Delivering the Needed Message: Benjamin Lay
Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting
Pastor Bob Henry
November 3, 2024
Good morning, Friends and welcome to Light Reflections. This morning we continue our series, “Speak Truth to Power: The Legacy of the Quakers. The supportive scripture I have chosen is from James 1:12 from The Message.
Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life.
In July of 2007, I traveled to Grand Rapids, Michigan to attend a unique conference for pastors called, “Poets, Prophets, and Preachers” put on by Rob Bell and his church, Mars Hill. Today, 17 years later, I see that conference as a pivotal moment in my ministry. This is because for the first time in my life, Rob Bell merged art and writing sermons.
Part one, of the three day conference was titled, “The Original Guerilla Theater.” Surprisingly, this was how Rob was defining the sermon. For those unfamiliar with the idea of Guerrilla Theater, it is a type of political protest that involves performing short, unannounced plays or skits in public spaces to raise awareness of social or political issues. The term “guerrilla” comes from the Spanish word for “little war” and refers to the surprise nature of these performances. Please note: it has nothing to do with the monkey-like animals.
Guerrilla theater originated in the 1960s with the San Francisco Mime Troupe, a radical theater group that preformed against the Vietnam War and capitalism. The group’s performances included nudity, profanity, and taboo subjects.
In this conference, Rob Bell did not take such a radical approach as the San Francisco Mime Troupe, but he did clarify the degree to which a sermon is, as he states,
· performance art – which encourages people not to miss the human part.
· guerilla theater – actually showing up with a boom, and then leaving the people thinking they’ve got to wrestle with that human part.
· And finally, actions that evoke a response.
Rob took us back to scripture and gave us the example of John the Baptist – a character in the Bible who used all these aspects in his ministry. Everything from the way he dressed and chose to live, to the challenging messages and experiences he presented to his audience. John the Baptist exemplified the Guerilla Theater in all he did.
Over the years, I have participated in and shared a variety of different Guerilla Theater presentations and sermons. One time, I helped organize a group of people from my church to serve free coffee at the train station in Chicago at rush hour. It could have been considered a random act of kindness, but when people asked why we were doing this, we said we were simply sharing the love of God with them through a good and free cup of coffee. The irony, was that morning the coffee house by the train station that the passengers used was closed, unexpectantly. You can’ t make this stuff up, but the impact was huge, and the conversations were wonderful.
A few years ago, several of you had a chance to experience an art display I created to engage people’s struggle with the church. Art as well as theater can be used in a guerilla-like manner. The experience opened with a painting titled with a quote from St. Augustine that read, “The Church is a whore but she’s my mother.” Followed by other paintings with challenging subjects. After a brief set-up, I would simply let people experience the paintings and dialogue about their responses. Ironically, that set of paintings and experience was one of the first guerilla art messages I created after the Poets, Prophets, and Preachers Conference. Hard to believe those paintings are almost 20 years old.
A couple years after I was introduced to guerilla theater and started my path toward Quakerism, I was doing some research for my doctoral dissertation and came across an unusual story about a “little person” or dwarf named Benjamin Lay. Not only was Benjamin Lay considered the “Quaker Comet” for his fiery and surprisingly quick presentations, he also utilized guerilla theater to make his point. As well, he was a great annoyance among Friends, but it was often to get them out of their complacency and to act upon their beliefs.
Let me take a moment to introduce you to Benjamin Lay by sharing his story from the Quakers in the World website:
[Benjamin] Lay was born in Colchester, England, to Quaker parents William Lay and Mary Dennis. After a basic education he was apprenticed to a glove maker. Later he worked on his brother’s farm before going to sea at the age of about twenty.
He was a man of small stature being about 4 foot 7 inches tall and he also had a hunch back. After returning home he married and went to live in London. Lay lived the life of a hermit, was a committed vegetarian, did not drink tea or coffee, or wear anything made from leather and preferred to make his own clothes.
Throughout his life he was given to eccentric behavior and committed acts that startled others. His fellow Quakers were annoyed by his vociferous opposition to the practice of allowing ministers to speak when they had not been directly prompted by God. Devonshire House monthly meeting disowned him in 1720. He then moved to Colchester where he continued to disrupt Quaker meetings and was given what amounted to a second disownment.
In 1731 he went to Barbados where he was appalled to see the conditions under which slaves were kept. He took up their cause and soon started to berate Quaker slaveholders. He went to live near Philadelphia and continued his protests against slave owning. Lay wrote a tract about the evils of slavery entitled ‘All Slave-Keepers that Keep the Innocent in Bondage, Apostates’. His friend Benjamin Franklin had this published in 1737. In this publication he made many accusations against individual Friends and the Society as a whole.
Quaker institutions were angered by what he had written, and, more seriously, by the fact that the book had been published as a Quaker document without Quaker approval.
The 'Overseers of the Press' were supposed to authorize all publications that put forward Quaker views. To publicly voice an opinion and present it as evolving from Quaker principles, without such approval, was a serious matter at that time. Philadelphia Yearly Meeting took out advertisements in various newspapers to distance themselves from Lay’s views. This disapproval did not deter him and whenever the occasion arose he would speak out against slavery.
One of his most memorable exploits took place in Burlington, New Jersey in 1738. After entering the Meeting House he removed his outer clothing to reveal a military uniform including a sword. After a lengthy tirade he thrust the sword into a bladder of red liquid that he had hidden between the covers of a Bible, spattering the Quakers sitting nearby. He told them that owning slaves was akin to stabbing a man to death and that the red liquid was a symbol of the blood of slaves on Quaker slave owner’s hands.
This outburst caused him to be disowned once more. Lay’s tactics were in contrast to other abolitionists such as John Woolman, who was always careful not to publicly criticize Friends or to cause offence. Woolman’s writings all went through the accepted Quaker approval channels.
Lay continued to consider himself a Quaker throughout his life despite being disowned by the Society. He also continued to make dramatic gestures. He stood outside a meeting house in the snow without a coat and in bare feet to remind Friends of the hardship experienced by slaves.
On another occasion he kidnapped a child and only returned him to his father when the authorities came to his dwelling place. He said that this was an attempt to make people realize how African parents felt when their children were captured and sold into slavery.
Although Lay is usually remembered for his influential role in persuading the Society of Friends to renounce slavery, he was also ahead of his time in supporting other causes that he supported such as temperance. Criminal reform also interested him and he produced a pamphlet that advocated the abolition of capital punishment.
In 1758 Philadelphia Monthly Meeting decided that slave holders should be excluded from all business meetings. It is said that when this news reached Lay he rose from his chair and exclaimed “I can now die in peace”. He died in the following year and is buried in the Quaker burial ground in Abington, near Philadelphia.
As I reflected upon Benjamin Lay’s ministry and life, I could not help but be reminded of a more modern example, that being author, preacher, former-Evangelical, and one of my professors, Tony Campolo. Tony has been a vocal activist and preacher and has on occasion used guerilla theater to get his point across. We have come to realize that Tony Campolo has a reputation for shaking things up and causing a bit of stir. In a sermon at Spring Harvest in 1982 Tony shocked his audience by saying,
“While you were sleeping last night 45,000 kids died of starvation and malnutrition, and what’s worse is that you don’t give a shit! And what’s even worse is that you are more concerned that I said ‘shit’ than the 45,000 kids that died last night!”
Still today, 42 years later, the impact of this one quote is discussed and debated in theology and pastoral classes.
Sometimes we need people in our lives that will ask the tough questions of us. That will go out of their way to get our attention, to literally shock us into seeing our bad behaviors, indecisions, or poor theology.
Especially us, Quakers, who can easily get caught up in routine or tradition, and totally miss the people being affected by our decisions or indecisions we make. Sometimes our slow responses or even our love of silence can betray our own testimonies.
This is something Quaker Bayard Rustin (who we are going to talk about next week) spoke about often with Martin Luther King Jr. And just listen to what King says about silence:
· “A time comes when silence is betrayal.”
· “Our love begins to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
· “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
· “The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.”
Sometimes it takes being annoying, stubborn, theatrical, or using different or unusual means to get our attention, to knock us out of our complacency, and to move us to respond, to process, and especially to act upon our beliefs.
In a slightly different manner, I will never forget the last yearly meeting sessions that our family attended in the Northwest Yearly Meeting before moving to Indiana. The yearly meeting was going through a bitter division over same sex marriage and biblical authority.
Our youth contingency had dwindled from 300 some youth to about 40 youth in our 6 years in the Northwest due to this battle among friends taking place. Those 40 youth made a decision that shocked the Yearly Meeting Sessions. They decided to forgo their annual trip to the beach (a huge tradition and memory maker for the youth) all to be present in Yearly Meeting Sessions for the heated discussion that was going to take place. As we gathered, the youth arrived in silence and had reserved seats front and center in the auditorium on George Fox University’s campus.
Because of the topic of discussion, there was standing room only – over 800 people in attendance. The youth stood for most of the time, to be a visible reminder that they were present, that they cared about the conversation taking place, and that as Quaker’s their voice would be heard as equals.
As the tensions rose, they just kept making their stand. Even a couple approached the microphone and spoke from their hearts. Though no conclusion or decision was made in that session, their presence was important and validated.
A couple years earlier the youth had boldly presented in Yearly Meeting Sessions a Query on Conflict and Differences for us all to consider. It was presented by a young woman from our Meeting in Silverton, Oregon. Here are the words of that query (understand they could not have fully realized where the yearly meeting in the northwest would be just a couple years later).
Recognizing human imperfection, how do I strive to follow Christ’s example in the way I love and respect others? When confronted with a conflict, how do I actively show Christ with a compassionate and grace-filled heart? Am I leaving space for change? How do I value other persons when charged with their reputations, remembering that they, too, are children of God? How do I build up the individual in the light of God?
The youth clearly had a prophetic voice in our midst, but many were simply not paying attention. Same sex marriage had become no different than slavery in Benjamin Lay’s day.
That evening at Yearly Meeting Sessions the youth were scheduled to lead us in worship. Sensing our division had led us to be unable to move forward, they chose to offer a time of mourning and lament for our divisions. They lowered the lights in the auditorium and offered spaces for people to come together and pray for and with each other and for their local meetings. We lit hundreds of candles which illumined the space to symbolize our mourning and our hope in the Light of Christ.
Through tears many of us put our arms around each other and joined the youth in singing these words,
Peace before us, peace behind us, peace under our feet.
Peace within us, peace over us, let all around us be peace.
Light before us, light behind us, light under our feet.
Light within us, light over us, let all around us be light.
Alleluia.
I cannot help but think that many of us are currently in this space right now with the election this week. Like slavery, or same sex marriage, politics are dividing us as Friends and as a country.
And I know of some Benjamin Lays who have been trying to get our attention so we will not make the same mistakes we have made in the past.
But the outcomes after Tuesday will be out of our hands, and the trauma and the pain will be evident because this race is so close. No matter the outcome, I pray we can be people of integrity and seek to answer those queries our youth in the northwest presented us with.
And if things don’t go in the way we like, we will need to be like Benjamin Lay and those youth, who did not give up, who did not just go party at the beach, but stood up, spoke up, and led in this time of division.
So, this morning, as we prepare our hearts for this upcoming Election Day, let us enter a time of waiting worship and ponder those queries of the youth:
· Recognizing human imperfection, how do I strive to follow Christ’s example in the way I love and respect others?
· When confronted with a conflict, how do I actively show Christ with a compassionate and grace-filled heart?
· Am I leaving space for change?
· How do I value other persons when charged with their reputations, remembering that they, too, are children of God?
· How do I build up the individual in the light of God?