1-23-22 - In the Beginning Was the Conversation!

In the Beginning Was the Conversation!

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

January 23, 2022

Good morning and welcome to Light Reflections. This morning our scripture text is a familiar one from John 1:1-5:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

As I mentioned in “As Way Opens” a couple of weeks ago, I started 2022 reading devotionally the book, “Church of the Wild” by Victoria Loorz.  There are many great things that I could preach on from this book, but one chapter specifically struck me and had me rethinking and even deconstructing some of my former theological understandings. 

It is not too often these days that I read something that has me engaged in the way that Chapter 6, In the Beginning was the Logos, has had me these first few weeks of 2022.

In this chapter, Loorz is focusing on the phrase, In the beginning was the Word. This is a statement we have all read or heard for most of our lives from the very beginning of the Gospel of John.

I have taught on this poetic text, preached sermons on it, even spent hours writing papers on the theological constructs that come from the idea of Jesus being the “Word” or as in the Greek it reads, “Logos.”

Where it hit me was when Loorz began her research on the word Logos.  I love doing research on words and phrases, part of my education has been all about this research as it is very important work for pastors when trying to interpret the wisdom of the scriptures. 

Yet, what I had been taught all my life, I have realized had taken, somewhat, for granted.  If there was one interpretation that I accepted as true without researching, it was “In the Beginning was THE WORD.”  “The word” was the given and proper English translation of the Greek word Logos – at least that is what I thought and had been taught for most of my education.   

Loorz helps give some background to the origin of the word logos and its interpretation over time. She says,

“Logos was first used in a cosmological way by Heraclitus of Ephesus, a Greek philosopher in the 15th Century BCE.  He used the word logos to articulate a kind of intelligent life force embedded in and interconnecting all things, ”a divine reason implicit in the cosmos, ordering it and giving it form and meaning.”  

Loorz points out that Heraclitus developed one of the most revolutionary concepts – the idea that all things are one – or what they now label “unitary Nature” or an indwelling unity behind the diversity in existing things.”

“Logos is the principle or power that shapes all and creates all things, immanent and embedded in all that exists…[It is] the relationship between all things, holding them together.”

She points out that this is a concept that many great thinkers throughout history have connected with – just calling them by different names.

Thich Nhat Hahn calls it “the web of interbeing.”

Robin Wall Kimmerer calls it “sacred reciprocity.”

David Whyte calls it “the conversational nature of reality.”

Quantum scientist David Bohn calls it “implicate order.”

Even Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a way of describing this logos.  He called it an inescapable network of mutuality, which he said was tied in a single garment of destiny – meaning whatever effects one directly, affects all indirectly.

And not only great thinkers but all the great philosophies of the world utilize this idea of logos.  From the Stoics to the Chinese, to even the Persians – this concept of logos is a universal concept that almost all philosophies teach and embrace. 

So…what about the Christian faith of which we ascribe? 

I remember when I was in undergrad college in River Forest, Illinois.  Sue and I would frequent a store in Oak Park, Illinois (which has since sadly closed). The name of that store happened to be Logos. It was an eclectic store – filled with Bibles, Christian Contemporary Music CDs, and religious trinkets. 

In many ways, it was very much like the old Family Christian or Lifeway Stores, but there was a difference. Mixed in among the books on the shelves were books from other religious philosophies and trinkets from other religions. 

On occasion, the students at our Christian college would get upset and seek ways to question the owners for their confusing selection of items. I remember one student even saying, “The store is called Logos – it is clear that it should be all about Jesus – because Jesus was the Word.”

Until around the fourth Century, most theologians and translators translated the Greek work logos into Latin not English, because Latin was the official language of the church at the time.  Logos in Latin was translated as sermo. 

Here is the surprising thing.  When you and I hear the word sermo – we immediately think of the word sermon.  Thus, it is easy to think why they would translate it into English as “word.” 

Yet, the reality is that sermo does not mean word, but rather a manner of speaking back and forth – or simply a conversation. 

Sermo’s root is sero which means to weave and join, it is the intimate living of life together, living among, and all in intimate conversation.

The Apostle John wanted to connect to this understanding when he wrote his unique and much more metaphorical and poetic gospel.  Many believe John was trying to be culturally relevant in how he saw Christ. He wanted to identify Jesus with the logos – this divine indwelling through which all things were made.  

Early theologians and philosophers would have understood what John was trying to do saying logos had a relational dimension or force.  It was a metaphor or descriptor for the embodiment of Christ’s work – not the person of Jesus himself.

This is more like when we distinguish between the President of the United States and the Office of the President of the United States. One is about the man, Joe Biden, and the other is about the actions, the work, the impact, the legacy of the position.

I consider Logos for us to be like the Office of the Greater Conversation Relationship with our neighbors, the divine, even the natural world around us. When describing Margaret Wheatley’s idea of “turning to one another” and embracing the need for and conversation with each other, I was inviting us to tap into this greater office of conversation and relationship.

This means logos is bigger than just the person, Jesus.  It is more about the title we give Jesus, that being, the Christ.

In Seeking Friends we have been wrestling with Richard Rohr’s latest work, “The Universal Christ.” Where he speaks directly to the difference between Jesus and the Christ. Rohr says,

“Christ, as such, is not precisely a religious principle…but a life principle – the ubiquitous confluence of matter and spirit.”  Christ is not Jesus’ last name, but the title for his life’s purpose.”

What Rohr and Loorz help us see is that Christ is about radical solidarity. Christ is the conversation happening between everyone and everything.  Christ is not the word, but the conversation. 

Just listen again to our text from John 1 which I read earlier – but this time let me replace “word” with conversation.

In the beginning was the Conversation, and the Conversation was with God, and the Conversation was God. This was with God in the beginning. Through this conversation all things were made; without it nothing was made that has been made. In this conversation was life, and that life was the light of all mankind…

The conversation became flesh and made its dwelling among us. 

Just let that sink in for a moment.

Christ is the sacred conversation that links everything together.

I once taught a class to mostly freshmen at Huntington University.  It was an Introduction to Christianity class and a required course.  As part of the curriculum I included a talk by Rob Bell, who many of my Evangelical students considered a heretic. Ironically, this talk was more a science lesson than it was a religion or theology lesson.

During Rob’s talk he shares about how everything is made up of smaller and smaller things.  All which must be in relationship with one another. This he says is the interconnection of all things. 

At our molecular or subatomic state we are made of particles that have to be in relationship, or as some scientists say, in an ongoing conversation with one another to survive. Conversation and relationship is literally what we are made of.  

As we would watch Rob’s talk many lightbulbs would began going off in the heads of my students.

Hmmm…they would wonder…then begin to make the connections first in the scriptures. 

·        Where two or three are gathered – there I am in the midst of them. 

·        A cord of three strands is not easily broken.

·        Three is the magic number… (well, you get it). 

When we “turn to one another” as I said a few Sundays ago and strike up a conversation with each other, our conversation becomes as Loorz points out, “a holy space of exchange: a space in which I release some of what I used to think and be, in order to include you. And we both are changed.”

As Quakers we can embrace this understanding because when the God in me, meets the God in you, we two are changed.  It is when we don’t acknowledge the God in our neighbor that we begin to break down the relationship and stop the vital communication.

So why do we not translate logos as word, today, instead of conversation?

Because since the 4th Century, the Patriarchs have been intentionally translating it to the Latin word verbum instead of sermo. Verbum is a noun meaning word, where sermo is a verb meaning conversation. 

Since language not only describes things, but also produces culture, the Patriarchs decided that controlling the religious world meant defining it by nouns or what we would call things. Soon a successful life was about the pursuit of things.  This is known as empire.

It is into this male dominated empire of things that Jesus of Nazareth is born.  A man who comes with a revolutionary message that was all about resisting empire.

Jesus came from the Hebrew people whose language is verb-based and who focuses in great depth on the relationships between all things. The Hebrew people were not about trying to define the substance of God – instead they were more about relating to and pleasing God. 

Actually, God was considered a verb to the Hebrew people – “I am who I am” (or as it should be more appropriately verb-translated “becoming which will be becoming.”

As Loorz put it, “God is BEING, not A being.”

Most of American Christianity today is all about defining nouns.  We have lost the conversation.  Even me giving this sermon – from the Greek sermo – should actually be about a conversation with you – not just a lecture of sorts. 

That is why I try to offer queries that will continue the conversation throughout the week. To help us engage our religious faith in a way that taps us into the greater conversation we are all a part of – the logos. 

As Quakers, we speak of being Light Bearers, carriers of the Logos, the Tao, the spark of Divine love within us.  And as Loorz points out, “when we engage one another [when we choose to turn to one another] – the conversation between us becomes the manifestation of the sacred, moving us forward to the ever-evolving kin-dom of grace – that is the Wild Christ.”

I pray we at First Friends will work hard on embracing this logos or sacred conversation.  That we will seek to be verb-people instead of noun-people. That as we have these sacred conversations we will see the manifestation of God in our midst, in our lives, within each of us. 

It might just be a wild and unexpected ride – but first we must “turn to one another” and start a Divine conversation!

If you want to continue to learn more about this, I highly recommend you pick up “The Church of the Wild” by Victoria Loorz – It would be a great way to continue the conversation.  I am sure I will sharing more from this book in the future.

Now, as we enter waiting worship, I want to utilize some queries Victoria Loorz poses to conclude this sermon.

·        What would a Wild Christ – a Conversation who is the intermediary of love between all things…evoke in our world?

·        Is it possible to imagine the worldview of kingdoms and empires transforming into a wordview pf kin-dom and compassion?

·        How might Christianity be different if it could become a place for sacred conversation: a place to explore possibilities and express doubts and disagree, and encourage voices on the edges?

1-16-22 - Martin Luther King Jr Day Sermon by Jill Frame

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Jill Frame

January 16, 2022

Good morning, Friends. Instead of scripture today, I’d like to read to you an excerpt from “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“We who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.”

There is something about history that conveys a feeling of inevitability. 

So, it is easy to look back at Martin Luther King Jr. sitting in a jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama, in April 1963, pencil stub in hand, and imagine him confidently writing what he knew would be a work for the ages, words that would propel one of the most successful social justice campaigns in history and be proclaimed by presidents, recited by elementary school students, emblazoned on billboards and greeting cards.

I read some of those words to you today from King’s “Letter from Birmingham City Jail” to remind us that the truth is far different. In fact, the 34-year-old preacher who landed in a bleak cell on Good Friday was unsure whether the act of civil disobedience that brought him there – trumped up charges of violating a parade ordinance – had made any difference at all.

The Civil Rights movement was still young and had turned to its most ambitious target yet. Bombingham- a moniker for Birmingham at the time- was a contradiction: a fast-growing city and a town where racial segregation and the indignities of Jim Crow laws were locked in tight. Even though steel-working wages paid to blacks were half those paid to whites, they offered the best jobs around, and few were interested in rocking that boat.

Still, in January 1963 as Governor George Wallace was declaring “segregation now, segregation forever” in Alabama, King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference- or more commonly known as the SCLC- decided to target Birmingham with an economic boycott during the Easter shopping season. *Few* joined in. In fact, many middle-class blacks and about three-quarters of black clergy joined most of the whites in opposing the protests, arguing that the city should be given a chance. After all, they argued, a new mayor had just been elected and they wanted to give him some time to make changes.

According to Jonathan Rieder, a Professor of Sociology at Barnard College, and author of “Gospel of Freedom: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter From Birmingham Jail and the Struggle That Changed a Nation,” It was while sitting in solitary confinement, without food, and with very little community support, King was at one of his lowest points. 

King was panicked -- and for good reason. Three years prior, King had been jailed without other SCLC leaders in Atlanta. At one point during his imprisonment, King was put into a straight jacket and driven through the dark of night to the Reedsville prison. During the 3.5 hour drive, King was convinced he was being taken to an unknown location to be killed by the Klu Klux Klan. Now, here he was in Birmingham, once again jailed without other SCLC leaders. He was scared that the same fate awaited him in Birmingham that had in Atlanta. 

King was also depressed. One day while in jail, a trustee snuck in the Birmingham newspaper for him. King read the front-page column which was written by eight prominent (and very moderate) Alabama clergymen- comprised of a priest, a rabbi, and six protestant ministers. These clergymen might be called in today’s parlance, “white allies.” They appealed for calmness and forbearance and accused King of violence. 

After reading the column, he fell into a spiral of despair and a crisis of Spirit. 

So, let’s pause a moment and consider that appeal, framed as it was in such reasonable language. 

“Let’s just calm down now. I’m sure we can work something out.”

And there’s nothing wrong with that. Nobody likes conflict. We all want to get along, to resolve things. And that’s good.

But what happens when what appears to be “reasonableness” is just a way of masking obstruction, a way of sweeping under the rug valid complaints of injury and oppression, a way of discounting the felt experience of people who see no hope of remedy?

It’s a problem stated perhaps most famously in that ancient Hebrew scripture, the Book of Jeremiah, where the prophet complains, “I have given heed and listened, but they do not speak honestly; no one repents of wickedness, saying ‘What have I done?’ All of them turn to their own course like a horse plunging headlong into battle. . . . They have treated the wound of my people carelessly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.” (Jeremiah 8:5-6, 11)

TRUE THAT Jeremiah! There comes a point when we must pivot from the response that is reasonable to the one that the writer Cornell West calls, “radical,” a solution that goes to the root of the problem, that questions the most fundamental assumptions and argues for new ways of looking at the world, West argues that now nearly a half-century after King’s death we have lost sight of the radical edge of his work, of all the ways that his work questioned fundamental structures in American society and called us to larger lives.

We find the ground laid for that radical King in the “Letter from Birmingham City Jail.” And who knows? But for that front-page appeal from his critics, King may not have had the occasion or impetus at that point in his life to gather his thoughts in that way. We know he was depressed from the lack of response to the protests, editorials from national newspapers criticizing his action, and President Kennedy’s resistance to requests to help him. He was also sad at being away from his wife, Coretta, two days after the birth of their daughter, Bernice.

Ultimately though, that column ignited a fire in King, and he began writing so feverishly that some of his supporters worried for his state of mind. Wyatt Walker, a close friend, and ally went to visit King four days after he was arrested. WALKER later reported being perplexed after his visit. He couldn’t understand why King was so angered by the column. He wondered to himself, “Why is he so upset at these white preachers? This is exactly what we expected of them. We’ve got to get protests going! Let’s start focusing on liberating blacks! Why is he worried about these guys?”

All alone, King began scribbling on the edge of the newspaper, then when all the empty edges of the newspaper were depleted, he moved on to using sheet after sheet of toilet paper. His writings were smuggled out of the jail by a friend, Clarence Jones, who stuffed the writing down the front of his pants. King’s toilet paper and newspaper writings were then passed on to his 17-year-old secretary, who did her best to decipher his handwriting. For all of King’s dreams, this Letter starts out in a cry of pain and anger. 

It is here amid personal reflections on his family’s experience with racism and musing over passages of scripture that he lays down how he understands his calling to a radical activism, non-violent but centered in a love that refuses to see the separations that Birmingham’s laws enforce. You know the words: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” he writes. “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”

He acknowledges that the purpose of his action is not to make peace but to stir things up: “To create such a crisis,” he says, “and establish such creative tension that a community that has consistently refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue.”

Those words may sound shocking, he says, but he makes no apologies: “There is a type of constructive nonviolent tension that is necessary for growth,” he says, and “now is the time to make real the promise of democracy, to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.

King was released from jail on April 20th. Nothing much happened to the letter right away. It was released to the press and few newspapers were interested and it was pretty much ignored. Further, its addressed recipients never saw it until it was published months later. King’s friend, Wyatt Walker, was concerned at the lack of press attention that the Letter got, so he went to the American Friends Service Committee and they were the first organization to publish it at the end of May as a pamphlet. Christian Century published it June 12. And finally the New York Post published it. 

Today, we aren’t recalling Dr. King’s life from cradle to grave, or to discuss him preaching about the meaning of his dream. 

Today, I thought it was important to spend time really focusing on the story behind Dr. King’s now-famous letter. Let us not forget that the letter was written while King was in utter despair and was terrified for his life. He was able to hold on to the painful tension- of feeling his fury and anguish all the while refusing to create a movement. He found a constructive way to channel those feelings into this now famous letter. Let us not forget that parts of the letter had their humble origins on the edges of a smuggled newspaper and pieces of prison toilet paper. That only a small audience at first appreciated its importance. While it becomes a great document in retrospect, the circumstances of how it came into being were anything but! 

On the day that King received the Nobel Prize, the head of the Nobel committee referred to this letter specifically. He channels King when he stated, “These are words delivered to mankind. These are words for global injustice. These are words that arise from a context but they are universal.” 

Outside of the time and place in which he lived, his words stand the test of time. I hope you will take a few minutes tomorrow to read his Letter. To ask yourself how they might inspire you to take action. His words stand the test of time. 

When Dr. King was arrested in Birmingham, Alabama for participating in a civil rights demonstration, he laid out what was necessary for people to do to live in this new day and BE the new day: To reject the myth of time. I’ll give Dr. King the last words today: “It is the strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills… We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of men and women willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation.” 

As we prepare for waiting worship, let’s ponder these queries together: 

How have you allowed the myth of time- the “strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills” to impede you from action?

Have we spent much time contemplating something “radical,” i.e., a solution that goes to the root of the problem, that questions the most fundamental of our assumptions?

How are you personally inspired by Dr. King’s dogged commitment to the writing of this letter in the direst of circumstances? How can you take action?

1-9-22 - Entering 2022 - Together!

Entering 2022 – TOGETHER!

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

January 9, 2022

Good morning and Happy New Year friends and welcome to Light Reflections.

Every year about this time, I find myself cracking open Meg Wheatley’s seemingly timeless (or maybe even borderline prophetic) book, “Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future” – a book that surprisingly celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.  It is based on a set of queries for people to ponder and discuss about the long-neglected act of communication or simply talking and listening to one another. 

I was draw back to it this week by a chapter in the current book I am reading during my daily devotional times – which had me pondering my own communication practices.

This time as I re-read through some of my notes and highlights, I came across the following quote – Meg says, 

“Our twenty-first-century world is descending into aggression, fear, and separation. War, genocide, violence, slavery, pandemics, poverty, natural disasters – all these are commonplace in this new century, despite most people’s deep longing to live together in peace.”

I think I have read and quoted this on numerous occasions, but as the years continue to unfold, I find it more and more true.  20 years ago when Meg wrote those words she somehow could see the trajectory we were on and what we would be most in need of – living together in peace. 

In many ways, I sense 2022 should be a year of heeding Meg Wheatley’s call to again “turn to one another” and acknowledge that we need each other more than ever.

Over the Holiday break, I don’t know about you, but I was overwhelmed by how many weighty people we lost in the last couple of weeks of 2021 - from Betty White to Desmond Tutu.  It really had me reflecting on the importance of the people in our lives.

Ironically, Desmond Tutu and Meg Wheatley both had similar responses to the world in which they lived.  Desmond was heeding the warning first in South Africa and then ultimately to the world.  And his answer to the condition of the world was summed up well in one single African word –

UBUNTU - which roughly translated means “A person is a person through other persons” – or simply “I am because of who you are.”   

But to get more to the core of what ubuntu means let me share how the late Desmond Tutu described it. He said,

“Ubuntu … speaks to the very essence of being human, saying, my humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up in yours, we belong in a bundle of life….It says I am human because I belong, I participate, I share, and harmony, friendliness, community are great goods.

Social harmony is for us … the greatest good, that you and I are made for interdependence. You and I are made for complementarity.

You have gifts that I don’t have, I have gifts that you don’t have. You might almost see God rubbing God’s hands in glee, “Voila, that is exactly why I created you, that you should know your need for the other.”

Friends, one of the best places for us to experience ubuntu or where we can learn to turn to one another is right here within this Meeting. First Friends is a place which helps hone our gifts and our deep longing for peace by our interaction and care for one another. 

Just take a moment and look around you and notice the people in this room (or in the virtual space) that you need in your life, or that have made a difference in yours or someone else’s life, or that care, love, and befriend people that you may have a hard time reaching out to.

The truth is that we need each other, and First Friends provides a furtile ground for just that support and experience to blossom. All our gifts, talents, abilities, experiences, quirks and particularities are key to our identity, and yes, ultimately our unique purpose as a community of faith.  

The Apostle Paul echoes these same thoughts in his first letter to the Corinthians. He said, 

14 Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.

Or as Desmond Tutu illustrates it:

Have you seen a symphony orchestra? There is a person at the back carrying a triangle. Now and again the conductor will point to him or her and that person will play "ting." That might seem so insignificant, but in the conception of the composer something irreplaceable would be lost to the total beauty of the symphony if that "ting" did not happen.

Folks, you are here at First Friends for a reason.

We need each other. 

We need this training ground for learning to live together in peace as Meg Wheatley suggested. 

And we need this as a place to practice Ubuntu and become real and genuine people who truly love and care for one another.  

Whether Meg Wheatley a practicing Buddhist, or Desmond Tutu an Episcopal Archbishop, or the Apostle Paul from the Bible, there is something universal about this calling to one another. 

My friend and fellow Quaker minister, Phil Gulley in his book “Living the Quaker Way,” brought it even closer to home when he described another view of the church – what I hope our community at First Friends could be described as and embrace. Phil says,  

“...there is another church....It is found wherever and whenever peace, joy, and compassion carry the day...It labors not for its own glory, but for the well-being of all people everywhere.

 It rejoices when the marginalized are included. It sees in its fellow beings not sin and separation from God but potential, promise, and connection. Wherever people love, it is there. Whenever people include, it is present.

Whenever people join together in spirit of compassion and inclusion this church feels at home, for those virtues have been its priority from its earliest days. This church existed since the time of Jesus, but it’s benevolent spirit predates the Nazarene.

It is not the province of any one denomination; its adherents can be found in every movement and every faith. 

While others bluster and rant, its members go quietly and cheerfully about their ministries, determined to bring heaven to earth.

This church seeks to learn, understand, and include. It is of the world, loves the world, and welcomes all people as its brothers and sisters.  Where borders separate, this community straddles the partition, refusing to let arbitrary lines rule their conscience and conduct. They are, in every sense of the word, members of one another.  Community and compassion are their bywords.”      

That’s the type of community I want to continue to develop and nurture right here at First Friends in 2022. Right here on our property, in our communities, in our parks, our workplaces, the restaurants we frequent, WHEREVER we (the Church) find ourselves. 

This, I believe, is living within ubuntu and embracing a mentality that is willing to first turn to one another.    

Now, let’s be honest, this isn’t always that easy. People disappoint us, they fail us, they let us down. They even sometimes frustrate us and make us not want to be around them.

Just maybe when we look around this room (or we think about the people in our meeting) we are reminded of people who have not been this type of community for us.  That is also part of the challenge.  There will always be people we disagree with or that frustrate us or that we do not particularly like.  

With those individuals, it takes, on our part, some personal awareness, some education, and often some reflection and even action to stay committed.

This is where Desmond Tutu is right.  Practicing ubuntu and turning to one another also means we must learn to forgive, to listen to and allow other voices to be heard, to lay down our judgements, personal desires, political preferences, for the greater good of the community.  

My hope in this New Year is that we would commit first and foremost to turning to one another once again, to take the time to journey with those God has placed within our community, to embrace the spirit of ubuntu, and to remember to acknowledge those playing the triangle in our symphony.   

I would like to close this sermon with a poem written by a dear Quaker friend of Sue and mine, it summarizes well this call to journey together, and I think it is my favorite poem by Sarah Hoggatt. It is called The Journey Worth Taking and can be found in the book, “Spirit Rising: Young Quaker Voices” - which I highly recommend and is in our Meeting’s library. 

The Journey Worth Taking by Sarah Hoggatt

We come from far-off lands,

cultures apart, struggling to 

understand a foreign tongue,

another viewpoint, another way to live, 

to see, to hear God in different words. 

We listen, opening to new sights, perspectives, 

ways to love as we discover

we are unique parts of a greater circle, 

distinctive expressions of the Divine Life. 

Yet our voices together lift up the mountains. 

Our chorus pulses the river down the outward

flow into a world needing to hear the rushing tide. 

We are on a journey and it may not even 

matter so much where we end up, 

but that we rise up to take the voyage. 

We speak the truth of our lives, 

hear each other and are changed. 

We can love without complete understanding, 

Walking the light together while miles apart. 

If in the tension we can find

the one light we are birthed from,

the thread through our stories,

we may discover we are brothers, sisters all

of one skin, one laughter, music, lilting, free, 

if we can just find the courage to come together

And take the journey. 

Now as we enter this time of waiting worship, I ask you to ponder the following queries:

1.     How aware am I of the need for others in my life?

2.     Who may I need to “turn to” this week and listen to more intently?

3.     As a faith community, how might we at First Friends embrace a spirit of ubuntu in the coming year? 

12-12-21 - The Wisdom of John for Today

The Wisdom of John for Today

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

December 12, 2021

Matthew 3:1-12 from the Message translation:

While Jesus was living in the Galilean hills, John, called “the Baptizer,” was preaching in the desert country of Judea. His message was simple and austere, like his desert surroundings: “Change your life. God’s kingdom is here.”

 John and his message were authorized by Isaiah’s prophecy:

Thunder in the desert!
Prepare for God’s arrival!
Make the road smooth and straight!

John dressed in a camel-hair habit tied at the waist by a leather strap. He lived on a diet of locusts and wild field honey. People poured out of Jerusalem, Judea, and the Jordanian countryside to hear and see him in action. There at the Jordan River those who came to confess their sins were baptized into a changed life.

When John realized that a lot of Pharisees and Sadducees were showing up for a baptismal experience because it was becoming the popular thing to do, he exploded: “Brood of snakes! What do you think you’re doing slithering down here to the river? Do you think a little water on your snakeskins is going to make any difference? It’s your life that must change, not your skin! And don’t think you can pull rank by claiming Abraham as father. Being a descendant of Abraham is neither here nor there. Descendants of Abraham are a dime a dozen. What counts is your life. Is it green and flourishing? Because if it’s deadwood, it goes on the fire.

“I’m baptizing you here in the river, turning your old life in for a kingdom life. The real action comes next: The main character in this drama—compared to him I’m a mere stagehand—will ignite the kingdom life within you, a fire within you, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out. He’s going to clean house—make a clean sweep of your lives. He’ll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he’ll put out with the trash to be burned.”

This morning, I want us to take look at one of my favorite characters in the Bible and also the Christmas story. 

No, you will not find him around the Nativity Scene at the base of your Christmas Tree. And no, he was not a shepherd or a member of the magi. Actually, by many in his day he was considered a crazy man.

John, the one we often call “the Baptist” or who Eugene Peterson translates “The Thunder in the Dessert.” (personally, I think that may be one of the coolest names in all of the Bible). That makes John sound more like a Professional Wrestler than a Bible character – and now, Thunder in the Dessert.

From his crazy wardrobe and bug eating to his nomad living, we may easily be distracted from seeing his ministry as a preparation for Peace.

This past week took a chaotic turn for us at First Friends, and much like the last couple of years, our lives have taken some chaotic turns - leaving us wondering about our need for peace. It is again clear this year that we are still longing for a sense of inner and outer peace in our lives.

The same was true in the days of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth. It was a chaotic time for different reasons, but the people in his day were also heralding a cry for peace to come into their world.

As was often the case in the Bible – it took a prophet, someone who could get the attention of the people, to help focus their attention away from the chaos of the world and help them recenter on the peace that was available to them.  John was the prophet in this moment.

We have heard that his task was to prepare the way for Jesus, but it was much more.  To “prepare the way” means to create a favorable environment and to make it easy for one to come to you and operate in your life.

John was doing just that – creating a favorable environment and making it easy for the way of Jesus, or peace, to enter and operate in the lives of the people. 

To help make John’s prophetic words more applicable to our current situation, I would like to return to our text this morning and highlight some areas that may speak to our condition from John’s story.  

First, John’s message was simple – he said, “Change your life. God’s kingdom is here.”

To prepare for the way of Jesus to enter our lives means we may need to make some changes.  We may have to right some wrongs, forgive someone or ask for forgiveness, or we might even have to change our perspectives and face our fears. 

This is not just an outward change – but it also may take a change of heart – or an inner change. Outwardly, living in peace may take respecting and having compassion for one another despite our many differences (which isn’t always easy), but inwardly we may need to search our own hearts and minds and seek to understand the fear and struggles within us. 

Take a moment to ask yourself this morning:  What fears or struggles am I facing currently that may need to change so I may experience true peace?

Often our fears and struggles are simply manifestations of feeling a loss of control.  In the church we often talk about surrendering to God or giving over control to the Divine. I believe John is trying to remind us that to cease power over people and outcomes in our lives is the first major step in learning to live more peacefully. 

Next our text says, “Make the Road Smooth and Straight.”

What I believe John was teaching us was that we are called to help fill in the potholes and level the walls or barriers for others to receive the Peace of Christ. 

Take a moment to consider what are the potholes or barriers in our day and age for people to find peace?

I think one of the biggest potholes in the church is holding convictions without ever considering the viewpoints and perspectives of others.  Or not being willing to accept others different than ourselves and appreciating our diversity. 

When we fail to see from our neighbors perspectives or opinions, the end result can be building walls or making potholes of discrimination, repression, dehumanization, and ultimately violence – all which are directly in opposition to peace.

The third thing I want to point out from our text may seem a bit odd for multiple reasons – it is that John dressed in a camel-hair habit tied at the waist by a leather strap.  

As Quakers who historically used their clothing to make a statement, so did John.  His dress was the way he identified with the people on the fringes of his day.  John went as far as to become one of them – he not only dressed like them, he actually moved outside the city gates where the sick, the diseased, crippled, and outcast, I spoke of last week, were sent to live. 

For you and me that may mean finding things to do in our lives where we engage different groups of people that we normally do not associate with.  It is much harder to be discriminative, repressive, even dehumanizing when we interact with people from different walks of life.  Studies clearly show that people who have racist tendencies have often not had experience with people different than themselves.

To help bring peace in our current day, it just might take building a relationship, having a conversation, even engaging a group that might be outside your “comfort zone.”

John’s wilderness journey was just that – he was a RK (Rabbi Kid). He had it made.  He grew up with the elite of society and would have had a hard time identifying with those who had been sent outside the city walls.  He would have been taught by his own father that they were unclean and should be left alone. 

Thus the reason I believe John comes down so hard on the religious leaders who come out to see him in the wilderness.  He knew they wanted control because of their positions.  Listen to what he says in our text next.

Do you think a little water on your snakeskin is going to make any difference?  It’s your life that must change, not your skin! And don’t think you can pull rank by claiming Abraham as father.

John is being an advocate for those who had been taken advantage of – the actual people who lived in the wilderness where he made his home.  Also, the same people the religious leaders had used their position to oppress.

Now, this action of John may seem out of place, since most peace and conflict teachings say when communicating with other, seek to avoid being ordering, moralizing, demanding, or threatening, because these forms of communication can give rise to conflict with others who feel that you are trying to control them rather than speak with them as an equal.  This is simply because it can lead to further conflict and does not put the two sides on common ground. 

But remember – John had decided to become one of them.  In this case, he wanted to bring peace through accountability and calling out his brothers.  And that leads to one of John’s most important points from our text.

“What counts is your life. Is it green and blossoming? …ignite the kingdom life within you, a fire within you, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out.”

This may be the most Quakerly aspect of John’s prophetic words for us, today. Bringing peace in this world begins WITHIN EACH OF US. 

John’s query is so key – “Is our life green and blossoming?”  That query gets to the core issue – it asks us to stop and listen to our lives.  This is a call to personal awareness. 

And when we respond to that call and take time to listen to that still small voice of the Divine within us, we begin to allow ourselves to be awakened (as I said last week) to the world’s needs.  Awakened to become the day dreamers, gate keepers, bridge builders, soul speakers, web weavers, light bearers, food growers, wound healers, trail blazers, truth sayers, life lovers, and peace makers as the poem I read last week said. 

So, to quickly review what we have learned from John this morning, I have prepared some queries for us to ponder during waiting worship based on his teachings:

1.    What do I need to change in my life to find peace?

2.    Where am I creating “barriers” for others to find peace?

3.    Who are the folks on the fringe I need to identify with so they can experience peace?

4.    Where am I using my position to withhold peace?

5.    Is my life green and blossoming with opportunities for peace?

12-5-21 - A Season of Awakening

A Season of Awakening!

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

December 5, 2021

​​When​ ​the​ ​light​ ​shines,​ ​it​ ​exposes​ ​even​ ​the​ ​dark​ ​and​ ​shadowy​ ​things

and​ ​turns​ ​them​ ​into​ ​pure​ ​reflections​ ​of​ ​light.​ ​This​ ​is​ ​why​ ​they​ ​sing,

Awake,​ ​you​ ​sleeper!
​​​​​​​​Rise​ ​from​ ​your​ ​grave,
And​ ​the​ ​Anointed​ ​One​ ​will​ ​shine​ ​on​ ​you.

So​ ​be​ ​careful​ ​how​ ​you​ ​live;​ ​be​ ​mindful​ ​of​ ​your​ ​steps.​ ​Don’t​ ​run​ ​around like​ ​idiots​ ​as​ ​the​ ​rest​ ​of​ ​the​ ​world​ ​does.​ ​Instead,​ ​walk​ ​as​ ​the​ ​wise!​ ​​Make the​ ​most​ ​of​ ​every​ ​living​ ​and​ ​breathing​ ​moment​ ​because​ ​these​ ​are​ ​evil times.

Many faith traditions during this time of the year celebrate what they call the season of Advent.  Since Quakers do not follow the liturgical church year, this may seem foreign to us.  

​The​ ​actual​ ​word, “Advent,”​ ​is a Latin word which ​means​ ​“coming.”​ ​As I said a couple of weeks ago, I​ ​grew​ ​up​ ​in​ ​liturgical churches​ ​which​ ​all​ ​celebrated​ ​these​ ​four​ ​weeks​ ​leading​ ​up​ ​to​ ​Christmas day​ ​as​ ​a​ ​season​ ​of​ ​preparation​ ​for​ ​the​ ​coming​ ​of​ ​Jesus​ ​and​ ​his​ ​birth​.

This included church sanctuaries​ ​arrayed​ ​in​ ​royal​ ​purples​ ​or​ ​blue​ ​for​ ​the​ ​“Coming​ ​King”​ ​and​ ​an Advent​ ​Wreath​ ​with​ ​four​ ​candles​ ​to​ ​count​ ​down​ ​the​ ​Sundays​ ​until​ ​the​ ​big celebration.

Many churches (not just liturgical or sacramental churches) observe ​Advent​ including​ ​many ​Quakers. Actually, the Quaker Meeting I pastored in Oregon celebrated Advent each year. ​

​Taking a moment to consider the season of Advent, I​ ​have​ ​realized ​it​ ​is one​ ​of​ ​the​ ​most Quakerly​ ​seasons​ ​in​ ​the​ ​liturgical ​church​ ​year​, ​because​ ​of it’s focus ​on​ ​​expectant​ ​waiting​ ​​and​ ​​preparation​​ ​-​ ​two​ ​things​ ​that​ we, ​Quakers, consider​ ​very​ ​important​ ​to​ ​our​ ​faith.

But as​ ​I​ ​have​ ​continued to ​ponder​ ​this​ ​time​ ​of​ ​expectant​ ​waiting​ ​and​ ​preparation this​ ​year,​ ​I​ ​have​ ​had​ ​a​ ​another ​word​ ​that​ ​begins​ ​with​ ​the​ ​letter​ ​“A”​ ​on​ ​my mind.

That​ ​word​ ​is​ ​“awakening.”

Sure, the religious world has had an affinity for the word “awakening” – especially with two protestant revivals focused on heightened piety called the First and Second Great Awakenings. 

Yet,​ ​if​ ​you​ ​take​ ​some​ ​time​ ​and​ ​look​ ​into​ ​the​ ​definition​ ​of​ ​“awakening”​ ​you will​ ​come​ ​across​ ​this​ ​important​ ​description,​ ​which​ ​I​ ​believe​ ​may​ ​describe​ ​this time​ ​leading​ ​up​ ​to​ ​Christmas​ ​even​ ​more​ ​appropriately.

The​ ​definition​ ​says​ ​that​ ​awakening​ ​is​ ​​“​coming​ ​into​ ​existence​ ​or awareness​.”

What​ ​if​ ​we​ ​looked​ ​at​ ​the​ ​next​ ​couple​ ​weeks​ ​as​ ​a​ ​Season​ ​of​ ​Awakening for our individual lives and the life of our Meeting?

It ​seems​ ​appropriate​ ​when​ ​thinking​ ​about​ ​Jesus​ ​being​ ​born​ ​into​ ​this world.​ ​​ ​Jesus​’ life and ministry​ ​would bring into​ ​​existence​​ ​a​ ​new awareness​​ ​of​ ​our​ ​world.

The​ ​life ​of​ ​Jesus​ ​would help ​awaken​ ​the​ ​world​ ​to​ ​a​ ​new​ ​way​ ​of​ ​seeing.​ ​It says​ ​in​ ​scripture​ ​that​ ​he​ ​was​ ​reconciling​ ​the​ ​people​ ​to​ ​God​ ​and​ ​to​ ​their neighbors​ ​and​ ​making​ ​them​ ​aware​ ​of​ ​the​ ​importance​ ​of​ ​unconditional​ ​love.

As​ ​well,​ ​this​ ​coming​ ​of​ ​Jesus​ ​was​ ​shedding​ ​a​ ​new​ ​light​ ​on​ ​things.​ ​We​ ​often refer​ ​to​ ​Jesus​ ​as​ ​the​ ​​Light​ ​of​ ​the​ ​World​.​ ​Jesus​ ​was​ ​born​ ​into​ ​this​ ​world​ ​to shed​ ​light​ ​on​ ​our​ ​dark​ ​places​ ​and​ ​to​ ​awaken​ ​the​ ​light​ ​within​ ​each​ ​of​ ​us.

What​ ​if​ ​each​ ​Christmas​ ​Light​ ​that​ ​we​ ​decorate​ ​our​ ​homes​ ​and​ ​trees​ ​with and​ ​each​ ​candle​ ​that​ ​is​ ​lit​ ​was​ ​a​ ​reminder​ ​of​ ​Jesus’​ ​life​ ​and​ ​ministry​ ​and how​ ​​we​ ​too​​ ​are​ ​called​ ​to​ ​live​ ​that​ ​awakened​ ​life​ ​in​ ​this​ ​world?

​It​ ​just​ ​might have​ ​us​ ​seeing​ ​our​ ​lives,​ ​and​ ​especially,​ ​our​ ​neighbors​ ​from a different perspective.  

This​ ​was​ ​exactly​ ​what​ ​Jesus​ ​spoke​ ​of​ ​in​ ​his​ ​first​ ​sermon​ ​in​ ​his​ ​hometown synagogue.​ ​​​Listen​ ​to​ ​his​ ​words​ ​as​ ​he​ ​quoted​ ​from​ ​Isaiah.

God’s​ ​Spirit​ ​is​ ​on​ ​me;

He’s​ ​chosen​ ​me​ ​to​ ​preach​ ​the​ ​Message​ ​of​ ​good​ ​news​ ​to​ ​the​ ​poor,

Sent​ ​me​ ​to​ ​announce​ ​pardon​ ​to​ ​prisoners​ ​and ​​​​​​​​recovery​​ of ​​sight ​​to ​​the ​​blind,

To​ ​set​ ​the​ ​burdened​ ​and​ ​battered​ ​free, ​​​​​​​​

To​ ​announce,​ ​“This​ ​is​ ​God’s​ ​year​ ​to​ ​act!”

It seems clear - Jesus​ ​was​ ​announcing​ ​an​ ​awakening!

Jesus did not just ​awaken​ ​the​ ​people​ ​of​ ​his​ ​day​ ​to​ ​see​ ​just​ ​the​ ​prisoners,​ ​the​ ​blind, the​ ​burdened​ ​and​ ​battered​ -​ ​that​ ​was​ ​only​ ​the​ ​beginning.​ ​Jesus​ ​would go​ ​on​ ​to​ ​awaken​ them​ ​to​ ​the​ ​poor,​ ​the​ ​widows,​ ​the​ ​orphans,​ ​the​ ​women,​ ​the outcasts,​ ​the​ ​neglected,​ ​and​ ​the​ ​people​ ​from​ ​other​ ​cultures​ ​and​ ​races​ ​- even​ ​the​ ​despised​ ​Samaritans​ ​or​ ​what​ ​soon​ ​he​ ​would​ ​categorize​ ​as​ ​all​ ​the gentiles​ ​(or non-Jews).

Folks,​ ​Jesus​ ​was​ ​awakening​ ​a​ ​world​ ​to​ ​God’s​ ​Kingdom​ ​where​ ​ALL people​ ​were​ ​included​ ​and​ ​respected,​ ​and​ ​loved.​

T​​he​ ​veil​ ​would​ ​be​ ​torn and​ ​the​ ​table​ ​set​ ​for​ ​us​ ​to​ ​ALL eat together around his table.​

​​​​​This​ ​would​ ​have​ ​been great​ ​news​ ​to​ ​a​ ​world​ ​that​ ​was​ ​suffering​ ​from​ ​oppressive​ ​militant governments,​ ​who​ ​thought​ ​women​ ​were​ ​possessions,​ ​who​ ​swept​ ​the​ ​sick, the​ ​diseased,​ ​the​ ​crippled,​ ​and​ ​the​ ​unclean​ ​outside​ ​the​ ​city​ ​gates.

Sadly​, most of what Jesus was working to awaken is still happening in our world, today.

·        Many still live under oppressive militant governments - thus our need to welcome the Afghan evacuees.

·        Many cultures still consider women possessions – thus our need to promote equality wherever possible.

·        And even in the United States, the poor, elderly, LGBTQ+, and so many more are still neglected and put on the back burner for care and help.      

It is evident that we need awakening still today. 

Yet,​ ​I​ ​am​ ​optimistic.​ ​I​ ​sense​ ​an​ ​awakening​ ​happening​ ​in​ ​our​ ​world.​ ​God​ ​is again shedding​​ ​light​ ​on​ ​our​ ​darkness.​ ​God’s​ ​ways​ ​are​ again ​coming​ ​into existence​​ ​and​ ​we​ ​are​ ​becoming​ ​aware​ ​of​ ​the​ ​hurt​ ​we​ ​have​ ​caused​ ​by not​ ​being​ ​able​ ​to​ ​see​ ​that of God in our neighbor.​

​The Divine ​is​ ​awakening​ ​our inner​ ​lights,​​ ​fanning​ ​our​ ​flames,​ ​and​ ​calling​ ​us​ ​to​ ​be​​ ​ambassadors to​ ​our ​hurting​ ​world.

To close my thoughts this morning, I would like to share a poem written by Naima of the spoken word performance duo, Climbing Poetree.  The poem is titled, “Awaken”

AWAKEN

we are in the wake
of a great shifting

awaken

you better free your mind
before they illegalize thought

there’s a war going on

the first casualty was truth
and it’s inside you

the universe is counting on our belief
that faith is more powerful than fear
and in that the shifting moment
we’ll all remember why we’re here

in a world where you’re assassinated for having a dream
and the rich spend 9 billion a year to control our ideas
and visions are televised so things aren’t what they seem

we gotta believe
in a world where
there’s room enough for everyone
to breathe

cause reality is made up of
7 billion thoughts
who made up their minds
of what’s real and what’s not

so, I stopped believing
in false idols of war
greed and hate
is not worth my faith

my mind’s dedicated
to justice
my soul is devoted
to love

and love is God
and God is truth
and truth is you
and you are me
and I am everything
and everything is nothing
and nothing is the birthplace of creation
and transformation is possible
and you are proof

we were born right now
for a reason
we can be whatever
we give ourselves the power to be

and right now we need
day dreamers
gate keepers
bridge builders
soul speakers
web weavers
light bearers
food growers
wound healers
trail blazers
truth sayers
life lovers
peace makers

give what you most deeply desire
to give
every moment you are choosing to live
or you are waiting

why would a flower hesitate to open?
now is the only moment
rain drop let go
become the ocean

possibility is as wide
as the space
we create
to hold it

This​ ​morning​ ​as​ ​we​ ​head​ ​into​ ​waiting​ ​worship,​ ​ask​ ​yourselves,

·        How​ ​am​ ​I​ ​preparing​ ​for​ ​the​ ​​awakening​​ happening in my life this Holiday Season?  ​

·        Who around​ ​me​ ​is​ ​being​ ​neglected​ ​or​ ​treated​ ​poorly?​ ​Who​ ​is​ ​in​ ​need​ ​of​ ​a​ ​little respect​ ​or​ ​a​ ​blessing​ ​of​ ​love​ ​during this season?​ ​Who​ ​needs​ ​an​ ​awakening?

11-21-21 - Quaker Worship (Part 8): Eucharist/Thanksgiving

Quaker Worship (Part 8): Eucharist/Thanksgiving

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

November 21, 2021

Colossians 3:15-17 (The Message)

15-17 Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every

detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.

This morning we conclude our Fall Sermon Series on Quaker Worship.  Very soon we will be transitioning into the Holiday season, but before we do, I want to take one last look at Quaker worship.  It just may help usher us into the holidays in a very significant way.

This past week, I was listening to a book as I took my morning walks, and the author said the following,

“I have sought to call the members of this generation into an awareness that worship means expanding the meaning of their humanity.” 

When I heard this, I paused the book, rewound it, and listened to that definition one more time. 

If worship is about expanding the meaning of our humanity, it must influence us in the present moment, not just eternally. And I believe this effect comes from a long-standing understanding in the Universal Church of worship being about giving thanks (an appropriate subject for this upcoming week). 

As most of you know, I grew up in liturgical and sacramental churches. That means, on most Sundays, we celebrated the Lord’s Supper or what those churches often called the Eucharist. 

The Greek word from which the word eucharist comes is eucharista which actually translates in English to thanksgiving. 

That is why in many churches that celebrate the eucharist or the Lord’s Supper – you may hear them call it the Great Thanksgiving.  This often confused me as a child – why are we always celebrating Thanksgiving at church – and with such micro-portions.  

The Great Thanksgiving was usually the part of the service where they moved from readings, prayers, and preaching, to consecrating the elements of bread and wine, gathering around the table (or altar), and sharing in a symbol of their common-union together. 

As Quakers, this may seem rather foreign, and it definitely is not a part of our tradition. Friends do not feel it is necessary to utilize the elements of bread and wine in our worship, yet, that does not mean that we do not have a Eucharist among Quakers. Let me explain.  

Friend Brent Bill says that Quaker silence or waiting worship is in fact our version of the Eucharist. In his book, Holy Silence, he says,

“We believe that Christ comes in a physically present way in the same way that Catholics believe that when the host is elevated it becomes the literal body and blood of Jesus.”

Thus, the famous Quaker painting, The Presence in the Midst by James Doyle Penrose which you will see hanging in most Quaker Meetings – including ours.

Early Quakers called this “experiencing the Present Christ – or the Present Teacher.” For those coming from a liturgical background, like myself, we find this explanation very helpful. 

Yet, we may not all feel comfortable with the “Jesus” terminology, some of us may be more inclined to utilize the Divine, Present Teacher, Inner Christ, Spirit, or even conscience.

Often when centering down into Quaker silence or waiting worship, Friends seek a transcendent experience with this Divine. We hope to experience what we often call a nudging of the Spirit.  At times we will find ourselves comforted and at other times we may be uncomfortable, quaking, and even draw to speak out of the silence.  We may even sense a calling to act or respond out of that silence.

Brent Bill and his wife describe an experience of this Quaker Eucharist in the following way,

“It was as if something had been lit deep inside and now shown from their faces, we saw ‘grace and truth’ reflected in the people around us…God had worked his way into the deeper parts of our hearts and out to our fingers and toes and noses.” 

As I grew up in liturgical and sacramental churches, I found the Eucharist and taking communion with elements very special and important to me – but it always seemed a private event between me and God. Even though it was called communion – the common-union was ONLY between me and God.  That did not seem enough. 

The Eucharist was to be a communal experience more like we read in the Bible with Jesus and his disciples. They came together in common-union to give thanks and then to go out and change their world.  It was more than just having a one-on-one relationship with Jesus.  

Actually, the liturgical rite I used to pray each week as an Anglican Priest concludes with words that suggest there should be even more to this communal aspect of the Liturgical/Sacramental Eucharist. I used to read in the closing prayer these words:

“…and that we are very members incorporate in the mystical body of thy Son, the blessed company of all faithful people; and are also heirs, through hope, of thy everlasting kingdom. And we humbly beseech thee, O heavenly Father, so to assist us with thy grace, that we may continue in that holy fellowship, and do all such good works as thou hast prepared for us to walk in…”

Or in more modern language…

“And now, Father, send us out
to do the work you have given us to do,
to love and serve you
as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord.”

When I finally added the Quaker belief that there is “that of God in all people” to the Eucharist experience my understanding blossomed and evolved. I now could envision what Brent Bill and his wife had experienced.

God had always been present in the people surrounding me – they are truly the “blessed company” and “holy fellowship” as I said each week in my Anglican days, because they too had God within them.  

Actually, that means that if God is within them – they too can be a “means of grace” – a sacrament that connects me with the Divine.  In my heart, I realized my neighbor may be able to do that even better than a piece of bread or a drink of wine.   

I realized that I did not need the elements of bread and wine to see or experience God, rather I needed to acknowledge the Divine’s presence in those that God had already placed around me in this present moment of my life.

God had already given me all the physical elements I needed – the real query seemed to be, was I willing to see them in this way?

Just maybe, I needed to sit in silence and quiet my own thinking and desires, and allow the Divine to speak to me through those gathered around me.

What I have learned is that when you and I sit with our fellow Friends in silent worship or waiting worship – we are experiencing the Eucharist in a truly communal and sacramental way – communal together and sacramental in that God is present in each of us.

Realizing this only affirms for me why Jesus narrowed things down to two great commandments - to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself.  These were the basics for the Eucharist and for our worship together.

It also makes more sense why it would be named the Great Thanksgiving.  The thanksgiving was to be for more than just what God has done in our lives, but also for us to be thankful for what God is doing in the lives of those around us. 

This makes the Eucharist more than just a ritual we fulfill or run through the motions of doing. Rather, it is a communal experience that creates an awareness within and around us of the Divine’s influence, work, and even compassion for our neighbors, whether in our Meeting or without. 

And to encompass this awareness in the idea that thanksgiving is essential. 

Because having a heart for worship means first, we have a thankful heart – thankful for what God is doing and also thankful for our neighbor and what God is doing within them. 

It must start with thankfulness – otherwise it takes us away from true worship, having compassion, and expanding the meaning of our humanity.  Just think about it…

When we are not thankful for those whose opinions differ from ours; we criticize.

When we don’t value those different than ourselves; we ostracize.

When we aren’t respectful of other’s values, we marginalize.

Ingratitude is at the root of arrogance, hatred, and rudeness.  

Folks, it is the direct opposite of being in a place of humble worship where we seek to love God and our neighbor as ourselves.

When we are not thankful, we don’t just have a problem with our words; we have a problem with our hearts.

That is why my hope is to refocus us to see the heart of worship as thanksgiving.

Giving thanks is life-giving. It breaks down the walls that isolate us from each other and from our world. To be thankful is to see ourselves in relation to what is around us and to understand life as the blessing it is. Thanksgiving is the key to a joy-filled and worshipful life.

And if we are willing to embrace a worship posture of thanksgiving, our hearts will continue to grow softer and not harder, and we will begin to see “that of God all around us.”

So, to close, I want to return to the opening words of our scripture for this morning. Let these words be our charge each week as we enter worship and this week as we celebrate Thanksgiving.

Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness.

Today, as we enter waiting worship or what I would like to call Quaker Eucharist let us focus on having a thankful heart.

·        As you center down, take a moment to thank whatever you name the Divine in your life for the blessings you have.

·        Keep your ears and hearts open to the nudging of the Spirit - what is the Spirit asking of you this morning?

·        And then take a moment to look around and sense your fellow Friends (the blessed company and holy fellowship) around you.  How are they a sacrament to you in this Silence? 

11-14-21 - The Spiritual Power of Music

The Spiritual Power of Music

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Beth Henricks

November 14, 2021

Exodus 15:20-21

Then the prophet Miriam, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dancing. And Miriam sang to them:

“Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously”

Friends, today we are honoring Shawn Porter, our organist for 25 years here at First Friends.  Shawn will be leaving us at the end of the year and I ask all of you to hold him in the Light and send your thoughts of appreciation for his ministry here.  This special Sunday got me thinking about the power of music in our worship experience.  Bob has been talking about Quaker worship and its different elements over the last few weeks.  I want to today to expand on the spiritual power of music in how we experience the mystical, the Divine, its emotional bond and the movement of our heart  to God through music.  As Maya Angelou once said,  no one will remember the words we say (as long and hard as we work on the words).  People will remember how we made them feel.  That speaks to me a lot about music.  Music has this way of evoking an emotion, a time, a place, a feeling that nothing else can give us. 

I know each of you has lost someone beloved to you and don’t you remember them in the most profound way through music?  Just this weekend I was texting with my son Greg about the music his dad and my husband loved which was extensive (jazz, swing, Motown, anything with an accordion etc).  But this weekend it was about marching band music and John Phillips Sousa’s Washington March that played on my phone during yard work.  Jerry loved marching band music and every time he heard a song from Sousa, he participated in the bass drum part with his mouth.  We were both sharing about how much we missed him and the memory that music brings up to us in a profound way. 

Every time I hear a Fleetwood Mack song I immediately think of our dear Ann Panah that passed away several years ago at the age of 59 from cancer.  Music was such a significant love of her life and that love connected us to her (and still does) in the deepest way.   I’m sure that each of you could share one of these moments for someone that you have lost. Music connects us beyond this physical realm and for me this is such a part of our experience of God and worship.

Music meets a human need and finds its place in the heart of people. It is associated with the need for comfort, rest, tranquility, peace, sleep. But It’s associated with every other part of life.  Music can be high, and noble, and exalted. It can be elevating. It can be uplifting. It can raise that which is honorable and pure.  Music reminds us of who we are. It  has the power to transform our lives.  There is a great  scene in the movie The Shawshank Redemption. If you have seen this movie, you will remember that the main character, Andy Dufrain, has been sentenced to two back-to-back life terms for crimes he did not commit. He is thrown into a violent world  of Shawshank Prison where everything conspires to destroy humanity.

Andy puts one of his records on the prison record player. Intoxicated by the beauty of an aria, Andy locks out the warden and plays a portion of “The Marriage of Figaro” by Mozart over the prison loudspeaker. Everyone in Shawshank Prison stands transfixed by the music – a moment of intrusive beauty in a horrible place.

Andy  is tortured for his little trick. On his release from solitary confinement, Andy explains to his inmate friends how he endured being in this prison . “I had Mr. Mozart to keep me company. It is in here (pointing to his head and heart). That’s the beauty of music… so you don’t forget that there are places in the world not made out of stone, that there’s something inside that they can’t get to, that they can’t touch.” It is yours and its mine and it can bring us back to a place of humanity and grace.

There are many other movies that I’m sure all of you can think of that evoke this same kind of emotion for you.  I remember the first time I was watching Tom Hanks in the role of the attorney with AIDS in the movie Philadelphia.  There is this profound moment when Hanks’s character who is dying listens to Maria Calla’s  recording of “La Mamma Morta” from “Andrea Chénier .  It is  a scene that moves beyond his physical disease and the constraints of his body, and he achieved a mystical comprehension of being in that moment (as did his own attorney played by Denzel Washington). I will never forget how I felt watching this scene in the movie.

This power of music has been a part of the church since its  beginning.  It was an important aspect of worship in both the Old and New Testament.  As we heard today, Miriam led women in singing, tambourines and joy to express gratitude to God for bringing them out of bondage with the Egyptians (this was after the Red Sea parted and the Israelites were able to escape from the Pharoah and Egyptian army.)   The book of Psalms seems to be the original songbook of the church as praises and laments permeate throughout this book.  So many songs from our current music as well as our traditional music have their words  coming out of the book of Psalms.  II Chronicles 5:13 says “it was the duty of the trumpeters and singers to make themselves heard in unison in praise and thanksgiving to the Lord, and when the song was raised, with trumpets and cymbals and other musical instruments in praise to the Lord, for he is good, his steadfast love endures forever, the house of the Lord was filled with a cloud.”  Music was a part of the Isrraelites culture and songs were a way to praise, worship and lament to Yahweh.

We know that King David (before he was king)  would many times play his harp to calm King Saul when he was in a dark place mentally and emotionally.  There is lots to examine about this for another day, but it again speaks to the power of music to soothe our soul and bring us into God’s presence when we are scared, in the dark and afraid.

There was also much music in the early New Testament church gatherings.   Ephesians 5: 19-20 says “as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hears, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”    Colossians 3:16 says “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs to God.

Music in worship is a powerful emotional stimulator.  It is a gift of God. It is a common grace. We can’t imagine the world without music, the world in which we now live. 

Barbara Brown Taylor, one of my favorite writers and pastors, said that to preach is to “toss the fragile net of our words over the bone-melting music of God.” I like the image of these words and the description of how music can melt our bones and bring us into a place of the Divine.

Sometimes on Sunday we hear our name called in the music. Something stirs within us, and we, too, realize who we were meant to be. “Deep cries unto deep,” and we find ourselves surrounded by the “bone-melting music of God.”

Sometimes, music reminds us of our past. That’s especially true today as we sing several of the old hymns.  However, music also takes us into a future that we can imagine, one where love, peace, joy and care for each other and our earth is possible.  I am sure you can think of times and songs that transport you to this place of hope and promise.  Just about every important social and justice movement has music deeply embedded in their drive for change.

When I first started exploring Quakerism 30 years ago, I was attracted to the idea of unprogrammed worship and learning how to center myself to listen to the voice.  But I also knew I had to be a part of a worship service where music was included because of how music connects me to the Divine.  I know this is not the case for everyone, but it’s one of the reasons why I have loved First Friends. The fact that we incorporate music, the spoken word and silence in our community is what I had been looking for my entire spiritual life.    And we have been blessed to have some talented musicians that have offered a breadth of musical styles and songs.

One of those people is Shawn Porter.  Today we are celebrating him and honoring the 25 years of his music ministry at First Friends.  I remember the first time that Shawn came to First Friends to play the organ.  It was in December, close to Christmas and he showed up in this festive Christmas vest and played the organ wonderfully that Sunday.  Shawn started out as our organist and within several years he was playing the organ and also directing the choir.  I was part of the choir for many years, and I always appreciated his organizational skills, his amazing ability to sight read music (never seen anyone sight read that well), his sense of humor and fun, and how he embraced all of us no matter our musical talents. 

Shawn also became more than my choir director – he became my friend.  Shawn is a good friend.  I will never forget his genuine concern for me when I told everyone on a Sunday 17 years ago that I had uterine cancer.  I was having surgery the following week and I remember being in the Coffee Circle room for some meeting after Meeting for worship and when he left the meeting visibly shaken by my news  he whispered in my ear – I love you.  He meant it and I was deeply moved by his care and connection with me. 

We come from some similar religious backgrounds – Church of God and Nazarenes have a lot of similarities and we have a lot of common language from our backgrounds – as well as a love for the card game Rook (because we could not use regular playing cards as they were considered evil).  We both have been on a spiritual journey, and I have always appreciated his openness and his wrestling with some of the messages of these denominations. 

I was honored to officiate at Shawn and Brett’s wedding here at First Friends on July 8th, 2017.  It was a joy to get to know Brett and to do premarital counseling with them and appreciate the love and respect they have for each other as individuals and the positive potential for a marriage that is so the right thing for both of them.  It was a beautiful day, and the Meeting room was filled with friends, family and so many members of the First Friends community to show our love and appreciation for Shawn.

Shawn brought his musical talents and his whole being to First Friends.  He added to our spiritual experience through the ministry of music.  Shawn, we are thankful that you shared your music ministry with us for all these years and became a part of our faith community.

I close today with a poem about the power of music.

The Gift to Sing

James Weldon Johnson - 1871-1938

Sometimes the mist overhangs my path,
And blackening clouds about me cling;
But, oh, I have a magic way
To turn the gloom to cheerful day—
      I softly sing.

And if the way grows darker still,
Shadowed by Sorrow’s somber wing,
With glad defiance in my throat,
I pierce the darkness with a note,
       And sing, and sing.

I brood not over the broken past,
Nor dread whatever time may bring;
No nights are dark, no days are long,
While in my heart there swells a song,
       And I can sing.Top of FormBottom of Form

Friends, as we enter this time of silent reflection and unprogrammed worship, centering ourselves to listen for the voice, I share several queries for your consideration.

How does music move you?

What memories come up for you as you listen to various music?

In what ways do you experience God through music?

11-7-21 - Quaker Worship (Part 7): Having a Business Attitude

 Quaker Worship (Part 7): Having a Business Attitude

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

November 7, 2021

Ephesians 4:1-3 (The Voice)

As a prisoner of the Lord, I urge you: Live a life that is worthy of the calling He has graciously extended to you. 2 Be humble. Be gentle. Be patient. Tolerate one another in an atmosphere thick with love. 3 Make every effort to preserve the unity the Spirit has already created, with peace binding you together.

Back in the Spring of 2017, when we were visiting First Friends for the first time, we were invited after Meeting for Worship to attend the beginning of your monthly business meeting before going out for lunch. 

Since we were living in Oregon and had not seen our son, Alex, for several months, we made sure to fly into Fort Wayne and pick him up from Huntington University and bring him with us. 

He came to Meeting for Worship that morning with a skeptical outlook, due to factors that affected our family in our Meeting in Oregon.  I will be honest, I was using him to give me a raw perspective and knew he would be an honest indicator for what he saw at First Friends.

Alex said very little during worship other than how the name tags made him uncomfortable and how he did not like the organ.  Yet, when we were ushered into the front row of Meeting for Business in the parlor that morning, he was very attentive and listened carefully. 

I knew Alex, at his young age, had been a part of one too many Meetings for Business that had gone wrong or were not facilitated well at both the local and yearly meeting levels.  As a youth representative and leader, he found himself in the middle of the split taking place over Same-Sex Marriage that was tearing apart our yearly meeting in the Northwest. 

At the time of our visit, Dan Rains was the clerk of the meeting and had gone out of his way to make us feel welcome.  Jeff Goens, our current clerk introduced us in the Business Meeting and said we were only going to stay for the beginning of the Meeting.  

As we sat listening to committee reports and listening to the business of First Friends, Alex leaned over and whispered something in my ear I will never forget.  He said, “Well, they know how to do business.”

I remember well, Dan Rains beginning that meeting for worship by discussing how Quakers consider the business of the meeting as an extension of our worship.  I had heard this before, but sadly, due to the turmoil in our local and yearly meetings in Oregon, we had rarely experienced it.  I spent the last two years in Oregon before coming to First Friends helping guide and work closely with the clerk of our meeting at Silverton Friends to get us back to this Quaker foundation.

And even though, as Alex put it, we know how to do business at First Friends, I believe on occasion we need to be reminded and even re-taught on how we can keep our business an extension of our worship.

As I prepared for the sermon this week, I returned to what I consider the primer on Quaker Process – ironically by that same title – written by Mathilda Navias. She starts the chapter on Meeting for Business with the following quote from Paul A. Lacey and Bill Taber from their important book, “The Purpose of Meetings for Worship and Business.”  I believe it gives a solid framework for Quaker Business being a true extension of our worship – they say,

“The Meeting for business, if it be Spirit-filled and properly understood, is a hands-on, laboratory-filled experience in which the whole fellowship comes face-to-face with the Spirit’s demands for the sacrifice of time, treasure, convenience, and prejudice. When opinions differ widely and the need for spiritual discernment becomes crucial, the best are driven, as never in a meeting for worship, to seek that Spirit which can sustain harmony while waiting for the right leading. Thus, God’s work among us becomes more real and faith is both tested and strengthened in the business meeting.

From this definition, you could almost say a Quaker Meeting for Business is just Quaker Worship on steroids. 

Often in our world we connect business with “getting things done” or “dealing with issues” or “fixing those things that are going or have gone wrong,” but those are all just effects or outcomes of business practice. 

When you study Quaker Business, you find that the primary aim is to deepen the spiritual life of the community, rather than just getting things done. Therefore, you will not find Robert’s Rules of Order within Quaker Business – because Robert’s Rules of Order is a system devised solely around decision-making and finalizing things – getting things done. 

For Quakers, business is so much more - so much more fluid, so much more about process. 

To understand how we arrived at this place, we need to do a little history.  George Selleck wrote about this history in a short pamphlet titled, “Principles of the Quaker Business Meeting.  He says,

When Quaker arose in the 17th century, there were objections on the part of some to the holding of business meetings.  Some persons felt that such gathering placed undue limitations on the guidance of the individual, but the new Quaker movement was characterized by a faith that the group could be guided, as well as the individual.

The Quaker conviction that the Light of Christ is given in some measure to everyone implies both an individual apprehension of the will of God and also an understanding of God’s will mediated through the insight of others. Quakerism has always had within it a centrifugal force of individualism, but likewise there has always been a centripetal force of corporate life in tension with it.

From the fruitful interaction of these two have come the decisions of the society.  The visions and concerns of individuals prevent the society from being over-traditional and static, the insights of a gathered group prevent it from moving over-hastily in unconsidered enthusiasm.

In some ways I consider our Meeting for Business a launch pad and sounding board for greater possibilities for ministry.  What individually may happen inside each of us during worship, may have the opportunity to be honed, supported, and find wings among the corporate gathering.  

A great example of this “launching pad/sounding board” idea since I have come to minister alongside you all, was back in November of 2017, in my first 6 months at First Friends. 

I love to hear Amy Perry tell the story of sensing the Spirit’s leading during Meeting for Worship to investigate volunteering for the Right Sharing of World Resources Stamps Program.  It was clear when she came in to talk with Beth and me that following week, that this nudging put her on a trajectory for much more than volunteering. 

Amy ended up feeling led to take over the Stamps program with Right Sharing of World Resources. To continue the legacy that Friend, Brad Hathaway had begun twenty years earlier.  But Amy knew this was bigger than her personal nudge.  She knew that if she was going to take this on, it would have to be a corporate venture.  Her individual vision became the launchpad for a full-fledge ministry that impacts our community, as well as the world.

Amy’s faithfulness to follow that leading, and First Friends’ coming around Amy corporately through supporting, volunteering, and affirming her leading (I believe) have deepened the spiritual life of First Friends.

I love popping my head in to say hello or deliver the latest parcel of stamps to our faithful stamping crew on Wednesdays.  There is not only an air of Friendly fellowship and comradery, but also a sense of purpose that what they are doing TOGETHER is making a difference and changing our world.

In many churches today, business gets put before worship, and the outcome can be much different than the example I just gave.  Worship must be part of the process or maybe I should say – it must be the process. 

Our worship at First Friends, whether unprogrammed or programmed should be where the business begins. 

If Quaker Business process is about deepening the spiritual life, and inviting participants to seek God’s will and build and preserve a loving community together, then each time we come to Meeting for Worship, we are laying a foundation for our ongoing business. 

It should be what happens in this place right here that ushers us into our committee work, our monthly business meetings, even our daily interactions with our neighbors and fellow Friends. 

The integrity of the gathered community becomes more important than the decisions being made. 

Our Business is where we work to maintain loving relationships with one another, practice listening or speaking, and seek a unified sense of Truth. 

Eden Grace who served Friends United Meeting until recently has alluded to Quaker Business Practice as being more about having the right attitude over the preferred outcomes or results. 

She spelled out four attitudes Friends must utilize in their business in an article she wrote for the World Council of Churches in 2000.  I believe they are a great review for us as we enter any business at First Friends 

1. Our attitude toward God:

Eden says that when we enter into any Meeting business it should be with hearts and minds prepared to be led by the Spirit. That we seek to renew our commitment to the Divine’s leading and are willing to lay our own strong feelings and desires before God. 

1. Our attitude toward the other members:

She says, “Quaker process places a high value on the strength of the community. A Sense of the Meeting is only achieved when those participating respect and care for one another.”

Thus, it requires us to have a humble and loving spirit, imputing purity of motive to all participants, and offering our highest selves in return. This way we can create a safe space for sharing.

Our focus should be on listening carefully, respectfully, lovingly, and always listening for the presence of God through what someone is saying, knowing that there is that of God in each of us.

1. Our attitude toward the process:

She says, “[Friends] value process over product, action or outcome. That means we respect each other’s thoughts, feelings and insights more than expedient action. The process of reaching a decision yield more "results" than the decisions themselves.

Our attention to the Divine movement in the community is, in fact, the source of decision and action, so that process and outcome are ideally two sides of the same experience.

1. Our attitude toward potential outcomes:

Eden says, “We know that none of us is likely to enter the Meeting with a fully formed understanding of the will of God, and so we expect that a new way will emerge which is not necessarily identified with the position of any person or faction. "

This means a group, meeting in the right spirit, may be given greater insight than any single person." 

"A gathered meeting under the authority of God is often able to find unity in creative ways which were not considered before the meeting but which become apparent during its course. Though the process of Quaker business may take some time, at the end it can find a united meeting able to act swiftly because the action has been widely agreed.

Ask yourself, are these my attitudes when I come to Meeting for Business,  a Committee Meeting, or any business at First Friends? 

I sense when we don’t come with these attitudes in check we immediately are faced with a lack of mutual trust and respect for one another, a shyness or unwillingness to engage each other, and a disregard for what our fellow Friends may consider a leading from the Spirit. 

And when this is the case, our default in matters of business among Friends then quickly becomes difficult, we butt heads, we question motives, and personal agendas replace the process of deepening the spiritual life of the community. 

Friend, Michael Wajda, sums it up well when he says, this is

“…about looking for Truth as a body, rather than about our individual senses of truth.  We need to enter worshipfully into our meetings for business. We need to wrestle with the issues, to share our glimpses of the Truth as we see it, and then we need to let go and listen deeply until all those glimpses give us a sense of the Truth as a whole.  This takes time, patience, and surrender.

May this be true for us at First Friends.

Now, as we enter waiting worship let us humbly present ourselves before the Divine for transformation, teaching, love, hope, freedom, a leading of the Spirit, and all with a proper attitude for one another.  Here are some queries to ponder this morning.

●       What are my misconceptions and attitudes about Quaker Business?

●       What leadings of the Spirit have I had during worship that I need to bring forward to the corporate body for discernment and support?

●       How am I assisting my fellow Friends in deepening our spiritual life through Quaker Business?  

10-31-21 - Quaker Worship (Part 6): A Leading to Act(ivisim)

Quaker Worship (Part 6): A Leading to Act(ivism)

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

October 31, 2021

Good morning, Friends, and welcome to Light Reflections.  This morning we are on our 6th installment of the Quaker Worship Series.  Our text for today is Isaiah 42: 1-4 from the Message:

42 1-4 “Take a good look at my servant.
    I’m backing him to the hilt.
He’s the one I chose,
    and I couldn’t be more pleased with him.
I’ve bathed him with my Spirit, my life.
    He’ll set everything right among the nations.
He won’t call attention to what he does
    with loud speeches or gaudy parades.
He won’t brush aside the bruised and the hurt
    and he won’t disregard the small and insignificant,
    but he’ll steadily and firmly set things right.
He won’t tire out and quit. He won’t be stopped
    until he’s finished his work—to set things right on earth.
Far-flung ocean islands
    wait expectantly for his teaching.”

A couple years ago, I met Friend Dwight Wilson at our Yearly Meeting Sessions.  He was sharing his testimony as well as his passion for social justice and the psalms he wrote to highlight issues of peace and justice in our world. I had a long talk with Dwight after I presented on Quaker Civil Rights activists, Bayard Rustin, and Barrington Dunbar during a panel discussion. Our conversation that day began a distant friendship that has continued to develop over these last two years. 

This past Wednesday evening, I received a short Facebook Messenger Message from Dwight.  It said simply, “I hope autumn is treating you well, Bob.”  In the ensuing correspondence, I found that Dwight was writing from a hospital bed. 

After telling him of the slow arriving of autumn here in Indiana, I took a moment to thank him for his friendship, the psalms he has written, and his weekly posts on jazz music albums that have both impacted his and my life.  After thanking me, he shared that just a few hours before sending me the message he was told he was going to need emergency surgery.  Dwight made it clear this was not going to be a routine surgery – actually, later I found out he is suffering from bladder cancer.  I ask you all to hold Dwight in the Light as he takes this difficult journey.  Just yesterday, I heard that Dwight was at home but with a long recovery ahead.

I was hoping last year to have Dwight come to First Friends and share two of his unique calls to action – one being holding babies at the local hospital and second his prophetic psalms for peace and justice. Yet with the pandemic and now his diagnosis, it may be a while before we have the privilege to hear from him in person.

As I was preparing for this 6th installment of the Quaker Worship series, I wanted to begin with something Dwight actually wrote about the history of Quaker Social Action.  Just listen as Dwight lays a foundation for what he labels a “Social Justice Testimony”:     

George Fox, who is often considered “the founder” of the Religious Society of Friends, said with certainty, “There is one, Christ Jesus, who can speak to thy condition.”  Contemporary Quakers often refer to this inward and eternal One as “that of God in everyone.”  All Quaker testimonies spring from this belief in the sacredness of the whole of creation.

Despite the above, many people in the 21st Century are only familiar with the Quaker peace testimony.  In the first centuries of Quakerism such a view would have been impossible. There are numerous Quaker testimonies including in alphabetical order, anti-racism, community building, equality, integrity, love, optimism, peacemaking and social justice. 

They are as interrelated as the ecological system of an orchard.  One can describe such an orchard by beginning on either side, but arbitrary choice should not lift the value of west above east or north above south.   Each testimony deserves its own serious contemplation.

Quakerism values Jesus’ reported summation of the Law of Moses, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 

In 1661, more than five years before he allegedly told William Penn to “carry your sword as long as you can” and only nine years after his personal search had become a movement, [George] Fox wrote an essay entitled, “The Line of Righteousness and Justice Stretched Forth Over All Merchants and Others.”  The theme throughout, based on Jesus’ dicta, was to treat each person justly.  In this essay Fox stated an oft echoed theme, “Do rightly, justly, truly, holily, equally, to all people in all things.” 

The first century of the Religious Society of Friends’ existence, in both England and the Americas, saw hundreds of early Quakers beaten, imprisoned and, in some cases executed for their beliefs.  The long-standing commitment to social justice has not waned.  The pursuit of social justice is a requirement in and out of season; during true peace or when violence is as far away as Afghanistan or as near as our next-door neighbor’s bedroom.

Personal perspectives on justice have been known to change with one’s degree of comfort.  In response to this phenomenon, the 18th century Quaker, John Woolman offered guidance when he said,

“Oppression in the extreme appears terrible, but oppression in more refined appearances remains oppression, and where the smallest degree of it is cherished, it grows stronger and more extensive.”  Without social justice there is no peace. 

As Dwight points out, from the beginning of our faith, Friends have been guided by our beliefs known as our “testimonies” of simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, and stewardship (or what some like to call our S.P.I.C.E.S.)  

The belief that everyone is equal, alone, has often put us at the forefront of social justice initiatives, such as the abolition movement, the women’s rights movement, the desire to make education and healthcare available to all, prison reform, Civil Rights, and much, much, more.

Today, Quakers and groups founded by Quakers, continue to work for social, political, economic, and environmental change as much as their ancestors did.  We see it within our own meeting with Right Sharing of World Resources and our stamps program, Indiana Friends Committee on Legislation and its lobbying work at the State Level, Friends Committee on National Legislation at the federal level, Quaker Earth Care for the environment, Quaker Voluntary Service at the community level, and then there is Recycle Force, Mid-North Food Pantry, working with refugees,  and I could go on and on. 

But sometimes when we start ripping off that list of organizations, we quickly just assume someone else is acting and there is no need for us to get involved. This is where I believe we need to connect our activism and social justice work to our worship. 

As most of us know, the Quaker Faith has always been known as a “quiet faith,” by many people, but it also comes with a practice of acting with conviction, and a belief in being open to the Spirit’s leading as I have already highlighted in this series.

Christine Duncan-Tessmer, the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting’s General Secretary, points out that Quakerism represents a ‘both/and’ outlook.

She notes there “are prayerful worship spaces in the Quaker Faith, where reflection will feed action, that can represent an infinity loop between action and doing, and stillness and centering. They both need each other.”

There are “so many ways of being in alignment with God…at times like this, when there is so much stress and strife and concern…that space of being in worship and being able to connect to the…flow of all life among us is a really important part of being whole…”

This is what we mean when we state that Quaker worship is about reconnecting to the whole – not just a part.  Friend Noah Baker Merrill has been teaching for some time on “Reclaiming the Ministry of the Whole.”  Noah says this tension to act and engage must be shaped within the worshipping community.  He says,

“There’s something about the dynamic tension, as the lion of my fierce inward leading meets the lamb of my meeting’s genuine engagement. I surrender to the sense of the meeting, and the meeting surrenders to its responsibility to help me grow in faithfulness…There’s an Iraqi saying about community that it’s not the finger that matters most, but the hand and the arm behind it. It takes a meeting to raise a ministry.”

It takes a local meeting, like First Friends to raise up people who will act on where the Spirit is leading, yet as a society or community, we just don’t send people out on their own. We must also build a framework for their support and ongoing encouragement, clearness committees to help them discern, and the gathering of new opportunities for us to serve and advocate for our neighbors in the present moment.

Did you know that part of the early Quaker Movement was a committee that was solely established to care for Friends in this manner? It was called The Meeting for Sufferings.

Even though it has evolved overtime, it was established to provide for the time-sensitive needs of imprisoned Friends and the activists who arose from the local meetings who suffered for the Truth.  Since activism and social justice were so foundational among early Friends, early Quakers often found themselves imprisoned for being vocal for how the Spirit was leading.

Early Quakers knew the toll this work would take on their movement and its individual activists as they worked to make significant change in the world.  The Meeting for Suffering was a place to gather as a worshipping community for the specific purpose of empowering Friends to respond quickly, meaningfully, and effectively to their world.  It provided support, feedback, and a learning environment for the entire community to become adaptive and swift in their work. 

WOW! It seems almost unreal in our day to read that last statement.  If there is one huge struggle among Quakers today – it is with responding quickly and becoming adaptive and swift in our business and activist work.

I wonder what would happen if we dedicated one Sunday each quarter as a “Meeting for Suffering” at First Friends. Where we could hear from the activists in our midst.  Where we could support them, hear their stories, be empowered by them, and be educated on the challenges they face.  As well, where we could place them and their work humbly before the Divine for transformation, teaching, love, hope, and freedom.  And where we could discern with them on how together we can make a difference in our community, state, nation, and world as a society of Friends.

To close this 6th installment on Quaker Worship, I want to return to something I have been pondering for the last several years.  

Quaker Activist George Lakey paints a familiar picture to our current day when talking about the founding days of Quakerism.  He says the Quaker Faith was “born in the middle of a civil war” in the mid 1600’s.

He even described a period of revolution–with the English wars and the beheading of Charles I – against which he says the Quaker faith grew. Friends were “politically active but not in a partisan way. We had social change goals, social justice goals, that we were pursuing in the midst of a very chaotic situation.”

Well, we could easily say that our county currently is in the middle of a modern civil war and a quite chaotic situation.  Some would even describe our day as a period of revolution. Our wars may be different, but we must continue to seek the leading of the Spirit and help raise up activists, supporters, and encouragers for social change, social justice, and better world. 

I think it is clear – if we were birthed in this type of environment and now are living within it, again – well folks, this is our time!  We got this!  We just need to return to our roots and activate! 

Green Street Meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, went as far as to develop testimonies for Social Justice and Activism which they use within their Meeting and gathered worship to help remind them of their purpose.  I would love to see First Friends adapt these as a commitment to our own work for social justice and activism.  Let me just read these as we close:

• Quakers aid the non-violent efforts of the exploited to attain self-determination and social, political, and economic justice. This mission often requires persuading exploiters, some of whom may be Quakers, to change their ways, not only for the sake of the exploited, but also to strengthen their own goodness.

• We seek both to bring to light and to counteract or expunge structures, institutions, language and thought processes that subtly support discrimination and exploitation.

• We examine our own attitudes and practices to test whether we contribute as much as we ought to social, political, and economic justice.

• We encourage others to adopt consensus decision-making that is Spirit-led.

Now, as we enter waiting worship, let us humbly present ourselves before the Divine for transformation, teaching, love, hope, freedom, and the nudging of the Spirit to act.  To help you process, I offer you the following queries:

-         How am I embracing a “both/and” outlook of worship and activism?

-         In what ways do I need to “reconnect to the whole” and be proactive in creating a supportive community at First Friends, that encourages those led by the Spirit to act?

Dia de los Muertos/ Day of the Dead Prayer

Spirit of Life, whom we know best in our own loving and being loved, hold us as we remember those we have loved, and those who have loved us. May our gratitude sparkle in our lives, may our tears lubricate our souls. Help us to know that we are not alone in our grieving, and help us also to come to that peaceful place in which we can take what we learned from those who have gone before us into our own lives. Remind us that we, too, are mortal; and that the only enduring legacy we leave is the love that shines through our lives.

Amen.

Benediction

Grant us, Lord God, a vision of your world as your love would have it: 

a world where the weak are protected, and none go hungry or poor; 

a world where the riches of creation are shared, and everyone can enjoy them; 

a world where different races and cultures live in harmony and mutual respect; 

a world where peace is built with justice, and justice is guided by love.

Give us the inspiration and courage to build it, Amen. 

10-24-21 - Quaker Worship (Part 5): The Cult of Comfort

Quaker Worship (Part 5): The Cult of Comfort

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

October 24, 2021

Isaiah 42:16 (New Revised Standard Version)

16 I will lead the blind
    by a road they do not know,
by paths they have not known
    I will guide them.
I will turn the darkness before them into light,
    the rough places into level ground.
These are the things I will do,
    and I will not forsake them.

This week we return to part 5 of our Quaker Worship series. As I was putting this series together and considering the Quaker way of worship, I found myself wrestling with a common topic – that being idols and cultish behaviors – which honestly have a lot in common. 

As I began my research, I was reminded that many fundamental Christian groups consider Quakers part of a cult. (Actually, I have personally been questioned by other Christians about this very thing.)  Even in one listing of cults, Quakers are included in a category with Mormons and the Jehovah Witness.  As well, some groups consider our view of there being “that of God in our neighbors” as idolatrous.

But as I began to look closer, I cross-referenced the concepts of cults and idols and something very important rose to my attention.  That being the cult or idol of comfort. 

Brett McCracken in an article on this subject says that Christianity’s greatest idol today is also one of its most subtle and insidious – that being COMFORT.

If you go to a church conference or even to a lecture or talk that is addressing the church of today, at some point you will hear the presenter address the need for the church to get out of their “comfort zones.”   

The problem is you and I continually expect life to be easy, to be comfortable, but this desire is misplaced. And often this comfort in a Quaker Meeting can easily be translated into unnecessary structures, rigid rules, hoops to jump through, and a great deal of personal preferences.

It also can mean certain subjects are off limits, and that can even translate into only being willing to worship beside and with those who look exactly like us.

Folks, that is not comfort. That is a path to death.

In seminary, we studied this idea of “comfort idolatry” or what some called the “cult of comfort” which I believe has become very apparent within churches and Meetings today.

Now, much of this can be blamed on our overly consumerist mindsets that seem to frame everything in our lives – including our spiritual lives – in terms of expressive individualism, self-fulfillment, and bettering yourself.  

Let’s just admit it – our comfort can be rather selfish – especially when looking at it within an Empathetic Worship Community. 

So, what specifically does comfort look like within the worshipping community?

To help with this, I will reference some ideas Brett McCracken lays out in his article on the subject for our specific condition at First Friends.

Let’s start with what he labels the “comfort of the familiar.” 

If you have ever found yourself in the pews or tuning in on-line and finding it unbearable to sit through another Meeting for Worship because “This isn’t how my Meeting does it,” that is a problem.  The comfort of the familiar is idolatrous and even cultish when anything unfamiliar is de-legitimized.

As Quakers, we believe in the importance of being open to new leadings of the Spirit, yet too often we assume we have arrived at the one, true, gold standard for how we do Quaker Worship when we feel comfortable with the familiar.

For example, the familiar can be seen in everything from where we sit each week during worship to the exact amount of silence we feel we need during waiting worship. 

Also, when the familiar becomes about creating a “gold standard” for our worship experiences that meets our needs, it is easy to avoid learning from others outside our particular tribe. 

As Quakers, who believe in “that of God in ALL people” there is a lot we can learn from those outside our tribe, which includes both our faith and culture. 

I appreciated how last week Beth shared a perspective from our friend, Rabbi Brett, on how Jews understand the story of Jonah. I love learning in Seeking Friends from a Catholic Priest, and I love hearing stories of the impact of our Muslim and African American friend, Daud, who journeyed with us for several years here at First Friends. 

We need to continue to invite and welcome people from different cultures, backgrounds, and faiths to enter our pulpit and tell us their stories, so we do not get caught in the cult of the familiar.

This also can be applied regarding music styles. Our strong opinions about worship-music styles present a great opportunity to challenge the cult of comfort.

Instead of folding our arms or sending off an email in protest when we don’t like the music or how it is played, just maybe we need to take a moment and dive ourselves into the worship - even if we do not like it.  We are an empathetic worshipping community and that means we will have a variety of different perspectives, likes, and dislikes within our Meeting.

I appreciate Eric Baker’s hard work at creating a balance each week with a variety of different styles of music from contemplative songs, to hymns, to spirituals, and many more.  Folks, this is no easy process in creating a flow and common theme to our worship while utilizing a variety of music styles. Our hope is that everything you experience in Meeting for Worship will come together to help you fully process and reflect on the subject for the morning and throughout the week.   

I believe our worship should reflect our community.  We all have different types of music or even instruments we like or dislike. 

I assume there is a percentage of people in this meeting who love hip-hop or rap music, and then there are some who can’t stand it.  Once on an Urban Plunge with college students from Huntington University, Sue and I visited a Hip-Hop Church in Chicago where there was no organ or piano, but rather a DJ.  I am not saying this is for us, but I am wondering what it might take to get us out of our comfort zone and have a fuller experience of worship.

In Silverton, I asked a young female seminary student to come preach one Sunday. As with anyone I invite, I asked her to share with us what the Divine was teaching her. I wanted to hear her story and unique perspective. Even though this young woman came across as a bit timid and shy when first you met her, I also knew that she had another side.  She was a very talented Slam Poetry Artist.  I asked if she would share with us a piece of her poetry.  Just before she preached, she came down off the platform, raised her voice, and began one of the most stirring Slam Poetry performances I have ever experienced.  Talk about making people uncomfortable.  Her raw emotions, going from soft tones to loud yelling, and the full experience of her body movements had people caught off guard.  

Afterwards, some people shared that they were not sure if Slam Poetry was appropriate for Meeting for Worship, but they also claimed they felt this way because Slam Poetry was out of their comfort zone. 

I was proud of our Meeting in Silverton for not getting up and leaving.  Sadly, in my 26 years of ministry, I have had on occasion people get up and leave when they do not like what I am preaching or sharing.

This is because, when comfort is a chief value in our worship, it’s easy to justify leaving Meeting for Worship the minute it becomes uncomfortable. 

·        Yes, sometimes the pastor is going to say something too political, edgy, or just too challenging.

·        Yes, sometimes the organ is going to be too loud.

·        Yes, sometimes the children’s message is going to go too long.

·        Yes, sometimes a fellow Friend is going to say something out of place during waiting worship. 

·        And yes, these are all things I have heard at First Friends.

And yes, we must remember that we are all human.

What I am hoping is that each of us will take the challenge to stick around or stay tuned in and really listen, bear with one another, allow ourselves to be a bit uncomfortable, and even take some time to reflect on what is being said throughout the week. 

Show up to meeting even when you do not like something or when you don’t feel like it.  As the writer of Hebrews warned, “Do not neglect meeting together” because it is what gets us out of the cult of comfort.  When we leave or when we tune out, it is more about our personal comforts than it is about us as a community. 

And the same is true when we withhold our gifts, talents or financial contributions from the Meeting simply to make our point or get our desired outcome. That is manipulation and when it happens we are buying into the cult of comfort.

I ask that, TOGETHER, we stick with it – don’t quit the minute things seem to get hard, challenging, or uncomfortable.  I believe God has given us each other to work through the challenges and has even called us to grow together as the body of Christ.

Interestingly, the cult of comfort often breads rigidity in our spiritual lives – often it creates an unwillingness to change, a nostalgia in “how things have always been done,” a hesitance to uproot when the Spirit nudges. 

That is why one of the greatest responses to the cult of comfort is to deliberately cultivate a FLEXIBILITY in the way we approach our worshipping community.

Brett McCracken shares some suggestions for being flexible which I have adapted to our situation.  Like…

·        Don’t be so over-scheduled that you can’t spend quality time with people after Meeting for Worship. Choose to stick around for Fellowship Hour, make plans to go out to lunch with someone after Meeting for Worship, or make plans for during the week to call or meet someone you want to get to know better.

·        Don’t be so tied to your specific ministry area, leadership position, program, or committee, that you aren’t able to jump in and serve where the Spirit leads. 

·        Don’t become a fan of specific leaders within the Meeting – we never know when the Spirit may lead them in new directions.

But rather we need to be flexible and ready when opportunities arise. And we need to be willing to sacrifice our comforts and the familiar when the Spirit nudges.

I want to conclude this 5th installment of the Quaker Worship series with a story.  It may be an unlikely story for a Quaker to share – but I believe it is a warning for us if we are unwilling to get out of our cult of comfort.

There was a story about an American POW captured by the Japanese during WWII.  He was a spy and was sentenced to death by the Japanese army.  Before carrying out the sentence, the Japanese general gave the spy a strange choice.  He told the American that he could choose between a firing squad and a big black door. 

The spy thought about the choice and after a few moments chose the firing squad and the sentence was carried out. 

The general turned to his assistant and said, “They always prefer the known way to the unknown way.” 

The assistant asked the general, “So, what is behind the black door.” 

The general replied, “Freedom.  Behind the big black door is a passageway that leads outside but only a few have been brave enough to see what is behind that door.” 

Even though the firing squad was anything but a comfortable choice, for that American, it was better, it was more comfortable, than the unknown.

As I said earlier in this sermon, following our comfort can be a path to death.  I don’t think that is what you or I want. 

Actually, I hope every worship experience at First Friends, whether Meeting for Worship in-person, virtually, unprogrammed worship, or Monday meditation, could be viewed as a “big black door” awaiting us to open it unto the transformation, teaching, love, Hope and yes, FREEDOM, the Divine is offering us in worship.  

And even more, I hope that we will take the time to become aware of our comforts and when we are buying into the cult of comfort or the idolatry of comfort, we begin to look outside ourselves. This way we can join our fellow Friends in the journey together through that Big Black Door to Freedom! 

Now, as we enter a time of waiting worship, let us humbly present ourselves before the Divine for transformation, teaching, love, hope, and freedom.  Here are some queries for your to ponder during this time.

·        Where have I bought into the “cult of comfort” in my worship at First Friends?

·        How am I cultivating flexibility in my spiritual life for the benefit of our worshipping community?

A Prayer For Oneness- Karem Barratt

We rest in you, Spirit of Life.
We place in you our feet, our legs, our torsos, our arms, our shoulders, our heads and allow you to support all that we are.
We rest in you, Spirit of Life, and give to you our worries, our fears, our doubts, our hopes, our joys, our pains, our anger, our love, our hate, and allow you to take in all that we are. 
And as we give all that we are, we find the place of truth, stillness, still, eternal where you and we are one.
We breathe in, deep, deeply, down, up, all that we are, as we stand on our toes at the edge of the universe, in oneness.
And all that we are expands, until forever. Amen.

Benediction :

May the God who shakes heaven and earth,
whose Spirit blows through the valleys and the hills;
whom death could not contain and
who lives to disturb and bring us life; 
bless us with the power to endure,
to hope and to love. Amen.