Quaker Worship: Letting God Teach & Transform Us
Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting
Pastor Bob Henry
September 12, 2021
Good morning Friends and welcome to Light Reflections. This morning’s scripture text is from Psalm 95 (from the Message Version).
1-2 Come, let’s shout praises to God,
raise the roof for the Rock who saved us!
Let’s march into his presence singing praises,
lifting the rafters with our hymns!
3-5 And why? Because God is the best,
High King over all the gods.
In one hand he holds deep caves and caverns,
in the other hand grasps the high mountains.
He made Ocean—he owns it!
His hands sculpted Earth!
6-7 So come, let us worship: bow before him,
on your knees before God, who made us!
Oh yes, he’s our God,
and we’re the people he pastures, the flock he feeds.
7-11 Drop everything and listen, listen as he speaks:
“Don’t turn a deaf ear as in the Bitter Uprising,
As on the day of the Wilderness Test,
when your ancestors turned and put me to the test.
For forty years they watched me at work among them,
as over and over they tried my patience.
And I was provoked—oh, was I provoked!
‘Can’t they keep their minds on God for five minutes?
Do they simply refuse to walk down my road?’
Exasperated, I exploded,
‘They’ll never get where they’re headed,
never be able to sit down and rest.’”
For the next several weeks, we are going to explore worship in the manner of Friends. Worship is a loaded subject because we get caught up in the “how’s” of worship, rather than the “why’s.”
In our American culture, worship has evolved to a set of types, the facilities it happens within, or the emotions in which it is expressed.
If you take a moment to explore what Quakers believe, you will most likely find a definition such as this:
“Quaker worship is designed to let God or the Divine
teach and transform the worshippers.”
Once that is said, the following paragraphs will then begin to define our types (programmed or unprogrammed), our facilities or where Meetings for Worship take place, and the emotions or ambiance that make up the worship experience.
Please note, these are very important aspects that make our worship experiences unique as Quakers, but before we get into unpacking those distinctives, we must first ask ourselves the question behind the question:
What is worship at its core?
If you go to Webster’s Dictionary for an answer you will find:
“The feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity.”
That is very basic and simply stated, so maybe we need to go to the Bible to help us see other perspectives. This can be where things start to get complicated.
If we look in the book of Romans:
Romans 12:1 says, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”
Let’s write that down…offering our bodies as living sacrifices = true or proper worship.
And then in 1 Corinthians 10:31 Paul goes on to say, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
Ok…so anything we do can be considered worship. That is getting much closer to our Quaker understanding since the Divine has the ability of teaching or transforming us in just about any life situation or experience we find ourselves in – not just within an hour on Sunday, Monday or Wednesday night, but literally anywhere and anytime.
Now, if you and I were to go out on the streets and ask our neighbors or friends or even relatives who actually attend a church, what worship is - most would not talk about sacrifice or doing things to the glory of God, or placing themselves before the Divine for teaching or transformation, but rather they would talk about…ready for it…music styles.
During the 80’s and early 90’s the American church made a shift in what worship meant. Worship began to split around styles – some churches began to embrace camp-style music or a more bohemian style of folk music. This led to pianos and organs being replaced by guitars and synthesizers, and choirs replaced by worship teams. This was based mostly on preferences. Some still preferred, even at times theologically could make a case for one side or the other.
When I was in college we learned about and even debated the “Contemporary Christian Music” movement’s influence on worship experiences and discussed what was labeled “the war on worship” which was all about styles and what individuals felt was proper or not. Again, it was only preferences. We read book after book on it, Christian Book Stores were filled with worship manuals making their cases, and music preferences soon became synonymous with the word, worship.
I remember many church meetings when I was first in professional ministry that revolved around the preferences of worship music – everything from sacred and classical to rock and roll and hip-hop. And yes, just like still today, we even lost people over their preferences on multiple occasions.
At one point in ministry, I held the title: Director of Contemporary Worship – which the only difference between the service I led in the gym and the one that took place in the sanctuary was the style of music played – every other part of the service was identical. I remember, people would call the church and ask us “What is your worship like?”
Just think about that question…how would you answer that for First Friends? What is our worship like?
Each of us may have a completely different take on this because that question is about our preferences more than about worship. Our worship should be about positioning ourselves before God, not our preferences.
For my first 15 years of my ministry, worship was solely defined by music and style – and then soon was added emotion and ambiance.
As I made my way to become an ordained pastor, the new thing in Christianity was what was called Passion Worship and the accompanying songs with repetitive choruses. Raising of hands and closing your eyes became popular, the showing of raw emotions accompanied this movement, and soon it all was mainstreamed onto our radios with Contemporary Christmas Music – which gave us worship albums to play in our cars and on our CD players, concerts became worship experiences with everything from people passing out and being overwhelmed by Jesus - to altar-call style revivals. We had seen this before in America starting after the Civil War. Even venues for worshipping together began to change – warehouses, coffee houses, concert venues, even bars were becoming the places where “worship” happened.
I find it ironic that back in Martin Luther’s Day – hymn tunes often came from songs he sang in the bar, new lyrics were added and voilà some of our most beloved hymns, like “A Mighty Fortress” were created.
Now, I can go into great detail about this transition to worship being all about music, because I lived it, and some of you in this room did as well, but it has always been one of the biggest reasons I sought out the Quakers.
When I first experienced Friends, worship was not about music styles (actually the first Quaker Worship I experienced had no music at all, facilities were not an issue - they met in a home, and emotions and ambiance were not that important – it was about the Divine, it was about expectant waiting, and entering silence (something foreign to almost all of my prior “worship experiences.”
I was taught that it was not about anything I did, prepared, or experienced, per say, but rather what God or the Divine was doing in our midst.
I was taught how Quaker worship is about letting God or the Divine teach and transform the worshippers in any aspect of life.
When worship becomes about what I want, then it quickly digresses to be about styles, emotions, even the places where it must happen, instead of intentionally placing oneself before the Spirit of God for teaching and transformation.
And honestly, that could happen anywhere. It doesn’t need a facility like a sanctuary or meetinghouse.
One of the most beautiful places I have ever worshipped was on the Oregon Coast during my doctoral work. I and a couple of friends headed to Cape Kawanda. We climbed the rocks, became still, and allowed the spirit of God to speak to us. We had no liturgy, no music, no building, no agenda. We placed ourselves on top of a large rock facing the winds coming off the oceans and felt the mist of the ocean as it beat upon the rocks below us. I and my company of friends sensed awe, fear, and even renewal in that moment, because we willingly placed ourselves before the Divine.
But I didn’t even need that beautiful place to have this experience. I have been driving in my car with the radio off, and the Spirit of God has begun to teach and transform me…it can happen anywhere.
I try and consider this every time I enter through the side door of our Meetingroom on the First Day for Meeting for Worship. I try to ask myself - Am I expectantly waiting (as we Quakers like to say) for my Present Teacher or the Spirit of Christ to teach me and transform me this morning?
If I truly believe in that of God in my neighbor, I have a plethora of possibilities that the divine may choose to speak to me through. It could happen as I am greeted by someone, during the singing or playing of a special song or hymn, a child’s answer during the children’s message, the way someone reads scripture, I have even found that as I am preaching, God uses my own words to speak to my condition…the important question is am I allowing God to teach and transform me in this moment?
The word most translated into worship in the Bible simply means “bowing down” getting into a humble position. That is an eye-opener right there.
Even Jesus is a bit cryptic in his most direct words on worship when he says,
“But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.”
Wait…what? Worship happens in Spirit or as in the Greek pneuma.
This word pneuma describes the vital spirit, soul, or creative force within each of us – it points to what we Quakers would call our essence, something separate from the body that determines our will, actions, and decisions. For us Quakers this is what we may describe as our Inner Light or that of God within us.
Thus, when we worship in Spirit or humbly position ourselves to be open to the teaching, leading, and transformation of God, we are usually doing inner work and learning from those around us.
Folks, worship is not about rituals, traditions, a physical building, or music…but rather it is about the spirit within the temple of our own bodies and its interaction with that of God in and around us.
What then flows out from those special connections are our personal expressions of worship and this is where our preferences come into play. We are each unique.
We might express ourselves through singing, through dancing, through poetry, through creating, through gardening, through activism, through teaching, through painting or drawing, through practicing medicine, through cutting stamps, through smiling, through sitting in silence, through having coffee with a friend, through making a meal, through a vocation, through being a parent or student or friend, through…you fill in the blank!
We each may choose completely different ways to express our worship. That is the diverse beauty we offer each other – and remember, it stems first and foremost from putting ourselves in a place to connect that of God in and around us.
I hope this is starting to make some sense. There are many aspects to worship that are so important. Next week I hope to explore another aspect of worship – what I will call a full immersion in the Love and Compassion of God.
Until then, let’s take a moment to enter waiting worship. Here we choose to humbly place ourselves before the Spirit of God for the possibility of being taught and transformed. To help us center down, here are a couple queries to consider.
· What do I consider worship? What misconceptions do I have?
· This week, how might I humbly let God, or the Divine teach and transform me?