Noah Baker Merrill May 17, 2015

On Sunday, May 17th, Noah Baker Merrill was our guest speaker in Meeting for Worship. Noah serves as the General Secretary of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends.

Below is the main body of the message, given by Noah Baker Merrill on May 17th: 

I can still remember the dust rising in the air in the heat of that morning. Walking with a group of Cuban and American Quakers out toward those old limestone caves. They are the caves that during the hurricane, Cuban Quakers and so many others in their town on the coast of Cuba, took refuge in. As the storms were lashing their island, they prayed together. Not just the Quakers, but all the other people, the Atheists, the Agnostics, the people from other traditions. They prayed and were together, together in those caves.

On my first visit to Friends in Cuba, who have been there since 1900, they agreed to take me and a few other visitors to these caves. It was really hot, and we wondered if there was a place we could go to be cool. They said that there are these great limestone caves, and you can explore them. There won’t be anybody there. All we have to do is go in and we’ll feel that cool, quiet, under the earth. They even have an underground river below, so it’s almost like we imagine an air conditioner might be back in the United States. So we had gone out to those caves, a small group of American Quaker visitors and Cuban Friends. We made our way slowly into the cave complex, and it opened up into a big room underneath the earth and we realized that we were not alone. You see, we had stumbled into a Cuban military explosives exercise, and suddenly we were surrounded by soldiers. And they said, “Who are you?” We said, “We’re Friends.”

I greeted you this morning as Friends. It’s a wonderful way that as Quakers, we traditionally refer to one another, and it has this warmth and welcome about it, doesn’t it? That sense that wherever we go, we’re friends. We friends to whomever we meet on the street. We’re open and embracing of anyone we encounter and we are particularly friends with each other as we grow in love and in our relationships with each other. But it’s more than that.

In preparing to be with you this morning, I was reminded of that. The invitation and the challenge of that name that our spiritual ancestors chose for ourselves. Friends. Amigos. Because we’re not just friends of one another and of everyone that we meet. Originally, Friends took that name because they hoped, and they wanted, to live in the tradition of being friends with Jesus.

The soldiers, it turns out, knew something about Quakers, as they were from the surrounding area. And so after some discussion, during which we weren’t sure if we would be arrested or deported, or what would happen to us, they agreed that if we were as we said ‘just visiting’ and if there was no other intention for us being in the middle of a military exercise in the middle of nowhere, where we as visitors would have absolutely no reason for being, then they would go with us. So they walked with us, the Quakers and the soldiers, down into the darkness under the earth. We came down to a place where could hear that underground water rushing. After some really narrow passageways that we walked through, the cave opened up again into a kind of cathedral, and a stillness began to settle in that place. All of the noises, all of the talking, all of the jangling sounds, became quiet. We settled into waiting worship.

That passage, that the part about Friends comes from, is I’m sure one that is familiar to all of us, is from John, what some people call the ‘Quaker Gospel’. “For I have called you friends.” Jesus, near the end of his teaching of the disciples, says, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. You are my friends if you do what I command you.”

I love the way, that like so many teachings in the gospel of John, Jesus ties everything back to that essential unity. Earlier on he says, “If you know me, then you know the one who sent me.” God is love, and if you love one another as I have loved you, you know the love of God. That message runs throughout the gospel of John. And in the beginning, as God is reaching for creation, reaching for all of us, becoming one with us, becoming the story in Jesus that we need to help us understand that essential love, he seeks always the reconciliation, the connection and unity of all creation.

I think that’s what Jesus is getting at when he says this tiny little teaching that seems so simple. You wonder why he says all those other words. If this is it: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. You are my friends if you do what I command you.” So all we have to do is love? Well that seems pretty easy, right? All of us know how to love. There’s a comfort in that. There’s a simplicity in that. Of closing our eyes and settling into that sense of being deeply loved, and knowing that just because we were born, just because we are part of creation, we are deeply loved. Maybe the simplest message that we can hear, “Jesus loves me.”

I was talking to a friend a couple of days ago and he said that if you would sum up his whole religion it would be that. That God is love. There’s a comfort in that message from Jesus. One of his parting teachings to the people that he would call his friends. I think in that, there is an articulation as we learn and grow in God, from that place, reaching back all the way through the Bible. It’s there, hidden below the surface. Sometimes we talk about the Hebrew Bible as being a kind of different message than the New Testament, than the message that comes through Jesus, but I see that same message. That God is love. That same intimacy, that same comfort and connection reaching all the way back. Underneath the surface, when God comes and sits down with Abraham in the Old Testament, and knows Abraham as a friend. When Moses, even in the middle of the story when the Israelites are out in the wilderness of Sinai, part of the story, as many of us know, is that he goes up on the mountain and there’s fire and brimstone and you can’t look at the face of God and live. But there’s this other part of that story, when he’s down in the camp and he goes to pray, to be with God. He goes into what’s called the ‘Tent of Meeting’, and there, that different aspect of God meets Moses face-to-face. That tenderness, that comfort and that sense of wholeness and belonging is there. It’s always been there. And I think, at it’s core, that’s the invitation that Jesus is offering us in that teaching, “For I have called you friends.”

That love, in my experience, is about so much more than just comfort. The love that Jesus is talking about is not the love of your buddies or the love of a romantic partner. The word that’s used by Jesus is the word for that divine, universal love. That love that has been at work since the beginning, redeeming all of creation. Calling us out of wherever we’re stuck, wherever we’re fully alive and into the wholeness that Paul talks about in his letter to the Friends in Rome. He says, “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God.” That coming alive, that is happening right now and has been happening since the beginning, and it is about all of creation becoming whole. Because it’s not about this passage. It’s not just about Jesus loving us and God loving us. It’s about us loving one another. If you love one another as I have loved you…

One of the things I find about Jesus is that there is always the simple teaching and then there’s the much more challenging invitation, and the much more scary one. We know in the story, this teaching of Jesus comes before the arrest and the crucifixion and the resurrection. It’s like he’s planting this seed. He even says right in that same passage, “No one has greater love than this, to give up his life for one’s friends.” How could they possibly know? Imagine being those people, having that teacher say, “Yeah that’s a part of it. You could imagine someone giving up their life for their friends’. “ But he ties this, in the story that is told by John. Right in the middle of you are my friends if you love one another as I have loved you.

Sometimes love, practicing it with one another, in my experience, doesn’t feel like love.  Sometimes it’s terrifying. Sometimes it brings us to places that we would never want to go. Sometimes it calls for something to die, like a deeply held belief in us that we just don’t want to let go of because we feel like we won’t be ourselves anymore. Sometimes it’s a relationship that we need to let go of. Sometimes it’s an activity. This challenge from Jesus, If you would call yourself my friends, if you would truly be friends, love one another and live in this world as I have loved you. To me sometimes, that’s an unsettling and at times, a terrifying prospect, but I know that it’s at the heart of what’s real and most useful in our life together as Friends.

I see that invitation to live in that unsettling, transformative, breaking open kind of love. 

In the life of Job Scott, Quaker minister in the late 1700s in New England, he traveled all over the Quaker world in that time, preaching the gospel. Encouraging the younger generation in ministry. While Job Scott was still mourning the loss of his wife, he had a dream, a vision, that he was led to travel in the ministry among Friends in Ireland, and to preach in Ireland against religious oppression and economic injustice. In the vision he was also given the sense that he would board a boat, the boat would sink, and that all on board would be lost. He got on the boat anyway. As the boat went out into the ocean, it began to sink. He resigned himself, trusting that if he had been faithful to that voice, that love would still come of that faithfulness and that experience. The boat didn’t sink. He found his way to Ireland, and traveled in ministry in a way that was so transformative to Irish Friends that they wrote testimony in his journal about how many hearts had been stirred and how much space had been made for the love of God in Ireland. Job Scott died of smallpox before he could return. It’s an unsettling story, but the fruits of love in opening space for life in the structural injustice of life in that time are clear. Through the faithfulness of that Friend, who was willing to say yes, I will love after the example of Jesus.

Sometimes it’s not our lives that we have to give up, sometimes it’s our deeply held beliefs. I was once told a story about a prominent Quaker business man who had been a rock of his community and gotten involved in the early days of the formation of what would become an important witness of Friends in the world. They had been involved, you see, in war relief. And in support of young Quakers in going out into the world and using their faith to help bind the wounds of war. But this committee of people who were meeting in Philadelphia had been asked to take on another big project, one that would be really unpopular. One that would create a lot of discord and maybe some trouble socially for Quakers at the time. This businessman was dead set against this effort being turned into whatever this new thing was going to be. He spoke against it repeatedly in their business meetings. But the Clerk in those meetings was clear. The sense of unity in how God was leading their group was to say yes to that project. After the rise of that meeting, this rock of the community, who had spoken out and been so dead-set against the project, walked up to the Clerk’s table. He said, “You know, I am completely opposed to this, and I’ve said that from the beginning. But since we’re going to do this, it’s going to take some money. Here’s my check.” Sometimes that love that Jesus modeled for us asks us to let something die in us. More than a million children were fed by Friends in the years to come.

Back in the cave, this stillness continued, and nobody knew what was going to happen, but there was a sense of calm under the earth, and a sense of peace. And then, one of the Cuban Friends spoke, in Spanish, so that all of the soldiers could hear and understand, and he said, “There is a peace that is with us here, that is not the peace that the world can give, and once you have touched that peace, in a moment like this, you can go back to that place within yourself. If ever something happens in your life, or you are called to do something that runs counter to that peace, if you ask for that help, that peace and that love can be with you and guide you to give you the strength to do what needs to be done.” We settled into stillness again, for a long while. Then it was time to rise and to go. We began to leave that place and to travel through those winding caverns, back out into the heat and the sunshine.

As we walked together, something was different. Rather than the tension and the fear and the distrust, there was quiet joking and laughter. Something happened in that moment. In that moment, down under the earth, we were all friends.

May we be open. God, may we be open to the comfort of your presence. To knowing that no matter what we have done, no matter where we find ourselves, no matter how much we are struggling, that love that is with us in our most intimate and private moments and that love that holds the planets in place is with us. May that same love challenge us, unsettle us, and lead us if we can be willing, into that deeper love. That may cause some parts of us to die, that may cause us to walk through fear, to embrace the world that you invite us to help build for the creation waits, with eager longing, for those moments when in small ways or large, we are able to say yes to being your friends. Amen.

Searching for Sophia 5.10.15

Mother’s Day Message

May 10th 2015

‘Searching for Sophia’

Proverbs 8:1-11

By Beth Henricks

Ruthie asked me several months ago to share a message today as she is visiting her son, Matt and future daughter in law in Seattle.  On first blush, a message on Mother’s Day should be easy as I have heard a hundred messages before about mothers and there is a lot of material to explore about this day; to reflect on, remember and offer thanksgiving for our mothers and for being a mother. I love the story of the young state legislator from Tennessee, Harry Burn who in 1920 had to make a vote on whether to ratify the new amendment to the Constitution giving women the right to vote.  The vote was 48 to 48 and Harry had to decide what to do.  He had been publicly against the amendment, but on the day for him to cast his vote, his mother Phoebe Burn put a note in his pocket saying Hurrah and vote for suffrage!  Don’t keep them in doubt.  I notice some of the speeches against.  They were bitter.  I have been watching to see how you stood, but have not noticed anything yet.  She ended the note by saying be a good boy and put the rat in ratification.  Harry cast the deciding vote and the Constitution was amended.  Oh, the power of our mother’s influence.

Mothers Day has become a big holiday and big business - $671 million dollars was spent just on mother’s day cards and $20.7 billion was spent on mother’s day last year.  $1.9 billion alone was spent on flowers and for many restaurants it’s the busiest day of the year.  Clearly, the idea to create a day to honor our mothers back in 1914 has been a success.

All week long we have been hearing many moving tributes about mothers and reading about the sacrifices and encouragement that special mothers have exhibited.  On the surface, this is a joyful day of celebration and happiness.  And many of you feel this sense of joy today.

But mother’s day is way more complicated than what might appear at first blush or in the sentiments expressed in our Hallmark cards.  In this room, there is a full range of emotions and feelings about this day.  There are some that are still in mourning over losing their mother.  There are others that feel sadness in not having the experience of being a mother.  Still others are in deep pain over broken relationships with their children or their own mother.  Some here have had less than ideal role models with their mothers and are working towards breaking a cycle of hardship within themselves.  Some did not come to Meeting today because it would just be too hard to sit here and listen to a message about mothers day.

That is why I want to broaden our reflection of mothers to talk about Sofia today.   Some of you may have read the bulletin when you sat down and wondered about the title of this message, Searching for Sofia.  What in the world does that mean?  Others of you may be familiar with this concept of Sofia. 

Sofia literally means wisdom and is represented in a feminine way throughout mythology, Judaism and Christianity.  It is the ideal that we strive for in our lives.  It’s what a mother, a father, a student, a teacher, a businessperson, a lawyer, a doctor  - what any of us desires.  Wisdom – how to make the right decisions, engage in the right relationships, say the right things and follow the right path.

In our scripture reading and in many other places in Proverbs, this idea is referred to as Woman Wisdom - Sofia. The female personification of wisdom in Proverbs is dramatic, exalted, and varied.  As Cindy read in our passage for today, Sofia is calling us  - calling us to learn prudence, to acquire intelligence, to speak truth and to value wisdom more than silver, gold and jewels. 

Scholars classify several of the books in the Bible like Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, and Esther as wisdom literature because of their interest in this fundamental human attribute.  King Solomon, the archetypal wise person, fell in love with wisdom:  He declared,  "I loved her and sought her from my youth; I desired to take her for my bride, and became enamored of her beauty".   Wisdom calls out, seeks to be found, stretches out her hand. 

And yet why is wisdom identified in a feminine way?  Why would the writers of some of these books of the Bible use this female imagery to represent divine wisdom? 

We all I know that God is neither male or female yet God is consistently described as male and referred to as “he” in most Christian images and metaphors.   Feminine pronouns and figures have rarely been used in speaking of God, but then here are all of these references to “she” and wisdom.

These books of the Bible were all written in a time where women were not equal to men.  Men made the decisions and set the boundaries.   But Wisdom  - Sofia – is a woman.  Could it be that in order to have any understanding of God we must see God in both male and female terms?   As humans, our comprehension of the Divine can only be drawn within our finite sense of reality, which is strongly influenced by female and male perceptions.  Sophia, the feminine voice is in contrast to a God of dominion and force.  

 Could it also be that in our historical understanding of a family unit, the mother or wife took on the all-encompassing roles of the household?   This meant that the mother or wife created the connections within the household that held the family together.   These connections combine the head and heart in relationship to the family.   Because Wisdom is all about relationship.   Wisdom is our teacher in our families.  Wisdom is the Tree of Life in our families.

Jesus has been closely associated with Sofia.  Jesus, the great wisdom teacher is Sofia.  He speaks in parables, stories and other literary forms familiar from wisdom literature to communicate his message and to call his disciples.  Jesus, too, has a Sophia heart, not the heart of someone seeking power. Sophia is concealed but ready to reveal just as Jesus is "the hidden wisdom of God" (1 Cor. 2:7), "the revelation of the mystery kept secret for endless ages" (Rom. 16:25)

God in Sofia and Sofia in God.  Sofia is often expressed as Logos or the Word of God.  Which is also the description that the Apostle John uses to describe Christ.  Sofia, Logos and God creating, redeeming, and reconciling to each of us.  God brings both Sophia and Jesus forth, and both are sent by God to be special messengers to humanity, bringing wisdom, counsel, and guidance. Each is a healer and a comforter, a messenger of truth, perception, and guidance. Both are teachers who instruct in the ways of God, and both are referred to as the  "Light."

We see the evidence of Sofia In James 3:17.  He writes, “but the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. “   We see the evidence of Sofia in many that have come before us, many that have been a part of our Meeting like Hilda Renshaw, Shirley Proctor, Ann Kendall, Betsy Lawson, Suzi Davis, Marilyn Overman, Billie Main and so many others.  We see the evidence of Sofia in our mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and Friends.

But how do we acquire Sofia?  Aristotle says that knowing yourself is the beginning of wisdom.  Knowing others is intelligence but knowing yourself is wisdom.   Confucius determined three ways to learn wisdom  -  1.  Reflection, 2.  Imitation and 3. Experience.    This speaks to me  - much of our wisdom comes from experience (and often this experience are from those periods in our life of pain and suffering) but we can also gain this wisdom by watching others do the right and wrong thing as well as connecting within our Inner Light.    Oprah tells us to turn our wounds into wisdom.  Wisdom can be a harsh teacher, but it is through our trials that we acquire wisdom.

I see Ann Kendall here today and I want to share a story about her.  Several years ago I visited Ann for lunch.  She is always interested in what is going on with your life and she asked me a few pointed questions.  I was having a very hard time and felt pretty dejected and sad.  Ann began to tell me about a period in her life when she was living in Illinois and her husband Rick had just lost his job and her 2 boys were in serious trouble.  She felt despondent, dark and had nowhere to turn.  She described literally getting down on her knees and seeking God.  She saw this as a turning point in her life and her relationship to God changed forever after that.  It took bringing her to the edge of total disaster for her to turn to God for help.  And her prayer life changed forever also.  The hardest lessons bring about the biggest changes in our inner life.

I think that prayer and meditation is our most vital link to Sofia.  As we enter into our time of unprogrammed worship, I invite you to open your hearts to Sofia.  This is our time to be still and listen to the Inner Voice, the Inner Light, Sofia.    If this voice calls you to stand and share your reflection with others, you should be obedient to that call.  But if this message is for you alone, you should ponder this in your heart.

The Good Samaritan 5.3.15

Luke 10:25-37

Matthew 25:31-46

https://bible.org/illustration/hatred-between-jews-and-samaritans

Pastor Ruthie Tippin; Indianapolis First Friends Meeting

I am blessed to live my life to the fullest.  It is not easy, and it isn’t always fun, and I forget to do it a lot! But, God gives me that chance every day.  To wake up and be Ruthie.  Really Ruthie.  Really, fully, Ruthie.  And… not just Ruthie, but to be Ruthie with God in me.  To live my life with God all day long!  This is the power of Christ… the incarnation of God in me and in you that happens when we acknowledge God’s place and power in our lives… early Friends called it our ‘convincement’.  We have a much bigger, fuller life than we realize.  And this is what Jesus was trying to tell the attorney in our reading, that day when Jesus was being tested.  Our lives matter, and what we do with them matters. To us, and to God!  We don’t live to die.  We die to live…  each day is one more day of our ongoing, always-lived life.

‘Love God with all that you have… heart, soul, mind and strength.’  Emotionally, spiritually, intellectually, physically. You can’t do that without dying a bit to yourself, can you? ‘And… love your neighbor as much as you love yourself.’  I know you can’t do that without giving some part of yourself up.  Now, the attorney wanted to validate his concern, and so he asked Jesus, ‘Who is my neighbor?’  He didn’t get the answer he expected.

So… there was a Priest, a Levite and a Samaritan, each walking down a road… this is starting to sound like a bar joke or something, isn’t it?  The only problem is that this joke isn’t funny.  It isn’t funny at all.  Because there’s one more man on the road – literally.  He’s been robbed and beaten, left for dead, and he’s lying there, naked, on the road.  That’s all we know about him.  We don’t know how old he is, what tribe he’s from, what race or ethnicity he is, if he’s gay or straight.  We don’t know if he’s rich or poor, or even modestly wealthy.   We know he’s been robbed, but we don’t know what was taken, other than his clothing.  We don’t know if he has a family, or not.

The Jericho road was a nasty place to be.  From Jerusalem to Jericho, the road dropped some 3600 feet in elevation within a distance of less than 20 miles.  It was narrow and rocky, and a great place for thieves. At one time, it was called ‘The Red, or Bloody,

Way.’

The Priest saw the man, lying by the road.  If he even touched a dead man, he would be considered unclean for seven days, and would lose his turn serving in the temple.  Liturgy or life?  Liturgy won.

The Levite came near, but passed by on the other side, making sure to avoid the man he’d seen.  He was of a special class of persons who served in the Temple.  Perhaps he was concerned about being robbed himself, or of being slowed in his journey, or taking responsibility for someone other than those he was trained to care for.  At any rate, he went on his way.

The Samaritan came.  Now this is just the person you would expect to avoid the man at all costs.  ‘It is not the person from the radically different culture on the other side of the world that is hardest to love, but the nearby neighbor whose skin color, language, rituals, values, ancestry, history, and customs are different from one’s own.’ [Word in Life Study Bible]

Jews and Samaritans had no dealings with one another at all.  Their hatred toward one another was fierce.  At one time, the Hebrew people had lived in a divided kingdom…. the northern kingdom of Israel had its capital at Samaria.  Assyria conquered Israel and took it captive, bringing other non-Jewish peoples into its lands and settling it.  These Gentile people brought their gods and idols with them, and both peoples worshipped their gods alongside each other.  They eventually intermarried, and their religious practices changed over time.

The southern kingdom of Judah with its capital at Jerusalem was taken captive, too.  It fell to Babylon in 600 BC.  But 70 years later, thousands of Judean people were able to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple.  The people from the Northern Kingdom – the Samaritans – were angry and opposed their repatriation.  The full-blooded, monotheistic Jews from the South hated the mixed marriages and worship of their northern relations. 

It was a heretic, a man who did not follow orthodoxy, a man willing to break ceremonial law who stopped to help the man lying by the side of the road.  The Samaritan.  This was the man Jesus used in his story about ‘neighbor’.  Why?  This could have been the story of “The Good Levite”.  Or “The Good Priest”.  But it wasn’t!  It was “The Good Heretic”.  “The Unorthodox Aide”.  “The Hated Helper”.  The Good Samaritan.  Why did Jesus tell it, this way?

Because mercy matters.  Love and mercy matters.  And they come from unexpected places – unexpected people.  Jesus is challenging the status quo, as he often did. The people who should know best how to offer love – how to love mercy – fail miserably.  The person who has the least to offer is the one who gives the most. 

Last week, Jim Kartholl showed us empty hands… hands with nothing left to give.  But because they’d given everything, they were open to receive more.  Those hands that still held on to things could not grasp for more, lest they lose what they already had.  The Levite could not bear to lose his time or risk his safety.  The Priest could not bear to lose his chance to celebrate in the temple.  The Samaritan, already considered a loser, had nothing left to give but mercy. 

Your life matters.  What you do with your life matters.  That attorney’s life mattered.  More than all the lessons and liturgy.  More than all the rules.  More than all the laws and commandments.  (There is no way he could keep 613 commandments.  It’s hard enough to keep (or even remember) ten!)  Love and mercy matter more than all the things we know, all the things we hold on to, all the things we refuse to let go.  To enter life, to live in eternal relationship with God now, is to love what God loves most – mercy. 

The thing that makes your life last is love… loving God with everything you have, and loving other people in the very same way.  Your life in God – your eternal life with God – is BIG!  It has the expansive capacity to be full of God’s presence, of shared conversation and ideas, of great companionship, of relationship and intention each and every day.  What’s stopping you?  You shouldn’t have to check your calendar, or your watch, or your schedule, or Bible references, or a history book, or Faith and Practice.  What comes to you from Spirit?   Is it reactive? Does it come from a place of fear or anger?  Or is it responsive?  Does it come from a place of love and trust?  You don’t need to justify yourself.  That’s what the attorney tried to do, and he discovered that what Jesus wants most is … mercy.

Joseph Myers writes in his book, “The Search to Belong”, “Christ’s community included many persons who were not included in the fellowship of “the institutional church.”  The woman at the well, the tax collector, and a little man in a tree all found belonging.  There was even room for a prostitute to join the family tree of the King.  This is [what Elton Trueblood means by] “bold fellowship...”  “Who,” not “what” is the essence of “love thy neighbor.”  Jesus had people asking, ‘When did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

Almost 25 years ago, primary school children from all over town were having a foot race.  “On your marks, get set… go!”  The kids ran with all their might, and somewhere along the route, one little boy stumbled.  Another boy, running nearby passed him.  He stopped, turned around, helped the boy who had fallen to his feet, and they ran on, finishing the race together.  Someone far ahead crossed the finish line first.  You tell me who the winner was. 

‘God has told you what is good… to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God.’  Micah 6:8

Gathering in Light 4.19.15

This past Sunday, I shared a sermon drawn from C. Wess Daniels’ fabulous website, “Gathering in Light”.  You can find it there: http://gatheringinlight.com/2015/03/15/snakes-on-a-pole-or-the-rut-that-i-love-john-313-21/   It is a wonderful message about the meaning of salvation: healing, connection and light.  God bless you in reading it, as much as God blessed me, in sharing it!

The Ultimate Stranger 4.12.15

Sermon 4-12-2015  ‘The Ultimate Stranger’

Luke 24:13-19

Weavings – A Journal of the Christian Spiritual Life, John S. Mogabgab, September/October 2003, pp.3-4.

The Easter Stranger, Rev. Roy Almquist, Washington Memorial Chapel, Valley Forge, PA.  http://wmchapel.org/2014/05/the-easter-stranger-luke-24-13-35-third-sunday-of-easter-may-34-2014/

Luke 24:13-19  “Now on that same day two [disciples] were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, ‘What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?’ They stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, ‘Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?’”

Jesus – the stranger.  ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’ [Matthew 8:20]. 

·        He dwells among us a foreigner in a tent.  John 1:14

·        He is rejected in his hometown. Matthew 13:54-58

·        He depends on the hospitality of others. Luke 10:38-42

·        His teaching provokes misunderstanding. John 3:1-7

·        And hostility. Mark 14:1-2

·        He dies outside the city walls.  Mark 15:22-24

·        He is buried in someone else’s tomb.  Matthew 27:57-61

Jesus .  He was ‘despised and rejected-a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care.’ [Isaiah 53:3 NLT] Jesus was the ultimate stranger – estranged from us in so many ways.  The editor of the journal ‘Weavings’ says this:  ‘In Jesus, the strange God and the strange neighbor dwell together in the extraordinary intimacy of one flesh. In him, the full measure of our alienation is revealed.’ 

I ask you… are you a stranger?  Have you ever been a stranger?  Have you ever been rejected? Are you misunderstood in your work or at your workplace?  Is it safe for you to go home?  Do you have food and housing security, or do you rely on others for help?  Do you know, when the times comes, where you will be buried?  Perhaps, you understand this stranger.  This Jesus.  This man who joined the others on their seven mile hike home.

The travelers think it strange that this man wouldn’t know about all that’s gone on in Jerusalem.  Instead of taking offense or being embarrassed about his ‘strangeness’, Jesus uses it to move into conversation…. And that’s when the travelers become the strangers… they have no idea they are telling the Stranger his own story.

Luke 24: 19-23  Jesus asked them, ‘What things are you talking about?’ They replied, ‘The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive.’

God, thank you for your mercy.  For the way you find us, no matter where we are on our road, and long to hear our frustration, our astonishment, our confusion poured out.  Thank you for walking beside us in and through all these things, great Listening God.  Amen.

How often do we become strangers to Christ?  Totally oblivious to Christ’s presence, we spin our own story of what Christ has done, or hasn’t done.  We can lay out lots of facts, but do we understand the motive, the intent?  Without paying attention to the Light of God that accompanies us, that experiences life with us, we make assumptions about Christ as Stranger… and sometimes miss that he’s been there with us all the time.  

Once the disciples share the story of Christ’s death and resurrection, they discover they’re not the only ones who are anxious, frustrated.  Now Jesus is – with them! 

‘Jesus the Prophet?  Hadn’t they paid attention to all the prophecies that had come before?  Foolish!  Slow of heart! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things, and then enter his glory?’ Their hoped for Redeemer was walking with them, just then.  Hadn’t they understood what his life – what that suffering – his death – was all about?  Imagine how Jesus the Messiah, the Stranger, felt that day.    

My husband, Jon just served as the Chair of the Committee for the 5 Year Review of the Ophthalmology Dept. at the Univ. of Iowa. Doctors from outside the Department of Ophthalmology, plus two physicians from outside the University, had to scrupulously look through the Opthalmology Department. What have they done wrong? What have they not done so well? How are they doing in all the different parts of that department? They had to interview everyone that’s a part of the department and then sit down with them. At the end they had to bring in the Chair of the Department and review - go over carefully and gently, well…maybe not so gently! He’ll get a write-up eventually, but they had to speak with him about all that had happened. How do you think he felt sitting there listening to the work of his life? I’m thinking it’s kind of like Jesus felt that day on the road to Emmaus. 

It’s the day of his resurrection, just a few hours since, and he’s walking down the road listening to these guys talk about him and wonder what they’re saying. And they haven’t gotten it at all! Wow! That’s kind of horrible!  And it isn’t so good… Jesus didn’t turn out to be what they had expected.  Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?  “We had hoped he would be….” “We really needed him to be…” “We wanted him to be…” “We know he was crucified and died.  It’s been three days, and now we’ve heard rumors – a lot of hearsay – that he’s alive.  No one has seen him.  Just visions.”  They see him – they just don’t recognize him. 

These disciples, on the day of Jesus’s resurrection, are about to get a ‘love’ lesson from the one they know only as a Stranger.  He will honor the mystery of God in each of them.  He will change their hearts.  How?  By using stories – lots and lots of stories.  He begins with what they know, what they already know about Jesus, and then reminds them of things they’d forgotten.  Jesus explained their significance and meaning, and ‘interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.’  Remember, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans… that hasn’t been written yet. So when he’s talking about the scriptures, he’s talking about the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1st and 2nd Samuel… Those seven miles went by fast. 

It came time to part company, but the Stranger had somehow become a friend, and the travelers couldn’t let him move on without something to eat.  They sat down at the table, and he took the bread.  There was something about the way he held it, the way the Stranger blessed it, and broke it… it seemed so familiar. And then, they recognized him… and he was gone.

Jesus is strange… he’s different.  He’s one of a kind.   He knows what it is to be the stranger.  He knows what it’s like for us, when we feel like strangers.  One stranger connecting with another… You and I understand Jesus in this way.

We become strangers to Jesus, when we speak for him, trying to tell him his own story.  We make an awful lot of assumptions about him.  We forget many things.  Better, if we would allow Jesus to speak into us… to share his own story.  We need to give him seven miles, rather than seven minutes.  We need to listen, with our hearts.  We need to hear him say, rather than listen to hearsay.  What does Jesus say to you?

This past week I opened an account on Facebook.  (I’m so proud of myself! Thank you, Becki Heusel!) One of the fun things I did was to discover my nephew, Aaron.  I haven’t seen Aaron in a long, long time.  My sister told me to look him up – ‘He looks a lot like Curtis now, Ruthie.  (Curtis is our younger brother.)  It didn’t take me long… and I was so surprised!  Here is this handsome young man – the youngest of my nieces and nephews.  (Of course, all my nieces and nephews are either beautiful or handsome.) Aaron’s got pictures there of his fiancé – he just asked her to marry him the day before Easter… He’s all grown up, and Coey’s right!  He looks a lot like Curtis! 

If you haven’t seen Jesus lately, you need to sign up on his Facebook page.  He probably looks a lot different to you now than he used to.  He might be a Stranger… He might be a Friend.  I don’t know.  But I do know, I know this, he wants to take a walk with you, maybe not seven miles, maybe just a walk around the block or down the hall. Maybe fourteen miles. He wants to spend some time, have a good, long conversation, and tell you his own story.  (I’ve heard it’s really heart-warming.)  The question is, are you willing to listen?  

Easter Sunday 4.5.15

Sermon 4-5-2015, Easter Sunday

‘The Power of a Resurrected Life’

Romans 8:6-11

Ezekiel 37

Pastor Ruthie Tippin, Indianapolis First Friends Meeting

What a blessing it is to be with you this morning! It’s such a joy to see so many families here. It’s just wonderful to see so many families together on this Easter Sunday morning. I know many of you, like Jon and I, have family spread far and wide. Matt and Rebecca are in Seattle this morning and Seth and Bethany, with our little Emma and Ben are in Sheridan, Wyoming this morning. So if you are one of those who have families that are far and wide, I ask you to consider this your family today. This is your family. This is my family, this is your family.

I have such great news for us all today. Christ is risen! The stock market is up, gas prices are down, interest rates are low, more people are falling in love than out of love, the sun is shining and Jesus didn’t die in that tomb. Christ is risen.

Our meeting is a blessed place to worship and we welcome family and friends here not just on Easter Sunday, but every week. New people come to experience our life of faith and old friends return to connect and rejoice that our faith community still gathers with Quaker faith and purpose. Our nursery is so full that we’ve had to open a second room for all the kids. Our middle and high school kids are just four months from their trip to Philadelphia, and please pray for Beth and me and all the adults that are going with them!  It’s a celebration of the completion of their year of affirmation as Friends youth. We have at least as many interest and activity groups as we do committees, and Jesus didn’t die in that tomb. Thank God. Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

Many, many young boys in Galilee had been named Jesus. But only one was called Emmanuel - God with us. There have been many men, and we learned last week that there were at least five  - who claimed to be the Messiah during Jesus’s lifetime - The Christ, the Anointed One….there still are. But there was only one whose death was witnessed, whose resurrection was proven with the signs of his wounds, the appearance of his physical body, and the sound of his voice. (Remember when he called to his disciples to come and eat breakfast with him on the seashore?) The nurture of his presence, and the blessing of his peace… that is the Son of God, whom we celebrate and honor today. Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

How could this be? How could this be? We can understand the stock market….at least, some of you can! We know what it means to fall in love. We know that more families at First Friends means more children, and more children mean more babies, and babies need more nursery space. We can understand all of those things, but how could this man, this Jesus, once living and now dead, become alive again? Through the power of God, in the form of God’s spirit. Living and active, reviving him, indwelling him, renewing him to life again for us and for all the world. This same spirit that raised Christ from the dead, gives us this same life.

“If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his spirit, that dwells in you.” 

We come, this Easter morning to tombs. To places of death. To school campuses, turned into killing fields. To mass graves, to broken hearts. Where do we find life raised up? Not in law and not in liturgy. There is no state, no country, no tribe that gives life. No sect, no religion, no creed that gives life. Life comes from Spirit. Life comes from the life-giver, the God we worship. God’s Spirit in us.

“For those that live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death. But to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. For this reason, the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

Those persons, those tribes, those churches, those groups who try to rule others by the letter of the law, by creed, by crusade, by caliphate, reek destruction and death. What is it? What is that verse of scripture? ‘The letter kills, but the spirit gives life.’ You are not in the flesh. You are in the spirit, since the spirit of God dwells in you! Anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, though the body be dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness.

Quakers believe that there is that of God in us. But we do not believe that we are God. We have the same choice that the people of Rome did so long ago. We either choose to live in the spirit of God, or we choose to live in the flesh. We either choose to live by the letter, or by the spirit.

If you want to know what’s going on in the world today, grab a copy of your favorite newspaper. The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Indianapolis Star, or the book of Ezekiel. It’s all there. Dislocation, superpower politics, ethnic nationalism violence, devastation, national alliances.

The people of God were in exile. Hopeless, terrorized, and uncertain about their future - if they had a future. Just then, God took his prophet Ezekiel to a valley filled with dry, dead bones. Not bodies, just bones. Lots and lots of bones. “Can these bones live?” asked God. “Only you know,” answered Ezekiel. God commanded Ezekiel to speak to the bones. To prophesy to them. Can you imagine? Speaking, but not to living persons? That’s what Ezekiel always did.  He was a prophet and was used to standing in front of living persons like you. No, God said to speak to these dead bones, this whole field of dead bones. Ezekiel prophesized as he’d been commanded. “Thus says the Lord God to these bones, I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live. Muscle and sinew, then flesh, then skin to cover you. I will put breath in you, and you shall live. And you shall know that I am the Lord.”

(Rattle sticks together.) Suddenly there was a noise. Bone to bone. Bone to its bone. The bones came together. Ezekiel watched and saw, sinew, tendon, muscle. (It would be kind of creepy.) Then flesh, then skin. But there was no breath. ‘And then God said, prophesy to the breath. Prophesy and say to the breath, “Come from the four winds. Breath, come and breathe upon these slain that they may live.”’ Ezekiel did. The breath came into them, and they lived. They stood on their feet, a vast multitude, scripture tells us.

Stand on your feet, please now, stand. Take a deep breath. Now another. Imagine this vast multitude. God spoke to them all, “Thus says the Lord, I am going to bring you up from your graves and bring you back to the land of Israel. I will put my spirit into you, and you shall live.”  (Signal meeting to be seated.)

The sound of rattling bones surrounds us today. We hear them in our Meetings and churches where we speak of what we cannot possibly do, rather than what God’s spirit makes possible. We hear them in our neighborhoods where guns are being sold and people are being killed. We hear bones in our legislature, where we act before we think of the consequences for all people. We hear them in our own country any time self-interest becomes more important than the good of all. We hear rattling bones in our families where children are hungry, where elders are left uncared for and abused, where relationships are no longer tender and nurtured. Anytime we live by the things we cannot do, rather than in the things God calls us to do, we live by the letter that kills, rather than by the spirit that gives life. Rattling bones, muscle, tendon, flesh, skin, no breath. When we listen for the voice of God speaking, and sense the power of God’s spirit moving - the ‘ruah’ of God - we remember our resurrection. The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead brings us to life through the power of God’s Spirit. That Spirit lives in us.

George Fox, 1669… here’s what he said:

‘All Friends in the living spirit, living power and in the heavenly light dwell. Quench not the motions of it in yourselves, nor the movings of it in others. Though many have run out and gone beyond their measures, yet many more have quenched the measure of the spirit of God and afterwards become dead, and dull, and questioned through a false fear. So there has been hurt, both ways. Therefore, be obedient to the power of the Lord.’

I told you that I had good news. The same spirit that raised those dry, dead bones that Ezekiel found, the same spirit that raised a crucified Christ, is the same spirit that lives in each one of us. It gives us the power to live. To live fully, as God calls us to. Not just on Easter Sunday, but every day. Every day. Every day. Jesus isn’t the only one who lives in resurrection this morning!

Amen.

George Kelley 3.29.15

On Sunday, March 29th, George Kelley was our guest speaker in Meeting for Worship. George serves as the Education Director at Congregation Beth-El Zedek, and hosted our Affirmation Youth when they attended worship there recently.  

 Below is the main body of the message, given by George Kelley on March 29th:

Good morning  or Boker Tov as I would say to my school kids, and thank you for allowing me to speak from your pulpit.  I am extremely honored to be here today as you celebrate Palm Sunday and to speak about the Jewishness of Jesus.  Palm Sunday is a perfect opportunity to do this.  It is a story found in all four gospels and celebrated around the Christian world.  It has much of the Jewish symbolism that surrounds Jesus in his life.   That Jewish essence of Jesus has been lost in the intervening 2000 years since the 1st century.  The palm branch, the riding of the donkey, the singing of the Psalms of welcome all have their roots in a Jewish tradition.  Jesus, in the ride into Jerusalem, was seen by many as a potential messiah, one that would usher in a time of peace and joy for the Jewish people.  Jesus was born into a world ripe for a messiah.  Rome was in turmoil, the Jewish Temple leadership was seen as corrupt or collaborators with the oppressor.  The Roman appointed governor was mentally unstable and a tyrant, so people looked to their tradition for support.  During Jesus’ lifetime there were at least 5 people who claimed the mantle of messiah.  When Jesus rode into the city, the people, many who also traveled to celebrate the upcoming Passover holiday, would have heard the stories of Jesus, his miracles, including  raising Lazarus from the dead. They were ready for a leader.  Jesus fit many people’s definition of a messiah.  Now I want to be clear.  There were many different ways people envisioned what a messiah would be.  If we dig deeply into the story of 1st century Judaism, there were Jews who looked for a king, others a priest, and some a kind of heavenly figure.  There was hope for the change in the world, to make it a better place.  Often times, when Jews are asked about their connection to Jesus the story that is told is they rejected Jesus for not being the warrior many assume the Jews were looking for in a messiah.  However, that is not fully the case.  We can talk later about why the Jewish people, or more precisely a majority of Jewish people rejected Jesus, as well has many messianic figures throughout history.  But today I think it is more important to discuss how Judaism influenced the man who is now worshiped as part of a Godhead.  

Today I want to speak from my own experience and draw on the writing of a scholar of the Christian Bible, Amy Jill Levine of Vanderbilt University.  Her work in this area opens up a vision of Jesus from a Jewish perspective through the eyes of a Jewish scholar. 

So what was Jewish about Jesus?  Everything.  He was born a Jew, grew into manhood as a Jew, and was executed as a Jew.  Even if we look at the layers of writing since the 1st century, at times clearly trying to distance Jesus from his Jewish roots, there is still a very Jewish theme you can find in what Jesus said and did.  There are many areas that we can look to and find evidence of his Jewish vision, but let’s start with a very famous story.   In the book of Matthew chapter 22 there is an exchange between Jesus and one of the Sadducees over the concept of resurrection of the dead.   They did not believe in this concept (the Pharisees did) and asked Jesus to explain what that would look like in the context of men who married their brother’s widow.  Jesus basically snapped them back using scripture from the Law of Moses.  This led a Pharisee to ask Jesus what was the most important commandment.  This attempt to challenge him was met with a simple answer: 

Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’   This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”   In this answer Jesus quotes two important Jewish scriptural lessons.  The first is from Deuteronomy 6:5 verbetim, and which is said 3 times daily by Jews going back to ancient times.  In fact these words appear in the T’fillin, the boxes Jews wear in daily prayer that were part of the Jewish tradition even before the first century.  These words, known today as part of the Sh’ma recited in services and when you rise from bed and when you go to sleep, V’ahavta… are probably the best known words of Torah to all Jews.  His second commandment comes from the book of Leviticus 19:18.  God commands us to “love your neighbor as yourself”.  This second of the great commandments (remember Jesus was operating with 613 of them) was already seen as such prior to Jesus’ time.  A few decades earlier, a great Sage and President of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish High Court, Hillel, was also asked a question.  This famous account in the Talmud (Shabbat 31a) tells about a Roman Soldier wanted to convert to Judaism. He wanted to learn the entirety of the Torah while standing on one foot.  He had been rejected by another sage but Hillel accepted the challenge, and said:

"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah; all the rest is commentary of this--go and study it!"

These parallel stories shine a light on the fact that Jesus was a person steeped in a very Jewish, and I might add, Pharisaic tradition that looked not at the letter of the law but the spirit of it in order to create a better world.  Jesus, like many Jews of the time were looking for a way to understand how the ancient law of Moses applied to the daily lives of Jews, the meaning of the Torah, and its understanding, a discussion that continues today.  The Sage Hillel himself had an adversarial relationship with another sage, Shammai, whom we see throughout the Talmud as a foil to understand how to interpret the text. 

This literary devise was common in Judaism and often done through story, not unlike the parables that Jesus told, something that again speaks to his Jewish nature.  Parables were not uncommon in the Jewish teaching, in Hebrew, the genre is mashal, a metaphor.  Like the Greek parable which means to place side by side, use of this technique was a way of challenging authority by cloaking the words in a way that transmitted the lesson without directly saying what you wanted to, at least not at first.  Many of Jesus’ parables had strong Jewish themes, lost to history as both Jewish, and later, Christian ears hear them differently.  But we can look back at this technique in Jewish writing and scripture.  One clear example is in Second Samuel chapter 12 when Nathan is criticizing King David for having Uriah killed to take his wife:

“There were two men in a certain city. One was wealthy, but the other was poor.  The wealthy man had a very large flock and herd, but the poor man had nothing except a single small ewe lamb that he had acquired. He nourished it and raised it together with himself and his sons. From his crumbs, it would eat; from his cup, it would drink; and in his arms it would lie. It was like a daughter to him.

  “There came a visitor to the wealthy man, but he was unwilling to take from his own flock or herd to prepare a meal for the wanderer who had come to him. Instead he took the poor man’s ewe lamb and prepared food for the wanderer who had come to him.”

David became very angry because of this man. He said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die.   And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.”

Then Nathan told David, “You are this man! 

The technique is used throughout Jewish commentary, and thus also used by Jesus but too often we are not equipped with the experience to fully understand the meaning of the parables at the time of Jesus.  They are taken out of context and they are used to attack the Judaism of the time.  However, I, along with Levine, would argue that many of the parables elevate a particular view of the law and do not attempt to destroy it.  The parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector in Luke 18 is a great example:

He told this parable to some who trusted in themselves, as though they were righteous, and despised others:  “Two men went up to the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.  The Pharisee stood and prayed these things about himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men: extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.   I fast twice a week, and I tithe of a 10th of all that I earn.’

  “But the tax collector, standing at a distance, would not even lift his eyes to heaven, but struck his chest, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner.’

 “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” 

Tax collectors appear several times in gospels as good characters while the Pharisees are seen as evil.  In the setting of the gospel, among 1st century Jews, this would be unheard of as the tax collectors were seen as collaborators with Rome and the Pharisees were the pious who walked with God.  However by the time of Luke’s writing of the gospel, the Pharisaic movement was eponymous with the Jews who rejected Jesus.   Jesus story was to challenge individuals to think about themselves and how they approached God.  Luke seems to transform it into an attack on all Pharisees and thus in the future Jews.  But the challenge to the Jewish audience in the first century was fairly clear.  They, like Jonah, might be angered that the tax collector can get close to God as the people of Nineveh did when they repented.  This discomfort may well be lost on us today but that doesn’t make the story any less Jewish. 

Throughout the teaching of Jesus we see clear indications of what makes him a Jewish figure.  But one must understand that Judaism, even in the first century, was not a monolithic religion.  More often than not Jews were in dialogue and argument over the meaning of Torah and the way one should live a Jewish life.  This was very much the view of Jesus at the time.  When Jesus challenges authority in the gospels, the stories don’t always make sense to me.  In part because they are used in way to challenge all of Judaism, when in fact Jesus was acting in a very Jewish manner.  I can illustrate this in a story from the Talmud. 

Towards the end of the first century, a few decades after the big Jewish rebellion against the Romans, the sages of the “Sanhedrin” (The highest court in Jewish law) had to determine whether a certain oven “the oven of Achnai” is appropriate to use according to the Jewish law.

With the exception of one sage, Rabbi Eliezer, all sages declared that the oven can become ‘impure’.

Rabbi Eliezer who was convinced that his position was right declared:   “If the rule is as I say [That Achnai’s oven is in fact pure], then let this carob tree prove it!” Then the carob tree flew out of the ground and landed thirty yards away.

The sages were not impressed: “One does not bring evidence from the carob tree!”

Rabbi Eliezer continued: “If the rule is as I say, then let the stream of water prove it.”  And the stream of water flowed backwards.

“One does not bring evidence from a stream of water,” replied the other sages.

“If the rule is as I say then let the walls of this house prove it!” continued Rabbi Eliezer, and the walls began to fall inward.  Rabbi Joshua, Eliezer’s main opponent, censored the walls for their interference and they did not fall but neither did they return to their previous position.

“If the law is as I say then let it be proved by Heaven,” continued Rabbi Eliezer and indeed a voice from Heaven came and asserted that Rabbi Eliezer was right! Rabbi Joshua stood up and said (quoting Deuteronomy 30:12) “It is not in Heaven, ” .  Immediately everything went back to the way it was.  The voice was gone.  When asked later what God was doing at the time of his discussion, the prophet Elijah told all that  God was dancing through the heavens saying joyfully, “My children have defeated me”. 

Jesus was acting in a manner typical of the time.  Taking the Torah and making it work in the context of the world he lived in, using the historical commentary and the writing of the prophets to back him up.  Jesus was not unlike many Pharisees who were seeking to define Judaism during the second Temple period for the times.  They drew heavily from what was called the Oral Torah and did so with great debates, and their legacy became the Rabbinic Judaism of the post Temple period that defines all of Judaism today.  It was in this context that Jesus taught and expressed his Jewishness;  a Jewishness that led him to be a radical in the tradition of Abraham and Sarah, Jacob and his family, Moses and Miriam, Ezra and Judah Maccabee.  Jesus created a vision for his followers that was deeply Jewish and resonates today with many who may not all agree but, which links back to a Galilean who worshiped at the Temple and studied at Hebrew School.  

I thought about how in his Jewish voice might be heard today by modern people.  In Matthew Christians read:   

Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?" "Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments." 

"Which ones?" the man inquired. Jesus replied, " 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,' and 'love your neighbor as yourself.'

What I hear him saying creates a standard here on earth for what is required of us in God’s eyes, even if we can never truly achieve perfection.  It speaks to the here and now.  It calls us to create a heavenly existence in one’s lifetime.  While Jesus does reference heaven, this passage also call for humanity to take seriously the Jewish concept of tikkun olam, repairing the world.  It is, as if, the passage speaks to building the rewards of heaven now, something Jews strive for every Shabbat.   This is captured in a story shared in many traditions but found in Jewish folklore. 

A great Rabbi was allowed to receive one special gift from an angel, so he asked to see the precinct of Heaven and Hell.  First taken to hell he witnessed a long banquet table filled with food and people sitting there.  The people’s arms were outstretched locked in a position by metal bands at the elbow and they could not bring the food to their mouths.  Shuttering the Rabbi asked to now see heaven.  In heaven he witnessed a long banquet table filled with food and people sitting there.  The people’s arms were outstretched locked in a position by metal bands at the elbow and they could not bring the food to their mouths.  What is the difference?  In heaven the people are feeding each other. 

We are all preparing for a holy time of year, let us take this time to move into silence as we consider how we can create our own heavenly existence by finding ways to feed each other…

Daud Abdur-Rahman 3.22.15

On Sunday, March 22nd, Daud Abdur-Rahman was our guest speaker in Meeting for Worship. Daud is one of many Imams of Nur Allah Islamic Center and an attender of First Friends is speaking in Meeting for Worship today, sharing with us about the Muslim faith. 

Below is the main body of the message, given by Daud Abdur-Rahman on March 22nd: 

Assalamu'alaikum! For those of you who don't understand that term, Jesus, peace be upon him, used to greet the people with Assalamu’alaikum. So, if you would, just to make my heart glad, repeat after me, “Assalamu’alaikum!” I love that, it sounds good.

I’m going to speak from my heart. I’ve been here, in the community that has demonstrated to me a love from other people. I was raised in a community where we were confused as to who God really is. Nobody came to knock at 636 Blake Street and introduced me to who God really is. I really want to be very open about that. It wasn’t until 1975 in Indianapolis, Indiana, a man came and challenged his father’s teachings. Those of you who don’t understand the nation of Islam, back in the 1930 through the 1960s, they believed that the white man was the devil. Period. There wasn’t any in-between, none of that. Of course, me and Duffy, we know better. We were in Vietnam and if it wasn’t for the white man and the black man, we would have been in big trouble. Duffy can bear witness to that.

Right now, this is a very historical moment for Indianapolis, Indiana, when my children and grandchildren are here and I want them to get comfortable being here. Take a look around, see who is here and notice that there are no pictures, no objects of worship in here. It is unbelievable. The experience that I have had for the last year and two months has been unbelievable. Ruthie came to my side when I was getting ready to have surgery. She prayed with my wife and daughter. And this really blew my mind: she asked God to bless me and them and the surgeon’s hand. I was messed up then, when she asked God to bless the surgeon’s hand. So I see something that is very miraculous about being with people that have demonstrated to me that there is only one God. There is only one, and I want to recite something from the Qur’an that depicts that.

Allah says in the Holy Qur’an: With the name God, most gracious, most merciful, all praise is due to God, the Lord of all the worlds, most gracious, most merciful. Master of the day of judgement, you do we serve, and you do we ask for help. Guide us on a straight path, the path of those upon whom you have blessed, not the path upon those who have encouraged your anger, nor those who have gone astray. Amen.

As we look around the room, we fall in that category. No Muslim, or at least I hope that no Muslim, would claim that they are perfect and that they make no mistakes. Not when Allah tells us to pray five times a day. So we can get re-oriented about where we are going, what we are supposed to be doing, and we should be begging God for forgiveness because we slip, we make mistakes, some of us just flat-out sin. So we have five times a day when we can straighten our lives out. We can’t wait. Trust me, the trouble I’ve been in, we can’t wait for one day a week to do that, I’ve got to have it five times a day. Must have it. I find, each time I stop to pray, that I’ve made some mistakes. Each time. Sometimes I say things to my children that hurts them, but I’ve got to stop five times a day for prayer and I recognize that I hurt that baby’s feelings. Not only do I ask God to forgive me, but I also have to go to that baby and say that I was wrong.

Now, if someone taught you that the white man was the devil, for thirty-some odd years, and we have people here today from different Muslim communities, so it’s not like I’m representing only myself, it’s not about me, but a message that is very important for all of us. Allah says in the Qur’an, and now this is not a different perspective.  I’m going to show you that some people think what we talk about is a different perspective. What I Allah said was, ‘Read with the name of your Lord.’ Some people think that means reading printed matter. But Muhammed, peace be upon him, couldn’t read and write, so it certainly couldn’t have been printed matter. If we took a look around this room, and read, if we read each one of us in the room, we are reading. We’re reading. Some of us think that we have to read all of these books and get real top heavy, and that’s going to solve our problems. That’s not going to solve our problems. We have to learn how to read. My year and two months here in this community has taught me how to read genuine people who believe in God, who fear God, and have demonstrated, beyond friendship… I hear the word friend, but I’m going to tell you the truth, it says read with the name of your Lord who created. Created mankind. From a clot of congealed blood. Now if anybody wasn’t created like that, come and take my place, because I don’t have any business up here, at all. Every one of us, we came the same way. I want my children to see you all so they’ll know that we all came the same way. We don’t have any ups and downs, we all came the same way.

I hear in the teachings that I hear every week about this idea of Christ. I understand Christ. The Christ in you is the Christ in me. Now Jesus is a different person. But the Christ who was in Jesus, peace be upon him, that’s the Christ that’s in us. I want to share that a person in my upbringing told me that they believe in Christ, but they committed adultery. Where did Christ go then? While they were committing adultery, where did Christ go then? So you see how confused I was as a young man growing up, trying to understand the teachings given to me about equality, and about religion. It had me totally confused. To the point that when I got out of my Mother’s house, I didn’t want to hear anything about religion at all. I mean, completely, not at all. I went further and further from what was right and then God brought me back through a teacher, and I have to share this with you, his name was W.D. Muhammed. He was the one that came on the scene and introduced us to the Qur’an. Two million people accepted Islam in one day, right here in these United States. Two million people accepted Islam in one day. Right here. Now there were other Muslims here, they were already Muslims, so we don’t want to discredit them for being followers of the prophet Muhammed, peace be upon him, but we want you also realize that the young people right here in this room today, we taught them. No school in America gets credit for us teaching our children math, science, history, and social skills, because we did that, with the help of Almighty God. And we’re giants. We have some giants in here, we have some doctors sitting in here amongst us now. They need to be aware of that. That you all have made progress with our society that you have a history of working with oppressed people in the society, but we don’t see that connection when we were introduced to Allah, to the people that were fighting for us, fighting for our liberation. We don’t see that connection, where my Mother was introduced to God properly.

It wasn’t until 1975 that we got a good hold on getting rid of lies and falsehoods, to where we could actually take a breath of fresh air and join the rest of the community of human beings that really want to move forward. We want to move forward. I’ve heard Ruthie constantly talk about doing some positive things to move forward. So my dear respected people, let’s move forward. Let’s unite and move forward. You know, Muslims, they don’t believe in titles. They don’t believe in big I, little you. They are highly sophisticated and organized, but their name is Ruthie. Their name is Ed. Their name is David, but now if you get behind these names, you are going to really see something. They don’t push that. They just take care of business. I’ve had an invitation to work with members in this group to mentor some young people in the African American community to try to get them progressively moving forward with a helping hand from the Quaker community.

My dear respected people, God created us the same way and Almighty God taught us how to read. Just because I’m not using the King’s English the way you would use it, that don’t mean that I don’t know anything. Trust me, that don’t mean I don’t know what’s happening. So we were all created the same way. God taught us how to read, and God has decreed that we do something special before we return back to Almighty God. This is an opportunity for us to embrace each other today. Today. Embrace each other and agree to do some positive things because we met each other finally, and we want to move forward.

Now the crimes that are in the community, you know we have to answer to that. Right here in this room, we have to answer to the crimes in the community. You know what’s wrong with these wild-acting kids out here? You have any idea what’s really wrong with them? We haven’t united in love to introduce them to love. I’ve been trying to do this for thirty years, been trying to get all the Christians and the Muslims together and let’s go in the prison at the same time and worship on the same day, in the same way. You know they can’t do that. For whatever reason, they haven’t been able to do it. This is our opportunity today to embrace each other, in love, and agree to do something for mankind in Indianapolis, Indiana, for the pleasure of Almighty God, with the skills that God has blessed us with, and share it with each other. We have an opportunity. 

So my dear respected people, Imam Siddeeq, who is back in the back of the room and is one of our giants in the community, he gave a talk Friday. He talked about the problem in Israel or Palestine, whichever way you want to call it. Now listen to this carefully, because I had to go home and think on it. I heard him, I heard him loud and clear, but I had to go home and think about it, had to pray on it. He said that if the Palestinians turn all their weapons in. The little pea-shooters they have and Israeli has all those nuclear bombs… he said that if they would just turn in all of their weapons, all of them, just turn them in, he said that some of us will lose our lives, but if Israel would attack those people without arms, the whole society would turn against them.

That is profound. That’s a message that all of us should be appealing for them to just lay their weapons down. Like what Quakers used to do back in the 1600s, where you had the Underground Railroad to get our people through and keep them from being slaughtered by ignorant people. That would really send a message across this planet. Thank you, Imam Siddeeq for that, because I really caught it. It was easy for me to hear but hard to digest. I see it. I’m sharing it with everyone here and asking us to pray for each other.

Now I’m going to conclude on this, and I do this every night before I go to bed. I ask Almighty God to help me, before I close my eyes, to forgive everybody. I do that every night, to forgive everybody. My Muslim brothers and sisters, if you have not done that, start doing that. I like the idea of friend, but with Allah creating us the same way, you are all really my brothers and sisters. You know, Adam didn’t wear no diapers. He didn’t have diapers on. Adam wasn’t breastfed, neither was Eve. They were different than us, cause we had to be breastfed, some of us. I found that most criminals that I used to interview, most of the criminals, they weren’t breastfed. Trust me I tell you, I did ten years of research on that. Most of the criminals that I had to deal with, they were not breastfed. The good people that I’ve dealt with in the community, they were breastfed. That’s something to think about, anyway. In the meantime, we are brothers and sisters. Adam had two sets of children, now which one do we belong to? You know the story, better than me. Which family do we belong to of Adam’s children? You know the Cain and Abel story….which family do we belong to?

A Conversation with Rufus Jones 3.15.15

Rufus Jones Visits Indianapolis First Friends, March 15, 2015

Dan Lee, a member of our Meeting, portrayed Rufus Jones during Meeting for Worship. Here is the text of his gift to us all. 

It is my pleasure today to be back at Indianapolis First Friends. Friends from Indiana have made a great many contributions to our Religious Society of Friends and to human society. I visited Indiana throughout my life, including Indianapolis First Friends. I traveled to Earlham College at least once a year for more than 50 years and also lectured at Butler University. You also should know that a convention of Friends here in Indianapolis in 1897 helped to heal divisions between Quakers and helped define today’s Quakerism.

Some Quakers in Philadelphia and back East, with our unprogramed meetings, can be taken aback when they visit Midwestern Friends because of what they call the “lively preaching” (pause, look right at Ruthie!). But I have preferred to always focus on what we Friends share in common… First, we believe that there is that of God in every man, woman and child on earth. You’ve heard this truth called the doctrine of the Inner Light or the Inner Christ. Second, we believe people can experience and learn from God directly. Christ has come to teach his people! These truths are at the root of my life’s work in my writing and teaching about mysticism. What is mysticism, you ask? My young Friend Elton Trueblood defined mysticism as “first-hand religion.” Remember, Quakerism is a religion of experience. Your inner life informs your outer life. Service to others is an expression of God’s love!

I’m so happy to be here today. I’ve heard you describe these big plain windows in your beautiful Meeting House as “Quaker Stained Glass Windows.” That reminds me of a favorite story from “A Book of Quaker Saints” by Lucy Violet Hodgkin. A little girl asks a simple question, “what is a saint?” The girl had visited a Catholic church with her aunt that had beautiful stain glass windows depicting saints so different from the ordinary windows in her Meeting House. The little girl finally figured out the answer to her question – a saint is someone who lets the sunlight shine through.

May that Light shine through us here today.

Children’s Service

My name is Rufus, and I was about your age a looooong time ago. You know who was president when I was born? A man named Abraham Lincoln. But I bet you some things haven’t changed. At home do any of your moms and dads ask you do listen or do things? (Ask the kids) Maybe do your homework. Or be nice to your brother or sister. Or clean your room. Do you always listen and do what you’re asked? I didn’t either. I grew up on a small farm in Maine, and when I was about 10 my parents asked me to weed a turnip patch. Do any of you have turnip patches at home? But soon my friends came by and asked me to play, so I left the turnip patch and spent the day swimming and fishing. My mother came home and saw that I had done no work. I was expecting to get in BIG trouble. Instead, she took me by my hand and led me into the house. She knelt down beside me and said this prayer – “Oh, God, take this boy of mine and make him the boy and man he is divinely assigned to be.” Then she gave me a kiss and left the room. It was then and there that I discovered the meaning of grace – of love – not only in my wonderful mother but also within God.

You see, God loves us no matter what and wants so much to be part of our lives to make us more like Him.

I was born January 25, 1863, into a home ruled by love and surrounded by natural beauty. I was not christened in a church, but I was sprinkled from morning to night with the dew of religion. We never ate a meal which did not begin with the hush of thanksgiving. We never began a day without a family gathering in which mother read a chapter in the Bible. There was work inside and outside the house waiting to be done, yet we sat there hushed and quiet doing nothing. Someone would bow and talk with God so simply and quietly that He never seemed far away. The words help explain the silence. It was a religion that we did together.

Beyond my parents, Edwin and Mary Jones, other family members nurtured me spiritually and gave me a global vision. My Uncle Eli and Aunt Sybil established Friends schools in Lebanon and in Palestine. Aunt Peace lived in the divine instruction and presence of God daily. My family helped me form my worldview.

We went to Quaker meeting twice a week. Even as a boy, I came to feel the Divine presence in the silence. It was like the swimming I did as a boy. Nobody could do it for you. You either did your swimming or your worshipping yourself, or it wasn’t done.

I taught philosophy and psychology at Haverford College in Philadelphia from 1893 to 1934 and was a professor emeritus after that. I always thought of myself as a teacher, and there is no question that I am at my happiest when I am teaching a class of youth.

Related to my teaching, I also loved to read and write. I wrote more than 50 books over my lifetime, a good number of them I should say are here in the library at Indianapolis First Friends. Some of my books were for children, such as “Small Town Boy” about my childhood in Maine. I also wrote about Quaker history and thought, religious philosophy and mystical religion.

In “The Double Search,” published in 1906, I wrote about how God longs to be reunited with us as much as we long to be reunited with God, and that Christ represents the fulfillment of this double search.

In my book “The Inner Life,” published in 1916, I wrote about the importance cultivating a Christ-like inner spiritual life that would then influence your outer life. The words of Jesus such as the Beatitudes provide a peephole into this inner world.

Early in my career I taught Oakwood Seminary Quaker School in Union Springs, New York. It was here that I became engaged to my first wife, Sarah Coutant. She was also a teacher but because she suffer from bronchitis for years she had to give that up, though she provided great help for me editing my texts. It was a great tragedy in my life when she died of tuberculosis. We had a son, Lowell, together, and I endured a second almost unbearable tragedy when he died unexpectedly at the age of 11 of diphtheria.    

I was blessed to marry Elizabeth Cadbury, from the famous Quaker chocolate-making family, and we had a daughter, Mary Hoxie Jones. It was during this time that I moved to my home at No. 2 College Circle Drive at Havorford, Pa., where I would live the rest of my life. 

Friends were very much divided in American through much of my life. I tried to heal the wounds from those divisions by seeking to find unity in our beliefs and practices. As Quakers, we are guided by the Inner Light of Christ but that also includes a call to duty. 

In 1917, when the United States entered the First World War, I worked with Henry Cadbury to establish the American Friends Service Committee to provide ways for young people, Quakers and non-Quakers, who were conscientious objectors to provide relief and humanitarian work as an alternative to military service. After the war, AFSC responded to Herbert Hoover’s call to feed starving German children. At one time, AFSC provided a daily meal to 1.2 million children.

In 1947, the American Friends Service Committee and British Friends Service Council accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of Quakers worldwide for work during and between the world wars to help starving children and to help rebuild Europe.

Another highlight in my life was when I traveled to Asia and met with Gandhi, visited the birthplace of the Buddha, and gave lectures in China.

One of my most memorable experiences came in 1938 after “the Day of Broken Glass” in which the Nazi terrorized Jews. I accompanied two other Quakers to Germany to meet with Gestapo to ask for better treatment for the Jews and to see if the American Friends Service Committee could be allowed to help alleviate suffering. The Nazi officers read our document and listened to us and said they would leave to consult and would return in 25 minutes with an answer. We three Quakers sat with bowed heads in silent meditation and prayer – the only Quaker meeting ever held in the Gestapo!

The Gestapo officers returned and said, “Everything you asked for will be granted.” I asked the officer for a written record of this, and he said that was not necessary because every word spoken in the room had been recorded. We were glad then that we had keep silent as to leave no other record! The meeting did open the door for relief work including the emigration out of Germany of many Jews.

As I sought to reunite Quakers I returned again and again to the experiences in the 1600s of George Fox, whom I called a mystic. In 1919, I wrote a children’s book about George Fox and the Quaker faith. I’d like to move us into silent worship today by reading a few lines from “The Story of George Fox”.

‘Religion for George Fox was a way of living, not merely something written in a book. It begins with a vital experience of the living God, who is near at hand, dwelling, moving, working, speaking in man’s heart…. God’s Kingdom comes as fast as people like us turn toward the true light and love it and follow it and do it…. God is always speaking to men, always sending out His light and love, always revealing His will. God is as near the soul as is the air to the bird.

This was the central teaching of George Fox…. This idea, this “truth,” Fox always called it, made him believe in the infinite preciousness and worth of every person in the world. Close behind the human face was the holy habitation of God…. It made him believe, too, that woman was in every way man’s companion and equal. One was not more precious or more exalted than the other….

Fox gave new importance to silence in worship. If God was near the soul, as Fox kept saying God was, then one way to discover him and to hear His voice speaking was to become quiet and still, so that God could be heard. When we wish to hear an important message over the telephone we prepare for it by hushing all conversation and unnecessary noises in the room. We give the message a chance to reach us…. So, too, with the greatest of all messages, we must prepare for it.’

Let us know practice communion in the manner of Friends.

God in Space 2.22.15

Sermon 2-22-2015  ‘God in Space’

Psalm 139

Pastor Ruthie Tippin; First Friends Meeting Indianapolis

http://www.pallottinesisters.org/prayerlife/Creating%20Inner%20Space.pdf

Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia; http://fscaston.org/the-mysticism-of-pots-and-pans/

How does God fill the space of your life?

God in space… indescribable.  God fills the most finite of places as well as the vast expanse of infinite time and space.

“The day of my spiritual awakening was the day I saw and knew all things in God and God in all things,” says Mechtild of Magdeburg, a thirteenth century mystic.

Stand and stretch.  Breathe.  God in us, Around us.  Through us.  The life of God in us through the power of the Holy Spirit.

In a portion of Britain Yearly Meeting’s ‘Christian Faith and Practice’, titled ‘The nature of God’, we find this entry from Rufus Jones: ‘Spirit… is the best word there is to express the essential nature of God.  It signifies that He is not to be confused with matter, nor to be found in a framework of space.  He is like that highest, purest inner nature in ourselves which we call ‘spirit’.  He is intelligent, He is purposeful.  He is devoted to the realization of the good.  He is what we are trying to be.  And wherever in the universe the good is being achieved, wherever truth is triumphing, wherever holiness is making its power known – there is spirit, there is God.’  [Religious foundations, 1923, p.11]

Telephone post – cross

Images that become imago dei

Mundane that becomes mystical

Rose Mary Eve Holter, of the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia led a workshop about the mysticism of Pots and Pans once; “We have a God who wants to be alive within our everyday experiences, an ordinary God who speaks to us in extraordinary ways each and every day.  Our task simply is to stay present, to listen, and to experience this God in the ordinary life of pots and pans and all other ordinary things that speak to us of God.  All is sacred because God created us good and lives within us and therefore there is a sacred space within each of us where God lives in great joy and speaks to our heart and listens as we speak to God. 

How does God fill the space we’re in today?  Look.  See.  Observe the space we’re in… the Meeting Room.  A place where we meet with one another, but also with God.  What do you see in this space? 

What fills it?  What inhabits the emptiness of it?  The openness of it?

           The Sound of My Soul Is Silence

           As fish fed multitudes,

           as bread gives life to the hungry,

           so solitude fills the soul.

           As night evokes a yearning for the light

           and cold attracts us to the fire,

           so silence beckons God.

           As waterfalls veil rocks,

           as clay conceals fossils,

           so God hides within.           

“What Happiness Required”, 

Linda Caldwell Lee

How does God fill the space of your life? How does God fill you? What fills the emptiness of your life? What fills the empty space of this room with presence? What inhabits your life?