10-21-18 - Redeeming Work

Redeeming Work

Indianapolis First Friends

Pastor Bob Henry

October 21, 2018

Isaiah 65:17-25 (NRSV)

17 For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth;
the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.
18 But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating;
for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight.
19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people;
no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress.
20 No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days,
    or an old person who does not live out a lifetime; for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth,
    and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed.
21 They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
22 They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat;
for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

23 They shall not labor in vain, or bear children for calamity;[a]
for they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord—and their descendants as well.
24 Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear.
25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox;
    but the serpent—its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy
    on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.

Our son, Sam, received his first job a couple of weeks ago. He is working for Kumon Math and Reading Center, where he works with two of his good friends. It reminded me of my first job working at the Fort Wayne Theological Seminary kitchen with a couple of my good friends. 

I knew going into the job I would be scrubbing dishes, cleaning dirty grease out of fryers, and serving cafeteria food, yet these were simply accessories to the more important aspect of working with my friends.  We had loads of fun, talked for hours while we worked (because we did not have smart phones), and often continued our lives together after work.  We received needed paychecks to help with expenses and to buy those occasional luxuries.

But I have to be honest, I don’t remember back then pondering how work would affect the rest of my life and how it would be about 90 percent of what makes up my being and life.   

Do you remember your first job?  What about it did you love? 

I ask you to ponder those queries, because work has become such a complex issue in our day and age.

When I lived in Indiana before moving to Oregon, I had the opportunity to go hear Wendell Berry and Wes Jackson speak at Indiana University.  They were talking about farming and the importance of being connected to the earth.  During the Q&A section, a student, who I believe was trying to get some answers for a paper asked a not-so-well thought out question about “work.” It came almost immediately after Wes Jackson said the following about growing up. He said,

“People who impressed me were those who worked.”

To answer the student’s question, Wendell and Wes both rose to their feet and began addressing the way our culture looks at work.  Things like: People today think work is boring. Work is trivial. Work is what we have to do so we can have fun, or what Wendell summed up with the American phrase: Less work = more life, which is exactly what the student had assumed.  

Wes then said, “Work doesn’t have to be fun – but rather satisfying.”  Wendell added satisfaction means you have done something, it is part of your being or life.

I found myself writing as fast as I could while thinking how different this was than what our world says, and I thought about how different this was to what the church told me growing up. 

I realized that many people I knew hated work. Many were simply lazy or living for the weekend. Some people took on two or three jobs to pay outstanding credit card bills, while others simply to purchase bigger toys, go on grander trips, live in more lucrative neighborhoods. And then others worked simply to survive. 

I think we must remember - each person has a completely different story when it comes to work.   

For the past 20+ years as a pastor, I can’t count the number of people who have come to me struggling with their work, who have considered their work-lives miserable, or a dreaded task to complete.  The big theme I see is that they are simply not  satisfied by what they do. 

In the book Slow Church, John Pattison states,

“Soulless work is one of the alienating effects of industrialization, along with unemployment, underemployment, low wages, child labor, the imposition of degraded work on degraded people and a ream of other consequences.  But we can have a very different view of work, one that seeks a balance between taking work too seriously and not taking it seriously enough.  Doing good work is one important way we respond as followers of Jesus to the work God is already doing around us.”     

Most of us were not taught to value all types of work. I remember people telling me when I was young, “Well, you don’t want to grow up to be a garbage man or work at a gas station, do you?” I have since met a garbage man and a gas station attendant who I value their work and who are both satisfied by their work.

We would never say, “You don’t want to grow up to be a doctor or lawyer?”  But I know doctors and lawyers who are miserable in their professions and are not satisfied.  And the same is true about people who are retired – because their work was so much a part of them that stopping work was an attack on their being.

Let’s be honest, we still categorize work by what we would be willing or unwilling to do. And that is creating negative perceptions of work. For some people their work is not an option. They work for survival.  They work at whatever job they can get.  They are often grateful to simply have a job.  But too often those type of jobs are ones that sadly exploit workers.  Jobs that are not satisfying because they dehumanize people and they become estranged from their own being and the tasks that could engage their human potential and creativity.  Instead they are forced to take jobs that are repetitive, uninteresting, and unsatisfying because the world has alienated them by saying things like I heard about garbage men and gas station attendants.  Or too often we make professional athletics, celebrity status, and stardom the goal.  For goodness sakes, just think about it, we have a long-standing show in our country called, “American Idol.”    

What if we valued a blue collar job as much as we valued a white collar job? If we taught our children that ALL work is valuable and needed.  That migrant farmers were just as important as the farmers, the garbage collectors were just as important as the doctors, the members just as important as the pastors – I think you might be getting this…what I am talking about is the Quaker distinctive of equality – that all people are equal in the eyes of God.  No title or position should get in the way of how we treat others.

As well, since we often identify so deeply with our vocations.  We introduce ourselves by our work, we identify by our work, we even associate by our work.  

For several years at Huntintgon University, I taught a upper-level class with a college counselor called, “Calling, Being, Doing: Rethinking the Rest of Your Life.” The class proceeded through looking at one’s calling, to seeing one’s being, and then to what one would do with what they learned. Many students found themselves in their junior or senior year fretting over what they were going to do with their lives. 

Too often we found, especially at a Christian University, how much the church and it’s views negatively influenced the students and did not allow them to see their “being” and who they were – leaving them fearful and fretting the world outside the College bubble.  Quaker Parker Palmer addressed this very thing in Yes! Magazine in an article titled, “Now, I become myself.”  Just listen to what he had to say,

“I first learned about vocation growing up in the church. I value much about the religious tradition in which I was raised: its humility about its own convictions, its respect for the world's diversity, its concern for justice. But the idea of vocation I picked up in those circles created distortion until I grew strong enough to discard it. I mean the idea that vocation, or calling, comes from a voice external to ourselves, a voice of moral demand that asks us to become someone we are not yet—someone different, someone better, someone just beyond our reach.

That concept of vocation is rooted in a deep distrust of selfhood, in the belief that the sinful self will always be “selfish” unless corrected by external forces of virtue. It is a notion that made me feel inadequate to the task of living my own life, creating guilt about the distance between who I was and who I was supposed to be, leaving me exhausted as I labored to close the gap.

Today I understand vocation quite differently—not as a goal to be achieved but as a gift to be received. Discovering vocation does not mean scrambling toward some prize just beyond my reach but accepting the treasure of true self I already possess. Vocation does not come from a voice “out there” calling me to become something I am not. It comes from a voice “in here” calling me to be the person I was born to be, to fulfill the original selfhood given me at birth by God.”

I guess what I am trying to say in all of this, is that clearly we need to have a paradigm shift in the way we look at work.

Author and story-teller, Dorothy Sayers asked this about work using a carpenter as an example,

“How can anyone remain interested in a religion which seems to have no concern with nine-tenths of his life? The Church’s approach to an intelligent carpenter is usually confined to exhorting him not to be a drunk and disorderly in his leisure hours, and to come to church on Sundays.  What the church should be telling him is this: that the very first demand that his religion makes upon him is that he should make good tables. 

This is another way we can embrace the “Slow Movement” by nurturing good work in and among our Meeting and community.  John and Chris give some ideas of how we can help promote a better work ethic that is beneficial to our neighborhood and life together. They give four suggestions:   

1.     Help others recognize and prefer good work over bad work.

·        Bad work is meaningless, stultifying and exploitative – it puts the system before the person and lays waste to the earth. 

·        Good work is good for the community and good for the one doing it.  It is modestly scaled, situated and can be done well.

·        Also, good work comes from within one’s own gifting and soul – what they were born to be.

2.     Explore the possibilities (and limitations) of work as worship.

·        Good work done well can be a form of worship, if we mean it to be.

·        When we see ALL work as being able to give glory to God , it breaks down the false distinctions between “secular” work and “sacred” work which we too often have made.  

3.     Champion work-related justice.

·        How are we addressing the work-related injustices that are taking place in our own community? 

o   How are we speaking out…

§  for raising the minimum wage in Indiana?

§  against human trafficking and child labor laws?

§  against the abuse of migrant workers, runaway and homeless teenagers, undocumented workers…etc…?

These are just a few of the specific issues in Indiana and Indianapolis which I believe the church should be speaking into.

Along with our own American Friend’s Service Committee and Friends Committee on National Legislation, there are many other local groups like Faith in Indiana or the local expression of The Poor People’s Campaign – which is a national call for moral revival spearheaded by Rev. William Barber. It is working to continue the legacy of Martin Luther King’s Poor People’s Campaign by uniting tens of thousands of people across the country to challenge the evils of systemic racism, poverty, the war economy, ecological devastation and the nation’s distorted morality.

I encourage you to check out at least one of these great organizations and see how we together can champion work-related justice.

4.     Recognize the human resources within our meeting and leverage them in the reconciling work of the kingdom.  

·        At my meeting in Silverton, we spent about 3 hours on a Saturday morning working through an Assets Based Community Development assessment.  We inventoried the assets we had as individuals, as a meeting, and how we were an asset to our community.  Out of this assessment we built so much awareness for what we had to offer our local community that we were able think and see with different perspectives.  Around this time, we made a significant impact on our community, by opening our doors to a growing Montessori public school, utilizing our back lawn intentionally for animal lovers to walk their pets, we proposed a community garden and changes in regards to our playground.  These are just a few of the changes that we made in Silverton… I wonder what we may find if we did an Assets Based Community Development assessment at First Friends.  Maybe I will need to connect with Witness and Service to see something like this happen for us to help us recognize the resources within our meeting!

These are just a few ways we can begin to make the paradigm shift in regards to how we can redeem work in our world.   As we enter into Waiting Worship, take some time to ponder the queries in the bulletin…

Am I satisfied by my work?

Where do my views of work need to change?

How can our meeting effect change in the area of work in our community?

Work

By Henry Van Dyke

Let me but do my work from day to day,
In field or forest, at the desk or loom,
In roaring market-place or tranquil room;
Let me but find it in my heart to say,
When vagrant wishes beckon me astray,
"This is my work; my blessing, not my doom;
"Of all who live, I am the one by whom
"This work can best be done in the right way."

Then shall I see it not too great, nor small,
To suit my spirit and to prove my powers;
Then shall I cheerful greet the labouring hours,
And cheerful turn, when the long shadows fall
At eventide, to play and love and rest,
Because I know for me my work is best.

10-14-18 - Glow-in-the-Dark - John Pattison

Sermon 10-14-18
”Glow-in-the-Dark”
John Pattison

Good morning.

As I’m sure Pastor Bob explained in one of earlier sermons, but by way of reminder, Slow Church is partly inspired by the Slow Food and other Slow movements to rethink the ways in which we share life together in our church communities. We ask: what if Christians slowed down enough to be fully and faithfully present with God and with each other in the pace and place of our local neighborhoods?

We believe God is inviting Christians to be co-participants with God in the work of reconciliation. We also believe one of the primary ways God has chosen to reconcile the world to Godself is place by place. My favorite writer, the Kentucky poet, essayist, and novelist Wendell Berry, wrote in one of his poems:

There are no unsacred places;

there are only sacred places

and desecrated places.

Chris and I believe one of the primary jobs of the church is the re-sacralization of our places.

The British missionary Lesslie Newbigin put it this way:

“…the Church in each place is to be the sign, instrument and foretaste of the reign of God present in Christ for that place….As often as it gathers to hear God’s word and to share in the Eucharistic celebration, the Church is renewed as the body of Christ in and for that place.”

In our own Quaker tradition, we believe that every person—regardless of gender, age, religion, or even merit—has within them the Inner Light of Christ. Writing from a prison cell in 1656, George Fox urged his Friends to “be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations, wherever you come, that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people…” In this way, he said, “you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in every one” (emphasis mine).

Reflecting on this letter from George Fox, the twentieth-century Quaker theologian Elton Trueblood said that one of the primary tasks of a minister could thus be described as “answering.” George Fox believed it is possible to “nurture and to bring to fulfillment the vague yearnings toward the divine, which are in all men, but which are often underdeveloped.” To answer that of God in every one is thus to “[help] make actual what is otherwise only potential.”

I think what Fox said of people specifically can be applied more broadly to our places—most of which include people, of course, and their laws, values, and creations, but which also include nonhuman creatures, the land and air and water, and the cosmic agents which Scripture refers to as the “powers and principalities.” All these are knit together in complex biological, cultural, and spiritual ecosystems that are both particular to their own places and linked with other places.

There is no place on earth that has not been darkened by sin. But there is also no place so far gone that it does not contain within it some ember of the Divine that might be gently, patiently, and prayerfully coaxed into light and heat.

One of the great privileges of doing the work we get to do with Slow Church is the chance to travel around the country. I have visited more than eighty neighborhoods around the country over the last four years. Not only do we get to talk about Slow Church, we get to listen.

And we get to collect stories.

Stories of pastors who, in order to best serve neighbors in danger of being displaced by gentrification, are becoming homegrown experts in zoning laws and they are developing a theology of the built environment.

Stories of artists who are using their art to beautify their neighborhoods, celebrate what is wonderful in their communities, grieve what is broken, and point neighbors to Christ and to the Way of healing and hope.

Stories of Christians who are facilitating reconciliation, bridging racial divides, speaking out against injustice, and caring for refugees who fled violence at home only to find themselves isolated and lonely after a few months in the United States.

Stories of Christians who are settling in for the long-haul in remote rural communities, trailer parks, apartment complexes, and inner-city neighborhoods.

Stories of churches that are renovating abandoned and foreclosed houses on behalf of neighbors, creating community gardens, organizing intersection murals, building Little Free Libraries.

Stores of churches that are helping church members and neighbors start new businesses, spearheading efforts to improve the health of the land and soil, and more.

One of the benefits of visiting those neighborhoods and collecting those stories is that they help me see my own neighborhood with more attentiveness, with more accuracy, with more imagination, and with more hope.

A practice I learned from Bob when he was our pastor in Silverton is the practice of visio divina. Perhaps many of us are familiar with the ancient spiritual practice of lectio divina, which translates to “divine reading.” Visio divina translates to “divine seeing.”

To practice visio divina is to ask God for God’s vision of our places. We ask God, “God, what is your vision for this neighborhood.” We ask ourselves, “What are my hopes for this place?” We ask our neighbors, “What are your hopes for this place?”

As we walk, bike, or sit in our neighborhoods, I encourage people to pray three simple but powerful prayers. These are from our friend Mark Scandrette in San Francisco, and I’ve converted them into queries for today.

The first prayer is “God, show me where your glory is displayed in this place and among these people.”

The second prayer is, “God, help me to think your thoughts and feel your feelings for the people and places that I see.”

And the third prayer is, “God, may your kingdom come and your will be done here and now as it is in heaven.”

The Scripture passage for today is one of my favorites. It’s from Isaiah 58:

“Then when you pray, God will answer.

  You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’

“If you get rid of unfair practices,

  quit blaming victims,

  quit gossiping about other people’s sins,

If you are generous with the hungry

  and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,

Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,

  your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.

I will always show you where to go.

  I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—

  firm muscles, strong bones.

You’ll be like a well-watered garden,

  a gurgling spring that never runs dry.

You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew,

  rebuild the foundations from out of your past.

You’ll be known as those who can fix anything,

  restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate,

  make the community livable again.

“Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness.” How’s this as a reputation for the church?

Earlier I talked about how God can help us see our neighborhoods with fresh eyes. But lately I’ve also been drawn to another aspect of this relationship. In particular, what if it is within the context of the Neighborhood that the Church itself is best seen?

The metaphor I keep coming back to is one of bioluminescence, the chemical process by which organisms—fireflies, some deep-sea fish, and other creatures—emit light. I’m especially interested in bioluminescent algae and plankton, which can make waves glow, illuminate footprints in the wet sand, or appear as miles-long light trails behind ocean ships.

Jim Lovell, the commander of the Apollo 13 mission and a former Navy pilot, recalled the time in 1950 when he had to perform his first night landing on an aircraft carrier. Through a series of unfortunate events, he had gone off course. His instrument panel had shorted out (as had the cockpit light), there was no moon, and thick clouds blocked out the stars. He was plunged into darkness, with no sense of where to find his ship, the USS Shangri-La. But when his eyes adjusted to the darkness he saw a faint greenish trail in the water below him. He recognized it immediately as the phosphorescent algae being churned up by the propeller of the aircraft carrier, a road leading him back home.

The British author Robert Macfarlane describes wading into the sea of an island cove near Scotland, and “flinging long streaks of fire” from his fingertips like Merlin. “When it was undisturbed, the water was still and black. But where it was stirred, it burned with light.”

Macfarlane also told an amazing story of a father and son who were sailing in the Gulf of Mexico in 2004 when their boat was capsized by a gust of wind. They were 60 miles offshore.

After night fell, the water became rich with phosphorescence, and the air was filled with a high discordant music, made of many different notes: the siren song of dolphins. The drifting pair also saw that they were are at the centre of two rough circles of phosphorescence, one turning within the other. The inner circle of light, they realised, was a ring of dolphins, swimming around the upturned boat, and the outer circle was a ring of sharks, swimming around the dolphins. The dolphins were protecting the father and his son, keeping the sharks from them.

Bioluminescent marine organisms live at least just below the surface of the water. They all have the capacity to make light, but most are so small that they can only be seen in community with each other. “By processes not entirely understood,” says Macfarlane, “these simple creatures ignite into light when jostled. They convert the energy of movement into the energy of radiance.”

Maybe you’re starting to see why I’m so drawn to this image, and why I think it’s relevant to the work I do with Slow Church. As followers of Jesus, we have the light of Christ inside us. We are “theoluminescent.”

Theoluminescent, we are “children of the light” (John 12:36). For too long, too many displaced and disembodied Christians have lived above or apart from their places. But what if the Church got below the surface?

What if we moved more of our lives into the ongoing life of our neighborhoods?

What if we let ourselves be jostled and churned up in our particular places?

And what if we did all this within the context of communities of other believers?

I think what would happen is that the Church, like those bioluminescent organisms, would turn the energy of movement into the energy of radiance. We would be a trail of light pointing the way home.

By God’s grace, we would shine.

10-7-18 - Fragmentation and Wholeness

Fragmentation and Wholeness

First Friends Quaker Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

October 7, 2018

2 Corinthians 5:20 MSG

20 We're Christ's representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God's work of making things right between them. We're speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he's already a friend with you.

One of my favorite books during my doctoral program was the book Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future by Margaret Wheatley.  It is more a book of conversation starters that has the reader wrestling with the meaning of our life together. I am considering leading it in our Seeking Friends study after our current book finishes.

It was in this book that I was introduced to Indra’s Net.  Have any of you ever heard of Indra’s Net? It comes from Buddhism, as well as, Hinduism’s Rig Veda.  Let me read how Anne Adams describes Indra’s Net from the Rig Veda: 

There is an endless net of threads throughout the universe…

At every crossing of the threads there is an individual.

And every individual is a crystal bead.

And every crystal bead reflects

not only the light from every

other crystal in the net

but also every other reflection

throughout the entire universe.

Just imagine if we pulled a net from the balcony to the front of our meetinghouse and from windows to side wall and overtop our heads. At each cross point a crystal would be hung down to catch the light in this room.  The light would immediately be dispersed throughout the room.  I believe that would be an amazing sight to behold.

Margaret Wheatley says,

“We are all jewels that shine uniquely. But we are all jewels gleaming on the same web, each sparkling outward from our places on the net, each reflected in the other.  As paradoxical as it is, our unique expressions are the only source of light we have to see each other. We need the light from each unique jewel in order to illuminate our oneness.”

I don’t know about you, but that sounds very Quaker-like. As Quakers, we generally agree that there is “that of God” in every person. Often we describe it in terms of the inner light, a guiding spirit that emanates from the Divine and resides in every person. This inner light in each of us helps us embrace our diversity and the possibility for unity.  And it is our inner lights which help illuminate the world around us.

These all seem like wonderful metaphors and beautiful illustrations, but the reality isn’t always this simple. Probably because…

·        We are a people in need of reconciliation. 

·        We are a people seeking wholeness.  

·        We are a people who want clarity, direction, and to sense hope and purpose.

The reason for this is we are fragmented.  Our crystals are chipped and cracked.  Our lights are dimmed and at times have been snuffed out.  Much of this has to do with our suffering relationships and our unwillingness to see people and know their stories. 

Just think about the fragmentations around us on a daily basis. We are fragmented by race, culture, age, health, economics, politics, gender, sexual orientations, religious beliefs…and you name it…it seems today almost anything can fragment or shatter us leaving us in utter frustration, a lack of genuine conversation, a lot of fingers pointing, and very little joy to be found.   

The universal church has dealt with this from early on. It continues to fragment and fragment – so much so that I sometimes wonder if it even knows what it means to be whole.

The early followers of The Jesus Way fragmented over being Jews and Gentiles, slaves and free people, women and men, and many other issues like clean food, circumcision, and later doctrines, the role of Christ, and leadership. Sadly, the universal church continues to fragment over and over again almost to miniscule detail. Today, many churches fragment over worship styles, appropriate music, the right versions of scripture, marriage equality, and the rules or doctrines that are acceptable.  Not much has changed in 2000+ years.

Yet, I believe each reformation of the church was a call for reconciliation and healing and to return to relationships and community.  To listen again to one another and try and follow Christ’s example of life together united but diverse.

We find it so easy to divide on specific lines and so difficult to engage those on the opposite sides. We often lack the ability to talk or work together and know each other, first and foremost, as sisters and brothers in Christ. 

This is deeply rooted in our history as Quakers.  This is why early Quakers did not want to use titles. It was to create a sense of equality among all people. On a website I like to frequent called, “Quaker Myth Busters” they talk about this.  

For example, why is it necessary to distinguish between married (“Mrs”) and unmarried (“Miss”) women but not men (universally “Mr”), as though availability for marriage was an extraordinarily important part of a woman’s identity? In the US, in the Jim Crow era, the rules of the time included that Black folks must use titles (such as “Mr”, “Mrs”, or “Miss”) to refer to White folks, but that when White folks referred to Black folks, it was simply as “boy” or “girl” or some arbitrary first name (“Jack” or “George”). It was also common until recently (and perhaps still occurs in some workplaces), that a boss may refer to a secretary by the first name, while the secretary would be expected to answer the boss using a title. These are just a few examples of sexist, racist, and classist uses of titles which Quakers attempt to avoid.

Taking the time to know who you are talking to and their life situation is key – but as we can see – even how we address someone shows our willingness to engage on an equal level. 

Just ponder a couple queries for a moment:

Where is the church, today, nurturing opportunities for healing and reconciliation to begin?      

Why are we still afraid of addressing our fragmentations?

Probably, because we haven’t realized yet how they are affecting us.  If there is one thing I have taken away from our Poverty 101 sessions it is the fact that I am middle class – and if anything – I have things to work on. I have privileges and opportunities that others do not have. I am part of the fragmentation. I am part of people staying in poverty. Just think about it…

Do we realize how we are continuing racial divides in our own neighborhood (that go all the way back to the 1930’s)? How gentrification is directly affecting our community and the breakdown of the African American communities in Indianapolis – just blocks south of us? 

Do we realize how much we discriminate and simply ignore the aging? Or devalue what they have to say – simply because they can’t keep up with technology or the changing times?

Do we realize how our middle to upper class ways cause us to worry about the future while we miss living in the present?

Do we realize that there are good people on both sides of the political divide? And that defending our points and proving someone wrong is not going to bring more unity? 

Do we realize that ALL people should be welcome among us and a genuine welcome should be offered on every occasion? 

Do we see forgiveness and reconciliation as keys to health in our community and healing the fragmentation?

I can’t help but think of Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s work in South Africa with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission after apartheid.  Even though at a much greater scale, this is a picture of how the church can have an impact on the fragmentation around them.  On the South African History website, they talk about the impact of forgiveness as part of this commission. Just listen to what they say,

The primary objective of the inquiry was to preach forgiveness in order to heal the emotions and wounds of hatred or anger that had been created by the apartheid system. There was no place for retaliation in the new society that emerged after independence. It was envisaged that "one who forgives becomes a better person than the one being consumed by anger and hatred." By the same token, it was also argued that "If you can find it in yourself to forgive then you are no longer chained to the perpetrator. You can move on, and you can even help the perpetrator to become a better person too." Nevertheless, the process of forgiveness also required acknowledgement on the part of the perpetrator that they have committed an offence. The Chairman of the Commission noted that he had actually "witnessed so many incredible people who, despite experiencing atrocity and tragedy, have come to a point in their lives where they are able to forgive."

This process has become the model for reconciliation and healing in many places – and especially in the church.  If you need to be inspired, read Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s No Future Without Forgiveness where he tells more of the story of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Another place I have seen the church nurture opportunities for reconciliation and forgiveness to happen is right here at First Friends and in my former meeting in Oregon. We both went through similar processes regarding marriage equality and the welcoming of the LGBTQ community.  We both took a couple years to have important conversations, become educated, listen to one another, forgive each other for assumptions and misunderstandings. I remember my meeting in Oregon said, “In working through this issue, we now see other areas we need to work on.”  I sense the same thing happened here at First Friends.  I commend you for engaging the hard work and for being an example of nurturing and reconciliation. 

I wish sometimes we could go back and take another shot at our reactive and divisive ways in the church and become aware of the fragmentation that ensues.  How the church handled the Aids epidemic in the 80s is deplorable.  Even the Indianapolis Children’s Museum documents the innocent life of Ryan White and the hate that was spewed on him and his family making him a poster boy for sin throughout our country.  And the hurt and fragmentation that occurred for the Gay community because some religious person considered AIDS God’s punishment for being gay.  This was not our best moments and we were not nurturing reconciliation by any means.

As well, over the years when the church has taken up the positions of specific political parties, or when they have married their theologies or doctrines to the political sphere – we have done more fragmentation and little for reconciliation. 

What makes First Friends a unique and I believe healthy and safer place is our diversity.  We have people on a spectrum – politically, educationally, socio-economically, sexually, and that’s because I believe we are a beautiful picture of the body of Christ or the Kingdom of God. 

We are a people who are concerned with being sisters and brothers before republicans and democrats, or straight or gay, or rich or poor, or…you fill in the blank.  We come to this meetinghouse because it is a place of welcome a place where we don’t have to take sides, where we can listen for the Spirit’s direction. 

And when we don’t take time to see the good that is going on, to see the deeper stories, to engage in the process – we become bystanders – sometimes hurling rocks into the midst – instead of doing the hard work of building relationships and working on reconciling, healing, and forgiving.  Or maybe we could say restoring the crystals around us to their original illumination potential. 

How is the spirit nudging your heart this morning?  Where are you aware of the need for reconciliation, healing, and forgiveness around you? And how are you being nudged to be the change?

Let me close with one of my favorite metaphors. How many of you have heard of the Japanese art of kintsugi?  Kintsugi literally means “golden repair.” Stefano Carnazzi writes, 

This traditional Japanese art uses a precious metal – liquid gold, liquid silver or lacquer dusted with powdered gold – to bring together the pieces of a broken pottery item and at the same time enhance the breaks. The technique consists in joining fragments and giving them a new, more refined aspect. Every repaired piece is unique, because of the randomness with which ceramics shatters and the irregular patterns formed that are enhanced with the use of metals.

I believe one of the chief roles of the church is to be about a similar art of kintsugi with the fragmentations surrounding us. In the same way, the fragments surrounding us are unique, irregular, and need our attention to restore them to beauty and wholeness.  Whether the gold represents forgiveness, reconciliation, healing, or simply a willingness to understand, listen, or start a conversartion, this is our calling to help repair the fragmentation around us and return us to wholeness.  

Will you pray with me:

O God, help us to be in touch

with that gentleness from which springs strength,

that silence from which springs wisdom,

that chaos from which springs creativity,

that openness from which springs love,

those wounds from which spring our sense of justice

and that depth of being from which springs wholeness.

Amen.

The Inner Light
By Andrew Pell   © September 2001


Let the inner light shine in my life once more
Let it burn in my heart as it did before;
Let it be a beacon in a world forlorn,
A world in trouble, a world that is torn.

Let me touch the heart of all who comes my way,
Those that I see will have a brighter and happier day.
Let them see the wonders, the magic that each day can bring,
Let them experience and feel the majesty and the power of God within.

Let each new day be an adventure in the journey we all take,
Let them walk in the light and in the fullness of God partake.
Let them be a beacon for the entire world to see,
Then the world will be a wonderful place, a world in harmony.

9-30-18 - The Power of Patience

The Power of Patience

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

September 30, 2018

John 14:5-11 (NRSV)  Page in the Pew Bible. _______

5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you know me, you will know[a] my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves.

This week as I was doing my research for this sermon, I read an article by Dr. Judith Orloff on Psychology Today’s website.  The title of the article was “The Power of Patience.”  Here is a bit of what she had to say,

We need a new bumper sticker: FRUSTRATION HAPPENS. Every morning, noon, and night there are plenty of good reasons to be impatient. Another long line. Telemarketers. A goal isn’t materializing “fast enough.” People don’t do what they’re supposed to. Rejection. Disappointment. How to deal with it all? You can drive yourself crazy, behave irritably, feel victimized, or try to force an outcome--all self-defeating reactions that alienate others and bring out the worst in them. Or, you can learn to transform frustration with patience.

Patience doesn’t mean passivity or resignation, but power. It’s an emotionally freeing practice of waiting, watching, and knowing when to act. I want to give patience a twenty-first-century makeover, so you’ll appreciate its worth. Patience has gotten a bad rap for the wrong reasons. Too many people, when you say, “Have patience,” it feels unreasonable and inhibiting, an unfair stalling of aspirations, some Victorian hang-up or hangover. Is this what you’re thinking? Well, reconsider. I’m presenting patience as a form of compassion, a re-attuning to intuition, a way to emotionally redeem your center in a world filled with frustration.

I like what she is getting at.  I think the church has given patience a bad rap as well. I am sure you’ve heard it said;

“Whatever you do, don’t ask God for patience…because God will give it to you.”

But what Dr. Orloff is getting at, is that when we look at patience as a difficult thing, or something to avoid asking God for, patience becomes problematic instead of helpful. I agree that patience needs a makeover in our world today.    

If we were to look at patience as a form of compassion, a re-attuning to intuition, a way to emotionally redeem one’s center, it would be beneficial, and I can see it  immediately making a difference in our personal and corporate lives. And I don’t know about you, but what Dr. Orloff is talking about seems very much Quaker in orientation and process.

See, early Quakers were part of, what I will call, “the original Slow Movement” They were known to discover a third way to respond to, what they labeled, “the presence of darkness” within their own hearts and in the surrounding society.

They also were known for not hiding from the truth, nor wallowing in their own issues. Early Quakers clearly knew that playing the “blame game” was not going to help move them toward the light, so instead, they embraced patient waiting, to help them be more compassionate to their neighbors, to help re-focus themselves on seeking after truth, and to ultimately center themselves before making decisions.

If you notice, Dr. Orloff’s makeover is simply taking us back to our Quaker roots.    

Quaker James Nayler in 1659 referred to this as “waiting in patience.” It was taking the time to slow down in a patient way to mind our inner light.  He described it this way. 

Art thou in darkness? Mind it not, for if thou dost it will feed thee more.  But stand still, and act not, and wait in patience, till light arises out of darkness and leads thee.   

In many religions, as well as early Quakerism, darkness and light were the metaphors used to help one see the stark contrast of the good and bad parts of life and even God.  It still is being engrained in our culture, just look at our obsession with the darkness and light in Star Wars – and that is just one example of many.

Interestingly, almost every world religion sees patience as a way to know God and more specifically the ways of God in our world.

Instead of getting caught up in “darkness,” frustration, and the externals pressures of this world, waiting in patience is what Dr. Orloff says, “draws us inward to a greater wisdom….” It connects us to our inner light and to how we are to respond to the world around us.

Dr. Orloff concludes by saying, “…patience doesn’t make you a doormat or unable to set boundaries with people…Rather, it lets you intuit the situations to get a larger more loving view to determine right action.”

Patience is what helps us love and act in ways that are beneficial to our community.  In the last several months, I have been challenging myself to take a moment, wait, and patiently think before responding. It is hard for me – especially since I like to process and dialogue about things in the moment. It has been a real discipline to seek patience first.  The reality is that most of us are wrestling in our busy lives and world with our impatience and its negative effects on that needed love and action that Dr. Orloff is speaking about.  

Let’s take a moment to ponder some of this as it relates to impatience:

·        In what sort of situations do you find yourself most impatient?

·        Why are you impatient, and how do you deal with your impatience?

·        What groups, people, organizations, etc. cause you to be impatient?  

[Pause and reflect]

When we start to address the “darkness” around us, the frustration that seems to grip us, the external pressures that we, our work, our families, the news, our world put on us, we begin to notice the impatience that is or has been growing. 

We begin to notice the lack of compassion we have for our neighbors and their situations (as well as compassion for ourselves).  We begin to have “short fuses” and become irritated by little things.   

We notice that we are no longer as intuitive and willing to try and reason or understand or work to see what is actually going on (or take time to understand the back story).  Instead we are quick to make assumptions and think our view is the right and only way.

And then as part of our struggle and impatience, we often lose control of our emotions.  Some may go inward in a negative way and become depressed emotionally while others may become outwardly expressive emotionally. There are many ways we express our struggle.

Let me ask you some more queries that will address your impatience, and really pay attention to how they make you feel:   

·        How do you feel about being stuck behind cars that go slowly on your way to work or to an event? How often do you honk your horn or god-forbid give someone the bird?

·        How do you react to a slow cashier at the grocery store? Or in the drive up at a fast-food restaurant?

·        What is your response to children who dawdle? or adolescents that take too long to respond, or parents who hover like helicopters? 

·        How do you respond when someone does not understand your explanation or belief about a certain topic?

·        What deadlines in your life effect you?

·        How much does not having WIFI or internet service bother you? Or when the cable goes off during your television program? Or when your computer will not connect to that printer?

By now, I should have given almost everyone in the room a little impatient feeling and maybe even a heightened blood pressure or heart rate. 

We are an impatient lot – aren’t we?

Today’s scripture gives us a picture of the disciples’ impatience with Jesus. 

·        Thomas is frustrated because he doesn’t know where Jesus is going.  And isn’t sure he knows the way?

·        Philip wants to see fully or clearly – and only when he does will he be satisfied. 

Now, these two disciples I think we can relate to. Thomas and Philip remind me of the children in the back seat asking their parent driving, “Are we there yet?” “How much longer?” “Do we need a map?” “Are we lost?” “How much further?”  And Jesus is simply saying, “Trust me.” 

And then over the years, the conversation continues to develop into the parents saying to the child, “Be aware, watch, notice your surroundings – check the street signs, know the neighborhoods you are in, someday soon you will be driving.” The parent is trying to bestow on the child “the way,” “the truth” and “the life.”  

Jesus is being the patient example and teacher – just like the father in my example.  He is teaching the disciples to follow his way, to be truth, and to live life to the fullest - all while asking them to be patient – through getting to know him, seeing him, believing him.  Yet Jesus goes even one step further in saying, if you can’t believe me in this, let the works speak for themselves.  Let what I have shown you and done among you speak for itself.    

Carl Gregg on his Pathos blog puts this into perspective. He says,

The best summation I’ve seen of this perspective is by the pastor, writer, and spiritual director Eugene Peterson.  Peterson encapsulates Jesus’ point in John 14 by saying,

“Only when we do the Jesus truth in the Jesus way do we get the Jesus life.”

Isolating only the so-called “Jesus truth” yields a disembodied orthodoxy: all the right words with no behavior to make the words believable.  More important is the “Jesus Way” of loving God and loving neighbor.

In the book, The Jesus Way, Eugene Peterson says,

“A Christian congregation, the church in your neighborhood, has always been the primary location for getting this way and truth and life of Jesus believed and embodied.”  

If Peterson is right, what might this mean for you and me and First Friends?   

Just think about that for a moment.  Are we willing to be patient and slow down so we can embody the way, the truth, and the life among our neighbors, our families, our world?

To close, I would like to leave you with this thought from the book, “Slow Church”

Before I share the quote, I also want to let you know that John Pattison and Chris Smith who wrote Slow Church will be with us live and in person (or maybe I should say, in our neighborhood)on Sunday, October 14.  We will be offering breakfast that morning at 8:30am followed by a special Education Hour before the service at 9am. They will also be preaching during Meeting for Worship that Sunday. I highly encourage you all to come, especially our clerks, committee members, concerned friends and neighbors to engage in this ongoing conversation. 

Now, here is what John and Chris say,

The local church is the crucible in which we are forged as the patient people of God…As we mature together into the fullness of Christ, over time and in our places, we learn patience by forgiving and being reconciled to one another. Our brothers and sisters may incessantly annoy us.  But we are called in Christ to love and to be reconciled to them.  Just as marriage vows serve as a covenant bond that holds a couple together in difficult times, our commitment to our faith community is essential if we are to learn patience and practice stability.  Patience can hold us together when other forces conspire to rip us asunder.

Embrace the patient way of Christ this week so that through compassion we can “do the Jesus truth in the Jesus way” and work toward the Jesus life together!  

9-23-18 - Needing Stability: The Craft of Life

Needing Stability: The Craft of Life

Indianapolis First Friends

Pastor Bob Henry

September 23, 2018

Romans 12:9-18

9 Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; 10 love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.[a] 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly;[b] do not claim to be wiser than you are. 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. 18 If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

Last Sunday, I presented you with several queries about the neighborhoods and “bubbles” in which you live, and also similar queries for our meeting.  It has been fun having all the conversations about the history of our surrounding neighborhood and learning about its unique history.  I am sure as we become more and more aware of the neighborhoods in which we live, work, and worship, we will begin to see more and more.  What we are doing is building in a new awareness of our surroundings.   

As part of this, even though I knew our secretary Rebecca was prepping for vacation, I asked her if she could do me a favor and help me quickly get a visual of where the majority of our people at First Friends live in Greater Indianapolis.  In less than ten minutes she had a program that plotted all of our families on the city map – and I had her put it on the cover of our bulletin for us all to see. If you look carefully, you will find our meeting marked as a white heart.  Do you see the marker that represents your household?

Where we all live and exist is very important to how we communicate, interact and work together. Initially, looking at this map, you will notice that is seems we have a lot of people surrounding the meetinghouse, but if we could back out a little further you would realize that there are just as many (if not more) outside of Indianapolis than in the surrounding neighborhoods.

Now, knowing our place is a start, and I am sure we will continue to learn more about our place over the coming months, but today I want to look at another aspect of this Slow Movement we are within. Again, like last week, it has a lot to do with creating stability.  Last week, I spoke of “The Wisdom of Stability” where Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove encouraged us to:

·        Root ourselves more deliberately in the place where we live and worship.

·        Engage the people we are with and among.

·        Slow down and participate in simpler rhythms of life, and

·        Live in a way that speaks to the deeper meanings of the human heart.

Knowing and rooting ourselves in place is where we start, but when we move on it becomes about our interaction with our neighbors.  The authors of the “Slow Church” call this having a “fidelity to people” – a faithfulness to neighbors that is supported by a continuing loyalty and support.   A fidelity to people is sadly becoming rarer and rarer in our society as we become more alienated, isolated, and individualistic.

Both individually and corporately we are seeing more isolation and less coming together.  Where we live can affect this, but also how we see ourselves as part of where we live affect this.  What’s our purpose?  Is life simply for us, individually – or are we called to something greater, something that entails our neighbors and community?

Our scriptures that Amy read this morning spoke of what in the New Revised Standard Version says are “The Marks of a True Christian” or what we could say are the marks of a true Quaker, a true Friend, a true neighbor…etc.… Let me highlight some of those attributes again.

·        Loving one another with mutual affection.

·        Outdoing one another in showing honor.

·        Not lagging in zeal.

·        Rejoicing in hope.

·        Patient in suffering.

·        Extending hospitality to strangers.

·        Blessing those who persecute you.

·        Rejoicing and weeping with those who rejoice and weep.

·        Living in harmony with one another.

·        Associating with the lowly.

·        Not claiming you are wiser than you are.

·        Not repaying evil for evil – vengeance.

·        Taking thought for what is noble.

·        Living peaceably with all.

These are the attributes of the Christ-life, or what Johnathan Wilson Hartgrove translated

“the craft of life with God.”

We are becoming more and more familiar with the concept of “craft” in our culture today.  Everywhere you frequent these days is offering craft food or craft beverages. Craft is what we consider made in a traditional or non-mechanized way by an individual or a small company.  Another term for this is artisan (artisan chocolate, breads, pastries…you name it.) Craft often entails an activity involving skill in making things by hand.  As an artist, it is easy for me to think in these terms. I see it as a return to craftmanship, to finding an appreciation for, and acknowledging the slow process by which something comes about.

So, what does Johnathan Wilson Hartgrove mean when he says, “the craft of life with God”?

Well, many years ago, when I met my first Quaker, Richard Foster, of Celebration of Discipline fame, at a Renovare conference, he was talking about the spiritual classic, The Rule of St. Benedict.  Ironically, Johnathan Wilson-Hartgrove, also was very interested in the Rule of St. Benedict, going as far as to create a contemporary paraphrase of the book.  In Chapter Four, Wilson-Hartgrove begins by translating St. Benedict this way, 

“In the craft of life with God, we need tools to work with.  Most of all keep this tool close at hand: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might…and love your neighbor as yourself.  And never let these get buried too deep in the tool box.”

Johnathon Wilson-Hartgrove says,

“…while the scriptures give us words of instruction [as we heard Amy read and I bullet-pointed] to describe a life with God, we learn that by walking it in the company of others. Like the master carpenter who shows an apprentice his tools and then stands beside him as he learns to use them, Benedict introduces tools for life with God to the disciple who is going to stay put in community, learning the craft from others. Apart from life together, these tools are as useless as a hammer might be to the son of a carpenter who makes his living at a desk job.  But in the context of a community, their relevance is crystal clear.  These are the tools that make it possible for people to live together in the way of Jesus.”

So, what were some of those tools that Benedict said were essential for the craft of life with God. Here are the essentials. 

He starts with some basics from the Ten Commandments and then gets more specific:

·        Do not kill, commit adultery, give false report, don’t even do to someone else what you wouldn’t want done to yourself.

·        Leave your own will behind so you can follow Christ’s example.

·        Love fasting

·        Use your extra time and resources to assist the poor, clothe the naked, visit the sick.

·        If someone is in trouble – help them. If sad – comfort them.

·        Don’t lash out in anger or nurse a grudge against someone who’s wronged you.

·        Greet someone with Peace - and mean it!

·        Make promises that you can keep. Tell the truth, be honest with yourself and others.

·        Don’t fight like other people fight – returning evil for evil.

·        Suffer patiently, refusing to pass another’s violence on to someone else.

·        Love your enemies.

·        If you get cussed out, don’t strike back with your own assault of words. Find a way to bless them,  instead.

·        Endure persecution for the sake of justice.

·        Don’t be addicted to your own self-image or to anything else that promises cheap fulfillment or an easy escape from problems.

·        Beware of too much eating or too much sleeping. Watch out for laziness.

·        Don’t spend your time complaining or talking bad about other people.

·        Make amends when you have done harm to others.

·        Never forget you are going to die.

·        Listen to the wisdom of those who have gone before you.

·        Devote yourself to prayer.

·        Confess your sins.

·        Resolve to leave your addictions and protective mechanisms behind.

·        Don’t give into your twisted desires.

·        Listen to the leadership of your community.

·        Work on becoming a saint – so that one day your actions will speak for themselves.

·        Treasure chastity.

·        Don’t harbor hatred or jealousy, and don’t let envy drive a single action.

·        Don’t get into arguing and turn your back on arrogance.

·        Respect the wise and love the inexperienced in community.

·        Never lose hope in God’ mercy.

I find this list rather convicting in the world in which we live currently.  Jonathan says,

“Our twisted desires, selfish impulses, defense mechanisms, and bad habits are not simply failure to “hit the mark” that humans aim for…” rather “It is a sickness that infects communities, destroying the fabric of life itself.

If we are going to bring stability to our lives and those around us.  We must start with building stability through the way we live with the people that we live with on a regular basis. I believe as we rail on the news outlets, as we are disappointed in our leaders, as we struggle to understand our neighbors and the crazy world we live in, we are being called to take up the “craft of life with God.”

Only by changing ourselves, by getting our “hands dirty,” and embracing the needed skills, are we able to utilize the craft of life with God to transform our relationships, our neighborhoods, and ultimately our world.

So, as you look at that map on the front of your bulletin this morning. Think about what your mark on the city represents.  Think about the relationships that need crafted. The neighborhoods that need crafted.  The work places that need crafted. The learning environments that need crafted. And then think about our place right here.  How does First Friends need to craft life with God in our community, among each other, and in our world?

The other night, I was coming out of our Neighborhood Walmart and decided to look at the Redbox to see if there were any movies that we hadn’t seen. I was surprised to find, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” – the documentary on Fred Rogers.  Watching that movie (and if you haven’t seen it – it is a must for understanding our Slow Movement) made me realize that I was raised by watching daily the work of a true saint. 

Here was a man who understood the “craft of life with God” and who understood the need for neighborhoods and communities. Fred Rogers got his “hands dirty” in addressing the problems of our world, he introduced us to the needed skills, and transformed our relationships by not being afraid of or alienating people different than himself.  Mr. Rogers knew in almost a divine way that we desperately need stability in our lives.  And the reality was he connected that stability with associating with the people in your neighborhood. 

This morning, I want to close with a quote from Fred Rogers that came at the end of the documentary.  As he said it, I began to cry, because from very early on I realized Mr. Rogers taught me the “craft of life with God” and offered me stability.  Here is the quote:

“I suppose it’s an invitation, “Won’t you be my neighbor?” It’s an invitation for somebody to be close to you. I think everybody longs to be loved and longs to know that he or she is loveable. Consequently, the greatest thing we can do is to help somebody know that their loved and capable of love.”

That is the craft of life with God. That is engaging the people we are with and among. Slowing down and participating in simpler rhythms of life and living in a way that speaks to the deeper meanings of the human heart.  

Won’t you be my neighbor?

In what ways do you need to hone your “craft of life with God” this week?

How does First Friends need to craft life with God in our community, among each other, and in our world?

9-16-18 - Popping Bubbles and the Taste of Place

 Popping Bubbles and The Taste of Place

Indianapolis First Friends Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

September 16, 2018

Again this morning as we center down, I am going to ask Eric to read the scripture text at the beginning and have us ponder these three centering queries: 1) What word or phrase touched my heart? 2) Where does that word or phrase touch my life today? And 3) What is the text calling me to do or become?  Eric will read the text and then we will take time to center down.

Isaiah 58:9-12 (MSG)

9-12 “If you get rid of unfair practices,
    quit blaming victims,
    quit gossiping about other people’s sins,
If you are generous with the hungry
    and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,
Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,
    your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.
I will always show you where to go.
    I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—
    firm muscles, strong bones.
You’ll be like a well-watered garden,
    a gurgling spring that never runs dry.
You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew,
    rebuild the foundations from out of your past.
You’ll be known as those who can fix anything,
    restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate,
    make the community livable again.

Several years before I was introduced to the Slow Movements or Slow Church, I found myself traveling for a conference and in a Borders bookstore (remember them?). It was in the concourse of the airport in which I had been laid over.  I was hoping to find an engaging book that would keep me preoccupied on the four-hour flight across the country.  I began my search, as I always do, looking at the binding of the books. Colors, fonts, even patterns or artwork always draw me in.  And in just a few moments of looking my eye caught a book that had been smashed between two larger books and pushed to the back of the shelf.  I believe it was the yellow lettering (almost glowing) between the two much larger books that caught my eye. 

As I pulled it out I read the title: The Wisdom of Stability: Rooting Faith in a Mobile Culture. I had never heard of the author Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, but the forward was by Kathleen Norris who had written one of my favorite books, “The Cloister Walk”.  I was familiar with the New Monastic Movement that people like Shane Claiborne had made famous and Jonathan was part of, yet, what specifically attracted me to Jonathan, was how he spoke to my condition. 

See, at the time, our family had been moving a lot and we were feeling a bit displaced. We had just ended a year living with my parents as we awaited our house to sell in Michigan. Because we needed a place to live, Huntington University offered us a home on the campus. This had us in a very different environment for a young family of five. We were surrounded by the bustle of students and academic life for about 10 months out of the year. Our boys were young and Lewis (our youngest) was just starting Kindergarten. Sue commuted 30 minutes into Fort Wayne from Huntington with our boys to teach and for them to attend school each day.  And we were isolated from really knowing our neighbors, even the neighborhood around us – mainly because it was all transient students. 

We realized pretty quickly, we were part of what many people wrestle with on college campuses – what is labeled the “college bubble.”

A bubble made up of academic banter, idealism, little sleep, questioning and debating everything, seeking acceptance and grades, quickly producing output of all types, finding partners and spouses, experimenting, while always knowing this great experience would come to an end (after about four years – some more and some less).

Now, please understand, college is only one example.  We all find ourselves in bubbles:

Work Bubbles, Family Bubbles, Church Bubbles, Sports Bubbles, Race and Sexuality Bubbles, Political Bubbles, Socio-Economic Bubbles, and the list could go on.

These “bubbles” often take on a culture of their own. They have their own unique rules and regulations, and they definitely can cause us to think that everyone around us thinks similar thoughts, views things in similar ways, and even have similar likes and dislikes.  The bubble can be a shelter at times and a prison if the person acknowledges or figures out what they are within.  

I taught a capstone class at Huntington University for outgoing seniors. In our very first class, I would say, “My job over the coming weeks is to ‘pop’ the Huntington University Bubble you have lived in for the last four years, to remind you of the real world you are entering, and prepare you for seeing what the world around you really looks like.” 

Maybe we could see this sermon series asking First Friends to begin popping the bubbles we find ourselves in – so that we are able to see the world around us.

In reading about the Slow Church movement, I was introduced to a more business-like term for this “bubble” concept that has invaded our life and churches.  It is what George Ritzer labeled the McDonaldization of our World. Ritzer characterizes this in four ways:

·        Efficiency

·        Calculability

·        Predictability

·        Control

In explaining the Slow Church Movement John Pattison and Chris Smith have taken these four characteristics and shown how they have influenced what I will call our church “bubble” or what they simply refer to as the McDonaldization of the Church.  Chris says in the church…

“Effeciency becomes a euphemism for predetermined. We see this in fast food joints, where employees are discouraged from finding new ways to do things, even if they might be more successful than the accepted methods.  But it’s just as evident in many books aimed at evangelical Christians – books that promise success, happiness, a deeper prayer life, intimacy with God, all in just “five easy steps.”

Or how about Calculability. The church is often obsessed with numerical results.  Actually, I know pastors who’s performance and salary evaluations are based on the number of people who come through the door. Even today, at the top of my pastor’s report for business meeting, I am expected to provide attendance numbers for our meeting (I am not completely sure what the reason for this is, but I have a feeling it is a throwback to some of this thinking).

To have Calculability is a way to measure “success” but often leads to churches implementing “One-size-fits-all” models – Willow Creek Model, Saddle Back Model, Seeker Friendly Model – even denominational models.  Just take a drive in my neighborhood up in Hamilton County and you will find church after church being built – almost all of them with the same model – satellite church – because many don’t have a pastor, but rather they “beam in” via-satellite a pastor on the big screen. It is consumer-based, franchised ministry.

I love what Chris Smith says is the opposite of this:

“Slow church is about taking the time with God, with one another, and with yourself – and not only taking the time, but taking time over time. That makes a big difference.”

And then there is Predictability – this is very much a “bubble” mentality.  Predictability is what keeps people coming back to franchises.  It creates an expectation of predictable results. 

Let’s be honest. You all came here this morning with expectations.  You expected some type of order, routine, consistency, but that too can leave us in our own “Quaker Bubble.”  When we don’t embrace our uniqueness, acknowledge our diversity, take time to get to know our neighborhood, understand the diversity of people and thought,  then we simply copy what others are doing, we “bubble” ourselves and begin not being able to see outside ourselves.

You have heard some say, “We need to get out of these four walls.” That is very similar, but the “bubble” is a bit more fluid and covers a lot more areas.  

And lastly, there is control. From the Crusades, to guilt-ridden alter calls, to ministries that target specific populations, to non-human technology…

If you were listening to or reading online this week, you may have heard a story about McDonalds (Yes McDonalds – go figure).  They have a new non-human ordering interface. I have been seeing these pop up in many locales.  Instead of ordering your meal from a human being.  Now, you enter and interact with a screen that controls you at every step of the process.  The interaction with a human, the relational aspect, has been replaced to provide McDonalds, and you, with supposedly more control.  So they can be more efficient, calculable, predictable, and well, in full control. 

Folks, this is what smart phones are doing to our world, this is what Social Media is doing, this is what soon your car will be doing (some already do but soon they will control where you go and drive themselves)…these are all bubbles that we are trapped in – being controlled within.  

It makes me think of the Pixar movie Wall-e.  And that first time you see all the people in their little electronic “bubbles” sustaining their lives on the space ship Axiom built by the Big & Large Corporation, being moved, entertained, and fed by technology. And what happened when Wall-e interrupted their “bubble” life? 

·        They began to experience new things and their surroundings.

·        They saw each other again and they even showed emotions and fell in love.

·        They remembered what they had been missing and to get back to truly living again.

·        They came together and built a new community.     

What I (and what I believe many others are struggling with in our American culture) is getting out of our “bubbles” and beginning to see the impact, that we (and even our meeting) has in the place where we are found. 

Jonathan Wilson Hartgrove gives some ways to begin popping the “Bubbles.”

He sees it happening…

·        By rooting ourselves more deliberately in the place where we live and worship.

·        By engaging the people we are with and among.

·        By slowing down and participating in simpler rhythms of life. And… 

·        By living in a way that speaks to the deeper meanings of the human heart.

This is the wisdom of stability.  This is what I would call the  “bubble free” adventure.  This is being willing to “taste and see” and experience things outside the bubbles we find ourselves.    

Take a moment to think about your neighborhood for a moment…

·        How committed to your neighborhood are you?

·        Do you know your neighbors? 

·        Do you know the history of your neighborhood?  

·        Why is it important that you live in the neighborhood you do?

·        What draws and detracts people to your neighborhood?

·        What are the “bubbles” in your neighborhood?

And then think about where First Friends is located.

·        How committed to the surrounding neighborhoods are we?

·        Do we know our neighbors? Businesses? Fellow faith communities? 

·        Do we know the history of our neighborhood?

·        Why is it important for us to be located in this neighborhood?

·        What draws and detracts people to our location/neighborhood? 

·        What are the “bubbles” in our meeting’s neighborhood?

I love our scripture for this morning, I sense it’s about being called to “Taste and See” outside of our bubbles and in the places we are found. It is a call to the “Taste of Place.” It is about, as it said, “glowing in the darkness,” “being generous,” “finding a full life,” and “making the community alive again!”  To not continue to buy into the McDonaldization and “bubbles” of our world, but as the Slow Church Movement and Jonathan Wilson Hartgrove encourage,

“to begin to identify the people, the places, the rhythms and shared beliefs that give our community its unique taste and texture.”  

Chris and John put it this way in their book Slow Church:

We are bound one to another, but a culture built on speed wants to fling us out from the center like a centrifuge.  Thus, to commit ourselves to cultivating goodness through practices of nearness and stability, and to conversationally develop shared traditions, is to take a stand against alienation. It is a way of crafting a new shared story for the community, while connecting us to the cosmic church across time and prefiguring the kingdom of God. It is also an acknowledgement that our fates are wrapped up with the fates of our neighbors. As the prophet Jeremiah wrote in his letter to the exiles, “But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. (Jer. 29:7)(43-44)  

This week I challenge us to take a closer look at who we are and where we find ourselves. Take an afternoon drive around your neighborhood and really note what you see.  Ask yourself the queries on the back of the bulletin as your drive around. 

And then I challenge you to take one more step - open a conversation with someone else outside your “bubble” but in your neighborhood. Think about that – who might that be? 

Remember, conversations with other people are a great way to pop the bubbles that we find ourselves in.  Right now, in our world, with the political climate and current social climate, we need more than ever to stop creating more bubbles and create better lines of communication in the places we live.  We need to find the flavor of our place and actually see and get to know the people that we abide with. By slowing down, listening together, tasting/eating together, being willing to see and engage, we will cultivate a place where we can make a difference and change the world not simply feed the machine that drives us into isolation, alienation, and fear.  

Eric is going to come up now and help us enter into our time of waiting worship with a special song. 

9-9-18 - A Slow Movement

A Slow Movement

Indianapolis First Friends

Pastor Bob Henry

September 9, 2018

As we center down this morning, I would like us to allow the scriptures to speak to our condition. I am going to have Nicole read the scripture at the beginning of our centering time so we can reflect on the words and see how they speak to us this morning.  To help us, I want to offer three queries: 1) What word or phase touched my heart in this text? 2) Where does that word or phase touch my life today? And 3) What is the text calling me to do or become?  I will have Nicole read the text and then we will take a moment to center around those queries.

2 Corinthians 5:14-21 (MSG)

11-14 That keeps us vigilant, you can be sure. It’s no light thing to know that we’ll all one day stand in that place of Judgment. That’s why we work urgently with everyone we meet to get them ready to face God. God alone knows how well we do this, but I hope you realize how much and deeply we care. We’re not saying this to make ourselves look good to you. We just thought it would make you feel good, proud even, that we’re on your side and not just nice to your face as so many people are. If I acted crazy, I did it for God; if I acted overly serious, I did it for you. Christ’s love has moved me to such extremes. His love has the first and last word in everything we do.

14-15 Our firm decision is to work from this focused center: One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own.

16-20 Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you.

21 How? you ask. In Christ. God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God.

It seems like the authors I have been reading lately all have been wrestling with the busyness of the world.  Quaker Parker Palmer in his most recent book “On the Brink of Everything” shares the wisdom of aging where in his prelude says,

“I am done with big and complex projects, but more aware of the loveliness of simple things: a talk with a friend, a walk in the woods, sunsets and sunrises, a night of good sleep.”

About 10 years ago, I started saying something similar in regard to the church.  I was done with the complex over programming, the need for performance quality music, lighting, and ambiance, the almost “drive-up” style ministry offerings that were more about my choices than my needs. 

At the time, I had been in ministry for nearly fifteen years and felt worn out, tired, aging, and not seeing this fast-paced-church-world ever slowing down.  It was about attending every conference, offering every new program, and becoming a full-service church that provided opportunities while meeting very few needs – including my own needs. 

I saw while in academia the church looking not much different than franchise and retail sales.  We had our product, I was a seller, and the church’s job had become about retaining customers.  Keep them coming and giving money was the way of survival.  During this time, as I started to grasp what was going on, I wrote what I titled, “A Pastor’s Lament.”  Here is what I said, (remember: this is not where I am now, but several years ago.)

I often find myself reflecting on ministry and wondering, “What the heck am I doing?

They call me a pastor. Some would say I am a “shepherd of the flock,” others “the mouthpiece of God,” “His instrument,” or “His hands and feet.”  While yet others (like the church I grew up in) would say I am a, “called, ordained, servant of the Word.” Oh, all their words have such a nice ring to them and we say them in such grandiose ways. Yet, to be honest, most of the time I feel more like a used car salesman than anything grandiose.

“Sunday….Sunday…Sunday, join me, the pastor, for one BIG...” well, you get my point. This may seem harsh and maybe even a bit tongue and cheek or cynical, but it is all too often true. I remember a friend telling me once I was simply a professional Christian —meaning I was paid to sell Christianity. That hurt, yet more and more lately, I feel like I resemble that remark.

From the seeming reality of inspired preaching equaling the amount of cash coming into the church and the number of butts in the seats, to finding myself lingering in the parking lot often with false pretenses simply enticing “would-be shoppers” to see my views on issues, it all seems rather absurd and unreal. 

It’s about as unreal as the bad comb-over, leisure suits, big stinky cigars, tinted glasses, and amazingly white teeth (that would make any dentist proud) used to make a used car salesman look the part.

One could say as the pastor, I have been reduced to making “the sale.” It’s my job to be everything to every customer, to manipulate them into staying and shopping a while longer. For many of us pastors, manipulation means keeping people comfortable and inspired. “Inspire me!” they ask as we sit there with our stinky cigar in their faces, questioning white-teeth-filled smiles, and wide ties trying to prove we have just what they are looking for. In reality it is just part of the advertisement lifestyle that pastors too often represent.

Sadly, the pulpit has become the “car lot” at which I live out this existence. Putting on the show with my obnoxious presence, never-ending smile, wacky facial expressions, and commercial spots for the big sale this weekend all begin to look no different than the videos, PowerPoint presentations, dramatic lighting, well-crafted soliloquies, and stage presence on Sunday…Sunday…Sunday! I begin to pretend that I am everyone’s friend and act different for each customer who walks through the church doors. They are shopping for entertainment, feelings, fixed problems and I have just what they want…or do I?

There is a sad reality in “used-car sales” of this nature. And it has me asking some personal queries:

·         Where have all the real relationships gone, not the superficial pats-on-the-back to make us seem like friends?

·         Does anyone really see me as a person, or am I just a character selling “church”?  

·         When do I get to receive, maybe even get the opportunity to “shop” myself?  

·          Who sees me off the TV screen, when there is no smile or tinted glasses to cover my pain?

And thus, I am found alone, used – much like the cars I sell. Late at night sitting in the light of my computer screen reading the giving records of the church, realizing I am obsessed with “sales” for my own survival.

So, in a final attempt at hope, I lean back in my office chair, extinguish my cigar, and open my “black book” (the Bible) instead of my faithful blue book and begin to read.

There I find a savior who didn’t need an advertisement agency to accomplish his goals. 

·         Who stands between me and my customers and offers a way better deal.  

·         Who allows me to drop the false pretense and find true success.

·         Who says in a still small voice that I am somebody. 

·         Who says to stop trying to sell religion and let the Holy Spirit do His job.  

·         Who sees past my used-car sales persona and asks me to be His friend. 

I finally realize I am worn out trying to sell this God-life. In my office, I begin to cry. I shut down my computer, shelve the blue book, take off my plaid jacket, and loosen my wide tie. On the way out, I turn off the “show room” lights and turn on the closed sign and head out the front door into the evening air. With my “black book” in my hand, I make my way back home.

Tonight is different, because tonight I am more than a used car salesman — more than a pastor. Tonight I am called —not to manipulate, pretend, act or even make a sale.  But I am called to be who God made me to be —His success!

It was just about that time I wrote this Pastor’s Lament that I was introduced to what is called the “Slow Movement.” 

You may have heard about this movement with Slow Food, Slow Money, Slow Parenting, Slow Cities, and many others.  They each have in common an opposition to what Canadian journalist, Carl Honoré describes as the “cult of speed” or what Charles Hummel labeled the “Tyranny of the Urgent”: a philosophy of life that is controlling, aggressive, and impatient.   

Take for instance in the Slow Food Manifesto, it begins by stating:

Our century, which began and has developed under the insignia of industrial civilization, first invented the machine and then took it as its life model. We are enslaved by speed and have all succumbed to the same insidious virus: Fast Life, which disrupts our habits, pervades the privacy of our homes and forces us to eat Fast Foods. To be worthy of the name, Homo Sapiens should rid ourselves of speed before it reduces us to a species in danger of extinction.  A firm defense of quiet material pleasure is the only way to oppose the universal folly of Fast Life.

Just think about your own life…how has our fast-paced world threatened to short-circuit real and meaningful experiences.  I can’t tell you how often I meet with people who are overwhelmed by life. Who have lost opportunities to enjoy family, friends, even spending time with nature. All because life is just too busy – too full – and too like a machine.  And sadly, too often the church has gone in this same direction.  We are seeing it in our news today.  Churches that have become all about programming, performance, controlling their people, aggressive in their preaching and ministry style and impatient with the world around them – mainly because they have lost touch with the real world.  Instead of becoming a faithful and meaningful presence within their neighborhoods and communities in which they live, they instead  become franchises pedaling a fast-paced faith and reducing it to a commodity that can be packaged, marketed, and sold.

Just before the release of their book, Slow Church: Cultivating Community in the Patient Way of Jesus, I began having conversations with one of the authors, John Pattison (who attended my meeting in Silverton, OR) about breaking this cycle in the church.  He had been thinking about this for a bit longer than I had, and was wanting to try some things at our meeting. I was ready and willing. Our goal was to work at moving people from simply being “church consumers” to being co-producers or co-authors of God’s Story in Silverton, OR.  If anything we wanted to make visible God’s Kingdom in the city of Silverton in a real and tangible way. 

And that is what I want again to do here at First Friends in our own community and neighborhood of Indianapolis.  And that is why we are going to be exploring what a “Slow Movement” would look like for us here in Indianapolis and its surrounding communities. 

Where this all begins is reflected in the signs that Dan Mitchel has made for us as we entered here this morning.  If you read them, they state:

Becoming a Faithful Presence in Indianapolis.

Slowing down begins with acknowledging that we are a called community. That we are a called and gathered expression of the Body of Christ in our particular place. 

As a commuter church we have moved to the burbs and surrounding neighborhoods, but it is time we started to see our location here in Extended Broadripple as a new opportunity. It is time we engaged this community where we are placed.  I believe we are here for a purpose as a demonstration plot for what God intends for all humanity.  As more and more new people begin the journey of faith with First Friends, it is clear from what they are saying that they are not wanting a “franchised faith” but a faith that not only can change you and me – but ultimately will help to change our world.  

So I ask that you join me over the next 11 weeks as we explore what it looks to like to become a faithful presence in Indianapolis and slow ourselves down to make a difference, and be a unique expression of the Kingdom of God.  And as Quakers to be part of a Slow Movement – seems very appropriate – almost nature. 

Let me close with this final thought by Gerhard Lohfink from “Does God need the Church?” He says,

“It can only be that God begins in a small way, at one single place in the world.  There must be a place, visible, tangible, where the salvation of the world can begin: that is, where the world becomes what it is supposed to be according to God’s plan.  Beginning at that place, the new thing can spread abroad, but not through persuasion, not through indoctrination, not through violence. Everyone must have the opportunity to come and see.  All must have the chance to behold and test this new thing. Then, if they want to, they can allow themselves to be drawn into the history of salvation that God is creating.  Only in that way can their freedom be preserved.  What drives them to the new thing cannot be force, not even moral pressure, but only the fascination of a world that is changed.”

That is my hope for First Friends and our exploration over the coming months. 

Let us now enter into Waiting Worship.  Take a moment to ponder the queries in your bulletins.

9-2-18 - The Christian's Privilege: Love and Service - Jesse Brown, Labor of Love Service

“The Christian’s Privilege: Love and Service”

By Jesse Brown

9-2-18 Labor of Love service at First Friends Meeting

Notes, scripture and queries from the service

Philippians 2:1-11

Imitating Christ’s Humility

1 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion,

2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.

3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,

4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!

9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,

10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Luke 19:1-10

Zacchaeus the Tax Collector

1 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through.

2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy.

3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd.

4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.

5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.”

6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”

8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”

9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.

10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

In the fall of 1999, I discovered that I lived a privileged life.

From that point forward, I felt compelled to explore and discuss race and privilege as often as I experienced it.

Zacchaeus had privilege.

·      The importance of Jericho and its situation would make it an important center for the collection of the Roman tribute. At the head of the publicans engaged in this business was Zacchæus. He seems to have had supervision of the district.

·      He was rich. A very suspicious fact in a member of a class noted for their extortion.

·      His privileges were approved by his context. He was permitted to accumulate wealth by taking advantage of his brothers and sisters.

Jesus went to his house- seek and save the lost.

Zacchaeus welcomed him gladly-

·      He did not expect such an honor as the Great Teacher would stop with one of a class so despised by the Jews as his own.

·      A shared meal meant equality, intimacy.

The crowds murmured that Jesus would go to Zacc’s house

·      How often these complaints of Jesus stooping down at the company of sinners are recorded! Now, however, the crowd expected that at Jerusalem his kingdom would be proclaimed, but here he is the guest of the chief agent of the oppressive Roman tribute! Had Christ sought popularity he would never have gone with Zacchæus.

Zacchaeus stood, and said.

The record is silent as what had wrought so great a change. No doubt the Lord had preached to him.

Half of my goods, I give to the poor. What greater proof of a change of heart! His heart had been on riches; now at once he consecrates one-half to the relief of suffering.

If I have cheated anyone. He no doubt had, if half that is stated of the publicans was true.

I will pay back four times the amount. Not only what he has taken, but four times as much. No repentance that does not lead to restitution is genuine. "If what thou hast taken wrongfully cannot be restored to those who were wronged, give it to God; the poor are God's receivers."

What is privilege?

Credibility with strangers.

Privilege is the freedom to contextualize yourself for maximum benefit.

We all have privileges.

The organizations that we are a part of have contextual privileges or ways of being.

Like seams on a piece of pottery.

Characteristics of whiteness:

·      Colorblindness- framing racial realities in anything but race

·      Epistemologies of ignorance- willful aversion to the human suffering caused by systemic racism.

·      Ontological expansiveness- tendency to view all spaces as available to white people as they wish.

·      Property- property rights protected and enshrined by law. The holders of whiteness have the same benefits as other types of property.

·      Assumed racial comfort- prioritizing white comfort over the discomfort of minoritized people.

·      Fragility- quick defensiveness in racial conversations, a minimal amount of racial stress quickens defensiveness.

·      Privilege- special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools, and blank checks that increase and maintain access

Jesus gave up his privilege in becoming human.

We are to imitate Jesus’ emptying himself.

3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,

4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!

Organizations have privileges.

White people committed to racial justice must figure out ways to become race- and power-conscious race traitors… what we know about Zacchaeus is that when he encountered Jesus he did so as someone who had been utterly complicit with the powers that be. Just like many people in positions of authority, he was seduced by the allegiance with power structures. He massively enriched his life through dealing with power structures. When Jesus approached him, Zacchaeus did not remain determined to his oppressive location. Zacchaeus chose a radical conversion. Evidence of his conversion was not merely verbal declaration of Jesus’ belief or social vision. Evidence of Zacchaeus’ conversion came when he determined to return half of his wealth and repay people that he defrauded.

How can you use your privilege on behalf of someone else?

1.     Become critically conscious of your privilege. Critical consciousness requires reflection and action.

a.  Beverly Tatum’s moving walkway.

2.  Use your voice for the marginalized.

3.  Use your power for the marginalized.

a.  How many times have I encouraged women who were in harassing or assaulted situations.

4.  Give up your seat.

5.  Give up your privilege.

1.       How can you use your privilege on behalf of someone else?

2.      Where do you see collective privilege at work?

8-26-18 - Stimulating Creative Survival: The Resurrection Life

Stimulating Creative Survival

Indianapolis First Friends

Pastor Bob Henry

August 26, 2018

Luke 16:1-13 (The Voice)

16 Here’s a parable He told the disciples:

Jesus: Once there was a rich and powerful man who had an asset manager. One day, the man received word that his asset manager was squandering his assets.

2 The rich man brought in the asset manager and said, “You’ve been accused of wrongdoing. I want a full and accurate accounting of all your financial transactions because you are really close to being fired.”

3 The manager said to himself, “Oh, no! Now what am I going to do? I’m going to lose my job here, and I’m too weak to dig ditches and too proud to beg. 4 I have an idea. This plan will mean that I have a lot of hospitable friends when I get fired.”

5 So the asset manager set up appointments with each person who owed his master money. He said to the first debtor, “How much do you owe my boss?” 6 The debtor replied, “A hundred barrels[a] of oil.” The manager said, “I’m discounting your bill by half. Just write 50 on this contract.” 7 Then he said to the second debtor, “How much do you owe?” This fellow said, “A hundred bales[b] of wheat.” The manager said, “I’m discounting your debt by 20 percent. Just write down 80 bales on this contract.”

8 When the manager’s boss realized what he had done, he congratulated him for at least being clever. That’s how it is: those attuned to this evil age are more clever in dealing with their affairs than the enlightened are in dealing with their affairs!

9 Learn some lessons from this crooked but clever asset manager. Realize that the purpose of money is to strengthen friendships, to provide opportunities for being generous and kind. Eventually money will be useless to you—but if you use it generously to serve others, you will be welcomed joyfully into your eternal destination.

10 If you’re faithful in small-scale matters, you’ll be faithful with far bigger responsibilities. If you’re crooked in small responsibilities, you’ll be no different in bigger things. 11 If you can’t even handle a small thing like money, who’s going to entrust you with spiritual riches that really matter? 12 If you don’t manage well someone else’s assets that are entrusted to you, who’s going to give over to you important spiritual and personal relationships to manage?

13 Imagine you’re a servant and you have two masters giving you orders. What are you going to do when they have conflicting demands? You can’t serve both, so you’ll either hate the first and love the second, or you’ll faithfully serve the first and despise the second. One master is God and the other is money. You can’t serve them both.

So, today we have what is considered possibly the most notorious – “widely and unfamously” – known parable of Jesus.  Jesus chooses to use a dishonest, conniving crooked person for an example for us today. [It is hard to believe sometimes what texts arises for a specific Sunday. Sometimes, like today, it almost seems ironic with all that is going on in our world.]  

I personally still have a hard time when Paul uses slavery or war to make his point or illustrate the faith-life, but folks, this is Jesus actually choosing a man of “doubtful reputation” for an example. 

If you remember last week’s text – Eric read that Jesus was surrounding himself with people of “doubtful reputation” and the Pharisees were not pleased – utilizing one of these people as an example could not have made things any better for Jesus.

Folks, we need to admit it – Jesus was much more of a radical than we are willing to give him credit for.

So Jesus chooses to use a dishonest assets manager, why?

First, we must acknowledge that Jesus was doing something that is hard for our religious world today.

Too often we are quick to pick out the issue or the behavior that we are not comfortable with in others, but Jesus looks for things that are worth acknowledging – even praising in ALL people. I find the fact that Jesus was willing to use a dishonest, even crooked, person as an example gives you and I hope. This is the Quaker Jesus – seeing that of God in all people. Seeing worth in who we may consider worthless. 

Jesus points out that the dishonest manager…

1.     Knew that he would be called to account someday and took his job seriously.

2.     Creatively found a way to survive – and possibly work out his future.

In the Message translation, Eugene Peterson expounds on this behavior and describes in greater detail just what people like this dishonest assets manager are really up to.

From the Message (Luke 16:9):

“They are on constant alert, looking for angles, surviving by their wits.”

And then the Message goes on to say…

“I want you to be smart in the same way – but for what is right – using every adversity to stimulate you to creative survival, to concentrate your attention on the bare essential, so you’ll live, really live, and not complacently just get by on good behavior.”   

Just ponder what Jesus is getting at – what if we took seriously the way of Jesus – and when asked to give an account by another person or by God – we would articulate the ways that our neighbors, our relatives, our friends, have experienced the hope and life through their daily lives?

Ask yourself this morning…

How creative have I been at living out the Jesus Way to the hurting world around me?

Have I utilized my own adversity – pain – struggles - failures – even abuses – to stimulate a creative way for me and those around me to survive this world and to truly live?

[Pause]

Also, many people like to talk about this parable in eternal words.  That is because of how verse 9 ends.  Let me read it again from the Voice,

9 Learn some lessons from this crooked but clever asset manager. Realize that the purpose of money is to strengthen friendships, to provide opportunities for being generous and kind. Eventually money will be useless to you—but if you use it generously to serve others, you will be welcomed joyfully into your eternal destination.

Too often, people today are living solely for the afterlife – or what we often translate eternity. That great hope someday.  Don’t get me wrong – we need to have an eternal perspective, but let’s be honest, aren’t we desperately in need of a little bit of eternity in the present? 

I think we could all handle a little heaven on earth right now.  That reminds me of the 80’s song by Belinda Carlisle – two lines seem to speak to our condition in that song, “Heaven is a Place on Earth”:

They say in heaven love comes first
We'll make heaven a place on earth

In this world we're just beginning
To understand the miracle of living
Baby I was afraid before
But I'm not afraid anymore

We need to really live in this world – otherwise this life becomes meaningless or useless – and all we become are people looking for an escape route.

Maybe the way we could see this is not in terms of simply heaven, but in terms of Resurrection.  We often wrap heaven and eternity with a nice bow called “resurrection.”

Yet, I think we often miss the importance of resurrection in our daily and present life. I consider each of us in this room “resurrection people.” We are people who should be working to bring LIFE back into our world.  Life where death has occurred and hope has been lost. 

For the sake of our world, we need desperately to expand our understanding of resurrection. It is more than an Easter topic or something we talk about with physical death.  Resurrection is and always has been for NOW – in the present moment.  It is the elixir to our ailments. It is the harbinger of hope. It is the way to LIFE.   

Resurrection can be a part of everything we do, everything we own, everything we say, everything that makes up this world. Every asset we have can be used for bringing about resurrection in our world for us and our neighbor.  Why? Because…

To be resurrection people means we are living a life that “stimulates creative survival.”

Stimulating Creative Survival happens when

·        We use our assets (money, time, possessions, talents) for strengthening relationships.

·        We are generous and kind to our neighbors.

·        And when we serve others.

This literally is bringing “resurrection” into the world.

When we work to create this in our daily lives…

When we work for what is right and just…

When we are willing to utilize our own adversities (like the dishonest, crooked assets manager) to stimulate us to creative survival, to concentrate our attention on the bare essentials…we then experience true resurrection in the present moment.

The text says it this way,

“You’ll live, really live, and not complacently just getting by on good behavior”

Really living – that’s the definition of resurrection.

If you and I want to make a difference in this world…

If you and I want this world to make a difference in our lives…

If you and I want to experience LIFE instead of death, pain, sadness, then just maybe we are going to need to be like that dishonest crooked assets manager only for the good or should I say for resurrection sake. 

Rumi said it so well,

Every object and being in the universe is a jar overflowing with wisdom and beauty, a drop of the Tigris that cannot be contained by any skin. Every jarful spills and makes the earth more shining, as though covered in satin... Make peace with the universe. Take joy in it. It will turn to gold. Resurrection will be now. Every moment, a new beauty.

It’s time for us to stimulate creative survival in this world.   It is time for us to live as resurrection people. Embrace your adversities, embrace the resurrection life, and lets really live!  

8-19-18 - Discovering What We Care About

Discovering What We Care About

First Friends Quaker Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

August 19, 2018

Luke 15:1-10 (MSG)

15 1-3 By this time a lot of men and women of doubtful reputation were hanging around Jesus, listening intently. The Pharisees and religion scholars were not pleased, not at all pleased. They growled, “He takes in sinners and eats meals with them, treating them like old friends.” Their grumbling triggered this story.

4-7 “Suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and lost one. Wouldn’t you leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until you found it? When found, you can be sure you would put it across your shoulders, rejoicing, and when you got home call in your friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Celebrate with me! I’ve found my lost sheep!’ Count on it—there’s more joy in heaven over one sinner’s rescued life than over ninety-nine good people in no need of rescue.

8-10 “Or imagine a woman who has ten coins and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and scour the house, looking in every nook and cranny until she finds it? And when she finds it you can be sure she’ll call her friends and neighbors: ‘Celebrate with me! I found my lost coin!’ Count on it—that’s the kind of party God’s angels throw every time one lost soul turns to God.”

I have heard our text for this morning since I was a young child.  It seems every time I lose something (which seems to be more often these days) I have these parables running through my mind.  So simplistic…so relatable…turning over one’s entire house to find those lost keys, that thumb drive, the gift card from Christmas, the glasses (that often are on the top of your head)…you name it – the house becomes a whirlwind of clutter and mess as the item is sought.  I think we all can relate to this. 

But folks, let’s be honest, being “really lost” or really loosing something can be rather terrifying. 

Most of us can remember an experience from our childhood when getting lost left us terrified.  One of my earliest memories was getting lost at Walgreens when I was probably 3 years old.  My dad was the pharmacist and my mom had taken me to the toy isle.  She walked to the end of the isle and turned just out of the isle – I looked around and completely freaked out because I did not see her. And all the while my dad was filling prescriptions behind the window at the end of the isle. 

But that is only one type of “getting lost”.  We get lost in many ways and there is not always a quick find or a quick fix.  It’s not always simple.  And as I have become older, I have realized being lost might even mean one’s livelihood or having the life sucked out of you. Leaving you feeling helpless, alone, and even defeated.

Maybe this is because when I was doing my typical research for my sermon, I learned that the online dictionary says the word “lost” means:

·        Unable to find one’s way

·        Denoting something that has been taken away or cannot be recovered. 

Throughout history, many people have viewed our text as focusing on the people who many more fundamental Christians have been accustomed to labeling “unbelievers.” 

But there seems to be something even more important in this that we may still be missing – a “lost” piece of seeing this text for all Jesus was talking about.  

This is where the original text can shed some light. The word that is translated “lost” by many (the Greek word apollymi) is really the word for “destroy.”

So it means a person who has been…

·        Put out of the way entirely – abolished.

·        Rendered useless.

·        Given a death sentence

·        Ruined

·        Lost

Our own definition of lost implies that the person was unable to find their way and that at one time they may have had the necessary things but no longer have a capacity to recover them.

Did you notice the progression of the text for this morning?

1.     The religious leaders were out to “destroy” Jesus because he treated sinners like old friends. 

I like Eugene Peterson’s translation because he gets to the crux of why Jesus begins telling the following parables. 

Jesus is treating those “destroyed” by the religion and religious leaders like old friends. 

These were as our text read “men and women of doubtful reputation.” And obviously Jesus knew the religious leaders had wanted them “destroyed” as well.  These men and women were put out of the way entirely – abolished from religious life, rendered useless, some like the woman caught in adultery were given a death sentence by stoning, their lives were ruined, they were what we may label “lost.”  Lost from religion. Lost from God’s ways. Lost from a better life.

In the beginning of the introductory book, “Finding Our Way Again” from The Ancient Practices Series, Brian McLaren tells a story of an interview (done via satellite) with the famous lecturer and thinker, Dr. Peter Senge for a group of Christian ministers.  Brian says,

[Dr. Senge said,] “…I thought I’d begin by asking you all a question: why are books on Buddhism so popular, and not books on Christianity?

[Brians says, ] Great.  Not only did I have to pose questions to a face on a screen, but now I had to field one from him as well.  I managed to recover enough to punt the question back to him.  “Well, Dr. Senge,” I said, trying not to sound as clumsy as I felt, “how would you answer that questions?”

He replied, “I think it’s because Buddhism presents itself as a way of life, and Christianity presents itself as a system of belief.  So I would want to get Christian ministers thinking about how to discover their own faith as a way of life, because that’s what people are searching for today.  That’s what they need most.

[Brian continues…] I don’t remember a single thing about the rest of the interview, but I will always remember Dr. Senge’s statement.  In fact, a number of the attendees told me how that one statement was worth the price of the entire event for them.  In the days and weeks after the event, I couldn’t stop thinking about the relative proportions we in our religious communities had assigned to “system of belief” and to “way of life.”  And I couldn’t help but agree with Dr. Senge: we must rediscover our faith as way of life, not simply a system of belief. 

The issue, of course, is not either/or, but both/and; it’s hard to deny that too many of us have lost the “way” of our faith.  Without a coherent and compelling way of life, formed in community and expressed in mission, some of us begin losing interest in the system of belief, or we begin holding it grimly, even meanly, driving more and more people away from our faith rather than attracting them toward it.

Those who reject religion are often rejecting a certain arid system of belief, or if not that, a set of trivial taboos or rules or rituals that have a lost meaning for them – each the thin residue of a lost way of life. 

Just think about it…

How much of people being “lost” or even “destroyed” is the church’s own fault?

How many of us in this room have left the church of our youth? Have been willing to be considered lost by family and friends?  Who have ventured out on a new path because it became a lost way of life.

This is something we must continue to be concerned and aware of at First Friends.

2.     So the religious leader’s grumblings lead to Jesus going into story-mode.  He tries to get them to understand from a different perspective, by using something very simple that they could understand.      

“Suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and lost one. Wouldn’t you leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until you found it?”

“Or imagine a woman who has ten coins and loses one.  Won’t she light a lamp and scour the house, looking in every nook and cranny until she finds it?”

Notice that the lost item in both scenarios is…

·        Important to the person

·        And is part of a greater grouping (100 sheep, 10 coins)

That says to me, Jesus is concerned for the lost and destroyed person – they are as important as a sheep or coin (which in his day were extremely important and valuable) …

…and that they were at one time part of a greater group – possibly like a community of faith or the church.

Folks, might Jesus have been warning us of the possible destructive nature of the church or specific communities we are part of?

Might He have been telling us that when we have destroyed people – put them out of the way entirely -  abolished them, rendered them useless, told them they are worthless or going to hell, that from our perspective they are ruined and lost…just maybe we need to drop everything and go give them a reason and way to live again?

So many communities that we are surrounded by such as academic, governmental, social groups and media, and yes our religious and cultural communities have destroyed and lost people.  We have done this to Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, women, LGBTQ folks, people with Aids, the homeless, the addicted, those needing healthcare, the challenged and special, the disabled, the elderly, and even other Quakers groups, other denominations, other faiths…and the list could go on. 

The parables of Jesus (I believe) are about restoring more than just faith.  They are about restoring community (bringing the one sheep back with the 99 and the one coin back with the 10) As Quakers this is one of our SPICES – the C is for Community. 

Friend Phil Gulley points this out in his book Living the Quaker Way by saying,

“To be a Quaker is to always understand yourself and actions in terms of the world…[and]…to always see oneself in relation with the world, answerable not only to God but also to humanity and to history…I can think of no nobler and more vital work for the church to undertake than the building of healthy communities in which differences are appreciated and not feared, where past truths are honored and emerging wisdom encouraged.”

Personally, if there is one thing, I have learned about my faith, it is that at times I have wandered and become “lost” (which I have on many occasions) or sadly when I have been “destroyed” by the church or by the people who say they represent God that more than anything, that is when I need a community that sees my life as important, that appreciates me, that understands that I may see things a little different than they do, who wants to draw me back into the fold of relationships and friendships because together we are all working to restore life and find the way to live out our faith in the world.

It is in these moments that we connect with the Jesus’ Way in a profound way.  We see the impact the way of Jesus has on community and in the lives of those who come together in community.  In these moments we realize we need each other…I need you…because there is that of God in you that I need.

One of my all-time favorite poems is from a book from my doctoral program. The poem is called Turning to One Another by Margaret Wheatley from a book by the same title. It is on the back of our bulletin for this morning.  I am continually drawn to the opening line.  It reads…

There is no power greater than a community discovering what it cares about.

·        We must care for the destroyed and lost.

·        WE must become aware not to destroy any more and work to bring those who we have destroyed back into community.

Then the party can begin!  Then we can enjoy each other fully.  We can crank up the music and celebrate for what has been lost has been found. 

To close, I would like to read the rest of that poem from Margaret Wheatley.

Turn to One Another

There is no power greater than a community discovering what it cares about.
Ask: “What’s possible?” not “What’s wrong?” Keep asking.
Notice what you care about.
Assume that many others share your dreams.
Be brave enough to start a conversation that matters.
Talk to people you know.
Talk to people you don’t know.
Talk to people you never talk to.
Be intrigued by the differences you hear. Expect to be surprised.
Treasure curiosity more than certainty.
Invite in everybody who cares to work on what’s possible.
Acknowledge that everyone is an expert about something.
Know that creative solutions come from new connections.
Remember, you don’t fear people whose story you know.
Real listening always brings people closer together.
Trust that meaningful conversations can change your world.
Rely on human goodness.

Stay together.

Let these thoughts help you enter our time of open worship.