5-12-24 - Embraced By Our Mother God

Embraced By Our Mother God

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

May 12, 2024

Good morning Friends and Happy Mother’s Day to all our mothers! The scripture text I have chosen for this morning Proverbs 1:20-24 from The Message version.

Lady Wisdom goes out in the street and shouts.
    At the town center she makes her speech.
In the middle of the traffic she takes her stand.
    At the busiest corner she calls out:

“Simpletons! How long will you wallow in ignorance?
    Cynics! How long will you feed your cynicism?
Idiots! How long will you refuse to learn?
    About face! I can revise your life.
Look, I’m ready to pour out my spirit on you;
    I’m ready to tell you all I know.
As it is, I’ve called, but you’ve turned a deaf ear;
    I’ve reached out to you, but you’ve ignored me.

As Quakers, our understanding of God is mostly shaped by our individual experiences, and Friends use a variety of descriptors to help them find meaningful ways to connect to and describe the Divine.  A while back I gave a message about God as Love and often, we, Quakers, talk about that of God in each of us or as our Inner Light.  Yet, even when we talk of that Love or Inner-Light we do not ascribe it a gender.

Most of our gender descriptors actually come from the Bible.  On Mother’s Day, I always like to take a moment to return and look at God from a feminine perspective.  

The patriarchal world of the Bible has often limited us to using only male descriptors of God.  But that may not be the way it was before the Bible was written. Doing a little exploratory history, one is quick to find a slightly different story arising outside the pages or Scripture. 

In doing a little research, it’s worth noting that many anthropologists today believe the ancient Upper Paleolithic societies are likely to have followed a matrilineal structure, meaning women held supreme status at the center of the household. [Just the opposite of what most Christian churches teach today – when stating and defending the man as the head of the household. Something I gave up for Lent almost a couple decades ago, now.]

Merlin Stone explains that these communities revered ancestor worship, whereby “the concept of the creator of all human life may have been formulated by the clan’s image of the woman who had been their most ancient, primal ancestor.”

In other words, the Divine Ancestress – meaning early on God may have been characterized with feminine qualities rather than male.  

I also learned in my research, anthropologists studying the rites and rituals of Paleolithic communities over the last two centuries have discovered countless stone figurines of pregnant women across Europe, the Middle East, and India. Some dating as far back as 25,000 BC point to the worship of the divine feminine.

It seems during this period in the ancient world, worship of female deities was widespread and immensely powerful. But it was with the advent of agriculture after the Paleolithic age that Goddess worship really started to take off.

Statuettes from that period representing the Mother Goddess have cropped up in Canaan (now Palestine/Israel) and Anatolia (now Turkey), and Goddess figurines have appeared all over the Neolithic communities of Egypt dating back to 4000 BC.

What I believe history is teaching us is that when women rise to prominence, misogyny often ensues, and by 1500 BC, Goddess-worshipping civilizations had mostly fallen from grace. Scholarship differs in its analysis of why, but many experts assert that the dominant masculine religions and patrilineal customs brought to Europe by invading Indo-Europeans seriously upset the state of play.

The suppression that followed makes for bleak reading. Activist and author Lynn Rogers says that “At the dawn of Western civilization 25,000 years of ‘her-story’ of the Goddess’ bountiful creativity were obliterated.”

Creation myths were rewritten (one of the reasons why we have so many creation stories, today), symbols of Goddess worship were denigrated, and “the ancient belief in the Goddess as the Ground of Being, The Universe from which The All emerged, was overturned.”

And THEN comes Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, which evolved in the Middle East and in Europe.  These monotheistic religions began to cement the worship of a new, exclusively male order: God, King, Priest, and Father. 

I found this research fascinating, because it changes the view of some things I have wondered about in the Old Testament. Actually, it is rather easy to find the remnants of this feminine understanding and view of God right in the pages of the Bible.  

In several places in the Old Testament, we find the personification of God as Wisdom – and wisdom is almost always given a female gender.  

Take for example our scripture for today from Proverbs 1 – I love Eugene Peterson’s translation of the personification of wisdom – which he actually labels “Lady Wisdom.” 

Lady Wisdom goes out in the street and shouts.
    At the town center she makes her speech.
In the middle of the traffic she takes her stand.
    At the busiest corner she calls out:

More significantly the Apocrypha (the books of the Bible that were not considered cannon but were accepted as historical) often utilize the female descriptors for the wisdom of God.

Sadly, for most of our history (and still for many faith communities today), a female version of God seems threatening, demeaning or even heretical. But that might not have been the way it was in the beginning.

As I said earlier, I sense in most eras this was misogyny alive and well, as it sadly still is today in many (if not most) Christian churches.  Some are now calling for the church to have its own Me Too moment. 

A while back Christian Author, Scott McKnight wrote a book called The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible which had people debating and wrestling with how we see women in the Bible.

Then came The Junia Project – which advocates for women’s equality in the Church and uncovered several translations that had women’s names in scripture replaced with men’s to keep women in their place. The most notable was Junia, a female apostle of Jesus who for many generations was literally removed from scripture.

In some ways this was the beginning of the church’s “Me Too” moment. But more needs to be done.  We need to continue to do the research and discover the impact of women and the importance of the female in understanding and relating to God.

Just listen to how one of the Apocryphal books - the Wisdom of Solomon personifies the Wisdom of God. 

There is in her a spirit that is intelligent, holy…loving the good…humane…steadfast, sure, free from anxiety, all-powerful, overseeing all, and penetrating through all spirits that are intelligent, pure, and altogether subtle. …For she is a breath of the power of God…in every generation she passes into holy souls and makes them friends of God, and prophets; for God loves nothing so much as the person who lives with Wisdom. (7:22b-30)

As Quakers who call themselves, Friends, that one line should stand out and be quoted often – “She passes into holy souls and makes them friends of God, and prophets…” That, to me, is absolutely beautiful.

Pastor Chris Glazer says the following about this passage from the Wisdom of Solomon,

“If you saw all these qualities in a personal ad or on a resume, you just might want to meet this person! I say “might” because this is a list so awesome many of us would feel intimidated. This is a description of Sophia, Greek for Wisdom, and in Jewish wisdom literature, you could say she was the feminine side of God…”

In another text it is said that Sophia was with God from the beginning—without Wisdom nothing was created that was created. If this sounds familiar, the mystical Gospel of John takes as its prologue a similar assertion, that the Word, or Jesus, was with God from the beginning, and without Jesus, nothing was made that was made.”

Maybe it would do us good in our overly male-dominated society to find comfort in scriptures that emphasize these aspects of God, such as:

Isaiah 66:13 – “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you,” God declares through the prophet Isaiah.

Or Jesus lamenting over Jerusalem in Matthew 23:37 – “How often have I desired to gather your children together as a mother hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing”

Or as the Psalmist in that same Psalm 131 from last week’s message gives us that comforting goal of resting in God:

“I hold myself in quiet and silence,

            like a little child in its mother’s arms,

            like a little child, so I keep myself.”

Just maybe, in our current day, it would do us good to embrace a Mother-God-understanding.  It might help us sense more accurately how God wants to interact in our life.  Rather than the dominate, judging, power-hungry, controlling, manipulative aspects we often are wrestling with in the male dominated views, it would be refreshing to embrace a nurturing, caring, loving, and comforting understanding of God.

It reminds me of back in my doctoral work when I studied the people known as the Desert Mothers and Fathers.  They chose to go into isolation by heading out into the wildernesses of the Middle East to pray.

An interesting part of their theology was that they did not believe Jesus came to save only Christians—rather, they believed that Jesus could save the whole world from its excesses, its materialism, prejudices, hatred, self-absorption, violence, and cruelty.

In many ways, I consider the Desert Mothers and Fathers the first real Quakers. Like us they believed that God speaks to everyone, but that in order to hear God’s voice, one must learn to be still and actively listen for it. Just what I have been talking about the last couple of Sundays.

Their focus was on the interior life that later, Quaker founder, George Fox would label and define as our Inner Light.

Along with their inward journey, just like us Quakers, there was also an outward expression as well. The Mothers and Fathers labored to create self-sustaining communities that could welcome and feed the stranger, the refugee, the pilgrim, and those escaping mistreatment and injustice, including women.

Mary C. Earl in her book specifically on the Desert Mothers, or “Ammas” as they were known, shared this about what they taught her, she said…

“…the ammas have taught me to set aside time for quiet. There are so many pressures that lead us to be fragmented. The tradition does not deny the pressures. The ammas tell us that God is present even in those daily struggles.”

I can remember that more readily if I have taken time for quiet, for rest, or holding myself in the Light.”  

She also says,

“…the ammas take me back to basics. We live in a time in which so much polarization has happened in both the national political arena, and within the church. The ammas invite us to look beyond all the divisive fussing — not to deny it, but to see it as surface reality. They invite us to gaze more deeply, especially in the most tensive of circumstances.”

And lastly, she says,

“…the ammas tell me that from the beginnings of the life of the Church, women have been initiators of new patterns and teachings, opening the way for knowing the wholeness that God offers in Christ. When I am reading the stories and sayings of the desert ammas, I am struck by their utter confidence that no matter what, this world belongs to God, is loved by God, and that each person, each creature, each aspect of the created order, is an expression (some would say a theophany, a showing) of God’s love.

What if you and I took some time this Mother’s Day to embrace and gravitate to the qualities and attributes of our Mother God, to sense her nurturing love and seek her wisdom.  Allowing ourselves to be wrapped in her safe embrace and comforted by her care? 

As the Desert Mothers and Fathers, maybe we too should take time to slow ourselves down, to pause, to hold ourselves in the Light and seek our inner life?

To do that will mean we have to face some difficult things such as our excesses, our materialism, our prejudices, our hatred, our self-absorption, our violence, and our cruelty. 

And once more, as the Ammas or Desert Mothers remind us, during our quiet and alone times this week, we should try and make time for acknowledging the pressures, polarizations, and tensions that we are experiencing – all while remembering no matter what this world throws at us - Mother God is always with us and ready to embrace us with her love!

Let me end this time this morning with an invocation by Chris Zydel that speaks to this process. Allow these words to enter you into our time of waiting worship this morning.

Oh Mother Of The Vast Sweetness Of Silence

I bring to you my worried mind
My spiraling out of control obsessions and anxieties
My endless stories of comparison and judgment
My multitudinous fears both real and imagined
My endless litany of self criticism and self recrimination
And lay them at your feet
Trusting that they will gently dissolve into the starry night of your blessed emptiness
Vanishing into the cosmic depths of your spacious expansiveness
Effortlessly transformed into the energy of soundless, wordless light and gently pulsing peace

Oh Mother Of Steadfast Love

I bring to you my deepest needs for connection
My yearning to be witnessed and valued
My burning thirst for acceptance and belonging
My desire to be seen as precious
My aching to be loved
Allowing them to be held in the boundless compassion of your mamas heart
Letting myself be a child again
Pulling greedily on the hem of your silken robes
Hungry for the sweet embracing smile that is always there
For me and me alone

Oh Mother Of Miraculous Healing

I bring to you my perfectly imperfect body
My lifelong chronicle of illnesses and injuries
Those multitudes of traumas and ailments
That have left me feeling
Damaged, wounded, limping, scarred
I ask for your powerful restorative touch
Your capacity to make whole again that which has been diminished by time and ordeal
Your ability to bring harmonizing grace to my body and my soul
To teach me to cherish myself in my all too human limitations
As I know you are able to cherish me

Oh Mother Of Expanded Mercy

I bring to you my broken heart
My seemingly bottomless well of grief
My shattered dreams
My darkest disappointments
My most shameful defeats
And nestle them in your ample arms
Where they can be bathed in the golden honey of your tender beneficence
Melting away like butter on warm toast
Soothed and comforted by the infinite store of blessed kindness that radiates from every pore of your celestial being
Like a dazzling, sparkling golden sun

Beckoning me to remember my most essential truth
That I am both human and divine

And to invite me to rise up out of the landscape of loss
To step into the world again
From the deepest luminous core of who I truly am
Who I always was
And who I was born to be.

Now, let us take some time and let those thoughts center us down into the arms of our Mother God.  To help us do that here are some queries to ponder further.

1.     Rather than the dominate, judging, power-hungry, controlling, manipulative perspectives of God, how might I embrace a more nurturing, caring, loving, and comforting understanding of God?

2.     How am I being invited to look beyond all the divisive fussing in my world and see it as surface reality, and be invited to gaze more deeply, especially in the most tensive of circumstances for hope?

3.     Where this week, will I take time, slow down, and allow my Mother God to embrace me in her loving arms? 

5-5-24 - Which Will It Be: Intentional or Unexpected?

Which Will It Be: Intentional or Unexpected?
Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting
Pastor Bob Henry
May 5, 2024

Good morning, Friends, and welcome to Light Reflections.  The scriptures I have chosen for today are familiar and from Matthew 11:28-30. I will be reading them from the New Revised Standard Version. 

 “Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Since, next Sunday is both Mother’s Day and my last Sunday with you before I head out on my sabbatical, I thought today might be a good day to talk about the necessity of rest or sabbath in our lives.

Back when I was in seminary, I had a professor who talked a lot about the need for people to find the “pauses” in scripture. At first that was a difficult task, but it forced me to really consider how people communicated in the Bible and how well we translated it into our modern language.   

Often in the pauses, whether it is Jesus pausing before asking a probing question, or the psalmist writing in a Selah, which is a musical notation written into the psalm text to require one to intentionally pause and reflect, I came to find the pauses to be often just as important as the words. And the same is true in life. 

For our purposes this morning, I want to label these pauses Life Selahs (which I have talked about before at First Friends).  Life Selahs can be defined as interruptions to all that is normal, necessitating or demanding a pause, that forces us to listen and look carefully at life, and reflect on our priorities and that which is truly important. 

In my further exploration, I have learned that we can categorize two different types of Life Selahs:

1. Those that are planned, prepared for, and engaged willfully, and

2. Those that are unexpected, unplanned, and demand a pause almost grudgingly.

Probably, all of us remember a Life Selah of the 2nd type, just because they catch us off guard or in a rather defining moment. It could have been losing a job, getting a divorce, receiving a difficult diagnosis, experiencing the call that a dear loved one has passed, or even as simple as finding you have been blocked by someone on Facebook.

Whatever the event, it causes us to stop in our tracks, to realize the fragility of life, and center us again on what is important. I have been with several of you as you have gone through these experiences that demanded a pause. They are not easy.

I still remember the moment my office phone rang on July 30, 2014.  It was Sue’s birthday and we had decided to celebrate after work, I dropped off our children at school and had just arrived at my office. I hadn’t even turned on my computer when the phone rang. When I picked up the phone, my life took an unexpected Life Selah. 

I was not prepared for what I heard. I was informed that my parents were in a horrific head on collision, that they were not in good shape, and that I needed to get to them. I stumbled up the steps of my office in shock, told my secretary what had happened, got in my car and tried to head to the accident sight.  I called Sue to inform her of the horrible news, I was having such a Life Selah that I went the wrong way and Sue had to help me get to the accident sight.  This was not the Life Selah I needed or expected. 

Now, many of you have met my parents and know that they came through this Life Selah, but it was definitely unexpected, unplanned, and not the pause any of us wanted or planned for. 

I wish all my training, education, and pastoral experience could prepare me for these Life Selahs, but as I have learned on many occasions, it’s just not possible. No one can be fully prepared for these moments. They grab our fast-paced busy lives and present us with a new reality on the spot – and often with little or no warning. 

Quaker Thomas Kelly said it well when he said we live so much of our lives in “an intolerable scramble of panting feverishness.”  Do you know the “intolerable scramble of panting feverishness”?  I do. 

That is, until we are thrown an unexpected Life Selah and it quickly all comes to a screeching halt.

Often in these difficult times, we need guidance and wisdom from others who have already traveled these difficult roads and have something to share.  As well, many of us turn to the scriptures or comforting authors in these times for the same reasons. We hope we can connect to the characters of scripture or another person’s experience and learn from them.

This is one of the reasons in difficult times, I find myself turning to the book of Psalms. Just as I said last week, I relate to the Psalm writer, David who often cried out in frustration, in confusion, in doubt seeking to understand life and what all God was up to. David (as is the case with many characters in Scripture) encountered Life Selahs – some unexpected and some of his own doing.    

Part of pausing or experiencing Life Selahs for David was not just taking a pause, but literally learning to rest. Actually, it is a common theme in David’s psalms, here are just a couple of examples:

·        My soul finds rest in God alone.

·        Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the Lord has been good to me.

Also, there are what are considered resting psalms such as Psalm 131 which one verse reads,

“But I have calmed and quieted my soul.”

And there are many Psalms which speak of restoring – which that word itself implies that to restore something one will need first to include rest.  It is actually makes up part of the word: rest-ore.

And then I was reminded of Jesus’ invitation to us all in the scripture for today,

“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart,

and you will find rest for your souls.”

This is where we must turn and look at the first type of Life Selahs – those that are planned, prepared for, and engaged willfully. 

Planning and preparing to take a pause and find some needed rest is one of the best answers to unexpected interruptions of life, but rest should also be part of our makeup and weekly, even daily, routine.   

The God of the Old Testament said, “Remember the sabbath to keep it holy” meaning we should remember to keep sabbath rest as a normal part of our life.  We need space in our lives. It is almost like the first type of Life Selah helps prepare us for the second type of Life Selahs. 

You and I should intentionally pursue Life Selahs or pauses for rest. Yet most of the time, we skip intentionally pausing and resting and end up forced to pause - quickly, without much thought, and with much urgency. 

I used to think not much of this, until I noticed my body understood this better than me. We all have worked too hard, been too stressed, did not take time to intentionally pause or rest, so our body shut down, we became sick, and were forced to take a Life Selah.  It is literally how we are wired.    

When we intentionally take a Life Selah and stop and allow ourselves to pause and rest from the chaos and confusion swirling around us, we often are more able to find a sense of stability or even serenity, of growth and health. The pause and rest clears our minds and helps us find focus and attentiveness to what God is doing in our midst. We may even see new possibilities, new opportunities which did not seem available in the moment, or renewed hope.

That is exactly why I am considering my upcoming sabbatical as an intentional Life Selah – a life pause and time of rest from all the doing.      

As Anne Lamott says, people often want us to be human doings rather than human beings. The beauty of taking a Life Selah or intentional pause and rest is that it returns us to the healing space of human being.

Or go back a few years to the Anne Lamott of her time in the late 16th century, Madame Guyon, who said that in the midst of life we should find time to,

“Rest. Rest. Rest in God’s love. The only work you are required now to do is

to give your most intense attention to His still, small voice within.”

Boy, she could be Quaker.

Intentional Life Selahs, pausing and resting often goes directly with the process of holding oneself in the Light as I talked about last week. You almost cannot attempt to hold yourself in the Light if you are not able to find time to pause or rest.    

Folks, it is clear that we all have limits and that there is a finiteness to our time and energy – especially in the midst of difficult situations or the second type of unexpected Life Selah.

I believe, we were created this way. And I believe needing to rest is both a divine and human attribute. If we acknowledge that of God within us, then we must also acknowledge the God who has taught us to intentionally rest. 

It was God who instilled the need for Sabbath rest in the hearts of the Hebrew people and led by example by taking a rest at the end of the creation story.

Jesus continued this intentional practice, often during some rather difficult times, by going off and resting and allowing himself to center and reconnect to God’s will.

What I have learned in my studies is that rest is both a physical need and spiritual act. Rest is an act of surrender to a dependence on something greater than you and me.

And as Quakers it is also a centering-quality. That when we willingly take time to rest – we connect more fully with our inner light or the God within us and then also with the God within our neighbor.

Rest is restorative to our own soul and the soul of our community. 

Just maybe the best thing we could do, that may change our world for the better is find more time for intentional Life Selahs, pauses, rest…amen to that, right?  

And one last thing I want to emphasize, I don’t want someone to walk away from this morning thinking, Pastor Bob thinks we all need to take a nap or get more sleep (that may be a priority and needed for many of us), but for some people taking time to read a book, play a game, listen to music, do some type of craft or art, yoga, spend time watching a movie, laughing with a friend, experiencing nature or a sunset, even taking a drive, riding a bike, cooking a wonderful meal, or for some (not me), running, and the list goes on…all are ways we can rest our souls and re-center ourselves during intentional or unexpected Life Selahs.

Let’s now take an intentional Life Selah this morning as we enter waiting worship. Allow yourself to pause and rest this morning, feel the presence of this place and the people within, and take time to center in on the connection with that of God within you and your neighbor.  Here are some queries to help you pause and reflect:        

·        When have I experienced an unexpected Life Selah? How did I respond?

·        When have I intentionally entered a Life Selah? Do I need one?

·        How might I develop a better discipline of rest in my life? 

4-28-24 - More Than Just Prayer

More Than Just Prayer

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

April 28, 2024

Good morning Friends and welcome to Light Reflections. We are so glad you joined us today.  The scripture I have chosen for today is Psalm 31 from the New Revised Standard Version:

In you, O Lord, I seek refuge;

    do not let me ever be put to shame;

    in your righteousness deliver me.

Incline your ear to me;

    rescue me speedily.

Be a rock of refuge for me,

    a strong fortress to save me.

You are indeed my rock and my fortress;

    for your name’s sake lead me and guide me;

take me out of the net that is hidden for me,

    for you are my refuge.

Into your hand I commit my spirit;

    you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.

You hate those who pay regard to worthless idols,

    but I trust in the Lord.

I will exult and rejoice in your steadfast love,

    because you have seen my affliction;

    you have taken notice of my adversities

and have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy;

    you have set my feet in a broad place.

Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress;

    my eye wastes away from grief,

    my soul and body also.

For my life is spent with sorrow

    and my years with sighing;

my strength fails because of my misery,

    and my bones waste away.

I am the scorn of all my adversaries,

    a horror to my neighbors,

an object of dread to my acquaintances;

    those who see me in the street flee from me.

I have passed out of mind like one who is dead;

    I have become like a broken vessel.

For I hear the whispering of many—

    terror all around!—

as they scheme together against me,

    as they plot to take my life.

But I trust in you, O Lord;

    I say, “You are my God.”

My times are in your hand;

    deliver me from the hand of my enemies and persecutors.

Let your face shine upon your servant;

    save me in your steadfast love.

Do not let me be put to shame, O Lord,

    for I call on you;

let the wicked be put to shame;

    let them go dumbfounded to Sheol.

Let the lying lips be stilled

    that speak insolently against the righteous

    with pride and contempt.

O how abundant is your goodness

    that you have laid up for those who fear you

and accomplished for those who take refuge in you,

    in the sight of everyone!

In the shelter of your presence you hide them

    from human plots;

you hold them safe under your shelter

    from contentious tongues.

Blessed be the Lord,

    for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me

    when I was beset as a city under siege.

I had said in my alarm,

    “I am driven far from your sight.”

But you heard my supplications

    when I cried out to you for help.

Love the Lord, all you his saints.

    The Lord preserves the faithful

    but abundantly repays the one who acts haughtily.

Be strong, and let your heart take courage,

    all you who wait for the Lord.

The other day, I was talking with Sue in the car on the way home from the store and the topic of prayer came up.  Sue had had an experience with a Christian person who considered prayer the only thing Sue needed to do in a challenging situation.  Maybe even praying harder was going to solve the problem.  What ensued was a conversation on the purpose of prayer. 

I mentioned that sometimes prayer is more for the person praying than it is for the person being prayed for.  As well, we talked about how prayer is often used like a vending machine – put the quarters in by praying hard and then expect God to grant us our desired outcome.  We have to be honest there are some magic qualities or hocus pocus connected to some people’s understanding of prayer.

With almost 30 years in ministry, I have come to find that many simply use the idea of prayer as a cop-out.  Often when people say, “I will pray for you” they simply don’t.  They forget, or never intended to in the first place. When someone posts the words “thoughts and prayers” on social media, these days I find my eyes rolling.  And sadly, that is probably because it is being misused or abused.     

I need to be honest, and this might surprise you, but my idea of prayer has evolved a great deal both in my life and ministry.  I have come to prefer utilizing the Quaker phrase “holding you in the Light” instead of the word prayer because of all the misuse and abuse.  Much like I would rather call myself a Quaker than a Christian in public. 

I believe this terminology of “holding in the Light” commands more substance than just sending “thoughts and prayers” which often seems to lack sincerity or at least sounds hollow in our current day and age.

Now, for some, “holding someone or some situation in the Light” is not much more than keeping it in their thoughts and prayers, but when looking deeper at the meaning of this phrase, I find it to resonate in my own soul and cause me a deeper spiritual exploration. 

The New York Monthly Meeting writes this about the phrase, “Hold in the Light.”   

To “Hold in the Light” means to ask for God’s presence to illumine a person, situation, or problem, whether in concern or thanksgiving.

Bethesda Friends takes it a little bit further saying,

However, holding someone in the Light is more than a simple supplication on behalf of that person. Instead, there is a sense of joining with Spirit, or the Light, to enfold the person in love and comfort, or of joining with the Light in the faith that the Light will reveal what is deeply true for that person. Holding someone in the Light does not preclude trying to be of concrete use. One’s actions may be guided by one’s experience.

Quaker Doug Bennet emphasizes that last part by saying,  

…talking of holding someone in the Light makes it more tangible. We can feel the Light and feel the warmth around us.  When we say we’re holding someone in the Light I have an imagine[sic] of bathing that person in Light, and I imagine that we expect or hope the Light will have a healing effect.  And we’re doing something. We’re not just waiting for God to do something. We’re holding someone, lifting someone into the Light. 

I remember when I first had someone tell me they were “holding me in the light,” it honestly took me back to when our oldest child, Alex was born.  When we brought them home from the hospital, they were a bit jaundiced and the doctor recommended we, “hold them in the light” to allow the light to heal them. I didn’t get that beautiful metaphor for this spiritual principle as a young parent, but I definitely do, now. 

And I know that many of us need to sit in the sun or by a sun lamp after a long winter to get our needed Vitamin D to feel whole and healthy.   

Yet, I find for someone unfamiliar with this Quaker terminology, it causes them to wonder or even try and imagine this Divine Light. 

If you look at early Quaker spirituality, you find that the image of light often represents the mysterious presence of God (much like it often does in Scripture.)

Like Quaker Edward Burrough (one of the Valiant Sixty) who said,

“All that dwell in the light, their habitation is in God, and they know a hiding place in the day of storm; and those who dwell in the light, are built upon the rock, and cannot be moved, for who are moved or shaken, goes from the light, and so goes from their strength, and from the power of God, and loses the peace and the enjoyment of the presence of God.”

But sometimes, when people are going through difficult times, you and I are being called to hold them in the Light, because they cannot do it for themselves. That is a beautiful image and idea. 

When someone is going through a battle with cancer.

When a couple is going through a divorce.

When parents are having challenges with children.

When life is just overwhelming… we need people to “Hold us in the Light” because we may not have the energy or ability to do it ourselves. 

To be the ones called to hold someone or a situation in the light, I believe, is to help bring our neighbors, friends, relatives, even strangers into deeper contact with that of God within each of us.  

Some Quakers imagine the person for whom they are holding in the light to actually be bathed in a beautiful, gentle light, or picture them surrounded with a halo-like quality or aura.

Even our Christian scriptures use the illustration that Jesus is the Light of the World and that his Spirit “illumines” our lives and brings us into Truth.

So, for me personally, when I hold someone or a specific situation in the Light, I imagine God’s grace, love, joy, wisdom and peace engulfing and surrounding their life and situation. 

A Quaker from Ann Arbor Friends Meeting put it this way,

“I like to think of ‘holding in the light’ as being ‘holding in Love.’  The Light to me represents God’s love and some of its qualities, and so when I think of holding someone in the Light, I picture them surrounded by visual, bright Light, but also surrounded by something with warmth and a soft texture. In the Psalms there is reference to being born up on the wings of an eagle, and I like the image of an eagle’s wings as part of God’s love. The wing can be powerful, strong, and uplifting, but on the ground the wing can encircle us in a warm and comforting way. Thus, I envision someone being held in brightness, warmth and softness.”    

Over time, I have also realized that holding someone in the Light is more than just thinking, meditating, or praying. Quaker Alan Schmaljohn puts words to this. He says,  

“…tangible action, no matter how banal on the surface, is also a manifestation of holding someone in the light. To deliver a casserole, to send a card, to offer a room for visiting relatives, to recommend a specific and highly skilled professional relevant to the situation—these and many other “mere actions” are filled with magic and Light.” 

This is the action that many feel is missing when asking for thoughts and prayers. To consider Holding someone in the Light as tangible action means you and I are the bearers of the Light in our neighbors’ lives.  Our Light (that of God in us) is literally holding them and offering them tangible hope.

Alan also shared this story about how Holding someone in the Light affects more than the one we are holding in the Light.  He says,

In Worship today, a Friend spoke through tears of a colleague fighting for her life in Shock-Trauma after being stabbed multiple times and left for dead by an acquaintance, himself deranged by demons yet undescribed. The Friend asked our Quaker community to hold the injured woman and her family in the Light, and the Friend continued to speak of her own epiphany, cast upon her by her husband, from his understanding: that to hold someone in the Light (an image, a metaphor, an action) is by necessity to stand in the Light oneself, thus its effect is to offer healing not only to the other but to oneself.

When I mentioned to Sue that sometimes prayer is more for the person praying than it is for the person being prayed for. This is exactly what I was thinking about. Sometimes when we hold others in the the Light, it puts us in the Light, as well, and illumines and offers epiphanies in our own lives. 

And that leads perfectly to one last aspect of Holding in the Light that I think is very important – that of holding oneself in the Light.   

Often holding oneself in the Light is the hardest to imagine or even do. We often do not take the time we need to inwardly process our own thoughts and beliefs.

And that means we probably don’t take much time to hold ourselves in the Light – to be held in Love – to ask the Divine to illumine our own lives, problems, and situations. 

Most of the time, we are thinking about others and not recognizing our own needs. 

Please understand this is not a selfish act – no, rather I believe it is an essential act. 

Our scripture text for this morning is what I consider a verbal expression of what may go through one’s mind as we hold ourselves in the Light.  The text is a Psalm of David. 

Many times, I find David’s writing as though he is holding himself in the Light and seeking the presence, attributes, and love of God. 

As David often does, he shows us just how hard it is to enter the presence of the Divine and get our own selfish thoughts and needs out of the way, so we can truly enter into the presence and hear the still small voice.  Each week in waiting worship, we have an opportunity to hold ourselves in the Light, to listen to our inner Light, and even to respond to that Light. 

Also, please understand holding yourself, someone else, or a situation in the Light is more than utilizing a wrote prayer or formula.  Sometimes those are helpful when we don’t have words, but often when we don’t have words, we need simply to hold that situation in the presence of God until something further is revealed. 

When I consider holding someone, something, or myself in the Light it is a mixture of all sorts of things - of prayers, praises, and professions of confidence in God and I don’t know about you, but for me there is also often some doubt, frustration, even first shaking at God and big questions from the depths of my soul. 

I relate so well to David and his psalms. As I read them, I often hear his words as holding himself in the Light.  I think you will see his interesting “mixture” of prayers, praises, doubts and frustrations coming forth. 

To make it a bit more personal or relatable, I would like to read David’s Psalm 31 from a modern translation titled Psalms/Now by Leslie F. Brandt.

As I read this, try and imagine holding yourself in the Light and allowing these words to express or bring to the surface your own personal feelings, images, or thoughts – if it helps, close your eyes. 

For now, just listen to the words and let them speak to your condition.

Psalm 31

I am up a blind alley, Lord.

The props have been knocked out beneath me.

I feel as if I’m grappling with the wind.

                for some support or security.

I’ve been pulled up short, Lord.

Now, I realize how much I need

                something or someone

                beyond and above myself.

                To give stability to my tenuous existence.

Maybe it was Your doing, Lord.

It is Your way of bringing me back to home port,

of correcting my focus

and reassessing my goals.

I return to You with empty hands, Lord.

You know well, my sorry plight.

I did not find that secret treasure,

                that pearl of great price.

The bright lights that beckoned

                only led me astray.

I became entangled in the bonds of self-service.

Everything I touched turned to dust in my hands.

I despise myself today, Lord.

Even those I thought my friends

                Turn their faces from me.

There is no place to go, nothing to cling to.

I can only come back to You

                and cast myself on Your loving mercy.

You are my God.

You have never let me out of Your sight.

Even when I strike out on my own,

                You pursue me and hold on to me.

I’ve stopped running, Lord.

From this point on

                I will dedicate my hours and days

                into Your loving hands.

 I seek only Your guidance

                and the grace and strength

                to carry out Your purposes.

Restore me, O God,

                To Your program and design for my life.

Thank You for taking me back, Lord,

                for renewing my relationship with You.

I seek now to walk in Your course for me.

I shall abide forever in Your steadfast love.

I will proclaim Your praises

                and live out Your Purposes.

Enable me to be faithful to You.

                whatever the consequences,

                and to celebrate Your love

                                and communicate it to everyone around me.

May that now, lead us into waiting worship where I encourage you to hold yourself in the Light.  Allow the Divine to speak to your condition, to illuminate you heart, to put on your mind and hearts those who need to be held in the Light around you.   If you need a little help in processing, I have some queries for you to ponder.

·         What does it mean for me to pray for or hold someone/thing in the Light? 

·         Who in my life needs me to hold them in the Light? In what ways will I do that this week?

·         How might I go about holding myself in the Light this week? When will I allow myself the time and silence to listen? 

4-21-24 - Our Place – Earth Sunday

Our Place – Earth Sunday

Indianapolis First Friends

Pastor Bob Henry

April 21, 2024

Good morning, Friends and welcome to Light Reflections on this Earth Sunday.  Our scripture text for today is Psalm 65 from the Message version.

Silence is praise to you,
    Zion-dwelling God,
And also obedience.
    You hear the prayer in it all.

We all arrive at your doorstep sooner
    or later, loaded with guilt,
Our sins too much for us—
    but you get rid of them once and for all.
Blessed are the chosen! Blessed the guest
    at home in your place!
We expect our fill of good things
    in your house, your heavenly manse.
All your salvation wonders
    are on display in your trophy room.
Earth-Tamer, Ocean-Pourer,
    Mountain-Maker, Hill-Dresser,
Muzzler of sea storm and wave crash,
    of mobs in noisy riot—
Far and wide they’ll come to a stop,
    they’ll stare in awe, in wonder.
Dawn and dusk take turns
    calling, “Come and worship.”

Oh, visit the earth,
    ask her to join the dance!
Deck her out in spring showers,
    fill the God-River with living water.
Paint the wheat fields golden.
    Creation was made for this!
Drench the plowed fields,
    soak the dirt clods
With rainfall as harrow and rake
    bring her to blossom and fruit.
Snow-crown the peaks with splendor,
    scatter rose petals down your paths,
All through the wild meadows, rose petals.
    Set the hills to dancing,
Dress the canyon walls with live sheep,
    a drape of flax across the valleys.
Let them shout, and shout, and shout!
    Oh, oh, let them sing!

I want to begin this Earth Sunday message with leading us in a spiritual exercise and asking some queries to focus our attention.  Since I have talked about St. Benedict’s Rules the last couple weeks, I thought this morning I would borrow some thoughts from Ignatian Spirituality.  If you are not familiar with Ignatius of Antioch (who lived 35-107AD) – he was considered one of the Early Church Fathers, a disciple of the Apostle John, one of the first Bishops of the Church, who ended up a martyr for the faith.

Often when Quakers have sought to return to the “faith of the apostles” (as our history notes) they find great commonality and connection with Ignatius’ profound words in his writings on, what he labels, “Spiritual Exercises.” This is because his work is foundational in the mystical tradition – a tradition that Quakers find themselves categorized in often. 

Again, it was Quaker Richard Foster through his Renovaré curriculum that introduced me to Ignatius. Richard Foster taught (and I believe heavily borrowed from Ignatius) that there are three great books that guide our lives, 1) the book of scripture, 2) the book of experience, and 3) the book of nature. 

As well, Ignatius was one of the first theologians to connect our spiritual exercises with ecology and creation. So, it seems natural or fitting to utilize his work this morning on Earth Sunday.  

As most Ignatian Exercises begin, I would like for us to begin this morning with taking a deep breath.  (Notice how your whole body relaxes as you breathe in and exhale.) 

Take another deep breath.  (This time notice that the air coming into your lungs through your nose is free and plentiful: there is more than enough air for everyone.

Finally, take another deep breath.  The atoms of air that you breathe in and out are a shared gift – shared both with other humans and with the creatures and plants of the Earth.

This air constitutes a radical physical connectedness with all other living beings. 

Because of our intricate interconnectedness with each other in and through the natural world, what has been called environmentalism – concern for that which is around us becomes ecological awareness. 

Environmental Studies professor, Trileigh Tucker speaking on this says,

“The word ‘ecology’ comes from two Greek roots: oikos meaning ‘house’ and logos, meaning ‘reason’ or ‘discourse’.  When we shift from speaking of the environment (that which is around us but does not include us) to speaking of ecology, then, we are thinking in a new way: not about a distant object, but rather about the network of relationships within which we live: our own house, our home.

Or as we say this morning – EARTH. 

To help you connect with your experience of this place – earth, I want to help you make that connection this morning through another simple Ignatian exercise. 

Take a moment to allow your mind to travel to the first natural place (or place in nature) to which you felt connected as a child, or another natural place to which you’ve felt a strong connection.  (You may need to close your eyes to really travel back to this place.)

Imagine you’re in that place again this morning. 

What do you notice with your senses?

What does it look like?

What does it smell like?

What does it feel like?

What does it sound like?

Maybe what do you taste there?

Is there something particular in that place – a tree or a stream or an animal – to which you have a special attachment? 

How do you feel as you return there?

What feelings does it invoke?

What good memories are associated with this place?

The reason I wanted you to think about these things is because much of our connectedness in this world is understood and driven by landscapes or what this morning I will call, place. 

Ignatius believed that our psychology and spirituality are intimately connected with place.  Also, we have a physical connection to our geography as well as the psychological and spiritual. 

Yet, as I talked about at the end of worship last week, many people today feel misplaced – and no longer comfortable in their changing surroundings.  Some would go as far as saying they lack a sense of place because they no longer know their neighbors.  This is where we connect these thoughts to the last two Sundays on Hospitality.

Ask yourself:  Do you know the neighbors that live on either side of you?

How far down the street do you have to go before you do not know them at all? 

Who, if you needed help, would be the neighbor you would call on? 

If someone in your neighborhood needed help, would they call on you?

I just wrote about the relationship I have with one my neighbors who I called on to help me in my As Way Opens article in our Friend to Friend newsletter this week. Go check it out if you haven’t.

In reality, we in our world today, do what the authors of “The New Parrish” call “Living above Place” which is “the tendency to develop structures that keep cause-and-effect relationships far apart in space and time where we cannot have firsthand experience of them.” 

It is what keeps our relationships at surface level.

What happens when a society, like ours, lives above place for long enough is that we begin to live a cocooned way of life, unaware of others and how we affect each other. 

You can see this happening firsthand with the way we create online communities and only associate with people that support our own views.  It is what is dividing us politically as a country and creating fear-based organizations, biased media, and country club religions. 

And I believe “Living Above Place” is not only talking about our human neighbors but also those that we may not even consider neighbors - for instance our neighbors of water, energy, food. 

Again, ask yourselves: Do you know where your water, energy, food comes from? 

What kind of relationship and first-hand experience do you have with them?

We must admit that we have a very intimate, survival-based relationships with these basic essential needs, but many people cannot identify from where they come, because again we have cocooned ourselves from knowing. 

What if we did not know where our life partners, spouses, or closest friends came from? (Honestly, they probably wouldn’t have a prominent place in our lives.)

To know that my wife comes from North of Detroit, MI, that she grew up on a farm, that her German family raised cattle, that she had two sisters who helped her work that farm is rather important to my understanding of her, today – and knowing where our water, energy, food come from is vitally important as well. 

Ignatius says that becoming aware of this background knowledge is essential to us “living in the flesh” – a major aspect of the virtue of hospitality we have been talking about the last couple weeks. 

We must admit that we are creatures of the flesh – that we are dwellers in a specific place, and that we express that of God’s creation in our own beings. 

Knowing our place is key to understanding our incarnated lives and what God is doing among us and through us in our neighborhood and world.

In their book, “Slow Church” my friends John Pattison and Chris Smith point this out saying,

“Cultivation of our communities involves attentiveness not only to the rhythms of our specific places but also to the day-to-day sorts of choices we make and the sort of rhythmic order we impose on those places. As our roots grow deeper in a place, we can’t help but want to see that place thrive. Seeking the flourishing of our places not only involves caring for them – keeping them clean, planting gardens, living lightly on the land – but also caring for the people who live here with us, of course.”

To cultivate our communities, we will first need to examine our places and those we engage with in that space.  Ignatius encouraged this as part of his spiritual exercises because he knew that the natural world and our human co-habitants affect us psychologically, physically, and spiritually.  In Exercise 60 and 160 of his Spiritual Exercises, Ignatius asks,

“Going through all creatures, how have they left me in life and preserved me in it…the heavens, sun, moon, stars and elements, fruits, birds, fishes and animals.”

“…the various persons: and first those on the surface of the earth, in such variety, in dress as in actions: some white and others black: some in peace and others in war: some weeping and others laughing, some well, others ill, some being born and others dying, etc...”

When we start to see the way all of creation takes care of, preserves, and sustains us, then we must ask ourselves how we in-turn are taking care of all of creation – animals, plants, our neighbors of all walks of life, beliefs, cultures, etc...

Because, to cut out any of these would be detrimental to our own growth. This is a connection to creation relationship that must be acknowledged and continually worked through.

Every Earth Sunday, I feel it is essential to quote from modern day farmer-prophet, Wendell Berry. He wrote about what we are talking about this morning in his essay, “Christianity and the Survival of Creation” which can be found in his book, “The Art of the Commonplace.” Berry says this,

“We will discover that for these reasons our destruction of nature is not just bad stewardship, or stupid economics, or a betrayal of family responsibility; it is the most horrid blasphemy. It is flinging God’s gifts into His face, as if they were of no worth beyond that assigned to them by our destruction of them…We have no entitlement from the Bible to exterminate or permanently destroy or hold in contempt anything on the earth or in the heavens above it or in the waters beneath it. We have the right to use the gifts of nature but not to ruin or waste them…The Bible leaves no doubt at all about the sanctity of the act of world making, or the world that was made, or of creaturely or bodily life in this world. We are holy creatures living among other holy creatures in a world that is holy.” 

Let me repeat that final line: We are holy creatures living among other holy creatures in a world that is holy.”  Do we believe that?

This reminds me of a poem by Quaker Laurent A. Parks Daloz, a Peace Corps Volunteer, educator, and environmental activist.  He writes,

Stop for moment beside a young cedar to listen

 And breathe in the life swarming around you.

A soft breeze brushes your cheek;

You can feel the silence.

For a thrumming instant you are one with it –

At such moments, we don’t simply believe,

We know that we are woven into the mat of interdependent life.

This is not sacred belief;

It is sacred knowledge.

We know in our bones that we are an intimate part of all life,

Not simply what surrounds us in the present,

But of all life in all time.

The oxygen we breathe,

The nourishment from the plants beside us,

The elements beneath our feet –

All come to us from the most distant past

And will endure in some form into the unimaginable future..

We are ineluctably a part of all space and time.

So, the first thing, we are called to do on this Earth Sunday is to become aware of our PLACE and the sacredness of it. We need to take time to allow ourselves to get out of our cocoons and to descend from “living above place” to living in the present moment with our neighbors in which we have been given as gift – this place we call the earth.    

To help us ponder more this week, I have included some detailed queries from, one of my favorite Quaker books, “Practicing Peace” by Catherine Whitmire for us to ponder.

·        What have I learned from listening to God in the earth, rocks, trees, water, and animals?  How has this learning affected or changed my life?

·        In what ways does my daily life exemplify, reflect, or belie my respect for the oneness of Creation and my care for the environment?

·        Am I willing to change the way I live and make sacrifices in my lifestyle in order to preserve the earth, air, and water for future generations? What changes am I willing to make now?

4-14-24 - Seeing with Hospitable Eyes (Part 2)

Seeing with Hospitable Eyes (Part 2)

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

April 14, 2024

Good morning, Friends and welcome to Light Reflections. The scripture I have chosen for today is from Luke 14:12-24 in the New Revised Standard Version.

He said also to the one who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

 One of the dinner guests, on hearing this, said to him, “Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” Then Jesus said to him, “Someone gave a great dinner and invited many. At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see it; please accept my regrets.’ Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my regrets.’ Another said, ‘I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come.’ So the slave returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ And the slave said, ‘Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.’  Then the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled. For I tell you,  none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.’”

Last week, I went back to the 5th century to talk about some of the roots of modern hospitality found in the Benedictine monasteries.  This morning, as we look at the second part of hospitality, I want to go all the way back to the first instance of hospitality seen in the Scriptures.

In the book of Genesis (chapter 18 verses 4 to 5) we get this story about Abraham receiving an unexpected blessing. Sitting at the entrance to his tent one day, resting in the shade of the great trees of Mamre, Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. He hurried toward these strangers and greeted them as honored guests.

“Let a little water be brought,” he said, encouraging them to rest with him, “and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way.”

Abraham asked his wife, Sarah, to bake bread for the strangers, and he personally selected a tender calf from his herd for his servants to prepare for the guest to eat. As they enjoyed the special meal together, the strangers spoke.

They brought a word from God: within the next year, they said, Sarah would bear a child, a son.

What I find most interesting about this first display of hospitality is that in welcoming complete strangers, Abraham learned something about God, and about God’s plan for him. In these strangers were that of God as we Quakers would say.

“This first formative story of the biblical tradition on hospitality is unambiguously positive about welcoming strangers,” Christine Pohl writes in Making Room. “It connects hospitality with the presence of God, with promise, and with blessing.” 

This was only the beginning for hospitality.  It would become a very important and serious part of the spiritual life – so much that the Hebrew people developed codes and rules for hospitality that would go above and beyond what we would even consider, today.  

Currently, in our world hospitality might mean welcoming and being polite, but it has also become about being at ease with people and sensing an amount of safety.  But that was not always the case in our Abrahamic religious history. Hospitality in Biblical times grew to look a bit different than what we have found acceptable in America, today.

And this was mainly due to hospitality being offered to complete strangers.

Marjorie J. Thompson in her book “Soul Feast” (which I consider a primer for experiencing the Spiritual Life in a Christian context) says this about hospitality in ancient times,

“People who appeared from the unknown might bear gifts or might be enemies.  Because travel was a dangerous venture, codes of hospitality were strict. If a sworn enemy showed up at your doorsteps asking for food and shelter, you were bound to supply his request, along with protection and safe passage as long as he was on your land.  All sorts of people had to travel at times through “enemy territory” which meant the hospitality to strangers was a matter of mutual survival.  It was a kind of social covenant, an implied commitment to transcend human differences in order to meet common human needs.”

Wow! I think it is time for us to reinstate this “social covenant” in our day and age. It makes me wonder how the early Abrahamic faiths would have viewed the refugees on our borders.  

Thompson continues, she says:  

“Hospitality was a hallmark of virtue for ancient Jews and Christians. But in scripture, hospitality reflects a larger reality than human survival codes.  It mysteriously links us to God as well as to one another…Hospitality in biblical times was understood to be a way of meeting and receiving holy presence.” 

If we as Quakers truly embraced the theology of “That of God in everyone we meet,” then each encounter with even a complete stranger is an opportunity to meet and receive holy presence. This has happened to me on so many occasions. 

One of the encounters I still remember like it was yesterday, was when I was a young child.  My mother and I were traveling across Fort Wayne when our tire went flat.  My mom pulled off the road into a vacant lot, but before we even got out of the car to access the damage.  Seemingly out of nowhere, a big, leather-wearing, bearded man with lots of tattoos of naked women on his arms (I remember that because as a child I was intrigued and a bit worried) had gotten off his Harley and was standing beside our car.  He told my mom to pop the trunk and he would help her change out the flat. We didn’t even get out of the car.  He took care of it all, asked for nothing in return, and told us to have a good day.  And then he seemed to disappear as quickly as he appeared.  We considered him our Hell’s Angel.

In reality, he was a complete stranger, but he was also a real person who understood hospitality.

That was the beginning of the end for judging people by their outward appearances. I have had people tell me that you can know someone just by looking at them, boy has that not worked out on so many occasions.  Instead of judging people by looking at their outward appearance and often writing them off, maybe we should start with having “hospitable eyes.”

I am pretty sure I have shared this before, but before coming to First Friends, I had the opportunity for a silent retreat at the Mount Angel Abbey in Oregon – just down the road from where we lived in Silverton. On my last day there, I had spent some time in the library and was on my way out and decided to grab a quick drink of water out of the drinking fountain.  Just above the fountain was a beautiful sign made with colorful mosaic tiles.  Ironically after my sermon last week, on it was written the Rule of St. Benedict #53 – Receive all as Christ.

Receive all as Christ. 

Receive all as a holy presence. 

Receive all as if we believed that there was that of God in them.

As I studied this more, I noticed this theme popping up more often. Mother Teresa said,

“Today, if we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other–that man, that woman, that child is my brother or my sister. If everyone could see the image of God in his neighbor, do you think we would still need tanks and generals?” 

Even Mr. Rogers said,

When we look for what's best in the person we happen to be with at the moment, we're doing what God does, so in appreciating our neighbor, we're participating in something truly sacred.

You see, when we start to receive people differently and see with hospitable eyes that of God in them, then we are evoked to create new places of belonging and sharing.  

I believe one of the biggest challenges within churches and Quaker meetings today, is that they too often have stopped creating new opportunities for belonging, sharing, and seeing.

They continue to do the same thing over and over hoping for different results. I love all the ways we have been creating opportunities here at First Friends to help people find a place to belong, share, and see one another. 

We start early on with New Attender Dinners for people beginning the journey with us. Then come Affirmation Classes, Threshing Together gatherings at community eateries, Serving our community at the Food Pantry, Sing-alongs, Women’s Retreats, Oak Leaf Meetings for Reading, small groups, Seasoned Friends, children’s ministries and VBS, Grief Gatherings, Unprogrammed Worship opportunities on three different days, a community garden and meditational woods to celebrate creation, and that is only a few of the great ways we are creating opportunities for belonging, sharing and seeing one another.

As Jonathon Wilson-Hartgrove said last week, slowing down and spending time with people for the purpose of developing community, friendships, and deeper relationships is essential to hospitality.

Marjorie Thompson went a little further, she says this about the essence of hospitality. 

“Hospitality means receiving the other, from the heart, into my own dwelling place. It entails providing for the need, comfort, and delight of the other with the openness, respect, freedom, tenderness, and joy that love itself embodies.”

Folks, Hospitality is an expression of love. Or maybe I should say, it is an expression of unselfish love.

In our scripture text for this morning, before Jesus shared his parable, he decided to say a couple things to his host.  He says in verse 12,

“When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid.”

In other words, you don’t give in order to get something in return.

Why not?  Because when you behave in this way, it means that you are looking for a selfish gain in some way.  

Instead, Jesus tells the man in verses 13-14,

“…invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. 14 And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you.”

In Israel, the crippled, the lame and the blind were obviously the poor of the society. These were the people who, because of their physical disabilities, could not work, and therefore they could not earn a salary. Most of them depended on charity to survive.

Why should you invite them?

Precisely because they can’t repay you. This is the exact opposite of the worldly way of thinking – you scratch my back, and I will scratch yours.

Very few give in this way, in a spirit of unselfish love.  But this is how we are to respond, this is the true essence and nature of hospitality – it is a concrete expression of our unselfish love for our neighbor. Let me repeat that – it is a concrete expression of our unselfish love for our neighbor.

Also, I categorize this type of hospitality as a justice issue or part of Christ’s social gospel, because hospitality to strangers often is considered “doing justice.”

Interestingly the biblical meaning of justice is simply conveyed as “right relationships” with one another. 

So, showing kindness to the nomad or vagrant, or offering support to the widow or orphan, taking in the homeless or poor, and offering hospitality to strangers (even enemies) – these were all expressions of just relationships with one’s neighbor in scripture.

Take a moment to really think about this…I believe this is exactly what Eric Baker was getting at last week in what he shared out of the silence. 

Who are the nomads, vagrants, widows, orphans, homeless, poor, and strangers in our neighborhoods? 

Who are the people who cannot repay us?

Who are the people who are neglected by the mainstream of culture?

Where do they live and spend their time?  Why are they neglected? 

We often look at the extremes and point outside our own four walls, but the reality is too often the strangers are also in our midst. Just maybe the stranger is,

·        someone who feels alone,

·        someone who has no friends, no one to talk to.

·        someone who gives and gives but is never recognized by others for using their gifts.

·        someone struggling to keep their marriage together and afraid to admit they are struggling. Or someone whose marriage ended, and they feel lost and alone.

·        someone suffering from depression or anxiety or any other mental health disorder. 

·        someone who is ashamed by what they have done or what has been done to them.   

·        Someone who is addicted to pride or power or prestige.

·        Someone who is scared or wishes they could be stronger instead of living in fear.

The reality is that each of us in this Meetinghouse all have at one time been or maybe currently are strangers. 

Author Barbara Brown Taylor said it this way when looking at scripture:

“You shall love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” Those most likely to befriend strangers, in other words, are those who have been strangers themselves. The best way to grow empathy for those who are lost is to know what it means to be lost yourself.”

·        We all want to be welcomed.

·        We all want to belong. 

·        We all want to be full participants. 

·        We all want to be needed. 

·        We all want to be delighted. 

·        We all want to be loved.

·        We all want to be in right relationships.

·        We all want to be seen and known.

This is why it is so important that when we practice hospitality, as John Fenner at Parker Palmer’s Center for Courage and Renewal claims, it is an “appreciation of otherness.” He says,

“Appreciating the value of otherness, for me, goes beyond tolerance – beyond “you’re welcome as long as you play by our rules.” Appreciating the value of otherness entails a level of engagement, inquiry, dialogue, and interaction in which all members can freely share their gifts, learn from each other, and ultimately grow spiritually together. This is hard work and takes time and practice. It takes a willingness to be stretched and to sit with discomfort. It takes a belief that there is “that of God in everyone.”

So, whether at Meeting for Worship, at your work meeting, with your yoga class, or wherever you are called to be hospitable this week, remember to have hospitable eyes, receive all as Christ, help people to feel that they belong and are appreciated, and remember that we are all strangers seeking to be known. 

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

1.   Who are the strangers in my midst? How am I a stranger to others?

2.   How might I engage, interact, learn, and spiritually grow with those around me?

3.   How at First Friends are we creating new places of belonging, places of sharing, of peace and of kindness, places where no one needs to defend themselves; places where each one is loved and accepted with one’s own fragility, abilities, and disabilities?

4-7-24 - Hospitality: The Craft of Opening Ourselves to See Our Neighbor

Hospitality: The Craft of Opening Ourselves to See Our Neighbor

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

April 7, 2024

Good morning, Friends and welcome to Light Reflections. The scripture text I have chosen for today is Romans 12:9-18 from the New Revised Standard Version.

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

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

For the next several weeks, I want to return to looking at more of the Quaker virtues we were discussing before Easter. This week, I want to look at hospitality, which is a word with a deep spiritual history. If you take a moment and investigate its history, you would immediately be introduced to the monasteries that show up around the 5th century. Strangers in need would come there for care. In fact, the first primitive hospitals began in monasteries.

Hospital, hospice, hospitable, hospitality—all come from the same root word, meaning generous, caring, and sustaining.

Probably, one of the most famous of these early monasteries was that of St. Benedict. Benedict created a book of rules to live by, called The Rule of Benedict, which is used still today by many monasteries and faith communities.

Ironically, I was first introduced to the Rule of Benedict by no other than Quaker author, Richard Foster. Actually, he passed out copies of the Rule books at a Renovaré conference that Sue and I attended back in late 90’s (I still have my copy). At that time, I was a bit more “rule” oriented myself – especially as an Anglican Priest, but Foster had a way of making the Rules seem life-giving rather than life-depleting or sequestering.

This was the beginning of a several year journey that had me delving deeper into, not only my own spiritual formation, but also to my spiritual engagement with the world and people around me. 

For many years I struggled with the formation of a disciplined life in community. Then in one of those rare moments of insight, I stopped into a bookstore in an airport where I had some time to kill before my departure.  In that little bookstore as I perused the books on the shelves, I came across a book that caught my attention. As I went to pull it out, another much smaller book came with it.  It fell to the floor.  As I bent to pick it up, I read the title, “The Wisdom of Stability: Rooting Faith in a Mobile Culture” by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove. What an intriguing title, I thought.  

At the time I had never heard of Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove or this book. By this point, I had totally reshelved the book I had originally grabbed and had begun to read “The Wisdom of Stability” right there in the aisle.  I was quickly drawn in by how Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove encouraged people of faith, like you and me, to:

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

2.      Engage the people we are with and among.

3.      Slow down and participate in simpler rhythms of life, and

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

I think, at that time, my hectic life and even more hectic practice of the Christian faith was immediately challenged by these ideas. Slowing, rooting, and engaging deeper meaning were not things I could quickly implement into my journey. 

I was still working under the principle that we were to wear ourselves out for God until we literally died. How ironic when one of the 10 original commandments were to “remember the sabbath” and make sure to rest.  

I stopped at that point, bought the book, jumped on my plane, and read the entire book on my flight home.   

What I learned was that knowing and rooting ourselves in place is where we start, and when we take the next steps, it becomes about the importance of our interaction with neighbors and community.  What happened to it just being about me, I thought? 

My friend, John Pattison calls these next steps having a “fidelity to people” – a faithfulness to neighbors and community that is supported by a continuing loyalty and support. 

Up to this time, much of Christianity, or for that matter faith in general, was all about ME and doing something about MY sin. It was so myopic and down-right selfish that it had little room for others. 

But Wilson-Hartgrove was asking me to engage people I was with and among to understand God and faith better – instead of getting them saved or to attend my church.

Ultimately in this journey, I would be led to embrace the Quaker understanding of seeing that of God in all people - especially my neighbor.  

This myopic nature that I struggled with has hurt the Christian church in America and taken us away from communicating effectively and living, learning from, and seeing God in our neighbors.

This “fidelity to people” as my friend John put it has sadly become rare in the church and even society as we become more alienated, polarized, isolated, and individualistic.

Today, many simply want people to fit into their religious, political, socio-economic, even racial categories to keep it simple and homogenous.

We are not looking for “that of God” as much as we are looking for “that of us” in our neighbors. Let me repeat that.

We are not looking for “that of God” as much as we are looking for “that of us” in our neighbors.

Both individually and corporately we are seeing less of each other and thus don’t know how to communicate or live with one another – and we are missing out on seeing God alive and active around us in our neighbors’ lives.

I strongly believe that where we live can affect this, but also how we see ourselves as part of where we live has an even greater effect. We need to be asking ourselves again…

What’s our purpose in this place?  Is life simply about or for us, individually – or are we called to something greater, something that entails working alongside and with our neighbors and community?

Our scriptures for this morning in the New Revised Standard Version are labeled “The Marks of a True Christian” or what we could say are the marks of a true Quaker, a true Friend, a true neighbor, or simply a true human being… Let me highlight some of those attributes again and notice how many deals directly with how we interact with those around us.

• Loving one another with mutual affection.

• Outdoing one another in showing honor.

• Not lagging in zeal.

• Rejoicing in hope.

• Patient in suffering.

• Extending hospitality to strangers.

• Blessing those who persecute you.

• Rejoicing and weeping with those who rejoice and weep.

• Living in harmony with one another.

• Associating with the lowly.

• Not claiming you are wiser than you are.

• Not repaying evil for evil – vengeance.

• Taking thought for what is noble.

• Living peaceably with all.

Clearly our faith is not an individualist experience – it must be communal.

These attributes are what set early Christians apart from the rest of the world. This has become known today as “radical hospitality.”  Radical meaning - out of the ordinary or even revolutionary and hospitality meaning, as I said earlier, generous, caring, and sustaining. Did you hear that?

Out of the ordinary generosity or Revolutionary caring and sustaining.

Johnathan Wilson Hartgrove actually labeled these attributes as “the craft of life with God.” I love that description.

We are becoming more and more familiar with the concept of “craft” in our society today. Everywhere you frequent these days is offering craft food or craft beverages. The Etsy website is a marketplace for craft. Even the Smithsonian in a recent article stated that “The State of American Craft Has Never Been Stronger.”

But in applying the idea of craft to hospitality and life with God and one another, you are faced with the very definition of craft itself - just listen to this definition:

Craft emanates from community and lineage; much like it would have historically through processes and practices, passed on from one individual to another….it’s one of the most democratic art forms, practiced by people of all ages and socio-economic and racial backgrounds. This distinction affords craft the opportunity to instigate critical conversation and has the potential to be life-changing.

Wow, craft is a powerful word to use in light of what we are talking about.

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

To answer that, Johnathan Wilson-Hartgrove, also was very interested in the Rule of St. Benedict, going as far as to create a contemporary paraphrase of the book.

In “The Wisdom of Stability” Wilson-Hartgrove begins by translating St. Benedict this way, 

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

He goes on to say,

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

So, what were some of those tools that Benedict said were essential for the craft of life with God. Here are what Wilson-Hartgrove points out. 

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

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

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

• Love fasting

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

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

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

• Greet someone with Peace - and mean it!

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

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

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

• Love your enemies.

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

• Endure persecution for the sake of justice.

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

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

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

• Make amends when you have done harm to others.

• Never forget you are going to die.

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

• Devote yourself to prayer.

• Confess your sins.

• Resolve to leave your addictions and protective mechanisms behind.

• Don’t give into your twisted desires.

• Listen to the leadership of your community (if they are trustworthy).

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

• Treasure chastity.

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

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

• Respect the wise and love the inexperienced in community.

• Never lose hope in God’ mercy.

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

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

I think this speaks to the condition of America, right now. There is a sickness that is infecting our communities and destroying the fabric of life. And we must be better people, better neighbors, better F/friends to stop the spread of that sickness.

I will say it again… We are not looking for “that of God” as much as we are looking for “that of us” in our neighbors. And when we attempt living out these essentials – we open the door to crafting a life with God through our own life and the lives of our neighbors. 

If we are going to bring hope to our lives and those around us, we must start by dedicating ourselves to seeing and living with the people in our communities daily.

We need to get off our screens and go have coffee or lunch with someone.  We need to go on road trips and engage other communities and cultures. We need to step out of our comfort zones and open the door to people who may be much different than us.

I believe as we rail on the news outlets, as we are disappointed in our leaders, as we struggle to understand our neighbors and the crazy world we live in, we are being heralded to take up the “craft of life with God.”

Only by changing ourselves, by getting our “hands dirty,” (in the humus of humanity, as I said last week), and embracing the needed skills, are we able to utilize the craft of life with God to transform our relationships, our neighborhoods, and ultimately our world.

Take a moment this morning in waiting worship to consider those relationships that need crafted. Those neighborhoods that need crafted. Those workplaces that need crafted. Those learning environments that need crafted. And then think about our place right here at First Friends. What do we need to craft in our midst?  

Am I ready for the doors to open? If not, what will prepare me?

What essentials of the craft do I need to hone? What tools might I need?

Am I willing to take the step of seeking that of God in ALL my neighbors?

As a charge this morning I would like to close with a beautiful poem by Lindasusan Ulrich called “Open Up the Doors.”  May this be our call to action this week!

Open up the doors
Push on looming wooden arches embroidered with ironwork
Brace shoulders against the weight of history unmoved
Slough off the musty smell of unused joy and stored up sorrow
Knock rust off the hinges if you have to
And let your breath precede you inside.

Open the doors more
Make room for a shaft of sunlight to cross the threshold
Give the dust mites something to dance about
Peek through a single slice of possibility
And name even the half-hidden truths you see.

Open the doors wider still
Pour yourself through the gap
Strut or sneak or sidle, as suits you best
Cleanse whatever scrapes catch your skin
And bind up the wounds that keep you from entering whole.

Open the doors as far as they will go
Draw on the strength of the stones beneath you
Ground yourself in a firm sense of who you are
Stand as a beacon welcoming the next seeker
And shine far beyond the lintel and sill.

Open all that you are
Heighten and deepen your connections to the world around you
Broaden your definition of neighbor
Grow into the largest target for grace that you can muster
And pray to become a gateway for even greater love and compassion.

Open up the doors, my friends,
Lest we keep the stranger out
And condemn ourselves to prisons of our own making.

Amen! Now, let us enter a time of waiting worship. Consider some of the following queries that I shared in my message as you enter the silence.

1.    What’s my purpose in this place? Is life simply about me, individually – or am I called to something greater, something that entails working alongside and with my neighbors and community?

2.    Am I ready for the doors to open? If not, what will prepare me?

3.    What essentials of the craft do I need to hone? What tools might I need?

4.    Am I willing to take the step of seeking that of God in ALL my neighbors?

3-31-24 - Easter - The Gardener

The Gardener

Indianapolis First Friends

Pastor Bob Henry

March 31, 2024

John 20:11-18 (NRSV)

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb, and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”  Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher).  Jesus said to her, “Do not touch me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and she told them that he had said these things to her.

I was reading an article by theologian and author Brian Zahnd about our Easter text of Mary meeting Jesus in the garden. He points out that there are many metaphors for Jesus that we enjoy using and sometimes even abusing. Brian clarifies that,

Jesus is NOT a conductor punching tickets for a train ride to heaven. Christian hope is not so much about getting from earth to heaven, as it is about getting heaven to earth.

Jesus is NOT a lawyer to get us out of a legal jam with his angry dad. God is not mad at sinners. Jesus told Mary to tell his disciples that his Father was their Father too!

Jesus is NOT a banker making loans of his surplus righteousness. Modern people love economic metaphors…but they are terrible! Economic metaphors invariably produce bad theology.

[Rather] Jesus IS a gardener! … A gardener’s work is earthy and intimate. Gardeners have their hands in the humus. (We are humans from the humus.) Conductors and lawyers and bankers are concerned with abstract and impersonal things like tickets, laws, and money. But gardeners handle living things with living hands. Jesus is not afraid to get his hands dirty in the humus of humanity. 

To delve deeper into the metaphor of the Gardener, we must go back to that first Easter morning. You heard it read in the scriptures for this morning.  The place was the Garden at Golgotha.  Mary Magdalene had come to the tomb.  She leans down into the opening of the dark tomb and sees it empty and begins to weep.  One of the texts says that what looked like two angels tried to console her.  As she explains her reasoning for weeping she turns and sees a figure through her tear-filled eyes. 

Now, there are many theories about why Mary did not recognize Jesus, but I am going to go with two simple physical ones.  First, Mary is crying her eyes out (weeping heavily) for her beloved friend who was gone – executed, hung naked before her very eyes on a cross.  I don’t think we take into consideration the horror and emotional anxiety seeing this would cause.

We in our day have been numbed by mass shootings and open violence weekly in our news, movies, and video games. Yet at some point, most of us can relate. At some time, we too have cried so hard over the tragic loss of someone very close. 

I am sure we can assess that Mary Magdalene was full of anxiety and overwhelmed by the circumstances and outright fear of the Roman authorities. She also probably had very little sleep and was deeply concerned for her safety.

Science shows that this type of anxiety and stress can make one quicker to cry and often uncontrollably. Yet also it shows the personal effects of losing a close dear friend or family member. Jesus and Mary were very close, and this loss hit her very hard.

As anyone who has cried uncontrollably knows, through heavy tears it is hard to see anything. It distorts our view of the world around us.   

Also, it was sunrise on that first Easter morning, tombs were set facing the East in Jerusalem – as it was a symbol of hope of a resurrection with the sun’s rising – a new day dawning.  As Mary would emerge from that dark tomb she would have been blinded by the light of dawn breaking forth.  

So as Mary turns to address the figure outside the tomb in the garden all she probably saw was a black outline or a shadowed figure.

And let’s be honest, who else would be in the garden that early in the morning addressing her?  It had to have been the gardener, she thought.   

Scriptures say Mary “supposed he was the gardener”.  Weeping, she explains that she is seeking the body of Jesus.  Then “Jesus says to her, “Mary”. From just the sound of his voice saying her name, Mary immediately recognizes that it is Jesus and in that moment everything changes. 

Like Brian Zhand, I believe it is very fitting that Jesus would be mistaken by Mary as the Gardener outside the tomb. Some may disagree and just say, oh it is coincidence.  But I believe to picture and see Jesus as the Gardener very much agrees with one of the metaphors and themes of the entire Bible – that being the importance of gardens. 

Let me give you a quick overview:  In the book of Genesis, we are introduced to the Creator placing Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, where one of the first tasks was to be stewards/caretakers of the garden. It says in Genesis 2:15,

“The Lord God took Adam and put him in the garden of Eden to till and to keep it.”

That garden was not just for Adam and Eve, the story tells us it was also where God was found. God actually was known to walk in that Garden with Adam and Eve and had a relationship with them there.

I always remember those signs that I thought were rather cliché or cheesy that read, “One is closer to God in a Garden, than anywhere on Earth.”

Hmmm…maybe there was something deeper in those signs.  

As one who has grown to appreciate gardening, I have found spending time in my garden an important way to connect to my Inner Light and bask in the beauty of creation.  It also is like therapy for me – pulling weeds, pruning, planting, and watering all give new life to the spaces that surround me – and for that matter, to me as well. It is as Brian Zhand said, “This is because a gardener’s work is earthy and intimate. Gardeners have their hands in the humus…[and] gardeners handle living things with living hands.

Even though Adam and Eve in the creation story chose a different path than what God intended which led them out of that beautiful original garden, God promised he would never abandoned his creation.

Instead, God sent people to be light-bearers, people like the patriarchs and matriarchs of our faith, the prophets we talked about this past year, faithful kings and judges of justice to teach, admonish, correct and gather the people of Israel, encourage them, and ultimately send them out into the world to be hope and beauty and bring peace to everyone.  This is played out over and over throughout the First or Old Testament – there is so much more there than just a wrathful God if we are willing to look.    

And then as the New Testament opens, we are introduced to Jesus, the next in this long line of individuals who God has sent to try to point to a better way.  Jesus is raised in Nazareth and begins his ministry of doing good, healing and teaching, gathering a new community of disciples that he too would send into the world to be hope and beauty and bring peace. 

But before we get to that sending…We must not miss the end of his public ministry, what this week leading to Easter has been all about. Here Jesus makes his way to Jerusalem the place where he was rejected, suffered, and died at the hands of the Roman Empire who did not want his way of peace but rather wanted power and control.

Since Jesus walked this earth 2000 some years ago, people have joined Jesus on remembering his journey to Jerusalem. Some faith traditions have journeyed to the cross by taking the actual Via Dolorosa in the old part of Jerusalem - following what is believed to be the actual way Jesus journeyed to the cross.

Others have marked specific events leading up to Jesus’ death to pause and remember: The triumphal entry into Jerusalem (which we celebrated last week and ironically also started in a garden - the Mount of Olives), the clearing of the temple, the Seder Meal or Last Supper with his disciples, and then the biggest turn of events – which goes down in another garden at the base of the Mount of Olives – the Garden of Gethsemane.

As the gospel of John explains, “After the discourse, Jesus went out with the disciples across the Kidron Valley.  There was a garden there, and he and his disciples entered it.  John adds that it was familiar, “because Jesus had often met there with his disciples”.  In this garden, not only had Jesus been preparing and teaching his disciples, but now Jesus would show us his human vulnerability and fear. He would pray in great agony, and courageously commit himself to do his Father’s will of laying down his life for others.

Later that evening again in this garden, the soldiers would come, Judas would betray Jesus, and they would arrest Jesus to be ushered off to imprisonment and put on trial.

As I said at the beginning of this message, on the day of Jesus’ crucifixion there is another garden. After Jesus is condemned to death he proceeds in agony to carry his cross on the Via Dolorosa to Golgotha.  John again notes, “In the place where he had been crucified, there was a garden.” Golgotha, the actually place of Jesus’ death is a garden place. Very interesting.

And the story doesn’t end there. Jesus is taken down from the cross and buried in a borrowed tomb, actually in that garden. 

Three days later, Jesus begins to appear to his friends.  He meets Mary and she confuses him for the gardener – which catching us up to our text for this morning.   

As is evident by the gardens we have looked at, the garden throughout scripture is the place where God has been revealed and new life has begun!   

We can understand this – gardens are to be places of new and recurrent life, where plants, flowers, shrubs, vegetables come to life - Spring Time after Spring Time. Just as I said in AS Way Opens last week.

It’s like when you were a kid and you planted seeds for the first time, it was an exciting day when you started to see life bursting forth out of the paper cups in the window soon to be planted in the garden box or back yard to fully flourish in the soil!             

And the gardener is one who oversees and does their part to ensure the cycle of life reoccurs. The gardener has their hands in the humus. The gardener plants and prunes, digs, fertilizes and waters so that trees and plants can bear fruit and beauty in abundance. This is what Jesus did and continues to do in our lives.

So just as the creation story states, God walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, so now Jesus walks with Mary in the gardens of Golgotha as the gardener.

I remember learning in 8th grade in my Christians school another name for Jesus and that is “The New Adam.”  Here Jesus is the new Adam seen as the gardener in a new garden of hope.  Pretty cool metaphors, if you ask me.

Jesus shares this hope with Mary.  He instructs her, “Do not cling to me…rather go to my brothers and tell them I am going to my father and your father, to my God and your God”.  Mary, a woman, would be the first person in which Jesus would send to share his message of hope.  She is sent to bear fruit and beauty to her world beginning with those closest to Jesus who were hiding in fear of the Roman authorities.  I can’t even imagine Mary’s enthusiasm as she went to share this good news.  

And folks, it didn’t stop on that first Easter morning with Mary, no, the work of Jesus the gardener continues today through us. Walking with our God in this world, we too, like Mary are sent to bear good fruit and bring hope and peace.  We are called to blossom, and color, and bring fragrance to our world of darkness and death.  We are being sent with a message of hope and peace to our American Empire that is clearly at war with itself.  

This is what it means to be resurrection people.

There is one last garden described in scripture.

In the 21st chapter of John’s vision or revelation at the end of the Bible, John describes heaven in wildly symbolic and metaphorical ways. 

He calls heaven the New Jerusalem – a city with mighty walls and ornate gates.  And in that city is a LIGHT or lamp which represents the work of Christ. And then lastly he speaks of a Garden, with a river of life-giving water…which flowed down the middle of the streets.” On either side of the river grew the trees of life”.  This was to show that God, from the beginning to the end, was about bringing life and light, and beauty into our world. 

We are part of that beauty, folks.  We are part of that NEW LIFE.  Resurrection means to give something that once had life – NEW LIFE. 

This is what happens in gardens, especially here in Indiana.  We plant seeds or small plants, and then they grow, some give beauty through buds and flowers and brightly colored leaves, some give off seeds and give the opportunity for new life, some die and go into the ground, and in several months give new life again.  The garden is the perfect example of resurrection.

No wonder gardens are throughout scripture.  No wonder the story says it all began in a garden and will end in a garden. 

Mary was called by the Gardener that first Easter morning to be life to those around her in that Garden of death.  And that is what we are called to this Easter morning.  You and I are called to blossom, to flower, to bear fruit, to bring beauty and joy and peace to a world who is often dead or almost there.

 That is living out a work that is earthy and intimate, and that is getting our hands dirty in the humus of humanity. That…is living the resurrection.

Now as we enter a time of waiting worship, let us take a moment to ponder the following queries,

·        How am I living the resurrection with those around me?

·        In what ways am I blossoming, bearing fruit, and giving beauty and peace to my world this Easter?

3-24-24 - Palm Sunday – A Planned Protest by Jesus?

Palm Sunday – A Planned Protest by Jesus?

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Associate Pastor Beth Henricks

March 24, 2024

Friends, it is good to be with you on this Palm Sunday.  I always love to see our kids start our service with the remembrance of waving palms as Jesus is headed into Jerusalem on a colt with people shouting hosanna, meaning we beseech you to deliver us.  It is the first day of the holy week that many Christians celebrate throughout the world and has traditionally been a day of celebration of Jesus ministry .

Our scripture this morning is Mark 8:27-36 NRSV version.

27 Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, “Who do people say I am?”

28 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”

29 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.”

30 Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save their life[b] will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? 

I have been reading the Tim Alberta book, The Kingdom, the Power and the Glory as well as The Last Week by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan this past month and have been reflecting on the meaning of Palm Sunday.   Early on in my spiritual journey, I always had a hard time with Palm Sunday (even as I enjoyed the pageantry and joyous celebration of the traditional day in our Christian culture).  How could the  large crowd honoring Jesus, turn against him in one week and choose Barabbas to go free over Jesus?   As I have continued to read, study, reflect and listen to Biblical scholars a different picture has appeared to me.  I’d like to explore and wrestle with some of my reflections and continual openings about this important event in our Christian heritage. 

The most detailed account we have of holy week appears in the gospel of Mark as it gives a day-by-day account of Jesus activities. Most Biblical scholars agree that this gospel was written about 60-70 years after Jesus’ death.  That is a significant amount of time to lapse to record a detailed description of Jesus life and ministry.  Many scholars also agree that Mark was the first gospel written and that Matthew and Luke utilized a lot of the material found in Mark as well as another piece of writing called the Q source. 

Jesus procession into Jerusalem paralleled another procession that was occurring around the same time – one where Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor was entering Jerusalem at the time of Passover to display the power and glory of the Roman Empire.  The fact that Jesus comes riding into this important city of Jerusalem on a donkey highlights the different kind of leader that he was.  Jesus is painting the picture of the kingdom of God versus the kingdom of Empire.  God’s kingdom is so different than the oppressive kingdom of Rome. 

It seems clear that Jesus planned this ahead of time as a protest and demonstration of God’s realm.  It was the peasants that attended Jesus’ parade and its leader is riding in on a donkey.  Jesus utilized symbolism from the Jewish scripture found in Zechariah 9:9 that Israel’s future king would be “humble, and riding on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”  In Zechariah 9:10 it describes what kind of king this would be – he would ”cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war-horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off and he shall command peace to the nations.”  We sense that there is going to be a clash between these two kingdoms. Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan describe this coming clash as one that takes on the domination system of the day - with a definition of domination system from them as follows – “The phrase domination system is shorthand for the most common form of social system – a way of organizing a society – in ancient and premodern times, that is , in preindustrial agrarian societies.  It names a social system marked by 3 major features:  political oppression, economic exploitation, religious legitimation (meaning the leader is ordained by God).”

 This domination system didn’t stop when we became an industrialized world.  It has continued in various forms and iterations in many places in our world. 

In Jesus time, the Jewish temple authorities collaborated with the domination system of Rome.  This was the method the Roman empire deployed in areas that they took over militarily.  They relied on the wealthy and influential in the society to enforce their rules, laws, and taxation. In Jerusalem that was the temple priests and authorities that were Jewish.  Part of Jesus protest parade was to criticize these collaborators with the Roman domination system.  It’s important to remember that many of these wealthy, influential and powerful people were not bad or evil and many did good works for others.  Jesus’ criticism was more about their participation in the domination system that oppressed people politically, economically, and religiously.   However, I think these temple authorities were in a difficult situation.  Do they cooperate with the domination system that controlled all their lives and maybe help make the common folks lives as good as they could be while they are living in a territory that Rome overtook?  Do they say to themselves, this is the way things are now and I have to accept them even though this would not be my choice?  How do these folks walk the line between not angering their captors in Rome while not angering their Jewish kin?

Jesus talks a lot about the kingdom of God during his ministry.  This was deadly talk as kingdom was all about political kingdom.  This sounds like insurrection talk to speak about a different kingdom and king than the emperor.  This kingdom that Jesus describes is one that demands sacrifice.  And who did Jesus mostly deliver this message to?  The poor.  They know what sacrifice means.  And this is the way, the path, the journey to the kingdom of God.  We believe in the good news of this kingdom of God, God’s alignment against the domination system and the support of the poor, the oppressed and the folks that live in the margins.  It’s interesting to read Mark 8:34 if we put ourselves in the story at the time of Jesus entrance into Jerusalem.  Jesus says, “ if any of you want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”  If the author of Mark is describing the events of Jesus entering Jerusalem, the cross had one meaning.  The cross is a symbol of destruction of an enemy of the domination system.  Anyone that challenged the authority of the Roman Empire would be put to death by the cross.  And yet Jesus is telling his followers that they must follow this path that could lead to the cross.  Jesus is calling his followers to defy, protest, work to change the domination system and its power.  What a radical message!

Sometimes we think of Jesus entrance into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday as a peaceful and loving entrance into this city.  I think it was anything but that.  Jesus knew exactly what he was doing and knew this was part of his protest and sacrifice to show a different way, a different path to live and to be part of the kingdom of God. 

I am a student of the Bible and spend much time studying it, being challenged on it, trying to understand it in the context of the time it was written and most importantly reflecting on its meaning in my life today.   Because of this love and appreciation for the truths I embrace from the Bible, I am deeply concerned about how it’s  being used today to divide us and I am heartbroken that we often pledge our allegiance to a kingdom of nation over a kingdom of God.  Do we serve God or the political powers of the day?

I listened to an interview by Tim Alberta (journalist at The Atlantic) last month on this new book about the rise of Evangelical Christianity.  Tim’s story resonated with me as he is a Christian and the son of a preacher in Michigan (where I am from – not the daughter of a preacher but my mom was a spiritual giant in our Nazarene church growing up).  He talked about a profound moment last year when his dad who had retired from the ministry had a massive heart attack and passed away.  His service was at Cornerstone church in Brighton MI where Tim grew up and his dad was the pastor for many years and he was shocked that in this most vulnerable and grief-stricken moment, some members of the church wanted to question him about some of his political statements as a journalist.  He was in disbelief that his beloved church would not offer him love and care and embrace during this sad time.  I knew I had to read his book as he tried to explain this change in many Christian faith communities.

Tim examines the rise of nationalism within the evangelical Christian community.  He traveled the country to talk with pastors and faith leaders to hear about their congregations, the rise of political engagement of their congregants and the blurring of politics and religion.  Tim writes how many of our churches are putting the kingdom of this world above the kingdom of God. 

I was drawn to one pastor he interviewed named John Torres, pastor of Goodwill Evangelical Presbyterian church in Montgomery New York.  Tim joined a service one Sunday morning to hear a message that Torres shared with his congregation titled “The One We Didn’t Plan”.  Torres examined how earlier in the chapter of the gospel of Mark, Jesus had just done a number of miracles and the disciples were seeing how the people responded to Jesus and these miracles from God.  At this point Jesus asks them who do you think I am, and Peter answers the Messiah.  This is what the Jewish people had been waiting for hundreds of years.  And these disciples were going to be a part of this.  They probably  envisioned being part of Jesus court when he was crowned the new king bringing in a new kingdom of this world.  But Jesus told the disciples to not share his identify to the people because the time was not right.  And he began to share more with them how he would be taken into custody by temple and Roman authorities, tortured and killed but would rise again on the third day after his death.

What! This was too much for the disciples to take in.   This was not what they had imagined or signed up for when they left their homes and families to follow Jesus.  They weren’t going to be elevated to a ruling status with Jesus but were going to be associated with this man that the authorities were going to put to death.  What was God doing?

The narrative of Mark in some of the verses that Bob read for us describes that Peter “began to rebuke him”  Surely you are wrong Jesus, this is not how this should turn out, not what we had planned.   Jesus response to this rebuke is strong.  He says to Peter, “Get behind me Satan, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”  Interesting that this is the same language that Jesus used in the desert when he had his confrontation with Satan who offered Jesus the kingdom of this world and Jesus gave the same rebuke, get thee behind me Satan. 

I think the procession into Jerusalem on this first day of Passover received a standing ovation from the people because they believed, like the disciples had believed, that Jesus was their messiah, going to be their earthly king and change the domination system that they lived under.    Hosanna – a psalm of praise for their Savior.  This was the savior that they had been waiting for their entire life.

But as the disciples have learned earlier in their journey with Jesus, this is not going to be the outcome they have anticipated and wanted.  Jesus is going to be captured by authorities, tortured, and killed.  Jesus was not talking about the installation of an earthly king but of a kingdom of God beyond our country and our world.

Friends, what worries me  in this day and age is that our Christian principles, our beliefs, our actions have taken us to extreme places to support our version of this worldly kingdom and systems that run our communities. What are we putting ahead of our desire to live as Jesus lived.  I have been examining my own heart and what are the things that I put ahead of following the example of Christ.  How do I allow power, greed and a need for self-importance play out in my words, actions, and deeds.  God’s kingdom requires taking up a cross, suffering, going against what is popular, turning upside down many of the domination systems that control our lives. 

The parade and demonstration that Jesus planned on this Palm Sunday is a call for me to examine my heart, what are my motivations and how do I participate in supporting the powers that be of this world.  Where is my treasure and am I following the way of Jesus?

I close with a story from a couple of weeks ago when I was subbing for Tiffany teaching our PreK – kindergarten kids.  We were talking about Palm Sunday and the procession with Jesus on the donkey and his followers shouting hosanna and laying down their cloaks for him.  We also talked about a different parade going on at the same time with the Governor of Rome coming in on horses, with fancy robes , many soldiers and jewels and glory.  We talked about how Jesus was showing the way to a different kind of King.  And Franny said to all of us that Jesus was the love king.  What a beautiful expression to consider this new kind of kingdom that Jesus showed us.

Please consider the following queries as we enter our time of waiting worship.

Are we prepared to take up our cross and follow the way of Jesus?

Is my priority the kingdom of God or the kingdom of this world?  Do I seek the glory of power more than the glory of God?

3-17-24 - Learning to Listen Below the Surface

Learning to Listen Below the Surface

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

March 17, 2024

Good morning Friends, and welcome to Light Reflections.  This morning our scriptures are from James 1: 18-19 from The Voice version.  

We have a special role in His plan. He calls us to life by His message of truth so that we will show the rest of His creatures His goodness and love.

Listen, open your ears, harness your desire to speak, and don’t get worked up into a rage so easily, my brothers and sisters.

As this is our last week looking at the Quaker Virtues before entering the Easter Holiday season, let me begin this morning by sharing a story that I came across this week as I was researching my sermon:

Gerry was walking down a sidewalk in Washington D.C., with a Native American friend who worked in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. It was lunchtime in Washington. People were husslin’ and busslin’ along the sidewalks, and car honks and hurried engine noises filled the streets.  In the middle of all this traffic, Gerry’s friend stopped and said, “hey, a. cricket!”

“What?” said Gerry.

“Yeah, a cricket,” said his friend. “Look here,” and he pulled aside some of the bushes that separated the sidewalk from the government buildings. There in the shade was a cricket chirping away.

“Wow,” said Gerry, “How did you hear that with all this noise and traffic?”

“Oh,” said the Native man. “It was the way I was raised … what I was taught to listen for. Here, I’ll show you something.”

The Native man reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of coins … nickels, quarters, dimes … and dropped then on the sidewalk. Everyone who was rushing by stopped to …  listen.

We with our busy lives, rushing down highways and byways, preoccupied with our own inner thoughts and expectations, what do we hear?

Where is our focus?

What are we paying attention to?

What are we listening to?

For 350 years…the underlying principle of Friends belief and practice is that within every person there is that of God or Spirit leading us to respect the worth and dignity of all.

For 350 years, Friends (or Quakers) have waited in expectant silence, trusting that if we still our thoughts and intentions enough to hear it, the measure of Truth that is given to each of us will become clear.

This is why we must commit ourselves to learning the practices needed for listening deeply (as that opening story illustrated). We must also, as I shared in the last several weeks, learn the practices of speaking and living our truth, respectful differing, and faithful risk-taking so that the Spirit can lead us into deeper and deeper truths and practice as a community.

A while back, I had a sermon series all about Empathy, and we spent several weeks looking at all the different pieces that make up this virtue.  Yet, Quaker Rick Ellis when describing empathy from a Quaker perspective described it as “listening beyond words.”

He says,

Friends have developed explicit practices for fostering empathy, because even though humans have a capacity for empathy, that does not mean we necessarily pay attention to it. Quaker practices like “listening beyond words” combine with empathy to open the way for people to develop deep insights into each other. Empathetic interactions build connections between people at levels much deeper than rational judgments and accumulated information.

I think Ellias and the Native man in the opening story are getting at something very important. We are not that good at listening and by not listening we struggle at going deeper with our neighbors, friends, and family. 

Instead of connecting at a deeper level with each other, our focus ends up somewhere else, leaving us with “surface relationships.”  Some might say the world promotes “surface” and lacks real depth.

Our world even categorizes this in two ways, what they call either surface or deep culture.

Surface Culture is a term that refers to the cultural practices and discourses that are practiced publicly to create the appearance of something being more important than it actually is. Even though, it is essential because it has a significant impact on society. It influences how people think, feel, and behave.

We may give the label of Surface Culture to things like social media, gossip columns, and those wonderful political ads.  For that matter, even much of what we call “news” in our world, today, is just Surface Culture. Each of these often are creating an appearance of something being more important than it actually is.

And many churches and their theologies have embraced Surface Culture, as I hinted at last week, when what people of faith should probably be seeking is Deep Culture.

Deep Culture is a term defined as a system of values, beliefs, norms, and practices held in common by a group of people that serve to integrate them into a cohesive social entity. [This is exactly what this entire sermon series on Quaker Virtues is all about.]

The main characteristics of deep culture are that it is often unconscious and can be found in small groups. Deep culture can be found in the way people act and think about things. It becomes a way of life based on the idea that individuals are connected through deep, shared values. It is more than just an organizational culture or company values. Deep culture is a set of beliefs and behaviors in which people believe they can achieve their goals while positively impacting others and society as a whole. 

Folks, if you listen carefully, this means The Quaker Way is a Deep Culture. 

One of the main differences between surface and deep culture is the depth of listening involved. 

Kay Lindahl writing on the importance of listening goes even further and describes this deeper listening as a Spiritual Listening.  She says,

Spiritual listening is at the heart of all relationships. It is what we experience when we become a quiet, safe container into which the speaker is able to express his or her most genuine voice. There is a communion of souls. The way we listen to each other sets a tone for everything that follows. We often think that our speaking, the words we use, is the most important part of our communication. Yet it is the quality of our listening that has the greatest impact in any conversation.

Quaker writer Douglas Steere says:

“To listen another’s soul into a condition of disclosure and discovery may be almost the greatest service one human being ever performs for another.”

Spiritual listening leads to new understanding as we connect to each other at the heart level and discover common ground and new possibilities. To listen without judgment, open, expectant, eager to hear, we cannot be thinking about our response, or what we are going to do next. We must learn to become a listening presence for what wants to emerge.

That is exactly what it means for us to be people who listen below the surface in Deep Culture.

Don’t get me wrong - I think we ALL struggle with listening on occasion.  Especially, for those married or who have a partner, all we need to do is ask them about how good we are at listening, or if you are not married ask a close friend, and I am sure we will quickly find that we all have some deficiency.  Some of that comes from a misunderstanding of what listening really entails. 

Listening is much more than simply hearing.

Hearing is about receiving information, while listening is about communication, and calls for closeness and depth.

Listening allows us to get things right, and not simply to be passive onlookers, users, or consumers.

Listening also means being able to share questions and doubts, to journey side by side, to banish all claims to absolute power and to put our abilities and gifts at the service of the common good.

To emphasize the importance of listening let me close with this story:

A man was going to a party where he would be meeting his wife’s coworkers from her new job for the first time. He felt anxious as the time for the party grew near, and wondered whether they would like him or not. He rehearsed various scenarios in his mind in which he tried in different ways to impress them. He grew more and more tense.

But on the way to the party, the man came up with a radically different approach, one which caused all of his anxiety to melt completely away. He decided that, instead of trying to impress anyone, he would spend the evening simply listening to them and summarizing what they had just said.

At the party, he spent the evening listening carefully to everyone, responding with phrases like, “I understand what you’re saying, you feel strongly that. . .” and “Let me see if I understand what you mean. . .” He also avoided voicing his own opinions, even though at times it meant biting his tongue to keep from doing so.

To his amazement, he discovered that no one noticed or remarked on the fact that he was just listening. Each person he talked to during the evening seemed content to be listened to without interruption.

On the way home, his wife (whom he had not talked to about the experiment) told him that a number of people had made a point of telling her what a remarkable person he was. The word “charismatic” was used by one person to describe him, while another said he was one of the most “articulate” people she had ever met.

Hmmm…imagine a world where people actually listen to one another, rather than just waiting for the other people to stop talking so they can give their opinion.

I sense listening is somewhat of a lost art form, today. But, if we, like the man in the story, began to embrace it more often in our relationships, in our families, in our work situations, we might just find the world changing for the better. I sense it would create more empathy – listening without words.  It would draw us deeper into one another’s lives and closer as humans and Friends.  But most of all, it would set a tone for everything that follows.

So, let’s make our scriptures for this morning our mantra to begin making a change in our world. 

Listen, open your ears, harness your desire to speak, and don’t get worked up into a rage so easily, my siblings and Friends.

Now, one of the best ways to begin practicing listening is by entering waiting worship, where we expectantly wait on God to speak to us.  And that means we must put ourselves in a position to listen to both the Divine and to our fellow Friends who are nudged to speak out of the silence.  To help us consider our own listening habits, let us ponder the following queries:

1.     What do I focus on or pay attention to when listening?

2.     Where do I find myself embracing Surface Culture and not entering Deep Culture?

3.     How might I practice listening, this week? 

3-10-24 - Make Every Effort – Community

Make Every Effort – Community

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

March 10, 2024

Good morning Friends and welcome to Light Reflections.  This morning we continue to look at Quaker Virtues, specifically the virtue of community.  The scriptures I have chosen are from Hebrews 10:24-25 from the New Revised Standard Version.    

And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

I always find it ironic that when I get on a roll with a sermon series, I begin to see people making connections and starting to anticipate things that I may be going to say in future messages. I believe this to be a beautiful aspect of true community.

As Quakers, we encourage those who feel nudged by the Spirit to speak out of the silence in waiting worship. Often what I believe happens is the Spirit begins to weave the work I have done through the week on a message with the thoughts of those in the pews or watching from home.  This then allows Friends to expand, clarify, even at times to correct the things that I have been considering or experiencing throughout the week as I live within the community of First Friends.  This is something that many churches would frown upon and may even discourage within their communities.

Last Sunday, several of you spoke out of the silence and added great wisdom to the message and to our lives in general. Inwardly, I chuckled as so many spoke of the importance of community in the process of understanding our authenticity knowing that this week, I would be looking at this very subject.

From little children in a classroom to our partners or spouses, to groups within our Meeting, many identified the importance of the community in our process. Kent Farr even went as far as having us consider adding another query last week regarding the essential importance of community in dealing with our authenticity. 

So, this Sunday, as I had planned, I want to look at the Quaker virtue or S.P.I.C.E. of community.

When I worked in Campus Ministries in a college setting back in the early 2000’s, everyone seemed to be talking about community.  Every Christian book seemed to be about building community, ever worship song was about finding community, and every conference I attended was on the importance of community.  It was almost like they were anticipating something…hmmm…

Even though for most college students back then, small groups were their parents “Oldsmobile” of ministry programming, and they were trying hard to find new ways to build community while quickly getting lost in the growing world of technology. All while, finding themselves alone and lacking the very community that everyone was talking about.  Many visited my office talking about loneliness and isolation.

Now after a pandemic, a much more polarized world, and almost 20+ more years of technology’s influence – it isn’t just college students struggling with community – but all of us.  

Loneliness and isolation are at epidemic levels in our country and are now considered as factors in rising deaths rates.

Back then, I began wrestling with the idea of community but had not fully worked it out (and please understand I still have a long way to go).  

As many of my students, I thought building community was something that would come easy or maybe even naturally.  At least that is how sermons and teaching back then made it seem.

I even had an idealistic idea that community would somehow magically form around me and I would not have to do much work to create it or utilize it. 

I think even deep down, I believed community was optional and at any time, if it got difficult, I could simply opt out of it.  And on several occasions, I did. 

The reality is that what I have learned since that day is that many people think this way about community.  Maybe you have had similar thoughts. 

Now, I am sure if we, at First Friends, took a moment right now and each shared our ideas or definitions of community – we would have a wide range of understandings.  There would be some similarities, some common interests and goals, but probably many differences. 

For the last 20+ years, my exploration of the idea of community has evolved.  I admit that I’ve had a few misconceptions about what constitutes community - actually, I had more than I knew.

And as I began to study community in more death, I realized there were even more misconceptions. I had been taught to believe that community (especially in a faith setting) came best through people who agreed with me, who had similar interests as me, even thought, believed, and voted like me. 

It also had me believing that community had my best interests in mind.  The people in my community would always be looking out for me, I would always feel supported, and I would be comfortably content.  But that too was not always the case. 

Clearly in this way of thinking, community was all about me and my needs – and naively I thought everyone around me probably had the same interests and needs.

Folks, just that thought alone is really disturbing, especially since community is not so much about me as much as we.  

Overtime, I began to realize that not only did I have wrong perceptions of community, but even some of the churches I was part of had the wrong ideas of what constituted true community.  

One day in a conversation with the psychological director of my doctoral program, I began to share some of the challenges I was bumping up against with the struggle my students were bringing to me and my distorted views of community.

He in turn told me a story about his community.  He started by sharing the beauty in the diversity of the people that made up his community.  He told me of the challenges, the triumphs, even the losses of living in community. But something I will never forget is when he said, one of the most essential parts of community is learning to spend time with people who are not exactly like you.

He went on to say the best thing that could happen to communities would be more diversity of thought, culture, race, age, and sexuality.  He said, that is when growth really happens, and true community begins to form. 

Interesting…most of the community I was trying to build was all about people who looked like and sounded like me.    

I began to wonder what this means for the church universal that is made up largely of an aging boomer population – who are moving into retirement communities with absolutely no diversity?  Whole cities in places like Florida and Arizona are made up of people in their late 60’s and 70’s who are mostly white, vote for the same candidate, and live a rather homogenous life away from anyone different than them. And we should be watching carefully those studying these communities because the problems arising in them are starting to creep into the church. I sense one of the reasons the church is seeing less young people is because of this very phenomenon.  I could be wrong…but the similarities are despairing. 

As I started to really ponder my psychological director’s words, I realized very few people are exactly like me in this world.  When we are being authentically ourselves, we are also uniquely different.   

If we really thought about it, if everyone was like us, it would drive us nuts. Yet, too many churches and people of faith seem to want everyone to think, believe, act, vote, and even look the same. The artist in was beginning to havw an uprising. 

Just think about that for a moment.  Is that the beautiful diversity that makes up the Kingdom of God?  Even the National Institute of Health starts its definition of community with this wording,

“…a group of people with diverse characteristics who are linked by social ties…”

Let’s delve into this a little more. I have a feeling that it is likely that God doesn’t encourage fellowship with one another for the sole purpose of being with people who only think, believe, act, vote, or look like us. 

Just maybe, God has something for us to learn or be challenged by through community.

For instance, in Romans 12:4-5 it states,

4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

This shows how even though we are all part of the same body, we all have different roles or functions. We have each been given gifts that we are to use for unique purposes – this is part of being our authentic selves. Instead of thinking that everyone should do things the way we would, we are to appreciate the diversity that God has placed within the body.

Once I realized this beautiful aspect of community, I thought I was getting somewhere, but then I found Ephesians 4:2-3. Paul is talking to the Ephesians, again, about being united as a body (a theme that is essential in understanding community). He urges them to recognize each other’s individual callings. He also tells them to

“be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace."

I don’t know about you, but I am really good at knowing when others need to make an effort to be humble or patient, as my wife pointed out in waiting worship last week. I can point out when someone should be better at bearing with me in love.

But what hit me when reading this passage was the command to “make every effort."

I may be completely justified in the fact that I do just enough, but have I done all I can to be united with my neighbors, family, and friends – especially those different than me?  This is tough.  

Perhaps the Bible encourages us to love one another and to be united because it helps us take the focus off ourselves and our own feeling and allows us to see others more completely – more authentically – without the masks, the biases, the expectations we have.     

Living in community with others means.   

We cannot control how other people respond to us or what they believe. 

We cannot make them be what we think they should be.

But we can do what has been asked of us.

And uncomfortably for us, Quakers who work hard to embrace integrity, have been asked to do a lot. We have been asked to make every effort to have a good attitude, no matter what the other person is doing, believing, voting…

We are to make every effort to love at all times. This love for others – whether or not they love us back – is part of our responsibility in encouraging fruitful community and relationships.   

Can I love someone who isn’t like me?  Or maybe I should ask first, can someone love my authentic self?  Maybe I am just as bad. 

Part of what community teaches us is to slowly and sometimes painfully begin to think about others, to forgive others, and to bear with one another through the good and bad. We don’t always have to agree, but that doesn’t mean we have to rid them from our lives, so it is easier for us to live.  But that is what many of us do, isn’t it?   

This means taking the focus off ourselves is about being part of community. It is another aspect of positioning ourselves in a humble and patient manner so we are able to be taught, transformed, and loved. 

Yet, too often we cocoon ourselves within community.

We use our desire for fellowship with other people as an excuse to ignore or refuse people we don’t want in our community.  This no longer is a community but rather a clique or a cult.  Let’s be honest, we have a growing number of cults in our country that sound and speak very religious, but are far from it.

Isn’t this the opposite of what we are supposed to be doing as a faith community?

Quaker Rex Ambler in his book, “The Quaker Way” has a chapter focused on Meeting Others.  By meeting together and opening up to one another in community, he says “we find strength and insight, and a basis for action” – but he also says “it means we take a responsibility for one another.”

As he closes out this chapter Rex specifically talks about worshipping together in community.  He says,

Our practice of coming together once a week to sit in silence [or Meeting for Worship] makes sense only if we have learned to do that during the week and have got to know the people we sit with in ordinary, everyday interactions. 

Being in community is a holistic experience that incorporates both a responsibility for one another and a desire to get to know one another in a more holistic way. 

Folks, that means being part of the First Friends community will be about taking risks.  And risks can be scary and often difficult or complicated.

Quaker Marty Walton in “The Meeting Experience: Practicing Quakerism in Community,” says,

“We cannot stay in safety, hidden behind walls of private thoughts, with aloof smiles on our faces…When we move beyond our protective barriers, lift up our shroud of privacy a bit, and begin to ask each other real questions and engage each other in honest searching, we inevitably discover how very different each of us is. We are confronted with experiences both delightful and confounding.”

That, I believe is exactly what Kent Farr was challenging us with last week in waiting worship.

It is also how farmer, essayist, and environmental activist, Wendell Berry summed up community.  Let me end with this, as it may be one of the best definitions of community I have read:

A community is not merely a condition of physical proximity, no matter how admirable the layout of the shopping center and the streets, no matter if we demolish the horizontal slums and replace them with vertical ones.  A community is the mental and spiritual condition of knowing that the place is shared, and that the people who share the place define and limit the possibilities of each other’s lives. It is the knowledge that people have of each other, their concern for each other, their trust in each other, the freedom with which they come and go among themselves.

As we ponder those words, let us now enter waiting worship.  Take a moment to consider the following queries:

1.     What is my idea of community and what are my misconceptions?

2.     Who do I find the easiest to exclude from my community? Why?

3.      How at First Friends am I moving beyond my protective barriers and opening myself up to real questions and honest answers with people different than me?