6-17-18 - No Longer Living to Impress God

No Longer Living to Impress God – Father’s Day

Indianapolis First Friends Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

June 17, 2018

Centering Down:

This morning as we center down and calm our hearts to hear from God, I would like us to ponder a query from the late Trappist Monk and author, Thomas Merton.  It is a quote I ran across in the book, “Becoming Who You Are” by James Martin. Originally this quote was in the chapter titled, “Being and Doing” from Merton’s classic “No Man is an Island.” Just listen and ponder these words or queries of Thomas Merton:

Why do we have to spend our lives striving to be something we would never want to be, if we only knew what we wanted? Why do we waste our time doing things which, if we only stopped to think about them, are just the opposite of what we were made for?

Take a couple moments to ponder Merton’s queries for yourself as you center down this morning.  (pause)

Galatians 2:17-21 (MSG)

17-18 Have some of you noticed that we are not yet perfect? (No great surprise, right?) And are you ready to make the accusation that since people like me, who go through Christ in order to get things right with God, aren’t perfectly virtuous, Christ must therefore be an accessory to sin? The accusation is frivolous. If I was “trying to be good,” I would be rebuilding the same old barn that I tore down. I would be acting as a charlatan.

19-21 What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.

Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.

If you have never had a chance to read “No Man is an Island” by Thomas Merton, I would highly recommend it for some summer reading.  The book is a quest to help one know and understand, and accept oneself. The line that probably most speaks to the overall thesis of the book is,

“We cannot become ourselves unless we know ourselves.”

And I would say the same is true about God – we cannot really know God unless we know ourselves.  This reminds me of the scripture passage that reads, “Love God and love your neighbor….AS YOU LOVE YOURSELF.” You see, our relationship with God and our neighbors must be in light of us understanding how we love ourselves, how we know ourselves, even how we treat ourselves.

And I believe this is exactly what Paul was talking about in our text for today that was just read.

What I sense Paul was trying to describe in this text was what some may label, “Spiritual Maturity.”  Now, I know Beth and John, while I was on vacation, both talked about other aspects of spiritual maturity – so in many ways I am continuing these thoughts. But this morning, I am going to focus on an aspect of spiritual maturity that is often a difficult hurdle to get over. 

You see, many Christians, when they first become followers of the Jesus Way (especially if it is later in life) spend a lot of time with “rule keeping.”  Actually, as one who has studied evangelism curriculums and evangelistic programs, a great deal of the material is riddled with “rule keeping and following.” It is what for some, Christianity is all about. Thus many are introduced to a rigid and often harmful Christianity from the beginning.  

Some people (especially in our country) feel that Christians are called to live to some standard which must be enforced by rules and lots of them. Over the last couple of weeks, my family and I have been touring the southern states, I was keenly aware of how often this “rules-based religion” was seen, heard, and lived openly and the harm it produces.

Over the years, I have had many people, from college students to retirees, literally come apart in my office, breakdown, over not being able to follow or keep “all the rules.”  Most of the time it is a family member, a parents or spouse, or even a former pastor or church who has taught this type of bondage to rule keeping.

Now, before we get too focused on this – I must remind us that this is nothing new – this is exactly what Jesus was fighting against and Paul is talking about in our text – this is what we call Pharisaical thinking.

Did you know that the name “Pharisee” – actually means “separatist” in Hebrew? That gives us a new perspective.

Pharisees are those who take great pains in separating themselves from people not like them.  Those sinners. Those people. Those over there…. Pharisaical thinking is drawing a line making it “us vs. them.”

Folks, I think this is so ironic.  Like Paul himself who said, “I am the chief of all sinners.” I personally cannot see how we have any right to separate ourselves from others, those people, the sinners.”  Aren’t we all in the same boat? Aren’t we all created equal? 

As soon as we stop believing this, we become rule-followers and rule enforcers and then we begin to do major damage to our neighbors and to our world.

Kim Harrington wrote in a blog post about Modern Day Pharisees, she said:

There is no greater turn-off than a Christian who acts self-righteous and condescending, as though it’s obvious he is better than you.  Yet many of us act this way…all the time. It’s no wonder that they don’t have the time to listen to us when we try and explain some point of the Gospel to them!”

The reality is that you and I are no different than anyone else.  Personally, I stink at rule-keeping.  And the thoughts that run through my mind (especially in light of our current political climate, the lack of justice in our world, the poor social conditions our country seems to be creating and supporting) are probably just as horrible as any other person on this planet. 

I sense to often the reason we feel we can separate ourselves from others, heap rules on those not like us, even treat people as less than us, is because we haven’t taken a good inventory of our own souls.

As our family, travelled the past couple weeks through the King Center and Birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr. in Atlanta, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, and the National Civil Rights Museum and Lorraine Motel in Memphis where King was assassinated, I could not stop asking myself what Martin Luther King Jr believed to be life’s most persistent and urgent questions, ‘What are you doing for others?’ and ‘Where do we go from here?”

The reality is, to help our neighbors and share the Good News of the gospel with them, takes first knowing oneself.  If anything our past, especially the Civil Rights movement, but also all that this going on in our world today, should have us taking a personal inventory of what we believe and how we are responding to our world today. 

Where is my heart?

What do I want?

What do I believe? 

What am I doing for others?

Where do we go from here?

Paul shared a little of his inventory in our text for this morning, he said,

If I was “trying to be good,” I would be rebuilding the same old barn that I tore down. I would be acting as a charlatan.

19-21 What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God.

How often have you and I made or thought Christianity or our religious path was about…
 

·        Claiming to have more knowledge or skill than someone else.

·        Being “holier than thou.”

·        Keeping the rules.

·        Working one’s head off to please God.

·        Gaining a personal identity or impressing others.

Paul addressed this 2000+ years ago – and still today these are the top criticisms of being a Christian in our world. Sadly, not much has changed and looking back on our history, it is often that this lack of awareness and rule-enforcing has created some attrocities in our history – from slavery to treating people less than to even today separating children from their parents at our borders because we are following the rules of the bible.  

Yet because Paul took a personal inventory…he stopped to reflect…he slowed down long enough to see the damage in the way he was living the faith.. and because he did this – he made a change – actually he became the change.

Paul rebooted his life.

·        He quit being a “law man.”

·        He studied Jesus’ life (how he lived).

·        He began to identify with Jesus’ way (not just finding or being the answer).

·        He put his own ego on the back burner.

·        He no longer was driven to impress God or other people.

·        He stopped repudiating (means: to reject as having no authority or binding force) God’s grace.

·        He began to really live.

I wonder how much different our world would be if we did the same?

My greatest saddness over the last couple weeks was seeing the sights of the Civil Rights Movement, reading and hearing the stories, senseing the pain that our country has gone through from lynchings to having black men have to hold signs that proclaim, “I am a man” and yet looking around and realizing not much has changed when I turn on the news. 

Have we not looked internally and taken an inventory of our own lives? Haven’t we asked ourselves the questions that need to be asked?  Our refusal to look inside ourselves continues to bring pain to our world.

As you leave the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis there is a wall with the Gandhi quote – “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

To do that we must take some time for personal reflection and inventory of our own souls.  Sadly, if we do not know ourselves, we will continue to repeat the atrocities in our world, whether passively or intentionally.  To know ourselves is the first step in becoming the change.

In the book, “Becoming Who You Are” which I quoted earlier, James Martin says the following,

In the quest for the true self, one therefore begins to appreciate and accept one’s personality and one’s life as an essential way that God calls us to be ourselves. Everyone is called to sanctity [or what I would call a sacred life] in different ways – on often very different ways…And as we move closer to becoming our true selves, the selves we are meant to be, the selves that God created, the more loving parts of us are naturally magnified, and the more sinful parts are naturally diminished. As are so many other blocks to true freedom.

I began these thoughts this morning with two queries from Thomas Merton in our centering down time.

Why do we have to spend our lives striving to be something we would never want to be, if we only knew what we wanted? Why do we waste our time doing things which, if we only stopped to think about them, are just the opposite of what we were made for?

I believe we are in the same mind of Paul as he processed his obsession with rule-keeping. He was caught in a Pharisaical mode – maybe because he actually was a Pharisee at one time. If anyone knew how to “reboot” and get on another path, Paul did – and the reality was he could not do it without the help of God.

And neither can we.  God not only shows us the way…God wants to nurture in us a “living relationship” (as The Message put it) where Christ’s life can be lived out through you and me.  Paul proclaims, “Christ lives in me.” And the good news is that he lives in each one of us. 

So to do a personal inventory – to do some true soul searching – is to allow Christ’s life to be made know in your life.  If you turn to the back your bulletin this morning, you will find some queries – these are more of a personal inventory to help you process this.  Let these queries be a beginning point to ask yourself some deeper questions and free you to be who God made you! 

·        What’s one joy and one struggle you experienced in your life, recently?

·        How would you describe your walk with God this past year?

·        Where do you feel you would most like to grow as a Quaker?

·        What is something new about God you’ve recently discovered?

·        How would you finish this sentence: I feel good about my journey with God when . . . ?

·        What have been some of the ups and downs of your spiritual life since you began your journey?

·        How has First Friends helped you on your spiritual journey?

·        What do you need from this community to continue your maturity?

6-10-18 - What Doth the Lord Require of Thee? John Moorman

Indianapolis First Friends Meeting

Meeting for Worship June 10th, 2018

“What Doth the Lord Require of Thee?”

By John Moorman

This is the second First Day message while our pastor Bob and his family enjoy a well-earned vacation. A while back, I volunteered to give this week’s message. I thought that I had something in mind that I had given in Texas many years ago. However, after much thought and prayer the following came to me instead. It is a view of scripture and history from a high vantage point, not a deep diving into specific verses and chapters.

The title of this week’s message is; “What doth the Lord require of thee?” In this short time today, I will summarize a large period of history and its related scripture to arrive at a what I feel is a reasonable answer to the question above. Throughout my message,  I will be using the Message Bible in quoting from scripture. I feel that it best captures the language used when scripture was being placed in written format.

In early Jewish history, as indicated in scripture, the sacrifice of animals played an important role in the religious life of the community. Animal sacrifice was a part of their daily lives and was a way to indicate to God that they were repentant of sins and sought God’s forgiveness.  Animal sacrifice was also prevalent as a part of the cultural life of communities that they were acquainted with.

For those following the Jewish faith, it was not a simple animal sacrifice but consisted of many levels of animal sacrifice and the use of oil as a part of some of these sacrifices. The following are brief statements of each type of sacrifice and its purpose.

1.   Burnt Offering – To propitiate for sin in general, to signify compete dedication and consecration to God.

2.   Communion or Peace Sacrifice – The peace offering expressed peace and fellowship between the offender and God. The restoration of communion.

3.   Sin Sacrifices – To atone for sins committed un-knowingly, especially where no restitution was possible.

4.    Trespass Reparation Sacrifice – To atone for sins committed unknowingly, especially where restitution was possible.

5.   The Daily Burnt Sacrifice: Th standing or perpetual sacrifice. Daily sin offering for the people. The first liturgical sacrifice of the Sinai Covent.

6.   Remembrance Sacrifices – To relive the Exodus and Sinai experiences in every generation.

7.   The New Moon Sacrifices – To begin a new month in the lunar calendar.

Each sacrifice had specific rules about what animals were to be sacrificed and who received parts of the sacrifice.

An example of scriptural verses concerning animal sacrifices is quoted below:

Leviticus Chapter 6 Verses 24-30 (Message Bible): “God spoke to Moses: “Tell Aaron and his sons. These are the instructions for the Absolution Offering. Slaughter the Absolution Offering in the place where the Whole Burnt Offering is slaughtered before God -The offering is most holy. The priest in charge eats it in a holy place, the Courtyard of the Tent of Meeting. Anyone who touches any of the meat must be holy. A garment that gets blood spattered on it must be washed in a holy place. Break the clay pot in which the meat was cooked. If it was cooked in a bronze pot, scour it, and rinse it with water. Any male among the priestly families may eat it; it is most holy. But any Absolution Offering whose blood is brought into the Tent of Meeting to make atonement in the Sanctuary must not be eaten. It has to be burned.”

These instructions are direct and concise.

Chapter 7 of Leviticus contains further instructions on other types of animal sacrifices.

This approach to appealing to God for the forgiveness of sin and other errors and misdeeds by individuals and the Jewish people as a faith community, continued for many centuries.

One of the joys that I find in reading scripture is to see God’s will being acknowledged differently as the world in which the Jewish people live changes around them.

As time and scripture records God’s continuing relationship with Judaism, it is almost as if God sees that the Jewish faith in its best affirmation, is ready for a new relationship with God. Thus, the following found in Micah, which was our scripture reading for today.

This is from the Message Bible:

Micah Chapter 6 Verses 1-9

“Listen now, Listen to God:

Take your stand in court. If you have a complaint, tell the mountains; make your case to the hills. And now, Mountains, hear God’s case; listen Jury earth-For I am bringing charges against my people, I am building a case against Israel.

Dear people, how have I done you wrong? Have I burdened you, worn you out?

        Answer!

I delivered you from a bad life in Egypt;

I paid a good price to get you out of slavery.

I sent Moses to lead you-

  And Aaron and Miriam to boot!

Remember what Balak King of Moab tried to pull, and how Balaam son of Beor turned the tables on him.

Remember all these stories about Shittim and Gigal.

Keep all God’s salvation stories fresh and present.”

How can I stand up before God and show proper respect to the high God?

Should I bring an armload of offerings topped off with yearling calves?

Would God be impressed with thousands of rams, with buckets and barrels of olive oil?

Would he be moved if I sacrificed my firstborn child, my precious baby, to cancel my sin?

But he has already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women.

It is quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love, and do not take yourself too seriously-take God seriously.”

As Bruce T. Dahlberg notes in his introductory chapter to the Book of Micah in the Interpreters One-Volume Commentary on the Bible;” The name Micah is an abbreviated form of Micaiah meaning “Who is like Yahweh”. Except for his home and the general period in which he flourished details of Micah’s life are unknown.”  He was a contemporary of Isaiah.

The above scripture reading is in the form of a question and answer session between God and Micah. God is stating that he is tired of animal and oil sacrifices. There is more to the relationship of humans to God than just animal and oil sacrifices. God requires a total claim to the whole of man’s life. God requires a total claim to the whole of man’s life. As stated in the passage above; you already know what it that I require of you in your life, what to do and what I, as your God, are looking for in your daily activities. So- as the scripture states: ““Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love, and do not take yourself too seriously-take God seriously.”

What does this imply? Be fair and just in dealing with others, if you have wealth or power do not use it unfairly. In love be compassionate, do not take advantage of those you love and be loyal even if that loyalty may cause you personal hardship. Be humble of your talents and skills remember they all come from God. Take God’s commandments seriously. Take God’s commandments seriously.

As mentioned earlier, Isaiah was a contemporary of Micah. Commentary like what we have just discussed is found in Isaiah. In Isaiah Chapter 1, Verses 16-18 we find the following; “Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings, so I don’t have to look at them any longer. Say no to wrong. Learn to do good. Work for justice. Help the down-and-out. Stand up for the homeless. Go to bat for the defenseless.”

This way of seeing what God required of humankind brought new obligations to those of the Jewish faith, obligations that required a changed approach to life. No longer could sin be simply done away with an animal/oil sacrifice, although this did not bring an immediate end to such sacrifices.

Like all of us throughout history, those of Jewish faith were found full of shortcomings. The prophets were a constant reminder of this and the need to alter their lives to remain as God’s people.

With the coming of Jesus, the picture is altered. While Jesus was a Jew his messages in many forms (parables, talks, personal examples) did not fit the Jewish concept of their Messiah. With his death on the Cross and his resurrection, a new religious faith was born. As Quakers, we are a part of the Christian faith tradition. As George Fox stated; “There is one even Christ Jesus who can speak to thy condition”.

What does Jesus have to say about what God requires of us? Along with his many parables and messages indicating how an individual should live and interact with his/her fellow beings, the following two sections from scripture found in Matthew Chapter 22, Verses 36-39 and Mark Chapter 12, Verses 28-31 give us, Jesus’s answer.

I will quote from Matthew Chapter 22, Verses 36-39 again from the Message Bible: “When the Pharisees heard how he had bested the Sadducees, they gathered their forces for an assault. One of their religion scholars spoke for them, posing a question they hoped would show him up: “Teacher, which command in God’s Law is the most important?

        Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: “Love others as well as you love yourself.” These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hands from them.”

In this context, Jesus is indicating we must love God with our whole being. This love must be shown in all our thoughts and actions. This is a constant love, one that is never ending. How we express this in our prayers and daily living enriches our lives and the lives of those with whom we come into contact.  

The second peg; “Love others as well as you love yourself” is to me the hardest commandment of all. As a human being each of us is full of imperfections, doubts, questionable desires, motives, and other failings. The challenge given us is to accept ourselves for who we are, remembering that each of us is a loved child of God.

The process of accepting our self as we are is not easy. We must avoid narcissism as that is not a proper way of loving ourselves. It is dangerous as we have seen throughout history and in the present.

We must understand our faults and continually work on self-improvement. It means coming to terms with those aspects of yourself that you cannot change. We can be beautiful inside even if our outside presence is not what we desire. Too tall, too short, bald head, no musical ability, could not boil water etc. You are still a creation of God and were made in God’s image. Accept yourself unconditionally and respect who you are. This makes it much easier to love others who are not perfect either.

With self-respect, a positive self-image and unconditional self-acceptance you will then be able to love others in the manner indicated by Jesus.

Many translations of this part of scripture indicate that you should love your neighbor as yourself. This begs the question of who is my neighbor? This question is one reason I like the Message Bible interpretation of scripture. As I indicated above it states: “Love others as you love yourself”.  In Jesus’s time individuals did not travel much, if any, beyond their hometown. They attended worship at the local synagogue they understood Jesus’s command to love those with whom they were familiar. Through other teachings of Jesus, we understand that his commandment is unconditional and refers to all with whom we meet.

As we enter this precious time of unprogrammed worship, center your thoughts on the queries listed on the back page of today’s bulletin. What concerns, and answers do these queries bring to your mind and how do you propose to address them?

If you are convinced that you have been given a message to share, stand up and share it. If it is addressed solely for yourself to further think over and ponder rejoice and keep it close to your heart.

6-3-18 - Our Odyssey to Spiritual Maturity

Our Odyssey to Spiritual Maturity

Beth Henricks Message

June 3rd 2018

Scripture Reading – Matthew 16:24-26

Resources Utilized – Falling Upward by Richard Rohr

Friends, Bob and his family are on their way to a much-needed vacation in Florida today.  I was asked several months ago to give the message and appreciated the opportunity to share with you.

But dear Friends, I have struggled to hear God’s voice in what I should say today.  I ask for your grace in my words and appreciate your love and support in our experience together.

I read Richard Rohr’s book Falling Upward several years ago but re-read it this last week.  Its message hit me in a pretty profound way and has been challenging me all week.

Most of you know that Richard Rohr is a Franciscan priest of the New Mexico Province.  He has written may books and I follow his daily blog.  He is an important voice in Christianity today.

He wrote Falling Upward in 2011 encouraging us to think about our lives in two halves.   The first half is all about building our container.  The issues we are concerned about in the first half of our life are “identity, security, sexuality and gender”. We want to look good to others.   Marking boundaries and protecting boundaries are the primary task of this first half of life.  We are defensive about our personal, group and our tribal identities.  And in terms of religion it is much about purity codes, rules to follow and being clear and clean in our theology.  

 I remember graduating from college with a business degree in 1982.  I desperately wanted to be successful to the outside world.   My mother who was born in 1914 thought the only option for me to enter the business world was as a secretary.  I was determined to follow a different path and declared that I would never be dependent on another person.  This was part of my journey work in the first half of life. And my spiritual journey was focused on absolutes, externals, formulas, and Bible quotes to answer the tough questions. 

While we may look down on this period, the first half of life is absolutely a part of our odyssey to spiritual depth.  To be healthy and whole human beings requires us to establish our containers and identities.  As humans we all have certain needs that are prioritized. At a basic level we need food and shelter before we can move to a higher level of consciousness.  Then we need security, love and belonging, self-esteem and finally we can achieve a level of self-actualization.  These lower level needs are part of the first half of life work while the higher ones are the second part of life work.   We need to be successful in establishing the first half of life stuff, we need to learn to be responsible and independent.   As The Dalai Lama said, “Learn and obey the rules very well, so you will know how to break them properly.”

The marking of time in the first half of our lives in also not a matter of chronology.  Some folks move into the second half of life early and many others never leave the first half.  And sometimes when our foundations are shaken, we step back into first half responses.    The familiar and comfortable are reassuring places.  And unfortunately, most of our institutions including the church focus on first half matters.  It seems to be how our world defines progress and success.

I believe we start considering second half life matters when we start asking some of the deep questions, have doubts, and wonder about our purpose here on this earth.  This second half of life is focused on the contents that go into our individual containers and identities.  And we begin to understand that the way to go up must be by going down.   

I was fascinated with the Bill Moyers interviews in the late 1980’s called The Power of Myth with Joseph Campbell (Campbell was a professor of literature, writer, philosopher and a student of comparative mythology and religions).  He talked about how our myths, stories and religious expressions have had so many common elements throughout history.    The hero’s odyssey has been told in many ways from the heroes of our Bible stories, throughout mythology (Homer’s Odyssey is the classic example) to the saints in the Christian tradition and to many books, movies and shows.    All the hero journeys have 5 common elements as Rohr defines in his book.

·        “They live in a world that they take for granted and is sufficient.

·        They have a call and the courage to leave home for the journey.

·        On the journey they find out the real problem – they are always wounded, and the epiphany is that the wound becomes the secret key.

·        The first task is not the only task and is usually a warm up to the real task – a deeper river beneath the appearances.  They find their soul.

·        They return to where they started and know the place for the first time.  They have a life energy force and share it with others.”

Joseph Campbell said in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, “We have only to follow the thread of the hero path.  Where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god; where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves; where we had thought to travel outwards, we shall come to the center of our own existence; where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world.”

This is the soil of second half of life stuff.  We never really find something unless we lose it and then re-find it later at a different level.  We must experience falling, losing, failing, as they will lead us back home.    We grow spiritually more by what we do wrong than by doing it right.  As Jesus said in our scripture reading today, we have to lose our life to find it.  2 Corinthians 12:10 says that when we are weak, we are strong.   Jesus also tells us the last shall be first.  Do we really believe this? Because our culture and our churches don’t tell us that.  

And do we live this out in our lives?  It’s pretty radical stuff. 

The second half of life brings us to appreciate what we all have in common.  We can live in the tension of both/and instead of separating everything into either/or.  We seek the wisdom of our elders and “weighty friends”.  “We can participate in a sacred dance versus a survival dance”. 

We stop making God so small and imagine the depth of God’s love to every person and all creation.  We can swim in the river of doubt, unknowing and mystery and won’t drown.  And as we read our sacred Scriptures, we can claim Truth without having to believe in historical facts.

I was talking with my brother who is 9 years my senior on Mother’s Day this year.  We were reflecting on our mother whom we lost at 95 years old in 2010.  I hold my mother in such esteem – not only as an amazing mom but a spiritual giant and one of the biggest influences in my life.  My brother however feels differently about our mom.  He felt that as he was growing up our mom was rule oriented and rigid.  He saw a significant change in her as she aged so my experience was different.  This was her journey of moving from a first half life focus to a second half-life focus and we were all the beneficiaries of this shift. 

This second half of life is also a time where we expose our inner selves to the Light, we see our shadows and we are humbled and we experience death and resurrection.  We experience the Gospel. We feel the fire of the Holy Spirit.  We attempt to describe this experience through our metaphors like Flowing Water, Fire, the Seed, the Wind.  I love how St Augustine describes this in his confession, “you were within, but I was without.  You were with me, but I was not with you.  So you called, you shouted, you broke through my deafness, you flared, blazed, and banished my blindness, you lavished your fragrance, and I gasped.” 

I think I finally understand what Jesus was saying in Luke 14:27, Anyone who comes to me but refuses to let go of father, mother, spouse, children, brothers, sisters – yes even one’s own self! Can’t be my disciple.  Anyone who won’t shoulder his own cross and follow behind me can’t be my disciple.  It’s the act of letting go of the relationships that are most important to us.  It’s the second half of life experience that Jesus is trying to explain.

As we enter our unprogrammed worship time together, please reflect on the queries in the bulletin and open your heart to the voice of God.  If the message you hear today needs to be shared with others, please stand and share.  This message may be for you alone and please hold this in your soul.   I would like to read you a poem from Thomas Merton:

When in the soul of the serene disciple

With no more Fathers to imitate

Poverty is a success,

It is a small thing to say the roof is gone:

He has not even a house.

Stars, as well as friends,

Are angry with the noble ruin

Saints depart in several directions.

Be still:

There no longer any need of comment

It was a lucky wind

That blew away his halo with his cares,

A lucky sea that drowned his reputation

Here you will find

Neither a proverb nor a memorandum.

There are no ways,

No methods to admire

Where poverty is no achievement.

His God lives in his emptiness like an affliction.

What choice remains?

Well, to be ordinary is not a choice:

It is the usual freedom

Of men without visions.

5-27-18 - Taking the Turns: A Labyrinth Journey

Taking the Turns: A Labyrinth Journey

Indianapolis First Friends
Pastor Bob Henry
May 27, 2018

Psalm 25:4-10

4 Show me how you work, God;
School me in your ways.

5 Take me by the hand;
Lead me down the path of truth.
You are my Savior, aren’t you?

6 Mark the milestones of your mercy and love, God;
Rebuild the ancient landmarks!

7 Forget that I sowed wild oats;
Mark me with your sign of love.
Plan only the best for me, God!

8 God is fair and just;
He corrects the misdirected,
Sends them in the right direction.

9 He gives the rejects his hand,
And leads them step-by-step.

10 From now on every road you travel
Will take you to God.
Follow the Covenant signs;
Read the charted directions.

This morning, not only are we in the “oval” (I guess you could say it is more of a round), we are also gathered around an ancient symbol of the Church.  Now, I know that we, Quakers, are not typically fond of symbolism, but this is not the typical Church symbol, instead it is a tool or aid which allows us to experience our spiritual journeys in a new way. 

I want to thank Warren Lynn a pastor with the Disciples of Christ who provided our labyrinth. One of his ministries and passions are labyrinths and he allowed us to borrow this beautiful canvas labyrinth for our experience.  Please respect it by taking off your shoes when walking on it.  I will remind us again before we begin the experience.  

To help us better understand what is before us, let me give you some history, especially if you are not familiar with labyrinths.  Labyrinths seemed to develop around the twelfth century as a substitute for making a pilgrimage to a holy site.  Labyrinths are not mazes or race courses, even though kids often think of them in this way, nor are they something magical. 

As well, please understand, walking the labyrinth is not a newfangled technique to automatically jumpstart your spiritual life or find a specific answer to a problem or issue in your journey. 

Rather, experiencing the labyrinth is a slow, quiet, meditative, practice that has historically attended to the desire to make a journey toward God.  Dr. Ian Bradley, a pilgrimage leader for people of all faiths, describes it as a departure from daily life on a journey in search of a spiritual well-being.

The early church connected it with the early pilgrimages to Jerusalem – thus many old Christian churches have them built into the mosaic floors or their sacred places of worship. 

A few years back, my family had the opportunity to visit Grace Cathedral in San Francisco – a grand space with both a labyrinth as you enter the sanctuary, and one outside for those not interested in the journey within the church building.  I also have experienced labyrinths at hospitals, retreat centers, on the beach, and in public parks.

 Often on or around labyrinths you will see the latin phrase, “Solvitur Ambulando” which in Latin means "it is solved by walking" and is used to refer to a problem which is solved by a practical experiment.  This past year in Seeking Friends, we have been studying Brian McLaren’s book, “We Make the Road by Walking.” Brian describes this process this way, he says,

“The title suggests that faith was never intended to be a destination, a status, a holding tank, or a warehouse. Instead it was to be a road, a path, a way out of old and destructive patterns into new and creative ones. As a road or way, it is always being extended into the future. If a spiritual community only points back to where it has been or if it only digs in its heels where it is now, it is a dead end or a parking lot, not a way. To be a living tradition, a living way, it must forever open itself forward and forever remain unfinished – even as it forever cherishes and learns from the growing treasury of the path.”   

The imagery of “the way,” “the road,” “the light unto my path” are all biblical in nature, yet how do we translate the labyrinth experience into our Quaker tradition. 

My friend and fellow Quaker poet, Nancy Thomas, from the Pacific Northwest, wrote of her experience with the Labyrinth at North Valley Friends Meeting in Newberg, OR. (another labyrinth I have enjoyed journeying).  

She says this: 

In some senses a labyrinth seems antithetical to Quakerism, with its formal path to the center and its high symbolism of pilgrimage to Jerusalem. It makes me think of Anglican or Catholic spirituality, or, more lately, of New Age practices. But here sits a classical labyrinth on Quaker ground. And I’m one Quaker who uses it regularly.

As I draw on the Quaker conviction of the light of Christ in every person or culture, the adaptation and use of other spiritualities, when appropriate, seems entirely a Quaker thing to do. It certainly fits in with another conviction, that Christ is here among us and speaks to us in the gathered meeting and through any medium the Spirit chooses.

What I love about the practice of walking the labyrinth is that it engages my whole person. The physicality of walking, the sensuality of the beautiful setting, the spiritual focus on drawing near to God, these all combine to help me worship and pray.

I agree with Nancy’s experience. I find walking and praying through a labyrinth very Quakerly in nature.  In walking the labyrinth you leave behind the noise and hurry of life – what we Quakers call simplifying.   Just as you would pack simply for a pilgrimage, you offer your load to God as you begin your prayer journey. 

One of things that I hear most often in conversations, appointments, spontaneous meetings is the burdens of the baggage that people of faith are carrying. This experience allows one to begin to lay those burden down. 

Also, the prayer-path structure moves you slowly (now that is Quaker), toward the center and toward God.  This is again symbolic of what we Quakers call “centering down.”  Quaker Rich Lewis says that “centering down” in the Quaker tradition could be considered a contemplative prayer practice. He says it consists of three steps: release, receive and rest.   In the same way, the labyrinth allows for each of those steps to manifest at your own pace.  As you center down and begin to release your burdens and allow God to speak into your life you enter a journey (it can happen anywhere – in your chair, in a garden, in your car, or even on the labyrinth before you this morning).

With the Labyrinth, as in life, at times you sense you are close to the center and at other times along your journey you may be farther from the center.  This represents the reality of the spiritual journey.  As we keep moving through, we are always getting closer to the center and to God, no matter how far away it looks in real space. 

At the center of the labyrinth journey you can stop and rest in the presence of the Spirit, listening for a word for you from the Spirit (this is just like we do during waiting worship). The difference is that with the Labyrinth we are physically on a journey. 

So once you arrive at the center you must listen and rest and then begin to make your way out into the world with what you have received from God on your journey.

On many occasions, I have heard very clearly from the Spirit on my journeys of the Labyrinth, and on other occasions, I have simply had to discipline myself to stay the course without any special word from the Spirit. 

Either way, the journey has been important to my discipline of taking time to release some burden, being expectant and open to receiving from God, and learning to rest and slow down. Something I believe we all need in our day and age.

Now, to get us started in this, I want to ask us some queries (which you will find on the back of the bulletin for this morning).  These are to help you center down and begin your experience.  As well, there is a cheat sheet in your bulletin labeled, “A Guide for Walking the Labyrinth” to give you prompts as your journey.  

In a few moments, I will ask you to take a couple deep breathes and relax your mind so you can clearly begin to process and I will read the queries.  After some silence to ponder those queries and begin your centering, Eric will play some instrumental music to set the tone for you to start your journey or waiting worship. 

Please note: If you do not feel led to experience the labyrinth, please use this time as waiting worship in silence as others journey.  When you feel led or nudged to begin, please come to the entrance of the labyrinth (point it out) and remember to remove your shoes before you begin.  Be courteous and respectful of fellow travelers.  When the Labyrinth is clear, Eric will close us in song. 

Now, let us take some deep breaths and calm our hearts.

I will now read the queries for us to ponder as we prepare for our journey this morning.   

·        Where are you in your current spiritual journey?

·        Have you traveled a long way?

·        Do you feel close to God or far away?

·        If you go on a journey this morning – what things will you need to leave behind?

·        How might you leave these burdens behind you here and now?

5-20-18 - Tapping a Viral Energy

Tapping a Viral Energy
Indianapolis First Friends
Pastor Robert Henry
May 20, 2018

This morning, I am going share with you something a little different – I am not simply going to preach or exegete the passage Eric just read, but rather share from my heart about my understanding of the current condition of Quakerism in our world. Karla Jay from our fellow Friend’s Meeting, Iglesia Amigos asked me to give the keynote address at a small conference she was putting together a couple weeks ago. Some of you were there – I was grateful for your attendance and your encouragement to share this with our Meeting.

Karla wanted me to talk about the grounding of social justice in our Quaker tradition and in scripture, but I sensed a deeper call.  In preparing to speak I had already begun thinking through my own personal experience within the universal church and among Friends. You may not know that for 20+ years, I have been dedicated to ministry and taking action in cities like Chicago, IL, Detroit, MI, Portland, OR, and now here in our great city of Indianapolis. I have not only been involved in activism, advocacy, and teaching, but, I have learned the importance of the behind-the-scenes daily grunt work of learning to become a faithful presence in the communities and neighborhoods in which I have and currently live. This morning, my hope is that you will get a sense of potential, maybe some challenge, and hopefully a clearer vision of who we are and where we are going as a peculiar people called Quakers.    

Let me start this way….

I have been there – no hope, no vision, no sense of purpose – ready to give up. Ironically, this was also how I felt about Quakers at one time. Please understand, it is not the way I feel anymore. This revived confidence was sparked in the midst of great challenges and personal weakness. As one who became a Friend after much study and experience in a variety of faith traditions, I realized that Friends have a great deal to offer our world today, but many are missing out because of a lack of energy. Let me explain.

Most of us know that Quakers across our country have been embroiled in battles over a multitude of issues, many relating directly to our action and the people we serve, and the lasting effects cause everything from exhaustion to some actually giving up. I guess we all could sit around arguing to get our way or hoping for a better outcome someday, but, let’s be honest, that is not going to get us far.

Quakers come from a long history of passionate people who not only argued and hoped, but passionately and confidently lived out what they believed. History records them as fearless in their pursuits and trailblazing new paths. From women’s rights to the abolition of slavery to becoming sanctuaries for refugees…whether we were marching with Dr. King for civil rights, protesting war through sit-ins, or simply inviting our neighbors over for dinner, we have had an active, prominent Quaker voice that has made way for change and drew people to be that change.

Those voices came forth from enthusiastic and willing women and men who went the extra mile and lived against the grain of society.  People like Elizabeth Abegg the German educator who rescued Jews during the holocaust, or John Woolman who campaigned for years against slavery until it was abolished. Or Bayard Rustin the gay, African-American civil rights and LGBTQ leader who stood with Dr. King, or Elizabeth Fry who reformed English prisons. These are just to name a few.  They possessed an energy that is rarely seen in Quakerism, today.

What I would label a “viral energy” – one that spreads rapidly through a population by being enthusiastically shared with a number of individuals.

[Repeat]

Not only have religious niceties, worldly comforts, overt busyness, and mass consumerism taken a toll on our viral energy, many Quakers today find themselves defaulting to religious conformity and simply wanting to be right.

What happened to being different?

What happened to being radical?

What happened to seeking a truth that can make things happen in the world?

What has happened to our action?

In my lowest moments when I began to give up, I realized my viral energy was starting to wane. As I preached and spoke of looking for “that of God in my neighbor,” I had stopped looking for that of God in myself. I no longer had confidence in the message I had been given, nor did I have the energy to live differently. I had become disconnected, broken, and useless to myself, and thus to Quakerism as well. I was no longer enjoying what had drawn me to the Quaker Way in the beginning. The light within had dimmed, and survival had set in.

Everything became about arguing my position and others being my enemy, and I’ll have to be honest, I began lacking personal awareness. Things became rather myopic and all about salvaging me – no longer a positive viral energy, but rather more like a negative virus to my system.  

Where was the gathered meeting?

Who was discerning with me?  

What happened to me bearing witness to life together with my community?  

That is just it.  I became, what I believe much of Quakerism currently finds itself, caught up in -- bondage.  

Many Quakers are in bondage to traditions, to the glory days, to a specific experience, set of beliefs, ministry, or even leader. Often, I have found well-meaning Quakers telling stories from 40-50 years ago and thinking somehow things will magically change in the present. There is clearly a disconnect. The energy surrounding those stories are not translated into finding new ways to go viral and take action in the present. Probably because we have chosen to tell the same stories for so long that we began worshipping the traditions and the past instead of rendering it for a new generation. This leaves us in bondage to our past and little hope for going viral and taking action in the present.  

The darkness of bondage can be overwhelming, but it also can make the light seem much more brilliant.

Even though I, personally, had hit bottom, I had not been completely destroyed. As I climbed out of my pit of despair, I began to notice my energy increase. I not only rediscovered myself, I began to rediscover my love for the Quaker Way.  I laid aside the arguing, the reveling in the past, and the comforts and went on a new search for Truth. 

What I didn’t realize at the time was that my journey was very Quaker in nature. Our Quaker ancestors found themselves feeling empty within the church of their day and learned to live with viral energy the foundational virtues of simplicity, peace, integrity, community and equality. The early Quakers found these virtues in the teachings of Jesus’ apostles and the life and ministry of Jesus, himself.  Early on, our Quaker ancestors wanted us to return to living out these virtues. 

Jesus in his very first sermon outlined this ministry of action.  Luke 4:18-19 records Jesus’ words - he says:

8 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

    because he has anointed me

    to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

    and recovery of sight for the blind,

to set the oppressed free,

19     to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”[a]

This is what he taught his disciples and they lived out.  This is what we are to do as well. 

Even Jesus’ own mother sang prophetically in her Magnificat of Jesus’ life and ministry and how it would affect us.  As you know from back at Christmas, I love Joy Crowley’s translation of Mary’s words, she says,

This goes deeper than human thinking.

I am filled with awe

at Love whose only condition

is to be received.

The gift is not for the proud,

for they have no room for it.

The strong and self-sufficient ones

don’t have this awareness.

But those who know their emptiness

can rejoice in Love’s fullness.

It’s the Love that we are made for,

the reason for our being.

It fills our inmost heart space

and brings to birth in us, the Holy One.

It’s the Love that we are made for!

Or as Bishop Michael Curry said in the sermon at the Royal Wedding just yesterday.

“When love is the way, we will let justice roll down like a mighty stream and righteousness like an ever-flowing brook. When love is the way, poverty will become history. When love is the way, the Earth will be a sanctuary. When love is the way, we will lay down our swords and shields, down by the riverside to study war no more. When love is the way, there's plenty good room — plenty good room — for all God's children. And when love is the way, we actually treat each other, well, like we are actually family. When love is the way, we know that God is the source of us all, and we are brothers and sisters, children of God.”

I realized that if I was to find that resurrection and hope for the future which the bible so clearly speaks of, or if Quakerism was to be resurrected, it was going to first take learning to truly live again and embrace this love.

The most profound thing I was learning was that Quakerism

was not going to change until I did.

Our presence or the way we live in this world is the key to what I believe will revive Quakerism, break the bondage, and engage our active life. When we, Quakers, awaken to this reality, we start to realize that we are integral to creating a more just, loving, and peaceable world - just as Jesus did.  We are to build healthy communities, not arguing, divisive, proof-seeking, unwelcoming places of fear.  The Bible is clear that Jesus was opening the door to ALL people. 

Our viral energy should be put into creating spaces where differences are appreciated, cultures are celebrated, and where the process of life and living is explored together.  When this happens, new stories begin to emerge, new energy flows, the bondage of our past is broken, and the message goes viral in our world.  And folks that means lives are changed now and forever! 

For several years now, a personal revival has been taking place in my own life. Not only am I seeing young and old (even in my own family) being drawn again to the Quaker Way because new stories, new possibilities, and new people are working together to build the type of community that our ancestors wanted and lived out, but I am excited and filled again with a viral energy about what Quakerism has to offer my neighbors, community, and First Friends.

It is clear that our world has been desperately crying out for a new way to translate life and find hope. Don’t you feel or sense it?

Because I have seen the impact the Quaker way is having in the eyes of youth, college students, young adults, I have full faith that our future is ripe. These next generations are not in bondage to their past, but easily could be if we don’t, with a viral energy, embrace hope and possibility for their future.

A while back, I was watching the Disney movie “Tomorrowland” with my youngest son.  As I was pondering the future of Quakerism, I could not help myself be moved by this quote,  

"In every moment there's a possibility of a better future, but you people won't believe it. And because you won't believe it you won't do what is necessary to make it a reality."

[Repeat]

I have wondered at times, could it be that Quakerism has lost its belief of a better future?  

Folks, please hear me on this - I DO NOT believe this. I sense now, more than ever, it is time to do whatever is necessary to lift the bondage, embrace the future, gather the people of ALL cultures, nationalities, and races, and make Quakerism a viable reality with a viral impact in our world, again.  

I believe strongly, that it is going to take embracing new ways of coming together, new uses of social media, new teaching methods, new art and music, new activism, and a new translation of those biblical and Quakerly distinctives for today’s society. I think you would agree that we need to simplify our lives, be a more peaceful people, act with more integrity, gather and know our community, seek equality on a multitude of levels, and work for sustainability while being good stewards of our resources.  

We will need to explore all the possibilities, not just those that worked in the past. It is going to take us living new stories and inviting others to join us. People we may not even be comfortable with or who we have rejected in the past.

It is going to take a willingness to get-up-and-go and get out of our boxes and experience new things. That means it is going to take RISK, which means it will take a new you and me, full of viral energy, possibility, and belief and attitude that this can be a reality, NOW!  

Friends, it is time to make Quakerism go viral. It is time to believe, again! It’s time for action!

As we enter our time of waiting worship, take a moment to ponder the query in your bulletin:

What am I doing to lift the bondage, embrace the future, and make Quakerism a viable reality with a viral impact in our world, again?

5-13-18 - Of Wild Grace and Swiftness

Of Wild Grace and Swiftness

Indianapolis First Friends

Pastor Bob Henry

May 13, 2013

Acts 9:36-43 (MSG)

36-37 Down the road a way in Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha, “Gazelle” in our language. She was well-known for doing good and helping out. During the time Peter was in the area she became sick and died. Her friends prepared her body for burial and put her in a cool room.

38-40 Some of the disciples had heard that Peter was visiting in nearby Lydda and sent two men to ask if he would be so kind as to come over. Peter got right up and went with them. They took him into the room where Tabitha’s body was laid out. Her old friends, most of them widows, were in the room mourning. They showed Peter pieces of clothing the Gazelle had made while she was with them. Peter put the widows all out of the room. He knelt and prayed. Then he spoke directly to the body: “Tabitha, get up.”

40-41 She opened her eyes. When she saw Peter, she sat up. He took her hand and helped her up. Then he called in the believers and widows, and presented her to them alive.

42-43 When this became known all over Joppa, many put their trust in the Master. Peter stayed on a long time in Joppa as a guest of Simon the Tanner.

I love that Eugene Peterson in his translation of the story of Tabitha takes us one step further and gives us the what Tabitha’s name actually means in her language.  I think it brings a bigger picture to the story.  Names have such meaning in the Bible. On “gotquestions.org” they point out that often when God changed a person’s name and gave him or her a new name, it was usually to establish a new identity.

God changed Abram’s "high father" name to “Abraham,” which now means "father of a multitude" and his wife’s name from “Sarai,” “my princess,” to “Sarah,” “mother of nations”.  Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter meaning Rock – “a foundation to build on.” And the examples go on and on throughout scripture.  

Our text for this morning, was not one of these type of name changes as I just explained.  Instead the meaning of Tabitha’s name, I believe gives us a deeper meaning to the text.  Like Adam meaning literally Earth Man or from the earth.  Tabitha in our text has a Greek name – also known as – Dorcas.  

Now, we can all understand, in our day, why she might want to change her name.  But Dorcas was really a derivative of the Greek word Eudorcas – literally a species of gazelle.  

Eugene Peterson points this out for some reason.  Some may say it only confuses things.  First it is Tabitha, then Dorcas, now Gazelle…this could get confusing. 

Well, all this would not have even phased me or had me thinking any deeper, until a couple of summers ago.  As the boys and I made our trek across the country to meet up with Sue for her father’s funeral, we took in a lot of America’s scenery – 8 states in three days.  

And with that scenery came wildlife.  As Alex and I took turns driving, I began spotting wildlife that I never noticed while focused on the road.  Please understand, one of the reasons I love my wife is for her adventurous spirit. Often the boys roll their eyes as their mother has our family driving several miles out of our way just in hopes of seeing a wild animal  that we have possibly never seen before (in Oregon it was always whales or elk).  Yet, going across the country and through Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons and all the terrain of the states between Oregon and Michigan we checked off a ton of new animals – from bears, to moose, to yes, gazelles.  

The first gazelles we saw were along the road in Nebraska of all places. I believe it was a deer and gazelle wildlife park.  At first, I thought they were just small deer, but the antlers and color patterns gave them away.  We saw more while in Yellowstone, but most of the time when we got closer they were just mule deer. 

I tried to take pictures of the gazelle, but they liked hiding in the tall grass.  Often they were so still they looked like statues or sticks coming out of the ground with their distinct antlers.  I remember watching them while Alex drove and remember them seeming almost so still they looked dead.  Actually, if they were lying down with their heads low they looked like rocks or they just blended into the scenery.  We probably saw many more, but never noticed them. 

One website says that gazelles are considered to be an animal of “wild grace and swiftness.” At times they can seem statuesque with very little movement only to come alive and bound across the plains.  This was my experience.  As I watched, this seemingly lifeless animal would go from complete stillness to a full leap and all out run across the fields.  It was with such grace and beauty.  One minute seemingly dead and the next minute alive and full of vigor! 

There could not be a better word to describe Tabitha – especially in our story for this morning. 

Peter said, “Tabitha, get up!”  You are no longer dead but alive to continue to do good and help out.  Like a gazelle she goes from what seems complete death to aliveness.  Tabitha experiences what I like to call the “resurrection life” in the present.

I don’t know about you, but I often catch myself kind of walking dead through life – and I so need a resurrection in the present moment. 

Theologian NT Wright points out what this looks like for us. Often we are taught, 

“…one day you will go to be with him [Jesus]” but he says, “No, you already possess life in him [Jesus]. This new life, which the Christian possesses secretly, invisible to the world, will burst forth into full bodily reality and visibility.” 

Just like a gazelle bursts forth into wild grace swiftness.”  Just like Tabitha as Peter asks her to “get up!” 

So where is our hope of this “bursting forth” in our lives.  Let’s look at Romans 8:9-11 (MSG). 

9-11 But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God’s terms. It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!

Tabitha the Gazelle experienced that in its fullest form. As Quakers we can understand this – we too would say the Spirit of Christ was still embodying her.  She was known for embodying the Spirit of Christ and living it out in her life. Our text said she was well-known for doing good and helping out – living the life of Christ in her world.  

And Peter calls out to that Spirit within her – even though she seemed physically dead – there was life in her. This is what we need to recognize in our world – that the resurrection life can awaken in anyone, it can burst forth from our dead lives, it can burst forth from dead institutions, it can burst forth from dead ways – because resurrection life – ALWAYS FINDS A WAY, folks! 

Tabitha’s story is a picture of what we have to hope for – what we can look forward to in the present– what we as Quakers want to experience in our world. 

NT Wright concludes that 

“…all this relates directly to what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:58:

“58 With all this going for us, my dear, dear friends, stand your ground. And don’t hold back. Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort.”

…the resurrection means that what you do in the present, in working hard to bring hope, is not wasted. It is not in vain. It will be completed, will have its fulfillment, in God’s future.” 

So you and I are called to live like Tabitha the Gazelle. 

May we be well-known for doing good and helping out – living the resurrection life now – the Jesus way in our world.   

Let’s not waste our lives, or our time, but rather work hard in the present. 

Nothing should get in our way – not even death.  But instead, we may actually find ourselves coming through the death experiences and finding ourselves getting up with wild grace and swiftness and fulfilling the resurrected life in the present moment!  

First Friends, I believe we are on the verge of great things.  God is calling to us to “GET UP, because WE ARE ALIVE!” 

I want to close this morning with pondering the words of Eugene Peterson from his book “Living the Resurrection.” He says,

“In this resurrection-created world, we find ourselves as allies and companions to friends, bound to one another not out of need or liking or usefulness but because there are common operations taking place among and within us. We are part of something larger and other than ourselves that we cannot adequately be part of by ourselves.”

That something larger is the resurrection life God wants for us. To experience it we need each other.  We need to, like Peter did for Tabitha, help each other get up and be presented as ALIVE. 

Take a moment and look around this room.  We each have been through a lot, we have experienced death in many forms, and for some we are experiencing it as we speak. 

Yet, the query for today is…

How can you and I be allies, companions, and friends and help each other turn the death around us into life? 

With wild grace and swiftness may we come alive to our world, TODAY!

4-29-18 - Blessed is Mr. Rogers

Blessed is Mister Rogers

By Daniel Lee

I’ve always loved that one of the names that the early Quakers gave to themselves was “Children of the Light.” The experiences of our childhood follow us through all the days of our lives. Yet even as adults, we still in many ways remain children – we have the same basic need, to love and to be loved, as children.

In 2016, I went to London on a work trip. The one day I had some free time was Sunday, so I went to Westminster Quaker Meeting for worship. The theme for worship that day was children. At the beginning of the hour long silent worship someone read this following passage from the London Yearly Meeting Faith and Practice book. The passage was written in 1980 by Elizabeth Watson. I found it to be beautiful and power.

I wanted to read it to you this morning to set the tone for today’s message on Mister Rogers. I believe this passage speaks to us as adults who interact with the children around us, but also speaks to us ourselves as children of God:

“Our children are given to us for a time to cherish, to protect, to nurture, and then to salute as they go their separate ways. They too have the light of God within, and a family should be a learning community in which children not only learn skills and values from parents, but in which adults learn new ways of experiencing things and seeing things through young eyes. From their birth on, let us cultivate the habit of dialogue and receptive listening. We should respect their right to grow into their own wholeness, not just the wholeness we may wish for them. If we lead fulfilling lives ourselves, we can avoid overprotecting them or trying to live through them… The family is a place to practice being ‘valiant for the truth’. We can live lives of integrity, letting both ‘yes’ and ‘no’ come out of the depth of truth within us, careful of the truth in all our dealings, so that our words and our lives speak the same message. We cannot expect our children to be honest with us or anyone else if they hear us stretching the truth for convenience or personal gain. They are quick to catch such discrepancies. Moreover, we should trust them enough to be honest with them about family problems – disasters, serious illness, impending death. It is far harder on children not to know what is wrong.”

Back in the 1980s, my dad was a professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and was a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. He’d go swimming at the Pitt pool and sometimes he’d see Fred Rogers swimming there. Mister Rogers’ TV show originated from WQED in Pittsburgh. As a pediatric endocrinologist, my dad saw very young patients were very complex growth issues, some were extremely small for their age, making them easy targets at school. Others had conditions with how they were developing as boys or girls, issues that made them look different than other children in the most fundamental of ways.

So, my dad asked if he could come to Mister Rogers office and talk with him about his work and about helping to reduce anxiety and stress in young patients. Mister Rogers made time for him, and they had a nice meeting.

At some point during their meeting, my dad asked Fred Rogers about one of the song’s he had sung on his Mister Rogers Neighborhood PBS TV show. The song is entitled, “Everybody’s Fancy.”

The song opens with these lyrics:

“Some are fancy on the outside.
Some are fancy on the inside.
Everybody's fancy.
Everybody's fine.
Your body's fancy and so is mine.”

My dad, the pediatrician, asked Mister Rogers if this song was written to help both boys and girls, no matter who they are, to feel good about themselves as they grow and develop.

Mister Rogers said, yes, it was.

Awhile after that, when I was about 20, I was home from college and went in with my dad to work at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. In the parking garage we saw Mister Rogers. My dad introduced us. “It’s very nice to meet you, Daniel,” he said.

He friendly welcoming tone was the exact same in person as it was in TV. He seemed to genuinely happy to see me. I’ll never forget that chance encounter! I was a college student, not a little boy, but Mister Rogers made me feel special.

Actually, it still makes me feel special!

I was born in 1968, the same year Mister Rogers Neighborhood debuted on PBS. That was a pretty scary year, with war, social turmoil, and the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy. These are scary times now, too, aren’t they?

Maybe that’s why now, with the 50th anniversary of the show, Mister Rogers is getting so much attention. I was in a gift store recently and saw a coffee mug with Mister Rogers coffee mug where his cardigan would change colors when you poured in hot tea or coffee. There’s a new documentary about Mister Rogers set for release in June. Tom Hanks is set to play Mister Rogers in another upcoming movie.

Fred McFeely Rogers, born in 1928 in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, was a composer, writer, puppeteer, an ordained Presbyterian minister, and an expert in children development. He was a man deeply in touch and deeply influenced by the loving people of his own childhood. His grandfather, Fred McFeely, was the special person in his life who made young Fred Rogers feel loved and special.

People are hungry for this sort of love -- love in its most simple form. They’re so hungry for honesty – honesty in its most simple form. People are also hungry for integrity – integrity in its most simple form. 

Mister Rogers lived his life in the spirit of Christ beautiful commandment, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them…” His life’s work reflected a sincere love, compassion, and integrity that it touches the human soul deeply.

Throughout our lives we all have the same basic needs as children – we need to be loved, we need to feel valued, we need a community, and we need to be dealt with honestly.

Today I was to focus on three areas in which we can learn from and be inspired by Mister Rogers. These also happen to be three areas at the core of the Quaker way of living:

1.      Mister Rogers’ speech was plain and honest

2.      Mister Rogers’ inner life was disciplined and consistent with his outer life

3.      Mister Rogers’ life shined the love of Christ

First, Mister Rogers’ speech was plain and honest.

He told children that it was a natural thing to be sad or to be angry just as it was natural to be happy and joyful. We must learn to accept and handle all emotions and situations in life.

Mister Rogers talked with children about how he coped with the death of his dog Mitzi and talk with children whose parents were going through divorce. He would have on his show people with disabilities and in a straight forward and sensitive way ask them about their wheelchair and about their lives. The children could see they too were special people with challenges but also with great talents and abilities. 

As I began work on this message several weeks ago my wife, Jennifer, gave me this book, “The World According to Mister Rogers.” It’s a collection of short quotes, essays, and song lyrics. I want to read several to you today.

This first excerpt illustrates Mister Rogers ability to talk plainly to adults as well as children:

“I received a letter from a parent who wrote: ‘Mister Rogers, how do you do it? I wish I were like you. I want to be patient and quiet and even-tempered, and always speak respectfully to my children. But that just isn’t my personality. I often lose my patience and even scream at my children. I want to change from an impatient person into a patient person, from an angry person into a gentle one.’

Responding to this, Mister Rogers wrote: “Just as it takes time for children to understand what real love is, it takes time for parents to understand that being always patient, quiet, even-tempered, and respectful isn’t necessarily what ‘good’ parents are. In fact, parents help children by expressing a wide range of feelings – including appropriate anger. All children need to see that the adults in their lives can feel anger and not hurt themselves or anyone else when they feel that way.”

Mister Rogers’ speech was plain and honest.

Second, Mister Rogers’ inner life was disciplined and consistent with his outer life.

I once told someone I know about meeting Mister Rogers. That person then told me that he had heard that Mister Rogers had been a military sniper before starting his children’s TV show. Of course, this was a complete lie. If you look on the Internet, you will find that Mister Rogers is the subject to numerous Urban legends and lies.

There’s another image around the Internet of Mister Rogers appearing to give the middle finger to the camera. They think it’s funny. In reality, Mister Rogers was singing Where is Thumpkin… There’s Thumkin the thumb, pointer the first finger, and “tall man,” the middle figure.

We live in a cynical world in which all too often we see that prominent people have very real flaws and do great harm to others. But from everything we know, Mister Rogers was exactly who he purported to be. His inner life was consistent with his outer life.

Mister Rogers shows us we can be that same way! Mister Rogers constructed this consistent inner and outer world through a life of faith and discipline.

Writing about her husband, Joanne Rogers said this: “If I were asked for three words to describe him, I think those words would be courage, love, and discipline – perhaps in that very order.”

I mentioned earlier that my dad used to see Mister Rogers on his daily swim. Mister Rogers wrote this of his daily workout:

“I live to swim, but there are some days I just don’t feel much like doing it – but I do it anyway! I know it’s good for me and I promised myself I’d do it every day, and I like to keep my promises. That’s one of my disciplines. And it’s a good feeling after you’ve tried and done something well. Inside you think, ‘I’ve kept at this and I’ve really learned it – not by magic, but by my own work.”

A life of love is a life of discipline.

In his song, “You’ve Got to Do It,” Mister Rogers wrote these words:

“You can make believe it happens.

Or you can pretend that something’s true.

You can wish or hope or contemplate

A thing you’d like to do.

But until you start to do it,

You will never see it through

‘Cause that make-believe pretending

Just won’t do it for you.

Mister Rogers’ inner life was disciplined and consistent with his outer life.

Third, Mister Rogers’ life shined the love of Christ.

Mister Rogers found so many ways to tell people they were special. On the front of my autographed photo of Mister Rogers I received all those years ago in Pittsburgh he wrote, “For Dan – with kindest personal regards I’ve glad to have met you.” On the back of the photo, he wrote a second short note that simply read: “Kindness of your dad.” He wanted us both to feel special.

On his TV show in 1969, amid racial tensions and strife, he invited the character Officer Clemmons, an African American, on his show. It was a hot summer day and Mister Rogers was resting his feet in a plastic pool of water. He invited Officer Clemmons to join him, helping him to dry his feet.

This was Mister Rogers humble and world changing ministry. This ministry is a good feeling, and it’s open to all of us, in the smallest of ways every day.

I want to send us into silent worship by reading these words from Fred McFeely Rogers:

“The purpose of life is to listen – to yourself, to your neighbor, to your world, and to God and, when the time comes, to respond in as helpful a way as you can find… from within and without.”

Blessed is Mister Rogers!

4-22-18 - The Gift of Place

The Gift of Place

Indianapolis First Friends

Pastor Bob Henry

April 22, 2018

Job 12:7-10 (NRSV)

7 “But ask the animals, and they will teach you;
    the birds of the air, and they will tell you;
8 ask the plants of the earth,[a] and they will teach you;
    and the fish of the sea will declare to you.
9 Who among all these does not know
    that the hand of the Lord has done this?
10 In his hand is the life of every living thing
    and the breath of every human being.

I want to begin this Earth Day message with a spiritual exercise and some queries to focus our attention on this morning.  I have barrowed these thoughts from Ignatian Spirituality.  If you are not familiar with Ignatius of Antioch (who lived 35-107AD) – he was considered one of the Early Church Fathers, a disciple of the Apostle John, one of the first Bishops of the Church, and ended up a martyr for the faith.

Often when Quakers have sought to return to the “faith of the apostles” (as our history notes) they find great commonality and connection with Ignatius’ profound words in his writings on, what he labels, “Spiritual Exercises.” This is because his work is foundational in the mystical tradition – a tradition that Quakers find themselves categorized in often. 

If you have ever read any of the work of Quaker Richard Foster or even the Renovaré curriculum it is heavily influenced by Ignatius’ work. It was Richard Foster who taught (and I believe heavily borrowed from Ignatius) that there are three great books that guide our lives, 1) the book of scripture, 2) the book of experience, and 3) the book of nature. 

As well, Ignatius was one of the first theologians to connect our spiritual exercises with ecology and creation. So, it seems natural or fitting to utilize his work this morning on Earth Day.  

As most Ignatian Exercises begin, I would like for us to begin this morning with taking a deep breath.  (Notice how your whole body relaxes as you breathe in and exhale.) 

Take another deep breath.  (This time notice that the air coming into your lungs through your nose is free and plentiful: even in this meetingroom, there is more than enough air for everyone.

Finally, take another deep breath.  The atoms of air that you breath in and out are a shared gift – shared both with other humans and with the creatures and plants of the Earth.

This air constitutes a radical physical connectedness with all other living beings. 

Because of our intricate interconnectedness with each other in and through the natural world, what has been called environmentalism – concern for that which is around us becomes ecological awareness. 

Trileigh Tucker speaking on this says,

“The word ‘ecology’ comes from two Greek roots: oikos meaning ‘house’ and logos, meaning ‘reason’ or ‘discourse’.  When we shift from speaking of the environment (that which is around us but does not include us) to speaking of ecology, then, we are thinking in a new way: not about a distant object, but rather about the network of relationships within which we live: our own house, our home.

Or as we say this morning – EARTH.  

To help you connect with your experience of this place – earth, I want to help you make that connection this morning through a simple Ignatian exercise.  

Take a moment to allow your mind to travel to the first natural place (or place in nature) to which you felt connected as a child, or another natural place to which you’ve felt a strong connection.  (You may need to close your eyes to really travel back to this place.)

Imagine you’re in that place again this morning. 

What do you notice with your senses?

What does it look like?

What does it smell like?

What does it feel like?

What does it sound like?

Maybe what do you taste there?

Is there something particular in that place – a tree or a stream or an animal – to which you have a special attachment? 

How do you feel as you return there?

What feelings does it invoke?

What good memories are associated with this place?

The reason I wanted you to think about these things is because much of our connectedness in this world is understood and driven by landscapes or what I will call, place.  Ignatius believed that our psychology and spirituality are intimately connected with place.  Also, we have a physical connection to our geography as well as the psychological and spiritual. 

Yet, many people today feel misplaced – and no longer comfortable in their changing surroundings.  Some would go as far as saying they lack a sense of place because they no longer know their neighbors. 

Ask yourself?  Do you know the neighbors that live on either side of you?

How far down the street do you have to go before you do not know them at all? 

Who, if you needed help, would be the neighbor you would call on? 

If someone in your neighborhood needed help, would they call on you?

We in our world today, do what the authors of “The New Parrish” call “Living above Place” which is “the tendency to develop structures that keep cause-and-effect relationships far apart in space and time where we cannot have firsthand experience of them.”  

What happens when a society, like ours, lives above place for long enough is that we begin to live a cocooned way of life, unaware of others and how we effect each other. 

You can see this happening first hand with the way we create online communities and only associate with people that support our own views.  It is what is dividing us politically as a country and creating fear-based organizations, biased media, and country club religions. 

And I believe “Living Above Place” is not only talking about our human neighbors but also those that we may not even consider neighbors - for instance our neighbors of water, energy, food. 

Again, ask yourselves?  Do you know where your water, energy, food comes from?  What kind of relationship and first-hand experience do you have with them?

We must admit that we have a very intimate, survival-based relationships with these basic essential needs, but many people cannot identify from where they come, because again we have cocooned ourselves from knowing. 

What if we did not know where our life partners, spouses, or closest friends came from? (Honestly, they probably wouldn’t have a prominent place in our lives.)

To know that my wife comes from North of Detroit, MI, that she grew up on a farm, that her family raised cattle, is rather important to my understanding of her, today – and knowing where our water, energy, food come from is vitally important as well. 

Ignatius says that becoming aware of this background knowledge is essential to us “living in the flesh” or what I have been talking about the last few Sundays – personal incarnation.  We must admit that we are creatures of the flesh – that we are dwellers in a specific place, and that we express that of God’s creation in our own beings. 

Knowing our place is key to understanding our incarnated lives and what God is doing among us and through us in our neighborhood and world.

Chris Smith and my friend John Pattison in their book, “Slow Church” expound on this by saying,

“Cultivation of our communities involves attentiveness not only to the rhythms of our specific places but also to the day-to-day sorts of choices we make and the sort of rhythmic order we impose on those places. As our roots grow deeper in a place, we can’t help but want to see that place thrive. Seeking the flourishing of our places not only involves caring for them – keeping them clean, planting gardens, living lightly on the land – but also caring for the people who live here with us, of course.”

To cultivate our communities, we will first need to examine our places and those we engage with in that space.  Ignatius encouraged this as part of his spiritual exercises, because he knew that the natural world and our human co-habitants affect us psychologically, physically, and spiritually.  In Exercise 60 and 160 of his Spiritual Exercises, Ignatius asks,

“Going through all creatures, how have they left me in life and preserved me in it…the heavens, sun, moon, stars and elements, fruits, birds, fishes and animals.”

“…the various persons: and first those on the surface of the earth, in such variety, in dress as in actions: some white and others black: some in peace and others in war: some weeping and others laughing, some well, others ill, some being born and others dying, etc...”

See, when we start to see the way all of creation takes care of, preserves, and sustains us, then we must ask ourselves how we in-turn are taking care of all of creation – animals, plants, our neighbors of all walks of life, beliefs, cultures, etc... Because, to cut out any of these would be detrimental to our own growth. This is a connection to creation relationship that must be acknowledged and continually worked through.

The modern day farmer-prophet, Wendell Berry, wrote about this very thing in his essay, “Christianity and the Survival of Creation” which can be found in his book, “The Art of the Commonplace.” Berry says this,

“We will discover that for these reasons our destruction of nature is not just bad stewardship, or stupid economics, or a betrayal of family responsibility; it is the most horrid blasphemy. It is flinging God’s gifts into His face, as if they were of no worth beyond that assigned to them by our destruction of them…We have no entitlement from the Bible to exterminate or permanently destroy or hold in contempt anything on the earth or in the heavens above it or in the waters beneath it. We have the right to use the gifts of nature but not to ruin or waste them…The Bible leaves no doubt at all about the sanctity of the act of world making, or the world that was made, or of creaturely or bodily life in this world. We are holy creatures living among other holy creatures in a world that is holy.”  

(repeat the final line)

This reminds me of a poem by Quaker Laurent A. Parks Daloz, a Peace Corps Volunteer, educator and environmental activist.  He writes,

Stop for moment beside a young cedar to listen

 And breathe in the life swarming around you.

A soft breeze brushes your cheek;

You can feel the silence.

For a thrumming instant you are one with it –

At such moments, we don’t simply believe,

We know that we are woven into the mat of interdependent life.

This is not sacred belief;

It is sacred knowledge.

We know in our bones that we are an intimate part of all life,

Not simply what surrounds us in the present,

But of all life in all time.

The oxygen we breathe,

The nourishment from the plants beside us,

The elements beneath our feet –

All come to us from the most distant past

And will endure in some form into the unimaginable future..

We are ineluctably a part of all space and time.

So the first thing, we are called to do on this Earth Sunday is to become aware of our PLACE and the sacredness of it. We need to take time to allow ourselves to get out of our cocoons and to descend from “living above place” to living in the present moment with our neighbors in which we have been given as gift – this place we call the earth.     

To help you ponder more this week, I have included some detailed queries on the back of the bulletin – you may want to ponder them as we enter waiting worship this morning.

·        What have I learned from listening to God in the earth, rocks, trees, water, and animals?  How has this learning affected or changed my life?

·        In what ways does my daily life exemplify, reflect, or belie my respect for the oneness of Creation and my care for the environment?

·        Am I willing to change the way I live and make sacrifices in my lifestyle in order to preserve the earth, air, and water for future generations? What changes am I willing to make now?

(From Practicing Peace by Catherine Whitmire)   

4-15-18 - New Life, Inside!

New Life, Inside!

Indianapolis First Friends

Pastor Bob Henry

April 15, 2018

2 Corinthians 4:13-5:5 (MSG)

13-15 We’re not keeping this quiet, not on your life. Just like the psalmist who wrote, “I believed it, so I said it,” we say what we believe. And what we believe is that the One who raised up the Master Jesus will just as certainly raise us up with you, alive. Every detail works to your advantage and to God’s glory: more and more grace, more and more people, more and more praise!

16-18 So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.

5 1-5 For instance, we know that when these bodies of ours are taken down like tents and folded away, they will be replaced by resurrection bodies in heaven—God-made, not handmade—and we’ll never have to relocate our “tents” again. Sometimes we can hardly wait to move—and so we cry out in frustration. Compared to what’s coming, living conditions around here seem like a stopover in an unfurnished shack, and we’re tired of it! We’ve been given a glimpse of the real thing, our true home, our resurrection bodies! The Spirit of God whets our appetite by giving us a taste of what’s ahead. He puts a little of heaven in our hearts so that we’ll never settle for less.

I love Paul’s giddiness this morning in our text.  I chose the Message version to emphasize this point:

“We’re not keeping this quiet, not on your life.”

When the message is this exciting, there is no containing oneself.  I think we all can relate to this at one time or another.  The news is so good,

·        the announcement of the birth of a child, our a grandchild,

·        that promotion at work or new job,

·        that unexpected grade or comment,

·        that visit or phone call with exciting news,

·        you name it, it cannot be contained!   

But what specifically was Paul not able to “keep quiet” about?  To understand that we need to go back to verse 6 just prior to our text where Paul explains:

“It started when God said, “Light up the darkness.” And our lives filled up with light as we saw and understood God in the face of Christ, all bright and beautiful.”

Paul realized that something had happened inside of his heart – a Light had been lit!  A healing had taken place.  An inner change had occurred. 

What Paul had experienced was very similar to someone we are very familiar with in Quakerdom – and that is George Fox, the founder of our society of Friends.  Here is his experience in his own words,

“Christ it was who had enlightened me, that gave me his light to believe in, and gave me hope…revealed himself in me, and gave me his spirit and his grace, which I found in the depths and in weakness.”

Fox’s experience was very similar to Paul’s.  And let’s be honest, with all these “aha” moments and enlightenments there must be a back story. 

Fox said, “I found” this “in the depths and in weakness.” If you have ever taken the opportunity to read George Fox’s Journal you will find it paints a picture of struggle, development, and slow painstaking growth.  Fox says this in his journal,

“But my troubles continued, and I was often under great temptations, and I fasted much, and walked abroad in solitary places many days, and often took my Bible and went and sat in hollow trees and lonesome places till night came in; and frequently in the night I walked mournfully about by myself, for I was a man of sorrows in the times of the first working of the Lord in me.”

Paul described a similar experience just before our text today in 2 Corinthians 4:7-12 (again let me read it from the Message).

7-12 If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That’s to prevent anyone from confusing God’s incomparable power with us. As it is, there’s not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we’re not much to look at. We’ve been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we’re not demoralized; we’re not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we’ve been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn’t left our side; we’ve been thrown down, but we haven’t broken. What they did to Jesus, they do to us—trial and torture, mockery and murder; what Jesus did among them, he does in us—he lives! Our lives are at constant risk for Jesus’ sake, which makes Jesus’ life all the more evident in us. While we’re going through the worst, you’re getting in on the best!

Folks, in this world there is going to be suffering.

·        For some of us it is going to be physical suffering.

·        For others of us it is going to be mental/spiritual anguish (the sorrowful life that George Fox described).

·        And still others it may be persecution for what we believe and think. 

Yet, I don’t want to dwell on this aspect very long, because the HOPE is so evident in each of these stories. 

The HOPE that the Apostle Paul and George Fox experienced is the very life God is working to bring to fruition in our lives!

George Fox was enlightened – and found grace and the revelation of God’s own spirit within him and it moved him to change his world. 

Paul and the people of Corinth realized that God had not left them, even though they were broken completely. They were coming ALIVE from the inside and it moved them to change their world. 

The good news in all of this is that it is coming alive in each of us, as well!

Our suffering in this world is being transformed into vibrant LIFE – if we are willing to see it and go through it. 

When God breaks through – when the light comes on in our hearts – when brokenness starts to heal – we become like Paul exclaiming “I can’t keep quiet!” 

That may sound a bit weird for us quiet, contemplative, silence-loving Quakers.  I rather like to think that Paul was beginning to quake in the spirit (as we say).  He was being nudged to speak out to allow what God had put in his heart to be spoken aloud.  Much like when you or I are in waiting worship and we begin to feel uncomfortable – you know that feeling – when God has put something on your heart to say, and you begin to kind of quake inside – until finally you have to stand and share what God has put on your heart with the gathered meeting.  Often those moments are life giving and life altering and filled with hope! 

This is what Paul and George Fox and many since them have experienced. 

When our faith is bolstered, our life has meaning, it is then that our light begins to burn brightly!  As our text said for this morning…

“Every detail works to your advantage and to God’s glory: more and more grace, more and more people, more and more praise!”

Folks, this is what I sense and believe is happening right here at First Friends!

Because when you and I see it begin inside ourselves – soon we realize that we cannot contain what God is doing.  The light that goes out of this place each week in the lives of each of you is making a difference in Greater Indianapolis.

Yet, please understand, as our examples have shown us, this is always a process to get to that place.  I’ll be honest, sometimes my Inner Light is rather dim – it seems at times to have even gone out.  Maybe that is because life is often harder than we expect or that we allow our life to snuff out the joy building up in our hearts. 

Life throws us troubles, brokenness, sorrow, and pain…you know what it is for you.

And Paul knows we at times just want to give up.  Listen again to what he said,

“…we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace.”

·        Maybe you feel like you are getting too old, that you are worn out, that life is just not working out the way it used to.

·        Maybe you feel like you are falling apart emotionally or spiritually, and you can’t seem to keep it together.

·        Maybe the plight of struggling people in our world, our current political situation, the onslaught of 24/7 media has you feeling down and defeated. 

·        Maybe you are failing at work, or desperately in need of a new job or career, and simply just trying to make it.

·        Maybe life makes no sense right now from the outside.

Paul and George Fox both say that no matter what is happening on the outside,  God is still at work – working on you from the inside to make new life come forth.

The text says, “Not a day goes by without God’s unfolding grace.” Do we notice it?  

Folks, let’s be honest…that is something to be excited about.  That is something to proclaim. 

·        God is still at work in your heart.

·        God is preparing you right now – in this present moment – for all that God has in store for you.

·        God is birthing NEW LIFE inside of you at all times.  This is what our personal incarnation looks like!

The question that we have to ask ourselves is…

Will we recognize God making that new life in us…or will we ignore it, suppress it, neglect it, even stifle it…by not responding to that of God inside ourselves?

We are so concerned as Quakers about seeing that of God in others – but have we seen that of God in ourselves, first?

We may not be able to see all that God is doing – or has been doing – right now.  But as God works in our hearts, incarnates himself inside of us, and turns on that light within us, we begin to see the eternal being birthed inside us.  This isn’t something for when we die, no this is the life we have been called to now.  This life God is working inside us to bring us alive so that others can come alive as well. 

It is what I believe Paul grasped when he wrote the words in 1 Corinthians 13:12:

“We don’t yet see things clearly.  We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright!  We’ll see it all then, see it all clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!” 

Most people take those words to mean someday – or in heaven.  But I think God is incarnating himself in us as we speak.  Right now, things that were unclear are being worked out.  The fog is lifting, the hope is shining inside of you!  And as we share that light inside each of us – others begin to see God more clearly as well!  

Looking back on my own life (something I suggest you do every once and a while – like, at least once a year), I always find how much I have changed and grown.  I see the places where God has turned on a light inside of me and it could not be contained. 

I remember a conversation with a friend in my driveway during high school that changed my view of the role of women in leadership in the church.  God was turning on a light inside of me.  It took several more years for me to acknowledge it – but I had to make some changes in my life to be a voice for women in leadership.

I remember reading “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” by Dee Brown on vacation one summer and weeping as God enlightened me to the plight of the Native people’s in our country.  That was only the beginning of an ongoing discovery of the plight of other people groups in our history that are still suffering from genocide, racism, misogyny, and lack of basic civil rights.

I remember when my views began to change on LGBTQ rights and I found the light inside guiding me to stand with, instead of against -- and beginning to understand because of the persecution I, myself, endured in welcoming and affirming these friends.

And these are just a few of the many times God has turned on the light inside my heart and I could not, like Paul keep quiet!  NOT ON MY LIFE! 

So to conclude this morning, I want to share with you a favorite poem by Rumi, the 13th-century Persian Sunni Muslim theologian and Sufi mystic (which many consider the Quakers of the Muslim faith).  In this poem Rumi shares a dialog with Love (who I believe we could call God). The interaction illustrates well all I have pointed out this morning.  May you sense what Paul, George Fox and Rumi sensed inside of them – coming alive this morning!

i was dead
i came alive
i was tears
i became laughter
all because of love
when it arrived
my temporal life
from then on
changed to eternal

love said to me
you are not
crazy enough
you don’t
fit this house

i went and
became crazy
crazy enough
to be in chains
love said
you are not
intoxicated enough
you don’t
fit the group

i went and
got drunk
drunk enough
to overflow
with light-headedness
love said
you are still
too clever
filled with
imagination and skepticism

i went and
became gullible
and in fright
pulled away
from it all
love said
you are a candle
attracting everyone
gathering every one
around you

i am no more
a candle spreading light
i gather no more crowds
and like smoke
i am all scattered now

love said
you are a teacher
you are a head
and for everyone
you are a leader
i am no more
not a teacher
not a leader
just a servant
to your wishes

love said
you already have
your own wings
i will not give you
more feathers
and then my heart
pulled itself apart
and filled to the brim
with a new light
overflowed with fresh life

now even the heavens
are thankful that
because of love
i have become
the giver of light”

― Rumi

4-8-18 - Now, What Are We to Do?

Now, what are we to do? 

Indianapolis First Friends

Pastor Bob Henry

April 8, 2018

John 20:19-29

19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin[a]), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

“Now, what are we to do?”  That must have been the question running through the disciples and followers of Christ’s minds. 

“Now, what are we to do?”

Much like last week’s text of Mary meeting the gardener, we again have a mix of emotions and experiences.  Today, we have the disciples cowering in fear behind locked doors.  Fearing not only the Roman Empire, but also the religious leaders of the day.  No one was safe at this time. I believe the disciples were in fear just as many of the people in Gaza are today. The disciples knew that the religious and state authorities had found a way to have Jesus crucified, and they knew they were already on the trail to find and do the same thing to them and the other followers of Christ.

Let’s be honest, religious and state authorities don’t often like the followers of blasphemous, rogue teachers, who want to make their leaders out to be martyrs. 

No, they would want to eliminate any possibility of this happening and do everything to keep their religion and state pure. This is sadly true of many religious and governmental groups in our world, still today.

Change is hard, and prophetic voices are those usually rallying for change.

It is one thing to watch someone die for a cause, but when you find out that the attention has turned on you because of your followership of this person, ANXIETY, FEAR, the NEED TO HIDE quickly overcome you. Your mind flashes with visions of you being tortured by the authorities, carrying your own cross through the city of Jerusalem, and being hung to suffer the agony of public execution on a cross. These would have been vivid images in the minds of the followers of Christ.

The process the disciples were running through in their minds was, what I would call, a personal incarnation.  They were beginning to incarnate (becoming a living embodiment of) what Christ had just gone through.  And the disciples were left to answer that big question,

“Now, what are we to do?”

Jesus never really taught about Part B…and let’s be honest, the disciples hardly understood Part A – let alone having a plan for after Jesus was gone from their presence.

You may be thinking this is hard to relate to – but just ask yourself:

·        When have you said, “Now, what are we to do?” or “Now, what am I to do?” in your own life.  

·        What was your difficult situation?

·        Have you ever been gripped by fear wondering what was going to happen?

·        Have you ever felt like you had no plan B – that life was at a dead end?

Just like where we find the disciples this morning, it is often in our lowest moments, when our plans, our ideas, our hopes, our beliefs are stripped away, this is often when the presence of Jesus is felt and made known – or maybe it is in these times we finally recognize that God has been with us all along.

The text says that Jesus was literally “standing among them” and they didn’t even realize it.  How long was he standing there before someone noticed? 

Isn’t that how it is for us, often? The presence of God is in our midst, or even in our own hearts, and we don’t recognize him or acknowledge Him. Folks, we are Quakers, the ones who are always to look for that of God in those around us.  How often has the presence of God been in our midst in the likes of a friend, a parent, a child, at teacher, even a complete stranger, and we totally missed it?

And then comes those famous first words from Jesus, “PEACE BE WITH YOU.” The scriptures have recorded for us several other times when Jesus used those same words. Each time the disciples heard them he was using them to calm their lives. 

If you remember, it was these words that Jesus used to calm the storms on the water as their boat was violently shaken by the storm and everyone was in fear.  The disciples would have known these words to be an acknowledgment and reassurance of God’s presence in the storms of their lives. Yet, with all that they had been through during the last several days leading up to their best friend being executed in front of them, they still showed doubt this time.  This time they had been so shaken that he had to prove to them who he was so that their joy and peace would return. 

The disciple, Thomas, even has to go one step further – I think I might have been the same.  Thomas needed a hands-on-experience before he could believe.  Sometimes our lives are in such tumult that we need something a bit more tangible – a real-time, real-life experience. (see the modern version of this moment on the cover of the bulletin this morning).

Sometimes we need a physical – incarnate – experience.  We need to hear a parent’s voice, sometimes we need a hug, sometimes we need a physical connection. I think Thomas has been shafted by history.  Beyond needing proof, beyond assurance, beyond even finding inner peace, Thomas needed a physical connection as he tried to wrap his mind around that question, “Now, what are we to do?” 

And that physical connection again takes the shape of incarnation – embodying flesh or taking on flesh. Thomas was understanding the deep need for incarnation at this moment – he needed flesh to come to grips with what was going on.

I think too often the reason we cannot relate to Jesus, is because we cannot truly see him as a human being – with flesh. He was no different than any of us in this meetinghouse.  He had skin and bones, aches and pains, he bled…no different.  And what we need to realize is that Jesus showed us how with these fully human, fleshly bodies to truly live!  He taught us how to forgive, how to bring hope, how to reconcile, how to “incarnate” his life and ministry to our neighbors and to our world in this present moment. 

Philosopher Søren Kierkegaard said it so well, “What Jesus wants from us is not admiration, but rather imitation.” 

It wasn’t just about the incarnation of Jesus, folks – no, it’s also about our incarnation. This is what Jesus was getting at in our text.

“Again Jesus said, ‘Peace be with you!’ As the Father has sent me, I am sending YOU!”

You and I are now the incarnated Christ to our world.  We are the light-bearers being sent into our world. (Just like we heard last week with Mary.)  

Have you ever thought about the fact that the gathered meeting (or the universal church) was considered or called “The Body of Christ.”   We are the official incarnation of Christ to our world.  Let that sink in for a moment.

Ronald Rolheiser addresses this realization in his book, “The Holy Longing: The Search for Christian Spiritualty,” where he writes,

“If it is true that we are the Body of Christ, and it is, then God’s presence in the world today depends very much on us.  We have to keep God present in the world in the same way Jesus did.”

Or as St. Teresa of Avila prayed:

Christ has no body now but yours,

No hands but yours,

No feet but yours,

Yours are the eyes through which

Christ’s compassion must look out on the world.

Yours are the feet with which

He is to go about doing good.

Yours are the hands with which

He is to bless us now.

We are the incarnation of Christ – We are the light bearers.

What we are called, sent to do is be Jesus and live as he did in our world.  We are filled with his light and love.  We are to take our inner light into our world and become the presence of Christ to our neighbors. 

Or as Ronald Rolheiser says,

“As God once acted through Christ, so he now acts through those who are conformed to the image of His son, and whose behavior-pattern is in imitation of his.”

To sense God’s peace, forgiveness, his love  - we must embody and live it in our world.  We must take on the attributes of Christ. 

As I watched the 50 Anniversary Celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Death this week, I could not help but notice the fact that Martin Luther King Jr., though often in fear, embodied and lived out the attributes of Jesus. Many including a Muslim leader acknowledged his Christ-like legacy. This is the impact we each could have if we were willing to live a life of purpose grounded on the attributes of Christ.

As the life of Martin Luther King Jr. can attest, to be God’s presence in our world, isn’t always easy and may lead us to our own death – laying our life down for others.    

Along with this call naturally comes fear, as is illustrated well by the disciples cowering in the upper room in our text this morning. Fear is real for most of us. 

Being a peacemaker, standing up for what you believe, seeking justice and mercy, even asking or giving forgiveness are not always easy and often they cause us to fear living out the life God is calling us to. 

Fear translates to hiding and worrying about what others think of us.  It leads us to cower, to isolate, and even build walls. [Pause for reflection].  

Sadly, a great deal of our politics, our military, our economics, our sports, our parenting styles, even much of our religiosity is based on fear and fear tactics.

But God is sending us into a world – not in fear – but rather in peace.  Filled with God’s spirit and light to offer forgiveness, to reconcile, to heal and bring harmony.  We are to offer the attributes of Jesus Christ – Grace, Mercy, Justice and Peace.  But sadly, it is our own fears that get in the way...

It’s like what Quaker Gene Knudsen-Hoffman wrote,

Fear which lingers,

Fear which lives on in us,

Fear which does not prompt us to wise remedial action,

Becomes engraved upon our hearts,

Becomes an addiction, becomes an armor which encases us.

This fear guards and guides us and determines our action.

It leads us directly toward that which we fear.

We can’t let our fear keep us in a tomb of death.  We can’t let fear keep us worried or fretting about what is going to happen.  We can’t let fear keep us hiding and avoiding and not acting. That I believe is the case too often with the church, today. 

People who take up the mantle of Jesus Christ – people who incarnate Christ in their own lives.  People who live out of peace, forgiveness, grace, mercy and love have learned to embrace their fears and step out in faith.

[Pause]

Fear is a major issue, but I think there is another. Let’s be honest, many people have given up on Jesus and his ways in our world.  For many the followers of Jesus that the world sees portrayed in the media and on T.V. no longer represent Christianity or for that matter Jesus – and many see them as an embarrassment and have a real fear of being misrepresented. Blogger and commentator, John Pavolitz, addressed this in a recent blog.  Let me read a part of his blog post this morning:  

The Jesus I knew as a child and came to aspire to in adulthood is still here, and it is the heretics who are preserving him.

It is the maligned backsliders, the Godless heathens, and the derided social justice warriors who are replicating his compassion for hurting people, his welcome for foreigners, his generosity toward the hungry, his gentleness for the marginalized.

I’ve been visiting these local Progressive faith communities every week, and they are doing joy-giving, life-affirming, wall-leveling work—alongside people of every color, orientation, and nation of origin.

They are providing Sanctuary for refugees, making meals for multitudes, offering embrace to the estranged, standing between the vulnerable people and the opportunistic predators around them—you know, like Jesus would.

And in our gatherings, Atheists and Muslims and Jews and Agnostics have stepped into these communities and found something they have not found in the counterfeit Christianity so loud in this country: they have found welcome.

It’s all been fully and beautifully surprising, to see this Jesus still alive here in these people.

You may have given up on a Christianity that resembles Jesus, and I can’t blame you. The people claiming his name right now who have the microphone, the platform, the headlines, and the legislative pull—are providing good reason to lose hope, ample cause to imagine Jesus’ extinction, great evidence that this thing is devoid of goodness.

But there is a quieter, more loving, less self-seeking, less headline grabbing expression of faith in this country, that is everything Jesus said he would be: good news to the poor and the disenfranchised, hope for those feeling tossed by the storms of this life, refuge for the oppressed—and trouble for the wolves who come to devour them.

In these progressive Christian communities all over this country, the peacemaking, neighbor loving, foot washing, leper-embracing Jesus is not only still present, but being multiplied by kind people determined to perpetuate him here.

There is a Jesus here who invites women into ministry, who feels compassion and not contempt for the poor; one who calls disparate people to join him, one who destroys all barriers.

There is a Jesus here of justice and mercy; one championing diversity and equality, one committed to altering the planet in a way that gives voice to the voiceless and resistance to the hateful.

This Jesus is here, and he will never be driven to extinction so long as there are heretics, heathens, and backsliders who refuse to let him die simply because religious people have no use for him.

These people are still reaching out a hand to this hurting world because they are compelled by their faith to do so.

If you are a person of faith and you’re exhausted from a Christianity of cruelty and malice; if you’ve given up on finding anything more redemptive or anything worthy of your presence and time, seek out a Progressive faith community this week—and allow yourself to be beautifully surprised by a radically loving, lavishly welcoming, compassionate activist Jesus you thought was gone for good.

Be encouraged.

So…Now, what are we to do? 

My hope is that we here at First Friends would be considered one of those Progressive Faith Communities that radically love, lavishly welcome, and are compassionately activist.  That we would be known by incarnating the true Jesus that the world needs.  That is what we are to do! 

How are you incarnating Jesus to your neighbor?

What fears are getting in your way?