Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting
Pastor Bob Henry
August 09, 2020
Romans 12:2
Do not allow this world to mold you in its own image. Instead, be transformed from the inside out by renewing your mind. As a result, you will be able to discern what God wills and whatever God finds good, pleasing, and complete.
Good morning, Friends. It is so good to be with you again in the comfort of your own homes. I hope this finds you well and staying safe.
As the pandemic has held on and the summer has so quickly come to a close, I have found myself struggling with perspective.
It seems for the past 22 weeks (yes, 22 weeks – can you believe that?) we have been forced (for lack of a better word) into a rut. For me it is kind of like the movie Groundhog Day, where Bill Murray’s character Phil Conners, finds himself re-living the same day over and over.
Yet for me, it is not just a day, but seems more like reliving a week over and over. My house, my yard, my computer screen, even my neighborhood walking paths have become unchanging aspects of my life.
It is almost like I need to rearrange the furniture, hang different paintings on the walls, close the computer, and drive to different neighborhoods to take my walk.
As Robin Roberts said on Good Morning America the other morning, we have been doing this for so long now – its “Happy Blurs Day” – each day blurs into the next.
I know many of you are feeling the same way, because this is our current reality.
Well, this week, our son, Sam, asked if we could go to Newfields. Just his prompting had me excited about the possibilities of both new scenery and new perspectives.
Knowing that I had not had a chance to interact with their latest exhibit, “Edward Hopper and the American Hotel” (which I had been looking forward to) I picked up and began to read Gail Levin’s detailed biography, “Edward Hopper an Intimate Biography.”
In the biography, Levin dedicates a chapter to Hopper’s time studying in Paris when he was twenty-four years old. I sense in his own words, Edward was a bit homesick, engaged with his art but desperately needing a new perspective.
Levin makes a point to show how Hopper sought these new perspectives. He was known to sit in lobbies of hotels, street cafes, wine shoppes, as well as, the many museums Paris offered sketching for days at a time.
Yet instead of speaking of these beautiful places and experiences in a letter back to his mother in Nyack, NY, he described ascending to the roof tops of buildings and being almost obsessed by the roof lines, hundreds of pipes, the chimney pots, and the colors he saw from above.
He also shared about spending time at the ends of streets and under overpasses.
I began to realize that the reason Edward Hopper’s paintings have had such appeal over time – even though their subjects are of very ordinary scenes – is because Edward was willing to give us a different perspective than most artists of his day.
He wasn’t willing to live in a rut, to live from one perspective or view, to stop seeking that new angle. It was his curiosity. It was his passion. It was his way of helping us see what he wanted us to see.
Well, after fellowship hour last Sunday, Sue, Sam, and I ventured out with our masks on to Newfields (btw: they do a great job of social distancing and cleaning their space) and we experienced the Edward Hopper exhibit up close. It was evident in the many pieces we encountered that Hopper sought these new perspectives.
One specific painting caught my attention.
Interestingly enough, while at the exhibit, I did not take a photo of it because I found it one of the most unusual and uninteresting pieces. But for some reason (I believe because I am reading his biography) it has been burnt into my memory and I cannot get it out of my mind. I may have to go back and look again.
In 1935, Hopper named the piece “House at Dusk”. Here is stock photo of the painting.
If you notice, it is one of those views from the rooftop that Hopper sought. The more I have studied it the more I have learned about who Hopper was, how and what he saw, and his ability to focus on details that most people would never find alluring.
So, why am I sharing this little art lesson with you this morning?
I guess it began during our most recent yearly meeting sessions when Colin Saxton presented the Friday evening Quaker Lecture.
In this important lecture (that I believe everyone in our meeting should hear – and thus have posted it on our Facebook pages for you), he shared about the Greek word, paroikoi in which we get our word “parish” – as in a congregation, meeting or parish.
As Colin described the word, he talked about its paradoxical truth. First, that it implies being unique and having a distinct identity and a calling to be neighbor – or even better put - “a group of people who are different than their culture.”
And secondly, or on the other side of this term, Colin pointed out that there was a danger in this – that danger being “parochialism” and how easily it is to take a parochial view of our faith communities - a view which has a limited outlook or is narrow in scope.
Now, as one who is a product of the “parochial school system” – I never heard this explanation or definition growing up. For me parochial meant being safe, guarded and having the right beliefs.
But as I have grown, become more educated, and migrated to being among Friends, one of the biggest struggles I have with the faith communities of my youth is their “parochialism.”
Actually, I might even go as far as to say, this is one of my biggest issues with the American Church in general – that it has limited its outlook, become myopic, and narrowed-minded - so much that it has become almost ineffectual in our world, today.
And I have to be really honest, it is so sad to see Quakers, now, being called out for embracing this same parochialism. It is just the opposite of what originally drew me to be among Friends. I was drawn to a unique, distinct identity, that was called to live among and serve one’s neighbors – I was taught and still believe Quakers are a peculiar people – set apart and counter cultural.
And to be this, I believed Friends embraced a broader outlook and willingness to see theology and faith from new perspectives, where queries are encouraged and doubt is an asset, where our Faith and Practice is fluid and moveable instead of rigid and absolute, and where God is not put in a box but is freed from the structures we have created.
I had come to Quakerism because I was personally changing my perspectives and looking for a new perspective that made more sense to what I understood and believed.
Now folks, understand that this same concept is a reality whether we are talking about struggling with the pandemic or talking about the future of Quakerdom.
As Ed Gould wrote in an article on “changing perspectives.”
It’s part of human nature to think about oneself and focus on what’s going on around us, but this one-dimensional perspective can lead to a false sense of priorities. How do we break out from a parochial view of our lives and start to see things as they really are?
Gould concludes it is in changing perspectives. He goes on to share an allegory that I think is key for us this morning. Gould says,
The famous Greek Philosopher Plato once taught his pupils by coming up with an allegory of a cave. The prisoners in his cave cannot see reality, merely a shadow of it because they are in chains.
All they need to gain a higher level of comprehension is to see what is causing the shadows to form – to see things as they really are.
In the allegory, this would mean that the cave dwellers would need to break free from their chains. In a sense, altering our perspectives on things means breaking from our mental chains.
To extend Plato’s metaphor in this manner is fair because a change of perspective takes effort. Most of us are happy enough to keep moving on in our lives the way we always have – especially if we feel a degree of happiness in our current situation.
Nevertheless, unless the mental effort is made, we’ll never know what lies beyond the cave or what is causing the shadows to fall against the wall.
In our scripture text for today, Paul is speaking to the people of Rome. A people who had been under oppression, dealing with difficulties, even trying to find their identity as followers of The Way spelled out by Jesus. I am sure they too were in need of a new perspective.
In the text Paul says to the followers in Rome that they must first be transformed from the inside out – but then says that this will take a renewing of your mind.
The Greek phrase we translate into “renewing” is much more robust. It means renewal, yes, but it also means renovation, and even for some a complete change for the better.
To renew, renovate, and change for the better is going to take getting new perspectives and a break from our parochial views that have kept us from seeing things as they really are.
I believe this is why the Spirit often leads people to different locations to get new perspectives – just reread the Old Testament stories of Abraham, Moses, and David or see how important locations were to Jesus in the New Testament.
Or as Quakers we can go back to George Fox’s ascent of Pendle Hill in 1652. The Spirit wanted to put what was being transformed within Fox for several years into perspective – I believe a new perspective.
It is interesting that he is led to Pendle Hill – a place Fox would have known as famous for witch trials in his day.
But atop Pendle Hill, Fox would write that he received a new perspective as he looked out over surrounding towns and out to the Lancashire Sea.
He even remarks that he takes a moment along a stream where he says he is refreshed and renewed. And with a new perspective Fox is led to gather a great people and finds clarity on where he will find them beginning to gather. The rest is history – our history.
But let’s not leave this in a story from our past (as we too often do) making it a part of our mythology or parochial structure. Rather may we see it as an inspiration for us to seek the Spirit’s leading for new perspectives in our own lives, at First Friends, and even in our Yearly Meeting.
Just maybe you are like me or Edward Hopper, in need of some new perspective. That may mean this week…
You are going to move your furniture around,
or take a drive or walk in a park outside your neighborhood,
or maybe you are going to ride the elevator to the top of the building you work at and look out over the city.
Or maybe you are going to read that book, outside of the normal genre you usually read.
Or close your laptop or turn off your tv and listen to what the Spirit is saying instead of social media and the news.
Or maybe you are going to read other parts of the Bible than your go-to scriptures.
I think you get my point.
We need new perspectives both physical, mental, even spiritual to help us be transformed and renewed, today. And as the scripture continues this will help us be better able to discern the path forward.
Just maybe those of us struggling
with this pandemic or sickness,
with the politics in our world,
with the issues around race,
with all the violence,
with going back to school,
with having faith,
with the future of our yearly meeting,
with….well…life in general…
…just maybe we need to take some time to find some new perspective, allow the Spirit to renew, renovate, and change us, so that with God’s help we can make a greater impact on our world.
Now, let us take a moment to ponder the following queries in a time of waiting worship:
Where might the Spirit be leading me to gain some new perspective this week?
What “mental chains” are holding me back from seeing?
In what ways am I longing for renewal, renovation, and change?