7-18-21 - Celebration Buttons

Celebration Buttons

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

July 18, 2021

Good morning Friends, I am so glad to be back with you this morning for Light Reflections. I have chosen two scripture passages for today. Our first is from

Deuteronomy 14:2 (The Message)

You only are a people holy to God, your God; God chose you out of all the people on Earth as his cherished personal treasure.

And also 1 Peter 2:9-10 (The Message)

9-10 But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God’s instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted.

For the past week in the evenings, I have been enjoying working through and editing the photos from our family’s celebratory vacation to Walt Disney World. It is so good to see the smiles, the child-like joy, and recall the fun memories we made on our vacation.

Not even the remnants of a hurricane with a Disney-esque name like Elsa could dampen our spirits.

What was clear was that our family had a lot to celebrate over the last 18 months and we all needed a place to let down our hair and let loose together – and we did!

If you have ever stayed at a Disney World Resort, one of the fun parts of the check-in procedure is when the cast member asks you the question, “Are you celebrating anything with us during your stay?” Depending on your answer you may receive one of four buttons.

·        One is the “1st Visit” button for those visiting Disney World for the first time.

·        Another is the “I’m Celebrating” button with a blank space to write what it is you are celebrating.

·        Another is a “Happy Birthday” Button

·        and lastly is the “Happily Ever After” Button for those celebrating an anniversary.

It even states on the Disney website that you are to wear the complementary buttons to generate “special attention” from the Cast Members as well as other guests. 

I remember on our boy’s first visit they wore buttons that said “1st Visit” and “Happy Birthday” since it was also close to their birthdays.  Every night at dinner they were treated to a birthday dessert and a mini party at our table, and cast members used the buttons to engage them throughout the park, make them feel special, and wish them a Happy Birthday. 

Sadly, our boys have grown out of that fun, but Sue and I have not.  You may have heard that we were to go to Disney World last year for our 25th Wedding Anniversary, but due to Covid our plans changed three times before having to completely reschedule for this year and turn it into a family vacation.

I am sure some of you are thinking Disney World may not be the best choice for a 25th Wedding Anniversary, but then you may not know the beginning of Sue and my married life together. 

Sue and I started our first year of married life in Orlando, Florida.  I was on an internship as a Director of Christian Education working in a large church in Oviedo, Florida and Sue was teaching Junior High at a private school in downtown Orlando.

During the prior year, Sue had been teaching at my grade school in New Haven, Indiana, living with my parents, and in the evenings working for the Disney Store at Glenbrook Mall in Fort Wayne – all to help pay off her student loans.

We had planned to spend our honeymoon at Disney World, but since we ended up being placed just weeks before our wedding in the Orlando area for my internship, we made plans to hop on a cruise to the Bahamas instead. 

It only seemed appropriate at our wedding that we would have a Mickey and Minnie Cake Topper on our Wedding Cake and Winnie the Pooh toasting glasses (that Sue bought while working at the Disney Store).

Now, all that said, let me return to those buttons. Sue mentioned to Joe, our Cast Member at the Art of Animation Resort, that we were celebrating our anniversary and he handed us two “Happily Ever After” buttons (Like this one).  Throughout our stay we were congratulated and asked “How many years?” by numerous Disney cast members.

Often when we would say “26 years (or 25 + 1 as Sue likes to say),” a conversation would ensue. 

Sure, we know that this is what they call “Disney Magic” and that cast members are simply following their script and what they have been taught about engaging the customer, but I must be honest, it felt really good to have people acknowledge your celebration and sometimes even join in the celebration with you. 

As I was driving home on Saturday and Sunday and the family was asleep in the van, my mind began to wander and I started to really think about those buttons and all the smiles, all the exchanges we had with people we do not even know, and the joy that wearing a simple button exclaiming our celebration could produce. 

Being in ministry for 26 years, I know one of the most important things in ministry is acknowledging people’s celebrations and celebrating people’s lives. When you wish someone a happy birthday, or happy anniversary, or you remember a special moment, accomplishment, or attribute that someone exudes their face lights up and you can sense they feel special.

I agree with Quaker Richard Foster who believes celebration should be at the core of our life and is at the heart of the way of Christ.

In some ways, I wish we all had a magic button to wear each day that had written on it something for others to join us in celebrating.  I hate it when I miss someone’s birthday, anniversary, or special occasion or find out weeks after their occasion.  This is one of the things I like about Facebook – it sends me reminders about people’s birthdays or special occasions.  

So…maybe it is not so much about the idea of people wearing buttons to let people know what they are celebrating, as much as you and me taking the time to consider what to celebrate in and with other people?  

If as Quakers, we believe there is that of God in everyone we meet – then there is something in each person I should be seeking to celebrate and acknowledge.

As I continued down the highway through the rain, fog, and traffic, I could not help but think about the people I know. As they came to mind, I thought about what in them I could celebrate. I found myself smiling, laughing, and at times reveling in the memories with each person.

That specific day happened to be our dear Friend, Linda Lee’s celebration of life (and sadly we were not able to attend since we were traveling).

Linda was one of the first people to come to mind. She always had a way of connecting with me that celebrated my passions and joys and made me feel special. 

Just a couple weeks before she passed, I spent 5 hours with her over a simple lunch at her and Ed’s apartment.  She wanted to have me over so we could share our spiritual journeys.

That five hours was a very special gift. Not only did she find ways to make me feel special, she also had a way of reminding me of my value and giftedness.  I often would hear from others at First Friends similar stories of these experiences with Linda.   

I know one thing, I have kept every hand written note and special email I have received from Linda. Each one is as if I was wearing a button asking her to join my celebration – except she needed no button – she was already connected in spirit. 

The Divine in her was connecting with the Divine in me – what our Hindu friends would refer to as “namaste.”  

As I continued to ponder others and even shed a couple tears, I also realized back at First Friends, the rest of the ministry team was ramping up for Vacation Bible School this week. I was trying to recall the theme for the week, when suddenly, I remembered. Our theme for VBS this year is “Treasured: Discovering You’re Priceless to God.”

That was it.  You and I are treasured – or as our scripture for today says, we are God’s personal treasure. 

The Hebrew word for this personal treasure is actually segullah.

Often segullah only gets translated as “possession”, but it’s much more than that. Segullah wasn’t something you owned and stuck on a shelf, like a vacation trinket. This possession (segullah) was extremely valuable and worthy of a place of honor. Something or someone that should be celebrated.

As I began to prepare for VBS this week, I read in the curriculum’s introduction about how children today desperately desire to be known. It says that in the technology-induced information overload, kids can feel invisible, unimportant, insignificant, yet we can spark joy in the lives of our children by affirming their value and visibility in God’s eyes and in each other’s eyes. 

Folks, the reality is that these thoughts are not just lessons to be learned for our children. I know many of us adults desperately desire to be known, to be acknowledged, to be valued, to be treasured – to be the segullah of God.

Adults too can feel invisible, unimportant, insignificant and we too need others to spark joy in our lives and remind us that we are treasured by God.  Much like Linda did for me and many others.

That is our calling as people who have the Divine within us.  As members of this community of faith, we ought to be seeking ways to affirm, find value in, and visibly acknowledge and celebrate with those around us. 

Way too often these days the Church is known as a place of judgement, ridicule, and finger wagging – all in the name of God. 

Just maybe it’s time we became more aware of our neighbors and fellow friends, sought ways to celebrate, and acknowledge that of God in each other. 

We don’t need celebratory buttons, rather we must commit to becoming more aware of those around us and learning to seek ways to celebrate, acknowledge, and affirm the value of our neighbors.

Maybe what we could do this week is imagine our neighbors and fellow Friends wearing celebratory buttons that invite us to their personal celebrations. Find ways to acknowledge, affirm, and treasure that of God in those you meet.  I sense if we do this, the world will be a better place and we will see those around us more like God sees us.

Now, as we enter a time of waiting worship, I ask that you ponder the following queries:

·        Can you recall a time when someone genuinely called you “special” (in a positive way)? What effect did it have on you?

·        What does it mean for you to know that you are treasured in God’s eyes?

7-11-21 - Get Over Ourselves - Beth Henricks

Micah 6:8 (Message)

But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do,
    what God is looking for in men and women.
It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor,
    be compassionate and loyal in your love,
And don’t take yourself too seriously—
    take God seriously.

I returned last week from closing my brother’s apartment in Minneapolis as well as having a small celebration of his life. The memorial service was a wonderful time of sharing stories about my brother as a group of scientists that Dave worked with for ten years at Medtronic Corporation gathered with us at his service.  I had never met any of them in these years, but they had some great and funny tales about Dave. 

They described Dave as a brilliant classically trained physiologist with a breadth of knowledge that he eagerly and unselfishly shared with others.  He always though, noticed the slightest flaw in anyone’s data or logic, and he shared his observations with them.  He never did this with the intent to diminish a person but only to help them become a better scientist.  In their younger days, some of them explained that Dave’s criticism personally hurt them when they had put some much time and thought into their work and Dave would point out the weakness in the data.  As they matured as human beings and scientists, they learned not to take things too seriously or personally when the goal was to make the whole team better and they all described Dave as a mentor.

Dave also had little tolerance for pretention or ego, and he encountered lots of this over the years.  Dave worked with many well-known cardiologists and heart surgeons around the country as he conducted experiments and wrote articles with these doctors.  Many of them took themselves very seriously and yet Dave had no trouble pointing out flawed data or logic even to these pretentious and prestigious doctors.

At Dave’s retirement party from Medtronic, he shared in his speech that his work had never produced a single product for Medtronic over his years.  But everyone knew in the room that he had collaborated with most of them on a number of products for Medtronic and that he was always about “we” and never about “I”.

This made me think about one of the things I am most thankful for that Dave taught me in life.  Dave was 9 years older than me, and he teased me, cajoled me, and spoke the truth to me as I was growing up.  He toughened me up to where I have learned to not take things too seriously and let most slights or grievances roll off my shoulder.  He helped me gain a greater understanding of getting over myself and holding things lightly in my hand.

I believe this idea of sensitivity, self-focus and seriousness can unfortunately be evident in the lives of some Christians.  The way of Jesus is radical, it takes our focus away from us and puts it on others and it challenges us to be like children in the way we see each other and the world.  Jesus said in Matthew 18:1-5 when asked who was the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, “He called a child and said Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of God.  Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.”  Jesus summons us to become like children, love like children and not take ourselves so seriously.  This certainly seems opposite from the way our culture works, what it values and the characteristics of those seeking power.

I had a chance to experience this sense of childlike wonder and joy at a 13th year old birthday party for our Stella Alford this past weekend.  Unfortunately, Stella fell off a swing last week and broke both of her wrists, so she was so limited in her activities.  Her close friend Angel joined the party, also visually challenged (many other friends were there).  I couldn’t stop smiling at the pure joy I saw with these two girls at the chance to sing happy birthday, listen to music and get excited about all of the adult friends there.  Such pure and innocent jubilation – clapping and giggles and exuberance!  The smiles and glee were palpable, and I knew this was what Jesus talked about becoming a child.  I felt the presence of Christ in a significant way in that backyard gathering.

I have witnessed some Christians though, who are the most outwardly devout and are very serious about their beliefs, their theology, and their right way of thinking.  But they don’t exhibit a joy, a sense of wonder or childlike view of the world.  Things are serious and there is much work to do. This reminds me of the apostle Paul before he experienced Christ on the road to Damascus.  He was strict in the Jewish faith, lived a serious and devout life and pointed out the flaws in what others were doing.  It was only when he experienced the transforming power of Christ’s love that he saw how focused he was on himself.  He had been the dictator of what he thought was truth, tradition, and the right way to live a faithful Jewish life.  His world was turned upside down with the encounter with Christ.  In Philliapns 3:8 it says that all this take myself seriously was rubbish compared to what is gained living in Christ.  The law doesn’t bring us life, it is Christ.   Paul has been liberated by Jesus from self-focus and became a new being in Christ.  In the words of author and pastor Tim Keller, Paul is basically saying “I don’t care what you think of me, I don’t even care what I think of me.”  Paul has been so liberated by Jesus from self-focus, he knows his life is hidden with Christ in God – that’s where his true life is (Col 3:1-4).  And he refuses to be drawn back down into navel-gazing.

God refuses to be known intellectually. God can only be loved and known in the act of love; God can only be experienced in communion. This is why Jesus “commands” us to move toward love and fully abide there. Love is like a living organism, an active force-field upon which we can rely, from which we can draw, and which we can allow to pass through us. I am afraid you can believe doctrines to be true and not enjoy such a radical confidence in love of God at all.  To be serious, dogged, and unmoving in beliefs or what “should be” in each church loses the radical love for each other.

This transformed life in Christ is a place where we can truly offer grace and a welcome to others even when we feel slighted, or our feelings are hurt.  Our faith allows us to become alive and have a sense of freedom, generosity and to take God seriously but not ourselves.  In this transformed way of living, we can become less focused on ourselves and our feelings and instead hold things with a light touch.  Doors open in our relationships when others see us full of joy and a lightness of being.

 As Chuck Swindoll often said, “Don’t take yourself too seriously…after all, no one else does!”  

Our dear friend Linda Lee lived this kind of life.  She was a star that was bright and full of light and never took herself too seriously.  She lived a life with a childlike wonder and her eyes sparkled, her smile was radiant, and she could dance and sing at a drop of a hat. She was interested in so many things (her latest focus was on ants and their importance of community for survival). Her poetry has touched us all and I share a poem from her latest book Before the Final Fire called Fried Mystic:

In those days

I heard the planets sing,

I lived in the yolk

of the universe-

quivering, tender, raw-

forming yet fluid.  I was

sunny side up,

perfect, and luminous

with Love,

smiling at everyone

in the manner

of a saint.

One day,

Beyond the floodlight

Of eternal oneness,

I saw the frying pan.

“Richard Rohr is someone I come back to again and again in his books and teaching. He shared in 2017 on his daily email a message that really impacted me as I think about a transformed life and what that means – one where we live in glee and don’t take ourselves too seriously.  He writes, “One of the lessons we might learn from the Gospel stories of Mary Magdalene is that, in the great economy of grace, all is used and transformed. Nothing is wasted. God uses our egoic desires and identities and leads us beyond them. Jesus’ clear message to his beloved Mary Magdalene in their first post-resurrection encounter is not that she squelch, deny, or destroy her human love for him. He is much more subtle than that. He just says to her “Do not cling to me” (John 20:17). He is saying “Don’t hold on to the past, what you think you need or deserve. We are all heading for something much bigger and much better, Mary.” This is the spiritual art of detachment, which is not taught much in the capitalistic worldview where clinging and possessing are not just the norm but even the goal. In her desire to cling to Jesus and his refusal to allow it, we see ourselves reflected as in a mirror. We are shown that eventually even the greatest things in our lives—even our loves—must be released and allowed to become something new. Otherwise, we are trapped. Love has not yet made us free.

Great love is both very attached (“passionate”) and yet very detached at the same time. It is love but not addiction. The soul, the True Self or Whole Self, has everything, and so it does not require any particular thing or person. When we have all things in Christ, we do not have to protect any one thing. The True Self can love and let go. The separate, small self cannot do this. I am told the “do not cling to me” encounter between Jesus and Mary Magdalene is the most painted Easter scene. The artistic imagination knows that a seeming contradiction was playing out here: intense love and yet appropriate distance. The soul and the spirit tend to love and revel in paradoxes; they operate by resonance and reflection. Our smaller egoic selves want to resolve all paradoxes in a most glib way. We only have to look around at all the struggling relationships in our own lives to see that it’s true. When we love exclusively from our small selves, we operate in a way that is mechanical and instrumental, which we now sometimes call codependent. We return again and again to the patterns of interaction we know. This is not always bad, but it is surely limited. Great love—loving from our Whole Selves connected to the Source of all love—offers us so much more.

The ego would like Mary Magdalene and Jesus to be caught up in a passionate love affair. Of course, they are, in the deepest sense of the term, but only the True Self knows how to enjoy and picture a love of already satisfied desire. The True Self and separate self-see differently; both are necessary, but one is better, bigger, and even eternal.

I share a few queries with you as we enter our unprogrammed worship. 

• Are we too serious in our approach to life?

• Do we hold our beliefs too tightly in our hands?

• Do we love from our True Self?

• Can we release tradition that we hold dear and give grace and welcome to those that see things differently and might have slighted us or hurt our feelings?

6-20-21 - Fathering a Better Way of Being

Happy Father’s Day and welcome to Light Reflections.  Our scripture for this morning is from Proverbs 4:1-5 (from The Message)

1 Listen, friends, to some fatherly advice; sit up and take notice so you'll know how to live. 2 I'm giving you good counsel; don't let it go in one ear and out the other. 3 When I was a boy at my father's knee, the pride and joy of my mother, 4 He would sit me down and drill me: "Take this to heart. Do what I tell you - live! 5 Sell everything and buy Wisdom! Forage for Understanding! Don't forget one word! Don't deviate an inch!

For the past few weeks, my son, Lewis, and I have been doing a lot of driving.  Lewis is a bit behind on his driver’s education because of the Pandemic, and this week started his driving part of the driver’s training class (which we were told might have a 10-week delay).

To give him a bit of a jump on the class, we have been learning to drive to his work and back home.  Living in Hamilton County that means he gets a lot of practice with round-a-bouts. 

Actually, if you can believe it, I counted nine in less than two miles from Lewis’ work and back again.  I guess we truly are obsessed as the media says about round-a-bouts in our town. Lewis has done a great job navigating them and is becoming a great driver.

I have found myself as we are driving saying things like, “Grandpa taught me to do this” or “My dad showed me this.” 

When I taught our son, Sam, how to drive a stick last year, I also went back to that patient, but often challenging, moments with my dad when he taught me.  I think my dad taught me some of the most valuable life lessons when teaching me to drive a stick.

·        Have patience and don’t get flustered - stay calm.

·        Feel the car and know your surroundings.

·        Never try to force the gears, let them come naturally.

·        Be an offensive not a defensive driver.

·        Relax and enjoy the experience.

Because of this, I have been a very confident and safe driver, I know when something is wrong with our cars (even though I may not know how to fix it), I don’t get flustered when in difficult driving situations, and I enjoy driving and road trips more than any other form of transportation.

Thanks, Dad for teaching me such important lessons that can also be translated to everyday life. 

Actually, taking a moment to really think about it, my dad lives by these lessons. I have seen them my entire life, and I can see clearly where they have translated into my daily life. 

Obviously, some have been more challenging than others, but they have definitely led to rewarding, growing and stretching life experiences. 

·        Having Patience and staying calm.

·        Knowing your surroundings and your feelings.

·        Never forcing a situation, but rather working to let things come naturally.

·        Living offensively or as I would translate it PROACTIVELY.

And as I have been talking about the last couple weeks…

·        Finding time for relaxation and the enjoyment of life’s experiences. 

And most of all – each of these lessons must be accompanied by compassion and a sincere desire to love, nurture, and care for those around us - especially our family and loved ones.  Those are fathering lessons we can celebrate!

Now, just like on Mother’s Day, I must acknowledge that not all fathers are like mine.  I have been blessed to have a gentle, loving, and wise father, but sadly that is not the case for everyone.  My dad has been a role model in ways that he probably doesn’t even know.  Some of us have fathers who are great role models, others have horrible models, or none at all.

This is why I believe we need a new vision of “fathering” for our day and age.

Colby Martin wrote the following Father’ Day Reflection and Prayer that I believe speaks to our condition.  He begins by stating a truth – he says,

“Fathering feels like a complicated role.”

In the 23 years of being a father of three amazing young men, I must agree, it has been complicated (to say the least).  And much of that complication came from what I learned about “fatherhood” and “fathering” from the church.  Martin explains it as he continues.  

By [complicated] I mean that many of us have individually and collectively expanded our consciousness around issues like patriarchy and toxic masculinity--including the role that religion has played with its dogmatic presuppositions of the superiority of the male species--and in the newly formed spaces of that consciousness-expansion we are left with voids that we are unsure how to fill.

My upbringing in a church that silenced women, had no place for the LGBTQ+, and even unaware or in “good conscience” indoctrinated its people with the damaging teachings of Focus on the Family and other religious groups subtly or even at times openly promoting patriarchal and misogynist beliefs.  In my lifetime a shift took place within the Church that clearly redefined the roles and becoming a Quaker has only solidified this new understanding. 

Martin also addresses this and then asks us some important queries – he says,

If the traditional roles of men and women, fathers, and mothers, have been malformed and made grotesque by patriarchal structures and the oppression of the feminine, then how do we begin to re-imagine what it means to be a father? Or what it means to father people in light of our new awareness?

How do we name and celebrate and honor the role of the Father without simultaneously re-injuring the wounds of those harmed by the elevation of men over women?

These are not questions just for men processing how to be better fathers – these are queries we need to ask as the people of Light who deeply value Equality as one of our distinctives.

I agree with Colby Martin, on this Father’s Day, I want to do my best to navigate the minefield of historical harm done in the name of patriarchy so that I can still speak life and beauty and hope to those who take on the role of Father.

We point our fingers and blame people too quickly without taking time to learn about their story and background.  We assume that people or men will not change or that is just the way they are, but just maybe they have not been given a new vision of what it means to be a father – or of fathering. 

Martin gives some important comparisons, and they speak deeply to me as a father.  Things that have changed me and helped me transform the distorted and damaging view of fatherhood I used to embrace. He says,

·        Instead of a cold, distant, unavailable provider, may we be a soft and present nurturer.

·        Instead of being consumed with work and giving our families our leftovers, may we trust that the rewards that come from being connected to our people are infinitely more valuable than raises and climbing that ladder.

·        Instead of passively accepting society’s definition of what it means to be a man, or how we subconsciously objectify women, may we take an active role of modeling a new and better way of being human and treating all people with tenderness and respect.

Please don’t miss this.  Those three points I just read are also the calling for each of us.  Yes, it may be slightly more important for fathers who have continued the legacy of patriarchy in a negative manner, but we all can work on being soft and present nurturers.  We can all work on seeing our connections with others as more important than personal gain. And we can all model a new and better way of being human by treating ALL people with tenderness, love, and respect.

Friends, we need you (whether fathers or not).

We need you to be courageous enough to model humility.

We need you to be strong enough to practice vulnerability.

We need you to be creative enough to forge a new way forward.

This morning I applaud each of you, especially those who embody fathering roles—whether with biological, adopted, or symbolic children—I cheer you on and want you to know I believe in you and love you!  Together, we can make a real difference and bring some needed balance in this overly patriarchal and male dominated world.  I am grateful that my father was a soft and present nurturer and did not give our family his leftovers, and without even saying it modeled for me a better way – that I am still teaching my boys.

I pray, together, we can help each other be courageous, vulnerable, and creative and forge a new awareness and understanding of what fathering means in 2021.  

You have what it takes. You are enough, and you are worthy.

Happy Father’s Day.

Now, as we enter a time of waiting worship, I ask that you ponder with me the following queries.

·        How has patriarchal and toxic masculinity effected my life?

·        Whether a father or not, what can I do to promote and model a better way of being human?

·        What father in my life might I need to speak life, beauty and hope to, today?

6-13-21 - Celebrate Being!

Celebrate Being!

Indianapolis First Friends

Pastor Bob Henry

June 13, 2021

Good morning Friends and welcome to Light Reflections. 

This morning I want to begin with our scripture passage from Hebrews 10:24-25 (The Message).  I find it a good text to emphasize my thoughts for this morning.

22-25 So let’s do it—full of belief, confident that we’re presentable inside and out. Let’s keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word. Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching.

As I mentioned in last week’s sermon, we are moving into the summer months by looking at two important subjects – Sabbath Rest and Celebration. 

Last week, I started us on this journey by talking about how taking time for rest can help reorient our lives after this long pandemic. This reorienting is a reconnecting with our self, the Divine, and, probably the most challenging after being isolated in a pandemic, a reorienting to each other.

Over the years, I have found that often when I talk about Sabbath or even rest in general, people tense up or begin to push back.  Sabbath for some has a negative connotation – everything from childhood rules and regulations to long periods of quiet, stillness, and boredom.  But that is not all that Sabbath Rest is all about.

Over the years, I have come to see Sabbath as an opportunity for Celebration.  It is an opportunity to reorient yourself to the core of who you are.  To reconnect you to your Inner Light.  To reengage your neighbors, friends, and loved ones.

Most of our week is spent “doing” – it is about work, production, providing for yourself and possibly your family. Even if you are retired, I often notice that you are still “doing.” Since we spend so much time “doing” often our lives get entangled and what we “do” becomes our identity. 

Let’s be honest, the pandemic did not help this – it only exacerbated this situation.  For many, the pandemic stripped away all other aspects of connection and left us dealing with life and work alone and isolated.  All that was left was “doing” to survive. 

Many of us adapted, some of us struggled, but all of us began to miss one aspect of life that seemed to be forced to end – that being celebration.

If you look up celebration in the dictionary, you are quick to find that celebration is a concept that evokes a great deal of action – it includes descriptors such as:

·        To preform

·        To honor

·        To mark

·        To hold up

·        To observe

Celebration also speaks similarly to Sabbath in that it also includes refraining – but in this case from one’s ordinary business – or as one definition puts it “a deviation from routine.” One definition even highlights the sacredness and solemnity of celebration. 

This is why I find Sabbath Rest and Celebration going hand in hand.  They have commonalities, as well as similar foundations. 

Yet, I have a feeling you are thinking…now wait a minute, Bob…I don’t see rest and celebration at all in the same category.  And for many that is probably true, but it doesn’t have to be. 

If rest is to reorient us, celebration can be the response to that reorientation. 

Just think, when we went into the pandemic and everything began to be shut down, we had to reorient ourselves greatly.  We had to see life, work, family, worship in new ways.  We reoriented to our homes, to Zoom Rooms, to ordering online, to cooking again, to our backyards, to virtual spaces for everything from worship to doctor’s visits. 

And while we reoriented to this “new normal” we also saw people saying things like, “I seem to never stop working” or “All I do now is watch the news” or “I am climbing the walls not being able to see people.”  Both extroverts and introverts struggled in different ways – because reorienting takes time, it takes something from you, it creates unexpected and unwanted change.

And what usually brings us out of that is some type of celebration. 

In our country, we celebrate the weekend. We celebrate by going out for dinner with family, having drinks with friends, planning a date, and listening to live music.  We go see movies, concerts, visit museums, go on road trips, take vacations. 

Yet in one fell swoop, the pandemic forced us to reorient ourselves and refrain from ALL forms of this type of celebration – big or small. 

When this happened, we began another process – the process of grieving. 

One of the hardest things for me as a pastor during this time was not being able to celebrate fully the lives of those who passed away in our meeting.  Just a few days before we shut down, I spent the day grieving the passing of our friend, Dan Raines. Then soon after unexpectedly came our Friends, Richard Mills, Kristin Noble’s mother, Flora, and Jody and Janis’ mother, Kay.  None of these, did we properly have a chance to celebrate during this time.      

I performed weddings with no guests or limited attendance.  We did what we could outside.  But we didn’t fully celebrate with one another or in our own hearts and lives.

Sue and I took a moment to look back over 2020 to ponder all that the reorienting to the pandemic caused us to miss and then grieve.

Our son, Alex’s College Graduation

Our son, Sam’s High School Graduation

Sue and my 25th Wedding Anniversary

Sue’s 25th year of teaching.

My 25th year of professional ministry

(After 10 years) my recording among Friends.

And I could go on, but I know many of you missed milestones, anniversaries, and so much more as well.

This is why as we reorient back from the pandemic; we must find time to rest from all our doing AND celebrate once again!

As I spoke of in my “As Way Opens” article this week and as Beth pointed out in waiting worship from my sermon last week, this is going to take a reorienting or shift from our focus on doing to being.

We have been consumed with “doing” for over a year, now.  As Kelsey Courter illustrated in the table I shared in my article, there are two mental modes we work within and that are often at odds with each other.

These are the Driven-Doing Mode and the Being Mode.

The Driven-Doing Mode is characterized by things that have become essential and heightened during the pandemic.  Things like:

·        A sense of “have to” or “should”

·        Constant monitoring

·        Focusing on the past or the future

·        Progressing toward goals – internally and externally.

·        Evaluating things being “good” or bad” and what we should do with each.

I know for me those clearly describe how I reoriented myself during the pandemic. 

I and many others, were constantly asking questions like:

·        What do I have to do or what should I do to be safe?

·        How do I monitor that safety – who can I believe is telling me the truth?

·        Why can’t we go back to the way it was before the pandemic and what does the future hold?

·        How can I stay focused on my goals? What are my goals now? How is this effecting my goals and outcomes?

·        What is good in this situation?  What is bad? And how might I find a way through?

I know at times I became hyper-focused on questions of this nature.

But when looking at the Being Mode, I am realizing that to reorient myself, I first need to slow down, stop the questioning and doing, and move into a new space of being. Corter describes the Being Mode this way.

·        It is not attached to a goal.

·        It accepts and allows what is.

·        There is no pressure to monitor.

·        The focus is on the PRESENT MOMENT.

·        Feelings come into awareness and are temporary.

·        Experience has freedom to be fresh and responsive.

Now, I know some of you will say, “Well, this is rather ideal.” And you would be right, because this is not a shift from Driven-Doing Mode to Being Mode – but rather a balancing out of these modes. 

We have spent so much time in Driven-Doing that I would say that we have lost a lot of our being.  This is yet again why we need to celebrate.  We need to celebrate our being! 

·        We need to celebrate what is!

·        We need to celebrate the fact that much of the pressure to constantly monitor our safety is being lifted.

·        We need to celebrate our awareness and the awareness of others and come together around our new understandings of one another.

·        We need to celebrate our freedom and all the fresh new opportunities that are ahead of us and respond with hope.

·        We need to celebrate once again the PRESENT MOMENT.

Folks, we have grown more than we know, and I sense as we take the time to find Sabbath Rest and reorient ourselves back to our relationships with self, the Divine, and one another, we are going to continue to find new ways to celebrate!  To revel in the Present Moment. To Celebrate what is! 

I hope you will join me in the summer months to seek a balance.  Keep doing but also lean into being.  Be aware but not obsessed.  Embrace the freedom and new opportunities and find ways to celebrate!  I sense if we do this, we will find ourselves growing spiritually, mentally, relationally and living into the Present Moment with gusto! 

Now, as we enter a time of waiting worship, I ask that you ponder the following queries:

1.     What celebrations have I missed during this pandemic? And how has it affected me?

2.     How might I seek a greater balance in my “doing and being” this week?

3.     In what ways do I plan to celebrate my being in this present moment? 

6-6-21 - Sabbath Reorientation

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

June 6, 2021

Good morning Friends…It is so good to be back in-person and in the Meetinghouse! We almost need to take a moment and let it all sink in.  As our opening prayer stated – this has been a season of crisis, but with the help of the Divine we have made it safely to this point. It is good to be back together!   

To begin this morning, I want to take a moment to thank Beth for bringing the excellent message last Sunday to afford me the opportunity to take my family to our first Indy 500 race. The tickets were a special present for our son, Sam, for the high school graduation he missed last year. If you had a chance to watch the event, you would know that it was a beautiful day and an amazing race. Beth, thank you for being the blessing you spoke of last week in your sermon.

Also, May has quickly turned to June and we are celebrating with our LGBTQ+ family as it is Pride Month. We are so happy you are part of our family at First Friends.

And now that school is out, and the weather is getting warmer, we are getting back outside to take a big deep breath and give up a sigh of relief that the pandemic is finally looking as if it is coming to a close.

For many, including First Friends, this also means we are entering another time of great transition.   

Again I want to take a moment to thank each member and clerk of our Reopening Task Force for their hard work during this past year and for their conservative, patient, and wise approach to keeping us all safe and getting to this point of being back together once again. Thank you!

As we continue to make transitions, I ask you for your continued grace and ongoing patience with one another, especially as we make our transition back to what I will call our “new normal.” 

If you read my last “As Way Opens” article, to help with this transition we are going to be looking at two important spiritual subjects as we enter the summer months– Sabbath and Celebration. 

This First Day, I want to focus on Sabbath as an important aspect of reorienting ourselves.  

If you study the word Sabbath, you will find it comes from the Hebrew word “to cease” or “to stop working.”

In the Jewish or Hebrew traditions, it was a full day each week dedicated to rest and prayer.

And observing the Sabbath was the fourth, and some theologians consider the most detailed, of the Ten Commandments.

Ironically, in modern American Christianity, Sabbath is probably the most neglected commandment. Even many Quakers, today, view it as simply legalistic and obsolete.

But Sabbath is more than a suggestion. In the Old Testament it was a practice commanded repeatedly by God and affirmed centuries later by Jesus in the New Testament.

This raises an important query for us this morning:

What could Sabbath mean for us today as we transition back?

To begin exploring the answers to that query, let us consider Sabbath as an opportunity for reorienting - a reorienting with self, the Divine, and others.

To do this we need to return to Deuteronomy 5:12-14 (our text for this morning) where it is rather clear what God thinks about observing the Sabbath – reading from the Message version you should get the full unfiltered effect of these words.  

No working on the Sabbath; keep it holy just as God, your God, commanded you. Work six days, doing everything you have to do, but the seventh day is a Sabbath, a Rest Day—no work: not you, your son, your daughter, your servant, your maid, your ox, your donkey (or any of your animals), and not even the foreigner visiting your town. That way your servants and maids will get the same rest as you. Don’t ever forget that you were slaves in Egypt and God, your God, got you out of there in a powerful show of strength. That’s why God, your God, commands you to observe the day of Sabbath rest.

Let me make this even more relevant for today. Here is the Bob Henry translation.

Do not work on your day off. It should be a day set apart as God modeled from the beginning of time. On the other days, put in your work, do the things that need to be done, but make sure to make rest a priority. That means NO work, turn off the social media, turn off the T.V. put away your smart phone, put your car in the garage and put your feet up!

Tell your children, parents, friends, even those who serve you at your favorite restaurant or store to make rest a priority. Find time for a nap, today! If someone unexpectedly comes to visit, just enjoy their presence – maybe have a glass of wine with them.

This way, everyone will have the rest they need to keep the world going. Don’t forget all that you have done throughout the week and that you deserve this time, your family deserves you taking this time, your neighbors deserve you taking this time, and your co-workers deserve you taking this time.

Rest makes you a better person. God wants you at your best and knows this will be one of the ways to bring out your best as well as the best in others.

You deserve a break, so take a rest! 

Now, I want to take this to another level. Julia Wallace from Baylor University showed how this reorientation to Sabbath should happen in three distinct directions.

She says that a millennia later, the need for Sabbath still has the power to reorient us upwardly, inwardly and outwardly. She says this,

“Upwardly, Sabbath redefines how we are to understand God. The call to Sabbath is a call to stop, which involves deep trust. Stopping requires us to let go of our control and our belief that the world will fall apart without us, which is definitely a humbling posture. This posture challenges us to recognize that God is…active and in control. Stopping also helps us to recognize the relationality of God – that God, our Creator, designed the rhythms of the universe to include a time of regular and intentional communion between Creator and creation.

Inwardly, Sabbath radically redefines how we are to understand ourselves. In a world that tells us that our worth is defined by our works, Sabbath serves as a countercultural command. Sabbath strips away the notion that a person’s worth is defined by their activity and instead affirms that our worth is not in doing; it is in being.”

Now, this is a huge and very important point – if Julia Wallace is correct, then Sabbath helps us to reorient ourselves to the Divine (what she labels upwardly) and to our self (what she labels inwardly) which both have been heightened for us during the pandemic.

Yet she goes one step further - and I think it may be the most important reorienting for us in our current condition – this is the reorientation needed with one another (which she labels outwardly).  She says,   

The outward dimension is often an overlooked part of Sabbath. Recognizing that a person’s worth is in their being and not in their doing should not only transform how we view ourselves but also how we view others. It should reorient our “outward” connection with others.

It’s tempting to value our neighbors based on their ability to contribute to us, or to society or to the economy (and I would add, even to our Meeting).

Sabbath reminds us that all people have worth beyond their economic or social value.

It seems pretty clear that you and I are called to promote and protect Sabbath for all those around us so that everyone can have the chance to experience God’s gift of rest.

This is exactly why we at First Friends felt it so important to consider our upcoming summer months a Sabbath Rest for our Meeting.  

It has become clear during the pandemic that we need to protect and promote Sabbath for the vulnerable who have less control over their time due to social and economic situations.

Also, the sabbath needs to be promoted and protected for those who gave so much over the last year to keep us safe. People like health care workers, educators, front line workers, and so many more who have had no time to truly “cease” from or “stop working.” 

In the scriptures it was clear that God called the Israelites to uphold a command that required them to consider the situations of ALL people, not just their own. This is hard for some because their work and the entitlement it brings causes them to not see how much their neighbors are in need of true rest.

As well, during times of difficult transitions, returning to a said, “normalcy,” and all with a lack of rest, what sadly can result is a rather selfish disposition.

Thus, we must be careful to be considerate of the needs of our neighbors – especially as it relates to rest. We may even want to seek ways to help those around us find rest, to take a break, to enjoy life again. 

Maybe you notice those young parents needing a night out and are willing to babysit, or you sense a meal and bottle of wine is needed for that single health care worker who has worked three shifts in a row, or you notice the retired widow who lives two doors down who needs someone to enjoy a conversation over lunch.  These are just a few ways to help those around you experience moments of Sabbath rest.

So, as we enter this season of Sabbath Rest at First Friends, let’s consider Julia Wallace’s three orientations – Upward, Inward, and Outward – and take a moment to look around us and sense the needs of our families, our neighbors, our fellow friends, and even our coworkers and let’s be proactive in helping them create a needed time for true rest. 

Now, as we center down for a time of waiting worship, I want to remind you that we will not be passing the microphone for those who are led by the Spirit to speak out of the silence. Instead, we ask that if you are led to speak, please come forward and use this stationary microphone. 

Now, to prepare us for waiting worship, I have prepared the following queries for us to ponder (they are also printed in your bulletin):    

·        Amid the chaos of transitioning back from the pandemic, am I rediscovering ways to reorient my relationship with the Divine?

·        Are any of my doubts fed by the notion that my worth comes solely from my productivity rather than my identity as a child of God?

·        In relation to others, do I recognize and validate the worth and need for rest in others? How might I help someone this week find some needed rest.

5-30-21 - May I Be a Blessing Onto Others

Beth Henricks

May 30, 2021

A good friend of mine called me last week and said she ran across a video tape she had made interviewing my mother when she was 91 years old.  They covered a range of topics regarding theology, Christianity and how to live a fulfilling life.  On this video tape my mom looks into the camera and says that in the last few years of her life she wakes up each morning and asks God, how can I be a blessing to someone today?  A simple mantra, powerful, life changing and not easy to live into every day. 

As we celebrate Memorial Day this weekend , we are all reflecting on important people in our lives that are not with us anymore.  We miss them and we cherish our memories of them.  Yet their wisdom and their words live on in pictures, videos, in our hearts and memories.

As the poem states

Love Doesn’t Die

Give what’s left of me away

now that I’m gone.

Remember me with a smile and laughter

and if you need to cry…

cry for your brother or sister, who walk in grief beside you.

And when you need me,

put your arms around anyone and give

to them what you need to give to me.

I want to leave you something…

something better than words

or sounds.

Look for me in the people

I’ve known or loved or

helped in some special way.

Let me live in your eyes

as well as in your mind.

You can love me most

by letting love live

within the circle of your arms,

embracing the frightened ones.

Love doesn’t die, people do…

so when all that’s left of me is love,

give me away as best you can.

I’ll see you at home,

where I will be waiting.

My mother was speaking to me through this video she made a number of years ago.  How can I be a blessing to someone every day?  Blessing  and blessed are two words that are used a lot in the Judao/Christian world.  It is a word that has a lot of meaning and a lot of tradition and I have been thinking every day about this word and my actions each day.

Merriam Webster gives several definitions but most of them are of a spiritual nature: to be held in reverence like the blessed saints, honored in worship, enjoying happiness and specifically for Christianity, enjoying the bliss of heaven, something bringing pleasure, contentment of good fortune, having a sacred nature, being connected with God, receiving God’s favor.

The word blessing appears many times in the Old Testament.  It is used to describe God bestowing favor, riches, success, and honor to those obeying the law, being obedient, showing deference, and relying on God and God’s direction.  Within the Torah there are blessings for many activities and occasions - Blessings of Enjoyment, Blessings for Commandments, Blessings of Experience.  As the Fiddler on the Roof says in the musical, there is basically a blessing for everything. 

The blessing was a public declaration of a favored status with God.  It gave a power for prosperity and success and served as a guide and motivation to live a life within the blessing. 

We also see examples of blessing by the Father to the Son in the Torah.  Abraham, Issac and Jacob gave blessings to their children and grandchildren.  Blessings were stolen and the loss of a blessing was a curse to the family.  Often the blessing were words of encouragement and prophetic words about their future as long as they followed Yahweh.  They often envisioned a future where those who blessed their offspring would be blessed and those who cursed their offspring would be cursed.  This is similar to God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:3.    It indicates the idea that God has chosen this man to exercise God’s supernatural power in their world. The blessing from the patriarch also indicated the offspring’s superiority over others in the family.  A lot of the value of the blessing was in terms of inheritance and land.  This was the way to ensure the practical matter of estate planning and clearly indicating where assets and land would carry forward.

The New Testament and those practicing Christianity use the words blessed and blessing often.  It quite possibly are two of the most frequently used words in the Christian’s vocabulary. “Have a blessed day,” “blessed to be a blessing,”, “God bless you” bless God with all my soul are just a few of the ways we put it to use. Many of our praise songs are songs of blessing to God for God’s care, love and power in our lives and the world.  We give a blessing  before meals thanking God for this food and the abundance given to us.  Some people think of blessed as a spiritual term for “good fortune,” like when we receive something good, the desired outcome, or an exceptional comfort. It’s even common among unbelievers to describe themselves as “blessed.”   We hear these words often.

The word blessed in the New Testament is derived from the Greek term makarios, which means “fortunate,” “happy,” “enlarged,” or “lengthy.” Makarios is to define the kind of happiness that comes from receiving favor from God. Consequently, blessed can also be translated “favored.” In the New Testament, it usually carries the meaning of being “blessed by God.” As in the case of Mary, the mother of Jesus, who was “blessed among women” (Luke 1:42–45, 48), it was the Lord God who had blessed and favored her.

While material blessings are certainly included in God’s favor, there is a much broader understanding of the word blessed in the New Testament. 

Jesus uses the word blessed most profoundly in the beatitudes found in Matthew 5:3-12 and Luke 6:20-23.  Jesus used this term in the framework of the Beatitudes to describe the inner quality of a faithful servant of God. Blessed are the poor for yours is the kingdom of God, blessed are those who are hungry now for you will be filled, blessed are those that weep  for you will laugh, blessed are those who have people hate you, exclude, revile and defame you on behalf of the Son of Man for your reward is great in heaven, blessed are the meek, those who mourn, are poor in spirit, blessed are the pure in heart, the peacemakers and those that are persecuted.   Jesus is describing this blessedness as a spiritual state of well-being and prosperity—not a worldly success and blessing but a deep, joy-filled contentment that cannot be shaken by poverty, grief, famine, persecution, war, or any other trial or tragedy we face in life. In human terms, the situations depicted in the Beatitudes are far from blessings, but because God is present with us through these difficult times, we are actually blessed by God in them.

Being blessed is about trusting in God’s love no matter our circumstances.  As Romans 8:35-39 says

The one who is blessed trusts in God’s love, no matter what: “Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? . . . No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Blessed speaks of our inner state of well-being, the prosperity of our souls in Christ. Blessedness comes from unhindered fellowship with God. To be blessed is to experience the full impact of God’s presence in our lives now and for all eternity.

I appreciate and embrace all of these ideas of blessing and being blessed.  They are comforting to me and I have had periods in my life where I needed to cling to them and hold on to their hope and promise to be able to take my next step forward.  But most of these reflections have me as a receiver of the blessing or of giving a blessing to God for what God has done.  What has stopped me in my tracks is to hear my mom talk about being the blessing to someone every day.  I am going to give the blessing to someone every day by what I do or what I say?  In a theoretical way it’s easy to say that.  I do want to be a blessing to someone each day.  But how is that manifested in my life and your life?  Some days this has come fairly easily.  For me it’s probably easier to do this with strangers and friends as I think I’m pretty good at being kind with strangers and  look for ways to bless friends.    But what about those difficult times – how can we be a blessing?  How do we do this in the midst of a conflict?  How are we a blessing with folks where we have deep disagreements?  How do we do this when difficult circumstances are presented to us?  Can I be a blessing to someone that I feel at odds with?

I have had to confront this many times and recently last week.  I faced a difficult situation with one of our graduates from ESR and prayed about how to be a blessing in this situation.  Sometimes, when we offer a blessing to others they will not accept it  and that is ok.  We can offer a blessing and it’s up to the other person to accept this and we don’t have any control over that.   

My mom’s advice only encourages me to be a blessing each day to someone.  I need to be in the active mode of looking to be a blessing every day and not focus on outcomes or success or favored status but what God is calling me to do everyday based on how Christ has changed my life.

I love the message in Philippians 2:1-8

1 If you've gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care - 

2 then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. 

3 Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. 

4 Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. 

5 Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. 

6 He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. 

7 Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! 

8 Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death - and the worst kind of death at that: a crucifixion.

As we enter unprogrammed worship I ask you to think about how God is calling each of you to be a blessing to someone today and consider these two queries-

Am I living in an inner state of well-being feeling blessed by God’s presence?

How can I open myself up more to be an instrument of God in this world?

5-23-21 - Making Good Tables: The Soulfulness of Work

Making Good Tables: The Soulfulness of Work

Indianapolis First Friends

Pastor Bob Henry

May 23, 2021

Isaiah 65:23-25 (MSG)

For my people will be as long-lived as trees,
    my chosen ones will have satisfaction in their work.
They won’t work and have nothing come of it,
    they won’t have children snatched out from under them.
For they themselves are plantings blessed by God,
    with their children and grandchildren likewise God-blessed.
Before they call out, I’ll answer.
    Before they’ve finished speaking, I’ll have heard.
Wolf and lamb will graze the same meadow,
    lion and ox eat straw from the same trough,
    but snakes—they’ll get a diet of dirt!
Neither animal nor human will hurt or kill
    anywhere on my Holy Mountain,” says God.

Good morning Friends! Today, as we celebrate our graduates and as they head out into new opportunities, I want to take a moment to speak about the Soulfulness of Work. 

I believe I have shared this story before, but when I was working at Huntington University, I had the opportunity to go hear Wendell Berry and Wes Jackson speak at Indiana University. 

They happened to be talking about farming and the importance of being connected to the earth. Even though I was not a farmer, I gleaned so much from this lecture that I continue to return to every so often. 

During the Q&A section, a student, who I believe was just trying to get some answers for a paper asked a not-so-well thought out question about “work.” It came almost immediately after Wes Jackson said the following about growing up. He said,

“People who impressed me were those who worked.”

To answer the student’s question, Wendell, and Wes both rose to their feet and began addressing the way our culture looks at work.

Things like:

People today think:

·        Work is boring.

·        Work is trivial.

·        Work is what we have to do so we can have fun, or what Wendell summed up with the American phrase: Less work = more life, which is exactly what the student had assumed. 

Wes then said, “Work doesn’t have to be fun – but rather satisfying.” 

Wendell added satisfaction means you have done something - it is part of your being or life.

I found myself writing as fast as I could while thinking about how different this was than what our world says, or, even more, what the church told me growing up. 

I realized that many people I knew hated work. Now, many were simply lazy or living for the weekend. Yet some took on two or three jobs to pay outstanding credit card

 bills, while others did the same simply to purchase bigger toys, go on grander trips, live in more lucrative neighborhoods. And then there was those who worked simply to survive. 

I think we must remember - each person has a completely different story when it comes to work.  

For the past 25+ years as a pastor, I can’t count the number of people who have   met with me struggling with their work, some who have considered their work-lives miserable or a dreaded task to complete. 

And the big theme I continue to see is that they are simply not satisfied by what they do. 

My friend John Pattison writes in his book, “Slow Church,”

Soulless work is one of the alienating effects of industrialization, along with unemployment, underemployment, low wages, child labor, the imposition of degraded work on degraded people and a ream of other consequences.  But we can have a very different view of work, one that seeks a balance between taking work too seriously and not taking it seriously enough. Doing good work is one important way we respond as followers of Jesus to the work God is already doing around us.   

Let’s be honest, most of us were not taught to value all types of work. I remember people telling me when I was young, “Well, you don’t want to grow up to be a garbage man or work at a gas station, do you?”

That view changed when the guy who pumped my gas each week in Silverton (when we lived in Oregon you could not pump your own gas) became a regular attender to Meeting for Worship. I began to value his work and who he was because I was able to get to know more of his story. 

We would never say, “You don’t want to grow up to be a doctor or lawyer?”  But I know doctors and lawyers who are miserable in their professions and are not satisfied. 

And the same is true about people who are retired – because their work was so much a part of them that stopping work was an attack on their being.

Let’s be honest, we still categorize work by what we would be willing or unwilling to do. And that is creating negative perceptions of work.

For some people their work is not an option. They work for survival.  They work at whatever job they can get.  They are often grateful to simply have a job.  But too often those type of jobs are ones that sadly exploit workers.  Jobs that are not satisfying because they dehumanize people and they become estranged from their own being and the tasks that could engage their human potential and creativity. 

Instead, they are forced to take jobs that are repetitive, uninteresting, and unsatisfying because the world has alienated them by saying things like I heard growing up about garbage men and gas station attendants. 

Or too often we make professional athletics, celebrity status, and stardom the goal.  For goodness sakes, just think about it, we have a long-standing show in our country called, “American Idol” and about 20 other reality shows that create a process to manufacture “stardom.”       

What if we valued blue collar jobs as much as we valued a white-collar job? If we taught our children that ALL work is valuable and needed.

Those migrant farmers were just as important as the farmers, the garbage collectors were just as important as the doctors, the members just as important as the pastors – I think you might be getting this…what I am talking about is the Quaker distinctive of equality – that all people are equal in the eyes of God.  No title or position should get in the way of how we treat others.

As well since we often identify so deeply with our vocations.  We introduce ourselves by our work, we identify by our work, we even associate by our work.  

For several years at Huntington University, I taught an upper-level class with a college counselor called, “Calling, Being, Doing: Rethinking the Rest of Your Life.”

The class proceeded through looking at one’s calling, to seeing one’s being, and then to what one would do with what they learned.

Many students found themselves in their junior or senior year fretting over what they were going to do with their lives.  Maybe some of our graduates today are still at the place since they graduated during a pandemic.

Too often we found, especially at a Christian University, how much the church and its views negatively influenced the students and did not allow them to see and embrace their “being” and who they genuinely were – leaving them fearful and fretting the world outside the so-called “college bubble.”

Quaker Parker Palmer addressed this very thing in Yes! Magazine in an article titled, “Now, I become myself.”  Just listen to what he had to say,

“I first learned about vocation growing up in the church. I value much about the religious tradition in which I was raised: its humility about its own convictions, its respect for the world's diversity, its concern for justice. But the idea of vocation I picked up in those circles created distortion until I grew strong enough to discard it. I mean the idea that vocation, or calling, comes from a voice external to ourselves, a voice of moral demand that asks us to become someone we are not yet—someone different, someone better, someone just beyond our reach.

That concept of vocation is rooted in a deep distrust of selfhood, in the belief that the sinful self will always be “selfish” unless corrected by external forces of virtue. It is a notion that made me feel inadequate to the task of living my own life, creating guilt about the distance between who I was and who I was supposed to be, leaving me exhausted as I labored to close the gap.

Today I understand vocation quite differently—not as a goal to be achieved but as a gift to be received. Discovering vocation does not mean scrambling toward some prize just beyond my reach but accepting the treasure of true self I already possess. Vocation does not come from a voice “out there” calling me to become something I am not. It comes from a voice “in here” calling me to be the person I was born to be, to fulfill the original selfhood given me at birth by God.”

I will be honest; I wish my pastor and church growing up would have quoted and share those very words of Parker Palmer with me. Because it has taken a long-time (actually, I would say I am still wrestling with it) to grasp that vocation comes from my inner voice calling me to be the person I was born to be, to fulfill the original selfhood given to me by the Divine.

I guess what I am trying to say in all of this, is that clearly, we need to have a paradigm shift in the way we look at work.

Author and storyteller, Dorothy Sayers put it rather succinctly speaking of a carpenter in the church:  

How can anyone remain interested in a religion which seems to have no concern with nine-tenths of his life? The Church’s approach to an intelligent carpenter is usually confined to exhorting him not to be a drunk and disorderly in his leisure hours, and to come to church on Sundays.  What the church should be telling him is this: that the very first demand that his religion makes upon him is that he should make good tables. 

Graduates, members and attenders, virtual guests, and friends, as we go out into the world, I hope you are encouraged each day to listen to your inner voice, to fulfill your original selfhood, and go and make “good tables” or whatever your gifting and the Spirit of the Divine lead you to make, do, create, think, etc.

Go today and embrace becoming your TRUE SELF, find satisfaction in doing what is truly YOU, and you will find the soulfulness of work!

Now, for those of us who need to ponder on this and wrestle with this some more, here are some queries to lead us into Waiting Worship this morning:

Am I satisfied by my work?

Where do my views of good work need to change?

How can our Meeting effect change in the idea of work in our community?

5-16-21 - The Hidden Secret of Being Beloved

The Hidden Secret of Being Beloved

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

May 16, 2021

Zephaniah 3:17 (The Voice)

17 The Eternal your God is standing right here among you,
    and He is the champion who will rescue you.
He will joyfully celebrate over you;
    He will rest in His love for you; He will joyfully sing because of you like a new husband.

Good morning Friends, it is so good to join you this morning in the comfort of your own homes.  I pray this finds you safe and well.

Last week on Mother’s Day I spoke about the truth that we are special, unique, and original in the eyes of our Divine Mother.  But sometimes we forget that truth, and struggle to grasp it or embrace it fully. 

Many of today’s modern mystics speak of this in terms of coming to an understanding that we are not just special, unique, and original, but also beloved by God.

The dictionary says that “beloved” means dearly loved or a much-loved person.

The early mystics of the church would describe this in often uncomfortable or awkwardly intimate terms.  Some would go as far as using a metaphor of marriage partners and the intimacy between those partners to describe just how beloved one is in God’s eyes.

Here is just one example of this from Teresa of Avila:

Who could explain the benefit that lies in throwing ourselves into the arms of this Lord of ours and making an agreement with His Majesty that I look at my Beloved and my Beloved at me . . . . Let Him kiss me with the kiss of His mouth, for without You, what am I, Lord? If I am not close to You, what am I worth? If I stray a little from Your Majesty, where will I end up? Oh, my Lord, my Mercy, and my Good! And what greater good could I want in this life than to be so close to You, that there be no division between You and me? With this companionship, what can be difficult? What can one not undertake for You, being so closely joined?

The reason they chose such intimate language is because being the “Beloved of God” is both extremely personal and a part of our inner journeys. 

Some mystics describe it as a secret or even a hidden secret between lovers.  Whether you read the poetry of the Psalmist in the Bible, Rumi’s Big Red Book, Hafiz’s Drunk on the Wine of the Beloved, or many of the early church writers, you will find them talking about this “hidden secret.” 

Even Jesus himself applauds God in Matthew for “hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to the little ones (Matt. 11:25).  But what are these hidden secrets that so many mystics and religious seekers are speaking of?

Richard Rohr says,

“The big and hidden secret is this: an infinite God seeks and desires intimacy with the human soul. Once we experience such intimacy, only the intimate language of lovers describes the experience for us: mystery, tenderness, singularity, specialness, changing the rules “for me,” nakedness, risk, ecstasy, incessant longing, and of course also, necessary suffering. This is the mystical vocabulary of the saints.”

Yet, in our world today, we have big issues when it comes to this “vocabulary of the saints”. Many today fear intimacies, many go to counseling for issues relating to intimacy, many reject intimacy because it is too complicated, too personal, and takes too much work. 

Also today, there are countless self-help books on increasing or developing our intimacy, retreats couples can go on, even pills they can take, but intimacy doesn’t come from a book, a retreat, or a pill. 

Much like the intimacy between lovers, the intimacy with the Divine comes from within ourselves. 

Richard Rohr calls it an “inner knowing” and a connecting with the indwelling presence of the Divine.  As Quakers we often speak of this inner knowing in connection with our need for discernment. Friend Joycelin Dawes who writes on Quaker Spirituality says,

Discernment is living in accordance with our inner knowing, a stream of wisdom and will-to-good that arises as we are in touch with our deepest inner place or source.

Yet, often, I will be honest, it is hard to make that connection and put our self in a discerning posture. It is not easy getting in touch and staying in touch with that deep inner place where we are able to hear and discern our beloved-ness.

This is probably due to the fact that most of our understanding comes from how often other people fail us or lack an intimate love for us, and how infrequently we center down and connect with the Divine in this deep and meaningful way. 

Henri Nouwen testifies to these very feelings and I can identify. In his book, “Home Tonight” he says this…

Personally, as my struggle reveals, I don’t often “feel” like a beloved child of God. But I know that this is my most primal identity and I know that I must choose it above and beyond my hesitations.

            Strong emotions, self-rejections, and even self-hatred justifiably toss you about, but you are free to respond as you will.  You are not what others, or even you, think about yourself. You are not what you do. You are not what you have. You are a full member of the human family, having been known before you were conceived and molded in your mother’s womb.

In times when you feel bad about yourself, try to choose to remain true to the truth of who you really are. Look in the mirror each day and claim your true identity.  Act ahead of your feelings and trust that one day your feeling will match your convictions. Choose now and continue to choose this incredible truth. As a spiritual practice claim and reclaim your primal identity as the beloved daughter or son of a personal Creator.

According to Nouwen, our acceptance of our beloved-ness is part of our individual life journeys.  Through centering, meditation, and prayer, entering silence and expectant waiting, we Quakers come to understand that God loves us, as we are, in both our limitations and glory.

Just like I said last week about being special, unique, and original in God’s eyes, by the Divine’s voice calling us his beloved it silences our self-condemnation and our self-rejection; listening to this voice coming from God – as well as through other people who show us love and acceptance – is what enables us to feel at home in the world.

Since we believe each one of us has “that of God” within us, we must ask ourselves,

●       Are we getting in the way of someone feeling beloved by God?

●       And are we adding to the condemnation and rejection causing people to feel like outsiders and unloved?

Living out the truth of our beloved-ness is one of the greatest ways that the Present Christ is being incarnated in each of us.  When through our lives and relationships we help others sense they too are beloved they begin to see both that of God in us and in themselves.

As a way to let this truth sink in, Herni Nouwen developed a spiritual exercise called “The Beloved Prayer,” a three-part prayer that can be done individually or as part of guided meditation in a group.

“The Beloved Prayer” begins with quietly praying the phrase, “Jesus, you are the Beloved,” then moving onto “Jesus, I am the Beloved,” and then concluding with “Jesus, we are all the Beloved.”

Since we are blessed to have this technology to bring you this experience, you can pause or go back later if you want to focus on any specific part of this experience.

But let’s begin by quieting ourselves, centering down and entering this worshipful space this morning.

Begin to breathe slowly and deeply, relaxing your body and clearing your mind.

Expectantly wait for the Spirit to guide your meditation and prayer time.

Now, choose a phrase or mantra that seems to most resonate with you at this moment: 

●       Jesus, you are the Beloved;

●       Jesus, I am the Beloved; or 

●       Jesus, we are all the Beloved.

Begin by simply saying it to yourself, quietly aloud, or only in your head.

You may choose to close your eyes. Try to gently merge the rhythm of the phrase with the rhythm of your breathing.

Say it slowly, without hurry, until every other thought seems to fall away. As distractions inevitably show up, don’t worry about them. Simply acknowledge them and refocus the words of the mantra or prayer.

At this time, we will stay silent and continue to reflect on these three mantras as our waiting worship.

●       Jesus, you are the Beloved;

●       Jesus, I am the Beloved; or 

●       Jesus, we are all the Beloved.

[Add extra 3 minutes for this this slide with the three mantras]

You may find this meditation and prayer time comes to a natural conclusion. Hopefully you feel rested and replete, or you may find a bodily demand can no longer be ignored.

When the time seems right for you, come slowly back to your normal awareness and sit for a moment in silence.

If you feel led to do so, end with a brief prayer of thanksgiving and a request for continued awareness of God’s presence throughout your day.

You may find that one phrase claims your attention for days or weeks, or you may feel drawn to a different phrase each day.

Either way, trust the Spirit to affirm your beloved-ness and bring you back to that place of your core identity as God’s beloved.

I would like to close this time by reciting a poem of Rumi:

Oh Beloved, take me.

Liberate my soul.

Fill me with your love and release me from the two worlds.

If I set my heart on anything but you let fire burn me from inside.

 

Oh Beloved, take away what I want.

Take away what I do.

Take away what I need.

Take away everything that takes me from you.

 

Rumi

Amen.

5-9-21 - Special, Original, Unique

Special, Unique, Original

Indianapolis First Friends

Pastor Bob Henry

May 9, 2021

Galatians 5:25-26 (The Message)  

25-26 Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us  make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.  

Good Morning Friends and Happy Mother’s Day to all our mothers and those who have been like-mothers and mother-figures to us.  We honor you today!

I am extremely blessed to have a wonderful mother who has always loved and cared for me.  She instilled in me at a very young age an evolving faith and a confidence in the person I would become. She did this by always reminding me that I was special, that I was uniquely wired, and that I was an original.  When I was younger, I took those moments for granted. But looking back, I realize they gave me a stability and self-assurance that laid a foundation for my life and faith – and I am eternally grateful.

What I have learned over time is that my mother’s care and guidance were inspired by her faith and how she understood God’s view of humanity.

You herd it again as Beth read for us the text for this morning, “Each of us is an original”…each is unique… each is special, but often we don’t take the time to understand or even explore this  (for some it is simply selfish and negates our spiritual development). 

But it was the religious scholar and mystic, Meister Eckhardt, who said it succinctly, 

“No one has known God who has not known himself.”

As Quakers a central aspect of our faith is that we believe that all people have an Inner Light, which refers to the Divine presence within each of us and directly impacts our personal experience of God. So just maybe the first place we need to explore to encounter the Divine is within our very own lives. 

Take a moment to ponder: When was the last time you thought about who you are?

Most of you know, I spent the past week taking a spiritual retreat at the Fall Creek Abbey here in Indy. An important aspect of most spiritual retreats is getting back in touch with one’s self, where we can hear our own heart’s desires once again. I spent a part of each day exploring that very question “Who am I?” from a variety of perspectives – as a husband, father, pastor, artist, Quaker, and the list went on…

The spiritual giants of the past called this experience getting to know your “true self.” 

Which immediately garners the question, are their parts of me that are not my true self?

For many of us, we spend a great deal of our lives trying to be somebody else or at least taking on labels that do not truly describe us.  Even as people of faith, we often have been told to be somebody else or at least feel the guilt of not being someone else.

Let me give you an example that most of us can relate to from James Martin’s book, “Becoming Who You Are.” He says,

“I would notice that another novice whom I admired was quiet and soft-spoken and diffident and introspective. I would think, “I need to be quiet and soft-spoken and diffident and introspective.” Consequently, the following days were spent in a largely useless attempt at being quiet, until someone would eventually say, “Are you feeling alright?” The very next week I would meet someone who had a particular fondness for praying very early in the morning, and who seemed very holy, and I would say to myself, “Well, I guess I have to start praying early in the morning, too.”  And then, up at five in the morning for my new regime, until that tired me out, too.”

Martin says, “My spiritual director kept reminding me that I didn’t need to be like anyone else except me. But it took a while for that to sink in.”

Does this sound familiar to you?

I too had some of these epiphanies during my retreat. Don’t we all, at times, get a little envious, even jealous of other people, especially when it comes to how it affects our faith or life journey?  I will be honest...

●        I have at times envied the monk’s life. (After this year - and this past week on retreat – it is extremely inviting.

●        I have at times envied those who have ongoing revelations from God.

●        I have at times been jealous of people who actually say that they hear the audible voice of the Divine.

●        And I have been envious of those that make the spiritual journey look so easy - because I find myself wrestling with doubt way too often.

It is this very thing that causes religious guilt, cookie-cutter followers, and even worse “Holier-than-thou” lives. Something, I believe the church is suffering greatly from in our day and age.

James Martin gets to the truth that what we are really doing is “minimizing our own gifts and graces and maximizing the other person’s… and vice versa….we often do the opposite with our problems and struggles: we maximize our own and minimize the other person’s.”

This becomes what one of my mentors called, “victimization.” We love to play the victim – “everyone else has it together, but poor me.” I am sure you know of people that are always “playing the victim” – honestly, they are not people we want to be around.

Folks, no one’s life is free of suffering or struggle.  We are all going through stuff (often stuff that we hold close and do not speak of or share) - and we need to remember this, because it helps put our own situations in perspective.  

We may not be able to see it in another person’s life - we don’t know what is terrorizing someone else’s soul.  Yet, you and I often want to be someone else, most likely to escape our own situation.

We say things like...

●        If only I had her/his good looks or youthfulness.

●        If only I had their money and wealth.

●        If only I had a spouse/partner/parent/friend like that person does.

●        If only I had her/his knowledge or faith.

●        If only I had the confidence and personality that person does.

●        If only I had _____________fill in the blank.

We can’t know all that we are asking for when wishing in this way. There is experience, pain and suffering that has gone into each of our lives.  

●        Are we willing to experience that as well?  

●        Or are we simply seeking the quick fix or the magic serum or pill? 

My mom did not tell me I was special, unique, and original and then continue to say that I would have no problems, no suffering, no desires to compare my life and abilities to someone else, or that I would at times play the victim. 

We have to admit it; we live in a world who often obsesses on comparing, trying to live up to, and even be something that we are not. 

James Martin says,

“The tendency to compare ultimately leads to despair, since our own real life can never compare with the perceived (but false) perfection of the other person’s life.” 

Now, I want to pause on this point and make a 180 degree turn.  

Much like my mother, our mother God has been telling us these truths since the beginning of time. We really have no reason to despair. Actually, just the opposite. Our Divine Mother has clearly indicated that we should be people of hope – a chosen and set-apart people with a special, unique, and original purpose.

Throughout the entire Bible, God makes this evident, but because we are prone to wander, prone to compare, prone to feel guilty, prone to want to be somebody else, we often miss it.

 Just listen to what our Mother God is saying about us.

Deuteronomy 7:6 “…you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.” 

1 Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” 

Revelation 17:14 “He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful” 

1 Corinthians 12:18-30 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, ... 

I Peter 4:10 “Serve one another with the particular gifts God has given each of you, as faithful dispensers of the magnificently varied grace of God.” 

Did you hear it...this is how we are described by our Divine Mother. 

We are…

●        Holy

●        Chosen

●        A treasured possession

●        A Royal priesthood

●        Ones who are called out of darkness to Light

●        Faithful

●        Needed

●        Indispensable

●        Gifted

●        Dispensers of God’s grace.

When we realize how God views us – that we are all the attributes I just read, it is evident that God sees us as special, unique and original.     

And this is where our text from Galatians 5:25-26 comes into perspective. Let me read it once again. 

25-26 Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original. 

And together, because of our originality, we have a greater privilege of seeing a clearer picture of God and sharing that diverse picture of God with others. 

But I must be honest, I have a feeling that what people, actually see, often doesn’t look anything like the Divine at all.  Instead, of our beautiful originality, what many see in the church today are what I call the four C’s:

1.     Comparing

2.     Complaining

3.     Controlling, and…

4.     A desire for being Comfortable.

All this leads me to another “C” word, calling.  

So what is our calling?

I agree with Dan Allender when he answers that question by saying,

“It is to make known something about God that is bound to my unique face, name, and story.  It is to reveal God through my character.”

Folks, we are “Each an Original” by the grace and love of God.  I want each of you to know what my mom instilled in me and our Mother God has been saying since the beginning of time:

●       you are special,

●       you are unique,

●       and you are an original

Now, as we move into waiting worship, I ask you to ponder the following three queries (you may need to find a place to retreat this week to journal and ponder them). 

1. Who am I, really?

2. What about God am I most uniquely suited to reveal to others?

3. And how is that meaning in my life best lived out?

5-2-21 - What Is the Church? Practicing Resurrection

What is the Church – Practicing Resurrection

Eugene Peterson book Practice Resurrection, A Conversation on Growing Up on Christ 

Ephesians 4:1-7

Beth Henricks

As many of you know, I am finally finishing my masters in divinity degree from Earlham School of Religion next month.  It’s been nine long years of working towards this and I am thankful that the journey is nearing its end but also reflecting on the importance of my seminary experience on my ministry here.

The final class a seminary student takes at ESR is called Comprehensive Seminar and it is kind of a culmination class of the seminary experience.  Each week we have looked at the question What is the Church and What is its mission today?   We examined the question from a personal, theological, Biblical, denominational, church historical, cultural, and ethical perspective.  I have spent a lot of time reflecting on the Church and just read Eugene Peterson’s book Practice Resurrection, A Conversation on Growing up in Christ, examining the Church through the lens of Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus.  I also asked this question of many of you during one of our fellowship hours and heard from you that the Church is community, the incarnation of God’s flesh, a body of seekers, embodiment of the Word, a collective group to live out faith in the world, and a place to wrestle with questions and doubts.  For me, the Church (and I am speaking about the universal Church) has been the air that we breathe that allows our beings to have meaning.  Also at times, it has been the blockage in our air waves that has had us gasping.

Many churches might have a different answer to this question than what I heard from many of you.  They might say, The Church is a place for its members to accept Jesus as their personal savior, learn right beliefs and theology, study the Bible, share the good news of salvation and bring new converts into the Church.  Many churches feel their mission is to identify the human depravity, that Jesus died for our sins to appease a God that requires justice and a substitution for our sins, and that we must accept Jesus as our personal savior to save us from eternal damnation.   This was the Church that I grew up in and while bothered by some of this for a number of reasons, thought that this was Church. 

Part of my spiritual journey has been to study and live a different type of Church.  The Religious Society of Friends and this Meeting has opened my eyes to the possibility of a different Church.  It is one that is based in Scripture and the life and teachings of Jesus.  But it is radical in how we seek the call from Christ and how we listen for the voice of Christ within directly  – a voice and essence that has always been there and always will be. 

Paul describes this radical kind of church in Ephesians.  It is the only letter that Paul writes to a church where there isn’t a big problem that he is addressing.  He is outlining how the church and the universal Christ are intertwined , of the same substance,  and encourages a person to become mature in Christ, becoming alive to God and practicing resurrection in their lives and the life of the Community. 

Peterson’s book examines how the apostle Paul  encouraged the church to keep growing in their maturity in Christ and live out resurrection every day..  To become wholly integrated into the stature of Christ.  While there are some parts of Ephesians that have bothered me over time such as the admonition for wives to submit to their husbands (and there is much debate among Biblical scholars that Paul wrote this and that it was likely added later from another author), Peterson has opened my eyes to the benefits of examining the totality of this letter as Paul’s encouragement to a thriving Church and what the Church should be and how to live in this world.

In Peterson’s introduction to the book of Ephesians in his Message Bible, he says “What we know about God and what we do for God have a way of getting broken apart in our lives.  The moment the organic unity of belief and behavior is damaged in any way, we are incapable of living out the full humanity for which we were created.  Pau’s letter to the Ephesians joins together what has been torn apart in our sin-wrecked world.  Once our attention is called to it, we notice these fractures all over the place.  There is hardly a bone in our bodies that has escaped injury, hardly a relationship in city or job, school or church, family or country that isn’t out of joint or limping in pain.  There is much work to be done.  Paul shows how Jesus is eternally and tirelessly bringing everything and everyone together.  Now we know what is going on, that the energy of reconciliation is the dynamo at the heart of the universe, it is imperative that we join in vigorously and perseveringly.”

Friends, the Church is not about programs, initiatives, numbers, statistics, giving and many other quantifiable measures that our secular world demands and determines value.  Paul’s idea of church is none of this.  A lot of the church is invisible. The church isn’t what it does or doesn’t do – It is – the essence of being God’s temple.  It’s what happens to us not what we do. Growing in the maturity of Christ is quiet, reflective, obscure and not an outward process.  The Church is a plunge into grace.  Peterson writes, “Christians worship a crucified Savior – to all appearances in every and all cultures a rejected, humiliated, and failed Savior.”[1]   And yet this crucified savior is the basis of our church – Jesus is Church and Church is Jesus.  But not necessarily how we have domesticated Jesus and either denied his humanity or his divinity.  The Church is both human and divine just as Jesus was – just as all of us are.  And Paul in Ephesians really understands this idea and writes about it.  Peterson continues with “Resurrection defines Jesus life; resurrection defines our lives.  We were sin dead; we are resurrection alive.”[2]  It's all about grace which is defined as something freely given with nothing expected in return. 

Jesus was a part of the community of God’s chosen people the Hebrews.  He didn’t come from the outside but worked within the church that he was a part of.  And it was from within his community that he was silenced as he challenged the traditions, rule, requirement, forms of his faith community.  Jesus saw that his church was sinful, connected with the Roman govt, and the establishment, seeking prosperity and power.   

Maybe many people today see the church in the same way.  Church membership has declined dramatically in all denominations  including the Religious Society of Friends in the last 50 years.  Why is that?  Some suggest it’s the moral decline of society but I think the answer is much deeper than this pronouncement as all generations experience change   Many see the Church as Peterson describes as  full of “chaos; hostility, injury, brokenness, church fights, church sleaze, church grandstanding, religious wars.”[3]   There is a tension with individuals that want the church to be stable, orderly, taking care of business, maintaining traditions and something that we need to control.   But Is church a place to be measured in its effectiveness, by numbers, programs and financial giving?  While these things are important I don’t think they define the essence of church.

Will there still be a church 50 years from now – I think yes.  The Church is never going to be obsolete.    Paul says  “someone will forever be surprising a hunger in himself to be more serious.”  Quaker Rufus Jones has written many books about God always being present among us.  And Church is a place to experience this presence.  The church is the opposite of the concept of individualism that dominates our American culture.  The church is not about individualist achievement, rather it is a community that loves, shares burdens, supports, lives out the teachings of Jesus and helps each community member/attender to move into maturity in Christ.

During this time of the pandemic it’s become clear that the church is not the buildings that we have erected.  As writer Walker Percy said, we have become lost in the cosmos during this time.  This might be the best thing that has happened to the church.  All of our outward expressions of church were disrupted.  We had to turn inward.  And I think we began to understand that this is a community of saints.  That is how Paul defines the church within all of its messiness and conflicts and failings.  This is a group of saints and this is God’s expression of the embodiment of the Word in all its flaws.  It is a community all about resurrection.  And wisdom is the practice of that resurrection.

I close with these two lines from the Mary Oliver poem  Moonlight- “Take care you don’t know anything in this world too quickly or easily.  Everything is also a mystery and has its own secret aura in the moonlight, its private song.”

We now enter into a time of waiting worship where we settle into our souls and listen for the voice of God.  Here are some queries to consider.

 How am I the embodiment of the Church?

How do I need to grow in maturity of Christ?

How do I need to practice resurrection in my life?        

[1] Eugene Peterson’s, Practice Resurrection, 93

[2] Eugene Peterson’s, Practice Resurrection ,89

[3] Eugene Peterson’s, Practice Resurrection, 123