used to serve God.  This is a place where God becomes real.  It serves God well.  And it serves a number of people besides us – Meridian Street Preschool Co-Op, AA, Poetry Group, 2 Yoga groups, an annual Neighborhood meeting, gardeners, voters, a kids soccer team, multiple dog walkers, those who stroll by, and many who worship in our Woods.  There are probably more, but I can’t think of them right now!

Our Meeting tithes more than 12% of its income to Quaker and non-Quaker organizations who carry out the concerns and testimonies of First Friends, and Friends around the world.  We have heard from many of them as they have come to Meeting and shared their hearts with us – Colin Saxton from Friends United Meeting, Dale Graves – Belize, Candido and Odalys from Cuba Yearly Meeting, Tim Nation from Peace Learning Center. These are just a few examples of how you make God real at home and abroad.

We use about 12% of our budget for programs; paper and postage supplies, materials for education, music, worship, our directory… those kinds of things that are a part of real life, and making life real.

We are in the process right now of figuring out how we are going to make God real next year through the ministries of First Friends.  I invite you to talk to people, go to Committee Meetings, come to Monthly Meeting, join in the conversation about the budget, consider what God is saying to you about making God real in your own budget at home and how that affects your participation in the budget at Meeting… scrutinize it, and help us improve the way we help others become real.  There’s a handout in your bulletin, if you need some context for decision making.  I’ve used it for our family, and I think it’s pretty nifty.  I hope you do too.    

God in You is the Real Life of First Friends. The way you love each other makes each other real.  You and I are made real by the way we are loved, and the way we love others.  We are called to pay attention… the shiniest toy on the shelf may be the one who needs love the most.  Don’t underestimate the power of your reach.  Don’t discount the worth of your gifts – large or small.  The small gesture you make may be the only motion of love one has had in a long, long time.  And you, who like me, have become… who are getting loose in the joints and whose eyes are dropping out… we are the ones who know so well how valuable the generosity of love is.  Friends, there is no choice but to be what we are… what God has called us to be.  REAL. 

‘Plead with the worldly rich not to be conceited nor to rest any weight on the mirage of wealth, but on God who liberally offers us everything needful for our well-being.  Plead with them to do good, to be rich in noble deeds, to be sharers, full partners, assembling material for a fine foundation for the future, so that they might hang on to life that’s real.’  1 Timothy 6:17-19 Cotton Patch Gospel

Dan Moseley 9.28.14

On Sunday, September 28th, Dan Mosley, professor emeritus at CTS, was our guest speaker in Meeting for Worship. Dan is a minister, consultant, coach, and the author of "Lose, Love, Live - the Spiritual Gifts of Loss and Change".  Based on the belief that the deepest dimensions of organizational conflicts are about loss, Dan’s leadership skills have moved many organizations through difficult transitions enabling them to discover barriers that block productivity.

Below is the main body of the message given by Dan Moseley on September 28th: 

The trees are changing now, and I love it. I think that I love it more because I know that eventually those leaves will disappear. Eventually they will fall and we will be able to see the naked arms of the branches and the fingers waving in the cold. It’s that way with love isn’t it? When we love something, we can pretty much guarantee that we will not have it forever. That’s the way it is with love, because that’s the way life is. Life is always in change and always in transition. What we fall in love with will eventually change.

When I was a little child I had a ragdoll. My mother had made me a ragdoll. And I loved that ragdoll. I loved it so much that it just fell apart. It had to be washed all the time, because I dragged it through dirt all the time. Eventually it just one day died, I guess, in the washing machine, because I never found it again. I loved that doll, but it passed on.

As a person in high school, I loved basketball. I played basketball and I was getting pretty good and was going to be on the A team. We were practicing and the coach was guarding me and I faked him. It was a good fake. He jumped up and fell on me and broke my back. It ended my basketball career. The next year, after I got back, my senior year, they let me be chaplain and enforcer. That is, when they wanted somebody fouled, I was the one who got to go in and foul them, so I ended up with my name in the paper. I loved basketball, but it ended.

I loved Donna, my first love. One day she decided that it was over and so it ended. That’s the way it is with love. That’s the way it is with life. Life is filled with energy when we love things and that’s what enables us to be vital, to experience the fullness of life. We love, we care, we have passion for. But eventually, all there is, disappears. Even if it doesn’t die, it changes.

I loved my children when they were babies, but they turned two, and it was a lot harder, and I had to learn to love them again in a different way. And then when they turned five and went away to school it was a different thing entirely.

Susan Wilshire wrote a book about the death of her brother from AIDS. In her book she says, “Life is fair. Eventually it breaks everybody’s heart. Eventually our hearts will be broken. Eventually we will be wounded. If we love, it will hurt. If we live, there will be pain. Now some people, after their hearts have been broken, decide that maybe they don’t want to love again, maybe they don’t want to put themselves out there again and fall in love with something because they know intuitively that it’s going to disappear. And that’s one option, but the option to not love is the option to not live. Because it is only our ability to love that enables us to be alive.

Yesterday when I met with 25 or so members of this congregation to talk about discovering God in a changing world and wondering amongst ourselves what the future holds for us, we explored the fact that if we are people of faith, we know that God desires life. God desires our life. God desires life for all, abundance, fullness of life. That’s what God desires, and so, as people of faith, it’s really not an option to choose not to love again. Sometimes we have to go into ourselves and we have to nurse the broken heart, and sometimes we cannot be out there with others when we are wounded because we are too vulnerable. Eventually, as people of faith, as the healing presence of God’s grace softens our heart again, and gives us courage, we have the capacity, and respond again, to love, to commit. To be faithful, to care, passionately.

How do you do that? How do you get through the pain? How do you get through the losses of life in a way that you can open up to the newness of life that’s possible? To the new love that God is offering to you in the next day of your life and the next day of your life? How do you get through that? That’s really what it’s about. That’s what it is to live well, to figure out how to grieve well, how to learn to live in the absence of something that matters deeply to you.

Graceful living is grieving living, the capacity to explore what it is that has been lost in a way that opens us to the future that God is offering to us. We talked yesterday about a map helping us to do that, and it’s in the book that I’ve written, ‘Lose, Love, Live: The Spiritual Gifts of Loss and Change’. It’s a map that lines out the fact, and acknowledges the truth, that we have had losses, that we have had pain, and it invites us to experience the fullness of that loss and that pain. Because in so doing we experience the fullness of the gift of life that God has granted to us. Pain represents love. We have pain in our hearts only when that which we love disappears. So pain is a reflection of the depth of love. We have to deal with that. We have to open ourselves to that, because it teaches us about God. It teaches us about God’s gift of grace.

On this map, we work our way through this pain. We work our way through the guilt and through the anger. We work our way through that in order to be forgiven and to experience the forgiving grace of God so that we are free from the power of that pain to control the future. That’s what forgiveness is all about, the capacity to become free to live again in the absence of that which we have lost. Change is inevitable, and therefore that which we have lost is inevitable. The question is not whether we’re going to lose that which we love, the question is how do we grieve that loss so that we can love again? So that we can live again?

During the retreats that we are having here, the first one yesterday and through 2015 there will be three more retreats, we will be looking at the spiritual disciplines that enable us to pay attention to our own journey so that we can learn what God is doing inside of us. So that we can learn from our experience what God is calling us to do and be in the future. Yesterday we looked at silence. I thought the way the children handled that silence was remarkable. I mean, they were much more silent than I could be. All the children inside of me when I get silent start hitting each other and bumping into each other and yelling at each other. Inside me, my children have a hard time quieting down.

Sometimes when I get silent, the chaos of my own life overtakes me, and I don’t know what to do with that. Because what I want to do when I get silent is I want to quiet all these voices of the chaos of my past, my memory. I want to quiet the voices of my culture that just inundate me all the time, the noise of the radio, the noise of the computer, the noise of the music, the noise of people. I want to quiet that noise. I want to calm the noise of the future that just keeps nagging at me, saying, ‘You’ve got to remember what you have to do tomorrow, and you’ve got to remember that you’ve got to take care of these things tomorrow.’ I’ve got to quiet those voices so that I can listen. Listen to how God whispers through the depth of my soul.

Silence is one of the classic Christian disciplines. To be quiet, and to wait. To wait for God to come and speak to us and call us forward into the future with courage. This is not just classic Christian tradition, but this is a tradition that the Quakers have stewarded well for us. It is good to be among you because of the lack of noise, because of your creating space for God to emerge in the depths of the soul. We have a promise that when we do that, when we wait, Jesus told the disciples, “Go to Jerusalem and wait. Sit expectantly and wait, for God is going to baptize you with a spirit that is a new spirit.”

The interesting thing about our story of the Christian faith is that the people who knew Jesus, and followed Jesus, loved Jesus. They loved Jesus desperately. They loved Jesus humanly. They denied Jesus, and they ran from him. They couldn’t sit with him. But they were human and they loved him. And he died. And even though they experienced his presence again, at one point he disappeared into Heaven. In other words, even the memory of his physical presence somehow disappeared, and with their broken hearts, they went to Jerusalem and waited. And you know the rest of the story. You know the rest of the story because it is our story.

When they went there and when they waited, a spirit came to them that was way more powerful than their pain. That was so powerful that it overcame their pain and empowered them to bear witness to the God who comes in brokenness and suffering. The God who comes in the midst of change and loss. We don’t always have to break open, we don’t always have to suffer deeply, but when the empty space is created by a loss, sit in that space. Wait in silence. Wait with each other in this place week after week. Because the promise will be fulfilled. God’s Holy Spirit will come and empower you for your future, for your new life, that you may love again.

Expectation - Transformation

Sermon; ‘Expectation – Transformation’       

September 21, 2014

Mark 8:27-29

T. Canby Jones, The Power of the Lord is Over All; Friends United Press, 1989.

Douglas Gwyn, Seekers Found – Atonement in Early Quaker Experience, Pendle Hill Publications, 2000.3

Pastor Ruthie Tippin - Indianapolis First Friends Meeting

Note:  The Children's Message today, brought by Jim Kartholl posed the question, "Which vegetable would God most want us to be like... a radish, a cucumber, or a carrot?"  After much deliberation and a spirited discussion, the children discovered the carrot had the same color on the inside and outside - that God's love in us shines through us, showing outwardly.

Opening Hymn: Joy to the World

Anthem:

When Morning Gilds the Skies, my heart awaking cries, “May Jesus Christ be praised...”

May Christ be praised!  Christ be praised!  Which Christ???  Should we praise the Christ of history – the man who was born in Bethlehem, escaped to Egypt, returned to Nazareth, traveled in Galilee and was crucified in Jerusalem?  The Good Teacher?  The man whose life is recorded in history?  Or should we praise the mystical Christ, the Divine, the Eternal, the Son of God?  What will it be – History or Mystery?

 This is an old, old question, and it was one Jesus knew well.  He heard it all the time.  His people, the Jews, asked it.  Teacher or Prophet?  The Roman Occupiers asked it.  Teacher or Prophet?  And now, Jesus asked it… Who do you say that I am?  He probably asked a number of persons this question, but the Gospel writers record him asking his own disciples.  They answered just like everyone else… ‘Some say you’re a Teacher, and some say you’re a Prophet.”  “Yes,” Jesus said.  “But I want to know who you think I am.”  And Peter answered him.  “You are the Christ.” 

 ‘Christ’ is Greek.  ‘Messiah’ is Hebrew.  Both words mean the same thing… Anointed One.  Chosen One.  Peter was telling Jesus that he thought Jesus was the ‘Real Deal’.  Jesus was the one the nation of Israel had been waiting for, for centuries.  Jesus was the One.  Jesus – the guy sitting in front of Peter, was also the guy sitting inside of Peter.  Jesus was the carrot, according to Jim Kartholl! (Children's Message) Jesus was history, and Jesus was mystery.  Just because Peter said that, didn’t mean that he had Jesus completely figured out… he didn’t.  There were still a lot of questions.  And there would still be a lot of ups and downs… remember the story about the rooster who crowed three times?  But of all the disciples, it was Peter who was able to say that both inwardly and outwardly, humanly and spiritually, Jesus was Christ to him. 

 There is a lot of discussion today about the Historic Christ and the Mystical Christ… are they one and the same, or are they different?  The question of who Christ is was happening at the time of the formation of the Quakers.  The early Friends kept the tension of both the inward, mystical Christ and the outward, historic Christ together.  Christ’s earthly life taught and spoke, just as Christ’s mystical life continued to speak.  To deny one was to deny the other.  Doug Gwynn writes in his book, “Seekers Found”:

 “The Spiritualism of… the Early Friends derives from existential grounding and moral passion.  Their dualism between inward and outward, spiritual and formal, is not based on metaphysics but on an intense aversion to hypocrisy, the contradiction between nominal righteousness and actual sinfulness, alienation, pride…. For these Spiritualist seekers, the only mediation that did not stink of hypocrisy was a morally transformed life, a life raised to the level of sacrament.  This was not just a life moral in one’s own eyes, but a life infused with the flesh and blood of Christ, whose sinless life and death fifteen centuries before had mediated between heaven and earth in history…. with the first Friends in the 1650s, the highest sacramental expression of this moral mediation was to follow Christ in self-expenditure, even martyrdom, advancing the mystery of the gospel further into an alienated and violent human society.”

 What gave the early Friends the power to overcome imprisonment, death, suffering at the hands of the state?  What caused Mary Dyer to return again and again to Boston?  What caused John Woolman to insist on treating slaves as kindly as their owners?  Was it an old story of a young man who wandered the hillsides of Galilee so long before?  No.  Was it the promise of a heavenly dwelling yet to be seen, held out by so many preachers to those torn by Civil War in England?  No.  George Fox said it was the power of God – what he named as the cross.

 Fox:  “And they that have lost the cross of Christ, which is the power of God [1 Cor 1:18], in which is the true fellowship, they have set up a wooden or a stone cross.” It makes me tremble to say this, Friends. “They that have lost the cross of Christ, which is the power of God, in which is the true fellowship, they have set up a wooden or a stone cross.”   

 False crosses, images of Christ’s death and resurrection would not give sustaining power for life.  The power that would sustain and transform the Society of Friends was the power of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection… the power of the empty cross.  The power of a life given over for others.  Self-expenditure.  And did that not mark the Society of Friends?  Does it not mark us today?  The historical Jesus who suffered once for all, continued to teach them the lessons of self-expenditure, once risen and living within them.    

 George Fox, lifting out the first chapter of the Gospel of John said, “John [the Baptist] was a man sent from God, the greatest prophet born of a woman… to bear witness to the true Light, which lights every [one] that comes into the world that all through him might believe.”

 Fox said that Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Christians… any number of people could not comprehend the Light of Christ… they would profess it, but they did not possess it.  It was an outward gesture, rather than an inward movement of their minds and hearts.  “… they question whether Christ, the Light that lights every [one] that comes into the world, be the spiritual, the divine, saving and heavenly Light.”  Fox goes on… “Mark Christ’s own words… John 12:46  ‘I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.’  He is the ‘Light of the World’ that teaches you how to believe… and therefore, to believe in the Light is to believe in that which does manifest Christ to be their Way, their Teacher, Priest, Mediator, Interceder, Savior and Redeemer.  He that believes in the Light, believes in that which makes manifest false ways, false religions, false worship, false teachers… For they that believe in the Light, it manifests all true ways and true religions…”  (1669)

 Fox declares that Christ, the light that came into the world is also the divine Light.  They are one and the same.  And better yet, that same Light of the world would teach us how to believe in that Light. 

 The world is such a dark place.  It is so easy to only see the darkness, and miss the light.  Expectations are crushed, dreams are lost, and things never seem to change for the better.  What seemed true for the people of England in the mid 1600’s seems true for us today. ISIS, Israel, Hamas, domestic violence in the NFL and in our own bedrooms, shootings in our own neighborhoods, the list goes ever on and on… Hang around with Beth and me in the office. Not just a week, stay with us for just a couple of days and you will hear the darkness. You will feel the darkness, of people within our very own Meeting. I know you know it. We know you know it. The list goes ever on and on and on... and we seem powerless to stop these things.

 Isaiah wrote “The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass.” But he doesn’t stop there. Immediately Isaiah says, “The grass withers, the flower fades but the word of our God will stand forever.” [Isaiah 40:8-9]

 In the beginning was the word, and the word was God and the word was with God. Christ, the Word.

 Doug Gwyn, in a beautiful passage from “Seekers Found” writes this: “The demise of the flower serves the maturing of the seed.  Human expectation died, but the deep genetic coding of the biblical promise, God’s reign on earth, abided deep in the hardened earth of the [Early Friends’] hearts.  It would live again, but only by breaking open the heart, through a revelation of divine power shaking the earth, and freeing the seed to rise to new life… The recurring theme of Fox’s preaching is power. This was not the power that Parliament or the New Model Army had wielded against the king…  Fox repeatedly described it as the power of God revealed through the cross of Christ, received by individuals yielding to its light within.”

 If we want to change the world, we have to change our expectations.  Instead of seizing power, holding power, or wielding power, we have to seek power by yielding to the Light of Christ within. Yielding to the Light of Christ within.  This is why I think so many people have a hard time with the Jesus of history.  Jesus yielded his power to suffer… to expend himself for others.  How many of us are willing to do that?  Especially when it will cost us everything?  And so we tell the tale of Jesus the Good Teacher, and Jesus the Light – History and Mystery - but we skip over the part about Jesus the Suffering Servant… that part costs us too much.  And when we do this, we destroy the whole message of Jesus’ life…. He didn’t live to be Mr. Nice Guy.  He didn’t die to be Mr. Flashlight.  His life was lived in power.  His death was given in power.  His resurrection was made in power.  His presence in us is power.  God’s life in us is power. 

 Our lives can speak with power.   But only to the extent that we yield ourselves over to the Light within.  Only to the extent that we allow the Inward Teacher to break open the hardened earth of our hearts, free the seed Christ to rise to new life within us, and teach us how to believe.   The result is a unified life, an orange life,  transformed life, an integrated life, where life, light, and power changes us, and changes the world.  “Joy to the world, the Lord is come… Let heaven and nature sing!”

 Amen.

Walk In The Light

Sermon 9-14-2014; “Walk In The Light” by Ruthie Tippin

John 1:1-9

Journal of George Fox; John L. Nickalls - editor, pps. 11, 27.

Quakerism 101 – A Basic Course for Adults; Shirley Dodson, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, 1998.

The Power of the Lord is Over All – The Pastoral Letters of George Fox; T. Canby Jones – editor, Friends United Press, 1989.

 Why are there Quakers?  Why are we Quakers?  Some of you may have never stepped foot inside a Friends Meetinghouse… at least a Meetinghouse like First Friends.  Many meetinghouses have no organ, no ushers, no singing… they begin and end in silence, where we begin and end in song.  What has happened since George Fox first understood the cry and call of his spirit, answered in that of God’s spirit?  Why does this matter to us? 

 It is important, I think, for us to understand who we are, and Whose we are.  It is important to understand the choice that was made so long ago to see God with the understanding of Friends.  And if we are to worship as Friends, it is important to understand at least the beginnings, the rudiments, the first expressions of those choices, and the sacrifices made to ensure others the opportunity to see God as the First Friends once did.  Throughout this coming year, we will visit the past, consider it in the present, and imagine where it takes us in faith for our future.  What does God ask us to recall?  What does God provide for us now?  What does God expect of us in the future as a Society of Friends?  If you are new to this conversation, I invite you join in… your perspective is as welcome as those Seekers who first spoke, met, prayed, and wondered about these same questions so long ago.

There is much to be shared, and more content than would be reasonable to expect to cover in Meetings for Worship, so for help, I will be using a curriculum throughout this year that was developed by Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.

Political intrigue, religious coercion by the state, loss of life and property, rejection of authority, corruption in government, and a beheading… does any of this sound familiar?  This is what life was like in England, during the 100 years before George Fox was born in 1624.  King Henry the 8th declared independence from the papal authority of the Catholic Church and began his own “Church of England”.  His nine year old son Edward became King, and the Church became fully Protestant.  Bloody Queen Mary reverted it to Catholicism, and five years later, Queen Elizabeth returned the Church of England to a shallow, inclusive form of Protestantism.  Some wanted to ‘purify’ the church of its lukewarm theology, corrupt priests, and superstitions.  The “Puritan” movement was born.  The Bible – not the church – should be the basic authority for religious life.

Soon afterward, King James acceded to the throne, and during his reign a very significant book was published – in English.  The King James Bible was printed in 1611.  Now it was not only a book for the priests who read and understood Latin… this was a book of the common people.  Everyone could read scripture.  Everyone could understand scripture.  Everyone could read all of scripture – not only the passages that were read to them in worship.  The King James Bible became a bestseller.

A little boy was born in the Lake Country of England… a beautiful area with rolling hills, in a little town called Fenny Drayton.  His name was George Fox.  His parents were Puritans, and were good and righteous people.  He, and most others of the first generation of Friends were born during King James’ reign, and grew up during King Charles I succession to the throne.

George Fox turned 18 the year the English Civil War began.  King Charles was arrogant and conceited.  He ruled arbitrarily without Parliament – the people’s consent.  He taxed the nation heavily, and insisted on central authority over the church.  War broke out between Parliament under General Oliver Cromwell and the King and Crown.  The King not only lost his Crown… he lost his head, and the war ended in 1645.

What happens when the world you know starts spinning out of control?  Everything seems uncertain, and you either hold tightly to what you know or you begin asking questions… lots of questions.  That’s exactly what people were doing just then.  People were seeking answers to deep questions about political life, religious life - life itself.   Religion became a ‘hot topic’ and everyone had their own idea about God - what was necessary, what was satisfying, and what was key in discovering God?  Was it Puritan life?  Was it Catholicism, after all?  Or was it something else?  Was there something more?  People were seeking answers in a world turned upside down, and filled with the sights, smells, and cost of death, war, and confusion. 

George Fox had left home in September of 1643 - before the war ended, searching for answers, as so many were.  He was in search of relief from inner turmoil, looking for spiritual fulfillment and answers to his deepest questions.  He traveled for four years. 

From Philadelphia YM’s course of study on Quakerism:

‘Fox spent long periods of time alone.  He read the Bible so much that he knew many passages by heart…  Fox suffered deep spiritual depression and went through many periods of temptation and inner darkness.  He was unable to find help for his spiritual anguish from any of the clergymen – whom he called priests.’  His Journal tells of many experiences along the way, and brings him to a turning point in 1647, when he was 23 years old…

George Fox reads:

“But as I had forsaken all the priests, so I left the separate preachers also and those esteemed the most experienced people, for I saw there was none among them all who could speak to my condition. When all my hopes in them and in all men were gone, so that I had nothing outwardly to help me nor could tell what to do, then oh! then I heard a voice which said,  "There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition"; and when I heard it my heart did leap for joy. Then the Lord let me see why there was none upon the earth that could speak to my condition, namely, that I might give him all the glory - that Jesus Christ might have the pre-eminence, who enlightens and gives grace and faith and power. Thus when God does work, who shall hinder it? And this I knew by experimentally.”  George Fox, 1647

Song:  “Life is Beautiful”    Eric Baker

Life is beautiful,

All around I see how your voice is speaking into me.

Moved from where I was, You’re the One I want,

And the reason I can say,

Life is beautiful.

Life is beautiful!  When you’re moved from where you were into a new experience – a new understanding of God, when God speaks into your life, when you discover Truth, when you are filled with the presence of Christ – life is beautiful! 

“Fox came to depend on the Inward Christ directly as his teacher, and found that the Bible was opened up to him by the Spirit.  Fox’s message was a strong one; he urged people to recognize the evil within themselves and come to obey the Teacher within themselves who could lead them out of all sin.  Fox’s own dark periods of temptation enabled him to understand what was going on with other people, so he could speak to their conditions.  Despite the power of evil – what he called the ocean of darkness and death – he saw an infinite ocean of light and love, which flowed over the ocean of darkness.  He saw that good could overcome evil if a person was willing to follow the promptings of Christ within.”

Do you remember what George Fox told us at the opening of Meeting for Worship today?  It is one of the central messages of Quakerism.  “Keep your habitations in the Light, Life and Power, which you first received and felt in yourselves, that you may be clothed with the blessing of the Lord, which was before the curse was…  Unity, before darkness… Life, before death… Truth, before the devil… Power of God, before the power of Satan, before the world began.

We are children of Light.  We are born in light, not in darkness.  Friends believe we are all born in Original Perfection – not in Original Sin.  Yes, there is evil and darkness, the waves of the ocean of darkness pour over us, submerge us, overwhelm us… but there is an ocean of light that draws us up, and as we attend to the promptings of Christ – the Light – our Inward  Teacher – we are brought back to that light from which we originally came. 

Fox found what he and others were looking for – an experience of God that was True, that was living, that was powerful.  No King could administer it.  No General could enforce it.  This Light and Power came from another Source entirely.  And from that Source, that Seeking and that Finding was born the Society of Friends.  Do we seek as diligently as George Fox once did?  Do we give ourselves over to Truth revealed, and do we allow it to change us?  To change others?  Do we hold on to outward forms and old understandings or are we willing to learn from the Inward Teacher?  Are we obedient to the Light?  Are we willing to live in the Life, Light and Power of God, as children of Light, moving up through darkness, returning to Light?

George Fox reads:

“Now was I come up in spirit through the flaming sword, into the paradise of God. All things were new, and all the creation gave another smell unto me than before, beyond what words can utter. I knew nothing but pureness, and innocency, and righteousness, being renewed up into the image of God by Christ Jesus; so that I say that I was come up to the state of Adam which he was in before he fell… And the Lord showed me that such as were faithful to him, in the power and light of Christ, should come up into that state in which Adam was before he fell; in which admirable works of creation and the virtues thereof may be known, through the openings of the divine wisdom and power by which they were made.”                        George Fox, 1648

*SHIRLEY DODSON graduated from of the Earlham School of Religion and wrote and edited adult curriculum materials for PYM. She has served as director of conferences and retreats at Pendle Hill.

Quaker Chronicles

Sermon 9-7-2014; ‘Quaker Chronicles’ by Ruthie Tippin

Psalm 16:5-11

Kellum/Evans, A History of First Friends Meeting of Indianapolis, 1969.

Three ropes.  Three ribbons.  Three strands of hair.  Braided together, they weave into each other, interlocking and forming one strong, new, bond.  Something that couldn’t be done with just one strand alone…  We have three strands or stories to share  - and will share throughout this coming year… 

·        Our story as a Meeting – First Friends Meeting; Indianapolis

·        Our story as a People of faith – Quakers; The Society of Friends

·        Our story as God’s people – Seekers who have found God through the experience of God

We have wonderful stories to tell and share, and we will do this thing during this year, in very special and intentional ways.  The website is a perfect example of how these three stories intersect… we see our meeting, our heritage as Friends, and our faith in God described so well in our site.  People can learn about our history, about Friends History, about the personality of our Meeting, about the things we offer, the things we care about… the way we are woven together – by visiting our website! 

·        First Friends will celebrate its founding 160 years ago, and we will celebrate throughout the coming year!

·        First Friends will affirm our faith as Friends, as we journey alongside our Youth Affirmation class, and learn more about the Society of Friends – past, present, and future.

·        First Friends will share stories – God stories – of experiences we share in what Christ taught and George Fox preached – ‘heaven on earth’ – the kingdom of heaven is at hand!

The Psalmist spills out her story of a heritage in God… a life entrusted in God.  Psalm 16 is a song of security, faithfulness, and thanksgiving where God is seen as refuge, counsel, teacher, and supplier of all that is needed for life.  The Psalmist speaks of God in familiar terms, as if she knows God well.  She’s not afraid to be with God, but instead is joyful in God’s presence.  Her heart instructs her… God is always with her.  She experiences God.  No other will do as the guide of her life.  Her heart is glad – her soul rejoices – her body is at rest.  She is singing us her God story!  And because we can hear the Psalmist’s story, it becomes a part of our own.

Chronicles are accounts of the events of the day…  Quakers, especially Early Friends, chronicled their lives quite carefully in journals.  George Fox and John Woolman are two Friends whose Journals are well known.  Their stories of experiences with God are left for all of us, and help us understand the power of their experiences with God.  Some entries are daily jottings of people, places and things, while others are reflections on leadings that have come to mind.  George Fox wrote this in 1674:

“Therefore be still a while from thy own thoughts, searching, seeking, desires, and imaginations, and be stayed in the principle of God in thee, to stay thy mind upon God, up to God; and thou wilt find strength from him and find him to be a present help in time of trouble, in need, and to be a God at hand.  And it will keep thee humble, being come to the principle of God, which hath been transgressed; which humbled, God will teach in his way, which is peace; and such he doth exalt… There thou wilt come to receive and feel the physician of value, which clothes people in their right mind, whereby they may serve God and do his will.”

Because we can read Fox’s story, it becomes a part of our own.

“The founding year of First Friends Monthly Meeting of Indianapolis is 1855.  In May, 1855, a request was made of Fairfield Monthly Meeting that status as an established Meeting be granted.  This was done in September of that year.  (One hundred fifty-nine years ago this month!) A formative period of two decades of Quaker worship by the few members of the Society of Friends who resided in Indianapolis preceded that action.  Some members had been residents of the community since the year of the city’s establishment in 1820… The first record we find of our church family is dated 1820 and concerns William Townsend and his family who built a log cabin near what is now Kentucky Avenue.  The village had thirty to forty houses of logs.  Washington Street was but a trail cut through the woods.”

One family.  And then two more from New York.  And then another from Cincinnati.  And then three more from New Jersey.  Their story, is our story.  It is our own.

And we’re not done with our stories… our stories of God’s faithfulness, stories about our heritage that will encourage us in our life today, new stories that we have yet to experience.  That’s what’s so exciting about the chronicle of our lives… the story continues. 

One of the most significant ideas that Quakerism brings us is ‘continued revelation’… We believe that nothing is static… God continues to teach and reveal Godself to us.  What we haven’t learned yet, is still there to discover.  What new stories are you learning just now? There is so much more to celebrate!  What are some of your favorite stories?  What stories would you like to know? 

Work and Rest

Sermon 8-31-2014; ‘Work and Rest’

Mark 6:30-34

http://www.dol.gov/laborday/history.htm

http://www.indiana.edu/~ocmhptst/040904/text/workweek.shtml, The 40-hour work week—dead or alive? Lee Ann Sandweiss

Pastor Ruthie Tippin; First Friends Meeting - Indianapolis

From the Department of Labor website:  ‘The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday just a year later, on September 5, 1883.  In 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday, as originally proposed, and the Central Labor Union urged similar organizations in other cities to follow the example of New York and celebrate a "workingmen's holiday" on that date. The idea spread with the growth of labor organizations, and in 1885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers of the country.’

Does your labor bring you pleasure?  Does it leave you feeling rested?  Do you work when you rest, or do you intentionally rest?  Rest and Labor.  Work and Rest.  These are things that we too often take for granted.  Do we find ourselves in our labor?  Do we discover ourselves best at work, or at rest?  Is God in either place?  How do we know ourselves best?  Where do we find God most easily?

By the time we see the disciples in our reading today, they have been with Jesus for quite some time.  The Teacher has kept them with him, has taught them many things of God, has healed many, has preached to thousands, has fed many more.  He has told them the secrets of the Kingdom of God in parables.  He has chosen these twelve, telling them that they will be sent out to preach, and will be given authority to drive out demons.  They will do incredible things.  They have an amazing job description.  They have just returned, and interrupt one another over and again as they tell Jesus all the stories of their adventures, traveling two by two throughout the region, teaching and healing.  So many people surrounded them, interrupted them, they had no time to eat.  So Jesus said, “Let’s go.”  Rather than stay with the people, Jesus took his men away, to a place where they could be alone and rest. 

Indiana University:  “When the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) was passed in 1938, it was heralded as a giant step in protecting the rights of American workers—guaranteeing financial compensation for time worked in excess of 40 hours a week. The “40-hour work week” was born, and the term “9-to-5” became synonymous with working “full time.” Fast forward six decades. Although the 40-hour week is still considered the benchmark in American work culture, most researchers would argue that it is nearly as obsolete as most of the factory jobs to which it was originally applied.”

Many of us don’t have set hours of employment.  Not all of us work from 9:00 to 5:00 anymore.  Those who are still working do so from home, online, in an office, on the road, under a car, over a counter.  We work with people, with books, with machines, with databases, with children, with music, with medicine.  We work.  But how many of us rest?

A holiday weekend comes, and we often fill it up with work.   Cleaning the garage, painting the bedroom, building a deck… We, like the disciples, are so busy, we have no time for relaxation, for play, for rest.  We have so many stories to tell of all we’ve been doing.  We have very few stories to share about the blessed rest we’ve taken.  The question, “What did you do today?” is filled with times, places and events.  Very few times do we recount a story of a quiet walk or a good conversation.

Jesus sensed this.  He was a very busy person himself, and he recognized it in those he loved… in those he worked with.  “We’ve got to get you out of here.  Come away.  Come away, by yourselves with me, and rest.”  And that’s what they did.  They found a boat, climbed in and launched it.  Out into the lake, and off to an isolated place.

Did it last long?  Did they arrive in this secluded, quiet place alone?  No.  Crowds were waiting for them.  They had figured out where they were headed, and got their first.  The disciples and their Teacher found a greeting party there. 

Isn’t that the way it works?  Isn’t work always waiting to greet you?  A stack of documents, a classroom of kids, a patient, a client, a job site, a letter?  Isn’t there always something waiting? Yes. And that’s the point.  They are waiting for you.  They are waiting.  They are giving you a space – no matter how fleeting it is – a waiting space for you to rest, to refresh, to renew.  To join Jesus in the boat.  To join Christ’s call to come away.  To stop the chatter, the list-making, the emailing, texting, tweeting, phoning, face-book … and come away.

Get in the boat with God.  Hang your feet over the edge.  Cross the lake.  Get over the water.  Get in the boat.  There may be a crowd waiting, but at least you’ll have had the boat ride.  And rewrite your job description… start with the ‘rest’, and work backwards to the job. 

Labor Day – a day for recreation – for re-creation.  For rest and refreshment.  Rest – ‘the sweet sauce of labor’, as Plutarch called it.  The sweet sauce.  A day to taste the richness of rest before getting back to the job.  Oh… the job.  Here’s a job description for you:

If you’re working 50 hours a week, and sleeping eight hours a night (56 hours per week) that leaves 62 hours each week for other things – nurturing experiences that bring fulfillment, refreshment, accomplishment, and sustenance to yourself and those whose lives you touch. 

To get in the boat with God. 

To notice God with you. 

To remember that God is always with you. 

Your work is your job, but your job is not your work… your work is to find yourself in the rest of your life.  Your work is to discover yourself in the rest of your life.  Your surprise will be to find God there, too!

The Dragnet

Sermon 8-24-2014

Matthew 13:47-50

Pastor Mike McClenahan; Solana Beach Presbyterian Church, http://www.solanapres.org/leaders/pastors

Ernest E. Taylor, Ernest E. Taylor, Francis Howgill of Grayrigg – A Sufferer for the Truth, Friends Tract Assoc., New York, 1912.

 Pastor Ruthie Tippin, First Friends Meeting - Indianapolis

 “I saw that there was an ocean of darkness and death, but an infinite ocean of light and love, which flowed over the ocean of darkness.  In that, I also saw the infinite love of God, and I had great openings.”  George Fox 1647  {Sung}

 George Fox discovered that God indwells every person – that there is that of God in each person – even in a young man like himself.  God doesn’t inhabit only religious leaders, or those in influential religious positions.  God’s spirit abides in each of us, and calls each of us to faith in God.  Fox railed against professors of faith, and heralded possessors of faith.  He had discovered that to live in the light of God’s indwelling Spirit, was to be captured in a net of hope, of grace and of love. 

 As we move through the waters of this world, we are made aware of the indwelling presence of God in our lives.  That presence, that spirit, empowers us to swim strong, to swim purposefully, to swim well.  The kingdom of heaven, made real, on earth – the kingdom of heaven is at hand. 

 Francis Howgill was a young man, just six years older than Fox, and among the many Seekers, hungry to know and experience God, and God’s kingdom on earth.  Howgill described the warm fellowship of those days:

 ‘The Kingdom of Heaven did gather us, and catch us all, as in a net, and His heavenly power at one time drew many hundreds to land, that we came to know a place to stand in and what to wait in, and the Lord appeared daily to us, to our astonishment, amazement, and general admiration, insomuch that we often said one to another, with great joy of heart, ‘What? Is the Kingdom of God come to be with men?’

 Here Jesus uses a parable about nets and fish to teach us about the kingdom of heaven, and how it’s lived out each and every day – at work, on vacation, at school, at home – every day in all kinds of ways, in our world.  Where the life of God intersects with our lives.  Where, as Pastor Mike McClenahan says, “the relational brokenness – with each other, with God, with creation, intersects with the wholeness of God; where the kingdom of heaven is displayed, and we see God at work to answer our prayer, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.”  Here we see Christ teaching us how to live – how to make a difference with our lives – here, in the kingdom of heaven on earth.

 This is a story that is both commonplace and extraordinary at the same time.  It is exciting and sobering, all at once.  It is full of great hope, and great regret.  It sounds a lot like real life, doesn’t it??? 

 A crew goes out fishing, and returns with a net full of fish.  This isn’t a casting net that’s thrown out from the boat and drawn in again, but a dragnet.  A dragnet is usually about six feet deep and several hundred feet wide, and is set out in the lake by a number of boats working together.  It takes several people to operate.  It’s drawn through the water until it’s filled with fish, and then brought in to shore. 

 The fisherman doesn’t know what he’s got until he gets back to shore.  He has great hope as he leaves for the day… all fishermen do.  And if you’ve ever heard any fish stories, you know that hope springs eternal!  But it’s only when he gets back to shore and starts sorting his catch that he sees what it is he’s caught. 

 Everything imaginable is in that net – good full-bodied, mature fish, and undersized, immature ones as well.  Flotsam and jetsam.  The edible and the inedible.  Everything’s sorted out, and the good fish are kept to sell or eat.  All the rest is thrown away – useless.  

 Jesus tells the crowd - Jesus tells us – that the kingdom of heaven is like a new version of that old story... that someday it will be an angel, not a fisherman that sorts his catch of fish on a beach.  Angels will separate fresh from spoiled, edible from inedible, evil from good.  Some will be tossed away, and there will be ‘weeping, and gnashing of teeth’.  Gnashing – grinding teeth together in frustration, anger, and regret. 

 This is one big fish story, and that’s one big net!  The net holds everyone – with no exception.  All are included.  The story doesn’t say that the fishermen go fishing in someone’s private pond, or in a certain resort area.  They don’t go deep-sea fishing in a spot well-known for certain species of fish.  The fishermen simply fish, just as they do every day, and they drag a big net, and they keep dragging it until it’s full.  They know when to stop.  If they were to fish any longer, the net would tear and they would lose the entire catch.

 The net was meant to catch anyone and everyone.  The leaders in synagogues and churches and meetings. The leaders in government.  The Big Fish on Wall Street.   The little guy at the corner store. 

Do you realize how radical this teaching is?  Do you realize how risky it was for Jesus to speak this parable?  It would have been a lot safer for him if he’d stopped after the first two verses.  He could have left it as a whopper of a fish story.  “The Big Catch”. But he didn’t. 

 By this time in Jesus’ ministry, the leaders of the synagogues – the scribes, the Pharisees – are very anxious about Jesus’ teachings.  He’s become very popular, and teaches frequently in synagogues as he visits various towns and cities.  His interpretations of the law are suspect, and the leaders of the established church are afraid of losing control.  

Jesus pushed against all that, and went on to explain exactly what he meant in the parable.  He was clear that the kingdom of heaven, and the message of that kingdom was meant for everyone.  The message of the kingdom is meant for the whole world.  “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.” Mark 16:15   These fishermen go fishing with a net woven with hope, grace, and love. 

 But eventually the catch has to be hauled in to shore.  The fish have to be sorted…  We all know what that means.  To be reviewed and evaluated.  My husband just had his annual review at the University of Iowa.    I’ve recently had my annual evaluation by our Clerk of the Meeting, and Ministry and Counsel.  It’s a good process.  Some of you go through a formal review process in your workplace.  We all have ways of knowing how we’re doing in our lives.  This parable says that we’re all going to have to pass the ‘smell test’ on a beach somewhere with an angelic-looking fisherman, someday.

 The point is, the fish don’t sort out the other fish.  The fish don’t measure one another’s length or scales.  They don’t sidle up next to each other and rate their color, or their swiftness in the water.  There is no Dr. Seussian concern for any of them… “One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish…”   They leave that up to that angel on the beach.  It is an angel of God – not a Pharisee, not a scribe, not a Quaker… it is an angel of God on that beach.

How much better to be a fish, swimming with a heart full and free, learning to swim through the ocean of light, without concern for what can only be the work of the fisherman – the one who will capture us all in the net of the Spirit – that same net that Howgill found himself in among the Early Friends.

 Does that mean we swim with no concern at all?  Of course not!  Fish swim in schools.   They’re meant to swim together.  They react together when they’re endangered.  They instinctively move together to feeding grounds.  There is strength and encouragement, even safety, in numbers.  If you’ve never seen the movie “Finding Nemo” that film will explain a lot about fish behavior!  But ultimately, each fish is responsible for its own swim.

 As we move through the waters of this world, we are made aware of the indwelling presence of God in our lives.  That presence, that spirit, empowers us to swim strong, to swim purposefully, to swim well. We swim in an ocean of light.  No fish market judgments.  No fresh list checkmarks.  No smell tests. And no regrets.  No ‘if only’s’.  No could-a, should-a, would-a…  The kingdom of heaven, made real, on earth, and in you and me – the kingdom of heaven is at hand.  How then, shall we swim, in this kingdom?

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.