02-28-21 - Burden Bearers

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

February 28, 2021

Good morning friends, it is good to be with you again this week. I pray this finds you safe and well this morning.

I started this week off on Monday morning in Greenwood, celebrating the life of our dear Friend and dedicated choir member, Jenny Morgan. 

Before the brief service with family and friends, I was asked to meet with the Funeral Director. Usually, this is just a formality that all clergy go through to nail down logistics for the service. 

As I entered the tech room, just outside the area we were gathering, I heard the funeral director sigh deeply as she sat down to run through her spiel.

I commented on their advanced technology set-up and said how impressed I was at how they had kept up with the demanding changes during this pandemic.  Not knowing that this was solely her doing, she immediately changed her tone and began to share with me the difficult paradigm shift that her funeral business has undergone in the last year. 

As she spoke, she shared of the challenges, the enormous weight she felt in helping people through such sensitive and important moments of life transition. I was now in full pastoral care mode. I took a listening posture and gave her this moment to share freely.  The flood gates burst-open and she began to share the behind the-scenes stories that none of us would ever know about - what she has experienced this past year and its deep effect on her. My heart broke as I let her share. 

And then with tears welling up in her eyes, over the mask obstructing the emotions of the rest of her face, she explained that in less than a year, she has directed 400+ funerals for Covid deaths alone (that does not include all the other deaths that have occurred that were not Covid related) – a few of those funerals  have been in person, many on Zoom, and the most recent a beloved local teacher who died of Covid just a couple of weeks ago which she was still trying to process. 

She sighed again heavily and said, “I am not sure why I am telling you this – you understand this. Pastors carry this same burden.” I realized in that moment she needed someone who could empathize with her burden to make it seem just a bit lighter.  

Well, as I drove home from the gravesite service for Jenny, I deeply began processing that word the Funeral Director used – burden. The dictionary says a burden is a load, typically a heavy one or a duty or misfortune that causes hardship, anxiety, and grief.  I think you can see just by the definition that her choice of this descriptive word was right on. 

After returning home and settling into my chair after dinner, I decided to work on the self-led guide for this week.  I sensed I was being nudged by the Spirit to look at that word, burden. But as I sat there, listening to my family busily working around me, struggling with the ongoing pandemic and daily challenges of virtual work and school, I began to have a spiritual awaking. 

Not only did I ponder all the burdens that face me and my family, I also reflected on the people’s burdens I am privy to in our Meeting, our community, my neighborhood, my friend networks and pastoral groups.

I thought of the burdens of our nation, the burdens of Black, Indigenous and people of color, and specifically the Asian community, the elderly, the people with disabilities, the LGBTQ community, and how could I forget the current burden on healthcare works, teachers, front-line heroes and the families and friends of the now 500,000+ people who have lost their lives to COVID. 

I sat there in silence overwhelmed by the burdens surrounding me on so many levels.

Now, I must be honest, even though as a pastor, I usually I am drawn to scripture, meditation, or prayer in these moments and I often guide others in this same path - in THIS moment, I just wanted to throw up my hands and cry out, saying “enough is enough.”  I wanted to literally “cast these burdens upon God” – “cast” in the true sense of throwing them with great force at God.

I also know that if anyone would have known I was considering casting those burdens at God, they would quickly recite me another verse from bible like “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden (burdened) and I will give you rest…for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

But let’s be really honest, that all sounds wonderful, easy and quickly resolved, but I have never found it happens that way.    

Burdens often abide – our casting them off may be better described by a fisherman’s line that is sent far across the water and then slowly comes back to us as we reel it in.

Yet, as I continued to ponder, I noticed again that line from the text from Matthew – his yoke is easy and his burden is light – it may be easy and light, but did you notice, IT IS STILL THERE?  

Even Christ has a yoke and a burden!  I think we miss that, but it helps greatly to feel a sense of connection with Christ.  Even in scripture we too often write off the fact that Jesus was greatly burdened, he held such a heavy load that at one point he breaks down in tears looking out at Jerusalem and realizing their bad decisions, and on another occasion even runs away to the Garden of Gethsemane and with great force throws his burdens back at God.  I can relate to this Jesus.

Folks, please hear me on this, we must get past the sugar-coated Christianity that leaves us with useless taglines and scripture soundbites, which we too often translate as “hope and possibility” - yet often leave us feeling empty or even more burdened. 

Imagine, if I had simply said to that Funeral Director, “As a pastor, I think you should just cast your burdens on Christ or leave that at the feet of Jesus for him to take care of, or well, Jesus’ yoke is easy and his burden is light.”

Folks, that would have been so out of place and inappropriate, yet sadly on occasion I have done just that. I have also heard good meaning Christians and Friends throw out flippant verses, taglines or soundbites with no context or explanation – often just filler for neglecting the deeper work.

But if this is how we respond, we have missed an opportunity – we have missed how God handles those burdens THROUGH US.

The author of the epistle to Galatians was having a hard time explaining this to the people. So, they wrote a letter to clarify, saying, “Carry one another’s burdens, and when you do this you are fulfilling the law of Christ.”

Wait a minute…I thought we could just send those off to Jesus and magically the burdens will be lifted, made lighter, made easier. 

Sadly, too many people miss the fact that Jesus was clear that when he left this earth, we, his followers, were going to become his hands and feet and even do greater things than he did. 

If we take this seriously, we are going to be the burden bearers. 

Now, before we go to much further, we better take a moment and find out what the “law of Christ” is, in which the author of Galatians is referring?

If you remember, Jesus summed up his Law this way – starting with the Great Shema in Deuteronomy 6 and then adding his own spin…

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it, Love your neighbor as yourself.” All the law and prophets hang on these two commandments.”

When you begin to put this together, it is not hard to see why God would ask us to carry or bear the burdens of our neighbors. By doing so, we are loving our neighbors as ourselves. We are becoming the incarnate Christ to those around us.

I don’t know about you, but when I am facing a burden, I want some tangible help, I want someone to sit with me and listen, to understand, to give advice at times, to just be present with me, to empathize, to even be willing to help me lighten or even carry that load.   

God is saying to each of us (and we Quakers know this), “I am in you and it is your job as my church to carry one another’s burdens so that you will fulfill what is the essence of our very nature – Love”

I find it interesting, have you ever noticed that often when a neighbor or friend is burdened, you seem to be able to help them carry that burden easier than the burdens you are carrying yourself?  Some of the most burdened people I know are also the people who are able to lift the burdens of those around them. 

I sense that is a part of our essence, the image of God within us. I believe humanity is divinely wired this way so we can take care of each other.

Folks, this shows how much we need one another.  That our lives are not just dependent on our relationship with God, but they also are dependent on our relationship with one another.  

Sadly, many of us, including myself, have too often woefully neglected the call to love our neighbor and carry their burden.  We have looked the other way, given excuses, even blamed them for their own burdens. That is not living by the Law of Love.

We may celebrate our independence in this country, but it is going to be our dependence, love and willingness to carry one another’s burdens that is really going to bring us freedom and hope.    

Folks, I will be the first to say that it is easier to seek comfort and lean on my own privilege, even point a finger at someone else instead of myself and focus on my own needs before helping carry someone else’s burden. But the reality is that for many of us, God has given us an abundance of resources to begin to lighten the loads of our neighbors.

I think it might be time to return to our Quaker Spices for a couple quick reminders. Our spices or testimonies speak directly to why we are called to carry one another’s burdens – let me point a little something out from each one:

Simplicity

Quakers have always felt they should live simply, tending to basic needs and avoiding luxuries. They were aware of the poverty around them, and that resources needed to be shared.

Peace and Nonviolence

Since most conflicts do not escalate to war...pursuit of peaceful approaches to conflict resolution in our personal lives and in the wider world is seen as a constant obligation.

Integrity and Truth

A manifestation of this testimony is often called “speaking truth to power.” Quakers are exhorted not to stand by, but to speak out about injustices they see.

Community

Quakers commit themselves to responding to the needs of others, and to the flourishing of local and global communities in all their diversity.

Equality

Also following from the principle that there is that of God in everyone is the notion that all people must be treated and cared for equally regardless of gender, ability, race, socio-economic status, sexuality and any number of other identifying characteristics for which people may be privileged or disadvantaged.

Stewardship

Stewardship is a not a choice it is a responsibility, it is what we owe the future. Three phrases used by Quakers to describe how we should take care of the Earth are “right sharing, right ordering and good stewardship”

Please remember these Spices or Quaker testimonies are the way we, Quakers, work for a connection between our inner and outer lives. They are the way Quakers take their relationship with the divine spirit and turn it into action.

They are also the foundation for why we, Friends, tangibly carry one another’s burdens and lighten each other’s load.

For the next few Sundays leading to Easter, I plan to unpack a little more each week just how these Spices speak to our condition and help us lift the burdens we each face.

For now, let us enter into waiting worship and ponder or meditate on the following queries:

Who are the people in my life that help carry my burdens, how have I connected with and thanked them lately?

How well am I living out my call as a “burden bearer”? Is there someone in my life currently that I am neglecting being the incarnate Christ to in their daily struggle?  

Which of the S.P.I.C.E.S. challenge me the most and draw me to further exploration this week? 

02-14-21 - A Love Supreme: Our True Essence

A Love Supreme: Our True Essence

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

February 14, 2021

Good morning, Friends! I hope you are feeling the love this morning on this Valentine’s Day!

A couple weeks ago, I was watching a new documentary produced by Jazz Night in America on NPR Online. The documentary introduced the viewer to a, not so ordinary, church in San Francisco, CA.

On the first Sunday of every month at this church, they turn off the lights and get silent much like Quakers entering waiting worship, but then in reverent and expecting waiting they play the music of their patron saint, John Coltrane.

Yes, the famous Jazz saxophonist, John Coltrane. And the album they listen to is what some consider one of the most sacred and divinely inspired Jazz albums of all time, A Love Supreme from 1964.  For jazz musicians, today, it is so sacred and personal that some refuse to perform the songs from the album.     

The Reverends Franzo and Marina King founded St. John Coltrane Church after attending a Coltrane performance at a club called the Jazz Workshop in 1965. This was soon after Coltrane had openly shared that he had experienced a spiritual awakening. Franzo and Marina say that during the performance the Holy Spirit spoke to them and they knew what they were to do - start a church that focused on the spiritual experience of John Coltrane. 

Now, some may consider this far out, idol worship, or even heretical, but as a lover of Jazz, as one who owns a copy of “A Love Supreme” and considers it uniquely holy and exceptional, I found this a fascinating concept.  

On the inside cover of the album Coltrane writes a letter to the listener that explains the project and a long prayer, or what some consider a psalm called, “A Love Supreme.”

Michael Cuscuna, Coltrane’s producer said of the album that it projects “a spiritual serenity and inner peace that belies the turbulence that would enter his music the following year” when Coltrane would be diagnosed with liver cancer and then decline and die at the young age of 40.

Coltrane wrote to his listener,

I would like to tell you that no matter what…It is with God. He is gracious and merciful. His way is in Love. Through which we all are. It is truly A Love Supreme.

And he closes his letter almost prophetically saying,

May we never forget that in the sunshine of our lives, through the storm and after the rain – it is all with God – in all always and forever. ALL PRAISE TO GOD.

With love to all, I thank you.

 John Coltrane.

Because of copyright laws, I cannot have us silence ourselves right now and listen to “A Love Supreme.” But I encourage you to go download the album or purchase the vinyl, or borrow it from the library or a friend and simply be still in the darkness of a comfortable room in your home and allow yourself to worship and feel the love that John Coltrane so passionately conveyed through this album. It also would make a wonderful Valentine’s gift to yourself or that special someone.

Now, obviously I shared about John Coltrane for more than giving you music recommendations or Valentine gift ideas.  Actually, as I have learned more about Coltrane’s spiritual awakening, and study spiritual awakenings both in myself and others, it has helped me understand more about the many layers of God’s Love – that love is more than an action, more than a feeling, more than so much of what we have made it in our day and age. 

In preparation for this sermon I turned to one of Richard Rohr’s Daily Devotions, one that has helped me articulate a better understanding of Love. Rohr says that,

Love is not really an action that you do. Love is what and who you are, in your deepest essence.

Love is a place that already exists inside of you, but is also greater than you.

That’s the paradox. It’s within you and yet beyond you. This creates a sense of abundance and more-than-enoughness, which is precisely the satisfaction and deep peace of the True Self.

You know you’ve found a well that will never go dry, as Jesus says (see John 4:13-14). Your True Self, God’s Love in you, cannot be exhausted.

I think that is the Love that John Coltrane found – a love that was both beyond him and also flowing within and from him.  A love that Coltrane described as leading him to a richer, fuller, and more productive life, a sense of inner peace, and a gift he must share with the world. 

I find it interesting that when you read the stories of people’s spiritual awakenings often you find them describing being overwhelmed by God’s love. 

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was overwhelmed by the creative and transforming nature of love, so much that it changed his entire approach to life, ministry and activism and left him exclaiming, “Love is the only way!”

Or Mother Teresa who after a dark night of the soul proclaimed,

It is not how much we do,

But home much love we put in the doing.

It is not how much we give,

But how much love we put in the giving.

Even our own, George Fox would describe his awakening by saying,

I cried to the Lord, “Why should I be thus, seeing I was never addicted to commit those evils? And the Lord answered, “That it was needful I should have a sense of all conditions, how else should I speak to all conditions!” and in this I saw the infinite love of God. I saw, also, that there was an ocean of darkness and death, but an infinite ocean of light and LOVE, which flowed over the ocean of darkness. In that also I saw the infinite love of God, and I had great openings.

Each of these examples speak to a similar experience and awakening to an new understanding of love. 

This is what Richard Rohr articulates so well.  

You get more love by letting it flow through you…If you love, you will become more loving. If you practice patience, you will become more patient. If you stop the Divine Flow, you will be stopped up...Love is not something you can bargain for, nor is it something you can attain or work up to—because love is your very structural and essential identity...

When you are living in conscious connection with this Loving Inner Presence, you are in your True Self. God is forever united to this love within you; it is your soul, the part of you that always says yes to God. God always sees God in you—and “cannot disown God’s own self” (2 Timothy 2:13).

Last week, in my sermon I introduced the idea of “Radical Metanoia” which I described as going beyond our own minds and into the mind of God.  Part of that metanoia is this living in conscious connection with this Loving Inner Presence.

What we as Quakers call our Inner Light or Inner Christ, what theologians have described as the Imago Dei or the Image of God, or what Richard Rohr went as far as to say is our True Self. 

It has been said and sung – They will know we are Christian by our love – by our deepest essence.  It has existed within us from our beginning, but sadly we struggle too often with embracing, recognizing, and living in to it.

Returning to our text for this morning from the first epistle of John, it seems the author may have been writing to the Greater Church instead of a specific church like many of the other epistles – or at least he was writing to a larger region of churches, possibly the Persians. Hearing it again moments ago, it is clear that the author’s words are relevant to us today. 

LOVE, what this Valentine’s Day is all about, is also the essence of our life and faith. In the summary of 1 John the author makes that so clear.

Let me read it again, and I ask that you listen very carefully for all 15 times in only 6 verses that LOVE is emphasized:

7-10 My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can’t know him if you don’t love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.

11-12 My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love!

It is hard not to hear the importance of love in this summary - whether it is God’s love for us, our love for one another, or the love that dwells deeply within each of us.  

So, on this day, let us celebrate this perfect love – our essence, or essential identity – that Love Supreme…and may our lives become an incarnate – life-giving, and so needed Valentine to our world, today!

Now, as we enter this time of waiting worship, take a moment to consider the following queries:

1.     How has love impacted my spiritual awakening?

2.     Who do I struggle to love and share the love of God with? How might I show love to them, today?

3.     Would others say my essential identity is love? If not, what could I do about that?

02-07-21 - Radical Metanoia

Philippians 2:1-5 (NRSV)

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, 2 make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. 5 Let the same mind be in you that was[a] in Christ Jesus.

Good morning, Friends. It is good to be with you in the comfort of your own homes again this week.  I pray you are safe and well – and getting those vaccines so we can be back together in person again.

If there is one word that has been used a great deal more, lately, in our world, it has to be the word “radical.” 

Just this week, I had back-to-back conversations with two different people who used that word to describe two opposing groups of people.

It seems easy these days to attach the word “radical” as a descriptor and assume everyone understands. It has almost become a “buzz” word for our day and age.

So earlier this week, I decided to take note and write down when someone I connected with or in the media used the word “radical.” I will be honest. It became rather overwhelming. Here is a list of what I heard:

Radical Extremists

Radical Right

Radical Left

Radical Insurrectionists

Radical Black Lives Matters Protesters

Radical Militias

Radical Conservatives

Radical Liberals

Radical White Supremacists

Radical Religious

Radical Administrators

Radical Agendas

Radical Police

Radical Initiatives

Radical Reconstructionists

Radical Centrists

Radical Change

And the list could go on…

But what does it really mean when we use the world radical?

What lines do we draw using the word radical?  

Who is radical and who is just passionate about what they believe?  

Just maybe the word radical itself has lost its descriptive power for us today. I don’t even know if we would want to include “Radical Quakers” in that list I just read. 

But, if we, Quakers, believe we are a people who are alive and have meaning and purpose in this world, then we will have to admit that there is a relationship, as Quaker Jeffrey Dudiak states, between “what is” and “what is not, but should be, between the past and the future, between, on the one hand, the grounding practices, and on the other hand, the aspirations of a living tradition.” 

This is why Jeffery describes Quakers as a people with a “radicalizing spirit.” From the earliest of days, they went beyond the law, following the Spirit, and opening the faith to new possibilities.

The early Quakers embraced an often mysterious concept – in Greek it is called metanoia – and it means going beyond their own minds and into the mind of God. 

Even though we may be a bit concerned with the descriptor, our Quaker ancestors definitely had a “radicalizing spirit” and were even defined as a “radical faith” by other Christians, faith traditions, and even the government of their day.

This was all based on their beliefs around “what is” and “what is not, but should be” in the early days of their formation. 

If you are not familiar with some of those beliefs, here are just a few beliefs “considered radical” that early Quakers professed: 

●        The social and political equality of the sexes.

●        The abolition of slavery, which they saw as evil.

●        That no lands should be obtained from indigenous peoples except through negotiation and mutual agreement.

●        Complete pacifism.

●        No class distinctions.

●        Complete tolerance of other religious views. 

Some people, other faith traditions, even governments still would consider many of those beliefs “radical” in our day. Actually, we even have Quakers/Friends who believe this is too radical and don’t even profess this these any more.

But we must be careful with how we use the word, “radical” currently, especially with all that is going on in our world and nation at the moment. If we are going to say we are a “Radical Faith” or even “Radical Quakers” we better know how to explain that.

What does it really mean to be radical in the manner of Friends - let’s take a moment to explore this idea. 

Jeffrey Dudiak shed some light for me on the word radical and how it is used.  He says, 

“Indeed the term ‘radical’ harbors a wonderful ambiguity.  The etymological origin of the term radical is the Latin radix, which means root. 

Among the dictionary meanings of radical is the following: ‘forming an inherent or fundamental part of the nature of someone or something.’

Here, then, something is at its most radical when it is rooted most securely in what it is. 

But the term also has taken on another meaning, obviously related to, but seemingly contradictory to the first.

On this meaning, radical refers to a change or action “relating to or affecting the fundamental nature of something,” and it is this meaning that gives us radical in the sense of something “characterized by departure from tradition; innovative or progressive,’ and as ‘advocating a thorough or complete political or social reform. 

So, this means that…

The term radical can mean either being deeply rooted, or tearing something up from the roots. It can mean either being bound firmly and securely to its ground, or being liberated from such an attachment altogether. 

Most people would say we have to pick one or the other, but the word radical actually is the perfect word to describe the paradox that we find in Quakerism.

This is not an either/or but rather a both/and scenario. Quakers are radical in both ways. 

1.   We are rooted and secure in who and what we are... and

2.   We are characterized by change or action and a departure from tradition while being innovative and progressive.

It is probably because of what Quaker Rufus Jones identified as “The Beyond Within” - how he described the two minds (our own mind and the mind of the Spirit or Christ) which must learn to cooperate. 

Rufus Jones said,

,

“Through cooperation with God they [the two minds] build a new stage of the Kingdom of God in the world. We are in that respect not dreamers; we are actual builders...We become organs of a spiritual kingdom and stand in vital relations to an Eternal Mind and Heart and Will with whom to cooperate.” 

Even George Fox wrestled with connecting and cooperating with the Mind of God, he said it well,

“Be still and cool in your own mind and spirit from your own thoughts, and then you will feel the principle of God to turn your mind to the Lord God, whereby you will receive his strength and power from where it comes from...therefore be still a while from your own thoughts, searching, seeking desires and imaginations, and stay in the principle of God in you, to keep your mind upon God, and what he is up to.” 

This truly is radical in our day and age.  

1.   Be still and cool in your mind and spirit. 

2.   Be still a while so your thoughts, searching, seeking desires and imaginations can focus on what God’s mind wants. 

Just maybe during this pandemic we have learned to slow down a bit and found new ways to be still.  But it is clear, that our world wants action, we want response. We want to do anything but be still. Our impatience has turned into endurance and we are ready for the stillness to end. 

If we at First Friends are going to be considered “Radical Quakers” or at least people with a “radicalizing spirit” like our ancestors before us, we may need to pause and actually notice that the current pandemic we have become impatient with, may be the catalyst for returning to our roots.   

On many occasions, I have quoted from Rex Ambler’s book, “The Quaker Way: A Rediscovery.” I continue to find this book a breath of fresh air. I believe Rex is giving new life to the way we understand our Quaker faith - and his definition speaks to our condition this Sunday.  Take a listen once again: 

Quakers sit in silence because they want to know something that words cannot tell them. They want to feel something or become aware of something so that they can really make a connection with it. It is something fundamental to their life, they know that, indeed it is the underlying reality of their life, but they are not normally aware of it.

They are preoccupied with other things. They are taken up, like others, with the relatively shallow things of life, encouraged by the media and contemporary culture generally, and they hardly feel the depth of it all. So, they feel the loss, the distance, and want somehow to get close to this deeper reality. They want to become ‘the Friends of Truth,’ as they liked to call themselves at the beginning.

Not any truth, but a truth that relates specifically to their deepest felt needs, and to the needs of world. They are looking for a truth by which to live, that is, a sense of reality that tells them who they are and how they should live. They want the truth in this sense because that is the only basis on which they could expect to enjoy life to the full and to contribute to life. 

Part of the reality of their life, of course, is their relationship with one another and with other people, both near and far. So, they want to ‘discern’ what happens between people, what makes for a good life together, and what makes for a bad one. They want to learn in their own experience how relationships that are broken can be mended, how conflicts can be resolved, and how ‘the Friends of Truth’ can work together to make these things happen in the world. 

I know that many of you just said, “Amen, preach it, Rex!” but others may describe this as radical. 

Yes, it is radical because as Quakers we must embody being still and connecting to the mind of God so that we can impact our world. 

It is that radical mysterious concept -- metanoia - going beyond our own minds and into the mind of God.  It is exactly what Paul described Jesus experiencing in our text from Philippians, today. Just listen again at Paul’s words to us:

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, 2 make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. 5 Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.

When we, Quakers, embrace this “radical metanoia” and go beyond our own minds and get into the mind of God we begin to see with new eyes. 

No longer is it about us or my selfish needs, but it is more about our neighbors, more about their interests. It truly is radical in our American culture and consumerist society.

This was Christ’s example, this was the early Quakers legacy, and this continues to be our calling today. 

Let us embrace this radical metanoia today, even amidst this pandemic, so that we can begin to make our world a better place.

Now, as we enter a time of waiting worship, please take a moment to consider the following queries:

●       What is my current perception of the word “radical”? Do I consider myself a radical?

●       Am I preoccupied and taken up with the relatively shallow things of life, encouraged by the media and contemporary culture generally and hardly feeling the depth of it all?

●       How might I embrace “radical metanoia” this week?

01-31-21 - Learning to Endure the Darkness

Luke 21: 18-19

But whatever happens, not a single hair of your heads will be harmed.

By enduring all of these things, you will find not loss but gain – not death but authentic life.

I have always been a fan of Sir Kenneth Branagh the Northern Irish actor and filmmaker.  I’ll never forget being introduced to his work in William Shakespeare’s Henry V. 

His rendition of the famous St. Crispin Day Speech where we were introduced to those now famous words “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers” had me riveted, hanging on every word and almost wanting to go into battle for England.

Obviously, that was much before I was a Quaker. 

And who could forget Branagh as Professor Gilderoy Lockhart in the Harry Potter series. Making the character absolutely come off the pages and onto the screen. 

Branagh is such a versatile and skilled actor.

Yet, it was part of a TV Mini-series where Branagh played the legendary explorer Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton that I want to focus our attention this morning.

Branagh was almost born to play this role - as Shackleton was also of Irish decent and had very similar physical features to Branagh.

Through this series, Branagh’s acting brought history alive – and an incredible story that is hard to forget.  If you are not familiar with this historic adventure, let me give you a bit of background.

After concluding a race to the South Pole in December 1911, the adventurous Shackleton turned his attention to the crossing of Antarctica from sea to sea, via the pole.

To this end, he made preparations for what became the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition from 1914–1917.

Sadly though, disaster struck this expedition when its ship, the Endurance, became trapped in pack ice and was slowly crushed before the shore parties could be landed.

The crew escaped by literally camping on the sea ice until the ship completely disintegrated. When the ice began to thaw enough for travel in the spring, they launched the saved lifeboats to reach Elephant Island and ultimately South Georgia Island, a stormy ocean voyage of 720 nautical miles (830 miles by car). This would become Shackleton's most famous adventure.

Now, there is an entire sermon series that could be crafted on Shackleton’s adventure alone, but Branagh and many others who have told this story have found the idea of endurance more than the name of the boat. 

Interesting enough, this week as I was listening to the news, I overheard a conversation about whether Americans have the endurance to make it through the pandemic. 

Sometimes, like Shackleton and his crew, our “endurance” seems to be trapped in pack ice and being crushed. Whether it is another stay-at-home order, waiting on a vaccine, or making it through another Zoom meeting – our endurance is waning – being crushed.  We just want to get in our life boats and sail to safety where we can be with people again. 

I find the most ironic part of this story is that they named the boat “Endurance” – only to be taught the lesson-of-all-lessons about endurance.

Which reminds me the song “Ironic” - Alanis Morissette’s song which actually released on my birthday in 1996. 

An old man turned 98,

He won the lottery and died the next day.

It’s a black fly in your Chardonnay

It’s a death row pardon two minutes too late.

It’s like rain on your wedding day

It’s a free ride when you’ve already paid.

It’s good advice that you just didn’t take…

And it’s like being stranded on pack ice in the ocean with a ship named Endurance. 

Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think? Ha.

As I have been pondering endurance this week, I have found many of us trying to articulate and understand what all it entails.  I too have wondered if I have the endurance to make it through this pandemic and its constant evolving.

Like many of you, when I am internally wrestling, I seek help – often from writers and authors I consider mentors.  One that I go to often is Richard Rohr. 

Richard Rohr has another way of looking at endurance and for him it has to do with Light and Darkness.  Endurance to Rohr is about holding the darkness of our lives. 

As Quakers we talk about the Light a great deal, but we don’t dwell long in the darkness. Actually, in our western perspectives, darkness is almost always considered bad and we are to fear it – definitely not taught to hold the darkness.

I personally believe this is one of the understandings Christianity has failed to teach correctly in our culture.

We do not know how to truly endure – to suffer (something painful or difficult) in a patient manner - standing strong so that we will last and continue to exist. 

Instead, we have been taught to escape, flee, even ignore the darkness and what it can teach us.  Just maybe this is why the pandemic has been so important for our lives – it is a darkness that we cannot control and must patiently endure.

Richard Rohr says,

“Darkness is always present alongside the light. Pure light blinds; shadows are required for our seeing. We know the light most fully in contrast with its opposite—the dark. There is something that can only be known by going through ‘the night sea journey’ into the belly of the whale, from which we are spit up on an utterly new shore.”

Even though we are encouraged to seek the Light, embrace the Light, even surrender to the Light, we also must not ignore the darkness as a teacher.  Just maybe, Simon and Garfunkel were on to something singing, “Hello Darkness, my old friend.”

When we only want to focus on the Light or where the Divine dwells, we miss the opportunities presented to us by the shadows of our human reality.  Rohr says this is the struggle with being whole.  

Currently, many people are being drawn in by the darkness around them.  They are fighting it.  They have become impatient, resentful, even judgmental. 

In our scripture that Beth read today, it says,

By enduring all of these things, you will find not loss but gain – not death but authentic life.

I did not have Beth read what came before that last verse to make my point here.  Here is what it says just before the encouragement to endure.

10 Then he said to them: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. 11 There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.

12 “But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. 13 And so you will bear testimony to me. 14 But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. 15 For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. 16 You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. 17 Everyone will hate you because of me.

For several months now, people have been trying hard to give testimony to the Gospel – the good news.

·        Whether it was as simple as wearing a mask – for your own safety and the safety of those around you.

·        Speaking up for our Black, Indigenous, people of color and LGBTQ neighbors who have been made less than. 

·        Refusing to argue or lie to be seen as better or correct.

·        And I could go on…

Sadly, the rest of that scripture rings true.  In the last several months, families have split over politics or party lines. Friends have been lost over not wearing masks or following the scientists recommendations. Long standing church goers have given up on church and even God because of the melding of power and politics within the church. People have been thrown in jail, persecuted, beaten in the streets, and even killed for standing up for the rights of those less fortunate…

I guess you could say we have been in a darkness for quite some time – but are we enduring?   

When we embrace the struggles and difficulties, when we do not allow darkness to be a surprise but rather our partner in life it actually can become an opportunity. 

The darkness helps build patience and insight.

The darkness helps teach new perspectives and helps us seek new opportunities.

The darkness can actually lead us to the Light because in the darkness the Light can be seen more clearly.  

I believe folks, that this is our time to testify to the possibilities, embrace the hope of reconciliation, and by enduring all of these things, the scriptures says we will find not loss but gain – not death but authentic life.

I believe we still have a lot to do, to work on, to endure…but there is hope that as we come through, we will be a better and more hopeful, a people who are living more authentic lives – or as the scripture said last week – living life that is TRULY LIFE.

Now, as we enter a time of waiting worship, please take a moment to consider the following queries:

1.     How has the darkness of this time affected me and my relationships?

2.     Where am I struggling to allow the darkness to teach me?

3.     This week, how might I begin to turn my darkness into opportunities?

01-24-21 - Truly Living in 2021

Truly Living in 2021

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Bob Henry, Minister

January 24, 2021

1 Timothy 6:6-19 (MSG)

A devout life does bring wealth, but it’s the rich simplicity of being yourself before God. Since we entered the world penniless and will leave it penniless, if we have bread on the table and shoes on our feet, that’s enough.

But if it’s only money these leaders are after, they’ll self-destruct in no time. Lust for money brings trouble and nothing but trouble. Going down that path, some lose their footing in the faith completely and live to regret it bitterly ever after.

But you, Timothy, man of God: Run for your life from all this. Pursue a righteous life—a life of wonder, faith, love, steadiness, courtesy. Run hard and fast in the faith. Seize the eternal life, the life you were called to, the life you so fervently embraced in the presence of so many witnesses.

I’m charging you before the life-giving God and before Christ, who took his stand before Pontius Pilate and didn’t give an inch: Keep this command to the letter, and don’t slack off. Our Master, Jesus Christ, is on his way. He’ll show up right on time, his arrival guaranteed by the Blessed and Undisputed Ruler, High King, High God. He’s the only one death can’t touch, his light so bright no one can get close. He’s never been seen by human eyes—human eyes can’t take him in! Honor to him, and eternal rule! Oh, yes.

Tell those rich in this world’s wealth to quit being so full of themselves and so obsessed with money, which is here today and gone tomorrow. Tell them to go after God, who piles on all the riches we could ever manage—to do good, to be rich in helping others, to be extravagantly generous. If they do that, they’ll build a treasury that will last, gaining life that is truly life.

Good Morning Friends. It is good to be with you in the comfort of your own homes. Remember, we are recording this meeting for worship on a historic day and we do not know yet all that will transpire in the coming days. I have been blessed by those who have joined us in praying for peace in our country throughout this week. Thank you.      

Now, with all that has happened in our nation and world the last few weeks, and as we have begun another new year and another new administration, I continue to find myself pondering some difficult queries. 

Much of what has taken place has had me shaking my head and asking “why?”

While also at times unable to articulate or vocalize my questions as the atrocities, the division, the vitriol, the white supremacy, and the blindness to see and respect one another in this nation and world continue to unfold. 

As I have tried hard to reflect and ponder all that is being presented to me each and every day, I resigned myself to focus my reflection on three queries: 

·        What can I do?

·        What can we do?

·        And specifically…What can Quakers do?” 

Maybe you have found yourself during this pandemic sitting on your couch staring out your window asking those same queries.

Sadly, I am beginning to realize that people throughout our nation, and even around the world are asking these same questions. The struggles and unrest we have experienced are universal and have a global impact that affects our planet as a whole.

This is why every January, I find myself returning to the wisdom of leadership and organizational expert, Margaret Wheatley. I was introduced to her in my doctoral program and she continues to ask poignant questions for our condition.

In the beginning of her book, “Turning to One Another” which has shaped much of my thinking for the last decade and helped me expand my views outside my own “boxes”, she says the following…

“As I listen to many people, in many countries, I’m convinced we are disturbed by similar things, I’ve listened carefully to many comments, and included some of them here. Taken as a whole, they paint a picture of people everywhere troubled by these times, questioning, what the future holds. Here are some of the comments and feelings I’ve heard expressed:”

See if what Margaret Wheatley has heard resonates with your own feelings deep down…

• Problems keep getting bigger; they’re never solved. We solve one and it only creates more.

• I never learn why something happened. Maybe nobody knows, maybe it’s a conspiracy to keep us from knowing.

• There’s more violence now, and it’s affecting people I love.

• Who can I believe? Who will tell me what’s really going on?

• Things are out of control and only getting worse.

• I have no time for my family anymore. I’m living a life I don’t like.

• I worry about my children. What will the world be like for them?

“Confronted with so much uncertainty and irrationality, how can we feel hopeful about the future? And this degree of uncertainty is affecting us personally.  It’s changing how we act and feel. I notice in myself and others. We’re more cynical, impatient, fearful, angry, defensive, anxious; more likely to hurt those we love.”

If this is true and resonates with how the world is feeling currently, our scripture text may get down to the fundamentals of how to begin making a positive shift.  Something I want us to consider as we continue on in 2021.

In our scripture text that Beth read…we find Paul writing to Timothy to advise and counsel him on ministry. Right alongside Margret Wheatley’s “Turning to One Another”, I also return to these words from Paul each January as I prepare for a new year.

As you may already know, Paul's epistles were written to churches in specific locations (thus the names Corinthians Ephesians, Philippians, etc..), but 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon were all written to individuals.

In this first letter to Timothy, Paul focuses his attention on several main subjects. 

• Law

• Prayer

• Bishops and Deacons

• Advice to young pastors

• And finally, a word to us all on…Faithful Living.

Please note, I sense Paul was often more radical than we allow him to be. And too often his writings have been more studied, debated, and even followed than the actual life and ministry of Jesus. 

Yet, I think for this morning, we need to take a look at what Paul is presenting us from three different vantage points. 

1.     What is Paul telling Timothy about how he should live?

2.     What is Paul telling Timothy about God/Jesus?

3.     What are we to glean from this last part of Paul’s letter for our questioning condition?

Before we break this down, I want to share something with you that may help put this into perspective. 

Just before we left Oregon, Sue and I had the opportunity to hear author and speaker, Brian McLaren at Trinity Cathedral in Portland. We have had the opportunity to hear Brian on many occasions, but on this occasion he was speaking about his book, “The Great Spiritual Migration” – a book I have quoted often in my time hear at First Friends. 

In one part of his talk he shared the following…

“Founders are typically generous, visionary, bold, and creative, but the religions that ostensibly carry on their work often become the opposite: constricted, change-averse, nostalgic, fearful, obsessed with boundary maintenance, turf battles, and money.

Instead of greeting the world with open arms as their founders did, their successors stand guard with clenched fists. 

Instead of empowering others as their founder did, they hoard power.

Instead of defying tradition and unleashing moral imagination as their founders did, they impose tradition and refuse to think outside the lines. 

A religion that cuts itself off from the example of its founder while still bearing the founder’s name often becomes little more than a chaplaincy for other ideologies, offering its services to the highest bidder.

No wonder so many religious folks today wear down, burn out, and opt out“.

As I read again those world from Brian this week, I was immediately taken to our text for this morning. 

Much like Jesus and the disciples, Paul (also considered a founder of the Christian faith) was bestowing on his apprentice, Timothy, the fundamentals of pastoral ministry, but even more a warning on how one is to live the faithful life with integrity and impact.

Paul told Timothy…

Remember to be yourself (who God created you to be!)  – a universal struggle for people throughout the world. 

Too often we want to be anyone but ourselves.  And when we are not living our life out of the Imago Dei or the image of God within us – we live a life that creates anything but what Paul describes as a “Righteous life”.

Instead, we too often become what Brian described, “constricted, change-averse, nostalgic, fearful, obsessed with boundary maintenance, turf battles, and [yes] money.” 

Paul warned Timothy and all of us who claim to follow Christ to head his warning…

“Lust for money brings trouble and nothing but trouble. Going down that path, some lose their footing in the faith completely and live to regret it bitterly ever after.”

Money as well as its partners…power and control are far from the life that Jesus modeled…and Paul wants Timothy to know that going down that path leads to destruction.

Instead, Paul encourages Timothy to “Run for your life from all of this.”

This is coming from a man who was a living example of this very phrase. 

Paul himself had to turn from the money, power, control, manipulation and law-oriented nature of being a leader in the Sanhedrin. 

Paul understood the sacrificial nature of becoming a leader in the birthing church. And his example was Jesus Christ himself.  And so, he gives a charge to Timothy…

13-16 I’m charging you before the life-giving God and before Christ, who took his stand before Pontius Pilate and didn’t give an inch: Keep this command to the letter, and don’t slack off.

Our Master, Jesus Christ, is on his way. He’ll show up right on time, his arrival guaranteed by the Blessed and Undisputed Ruler, High King, High God. He’s the only one death can’t touch, his light so bright no one can get close. He’s never been seen by human eyes—human eyes can’t take him in!

Honor to him, and eternal rule! Oh, yes. Only a man who has stood his ground on what he believes.  A man who embraced the wonder, was faithful, who loved beyond explanation, who set a steady course and did it all with honor and courtesy – this was a Righteous and Holy Man – this was Jesus folks!  

And what Paul is saying is that when we live like Jesus - what Paul calls the eternal life, it brings the eternal into the NOW.

Paul’s warning seems rather simple. 

• Don’t be full of yourself.

• Don’t be obsessed with money or __________ (fill in the blank).

Rather be like Jesus…live with

• Wonder

• Faith

• Love

• Steadiness

• Courtesy

And as Paul finishes his first letter to Timothy, he says…

“Tell them to go after God, who piles on all the riches we could ever manage—to do good, to be rich in helping others, to be extravagantly generous. If they do that, they’ll build a treasury that will last, gaining life that is truly life.”

Margaret Wheatley, who I spoke of earlier in my sermon, realized that life, comes from us making a change in how we act and feel and how we respond to those around us. 

After she asked “What can we do now to restore hope to the future?” she said this…

“I’ve found that I can only change how I act if I stay aware of my beliefs and assumptions. Thoughts always reveal themselves in behavior. 

As humans, we often contradict ourselves – we say one thing and do another. We state who we are, but then act contrary to that.  We say we’re open minded, but then judge someone for their appearance. We say we’re a team, but then gossip about a colleague. If we want to change our behavior, we need to notice our actions, and see if we can uncover the belief that led to that response.”

I think as Quakers in our world today, we need to get honest and ask ourselves some tough queries:

• Are we contradicting ourselves? Do we act contrary to that in which we are called by God?

• Are we truly being ourselves?

• Are we trying to do good?

• Are we being rich in helping others?

• Are we extravagantly generous?

These are the queries I want us to ponder as we continue on into 2021. 

Just maybe if we were doing those things well, we would not have so much worry and fear in our lives. 

·        Maybe those problems and all that unrest wouldn’t seem so disturbing. 

·        Maybe there would be less violence and more love and people would be valued above the color of their skin, their political power, or marketable influence in our world.

·        Maybe there would be less conspiracy and more trust among us. 

·        And just maybe we would find more time for what really matters – like our family, friends, and community. 

Or better yet, as Paul (through the eyes of Eugene Peterson) put it,

Just maybe we will gain a “life that is truly life.”

As we now enter waiting worship, I ask you to ponder the queries I just shared in a manner of expectant waiting.

01-17-21 - Embracing the Force of Love

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Bob Henry, Minister

January 17, 2021

Matthew 5:43-48 (New Revised Standard Version)

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Good Morning Friends!  After a brief vacation to regroup and refresh after the busy holiday season, I am so glad to be back with you this morning as we celebrate the legacy and prophetic voice of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 

Three summers ago, on our way home from our family vacation, we made plans to travel to Montgomery, Alabama. Our goal was to visit the newly opened National Memorial for Peace and Justice. After visiting the memorial, we took a short drive around downtown Montgomery.  It had just rained and most of the town seemed like a ghost town.  Driving right up Dexter Avenue we parked directly in front of the Alabama State Capital. 

In front of us were the very steps where Dr. King had concluded the 5 day – 54-mile march from Selma to Montgomery and where he gave his now famous, How Long, Not Long speech on March 25, 1965.

As I turned to look out from the Capital steps, I imagined the many people who had gathered on that spot 53 years prior to stand up for voting rights and the pain and hardship they had endured making their stand.

Then into focus came a small red brick church which seemed almost out of place among the modern city architecture just a couple blocks from the Capital steps. 

Sue and I walked down to the church, only to find it was Dexter Avenue Baptist Church where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had served as pastor from 1954-1960. In my mind, I had never put it so close to the steps of the Alabama Capital.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave many sermons from that church’s pulpit and some even consider it the place where the Civil Rights Movement was birthed, but this morning I want to focus on one important sermon given within the sacred walls of this historic church. 

I was reminded of this sermon over my vacation as I was reading Rob Bell’s latest book, “Everything is Spiritual.”  If you read my “As Way Opens” article this week in our weekly Friend to Friend newsletter, you read how sometimes the unexpected person in our lives can become a teacher or gift to us – helping us more fully participate in the wonder and mystery and vitality of our lives. 

This was something Dr. King had spoken of often in the biblical context of “loving our enemies.” I had incorporated his teaching throughout my doctoral dissertation as a foundational concept in understanding the conflict in our daily lives and the world.  But as I have returned to the words of Dr. King, I have found his words so crucial to the current condition of our nation. 

Much like when Jesus came to his home town of Nazareth and stood up in the temple to read from the prophets, I want to follow this tradition this morning and read from the modern-day prophet Martin Luther King Jr.  The sermon I plan to read from is one that King preached on many occasions, yet this version from the pulpit of Dexter Ave. Baptist Church on November 17, 1957 is considered his most beloved version.   

I am not going to read this sermon in its entirety, but I will draw out sections that speak to our current condition. I would recommend, this week, “Googling” the entire sermon and reading it in its entirety.

Here now, are segments of Martin Luther King Jr.’s sermon “Loving Your Enemies.”

So, I want to turn your attention to this subject: “Loving Your Enemies.” It’s so basic to me because it is a part of my basic philosophical and theological orientation: the whole idea of love, the whole philosophy of love.

In the fifth chapter of the gospel as recorded by Saint Matthew, we read these very arresting words flowing from the lips of our Lord and Master:

“Ye have heard that it has been said, ‘Thou shall love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy.’ But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven…”

…Now let me hasten to say that Jesus was very serious when he gave this command; he wasn’t playing. He realized that it’s hard to love your enemies. He realized that it’s difficult to love those persons who seek to defeat you, those persons who say evil things about you. He realized that it was painfully hard, pressingly hard. But he wasn’t playing…

…How do you go about loving your enemies?

I think the first thing is this: In order to love your enemies, you must begin by analyzing self. And I’m sure that seems strange to you, that I start out telling you this morning that you love your enemies by beginning with a look at self. It seems to me that that is the first and foremost way to come to an adequate discovery to the how of this situation.

Now, I’m aware of the fact that some people will not like you, not because of something you have done to them, but they just won’t like you. I’m quite aware of that. Some people aren’t going to like the way you walk; some people aren’t going to like the way you talk. Some people aren’t going to like you because you can do your job better than they can do theirs. Some people aren’t going to like you because other people like you, and because you’re popular, and because you’re well-liked, they aren’t going to like you.

Some people aren’t going to like you because your hair is a little shorter than theirs or your hair is a little longer than theirs. Some people aren’t going to like you because your skin is a little brighter than theirs; and others aren’t going to like you because your skin is a little darker than theirs. So that some people aren’t going to like you.

They’re going to dislike you, not because of something that you’ve done to them, but because of various jealous reactions and other reactions that are so prevalent in human nature.

But after looking at these things and admitting these things, we must face the fact that an individual might dislike us because of something that we’ve done deep down in the past, some personality attribute that we possess, something that we’ve done deep down in the past and we’ve forgotten about it; but it was that something that aroused the hate response within the individual. That is why I say, begin with yourself. There might be something within you that arouses the tragic hate response in the other individual.

And this is what Jesus means when he said: “How is it that you can see the mote in your brother’s eye and not see the beam in your own eye?” Or to put it in Moffatt’s translation: “How is it that you see the splinter in your brother’s eye and fail to see the plank in your own eye?”3 And this is one of the tragedies of human nature. So, we begin to love our enemies and love those persons that hate us whether in collective life or individual life by looking at ourselves.

A second thing that an individual must do in seeking to love his enemy is to discover the element of good in his enemy, and every time you begin to hate that person and think of hating that person, realize that there is some good there and look at those good points which will over-balance the bad points.

I’ve said to you on many occasions that each of us is something of a schizophrenic personality. We’re split up and divided against ourselves. And there is something of a civil war going on within all of our lives. There is a recalcitrant South of our soul revolting against the North of our soul. And there is this continual struggle within the very structure of every individual life…

…And this simply means this: That within the best of us, there is some evil, and within the worst of us, there is some good. When we come to see this, we take a different attitude toward individuals. The person who hates you most has some good in him; even the nation that hates you most has some good in it; even the race that hates you most has some good in it.

And when you come to the point that you look in the face of every man and see deep down within him what religion calls “the image of God,” you begin to love him in spite of. No matter what he does, you see God’s image there. There is an element of goodness that he can never slough off.

Discover the element of good in your enemy. And as you seek to hate him, find the center of goodness and place your attention there and you will take a new attitude.

Another way that you love your enemy is this: When the opportunity presents itself for you to defeat your enemy, that is the time which you must not do it.

There will come a time, in many instances, when the person who hates you most, the person who has misused you most, the person who has gossiped about you most, the person who has spread false rumors about you most, there will come a time when you will have an opportunity to defeat that person.

It might be in terms of a recommendation for a job; it might be in terms of helping that person to make some move in life. That’s the time you must do it. That is the meaning of love. In the final analysis, love is not this sentimental something that we talk about.

It’s not merely an emotional something. Love is creative, understanding goodwill for all men. It is the refusal to defeat any individual. When you rise to the level of love, of its great beauty and power, you seek only to defeat evil systems.

Individuals who happen to be caught up in that system, you love, but you seek to defeat the system…

…And this is what Jesus means, I think, in this very passage when he says, “Love your enemy.” And it’s significant that he does not say, “Like your enemy.”

Like is a sentimental something, an affectionate something. There are a lot of people that I find it difficult to like. I don’t like what they do to me. I don’t like what they say about me and other people. I don’t like their attitudes. I don’t like some of the things they’re doing. I don’t like them.

But Jesus says love them. And love is greater than like. Love is understanding, redemptive goodwill for all men, so that you love everybody, because God loves them.

You refuse to do anything that will defeat an individual, because you have agape in your soul…

…There’s another reason why you should love your enemies, and that is because hate distorts the personality of the hater.

We usually think of what hate does for the individual hated or the individuals hated or the groups hated. But it is even more tragic, it is even more ruinous and injurious to the individual who hates.

You just begin hating somebody, and you will begin to do irrational things. You can’t see straight when you hate. You can’t walk straight when you hate. You can’t stand upright. Your vision is distorted. There is nothing more tragic than to see an individual whose heart is filled with hate.

He comes to the point that he becomes a pathological case. For the person who hates, you can stand up and see a person and that person can be beautiful, and you will call them ugly. For the person who hates, the beautiful becomes ugly and the ugly becomes beautiful.

For the person who hates, the good becomes bad and the bad becomes good. For the person who hates, the true becomes false and the false becomes true. That’s what hate does. You can’t see right. The symbol of objectivity is lost. Hate destroys the very structure of the personality of the hater.

And this is why Jesus says hate, that you want to be integrated with yourself, and the way to be integrated with yourself is be sure that you meet every situation of life with an abounding love. Never hate, because it ends up in tragic, neurotic responses…

Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, “Love your enemies.” It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals.

That’s why Jesus says, “Love your enemies.” Because if you hate your enemies, you have no way to redeem and to transform your enemies. But if you love your enemies, you will discover that at the very root of love is the power of redemption.

You just keep loving people and keep loving them, even though they’re mistreating you. Here’s the person who is a neighbor, and this person is doing something wrong to you and all of that. Just keep being friendly to that person. Keep loving them. Don’t do anything to embarrass them. Just keep loving them, and they can’t stand it too long.

Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning. They react with bitterness because they’re mad because you love them like that. They react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they’ll hate you a little more at that transition period, but just keep loving them. And by the power of your love they will break down under the load.

That’s love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. “love your enemies…”

…There is a power in love that our world has not discovered yet. Jesus discovered it centuries ago. Mahatma Gandhi of India discovered it a few years ago, but most men and most women never discover it. For they believe in hitting for hitting; they believe in an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth; they believe in hating for hating; but Jesus comes to us and says, “This isn’t the way…”

…History unfortunately leaves some people oppressed and some people oppressors. And there are three ways that individuals who are oppressed can deal with their oppression.

One of them is to rise up against their oppressors with physical violence and corroding hatred. But oh, this isn’t the way.  For the danger and the weakness of this method is its futility. Violence creates many more social problems than it solves…Violence isn’t the way.

Another way is to acquiesce and to give in, to resign yourself to the oppression. Some people do that. They discover the difficulties of the wilderness moving into the promised land, and they would rather go back to the despots of Egypt because it’s difficult to get in the promised land.

And so, they resign themselves to the fate of oppression; they somehow acquiesce to this thing. But that too isn’t the way because non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good.

But there is another way. And that is to organize mass non-violent resistance based on the principle of love. It seems to me that this is the only way as our eyes look to the future. As we look out across the years and across the generations, let us develop and move right here. We must discover the power of love, the power, the redemptive power of love. And when we discover that we will be able to make of this old world a new world…

…Yes, I can see Jesus walking around the hills and the valleys of Palestine. And I can see him looking out at the Roman Empire with all of her fascinating and intricate military machinery. But in the midst of that, I can hear him saying: “I will not use this method. Neither will I hate the Roman Empire…”

And our civilization must discover that. Individuals must discover that as they deal with other individuals. There is a little tree planted on a little hill and on that tree hangs the most influential character that ever came in this world. But never feel that that tree is a meaningless drama that took place on the stages of history. Oh no, it is a telescope through which we look out into the long vista of eternity and see the love of God breaking forth into time. It is an eternal reminder to a power-drunk generation that love is the only way. It is an eternal reminder to a generation depending on nuclear and atomic energy, a generation depending on physical violence, that love is the only creative, redemptive, transforming power in the universe.

So, this morning, as I look into your eyes, and into the eyes of all of my brothers in Alabama and all over America and over the world, I say to you, “I love you. I would rather die than hate you.” And I’m foolish enough to believe that through the power of this love somewhere, men of the most recalcitrant bent will be transformed. And then we will be in God’s kingdom. We will be able to matriculate into the university of eternal life because we had the power to love our enemies, to bless those persons that cursed us, to even decide to be good to those persons who hated us, and we even prayed for those persons who despitefully used us.

Oh God, help us in our lives and in all of our attitudes, to work out this controlling force of love, this controlling power that can solve every problem that we confront in all areas. Oh, we talk about politics; we talk about the problems facing our atomic civilization. Grant that all men will come together and discover that as we solve the crisis and solve these problems—the international problems, the problems of atomic energy, the problems of nuclear energy, and yes, even the race problem—let us join together in a great fellowship of love and bow down at the feet of Jesus. Give us this strong determination. In the name and spirit of this Christ, we pray. Amen.

In response to this message this morning we will enter a time of Waiting Worship. In honor of Dr. King’s life and the present condition of our nation, we will do this in silence and expectant waiting. May our prayers rise for our enemies and for peace in this land.

01-10-21 - Lavish, Extravagant Grace

Lavish, Extravagant Grace

Matthew 13:1-9

What in the world is God doing?

If the farmer in this parable is supposed to be God – and it is! - this God goes against almost every economic principle we most highly value. This farmer-God throws seed around like the wealthiest among us throw money around. Not only that, but this God is utterly incompetent at marketing and farming, recklessly tossing valuable seed in no particular direction ending up where most of it has almost no chance of taking root and growing. This God is wasteful. The Return on Investment of God's enterprise is far less than it could be. God sure didn't get his Master of Business Administration from Kelly School of Business or his Doctorate of Agricultural Science from Purdue University.

So it is fair to ask, “What in the world is God doing?”

We know better than to be reckless and wasteful. Many of us were brought up in families where we weren’t allowed to get up from the table until we’d finished every last scrap of food on our plate. My mother used to remind us kids that there were starving children in India who would love to have the food we were wasting. So I offered to help her pack it up and put it in the mail to India. But my mother was not amused and she was not budging. Food was NOT to be wasted.

And that kind of frugality applies to other things, too. During these times of environmental sensitivity, some socially conscious folks have bumper stickers that ask, “What Would Jesus Drive?” It’s not really a question that seeks an answer because they're answering it by the kind of vehicles they drive and put these bumper stickers on! You never see one of those bumper stickers on a Cadillac Escalade. Those bumper stickers are found on a Toyota Prius, or a little SmartForTwo three-cylinder shoebox of a car, or a car that our beloved Dan Mitchell might drive, or maybe Jesus would have no car at all – maybe Jesus would just ride a bike to church to reduce our dependence upon foreign oil and to keep the planet from hydrocarbon disaster. Jesus would conserve natural resources and live more frugally to SAVE Mother Earth because, as we all know, “We have heard the joyful sound, Jesus saves, Jesus saves!”

Well, maybe that's true for Jesus, but it's not true for Jesus' Holy Father! Not God – not the wasteful, spendthrift, throw-seed-around-like-its-going-out-of-style farmer in today’s parable! Oh no! If Jesus is putt-in' around town on a little Vespa motor scooter in order to conserve, God is zooming down the street with the pedal to the metal in a gas-guzzling 5.0 Liter V8 Supercharged Land Rover Mega-sized Range Rover SUV! Look at God in this story recklessly tossing that seed around without any concern whatsoever about waste!

What in the world is God doing? “Some seed fell upon the path. Some fell on rocky places. Some seed fell among thorns. And luckily, some seed fell on good soil where it produced a crop.”

What a thought-provoking parable! What is Jesus getting at here? Maybe Jesus is telling us this parable of the wasteful farmer to jar our sensibilities and create some tension around the values we hold so dear. Maybe Jesus is showing us that there is more to life than the bottom line – that life is not measured in terms of “Return on Investment”, or in terms of dollars and cents. Maybe Jesus is teaching us that the central issue for us should not be our sense of economy, but rather our sense of humanity . . . not even our Quaker frugality but our Godly generosity

Or maybe the parable is simply asking, “What is the worth of one single human soul?”

“A farmer went out to sow. Some seed feel upon the path. Some fell on rocky places. Other seed fell among thorns. And some seed fell on good soil where it produced a crop.”

I wonder why God would throw so much seed into so many hopeless places? Wouldn’t God be more responsible and wise to just cut the losses and stopped throwing good seed away after bad? Wouldn’t the number crunchers on Wall Street give God a raise and a pat on the back if God stopped being wasteful and produced bigger harvests with less seed?

Those are the kind of folks currently managing my Brussels Sprouts packages. I love Brussels Sprouts with balsamic vinegar and sea salt on top. I have them for lunch at least once every week. But over the years those wicked number crunchers at the Brussels Sprouts home office keep raising the price of my Brussels Sprouts while lowering the number of Brussels Sprouts inside. And I'm mad and imagining the day I open up my Brussels Sprouts package to discover only three puny, little Brussels Sprouts inside. When Brussels Sprouts have yielded to pure capitalism you know the world has gone to pot, or instead of a pot, more succinctly a very small pan.

This is one of the deepest struggles we Christians face. In a world of capitalism that measures value in terms of economic efficiency, God calls us to take up an entirely different value system. The question God asks is not, “How much does it cost?” but rather “What is the worth of one human soul?”

The parable of the sower tells us about a God who is absolutely unafraid to waste resources in the effort to bring life to others. So this God of the Bible that Jesus teaches us is the true nature of God. God, just like the imprudent farmer in this parable, intentionally scatters the seed of his Word east and west and north and south. God sows among believers and doubters, good people and bad, those who are ready to receive the Word and those whose hearts are hardened. God spreads the seed on the pathway, and on rocky soil, among the thorns, and every once in awhile, that seed finds fertile ground, and it takes root, and grows, and produces fruit . . . fruit like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

While we secular human beings might consider this a waste, it is not a waste at all! It is the very definition of God. It is the very definition of GRACE! Grace is always a “my cup is full and overflowing” kind of generosity. It is the very essence of our faith. It is lavish, extravagant, unmerited love poured out for family, friends, enemies, neighbors, strangers, poor, immigrants, sick, diseased, Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Agnostics, Atheists, as well as for all creation!

If you ever wonder what God is like, look no further than this parable. This is what God is like. And this is exactly the same nature we are called to exemplify as Christians!

Lavish, extravagant, wasteful love! Surprise of surprises, when it comes to “Grace” God is no Toyota Prius, Smart-for-Two, Vespa driver or bicycle rider. God is driving an absolute unashamed, unabashed “grace-guzzler”!

And the tipping point that makes the difference between our human values and God’s values is simply this: Economics produces a faith that is all about us and our personal well-being and can be quantified, analyzed, and justified to bless us and our kind. However, God's grace is something entirely different. At times it won't even make common sense because Grace produces a faith that is totally about loving everyone and concerned about everyone's well-being. I realize common sense is like deodorant . . . those who need it most don't use it. But whether it makes sense or not, God's grace is there for all.

What in the world is God doing? What in the world does the Church think it’s doing? What in the world do Christians think they’re doing? Saving the world. That’s what. And how can the world and our country and ourselves be saved? With “Grace” and a whole lot of it.

Any so-called Christian who is in the business of dogmatizing the faith and creating rules and regulations and forms and rituals and hoops to jump through and judging others day in and day out and scaring people with damnation and satanically preaching a prosperity gospel and failing to see that of God in everyone and proclaiming themselves purer than others and becoming a religious prude is NO Christian at all. To be a true Christian your one and ONLY focus should be a GRATEFUL GRACE RECEIVER who is equally focused on being a GENEROUS GRACE DISTRIBUTOR

Jesus taught, and Paul put on the exclamation point later on, we are saved by grace and grace alone. God is extravagant. God is generous beyond belief. God is seemingly wasteful. God doesn't care how much it costs because God knows how much each and every soul, each and every person is worth regardless of all the barriers society and religions might add into the equation, stuff such as race, nationality, gender, religion, sexual orientation, political views. If you really want to describe God in a few words, here it is: God is love. God is grace. If you and I are to follow the witness of our God then we ought to be equally extravagant, wasteful and grace-guzzling in our lives. Extravagant in extending our love and God's love to everyone without any thought that such grace will ever run dry. It won't.

So it’s about time, it's about time all of us start feeling a nudge to live on the wild, lavish and extravagant side of faith. We need to go right on ahead and place absolutely no limits on God's generosity. So if you are serious about your Christian and Quaker faith, here's your one-and-only job this week and every week for the rest of your life: Go spread some grace! And be downright generous when you go to do. Don't judge, assume or build walls. Just go out and spread God's grace far and wide.

As we enter into a time of listening and sensing God's presence among us, let us consider these three queries:

1. Are there any persons, ways and areas I am currently placing limits on God's grace?

2. How can I distribute God's grace to myself, my loved ones, my friends, my faith community, and my world?

3. How may I need to adjust my soul, my words, my attitudes, and my actions in order to fully offer God's love without limit? 

01-03-21 - The Journey from Lament to Hope

January 3rd, 2020 

Rachel’s Cry Prayer of Lament Rebirth of Hope

Kathleen D. Billman and Daniel L. Migliore

Jeremiah 31:10-15, 21-23

Good morning friends, Bob is taking a couple of weeks of well-deserved vacation with his family and I am sharing the message with all of you this morning.

 We are gathering together after celebrating a Christmas holiday like none other in our collective experience.  It did seem strange  to not be at a church on Christmas Eve. 

That’s been a staple of my life.  Bob said it’s only the second time in his life that he has not been at church on Christmas Eve. So many alterations and adjustments from our traditions.

Many folks that  I talk with speak of some level of depression.  We are weary, tired, isolated, desiring physical touch and connection, missing our families and friends. 

We know that at some point in 2021 we will all have access to a vaccine, but we still have months to go in our current activities.

And then there are so many other things going on: political unrest, divisions between family and friends, significant hunger for many, concerns about evictions,  etc.  

It sometimes feels like we have become numb to all the challenges and might say to ourselves that there is nothing we can do about this.

We have a lot of things to lament.  I am thinking about the concept of lament and how our Jewish sisters and brothers embrace this and practice it well while many Christians look at lament as complaining and that our only prayers of lament should be penitential prayers to ask for forgiveness of our sins.

In the book Rachel’s Cry by Kathleen D Billman and Daniel L Migliore, there is an examination and affirmation of the value of prayers of lament both personally and in a societal way. 

We are all familiar with the character of Rachel in the Old Testament.  She is the favorite wife of Jacob  and a matriarch of the nation of Israel and the mother of the most beloved sons Joseph and Benjamin.

 But I don’t ever remember reading this verse in Jeremiah that Phil shared with us that says in verse 15 “Rachel is weeping  for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.” 

 Rachel experienced the loss of her children to exile back in Genesis and she refused to be consoled.  She was crying out for the pain and sorrow of this deepest loss.

 In their book Billman and Migliore share that , “Rachel’s bold, disturbing and prophetic cry has made her a revered figure of the Jewish community. 

The prophet Jeremiah and later Jewish tradition clearly understand her crying and her resistance as expressions of faithfulness…..

In refusing to accept easy consolation, Rachel does what is right.  Her resistance is both a protest to and a waiting on God. 

In her own Rachel holds open the possibility of again praising the God of justice and new life.” 

Jeremiah is remembering Rachel’s cry because Judah is now under the rule of the Babylonians and they have destroyed Jerusalem and most of the Jewish folks have been exiled. 

Maybe Jeremiah brings up Rachel’s lament as one for their community to embrace at that moment – how can they be possibly be consoled as they face destruction and the scattering of the Jewish people. 

Having grown up in a Christian home with quite a bit of study of the Bible, I never heard a teaching, a lesson or a sermon based on this passage. 

And yet in the Jewish community this is a very important passage and Rachel is one of the revered characters of their collective story. 

 It seems like too often in our Christian tradition the idea of lament  should only be concerned  with a lament of our personal sins and a petition for forgiveness. 

And there certainly is a role for this within our prayer life.  But sometimes the loss is so big, the suffering is so significant that we need to cry out in lament and say God, where are you? 

When we see injustice like we saw  for so long in  South Africa, we lament and weep and shout out God, why aren’t you doing something about this? 

When we grieve over 330,000 people dead from covid, millions of people sick with it,  our seniors often living in isolation, we lament and wonder how God could let this happen.

The Christian tradition looks more to Mary for our model of prayer.  While Rachel weeps, Mary accepts.  Rachel is angry and Mary is calm.  

But is not Mary’s response based on the faith tradition of Rachel?  Mary understands the lament of Rachel and all that pain and suffering.

 If not for Rachel, can Mary experience the promise of something new?    Mary does not know where the path of Jesus life will take him, but she deeply understands the cries of Rachel and labors within them.

That is the importance of the lament – we recognize, honor and open our hearts to the prayers of lament before we can ever move forward to healing and to hope.

Yesterday I watched the movie about Ma Rainey the blues singer on Netflix. The performance by Chadwick Boseman, his last movie before his death was magnificent.  He gives an anti-god rant that will go down through the ages – a lament that speaks to his incredible pain and suffering from his personal experience. 

He rages at God asking where was God during this horrific event that happened in his early life.  Where is God as he faces the prejudice, the hatred, the dismissive treatment that he and all black folk experienced in the 1920’s?  He challenges God to come at him, to show God’s face to him right now  as he wields a knife, and answer these questions.   My heart was aching as I watched this scene and all I could think of was the lament of Rachel refusing to be consoled.

The Old Testament has many prayers of lament.  The book of Psalms in particular are chock are full of prayers of lament. 

Psalms 22 is the epitome of a prayer of lament but also brings with it the promise of hope and I share it with you here:

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

 Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?

2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;

    and by night, but find no rest.

3 Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.

4 In you our ancestors trusted;

    they trusted, and you delivered them.

5 To you they cried, and were saved;

    in you they trusted, and were not put to shame.

6  But I am a worm, and not human;

    scorned by others, and despised by the people.

7 All who see me mock at me;   they make mouths at me, they shake their heads;

8 “Commit your cause to the LORD; let him deliver—

    let him rescue the one in whom he delights!”

9 Yet it was you who took me from the womb;  you kept me safe on my mother’s breast.

10 On you I was cast from my birth,  and since my mother bore me you have been my God.

11 Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help.

12 Many bulls encircle me,  strong bulls of Bashan surround me;

13 they open wide their mouths at me,

    like a ravening and roaring lion.

14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint;

my heart is like wax;  it is melted within my breast;

15 my mouth[a] is dried up like a potsherd;  and my tongue sticks to my jaws;

    you lay me in the dust of death.

16 For dogs are all around me; a company of evildoers encircles me.My hands and feet have shriveled;[b]

17 I can count all my bones.

18 they divide my clothes among themselves, and for my clothing they cast lots.

19 But you, O LORD, do not be far away!

    O my help, come quickly to my aid!

20 Deliver my soul from the sword, my life[c] from the power of the dog!

21     Save me from the mouth of the lion!

From the horns of the wild oxen you have rescued[d] me.

22 I will tell of your name to my brothers and sisters;[e]

    in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:

23 You who fear the LORD, praise him!

    All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him;  stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!

24 For he did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted;

he did not hide his face from me,  but heard when I[g] cried to him.

25 From you comes my praise in the great congregation;

    my vows I will pay before those who fear him.

26 The poor[h] shall eat and be satisfied;  those who seek him shall praise the LORD.

    May your hearts live forever!

27 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD and all the families of the nations  shall worship before him.[i]

28 For dominion belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the nations.

29 To him,[j] indeed, shall all who sleep in[k] the earth bow down;

    before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, and I shall live for him.[l]

30 Posterity will serve him;  future generations will be told about the Lord,

31 and[m] proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn,  saying that he has done it.

The writer of this Psalm has seen Israel experience unbelievable desolation, they have lived much of their existence under foreign rule – and they are asking where is God and why is God ignoring the pleas of his chosen people? 

There is a lot packed into this prayer.  We hear the cries of anguish and lament.  But there is also a faith and a hope that the Lord will bring deliverance and has done so in the past. 

It feels like we are living in times such as the Israelites.  We share our laments to God.  We might be angry, feel desolate, unnerved, and maybe reject any consolation.

We are living through a hell that no one could have imagined.  Does a Psalm like Psalm 22 speak to our condition?  Even Jesus cried a prayer of lament on the cross, borrowing from this Psalm, My God My God, why hast thou forsaken me?

 Emily Dickinson says, “Pain is missed in Praise”  Victims need to be heard and validated. 

Our pain can’t be swept under the rug of praise but must be acknowledged.  If we don’t embrace these emotions, they will go underground and work on our foundations and wreak havoc on our souls.

But the lament does not end there.  Otherwise, we will live our existence in bitterness, resentment and anger.  Walter Brueggemann’s says – “Only grief permits newness.  Without lament, hope is stillborn.”   Only through the lament will we find a chance for healing, a hope of something new something fresh and different. 

Maybe something we could not have imagined.  While Psalm 22 is a song of lament it also gives hope – every lament can provide a way for us to see the possibility of a future that will honor our past but recognize the hope from God. 

I wish we would embrace the Jewish tradition of prayers of lament that reflect our personal loss, the societal sorrow of oppression, rejection and prejudice and we could honor this idea. 

This recognition and embrace of sorrow will lead to hope.  Billman and Miglore  say  that “ the prayer of lament and protest must find its place in Christian prayer if it is to be honest and robust…..

Without the prayer of lament  the other important elements of prayer – praise, thanksgiving, confession, intercession – atrophy and ring hollow.”

As we enter our time of waiting worship, I ask you to consider the following queries:

What is my prayer of lament today?

Do I listen and honor the prayer of lament of others?

What hope do I see arising out of my prayers of lament?

12-13-20 - A Living Hope

A Living Hope

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Bob Henry, Minister

December 13, 2020

Ephesians 1:18-19 (Common English Bible)

I pray that the eyes of your heart will have enough light to see what is the hope of God’s call, what is the richness of God’s glorious inheritance among believers, and what is the overwhelming greatness of God’s power that is working among us believers. This power is conferred by the energy of God’s powerful strength.

John 1:5 (The Message)

3-5 Everything was created through him;
    nothing—not one thing!—
    came into being without him.
What came into existence was Life,
    and the Life was Light to live by.
The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;
    the darkness couldn’t put it out.

For quite some time now, I have to admit I have been wrestling with, what we typically call, hope. I don’t consider myself hopeless, but I do keep hearing myself and others say, “We need to have more hope during these difficult times.”

What do we actually mean when we say we need hope?   

Many churches during the holiday season spend the four weeks leading up to Christmas talking about love, joy, peace, and yes, hope. Yet, it seems to me hope is the hardest to define or wrap our minds around. 

In some ways it seems too easy to turn these four attributes over to Jesus and his miraculous birth and life, and never see the impact of hope in our present condition.

Just maybe, the hope we see in the Christmas story is the same hope we long for in our daily experience.

To explore this hope, I want to look at some of the queries I have been wrestling with lately…let’s begin with…

Why is hope so important?

Many today describe hope as wanting an outcome that makes one’s life better in some way.

It not only can help make a tough present situation more bearable but also can eventually improve one’s life – because envisioning a better future motivates one to take the steps to make it a reality.

Jesus’s birth was the beginning of a life that was to show us a better way to live.  A way to transcend our current situations and envision a better future.

This means that the life and ministry of Jesus was fundamentally about HOPE – what often is described in scriptures as a “living hope” which is given by the Divine. 

For example, 1 Peter 1:3 states, “[God] has given us new birth into a living hope through…Jesus Christ.” 

This means, just as there is that of God in everyone, there is a living hope in each of us as well - you and I are considered a “living hope” right now!  

Just think about it, we all hope for something. It’s an inherent part of being a human. Hope is what helps us define what we want for our futures. It is also part of the self-narrative about our lives we all have running within our being.

This is why our scriptures insist we “abide in faith, hope and love.” 

Out of those three, faith, hope, and love, I believe hope is the hardest to define. So that leads me into my next query…

What Is Hope, Exactly?

I have found that the definition of hope can differ quite dramatically depending on the person or theologian doing the talking.

When people speak about hope in a spiritual context, they often mean believing good things will happen with faith in a higher power. Some would even direct these hopes outward in prayer or meditation.

Others might mean always looking on the bright side and seeing challenges as opportunities. I am sure you know people like this – they are always saying, “I’m just hoping for the best.”

If we turn to the definition experts at Merriam-Webster, they make “hope” almost more like a “wish” or as they say, “to cherish a desire with anticipation: to want something to happen or be true.”

Many believe their hopes are going to come true in Jiminy Cricket-fashion “When you wish upon a star…” And that I think is why we say, “may your hopes and dreams come true.” Even though it may seem a bit of a stretch at first, we must remember, even Pinocchio hoped to fully live.  

Whatever the specifics, hope in general means a desire for things to change for the better, and to desire a better situation or outcome of life.

Also, I need to clarify something else I have learned in this study. Hope is not the same as optimism.

If one is considered an optimist (like my wife, who even won the optimist award in high school) they are naturally more hopeful than others.

Yet, on the other hand, some of the most pessimistic people we encounter can still be hopeful about something. Hope is often very specific and focused, usually on just one issue, though.

This is why as the embodiment of the Divine’s living hope, we each may find different ways to express our hopes for a better world. 

I see it playing out in real-time, right here in our meeting.  Some of us hope for a better world through the work and opportunities presented by Witness and Service, some through taking care of the building and grounds through being a Trustee, some in caring for others through Circle of Care, and some creating opportunities for hospitality and connecting through the Fellowship Committee and Connections, and we could go on and on…

We could easily say that at First Friends we embody the living hope in all that we do.  

So that brings me to another of my queries…

Why is Hope So Vital?

Most people associate hope with a dire situation – it is evident in our current condition with the pandemic and political atmosphere in our country. Just listen carefully and you will hear the word, “hope,” being used more and more. 

People hope to get out of difficult times like we are in currently. It is often in these moments, when people do find themselves hoping fervently! As the scriptures indicate:

Not only so, but we glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, HOPE. (Romans 5:3-4)

But…it is not just in the dreadful situations people turn to hope.

What I am learning, and have been made keenly aware of, is that hope can actually provide the key to making everyday life better.

The American Psychology Association reported that children who grew up in poverty but had success later in life all had one thing in common – hope.

Dr. Valerie Maholmes, who worked on the research, said hope involves “planning and motivation and determination” to get what one hopes for.

And this is the piece we often miss…hoping in God to make a difference in our lives is not magic.  Christmas for Christians should not be about a baby who came to help us escape this world, but rather about a living hope that showed us how to live a better life in this world right now. 

God wants us to be co-workers, co-creators, co-hope-bearers to our world.  And God wants us to utilize our gifts, our stories, our entire lives to bring hope into our world. 

For Jesus, having hope links one’s past and present to the future – and that is the same for us. 

This is why Jesus said, “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” (John 14:12)

You and I have a vision for what we hope will happen each and every day. Whether it comes to fruition or not, just envisioning and sharing it can begin to make the world a better place.

I believe hope is contagious. Just think about it, you and I are drawn to people who present and convey hope.  It is people of hope who motivate us to take the steps needed to make the world a better place.

This all means, having hope is essential to the very act of being human – and that means it is also directly connected to the Divine – since there is that of God in each of us.

As Dr. Judith Rich writes,

“Hope is a match in a dark tunnel, a moment of light, just enough to reveal the path ahead and ultimately the way out.”

Or as it says in 2 Corinthians 4:6 (NRSV),

6 For it is God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Christ was the light coming into the darkness of our world bringing hope on that first Christmas, and you and I are the Light being sent into the world today in all of its darkness, pain, and suffering. 

We must embody the living hope and continue the legacy that Christ lived on this planet.  May we be the match in the dark tunnel of life -- a moment of light that reveals the next steps or path to freedom and peace – this is the call of Christmas to our hurting world. 

Go and be a living hope in the way of Christ this Christmas!

This morning, I have prepared some queries for us to ponder as we enter waiting worship.

1.     Currently, who is helping me see hope in the world?

2.     Do I consider myself a co-worker, co-creator, co-hope-bearer with Christ?

3.     How am I being called to be a living hope and continue the legacy of Christ, this Christmas?

11-22-20 - Thanks for Letting Me Vent

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

November 22, 2020

Romans 5:3-5 The Message

3-5 There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!

Good morning, Friends and thank you Eric for that beautiful rendition of “40” – a song based on the words of the scriptural Psalm 40 – which focuses on bridging the space between lament and thanksgiving – just what I am exploring in this sermon.

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been observing carefully what people around me say that they are thankful for in preparation for what I was going to say today.  

Obviously, the ongoing pandemic and the continued rise in cases has caused some restlessness in our lives – even a new medical term we now know as “pandemic fatigue” has arisen.  

I sense these conditions have led many people to be fed up, weary, and seeking release. Take for instance, one of the phrases I have heard on numerous occasions in my pastoral conversations this week,

“Thank you for letting me vent.”

As a pastor, whose ministry as of late consists in doing a lot more listening and having less answers, letting people download and process out loud seems to be a key aspect of helping them find relief and hope in such discouraging times. 

Usually, the Thanksgiving holiday raises concerns of family members coming and downloading or venting their views, frustrations, and opinions around the dinner table - making everyone overwhelming uncomfortable – especially during a political year. 

And in years past, the days and weeks following Thanksgiving, I would normally receive a plethora of phone calls of people needing to download and vent their Thanksgiving conversations. 

Currently, I sense the limits of the pandemic taking its toll and leaving us having these conversations in our own minds – thus the relevance of making space for venting in the present moment.

I know when I find myself venting to someone (which I have to admit I have been doing a lot lately) I immediately find a sense of guilt or the realization that no one really deserves to have me download all my feelings on them. Yes, I too have said those words,

“Thank you for letting me vent.”

But folks, just maybe this expression of gratitude is the genuine declaration of our souls, because it speaks honestly to our condition.

Adele Ahlberg Calhoun illustrates this this when she writes, 

“Thankfulness is a thread that can bind together all the patchwork squares of our lives. Difficult times, happy days, seasons of sickness, hours of bliss – all can be sewn together into something lovely with the thread of thankfulness.”

When we say “Thank you for letting me vent” we are realizing that the difficult parts of our lives need balanced by a loving and thankful response. And just maybe that gratitude is at the core of our healing.

A person that has taught me so much about gratitude and giving thanks is Henri Nouwen. His humble and thoughtful approach to life’s difficulties have helped me see how we can achieve more of this healing balance.  He says,

“Gratitude as a discipline involves a conscious choice. I can choose to be grateful even when my emotions and feelings are still steeped in hurt and resentment.

It is amazing how many occasions present themselves in which I can choose gratitude instead of a complaint. . . . The choice for gratitude rarely comes without some real effort.

But each time I make it, the next choice is a little easier, a little freer, a little less self-conscious. . .

There is an Estonian proverb that says: “Who does not thank for little will not thank for much.”

Acts of gratitude make one grateful because, step by step, they reveal that all is grace.

Folks, you and I have choices – we each have the power to interpret our life’s frustrations and the difficulties we face in the present. We have a choice whether we are going to be bitter or grateful people. 

That is why it makes sense that we say things like, “Thank you for letting me vent.”  We feel better sharing with others our frustrations and difficulties, and we know if we stay stuck in those feelings that it will become all bottled up inside of us and make us bitter and discouraged.

Instead, our desire should be to see those things in which we need to vent as part of our journey.  Again, Henri Nouwen says,

“Jesus calls us to recognize that gladness and sadness are never separate, that joy and sorrow really belong together, and that mourning, and dancing are part of the same movement. 

That is why Jesus calls us to be grateful for every moment that we have lived and to claim our unique journey as God’s way to mold our hearts to greater conformity with God’s own… 

It is so easy for me to put the bad memories under the rug of my life and to think only about the good things that please me.

By doing so, however, I prevent myself from discovering the joy beneath my sorrow, the peace hidden in the midst of my conflicts, and the strength that becomes visible in the midst of my weakness.” (“All is Grace” 39-40) 

That is why when we proclaim gratitude for the opportunity to vent our frustrations, it is an acknowledgement that we are discovering our joy again, that we are sensing some peace in the midst of the struggles, and that we are going to make it through. 

When I hear those words, “Thanks for letting me vent” – I can hear in a person’s voice or even my own voice, a glimmer of hope.

Is everything all figured out?  No

Are there still difficulties? Yes

Is my attitude changed? Maybe or it is beginning to be seen in a new light. 

In this moment, gratitude is a predictor of hope and happiness to come.

If that is the case, then maybe during these difficult times, we need to embrace a posture of gratitude and giving thanks so we can see the hope and happiness awaiting us instead of spiraling down into despair and bitterness for the things we cannot control. 

To illustrate what I have been learning about gratitude and hope in difficult times, I want to share with you what I might call a “Grateful Lament.” 

It is written by Colleen Temple and is titled: “To my friends who let me vent—thank you for not judging me.” 

It capsulates so much of what I have said and what many of us are experiencing. Collen writes…

I pride myself on not complaining much. I make a conscious effort to not drag on and on about how hard things can seem or how exhausted I am to my friends and family because—what's the point?

Everyone is tired or frustrated or stressed about something at different moments throughout the day, throughout the week. No matter how rich you are, how beautiful you are, how fit you are, how "together" you are, it doesn't matter.

Bad things still happen, stress is still present, and challenges still get in your way.

You can't throw money at a tantrum.

Your student loan debt doesn't care about the number on the scale (just the number on your bill.)

No one is excused from problems, issues, stressors or challenges—they happen to everyone. 

So, since everyone has their own stuff going on, why should anyone else care about mine? (Except my husband—he has to care. 😂) 

Well, because sometimes you just have to vent, to just let it all out—in a safe, judgement-free zone. And if you want to be the vent-er, you have to be able to be the vent-ee, too. 

It's nice to be able to be the friend who listens. I will commiserate with my BFF when she texts about the five consecutive nights they've had with rough bedtimes.

I will nod and "amen!" throughout my sister's rant about feeling like there aren't enough hours in the day to do everything that's expected of us. 

I'm happy to know my friends feel comfortable enough with me to let loose; to let their anger, worries, frustrations out. 

And it's always nice to know who your go-to person is that you can go to day or night with any complaint that you just need to get off your chest—knowing you won't be judged. 

So, to my person—thank you. 

Thank you for letting me come over and basically yell at you (but not at you) about someone who really ticked me off. You have saved me from lashing out at that person at the height of my frustration and instead allowed me to calm down a bit before I address it with them directly.

Thank you for letting me complain about the way my haircut turned out or the gray eyebrow hair I found or the way I'm feeling about my body on a bad day.

You have saved me from continuing to obsess about these things in my own mind. 

Thank you for letting me text you 10 messages in a row detailing what my kiddo is melting down over. Multiple times. At various points on various days. You have saved me from thousands of meltdowns, too. 

Thank you for letting me grumble about how tired I am some days or how much I have to do or how everything seems to be piling up on me—when I know you have the same stuff going on in your life, too.

We're both in the thick of parenting young kids but you always hear me out and make me feel like my worries are legitimate. Quite frankly, you've saved me from feeling like I'm losing it. 

Thank you for letting me hash out a problem that's really bothering me. You have saved me from letting negative feelings bubble up inside me. Letting it out with you is better than an explosion at them, right? 

Sometimes I really do just have to lay it all out there. To say what I need to say to someone I trust with my feelings. To feel heard. To help sort through my worries and fears.

As my 4-year-old daughter said tonight in an overly exhausted mini-meltdown, "Whining just helps me calm down, Mom."

Whining/complaining/venting helps me think through something I need help processing or allows me to say something that I feel like I need to say to someone but that someone probably shouldn't hear it, so you get to hear it instead.

I have my occasional vent session here and there and then; I try to move on. Because I feel like if I dwell in the Land of Complaints, then I get stuck.

And I definitely don't want to be stuck feeling sorry for myself or being pitied. 

I want to—and I want to teach my children to—pick myself up by the bootstraps and soldier on.

Life is great and I am lucky to be here. Sure, sometimes things will bother me—and I can and should acknowledge them—but ultimately, I'd rather focus on the positive than the negative. 

So, I guess whining helps me calm down sometimes, too. And while I'm not going to whine all the time and I'm not going to whine to just anyone—I am really glad I have you to whine to, my friend.

Thank you, Colleen for this “Grateful Lament.”  And thank you for illustrating how your gratitude can be a predictor of hope.

Folks, I challenge you this Thanksgiving Week, if you find yourself venting, sensing bitterness in your soul, or feeling overwhelmed by life, take time to reach out to a friend – someone that you are grateful for and that will really listen.

Or if you need someone who will listen, give me or Beth a call. We will listen and allow you to vent. 

And as you vent, lean into a posture of gratitude and let it grow for the person listening to you and for the ways God is unveiling hope in your life. 

During waiting worship today, I ask that you consider these queries.

1.        Who allows me to vent my frustrations and struggles? Have I acknowledged my gratitude for their presence?

2.        Since gratitude is a choice, where in my life do I need to choose gratitude over becoming bitter?

3.        This week, how will I look for God to unveil hope in my life?