2-16-25 - Bestowing and Receiving Mercy

Bestowing and Receiving Mercy 

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

February 16, 2025

Good morning, Friends and welcome to Light Reflections. Today we continue our exploration of the beatitudes with Matthew 5:7  from the New Revised Standard Version.

 Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

Someone mentioned early on in this sermon series that I should have skipped to today’s beatitude earlier since mercy was in the headlines. I will be honest, mercy is rarely in our headlines, yet lately it has become front and center in almost every conversation I have in some manner. 

What sparked the headlines was ironically a sermon – which drew me in as well, since rarely do sermons, these days make the headlines. The sermon was by an Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde.  In her message, she talked about unity, humility, and ended with a final plea, specifically to our newly-elected President to have mercy.  Here are her closing words asking for mercy – I want to share them in helping us understand our beatitude for today.  

Let me make one final plea, Mr. President. Millions have put their trust in you. As you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to HAVE MERCY upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are transgender children in both Republican and Democratic families who fear for their lives.  

And the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings; who labor in our poultry farms and meat-packing plants; who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shift in hospitals — they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes, and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches, mosques and synagogues, gurdwara, and temples.    

HAVE MERCY, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away. Help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us that we are to be MERCIFUL to the stranger, for we were once strangers in this land.  

May God grant us all the strength and courage to honor the dignity of every human being, speak the truth in love, and walk humbly with one another and our God, for the good of all the people of this nation and the world.  

This was the plea for mercy that lit up our headlines.  Not only was it a plea for mercy, but it was about as biblical as you can get in its presentation. The bishop’s application of mercy, having mercy, and being merciful was right on.    

In its basic form, mercy simply means having compassion for another.

The term is often used of God in the way He relates to His people. In the OT, the basic word is “hesed,” which is a very rich and profound word to describe God’s steadfast love, compassion, grace, and mercy.

God’s mercy could also be described as compassion in action; helping the weak and rescuing those who are suffering.

Jesus points out that mercy is not mere pity like when we give or help others to make ourselves feel good or look better before others.

Pity is self-serving charity, whereas mercy is selfless compassion.

Folks, this makes mercy monumental to our faith as Quakers and Christians.

Someone has described it like this:

·       Grace is God giving you good that you don’t deserve.

·       Mercy is God not giving you bad that you do deserve.

Therefore, we ALL stand in great need of both God’s grace and mercy, as well as being bearers of that grace and mercy to our neighbors.

I find it illuminating that in Jesus’ day the moral fabric of the nation was abysmal. Roman government leaders ruled by force. The political insiders justified corruption based on common practices of the day. In order to get what they needed or wanted; people operated by might not mercy. Likewise, the religious leaders were entrenched in prideful power plays to obtain position rather than providing service to the people.

As I continue to study the beatitudes, I cannot believe how much Jesus’ day mirrors our own. 

So, when Jesus models mercy and teaches mercy, it catches the attention of many – very similar to Bishop Budde. That is why it seems only appropriate for mercy to show up in Jesus’ stump speech, as well as be a key to his eight-fold path. 

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is pointing out that the religious and political culture of his day did not prioritize mercy, as people frequently displayed anger and sought revenge.

There is still a lot of anger and revenge in our world – actually studies are showing an increase in both anger and revenge in our world, currently. One of the ways we combat the growth of anger and revenge in our personal lives and in our society is by focusing on mercy and its attributes.

In contrast to the anger and revenge, Jesus taught that peacemaking, forgiveness, reconciliation, and love should take preeminence.

Praying for your persecutors and enemies reflected belonging to a different and divine kingdom, rather than an earthly kingdom. This is emphasized when Jesus says in Matthew 5:44-47,

…Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the gentiles do the same?

Mercy is a momentously different way of living. It goes beyond loving just those who are easy to love and have mercy on. Jesus modeled this for us. He continually showed mercy to help others, for example:

·      He helped a leper,

·      He helped a paralyzed servant,

·      He even helped Peter’s mother-in-law,

·      and many others who were sick or oppressed,

·      He extended mercy to the blind,

·      Mercifully healed many people:

o   a Canaanite woman’s daughter who was demon-oppressed,

o   an epileptic boy,

o   blind travelers,

o   and countless others.

John’s Gospel goes as far as to say, endless libraries couldn’t contain the books that could be written of Jesus’ miracles of mercy.

If we understand the Beatitudes, specifically this fifth one, then we must understand that mercy is not neutral. We cannot ride the middle for giving mercy to others; either we are merciful or we are merciless. 

This is what Jesus, as well as the Bishop was getting at.  And just like in Jesus day, or with the Bishop’s words, people still struggle with having mercy.  For example, I borrowed some examples from Dave Brown’s website Growing Godly Generations. 

Let’s start by talking about spouses and families:

·      Some spouses can drift relationally and begin despising each other over the littlest of issues, forgetting about why you disagree or argue, and never willing to apologize just because you don’t want to appear weak.

·      Some parents are quick-tempered and demand obedience rather than introducing their child to God’s grace and forgiveness.

·      Some grown children forget how much their parents have sacrificed to serve them and have grown entitled and merciless to every peculiar aspect of their parents.

Or how about mercy and our neighbors.  

·      It’s no accident where you live, God is calling you to live in your neighborhood or community as “salt and light” to the people around you. We must learn how to meet our neighbors and reflect and display the mercy of God. Sometimes we can be downright mean to our neighbors, making jokes about them behind their backs, ignoring them, even speaking badly of them to other neighbors. Instead, are we looking for ways to grant them mercy?  (Please note that this includes all our communities – work, social media, and any group we are part of).

Or what about mercy in our Meeting.  

Jesus frequently taught and even chastened the religious elite about understanding mercy: In three places in Matthew 9:13, 12:7, 23:23, Jesus emphasizes. “Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.”

In fact, Jesus was harder on those who should know better than those who were ignorant and blatant sinners.

Three groups that are over-and-over emphasized by God in the scriptures are: widows, orphans, and strangers or foreigners in the land.  All were without help or hope in the cultural settings of the day, but God works with and through us to protect and preserve the fragile and needy in our midst.

• Widows… those who are deeply grieved over love lost, need tangible care.

• Orphans… physically or spiritually. It is the church’s role to equip and encourage physical (biological, adoptive, foster) and spiritual parents. Likewise, the church is to raise up supported, included, and loved people.

• Strangers and foreigners in the land…are to be treated as our native-born, and we are to love them as we love ourselves.  We are not to exploit or oppress the foreigner or mistreat them.

And what about mercy to people who we do not believe deserve, or may not understand our mercy. 

God has chosen people like, you and me, to be a means for reflecting His mercy to our world – even, or especially, to those who we may not believe they deserve or understand our desire to have mercy on them. 

The Apostle Paul gives us a glimpse of the power of offering mercy to someone who does not deserve it – by sharing his own experience.  He exclaims: 

I’m so grateful to Christ Jesus for making me adequate to do this work. He went out on a limb, you know, in trusting me with this ministry. The only credentials I brought to it were violence and witch hunts and arrogance. But I was treated mercifully because I didn’t know what I was doing—didn’t know Who I was doing it against! Grace mixed with faith and love poured over me and into me. And all because of Jesus.

Here’s a word you can take to heart and depend on: Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. I’m proof—Public Sinner Number One—of someone who could never have made it apart from sheer mercy. And now he shows me off—evidence of his endless patience—to those who are right on the edge of trusting him forever. (1 Timothy 1:13-17 from the Message)

Paul was won over by the patient, sheer mercy of Jesus. 

I wonder how many people we know who are just like Paul. 

o   They don’t know (or even want to know) what they are doing.

o   They don’t know (or even care) who they are doing it against.

o   They do not realize the damage they are doing to themselves or their neighbor. 

o   They do not see their arrogance.

o   They don’t realize their violence, witch hunts, trolling on Facebook, argumentative nature, ignorance of the full story, and how their own lack of mercy impacts their world.  

Imagine if you offered them patient mercy and their eyes opened as Paul’s did?

And we must not forget to reflect on those for ourselves. Am I the aware and seeking to give and receive mercy?

Peter speaks directly to you and me in 1Peter 2:10-12:

 “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people’ once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.” 

As a Meeting or individually our acts of mercy to our neighbors, to our widows, orphans, and strangers among us, to our transgender children and our siblings in the Queer community, to our Friends who voted differently than us, is God’s mercy made manifest to a watching and struggling world offering hope. 

Folks, Jesus gives us this Beatitude, not to scream judgment at the world, but to spotlight both our calling and our need for God’s eyes to see God within our neighbors, family and friends. While you and I stand in immeasurable need of God’s mercy, God stands ready to bestow his mercy on us, so that we can share that immeasurable mercy with our world.

Now, let us take a moment to center down and enter waiting worship.  I have prepared a couple of queries for us to ponder this morning.

1.      To whom have I withheld mercy? What is getting in the way?

2.      How might mercy address the anger and revenge in our world?

3.      How is our Meeting offering mercy to our community? Where might we offer more?

2-9-25 - Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness

Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

February 9, 2025

Good morning, Friends, and welcome to Light Reflections.  This morning we continue our exploration of the Beatitudes and will look at Matthew 5:6 from the New Revised Standard Version.  

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

I want to start this morning with some queries:

·      What do you long for, yearn for, lay awake at night dreaming about?

·      What do you hunger and thirst for deep down in your soul?

Maybe it has been a while since you had thoughts like these.  Or maybe you have realized that much of what you yearn, hunger and thirst for never becomes reality.

When I was a kid, I desperately wanted to go to space on the space shuttle. I loved science and the space program. My parents even took me to Kennedy Space Center to satisfy my hunger and thirst for everything space.  Sadly, I learned quickly in my exploration that astronauts had to be really good at math – I mean really good.  So, my dreaming of a career in space quickly faced reality.

Maybe you had similar yearnings, dreams, hungers or thirsts, that today have faded or have evolved.

In our beatitude for today, Jesus says that there is a hunger that can be satisfied but it is not something that most people really care that much about these days. In Matthew 5:6 he says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”

At first glance it doesn’t sound nearly as exciting as traveling into outer space (which I have to say, today, doesn’t even appeal to me). But the more I think about having a hunger for righteousness, the more appetizing it sounds. Think about it for a moment – especially in our current condition.  

What would be different in the world if life was characterized by righteousness?

What if people actually did the right thing, treated each other with dignity, watched out for the hurting and weak and generally loved God and their neighbor above all else? 

Can you imagine?  Maybe this is why at funerals, disasters, national and international events, we continue to turn to the lyrics of the song that asks the same:

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

So, while we are pondering, or hungering and thirsting for a world like that, let’s take a deeper look at what Jesus was saying and speaking to in his time.

Historians tell us that because of the leadership of Herod the Great the people of Israel had been reduced to living in poverty (probably effecting even Jesus’ family, because in scripture when they came to the temple they only could afford the cheapest sacrifice, doves).

While Herod did not create a famine, it was common for people to share their food and money as a form of welfare. So, when Jesus spoke these words in our beatitude for this morning, the people of his day understood it better than we do.

In our day and in our privileged lives, food and water are plentiful, so we miss the urgency that Jesus intended.

Just the other night, I was flipping through the TV channels and saw the ending of the Tom Hank’s movie “Cast Away.”  I personally think the best part of that movie begins when he is found by the barge floating to his death. Every scene is brilliantly written and filmed to show the reality of his struggle. From being offered a glass of ice, to a buffet with crab legs, to a simple lighter or pocket knife on his keys.  All are presented to him as he returns to reality after 4 years stranded on an island, where he had to work so hard just to survive. All without the things we take for granted on a daily basis.   

Hungry, thirsty people work hard, urgently, to gain food. To hunger and thirst for righteousness, then, means we should urgently pursue righteousness.

Let’s take a deeper pass through this Beatitude’s onion layers and look at the Greek again.

The first key Greek word that Jesus used was peinao. It is translated as “hunger” in our passage. It has the sense of a strong desire for food. It is the same word that was used to describe Jesus’ hunger after He had been in the wilderness for 40 days and nights without food. After 40 days of fasting, Jesus would have been very hungry, as would we. This Greek word describes a strong hunger for food.

The next key Greek word that Jesus uses is dipsao. It also describes a strong desire, but this time for water. It was used in John 19:28 to describe Jesus’ thirst after He had been whipped and beaten for hours by the Roman solders and then had been left hanging on the cross for hours. Near the end, Jesus cried out for something to drink and said, “I thirst.” That is the word Jesus used in this beatitude.

Another important Greek word that Jesus used was chortazo. The word was used to refer to fattened cattle. That is, it means having all that you want. This animal or person is completely satisfied or filled to the brim.

What is very interesting and must be pointed out is that the Greek words for “hunger” and “thirst” are both in the present tense. This means that Jesus was describing someone who was continually hungry and thirsty. Thus, we could rewrite the beatitude like this,

Blessed are those who are constantly, continually hungering and thirsting after righteousness, for they shall be completely and totally satisfied and filled to the brim.

Another thing we need to look at is what does it mean to hunger and thirst for righteousness?

The Greek word translated here as righteousness is dikaiosune, a term that refers to personal righteousness as well as to social justice. Those who hunger and thirst for dikaiosune have a deep yearning for things to be right in their individual lives as well as in society. 

This is why studying the Greek is so important – unlike in English, Greek words often hold dual or multiple meanings – as I showed you last week with the word “meek.”

Cynthia Bourgeault describes righteousness in Jesus’s time. She says,

“righteousness was something much more dynamic than being moral or behaving correctly.”

Which many have translated it to mean, today. She also says, you can visualize it as a force field, an energy-charged sphere of holy presence. To be ‘in the right’ consciousness of God… means to be directly connected to this vibrational field, to be anchored within God’s own aliveness….as fierce and intransigent a bond as picking up a downed electrical wire…intensity of connectedness.”

The image that comes to mind is something from the Marvel movie, Black Panther – when T’Challa finds that his suit absorbs energy and then realizes he has more power to utilize.  Obviously, he often used that for violence, but when we “hunger and thirst for righteousness and social justice” we fill ourselves up with a power that not only connects us to God but also to that of God in all people – this is a vibrational field of connectedness. For us Quakers it happens often in gathered meetings and unprogrammed worship – in these spaces as we hunger and thirst together, we absorb the Spirit’s energy and gain a new power together to make a difference in our world. 

Bourgeault goes on to say that

“Some spiritual teachers will even say that the yearning you feel for God is actually coming from the opposite direction; it is in fact God’s yearning for you.”

Or maybe God’s yearning for righteousness for all people is part of our nature, too.

The Greek word for righteousness, dikaiosyne, means righteousness and justice, but it also means being in the proper relationship with God.

So, it’s not just about wanting to be righteous, but equally important, a person is to be in the right relationship to the Creator AND their neighbor – where that of God resides.  This is why Jesus says the greatest commandment is to Love God and the second is to love your neighbor as you love yourself.

So, righteousness is about much more than simply following rules and being good people. There is a burning desire for making things right and bringing justice in the righteous person that cannot be quenched with the usual daily good works.

No, there is a much bigger hunger and thirst, and it is empowered by the consciousness of God flowing through us – from God, to and through us, and out into the world and to our neighbors.   

We could name lots of people over the ages who have hungered and thirsted for righteousness: the Apostle Paul and the disciples after Pentecost, Francis of Assisi, or how about Teresa of Avila or Julian of Norwich, or many of the Catholic female mystics (who we will be exploring at this year’s Linda Lee Spirituality Retreat), and then there is George Fox and Margaret Fell and every one of the Quakers who I talked about in my last sermon series, and since it is Black History Month, we cannot forget Harriet Tubman, Booker T. Washington, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglas, Martin Luther King Jr., and so many more, who followed the consciousness and inspiration of God to do their life’s work and to fulfill their purpose with God and their neighbor.  

Folks, these were ordinary people (like you and me) who lived during trying times (also as we are in, today) – they hungered and thirsted and filled themselves to overflowing with the righteousness of God so that they could change their world.  And now, it is our turn. 

So, I return to those original two queries for us to ponder this morning:  

·       What do I long for, yearn for, lay awake at night dreaming about?

·      What do I hunger and thirst for deep down in my soul?

I think it is time for people, like you and me, to actually do the right thing, treat each other with dignity, watch out for the hurting and weak and genuinely  love God and our neighbor above all else.  May it be so.

2-2-25 - The Meek, Gentle, Humble Servant

The Meek, Gentle, Humble Servant
Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

February 2, 2025

Good morning, Friends and welcome to Light Reflections.  This morning at the Meetinghouse we are celebrating Scout Sunday. You will hear that referenced in this message. As well, we are continuing our exploration of the Beatitudes with Matthew 5:5 from the New Revised Standard Version.   

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

To begin our third Beatitude, I need to start with a little Greek lesson. The reason being is that the word that is translated as “meek” in our text for today is a loaded word in the New Testament. Often Greek words have multiple meanings and thus it can be complicated when translating them.

The Greek word in our text is praus.  

Interestingly, it only appears three times in the entire New Testament.

·      Here our New Revised Standard Version translates it as “meek.”

·      In Matthew 21:5 it is translated as “humble.” 

·      And in 1 Peter 3:4, just to cover all ours bases, it is translated using the English word “gentle”.

Just to make my point, author Christopher Page checked 26 English translations of our Beatitude for today, Matthew 5:5:  

·      14 translate praus as “meek,”

·      8 use the English word “humble” and

·      4 use “gentle”.

Even though these three descriptors: meek, humble, and gentle could easily take us in different directions, I think a blend of these words could help us understand who Jesus is saying is blessed in our text for today. 

To help us make this more real, I want you to take a moment and think of a person in your life who you would describe as meek, humble, and gentle. These are individuals who exhibit qualities like kindness, self-control, a willingness to listen and consider others, and a lack of self-importance, often displaying a calm and patient demeanor even when faced with challenges, essentially demonstrating strength through humility rather than aggression; they prioritize the well-being of others over their own desires.

·      Does someone in your life come to mind?

·      What has that person meant to you? 

·      How have they impacted your life?

For me, it was my grandfather. I have talked about him before in a message last year when I shared one of his paintings in worship.  He was not only gentle, meek, and humble, but his life exuded these qualities and offered an example for others to follow. He was what some, including myself, would describe as a “gentle leader.”

Part of my doctoral program in leadership and spiritual formation at a Quaker University had me exploring, “Gentle Leadership.” Some Quakers have a hard time embracing the concept of “leadership,” but I find they are more open if we label it “gentle leadership” because of how it is described. Also, out of all the leadership styles, “gentle leadership” consistently has found proven success, and some of the best long term affects.

This is because “gentle leaders” incorporate, encourage and model patience, open communication, flexibility, supportive environments, give feedback, are consistent in their endeavors, all while focusing on the effects they are having on future generations. This then encourages creativity and innovation, builds trust, and motivates one to make a difference in their world. 

People who are considered “gentle leaders” are individuals like Abraham Lincoln, Mother Theresa, Gandhi, Nelson Mandella, Desmond Tutu, The Dhali Lama, Jane Goodall, President Jimmy Carter, and the list could go on.

But if we polled Americans currently, “gentle leadership” probably would not be the desired choice of much of our country. Actually, we might quickly find that a majority of people in America consider “gentle leaders” to be the most unlikely to “take possession or inherit the earth” (as it says in our text for today) and they probably would consider them weak and unfavorable.

Sadly, most American models of leadership are based on a take-charge vision. We seek, promote, and even vote for leaders who show that they are in control and can “kick butt” when necessary. Many even desire leaders who are aggressive and have high energy and iron self-discipline.

In American, the gentle people are seldom put in charge of things. And if we do somehow find ourselves with a gentle leader – people often question their motives or wonder if they really are or were a good leader in the first place.

Someone who comes to mind, whose gentle leadership at one time was questioned but has now become his legacy, is the late Jimmy Carter. If you took a moment to watch his funeral, Jimmy’s grandson James Carter actually reads the Beatitudes from Matthew at his service - because many said President Carter embodied them in his life. I would agree with them.

Up there with my grandfather, I think I would put Jimmy Carter on my list of people whose example of gentle and servant leadership should be emulated. It seems appropriate to talk about Jimmy Carter’s legacy today as he was both a scoutmaster and the recipient of the Boy Scouts of America, Silver Buffalo Award, scouting’s highest commendation. President Carter once said,

“I believe that anyone can be successful in life, regardless of natural talent or the environment within which we live. This is not based on measuring success by human competitiveness for wealth, possessions, influence, and fame, but adhering to God's standards of truth, justice, humility, service, compassion, forgiveness, and love.”

He also said,

“To be true to ourselves, we must be true to others."

What Jimmy describes are the attitudes of the beatitudes. Yet, I believe it also describes well the life of the “gentle leader.”  

The term “Gentle Leadership” was coined by author James Hunter in his book “The Servant Leader.”  Hunter believes the best way to lead is to serve those who you are leading.  This puts the needs of your community, team, country before your own and shows them the respect that they deserve. That was, hands down, the life of Jimmy Carter and many of the others I mentioned earlier.

But let’s move away from just leadership and bring it into daily life. When Richard Rohr talks about this Beatitude he says,

“Blessed are the gentle [or the meek, humble, non-violent, unassuming]: they shall have the earth as inheritance.”  

That is even more descriptive and speaks to us as non-violent Quakers. 

But I think we need to return to the Greek once again. A literal rendering of the Greek (praüs) is "To Be Tamed." It is "power under control.” What this means is that the concept of meekness must have strength combined with the above translations.

Each of the scholars I looked at pointed out and were adamant that none of those terms should convey the idea of weakness in our minds. Meek is not weak. Too often that is how our world sees it, but not for Jesus. 

Meekness is strength in submission, strength expressed in gentleness, strength expressed in humility, strength that yields, strength that is forbearing, and strength that is gracious. If you take strength out of it, you do not have meekness.

Some may consider these paradoxes, but I find them an excellent way to describe the essence of being a Quaker. 

Quakers strive to be meek, gentle, humble, non-violent, and even unassuming and it is our strength because we put ourselves in submission to the Spirit’s leading.  Our strength of being meek is manifest in each of our testimonies or S.P.I.C.E.S. 

·      Meekness made manifest in Simplicity frees us to live in harmony and alignment with the Spirit’s purposes.

·      Meekness made manifest in Peace fosters effective communication and alternatives to violence. 

·      Meekness made manifest in Integrity allows one’s outer life to reflect the inward journey. 

·      Meekness made manifest in Community teaches respect for everyone and the idea that everyone has a piece of the truth.

·      Meekness made manifest in Equality respects and reflects a broad, inclusive spectrum of the Kingdom of God. 

·      Meekness made manifest in Stewardship instills a sense of personal and social responsibility and service to environmental, economic, and societal sustainability.

Is it any wonder why Jesus says it will be the meek who inherit the earth?

This is not the world’s view of meekness, gentleness, humility, but it is the backbone, the core of our strength as Friends. 

So, let’s end there this week, And take some time to center ourselves around these thoughts. To help you reflect on meekness, I have prepared the following queries:

1.    What “gentle leader” in my life do I need to reach out to and thank this week?

2.    How am I serving my neighbors through meek, gentle, humble, non-violent, and unassuming ways?

3.    How will I embrace meekness, the strength in submission, in my daily life this week?

1-26-25 - Those Who Mourn: Vulnerability and Flow

Those Who Mourn: Vulnerability and Flow

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

January 26, 2025

Good morning, Friends, and welcome to Light Reflections. Today, we continue our series on the Beatitudes looking at the second Beatitude from Matthew 5:4 from the New Revised Standard Version.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

When was the last time you had a good cry? 

Now, there is a query to ponder.  (Some of us may have done a lot of crying just this week for a variety of reasons – which I will not elaborate on here.)

Too often today, we are made to think that crying is a bad thing and being strong means we hold back those tears – especially for us men in the room. 

Looking back on my earlier years, I don’t remember my parents every telling me to hold back those tears, rather I was told to let them out and to let the tears flow.  That it was good for me to have a good cry once and a while, and yes, it was ok for boys to cry.  As I would grow up, often my world, my church, my friends would teach me something different.

I remember in 8th grade a classmate and friend of mine was hit by a car and killed while taking a run. I can still remember sitting in the bathtub and bawling my eyes out, asking some big 8th grade questions of God. And then in my freshmen year of high school having the emotions sweep back through me during a class, and all of a sudden, the tears started again, unexpectantly. 

I remember as a child many times retreating to my bedroom to have a good cry – when my dog died, when my grandpa died, or simply when I was having a hard time in 4th grade with my teacher. 

Later in life, I would find I could not control the tears when watching the TV show, Extreme Makeover Home Edition. (Anybody else relate to this?) Did you know they brought that show back a couple months ago, and on my day off last week I thought I would check it out on streaming. I wasn’t even 10 minutes into the program when the family shared that they lost their dad during Covid and he was a pastor.  Oh man, the tears flowed so long in this episode that I ended up having to go wash my face before heading out of the house.  

I told someone just last week after Kalaya’s celebration of life, that I have learned as a pastor to cry before and after a memorial service, yet on occasion the tears are uncontrollable, the memories too fresh, the person too close to the heart.  

Richard Rohr says,

“Tears are therapeutic and healing, both emotionally and physically. Crying helps the body shed stress hormones and stimulates endorphins. Weeping is a natural and essential part of being human.”

Indian teacher and author, Eknath Easwaran goes on to say,

“We can spend the better part of our lives attempting to construct the perfect personal environment, a kind of bubble that will insulate us against everything that is unpleasant. But sorrow is woven into the very texture of life. Pain, disappointment, depression, illness, bereavement, a sense of inadequacy in our work or our relationships . . . the list could go on and on. . . .

Because we have married the idea of faith and safety in America, we often get obsessed with making “bubbles,” or at least seeking protections to insulate us against whatever may be out to get us. This is a reality in the American church, today. 

I remember at Huntington University, I used to teach a capstone class where one entire unit I titled “Popping Your Bubbles.”  Ironically, we started this unit by sharing our Spiritual Journeys (thus far in life) where we mapped out where we had felt the closest to the Divine in our lives. What the students did not expect was the emotions that came to the surface as they prepared and shared their journeys. 

See, for many college students the death of a loved one, the divorce of parents, even a move that involved the loss of friends became those “thin places” where they found themselves seeking, crying out to, and often finding God for the first time.

Having a safe place to share with fellow classmates is critical for moving out into the real world and finding supportive and encouraging communities that are sustaining and life-giving. My students would often share how those presentations were both the hardest as well as most freeing of their college careers.

Yet, that was only the first step to help them realize that for the past 4 years they had put themselves in a safety bubble (called Christian college) that allowed them to explore their struggles, to face their doubts, to wrestle with their faith with a bit of safety and protection. Now it was time for them to learn how to “pop the bubble,” and finally move out on their own.

Until they went deep inside to explore and realize the their bubbles, experience losses, and truly mourn, they were not ready to look forward, make decisions on their own, and finally pop the bubbles of safety they were in.  

Cynthia Bourgeault describes our beatitude for today, and what I have been talking about in this message as “vulnerability and flow.” As we talked about last week with the “poor in spirit” – which if you remember meant being open to receive – mourning then introduces us to an emptiness, that allows us to remain open to be filled by both God and that of God within our neighbors. 

As my students shared with their peers the pain and loss in their stories, I was amazed at how our class would begin to transform and would no longer be an academic class, but rather a community of vulnerability and compassion. This was a glimpse of the Kingdom of Heaven in our midst.  Still today, these have been some of the most beautiful moments that helped me realize what Jesus was saying, when he said, “blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”   

I watched my student’s willingness to be vulnerable and share their mourning turn into a moment of divine compassion and greater love with their classmates. Tears were shared, hugs were shared, beautiful words of comfort and hope were shared. Eyes were opened to their neighbor and a genuine care began to grow. Students who did not know each other, all of a sudden, cared for each other, began spending time together, even supported each other outside of the class.

I even remember one of my students actually sharing about his experience in this class during his wedding ceremony – it was that impactful and life altering. 

I believe anyone who has been in a community where people are allowed to shed tears, be vulnerable, and mourn together have tapped into a new understanding of the depths of God in our lives and in the lives of our neighbors.  What if this was the way of the church or our Meeting? 

Richard Rohr takes this even further, he says, 

“Most of us think we know God—and ourselves—through ideas. Yet corporeal, embodied theology acknowledges that perhaps weeping will allow us to know God much better than ideas.”

I wholeheartedly believe that as a pastor who has listened to people’s life journeys over the last 30+ years, it is the times that are marked by tears, where we seek, we cry out, we long for a better understanding of the Divine. It is also in these times that we find that of God most visible in our neighbors and loved ones around us.   

Mourning and weeping can be a gateway to seeing God work in our lives and in the lives of our siblings and neighbors more clearly. 

Just think about it, when someone in your community begins to share and tears begin to fall from their face, you approach them differently.  The tears are a sign, an indicator of a desire for their emptiness to be filled, a desire to be heard, a longing for compassionate care. 

Yet sadly, because many of us are not attune to or aware of how to respond (probably because we have been taught sharing our emotions make us week), we find ourselves in an awkward moment, not sure what to do.    

Richard Rohr says that in our Beatitude for today,

“Jesus praises those who can enter into solidarity with the pain of the world and not try to remove or isolate themselves from its suffering. This is why Jesus says the rich person often can’t see the Kingdom, because they spend too much time trying to make tears unnecessary and even impossible.”

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted by God, yes, but even more by their fellow neighbors – you and me.  We have each been given the Spirit of God – who we read in scripture described as “The Great Comforter.”  Actually, it is even better than that.  Jesus says that this same spirit resides in you and me – as Kingdom people we are called to comfort one another. 

Folks, the word "comforter" comes from the Greek word parakletos, which actually means "one who is called alongside to help".  That makes it pretty clear as to what our calling is with our neighbors.

So, as Jesus continues down this path of sharing what will ultimately bring us bliss, happiness, and peace in this world, he first says we need to be open to receive – being “poor in spirit.” And then continues saying that it may bring us to moments of vulnerability and emptiness where we find we, alone, cannot do it on our own – thus, we need God and that of God in our neighbors.  Quite often, coming to this realization is marked by the flowing of our tears. 

And this is where the Kingdom of heaven or community of faith becomes essential.  If you and I are not surrounded by a compassionate and loving community – people who feel the pain of the world and respond to it, we will not be comforted.  As well, if we are not looking for and responding to the pain in our neighbors, siblings, fellow Friends, we might find ourselves simply wading in our own emptiness and sadness. I sense a lot of people are sadly at this point in our world – maybe some of you in the room right now.  Thus, this is the call of the church, today, to come alongside one another to help, to comfort, to unconditionally love, to be grace and hope.      

Again, our independent world says we can pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps – but it doesn’t take long when trying to do it alone to hit rock bottom and realize that we were made for and need each other.

Now, as we head into waiting worship, I have a couple queries for you to ponder.  Ask yourself:

1.      When was the last time I had a good cry? Why?

2.      What “bubbles” have I created in my life that I thought would insulate me from the unpleasant?”

3.      How am I answering the call to come alongside others to help and comfort? Who comes to mind? What can I do?

1-19-25 - The Poor in Spirit – Open to Receive

The Poor in Spirit – Open to Receive

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

January 19, 2025

Good morning, Friends, and welcome to Light Reflections.  Our scripture for this morning is the first of the Beatitudes from Matthew 5:3 from the New Revised Standard Version.  

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Friends, this morning as we delve into the Beatitudes, I think it is appropriate to acknowledge how these teachings were at the core of the Beloved Community that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. envisioned. King believed that the Beatitudes challenged conventional wisdom and were a guide for living a good life. This morning, as we explore the first of the beatitudes, may they be our guide to creating the beloved community in our place.  

For a season in my spiritual journey, I spent a lot of time basking in the writings of Trappist Monk, writer, theologian, and mystic, Thomas Merton. During a personal retreat one year, I was reading the Thomas Merton Reader and came across the following quote which had me contemplating deeply. Merton says,

“At the center point of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and illusion, a point of pure truth, a point of spark which belongs entirely to God.”  

At the time, I was dabbling with moving from Anglicanism to being a Quaker and began more and more hearing Merton’s mother, who was a devout Quaker and artist speaking through his life and spiritual experiences. I have found the more Merton one reads, the more one will notice this.

During this retreat, I was also wrestling with the complexities and similarities of the theologies of Imago Dei (or Image of God), which I had grown up with in my Lutheran and Anglican backgrounds and the Quaker understanding of “that of God within all people.”  Today, I see them as almost synonymous.

Both my Quaker faith and Thomas Merton have taught me that spending time in silence, solitude, and devotional contemplation calms the voices of the world blaring loudly in my ears and helps me be more receptive, open, and able to hear and acknowledge the Divine’s voice.

It also draws me to that center point of my being, that point of Truth, that place in me which belongs to the Divine – or as I would say today, “that of God within me.”

This is part of what Friends seek in waiting and unprogrammed worship, in retreat, in personal mediation, even on a walk in nature – a connection to the depths of the Divine deep within us. Then after making this connection, it results in a turn outward in service to our neighbors and community.

Folks, I believe this is at the core of the first of the Beatitudes that we are looking at today.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Scholars have debated intensely what was meant by the “poor in spirit.”  Because in English we have interpreted the word as poor, we get hung up on the monetary or financial aspect.

Then “in Spirit” is added and we put on the breaks. Our siblings in more prosperity-focused churches often avoid these scriptures. Actually, the beatitudes have fallen into obscurity by many churches and Christians, today, because many of them have embraced a prosperity, power, us vs. them, and right-answer-only gospel, which in a way makes being poor a threat. 

Yet, Jesus decides to start his “stump speech” with blessing the poor in spirit, which directly engages this exact mentality by getting to the attitudes and mindsets behind it. 

I kind of see what Jesus is doing as a reality check for Christians in his day as well as still, today.  He is taking them back to the root of their being, their core and center point and reconnecting them to God and their neighbor.    

So, if Jesus was not talking about poor in the monetary or financial way, what was he talking about. 

Let’s start with Cynthia Bourgeault, in her classic The Wisdom Jesus, she says that the phrase

“’poor in spirit’ designates an inner attitude of receptivity and openness, and one is blessed by it because only in this state is it possible to receive anything.”

Richard Rohr in one of his daily devotions on this Beatitude goes a bit further. He says,

“’Poor in spirit’ means an inner emptiness and humility, a beginner’s mind, and to live without a need for personal righteousness or reputation.

It is the “powerlessness” of Alcoholics Anonymous’ First Step.”

The Greek word Matthew uses for “poor” is ptochoi, which literally means, “the very empty ones, those who are crouching.” They are the bent-over beggars, the little nobodies of this world who have nothing left, who aren’t self-preoccupied or full of themselves in any way.

Jesus is saying: “Happy are you, you’re the freest of all… The “poor in spirit” don’t have to play any competitive games; they are not preoccupied with winning, which is the primary philosophy in the United States today.

 Jesus is recommending a social reordering, quite different from common practice.

What Rohr and Bourgeault are getting at is that we need to return and reconnect to our true nature, our original state, the depths of who we are at our core – that of God within us. 

Throughout our lives, we become more and more influenced by the world around us.  We are drawn by power, pleasure, competition, winning and those things slowly undercut, block, even mask our true nature and get between our relationship with God and our neighbors in whom God dwells. 

If you did not notice, our world puts independence on a pedestal. In America, we celebrate it at least once a year on the 4th of July.  Independence, individuality, and self-reliance are widely praised and sought after, today.

Yet, we have focused so much on it, that we have isolated ourselves from each other.  The idea of “the church” was to be the community and people of God – but independence has literally put it within the walls of a building and divided us.  

The more the church has become a building, and not the people, the more it has lost its dependence on the strength in community and in God.

This may be hard for some to grasp, but, especially in America, we have built our own empire called the church.  We have merged it with politics and narrow thinking and lost the soul of what it was intended to be.

I don’t think this was God’s design. Thus, I am a Quaker.  As we heard in my last sermon series, Friends have worked hard not to conform to the world’s ways, but to follow the original teachings of Jesus – which the beatitudes are core. And folks, this has made us counter-cultural, counter-religious, counter-the-church-in-America.  Yet often when I look around, I sadly see a lot more conformity and not so much countering, today.  

What Jesus is getting at in this Beatitude is that we were created for something more – and it has to do with community or what Jesus says is “theirs”- the kingdom of heaven – not the empires of this world?

This is why the "poor in spirit" signifies the act of admitting we cannot do it alone (independently), essentially recognizing our spiritual need for the Divine and that of God in our neighbors, rather than relying solely on our own abilities. It's about acknowledging our limitations and relying on God's power and our comradery with our fellow siblings and neighbors within whom God dwells.

The blessing of the “poor in spirit” comes when you and I take the time to meet God in our depths and then in response to that divine encounter engage our neighbors, spend time with others, help one another, work and play together, acknowledging that we need each other to complete our lives. This is what brings happiness and blessing. I believe wholeheartedly that God created us for each other. Whether that is through marriage, friendship, partnership, care giving, adoption – the power, the change, the blessing comes through engaging that of God in each other. 

I want to close this morning with a poem that I have returned to on many occasions. It speaks of what this looks like in the present – how we can act on this beatitude and possibly even change our world.

The poem is titled, “Turning to One Another” by Margaret Wheatley

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

Ask “What is possible?” not “What’s wrong?” Keep asking.

Notice what you care about.
Assume that many others share your dreams.

Be brave enough to start a conversation that matters.
Talk to people you know.
Talk to people you don’t know.
Talk to people you never talk to.

Be intrigued by the difference you hear.
Expect to be surprised.
Treasure curiosity more than certainty.

Invite in everybody who cares to work on what’s possible.
Acknowledge that everyone is an expert about something.
Know that creative solutions come from new connections.

Remember, you don’t fear people whose story you know.
Real listening always brings people closer together.

Trust that meaningful conversations can change your world.

Rely on human goodness. Stay together.

I believe this is the charge of the poor in spirit and it is how the kingdom of heaven is manifest in our lives.  Maybe this week, you and I need to take some time to silence ourselves and center into the core of our being – that of God in us.  Maybe you can begin that in waiting worship this morning. But after doing that, I wonder in what way the Spirit might nudge us to seek that of God in our relationships with our neighbors.  And how spending time with them will not only bring us joy and happiness, but possibly some bliss in this crazy world. Oh, and it may also help us see that of God in our midst in their lives.

Let’s take a moment to center down this morning and tap into the core of our being, together. Here are some queries for you us to ponder:

·      What could I do this week that would help me center on that of God in me?

·      What things undercut, block, even mask my true nature and get between my relationship with God and my neighbor?

·      Where am I embracing dependence on God and my neighbor over independence?

·      Are there ways at First Friends that we embrace an empire mindset instead of a kingdom one as a meeting?   

1-12-25 - The Beatitudes: The Intro

The Beatitudes: The Intro

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

January 12, 2025

Matthew 5:1-12 (NRSV)

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he began to speak and taught them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Today, I am beginning a series on what we in the church have traditionally labeled, The Beatitudes found in Matthew 5:1-12.  One person described The Beatitudes as a Christian’s eight-fold path to happiness, much like that of Buddhism. Others have labeled The Beatitudes as the Sermon on the Mount, and others, Jesus’ stump speech.

Sadly, too often the focus these days for Christians is not on what to do but what NOT to do. This leaves us constantly being on the defense and often lacking peace in our lives. Yet, the Beatitudes are different. They offer us an opportunity to look at what we are to do and in a more positive approach.   

Over the next several weeks we will break down each of the Beatitudes, and what Jesus is asking of us in these important words. 

Whether a beatitude, a sermon, or a stump speech, Jesus’ words are a charge for us to recognize how the bottom of society will have an opportunity to rise to the top. It becomes a path to how we see and treat people. Please note, The Beatitudes are way more than a social justice plea. Rather these Beatitudes are a spiritual path which culminates in a beatific way of life.

If you look up the word “beatitude” in a dictionary, it means a state of utmost bliss, supreme blessedness, or complete happiness.

This makes sense, due to the fact that the Greek word used in Matthew 5 is "markarios,” which properly translated is happy, blessed, fortunate, or even well.

Scholars agree that the happiness that Jesus is speaking of here is happiness that is at a different level than the emotional happiness that we would probably normally associate with the word “happy.”

In this context, what we are talking about is more of a blissfulness. This then means that The Beatitudes are a path to utmost bliss, supreme blessedness, or a complete happiness.  I will probably return to this as a reminder in this series, because this is not always how we see these words of Jesus. 

Now, I believe I can confidently say that what Jesus was laying out for us in these words was a path to our and the world’s ultimate happiness.  Which seems almost ironic as studies from a recent Gallop study on people’s emotions show the world in 2022 hit an all-time low of happiness and has not regained much in the last 2 years.  I wonder how 2025 will fair.  

Yet, Jesus says this beatific life is within our reach within the Kingdom of God.  Jesus himself said the Kingdom was at hand (in the present) specifically through this path of understanding. Thus, we need to see the Beatitudes as a relationship between virtues and blessings for us. As one person said,

“In our virtue, God will bless us. And in our blessing, we will become virtuous.”

A few years ago, when I started researching Gandhi’s influence on Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights Movement for my doctoral dissertation, I spent a lot of time reading the Autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi – what Gandhi titled: The Story of My Experiments with Truth.

Until my research, I only knew what I had experienced in watching the academy award winning movie, Gandhi, and some brief conversations in a high school history class.  

What I learned was surprising. The devout Hindu and Civil Rights champion, Gandhi, was given a Christian Bible by a friend in London while at law school. At first, like many people, he was turned off and considered the Old Testament very boring and way too violent.

However, the second part of the Bible, the New Testament, and specifically the Sermon on the Mount part of the Mathew's Gospel attracted him, which he described in his autobiography.  He said:

"But the New Testament produced a different impression, especially the Sermon on the Mount which went straight to my heart."

The New Testament and especially the Sermon on the Mount overjoyed him. He said:

"it delighted me beyond measure" and "gave me comfort and boundless joy."

As a result, Gandhi revered the Bible as a sacred book and approached it like a devout Christian. He said:

"I consider it as part of my scriptures."

Mahatma Gandhi would go on to proclaim,  

“Christ’s Sermon on the Mount fills me with bliss even today. Its sweet verses have even today the power to quench my agony of soul.”

That is what I hope our time looking at The Beatitudes will have you saying.

Because just as impactful as it was for Gandhi in his day, I believe it is speaking prophetically and directly to us, today. 

I hope the next couple of weeks we will consider these words of Jesus part of the scriptures and spiritual texts that are speaking to our condition. That they will delight, comfort, bring us newfound joy, happiness, even fill us with bliss, and ultimately quench the agony of our souls. 

I think it is important at this point to explore some context and background to The Beatitudes.

One of the ways Matthew presents Jesus is as a new kind of “Moses.”  And this may come from a similar action of Moses by Jesus when he decides to ascend a near mountain to address those that had gathered.  This is also why so many call The Beatitudes by the title, “The Sermon on the Mount.” 

More likely, to speak to a large crowd of his day without microphones or speakers, Jesus would have had to ascend a local hill and allow the acoustics of the land to do their thing.  There are many instances where this method is used for important speeches to take place in Jesus’ time. As well, some theologians believe Jesus began teaching at the bottom of the mountain and worked his way up to the top to make his point and give these important truths.

When Jesus finally gets to the top of the mountain he turns and shares his Beatitudes for all to hear. And interestingly, he seems to intentionally use a structure and form for his words.  Again, this was popular in speeches of his day. We find this on numerous occasions throughout the rest of the Bible.  It is much like when speakers today summarize with bullet points on a PowerPoint.

Each Beatitude or bullet point he was making had 3 components to make it easier for his listeners to remember.  Some even consider it created some cadence in his delivery, which also makes speeches more engaging.    

First, there’s was a blessing – “Blessed are the….” Each group is blessed first.   

Second, there’s the reason for the blessing based on a particular attitude (for example - “because they are poor in spirit”).

Finally, there is an incentive for displaying such an attitude (“for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”).

This is the central theme of the Beatitudes: experiencing the blessings, bliss and happiness of the “kingdom of heaven”—both now and in all fulness in the future.  This theme comes from the phrase: “theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” “Theirs is” indicates a present possession. Thus, this is not just for a future time, but it is specifically for how we live in the present moment, NOW!

I know for many of us the phrase “Kingdom of Heaven” (or God) seems archaic. The idea of Kings and Queens who sit at the top of a hierarchy and who “reign” seems highly romantic, or if you know any history, highly sketchy. We must remember that the tyrannical self-centered nasty Kings far outnumber the benevolent ones.

However, this is not a bad starting point. The way Jesus and the gospel writers use the “Kingdom of Heaven” challenges expected ideas of Kingship (and Empire, the Greek translation of Kingdom) and opens up new possibilities.

The new possibilities are literally lived realities. Jesus describes them this way - the gentle, those who mourn, those who hunger and thirst for uprightness (or justice), those who are merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those who are persecuted in the cause of uprightness.

Folks, I believe wholeheartedly these people Jesus describes are who we are to be.  And this could be seen as Jesus’s action plan for the new community of the Kingdom that is unfolding in our lives and communities.

So, let’s end there this week before delving deeper into the first beatitude, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” next week.

I encourage you to take some time this morning and throughout this week, dust off your bible, and maybe once a day read through Matthew 5:1-12.  Then ask yourself:

·      How are The Beatitudes speaking to my current condition?

·      What questions do they raise in me?

·      What do I notice that I have missed in the past?  

1-5-25 - Why Do We Pray and How Does this Impact Our Lives?

Why Do We Pray and How Does this Impact Our Lives?
Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting
Beth Henricks
January 5, 2025

Scripture – Matthew 6:9-13  9 “This, then, is how you should pray:

“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
    as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,[a]
    but deliver us from the evil one.[b]’

Friends, I am joining you for this worship service, our first worship of 2025 as Bob and his family are returning from a vacation in Texas to visit their oldest son.  I’m grateful to be with you as we begin another year of our journey together.

I have been reading the latest John Caputo book (my favorite theologian, philosopher and writer) What to Believe, Twelve Brief Lessons in Radical Theology, that challenges many ideas and concepts of religion from a Christian perspective.  Caputo grew up in a devout Catholic family and planned on being a priest joining the De La Salle Christian Brothers for a few years.  As he began to read and study various religious writings, he realized he had questions and doubts about the Christian religion that he embraced and memorized growing up and decided he would rather be a teacher, a student of religion and a writer.  He draws on some of the great theologians and philosophers in Paul Tillich, Jacques Derrida, Frederick Schelling and Georg Wilhelm Frederick Hegel in bringing into common English, the theological principals of  deconstruction of beliefs,  going beyond concepts of a Supreme Being in the sky pulling strings and moving chess pieces into an idea of a Being beyond all being within everyone and everything.    He shares in the book his concept of being either a bridge builder or a ground  digger.  A bridge builder is trying to build a bridge to the sky to meet God and wants to preserve tradition with orthodoxy.  Ground diggers go beneath, go deeper looking for the Spirit in all. 

But as humans, we must have symbols and rituals to  begin to describe this Being.  We know that God has no gender,  but we often use symbols to describe God as  Mother, Father, Lover, Friend etc. all providing meaning to this Being in our human experience and understanding.   The key is that we recognize these as symbols, and we don’t equate the symbol with the Being.   The  actor Bruce Lee in his iconic movie Enter the Dragon says  as they are pointing and looking at the moon, “Don’t concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory.”   The finger is only the way to direct our attention to the Being, the glory, mystery.   

 John Caputo states, “symbols are important, that they are to be taken seriously.  They are not arbitrary contrivances that somebody made up.  They have paid their own way, having been forged in the fires of history.  They have earned respect, earned their place as concrete, sensuous, and inspiring ways we give words and images to matter, as Tillich says, are a “matter of ultimate concern”, a formula upon which it would be difficult to improve when it comes to saying what we mean by religion”  Think how often we are spiritually moved by our observation and participation  in art, music and poetry.  Symbols are deep and artful ways of making contact with the ground of Being. 

I was particularly drawn to Caputo’s  chapter on prayer. given the reflection of bridge building vs ground digging.   Often our prayer is to a God that we hope and believe can change an outcome, a Supreme Being above us that has all power in their hand.  In my 65 years on this earth, I have had to move away from this idea of God as I can’t accept that God is the decider on who lives and who dies – who succeeds and who fails -who is “in charge” of all things.  If I would accept this,  I would be deeply disappointed in this image of God. 

Yet prayer is very important in our spiritual lives.  Classical theologians say that there is no religion without prayer, no theology without prayer, and indeed no idea of God without prayer.” Pg 49

For me, naming God in my prayers is important.  Early in my life I had the image of a loving Father that I pray to, but my symbol has expanded beyond that, and I feel that the power of prayer is in the offering, the collective energy we bring, the mystical sense of movement that we don’t understand.  I believe we make contact with this ground of Being and we converse with it in a very personal way when we pray.

As a person that has met with many people facing various crisis in their lives as a pastor, I do not have a visual concept of God in the sky deciding who will be healed and who will remain sick.  Often when I pray for people now, I pray for a healing – it may be a physical healing or a healing of the heart or a relationship. 

Prayer is not about trying to get something or achieve a certain outcome or goal.  Praying is asking to let go of that thing we want that outcome or result that we hope for.  Prayer is also a halleluiah of gratitude to all that we experience, all that is within us and outside of us and all around us.  This kind of prayer is something to practice in our ordinary moments all day long. Prayer is the act of stopping our routine and taking time to pay attention and become aware of God’s presence, God’s voice in our heart. 

I don’t understand how prayer works but I know with everything within in me that it is real.  I remember when I was diagnosed with uterine cancer 20 years ago, Becki Heusel organized a prayer gathering for me in the parlor the Sunday before my surgery.  I sat in a big king chair that we have in the Meeting and about 15 people surrounded me and laid hands on me and prayed silently and verbally for me.  When all of these people put their hands on my body  I felt a jolt of energy go through my being that I had never experienced in my life.  I felt such love flowing through the touch of all of these people and felt an overwhelming sense of God’s presence.

I recently spent an afternoon with a 67-year-old woman that is in treatment for lung cancer.  We talked about the role prayer has played in her cancer journey.  She does not believe a Supreme Being is calling the shots of her recovery, rather she has some of the best cancer doctors in Chicago orchestrating her treatment.  But she has received hundreds of expressions of love, care and prayer that means everything to her, and she began to cry as she expressed the importance of the prayers of others to her in her journey.  She also prays to God every night over her recovery as this is a symbol and ritual that has always been important to her and continues to provide meaning to her.   Scientific data shows an important corollary to the effect of prayer on an individual when they know that someone is praying for them.  It is important to express our prayers to an individual.  It is why our community appreciates our prayer chain – the idea that others are thinking about us and holding us in the Light (one of my favorite Quaker expressions) will make a difference in our outcome.

I asked Larry to read the example that Jesus gave his disciples in the ritual of prayer.  In examining the prayer, I can see some of it fits into some of the ideas that Caputo presented to us particularly as we put this prayer in context and tradition of the time.  And also, see how there might be language in this prayer that is challenging to understand.

A number of years ago Paul Buckley examined the Lord’s Prayer line by line in an article in Friends Journal.  I was in a small prayer group that Ann Kendall led at the time,  and we spent several of our gatherings considering Paul’s article.  It resonated with me then and I share a few of his insights. 

Our Father in heaven - Jesus begins the prayer with Our Father.   This is the only time Jesus ever calls God Father.  In the original/language the term is translated as papa, a term of endearment and person.  Maybe Jesus is combining the personal and the transcendent in describing God. As both pappa and a Being beyond  our own being.  We also must read this in the context of the time and culture as both Christians and Jews used the masculine to describe God as the symbol of strength and power. 

Hallowed be your name - In Jesus time a name was believed to reveal the essence of the thing and it was very important.  Jesus is giving reverence to the name of God as hallowed, sacred and holy. 

Your kingdom come - The hope of the Jews was that God’s kingdom was near – many have hoped God’s kingdom was near for 2,000 years during many oppressions, wars, famine, etc.   Maybe what Jesus was really talking about was that God’s kingdom is near in our hearts and souls.

 Your will be done - God has a desire for us and that desire is being our best selves.

On earth as well as heaven -   Maybe Jesus is suggesting that we take our place in the ongoing creation of the universe. Heaven must be a spiritual world as a place of perfect harmony, where all freely receive God’s love and freely return to God at all times in all ways.

Give us today our daily bread - Daily bread is a reminder of the Israelites wandering in the desert for 40 years and God providing manna every day for their survival yet admonished the Israelites not to gather extra manna for the future.  Our focus should not be on storing up treasures on this earth, rather we keep what we need for today. 

And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors - The forgiveness that we receive is in measure to the forgiveness we give.  If we seek forgiveness, we must not withhold our forgiveness even when it is difficult. 

And lead us  - The way forward is always visible. It can often seem clouded to us, and we may have no idea what direction to go.  But the path forward is within us.   Are my heart and my ears open to God’s voice as I seek a way forward?

Not into temptation but deliver us from evil.   Oh God help me face my weaknesses.  As parents sometimes we have to let our children fail and do things on their own  for them to recognize their weakness, their lack of control over certain things and the consequences of their choices.  Our parents don’t lead us into the temptation but sometimes must allow this to help as the only way for us to grow. The evil we sometimes have to face is within us.

For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory – This closing line is not in the text in Matthew, but we recognize this as part of the Lord’s Prayer that we recite.  Maybe Jesus is talking about the power of God that empowers us.  We recognize this ground of Being within us as we grow into our truest selves.

This morning, I do not offer queries for our consideration as we enter our waiting worship.  May we reflect on this Lord’s prayer and pray for those things on our heart today.

12-22-24 - A Season of Hope

A Season of Hope 

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

December 22, 2024

Good morning Friends, and welcome to Light Reflections.  This morning at the Meeting house, we are having our annual Children’s Christmas Pageant.  As part of the morning for adults, I usually give a brief Christmas Meditation for us to ponder.  This is the meditation I will be giving. 

The supporting scripture is from Romans 15:13 from the Voice Version. 

I pray that God, the source of all hope, will infuse your lives with an abundance of joy and peace in the midst of your faith so that your hope will overflow through the power of the Holy Spirit.

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

Just maybe, the hope we see in the Christmas story is the same hope we long for in our daily experience. Let’s take a moment to explore this hope by asking ourselves a few queries. Let’s begin with:

Why is hope so important?

Many today describe hope as wanting an outcome that makes one’s life better in some way. It not only can help make a tough present situation more bearable but also can eventually improve one’s life – because envisioning a better future motivates one to take the steps to make it a reality.

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

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

For example, 1 Peter 1:3 states,

“[God] has given us new birth into a living hope through…Jesus Christ.” 

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

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

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

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

What Is Hope, Exactly?

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

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

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

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

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

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

If one is considered an optimist, they are naturally more hopeful than others. Yet, on the other hand, some of the most pessimistic people we encounter can still be hopeful about something. Hope is often very specific and focused, usually on just one issue, though.

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

So that brings me to another of my queries…

Why is Hope So Vital?

Most people associate hope with a dire situation. Just listen carefully and you will hear the word, “hope,” being used more and more these days. It is often in these moments, when people do find themselves hoping fervently!

As the scriptures indicate:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As it says in 2 Corinthians 4:6,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

12-15-24 - A Season for Turning Toward Our Best

A Season for Turning Toward Our Best 

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

December 15, 2024

Good morning, friends and welcome to Light Reflections.  Last week we took a look at Mary and Elizabeth and this week we explore John the Baptist as we continue to prepare ourselves for the holidays. Our supporting text is from Matthew 3:1-12 from the New Revised Standard Version.   

In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said,

“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’”

Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region around the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the River Jordan, confessing their sins.

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Therefore, bear fruit worthy of repentance, and do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; therefore, every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

“I baptize you with water for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is more powerful than I, and I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

Last week we talked about this season leading up to Christmas being a time of Statio – finding holy pauses in our day to listen for the Spirit’s nudging.  This week, we look at how this time is also a Season of Turning Toward our Best and making some needed changes in how we see our neighbors.  I have borrowed several thoughts this morning from Rev. Andy Acton who really spoke to my condition this week. 

In my Facebook memories from a couple of years ago, I was reminded of  several of my clergy friends sharing on their profile pages the following: 

“The appropriate greeting is not ‘Merry Christmas’ but ‘Penitent Advent You Miserable Sinner.’”

I chuckled reading it as that was how it often felt in the church I grew up in. Love, Joy, Peace, Hope, oh and lots of Sin...Sin…Sin. 

But this funny saying is actually referring to John the Baptist, the wilderness preacher, who arrives on the scene in today’s reading from the book of Matthew to make a grand proclamation that is both compelling and prophetic:

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’”

Much like I talked about in my sermon series on the prophets, in biblical terms, “prophetic” is about being witnesses to truth and speaking out against injustices in a present time and context.

The Old Testament prophets, whom John the Baptist emulates, were not predictors of the future or doomsayers. Rather as Quaker Howard Macy said, they were

“…a visible sign and enduring witness that God is here, that God cares, and that God is actively working to renew wholeness (shalom) in all creation.” 

In this moment, it might help to see John kind of like a loving parent coming alongside newbie followers of the way, saying, 

“Children, you better get it together and stop being mean or you’re going to have a hard time when you grow up.” 

John knew that if the people kept acting in their own self-interests—ignoring both God and neighbor—they would continue to cause great harm to others and would ultimately bring about their own misery, and NOT work to renew their wholeness, and ultimately NOT find peace or shalom in their lives.

Like the prophets of old, John was inspired by God to speak on God’s behalf for the purpose of naming the injustices that were a result of people refusing to keep covenant, obey the commandments, and create the beloved community.

This same ancient tradition of prophetic speaking and preaching has been carried throughout time by the likes of Sojourner Truth, Martin Luther King Jr., Dorothy Day and Desmond Tutu (and then there are all those Quakers we just looked at in our Speak Truth to Power Series) — all of whom were inspired by God in their particular times and context to proclaim God’s love for the marginalized, the poor and oppressed, and seek the renewal of wholeness and shalom.

And let’s be honest, the messages of the prophets both then and now are not easy to hear. They were exhilarating, challenging, even at times harsh, because they contain truth that we are reluctant to acknowledge—the truth of our failure as human beings to show kindness and compassion to all of God’s creatures.

John the Baptist, who wore clothing made from camel’s hair (likely covered with the stains of locusts and wild honey), didn’t hold back when the arrogant Pharisees and Sadducees, who had been dismissing the cries of the suffering, showed up at the Jordan River:

“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Therefore, bear fruit worthy of repentance…He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

“Penitent Advent You Miserable Sinner” the social media description of John the Baptist’s message is harsh and rather disruptive, not the joyful greeting we expect during the season in which we prepare for the birth of a baby known as the Prince of Peace.

This reminds me of one of our family’s favorite Christmas movies, Elf.  When Will Ferrell’s character, Buddy the Elf realizes the store Santa is not the real Santa and chooses to expose him by saying, 

“You sit on a throne of lies!”

Even though these well written phrases makes us laugh, it is very similar to what John the Baptist did when he caught the attention of the Pharisees and Sadducees with the words “You brood of vipers.” 

He wanted to grab the attention of his audience, but in a way that pushed them to change their lives for the better. John the Baptist, while vehement with his words, isn’t trying to guilt trip the crowds and violently condemn the religious leaders. Actually, he is inviting them to make a change. 

We must see that, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near,” is a radically open and thrilling invitation.

The Greek word for “repentance” is metanoia—from meta, “change” and noia, “mind.” Literally, a change of mind.

Today, we would say “change of heart” or “change of life.” For the ancients, metanoia was known as an ongoing process of transformation.

Author and pastor, Frederick Buechner beautifully observes:

Biblically speaking, to repent doesn’t mean to feel sorry about, to regret. It means to turn, to turn around 180 degrees. It means to undergo a complete change of mind, heart, direction. Turn away from madness, cruelty, shallowness, blindness. Turn toward the tolerance, compassion, sanity, hope, justice that we all have in us at our best. 

John’s call to repentance—to change, to turn away from hate and turn instead toward love and joy, I believe, is the perfect message for our current season and situation in our country and world.

As I said last week, we need to be about taking a holy pause and waiting for the nudging of the Spirit.  We should be about slowing down in the midst of the busyness of finishing the year, decorating the house, shopping for presents, and hosting and attending Christmas parties, so we can then take a moment to turn toward opportunities for tolerance, compassion, sanity, hope, and justice!  

Dietrich Bonhoeffer conveyed the meaning of this season so beautifully when he wrote:

If we want to be part of these events…we cannot just sit like a theatre audience and enjoy all the lovely pictures. Instead, we ourselves must be caught up in the action, the reversal of all things; we must become actors on this stage, for this is a play in which each spectator has a part to play, and we cannot hold back. … We cannot come to this manger in the same way that we would approach the cradle of any other child. Something will happen to each of us who decides to come to Christ’s manger. 

This is where we move into part two of last week’s message. Actively taking a  holy pause and slowing down to ponder the significance of the season doesn’t mean that we become complacent and simply relax in the glow of all the festivities. This is not a free pass or permission to take a break from doing the kingdom work of God. That’s not an option.

John the Baptist is inviting the people, including the religious leaders, to change. He’s inviting all of them to change by bearing fruit, doing good, being better.

It may not seem that way, considering that John’s metaphor about the separation of the wheat and chaff sounds simply horrifying upon an initial reading. However, the prophet isn’t suggesting that Jesus is coming to earth to send sinners to a fiery eternity as many have interpreted. 

Rev. Andy Acton had me contemplating this metaphor. He says,

“Every grain of wheat has a husk. Farmers use wind to separate the husk, referred to as the “chaff,” from the grain. The goal is to save every grain, not to separate the good grain from the bad grain. Thus, the metaphor is about preservation and purification instead of division and destruction. According to a commentary on the scripture reading: 

“What the wind and fire remove are the impurities: the anxieties, self-absorption, apathy, or greed that make us less generous, less just, or less respectful of others. …What each of us requires is restoration, liberation from whatever ‘husks’ are holding us back.”

So, John is inviting humanity to prepare for the joy that is Christ coming into our lives to bring restoration and liberation.

John is inviting all of us to turn toward God’s vision and the Quaker’s hope for the peaceable kingdom as proclaimed by the prophet Isaiah:

The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them… They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain.

Folks, you and I are called to change, and the more we choose to approach and pause at the manger this Christmas, we will be changed. We will begin to “turn toward the tolerance, compassion, sanity, hope, and justice that we all have in us at our best.” And hopefully, we will turn toward our calling to be harbingers of joy in the lives of those in our midst who have it stripped away far too often.

As we enter waiting worship this morning, take a moment to ponder the following queries:

·        In my holy pauses during this season, what is the Spirit nudging me to turn toward?

·        Who is the Divine putting on my heart that I need to reach out to during this season?

·        What change is the Spirit working in me?

12-8-24 - A Season for Statio

A Season for Statio

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

December 8, 2024

Good morning, Friends and welcome to Light Reflections.  As we are now in the holiday season, we will be hearing some of the stories from the Christmas story.  We start today with the story of Mary visiting Elizabeth in Luke 1:39-56 from the New Revised Standard Version:

In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.  And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”

 And Mary said (or sang),

“My soul magnifies the Lord,
    and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
    for he has looked with favor on the lowly state of his servant.
Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed,
    for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
    and holy is his name;
    indeed, his mercy is for those who fear him
    from generation to generation.

He has shown strength with his arm;
    he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones
    and lifted up the lowly;
    he has filled the hungry with good things
    and sent the rich away empty.

He has come to the aid of his child Israel,
    in remembrance of his mercy,
    according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
    to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”

And Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.

This week, I found myself taking a moment to pause. Some may say it was the calm before the storm. As I described in my “As Way Opens” article in our Friend to Friend newsletter this week, we are all in the process of passing the seasonal baton of gratitude to hope.  Thanksgiving is over and now we are in the time leading up to Christmas – when we are to prepare our hearts for all that Christ brings into our world. 

Yet, I don’t know about you, but it seems that there is little transition anymore – that Christmas comes on like water coming from a fire hose - Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday…Christmas parties, special music and performances, family coming and going…and that is on top of the daily buzz of ordinary life. 

We almost don’t have space for Christmas to arrive, so we relegate it to a day and then miss the journey, the process, all that goes into preparing our hearts and lives for this beautiful season.

Folks, our daily lives are made up of moments to be enjoyed — moments of relating with people, working, doing ordinary activities, playing, and fellowshipping. Yet it’s easy to miss the blessings in the moments of our daily lives. Especially at Christmas, when we’re trying to do too much, rushing through the day, worried, distracted, hoping we have everything we need, and all while absorbing the everyday conflict and stress.

In fact, a research study found that at normal times 77% of us are regularly over-stressed and suffering physically as a result (stress.org). Another study found that 31% of us experience an anxiety disorder at some point in our lives (NIMH study).  And these numbers all rise during the holidays – specifically the time between Thanksgiving day and Christmas day. 

So, this morning, I want to ask us to take a moment to stop, pause, and prepare our hearts and minds for this time.  To do that, I would like to introduce you to the spiritual discipline of statio, which I believe enables us to enjoy God’s loving presence during our daily activities and especially during this busy Christmas season. I found the writing of Bill Gaultiere helpful in understanding the practice of statio.  

So, what is statio?

Statio is a Latin word for “station,” “position,” or “watch.” It is often described as a holy pause. A simple definition of statio is pausing to be more aware of the Divine.

In contemporary language, statio would be considered a type of mindfulness technique. It’s an unhurried moment to appreciate God’s presence through silence or meditation.

Joan Chittister, a Benedictine nun I enjoy reading, explained, “Statio is a monastic custom… of stopping one thing before we begin another. It is the time between the times” (from Wisdom Distilled From the Daily). 

I sense that is not only a wonderful descriptor of this time of year we are in, but also a good reminder for us to stop and pause before we get too wrapped up in all that Christmas entails. 

Early Christian disciples developed statio as a practice of pausing to be prayerful during a spiritual pilgrimage, celebration, or meditation.

In the 4th Century, Jerome reported that people from around the world were going on pilgrimage to Jerusalem to walk in Jesus’ steps from his condemnation to the cross. 

These pilgrims developed what many Christians (especially Roman Catholics) call the Statio or Stations of the Cross. Where at each station, the pilgrims pause to remember Jesus’ journey and to pray. After this pilgrimage, the powerful practice of statio in the Stations of the Cross was brought back to churches and monasteries. 

Statio was also applied to other situations, like arriving early to services in a church or chapel to prepare one’s hearts in devotion. As a child, I was taught the importance of getting to a place early to be prepared for what I was going to experience.  Some of you enjoy coming to worship and sitting in silence before worship to prepare yourselves for worship and what the Divine is going to speak to your condition.

This is a very Quaker in nature.   

Statio can actually be traced all the way back to the Psalms in our scriptures. I have spoken of this before – this was when the writers who arranged and edited the Psalms just prior to the time of Jesus inserted the word selah 71 times into the text. These selahs are found between verses or even in the middle of sentences. This may have been a time to change instruments, but for the gathered community, selah was an invitation to pause for quiet reflection. 

Joan Chittister applies the monastic discipline of statio’s holy pause as an invitation for us to be consciously present to God in the everyday activities of life.  

She says, “The practice of statio is meant to center us and make us conscious of what we’re about to do and make us present to the God who is present to us. Statio is the desire to do consciously what I might otherwise do mechanically. Statio is the virtue of presence.” (also from Joan Chittister’s Wisdom Distilled From the Daily.)

For Quakers, I consider one of our forms of statio to be waiting worship or unprogrammed worship. It’s a holy pause in our worship or our week. It allows us to be present to God.  And it helps us seek what we are to do. 

Pausing and silencing our hearts to be emotionally present to the God who loves and cares for us facilitates our experience of God’s peace and joy. It’s soul medicine for when you are…

• Over-stressed

• Too busy

• Overloaded with information 

• Missing human touch

• Worried or frustrated

• Distracted by many things

• Pulled into pleasing people

• Not being your true self

• Disconnected from God’s love

• In a hurry

• Distracted by the Christmas bustle.

Anyone struggle with anything on that list, especially at this time of year? 

The reality is that if you’re in a hurry or too busy, you begin to lose margin (as we say).  Work, events, errands, expectations from people, and add that holiday bustle, all get stacked on top of each other until you’re running breathlessly from one thing to the next and missing all that this season or life in general can offer you. 

As Dallas Willard famously taught, “You have to ruthlessly eliminate hurry” to grow spiritually and grow in your experience of God’s joy.

I would take that another step, “You have to ruthlessly eliminate hurry in the Christmas season” to experience all that the Divine wants to offer you.   

Statio slows you down. It puts spaces for holy pauses in your schedule. It helps you learn to be emotionally present to the God who is always available to love you and guide you. 

Waiting worship should not only happen on Sunday mornings or at Monday Meditation, or Unprogrammed Worship on Wednesday nights.  We should be pausing in our work, in our families, in times of play whenever the opportunity arises. 

Statio is the ongoing and daily discipline we need to stay aware and connected.  

By using the holy pause of statio to breathe, meditate, or hold something in the light, you can unclutter the nooks and crannies of your daily life. Statio fills this space with an appreciation of the Divine’s presence and a readiness to join with what the Spirit is doing. 

Let me give you some suggestions where I have found statio very helpful. 

·        (I already noted) Arriving a little early to meetings and events

• Walking outside slowly to appreciate the beauty of nature

• Saying thank you when someone blesses you

• Turning car travel time into a moment with the Divine.

• Immediately stopping to hold someone in the Light when you hear they have a need. Instead of saying you will and then forgetting.

• Holding someone in the Light while you’re waiting in a line. (Take a moment and hold that check out person in the light, or that mother with the screaming child, or that man stopping for another bottle of booze.

• Meditating on a quote, a scripture, a verse while you brush your teeth (maybe even post it to your mirror to remind yourself.)

• Singing for joy in the shower or in your car, or some other place where you might be alone.   

For us Quakers who love acronyms, I am going to make this even easier.  The acronym is STOP (S.T.O.P.) which identifies four mindfulness techniques to help you practice statio during your daily activities:

1.     S: Stop what you are doing for a minute or more.

2.     T: Take a deep breath to be emotionally present in the moment.

3.     O: Observe your thoughts and feelings.

4.     P: Pray for and Hold in the Light yours (or someone else’s) needs.

I believe that is exactly what Mary does in our text for today.  After hearing the news that she is pregnant, she stops everything she is doing and travels to Elizabeth’s home. She goes in a rush, but then it says she stays for three months. There she spends her time taking deep breaths, observing her thoughts and feelings, and when she finally sings her Magnificat it is prophetic. 

I wonder what would happen if we would take a moment to S.T.O.P. in this season and prepare for the Christ-child to be born again in our lives? What if we took a deep breath and were emotionally present in the moment for family and friends?  What might we observe or feel that we never have before?  And what or whose needs might we hold in the Light this Christmas?

Let’s take some time this morning and S.T.O.P. as we enter waiting worship and ponder those things. 

·        What would happen if I took a moment to S.T.O.P. in this season and prepare for the Christ-child to be born again in my life?

·        What if I took a deep breath and were emotionally present in the moment for family and friends? 

·        What might I observe or feel that I never have before? 

·        And what or who might I hold in the Light this Christmas?