Radicalizing Spirit(World Quaker Day)
Indianapolis First Friends
Pastor Bob Henry
October 1, 2017
Philippians 2:1-5 (NRSV)
If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, 2 make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. 5 Let the same mind be in you that was[a] in Christ Jesus.
Since it is World Quaker Day, I thought we needed to spend some time exploring who are are. So as a good Quaker, I will begin with a query...
How radical are you? (Just ponder that for a second).
What lines do you draw around being radical?
Who is radical and who is just passionate?
Is being radical helpful and beneficial or is it hindering and annoying?
Maybe even the word itself“radical” is not a descriptor for you because of the associations it represents.
If we, Quakers, believe we are a people who are alive and have meaning and purpose in this world, then we will have to admit that there is a relationship, as Quaker Jeffrey Dudiak states, between “what is” and “what is not, but should be, between the past and the future, between, on the one hand, the grounding practices, and on the other hand, the aspirations of a living tradition.”
This is why Jeffery describes Quakers as a people with a “radicalizing spirit.” From the earliest of days they went beyond the law, following the Spirit, and opening Christianity to new possibilities. It was as I talked about a couple weeks ago - though...this was an entire group of people experiencing metanoia - what I described as going beyond their own minds and into the mind of God.
We must admit, our Quaker ancestors had a “radicalizing spirit” and were even defined as a “radical faith” by other Christians, faith traditions, and even the government of their day. All for their beliefs around “what is” and “what is not, but should be” in the early days of their formation.
If you are not familiar with some of those beliefs, here are just a few that early Quakers professed:
● The social and political equality of the sexes.
● The abolition of slavery, which they saw as evil.
● That no lands should be obtained from indigenous peoples except through negotiation and mutual agreement.
● Complete pacifism.
● No class distinctions.
● Complete tolerance of other religious views.
Some people, other faith traditions, even governments still would consider many of those beliefs “radical” in our day. But we must be careful with how we use our words today, especially with all that is going on in our world and country, it seems being radical takes on a new meaning.
What does it really mean to be radical - let’s take a moment to explore this idea.
Jeffrey Dudiak shed some light for me on the word radical and how it is used. He says,
“Indeed the term ‘radical’ harbors a wonderful ambiguity. The etymological origin of the term radical is the Latin radix, which means root. Among the dictionary meanings of radical is the following: ‘forming an inherent or fundamental part of the nature of someone or something.’ Here, then, something is at its most radical when it is rooted most securely in what it is.
But the term also has taken on another meaning, obviously related to, but seemingly contradictory to the first. On this meaning, radical refers to a change or action “relating to or affecting the fundamental nature of something,” and it is this meaning that gives us radical in the sense of something “characterized by departure from tradition; innovative or progressive,’ and as ‘advocating a thorough or complete political or social reform.
So this means that…
The term radical can mean either being deeply rooted, or tearing something up from the roots. It can mean either being bound firmly and securely to its ground, or being liberated from such an attachment altogether.
Most people would say we have to pick one or the other, but the word radical actually is the perfect word to describe the paradox that we find in Quakerism. This is not an either/or but rather a both/and scenario. Quakers are radical in both ways.
1. We are rooted and secure in who and what we are... and
2. We are characterized by change or action and a departure from tradition while being innovative and progressive.
It is probably because of what Quaker Rufus Jones identified as “The Beyond Within” - how he described the two minds (our own mind and the mind of the Spirit or Christ) which must learn to cooperate. Rufus Jones said,
“Through cooperation with God they [the two minds] build a new stage of the Kingdom of God in the world. We are in that respect not dreamers; we are actual builders...We become organs of a spiritual kingdom and stand in vital relations to an Eternal Mind and Heart and Will with whom to cooperate.”
We become Organs of the Spiritual Kingdom. (Now, there is a bumper sticker for your car).
Even George Fox wrestled with connecting and cooperating with the Mind ofGod, he said it well,
“Be still and cool in your own mind and spirit from your own thoughts, and then you will feel the principle of God to turn your mind to the Lord God, whereby you will receive his strength and power from where it comes from...therefore be still a while from your own thoughts, searching, seeking desires and imaginations, and stay in the principle of God in you, to keep your mind upon God, and what he is up to.”
This is radical in our day and age.
1. Be still and cool in your mind and spirit.
2. Be still a while so your thoughts, searching, seeking desires and imaginations can focus on what God’s mind wants.
Who has time for that. We want action, we want response. We want to do anything but be still. We are a people on the go, seeking God’s mind, heart, and will when we have some spare time.
If we are going to be Radical Quakers or at least have a “radicalizing spirit” like our ancestors in our world today, we are going to need to understand what that means.
A while back, I found a book in the dollar bin of a bookstore - sometimes I find the best books there. It was by Rex Ambler called “The Quaker Way: A Rediscovery.” I found this book a breath of fresh air - the reason being was that Rex Ambler was able to give new life to the way we understand our Quaker faith. And his definition jumped off the page when I read it. Just listen as I read it:
Quakers sit in silence because they want to know something that words cannot tell them. They want to feel something or become aware of something so that they can really make a connection with it. It is something fundamental to their life, they know that, indeed it is the underlying reality of their life, but they are not normally aware of it.
They are preoccupied with other things. They are taken up, like others, with the relatively shallow things of life, encouraged by the media and contemporary culture generally, and they hardly feel the depth of it all. So they feel the loss, the distance, and want somehow to get close to this deeper reality. They want to become ‘the Friends of Truth,’ as they liked to call themselves at the beginning. Not any truth, but a truth that relates specifically to their deepest felt needs, and to the needs of world. They are looking for a truth by which to live, that is, a sense of reality that tells them who they are and how they should live. They want the truth in this sense because that is the only basis on which they could expect to enjoy life to the full and to contribute to life.
Part of the reality of their life, of course, is their relationship with one another and with other people, both near and far. So they want to ‘discern’ what happens between people, what makes for a good life together, and what makes for a bad one. They want to learn in their own experience how relationships that are broken can be mended, how conflicts can be resolved, and how ‘the Friends of Truth’ can work together to make these things happen in the world.
So being a Radical Quaker embodies just that - being still and connecting to the mind of God so that we can impact our world.
I believe this was the metanoia that Paul described Jesus experiencing and that we are to experience in our text from Philippians, today. Just listen again at what Paul is saying.
If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, 2 make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. 5 Let the same mind be in you that was[a] in Christ Jesus.
When we, Quakers, embrace our “radicalizing spirit” and go beyond our own minds and get into the mind of God we begin to see with new eyes. No longer is it about us, but it is more about our neighbors, more about their interests. This was Christ’s example, this was the early Quakers legacy, and this continues to be our calling today. Let us embrace our “radicalizing spirit” today and work to make a better place in this world.