Resilience and Hope: Drawing Strength from Our Quaker Faith
Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting
Pastor Bob Henry
October 3, 2021
Good morning and Happy World Quaker Day! I am so glad you joined us for Light Reflections. Today, our scripture passage is from Romans 5:3-5 (from the Message version):
3-5 There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!
In a world still suffering from so much, it makes total sense that for World Quaker Day we would be considering resilience and hope and drawing strength from our Quaker faith.
Throughout the pandemic, we learned firsthand about resilience and finding hope. And part of that learning, was realizing that as Quakers we are inherently resilient and people who believe deeply in hope and a better tomorrow.
Yet this week, I began to ponder what it was, about hope specifically, that was unique among Quakers. Because for most of us, whether Quaker or not, there is always something deep inside us longing for something we don’t currently have – something we hope for.
So, as I often do, I decided to research hope from a Quaker perspective and explore its many dimensions. Quaker Kate Davies, a member of Whidbey Island (Wash.) Meeting and author of Intrinsic Hope: Living Courageously in Troubled Times, seemed to be the perfect expert to help shed some light on hope and give us something to wrestle with this morning. She wrote an article for Friends Journal called, “A Quaker Perspective of Hope” which I will quoting from throughout my sermon.
Davies begins by defining two different types of hope – extrinsic hope and altruistic hope.
She defines extrinsic hope coming from a sense of dissatisfaction or the perception that there’s a problem, combined with the desire for whatever we believe will make us feel better or resolve the dilemma.
For example, if I say “I hope to lose weight,” I am dissatisfied with my weight; I am identifying a problem and am wishing for a specific solution.
Extrinsic hopes can often be selfish, or they can also be self-less and concerned for the well-being of others. This is what Davies labels altruistic hope.
Quakers are known historically for having altruistic hopes. Even during a deadly pandemic, Quakers did not lose hope but continued to make their voices known.
Quakers throughout the world showed their altruistic hope during the pandemic by continuing to seek an end to discrimination and racism, working to end poverty, addressing homelessness, educating on climate change, pollution, and the consumer society.
Even in the midst of suffering and struggle Quakers show resilience and continue to hope for a just, peaceful, and a sustainable world where we all equally may live together in unity.
Davies says that these altruistic hopes are usually regarded as more worthy or virtuous than self-centered ones, so it’s even easier to expect that life should give us what we hope for.
I don’t know about you, but if life is inherently good, shouldn’t it comply with our well-intentioned wishes for others?
I think we have bought into this thinking on many occasions – especially during the last couple of years. We hoped and even expected things to change, but they didn’t.
This is because life just doesn’t work this way.
Davies points out that our altruistic hopes may be extremely noble, but this is no guarantee they will be fulfilled any more than self-centered ones. This can be very discouraging and cause us to lose hope over time.
Folks, don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with extrinsic hope, sometimes it is what helps us cope with difficult or painful situations, and sometimes it gives us a goal to focus on.
This explains why extrinsic hope is so common.
Just think about it: Davies says,
“…whenever you have an extrinsic hope, it gives you something to look forward to, something to anticipate with pleasure. But this type of hope is always accompanied by the fear of not getting what we hope for, and by disappointment, sadness, anger, and other unpleasant emotions when we don’t get it. These difficult feelings are indicators of unmet expectations, and they come up often because there is a lot we cannot control in life.”
This has been made extremely clear over the past couple of years. If there is one thing that has continued to be the center of attention, it is our lack of control and the disappointment, sadness, anger and deep-felt emotions that have accompanied that lack of control.
This is because a dissonance has arisen between our extrinsic hopes and our inability to attain them making it inevitable that we will experience this lack of control and its corresponding emotional reactions. Davies says,
“The gap between what we hope for and the way life actually is ensures these emotions. Even though our extrinsic hopes may be extremely noble and altruistic, the more desperately we want to attain them and the more specific they are, the more emotional suffering we will experience when life doesn’t go our way.”
Therefore I believe currently we are seeing a mounting frustration and unsettledness in our personal lives, in our Meeting, and in our world.
So, what does Quakerism have to say to this situation, especially since we are saying we are a resistant people full of hope.
To see this, we must return to the dictionary and look past that first definition of hope (desire, expectation, and fulfillment) and land on the second which is based on faith.
Davies points out that this type of hope is about trusting life without the expectations of attaining particular outcomes. It is a hope which has an unshakeable faith in whatever happens and the human capacity to respond in a constructive and hopeful manner.
This is a positive, but not necessarily optimistic, attitude to life that does not depend on external conditions or circumstances.
Davies calls this “intrinsic hope” because it comes from deep inside us.
Former president of Czechoslovakia, Václav Havel said in his book, Disturbing the Peace that hope
“…is a dimension of the soul, and it’s not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the world or estimate of the situation. . . It is an orientation of the spirit, and orientation of the heart; it transcends the world that is immediately experienced, and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons.”
Just maybe then, intrinsic hope could be seen as that of God in everyone; the inner light; the quiet, still voice; and the experience of the Divine within.
I am starting to think that this message really fits into the worship series we have been working through for the last 3 weeks. Because intrinsic hope must be part of our worship and our worshipping community.
As George Fox advised in an epistle to Friends in America some 20 years after his 1656 counsel,
“Hold fast the hope which anchors the soul, which is sure and steadfast, that you may float above the world’s sea.”
Fox is making the point that intrinsic hope is about accepting the waves and storms of life, and working with them.
It is about aspiring to something rather than expecting it.
It is about seeking possibilities rather than anticipating the worst.
With intrinsic hope, you and I can aspire to see an end to discrimination, racism, poverty, homelessness, and so on, and we can aspire to help create a better world, but we don’t expect life to conform to our wishes any time soon.
Davies says,
“Intrinsic hope says yes to whatever happens—whether we like it or not—because if we lose hope and give up, then all the gloomy predictions about the future will become a reality. And if we dwell on our extrinsic hopes, we will continue to feel sadness, despair, and anger whenever life does not give us what we want. But if we can live from intrinsic hope, we will be able to stay positive and engaged even in the darkest of times. And in doing so, we can influence whether there will be a viable future for our children, their children, and all future generations of life on earth.”
In one of my favorite books, Practicing Peace by Catherine Whitmire, she quotes another of my favorite quaker mystics, Thomas Kelly.
I believe his worlds perfectly describe intrinsic hope and could have literally been written during our current times. Let these words conclude our thoughts today and help us lean into intrinsic hope and our Quaker faith to make a difference in our world.
In such a world as ours today, no light glib word of hope dare be spoken. . . . Only if we look long and deeply into the abyss of despair do we dare to speak of hope. . . We dare not tell people to hope in God . . . unless we know what it means to have absolutely no other hope but in God. But as we know something of such a profound and amazing assurance, clear at the depths of our beings, then we dare to proclaim it boldly in the midst of a world aflame.
Now, as we enter waiting worship, let us umbly present ourselves before the Divine in expectant waiting for teaching, transformation, love and HOPE!
To help us process these thoughts Friends World Committee on Consultation has provided the following queries:
· How do you understand resilience and hope? Is this different from your Quaker neighbor?
· What elements of your Quaker faith enable you to have resilience and hope?
· How does being part of an international Quaker community help provide you with strength?