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7-10-22 - The Greatness or Every-thing-ness of God

The Greatness or Every-thing-ness of God

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

July 10, 2022

 

Good morning, Friends and welcome to Light Reflections. Our scripture reading for this morning is from Acts 17:24-28 from The Voice translation.  

 

24 This is the God who made the universe and all it contains, the God who is the King of all heaven and all earth. It would be illogical to assume that a God of this magnitude could possibly be contained in any man-made structure, no matter how majestic. 25 Nor would it be logical to think that this God would need human beings to provide Him with food and shelter—after all, He Himself would have given to humans everything they need—life, breath, food, shelter, and so on.

 

This is the only universal God, the One who makes all people whatever their nationality or culture or religion.

 

26 This God made us in all our diversity from one original person, allowing each culture to have its own time to develop, giving each its own place to live and thrive in its distinct ways. 27 His purpose in all this was that people of every culture and religion would search for this ultimate God, grope for Him in the darkness, as it were, hoping to find Him. Yet, in truth, God is not far from any of us. 28 For you know the saying, “We live in God; we move in God; we exist in God.” And still another said, “We are indeed God’s children.”

 

 

A week ago, I spent each evening with our children teaching, learning, and even questioning with them about the Greatness of God. We explored some “monumental” aspects and attributes of God – from God’s love to God’s surprising nature, but as I went home each night, I often would reflect on what I personally have learned about God over the years, from my earliest days at VBS (when my mom was the VBS director) to doctoral level debates in grad school.  

 

The one thing I know is personally my view of God has changed radically over the years. 

 

Most people who seek to be spiritually formed find a lot more out there than even what can be contained within one’s own mind just by stepping out into a place of questioning. 

 

This past week, I turned on several occasions to teacher, lecturer and progressive theologian Gene W. Marshall, along with some of the greatest theologians of our time, to help me wrestle with and clarify some of my evolving views of God.  I am going to utilize some of their thoughts this morning to help us wrestle together.

 

Let’s consider this sermon more like a “VBS Lesson for Adults” on God.  

 

I am often challenged by theologian H. Richard Niebuhr. He has help me consider “God” a devotional word, much like calling someone your “sweetheart.” He says, 

 

“Sweetheart” points to a particular person, but it also expresses a quality of relationship. Similarly, the word ‘God’ includes the meanings of loyalty, commitment, trust, friendship, and passionate devotion.

 

At the same time, ‘God,’ as used in the Bible, points to an actual experience, an actual encounter with, how shall we say it, the Ground of our Being; the Mystery, Depth, and Greatness of our lives; Final Reality; Reality as a Whole; the Mystery that will not go away.

 

For some of you, those descriptions may be new, expanding, or even confusing. 

 

That is why theologian Paul Tillich used the word “God” sparingly in his work because he realized how many misunderstandings circle around this word.

 

Tillich believed that God is not a thing among other things or a person but the Ground of Being that is beyond all beings, beyond all persons. This Ground of Being is an inescapable over-all-ness with which we have a relationship, whether we relate to this Ground as our God or not.

 

For many years among the Anglicans, I learned to talk about the Great Mystery, but it makes sense to take that mystery and make it even grander – the Ground of Being which is beyond all beings or persons.

 

I remember one of my professors in my doctoral work saying as we were beginning his class, “If you came with God neatly in a box, get ready to have the box shredded because God can’t be contained in a box.”  And boy was he right.  I left that day with a headache, kind of holding the shredded pieces of my box and dropping some of them on my walk back to my room.  

 

Gene Marshall explains this Great Mystery or Whole of Reality in a helpful way, he says, 

 

“We can understand having a relationship with our pets, our spouse, our children, or our garden. We also have a relationship with the Whole of Reality. This Whole, this Mysterious Whole is a Master Process moving toward us in every moment, challenging the depths of our being. And we are responding to this challenge, either in flight, fight, or openness. This active, often fierce, process is our relationship with God, the ‘God’ that Jesus worshiped, and the ‘God’ that the Bible insists is our only appropriate worship. This biblical God is not a being among other beings, not a supernatural being among other supernatural beings, not a being at all – not a person nor an inanimate thing or collection of things, but BEING-AS-A-WHOLE.”

 

So “God,” as this word is used in the Bible, does not mean something located within some larger sphere called “Reality.” It is misleading to speak of “the reality of God,” for “God” is a devotional word for Reality Itself, for Reality as a Whole. Using the word “God” in the biblical sense means being devoted to the EVERY-THING-NESS that transcends every thing and yet is present in every thing. Each and every thing is contained within this EVERY-THING-NESS. I am using the word “thing” in a very broad sense, including Jesus, including you, including me.

 

A few years ago, I was first introduced to this thinking by Rob Bell in a video I used to share with my students at Huntington University which he called “Everything is Spiritual.” In it he said,

 

“God is not a question about what may or may not be up there or above or out there— God is what we’re unquestionably in.” 

 

And Rob goes on…

 

“There’s a line in the Bible about the God who is above all and through all and in all. Just one line, but so massive. Above all and through all and in all.” 

 

I remember sitting with those thoughts for quite some time – “God is what we’re unquestionably in.”  And I knew that scripture, Ephesians 4:1 that reads “There is one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.“

 

It was this enlightenment that made my transition to Quakers possible and even inviting. God was no longer just out there. But I am part of what I call “God” or as we Quakers say, there is that of God within each of us.”

 

Gene Marshall says,

 

“Each of us is a specific and distinguishable finite being, yet each of us is also a being that is inescapably related to the EVERY-THING-NESS in which all things cohere.” 


See, here is where we get confused, most Christians tend to see God as a supernatural being – a being alongside other beings – a super-being in another world of beings, a being that can interfere in this world and help us handle the things we want to arrange differently.

 

Marshall says,

 

“This view is not the biblical view of God. When the Bible and other Christian classics seem to refer to an otherworldly person, we need to remember that these writings are poetry, ancient poetry. The biblical writers were using mythic language. People who lived in pre-modern times had no difficulty using mythic language. It was their way of talking about their life experiences. They were not literalists who believed that they could visit this super-place and pull-on God’s beard…When we use personal language to talk about God, we are talking mythically about our own personal relationship with that Infinite EVERYTHING-NESS that cannot be contained within any human imagery, personal or impersonal.

 

This means, when you and I step out and begin asking questions, when we become curious, when we build relationships, and open ourselves to the creation or natural world around us, or our neighbors and the cultures around us, it is then we begin to experience this Mystery, that we call God, in new ways.

 

For the last year in Seeking Friends we studied Richard Rohr’s book “Every Thing is Sacred” – again he focuses on the “Everything-ness.”  Actually, the first book I was encouraged to read of Richard Rohr’s was his book “Everything Belongs.”  The irony and connection in all of this was stunning as I contemplated it this week.

 

Rohr takes this one step further and this is where I want to end this week. He says,  

 

Here is a mantra that we might repeat throughout our day:

“God’s life is living itself in me. I am aware of life living itself in me.”

 

We cannot not live in the presence of God. We are totally surrounded by God, even as we read these words. This is not some New Age idea.

 

(Rohr says) recall St. Patrick’s blessing,

 

“God beneath you, God in front of you, God behind you, God above you, God within you.”

 

Once I can see the Mystery here, and trust the Mystery even in this piece of clay that I am, then I can also see it in you. We are eventually able to see the divine image within ourselves, in each other, and in all things.

 

Finally, the seeing is one. How we see anything is how we will see everything.

 

 

Folks, I spent a great deal of my life trying to find God, define the Great Mystery, even encapsulate the Light (as we Quakers would say) in the pages of scripture, in theological texts, even in the Church itself.

 

Yet often that led me to a much narrower understanding, at times, even a box to contain my views.  But when I am willing to open my eyes and allow my curiosity to be piqued by the God, Mystery, Light around and within me, I can then see that of God more clearly in All of Creation including my neighbor. 

 

Don’t get me wrong – I am still daily wrestling with seeing the Everything-ness of God, but I have come to realize that is exactly what this life is all about.

 

So, I walked away from VBS this year challenged to see the GREATNESS of God and I hope by sharing it, I have piqued your curiosity as well. 

 

Let us end by speaking that mantra from Richard Rohr one more time.  Repeat after me:

 

“God’s life is living itself in me. I am aware of life living itself in me.”

 

 

Now, as we enter a time of waiting worship – ask yourselves the following queries:

 

Have I ever considered God being “what I am unquestionably in”?

 

How has my interest and curiosity been piqued, today, and where in nature and my neighbor will I seek God this week?   

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7-3-22 - A Meeting for Worship for Lament and Hope

A Meeting for Worship for Lament and Hope

A Time to Lament

Lament, a practice given to us by our faith tradition through the ages.

As Sarah lamented barrenness,
As Hagar lamented being cast out,
As Moses lamented his people’s oppression,

As Amos lamented the fall of his people from God’s covenant,
As Jesus lamented over broken systems of religion and government,

We too cry, as we experience communal trauma
and share in our sorrow for God’s people and all of creation.

Lament, a practice given to us by examples of those working for equity and justice.

As Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta lamented the treatment of their fellow Mexican American farm worker,

As Bayard Rustin lamented the need for a group of angelic troublemakers,
As Audre Lorde lamented the ways in which silences do not protect the marginalized,
As Grace Lee Boggs lamented the inclusion of her people in the shaping of the society in which she lived,

Lament, a practice given to us by our own ancestors, family, and friends.

Today, we too lament.

A Moment to Center Down and Silence our Hearts

Psalm of Lament - Psalm 38:9-16 (MSG)

9-16 Lord, my longings are sitting in plain sight,
    my groans an old story to you.
My heart’s about to break;
    I’m a burned-out case.
Cataracts blind me to God and good;
    old friends avoid me like the plague.
My cousins never visit,
    my neighbors stab me in the back.
My competitors blacken my name,
    devoutly they pray for my ruin.
But I’m deaf and mute to it all,
    ears shut, mouth shut.
I don’t hear a word they say,
    don’t speak a word in response.
What I do, God, is wait for you,
    wait for my Lord, my God—you will answer!
I wait and pray so they won’t laugh me off,
    won’t smugly strut off when I stumble.

A Prayer of Lament for the Role of Women (Adapted from Psalm 13)

Oh Lord, how long will you allow women and girls to be unseen and forgotten?
How long shall they be left with deep sorrow, anguish, and travail?
Oh Lord, how long will women and girls be viewed as second-class citizens?
How long before women and girls will be able to make decisions 
for their own health and wellness as well as for their families?
Oh Lord, how long shall they be persecuted by those who have tormented them and taken away their dignity?
How long will they continue to be exploited by those who do not share in their burdens, 
nor carry the weight of their collective pain?

Oh Lord, help all to remember that everyone is created in the image of God. 
Help all humankind to know that we are of equal value in your eyes.  
Dear Lord, we long for the day when reason, not power, 
when love, not indifference will lead us to create a more equitable society. 

A Time of Silent Reflection for Prayer and Listening

A Prayer of Lament for Our Divisions

Lord our God, our world is flooded with hatred, division, distrust. Arguments tear apart families; communities split along political lines; violence feels far from the last resort. We live in fear and suspicion of others who look or think or act differently. We are weary of conflict and hostility, but peace and harmony seem out of reach.

God, have mercy on your troubled world. Drive away false assumptions with your truth. Reconcile enemies through your transforming grace. Heal the hurts of slander and violence with your patient love. Amen.

A Time of Silent Reflection for Prayer and Listening

A Prayer of Lament for the Hungry

God of abundant riches, many in our world have plenty, and many have far from enough. Children go to bed with empty bellies, and drought makes food scarce. Yet at times the controlling and corrupt disrupt relief efforts, and in other places spoiling food is thrown away because there is too much to eat. Father, our world is broken; we need your love and justice. Why must crops fail? How long must people made in your image starve and wither away?

Give us hope that this is not the way things have to be. Restrain greed, waste, and selfishness. Feed the hungry and provide for the needy. Produce abundant harvests of food in our lands and rich harvests of generous compassion in human hearts. Bless those who use their power and resources to bless others for your kingdom. Amen.

A Time of Silent Reflection for Prayer and Listening

A Prayer of Lament for those Abused

God, we take refuge under the shelter of your wings. Why must any person you have created suffer through abuse? How long must those you love live in fear? Hear the cries of spouses beaten and bruised by those who have pledged to love them. Look upon children belittled and neglected by trusted caretakers. Come to the aid of those who are sexually abused and violated. Show your love to those who have been threatened into silence. We lament, too, that women and girls are especially targeted by such evils.

Defender of the weak, break the power of abusers so they cannot harm anymore. Protect the survivors of abuse; bring them safety and healing. Don’t let anyone turn a blind eye or deaf ear to their pain. Restore their sense of dignity and worth through your unfailing love. We pray to God who has compassion for the harassed and helpless. Amen.

A Time of Silent Reflection for Prayer and Listening

A Prayer of Lament for Refuges

Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. We cry out to you on behalf of all those who have had to flee their homes. How long must your people suffer the destruction and devastation of war and violence? Why must oppressive governments and brutal cartels deprive those you care for of safety?

Look with mercy upon those who endure persecution, those who seek to escape the carnage of natural disasters, those who do not have a place or nation to call home. Be their rock of refuge, to which they can always go. Bring them to a place where they can settle. God, hear our cry for peace, Amen.

A Time of Silent Reflection for Prayer and Listening

A Prayer of Lament for the Forgotten, Overlooked and Dismissed

God who knit us together in our mothers’ wombs, why do you sometimes feel so far away? Where are you when people made in your image are told that we are worthless, a mistake, a waste of time? How long will you allow human beings to be forgotten, overlooked, and dismissed—even by those closest to them?

We cry out to you on behalf of those who have been made to feel that their lives don’t matter, that their voices don’t count, that they have nothing to contribute. Let your face shine on us when we suffer rejection, when we’re told we can’t do anything right, when we think everyone would be better off without us. Show us your favor and love. We look to you because of Jesus, who was born in humility and weakness just like us, who welcomed ALL people, and who calls us His friends. May we live his example in our world, today. Amen.

A Time of Silent Reflection for Prayer and Listening

 

 

Prayers of Lament were written by Brian Hoffman or the General Commission on the Status of Women (UMC)

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6-26-22 - Monumental Dreams

Monumental Dreams

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

June 26, 2022

 

Good morning, Friends, and welcome to Light Reflections.  For those in-person this week, this is VBS Sunday.  Our scripture for this morning is Genesis 37:1-11 from the New Revised Standard Version of Scripture. 

 

37 Jacob settled in the land where his father had lived as an alien, the land of Canaan. 2 These are the descendants of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was shepherding the flock with his brothers; he was a helper to the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives, and Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. 3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children because he was the son of his old age, and he made him an ornamented robe.[a] 4 But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him.

 

5 Once Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. 6 He said to them, “Listen to this dream that I dreamed. 7 There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright; then your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.” 8 His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Are you indeed to have dominion over us?” So they hated him even more because of his dreams and his words.

 

9 He had another dream and told it to his brothers, saying, “Look, I have had another dream: the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” 10 But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, “What kind of dream is this that you have had? Shall we indeed come, I and your mother and your brothers, and bow to the ground before you?” 11 So his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

 

This morning, we are celebrating our VBS Kickoff.  This year’s theme is “Monumental: Celebrating God’s Greatness.”  The Bible character we are going to study throughout the week is Joseph from the Old Testament. Some call him “the Dreamer.”  As I was considering what I was going to say this morning, another dreamer came to mind.  

 

And speaking of monumental, his speech about his dream is considered by many as one of the most important speeches ever given. To give it some context for what I am going to talk about let me set things up a bit. 

 

At the time, Martin Luther King Jr. was already widely recognized as the spiritual leader of the American civil rights movement. The podium set up in front of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963 would be his bully-est pulpit ever.

 

Multitudes had traveled to our nation’s capital to join the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, co-organized by the National Association for the Advancement of the Colored People (NAACP) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The eyes of the nation were on the keynote speaker.

 

Dr. King had prepared his text carefully. He had asked for suggestions from his trusted advisors. He’d gone through several handwritten manuscript drafts which was unusual for him because he rarely used speechwriters and often spoke extemporaneously, from only a few jotted notes.

 

Originally, he had titled his speech, “Normalcy, Never Again”—but even after he had finished multiple edits, the papers he clutched in his hand were still not what he wanted them to be. 

 

The most famous line from the speech, “I have a dream,” wasn’t even written anywhere on his notes. That ringing refrain had been a feature of several speeches he’d already delivered in other places—most notably at Booker T. Washington High School in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, nearly a year earlier, and in Detroit two months previously.

 

The beloved gospel singer Mahalia Jackson was sitting behind Dr. King that day as he struggled to find words to connect to the audience. “Tell them about the dream, Martin!” she said to him. He heard her, and so he did. He told them about the dream.

 

Dr. King’s riff on the phrase, “I have a dream,” has truly gone down in history. Arguably the most famous and monumental of those improvised lines is this: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

 

If you have any doubt that this was a monumental God-moment, as well as, a deeply religious address, a sermon, really, or that the civil rights movement was a deeply religious movement, then just listen to what Dr. King said just a few lines later: 

 

“I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.” 

 

He was, of course, quoting the prophet Isaiah. King continued, 

 

“This is our hope. This is the faith that I will go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.”

 

Well, in the waning days of the 20th century, a poll of more than 100 scholars of public addresses ranked Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech as the most significant or monumental speech of that century. 

 

In 2013, Jon Meacham wrote in Time magazine, “With a single phrase, Martin Luther King Jr. joined Jefferson and Lincoln in the ranks of men who’ve shaped modern America.” 

 

But folks, that is not what everyone thought at the time.

 

An FBI agent named William Sullivan, head of the Bureau’s domestic spying operations, wrote in a memo to Director J. Edgar Hoover that, 

 

“In the light of King’s powerful demagogic speech yesterday he stands head and shoulders above all other Negro leaders put together when it comes to influencing great masses of Negroes. We must mark him now, if we have not done so before, as the most dangerous Negro of the future in this Nation from the standpoint of communism, the Negro and national security.”

 

Yes, he was a dreamer, and, as a dreamer, things did not go well for him. Then, as now, dreamers make the powers that be—powers like William Sullivan at the FBI, the powers that fear change—deeply uncomfortable.

 

Visionary leaders do not hesitate to dream of a better tomorrow for all God’s children. As a result, those who fear change sometimes do desperate things to try to bury the dream. 

 

This is where the Bible character, Jospeh. that we will be studying this week in VBS comes into play.  Dr. King’s story is very similar to Joseph’s. 

 

Yet, Joseph didn’t have just one dream, but several, extending over his lifetime. His early dreams foreshadow a time when his family will bow down to him and serve him. It is a dream he rather foolishly shared with his brothers. Their response was,   

 

“Here comes the dreamer [again]! Let’s kill him and throw him into one of the pits; we’ll say that a wild animal devoured him, and we shall see what becomes of his dreams.” 

 

Joseph’s brothers think better of those words. In the end, they don’t kill him, but they do throw him down a cistern, then sell him into slavery. To cover up their heinous deed, they stain his multi-colored coat with the blood of a slain animal, so Joseph’s heartbroken parents will believe a wild beast killed him.

 

Of course, we know how the story turns out. Through a series of amazing adventures, Joseph ends up in Egypt, in prison. His dreams while he is in jail foretell a future of both plenty and famine in the land. 

 

Eventually, Joseph is released from prison and is elevated to an administrative position high in the government and is soon running the entire country as Pharaoh’s chief of staff. 

 

In a time of terrible famine, the sons of Jacob come and grovel before this Egyptian bureaucrat, begging for food so they will not starve, thus fulfilling the very dream they’d found so offensive all those years earlier.

 

Only then does this mighty Egyptian official reveal his true identity. He is their brother Joseph, who has every right to exact a terrible revenge upon them, but whose heart has only forgiveness for these brothers who have so grievously wronged him. 

 

Please note: Joseph was not a complainer; he was a dreamer.

 

Reflecting on Dr. King’s speech, Jim Wallis of Sojourners, makes this same point about complaining. Looking at the speech, he has observed that something is missing from it. It’s the phrase, “I have a complaint.” 

 

Wallis points out that, “there was much to complain about for black Americans, and there is much to complain about today for many in this nation. But King taught us that our complaints or critiques, or even our dissent, will never be the foundation of social movements that change the world—but dreams always will. 

 

Just saying what is wrong will never be enough to change the world. You must lift up a vision of what is right.” 

 

That is a word that is as ripe and right for us today as it was back in 1963. 

 

In our homes, in our Meeting, in our lives we need to dream, and to dream big.  We need to have monumental dreams!  

 

And we need to teach our children to dream, monumental dreams of justice for all people. We need to remind each other that the dream that is needed is not so much the American Dream of individual achievement, but to dream God’s dream for the human race, a dream of a world made new through God’s grace and mercy. This has been the Quaker Way from the beginning. 

 

It’s a dream expressed by the apostle Paul who writes to the Corinthians: “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new.” (1 Corinthians 5:17)

 

I don’t know about you, but I think we need more dreamers like that today. We don’t need complainers. There are plenty of those already because of a culture of complaint in our country which is a quick and rather ugly way to build community.

 

It’s easy to point out everything that’s wrong and needs to be fixed, but the problem is that the kind of unity that is built on the negative, on complaint and hostility, has no staying power. 

 

For that, we need dreamers, visionaries who focus not on how bad things are, but on how good they can be. We need dreamers who can outline concrete ways, the small, incremental steps that can be taken, to achieve worthy goals. 

 

This week in VBS, I believe we are going to work hard to instill this in our children.  They are going to be looking at these monumental points: 



  • That God loves you no matter what.

  • That God is with you everywhere.

  • That God is in charge.

  • That God is stronger than anything, and

  • That Good is always surprising.

 

These are some of the same points that Martin Luther King Jr. and Joseph were trying to instill in the lives of their followers.  Because both were rooted in the fact that their dreams were monumental because they were bigger than just their dreams. Because their dreams were actually God’s dreams for us and they were faithful in sharing those messages even through the tough times.   

 

When we are determined, persistent and share the dreams God puts on our hearts, we can help create a positive vision of what can be with God’s help.  We can sow seeds of joyous enthusiasm that has the power to transform and change our lives for the better. 

 

I hope you would agree that we need more godly dreamers in this world. 

 

We’ve been given the vision of God’s intent for our world, a purpose that God started at Creation and that Jesus continued by inaugurating his kingdom. Then God sent the Holy Spirit to launch the Church that we might continue to dream and work for this vision of a new world of justice and peace for all peoples. This is the call to each of us who consider ourselves followers of Christ. 

 

It is our monumental task as the church.  And sadly, if we don’t do our job, someone will fill in the void with a vision that is unworthy, that will not treat all people with dignity and respect as God does, that will point people not to the kingdom of God but instead, towards their own small, self-centered kingdoms. 

 

God calls us to a bigger, more monumental dream than that. As the early Quakers acknowledged, God calls us to dream and work for the kingdom of God to come on earth—now, in our lives, in our work, in our families, in this Meeting, today. And that means change and struggle will be part of it, and sometimes it means that we will be uncomfortable. But, I believe that is a dream, a vision, a call that is worthy of our lives.  It’s truly Monumental! 

 

Now, as we enter waiting worship, please take a moment to ponder the following queries: 

 

Am I more of a complainer than a dreamer? 

What Monumental Dreams has God put on my heart for the world?   

 

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6-19-22 - Is God Our Father? - Beth Henricks

Is God Our Father?

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Beth Henricks

June 19, 2022

 

 

II Corinthians 3: 17-18

 

17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.

 

Good morning friends and Happy Father’s Day. Today we are celebrating our fathers and other men in our lives that have been role models, offered care, support and unconditional love through the journeys of our lives. I am reminiscing about my dad today whom I lost 17 years ago (hard to believe he has been gone that long) and miss him every day. The things I miss most are his laugh, his candor, the adoration, and respect he had for my mother, his love of all sports, the prioritization he made of family in his life, how he could eat 13 ears of corn in one setting, I could go on and on. I know many of you sit here and remember the big and little things about your father and other men in your life. I am incredibly thankful that I had a dad that did give me a glimpse into the nature of God and a hint into who God is.

 

Growing up in a fundamentalist tradition, we talked about God as Father a lot. I have heard many messages on Father’s Day talking about God as Father, about what kind of fathers we need to be, the trinitarian concept of God as father, son and holy spirit and a wholehearted endorsement of many male characteristics of God. Growing up in a home where my mother seemed to “be in charge” I never quite understood the obsession with describing God in masculine terms to convey strength, power, and control.

 

However, all of my language of God was male, and God was always termed as a “he” and everything I read was primarily male vocabulary. I just accepted this as normal. About 15 years ago I attended a conference at Anderson University and spoke with a woman who changed my perspective on this. She shared in a meaningful way that she had a dad that was a terrible father and identifying God as father or in a male pronoun sent her running in the opposite direction. It was only when she came to terms that God is not male or female that she could step into a relationship with the Divine. She shared that my using male pronouns to identify God was painful for her.

 

I never thought about this in the terms she presented to me. It makes sense that many people have a negative idea of father in terms of an earthly father and to identify God in these words is offensive and hurtful. Ever since that conversation, I have tried to be careful to not identify God in male terms.

 

But describing God in male terms is very common among Christians. It became the standard language when Christianity became established as part of the Roman Empire under Constantine. The Apostles creed institutionalized this male language to describe God – I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and in Jesus Christ, His only son our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into Hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into Heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead….

 

The identification of God as Father in the Old Testament was less common than in the New Testament. Maybe it was based on a belief and limited understanding of God as a cosmic entity outside of our intimate world. When Moses encounters God in the burning bush God has Moses turn away and describes Godself as I am that I am. There were no human characteristics to describe Yahweh that day.

 

In Judaism, the use of the "Father" as a title is generally a metaphor, referring to God’s role as Life-giver and Law-giver, and is one of many titles by which Jews speak of and to God.[3] The Jewish concept of God is that God is non-corporeal, transcendent and immanent, the ultimate source of love,[68][69][70][71] and a metaphorical "Father".

 

Jesus utilized the word Father quite a bit to describe his relationship during his 3 years of active ministry. In the Gospels, Jesus calls God “Father” more than 165 times. As an example, Matthew 18:19 says “Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.” Maybe in Jesus’ radical way, he was trying to personalize God, to bring God into our direct lives, to help us understand more of the characteristics of God. As humans, language is a way for us to describe something to give it texture, context, and visibility. But the words that describe something should never be considered as the object. There are always limitations to the words we use. Human words can never describe God’s fullness in any adequate way. Identifying God as father or mother are just human characterizations of God shaped by belief and background.

 

 We know Jesus was a radical and turned all of the established norms upside down so his utilization of God in father terms may be a way to help us understand God in a personal way.

 

The Christian Church has always had a bit of a problem with God's gender. God doesn't have one, but it's hard to talk about God without giving God a gender. To talk about God, we have to call God something, and avoiding pronouns altogether is cumbersome and it seems a bit rude, talking as if God was an impersonal force like gravity or inflation. So, we call God a "He" or "She", and in a patriarchal society there's no contest to how the dominant gender will be. God as father in the Bible and throughout Christianity is shaped by a predominately ancient patriarchal society. Men wrote the books of the Bible, and it makes sense they used the language of the day. However, it does seem like these patriarchal dominance ideas permeated most Christian congregations and in many of them continue today. As The Catechism of the Catholic Church says: "God is neither man nor woman: he is God".

 

There are other Christian groups that have gone further than this though. A church in third-century Syria seems to have been in the habit of praying to the Holy Spirit in female terms. One of their holy books, the Acts of Thomas, tells of St Thomas presiding over a communion service, and calling on the Holy Spirit, saying: "Come, she that manifests the hidden things and makes the unspeakable things plain, the holy dove that bears the twin young. Come, the hidden mother… Come and communicate with us in this eucharist".

 

We know that God also has female imagery in the Bible. As we try to imagine and begin to have some minute glimpses into our understanding of God, we humans, we need something concrete to help in our comprehension and the mother/ father characterizations give us metaphors as humans. Here are some examples

·         “You deserted the Rock, who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth.” (Deuteronomy 32:18)

·         “The LORD will march out like a champion, like a warrior he will stir up his zeal; with a shout he will raise the battle cry and will triumph over his enemies. For a long time I have kept silent, I have been quiet and held myself back. But now, like a woman in childbirth, I cry out, I gasp and pant.” (Isaiah 42:13-14).

·         “As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.” (Isaiah 66:13)

 

These human metaphors and descriptors can help us gain a deeper understanding into God but too often they have become concrete and limiting. As John 4:24 says God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. This sense of mystery and awe is one of the reasons that I have embraced Quakerism for the past 30 years. The descriptions the early Quakers said of God were with words like Light, Inner Seed, Christ within, that of God….And Quakers embraced women in ministry right from their start and honored inspiration from all. Both men and women were valued and honored as instruments of the God we can’t adequately describe. The patriarchy that has dominated so many Christian denominations was limited with the Quakers. I want to replace the male/female descriptions of God with words like these.

 

I have been rereading the classic book of Thomas Merton, The Seeds of Contemplation. While Merton uses male pronouns to describe God reflective of his time, he puts so beautifully the inexpressible and mystery of God, a mystery that we begin to experience in contemplation. I share some of his words with you.

 

“Contemplation reaches out to the knowledge and even to the experience of the transcendent and inexpressible God. It knows God by seeming to touch Him. Or rather it knows him as if it had been invisibly touched by Him…. Touched by Him Who has no hands, but who is pure Reality and the source of all that is real1 Hence contemplation is a sudden gift of awareness, an awakening to the Real within all that is real. A vivid awareness of infinite Being at the roots of our own limited being. An awareness of our contingent reality as received, as a present from God, as a free gift of love…. It is also the response to a call: a call from Him who has no voice, and yet who speaks in everything that is, and Who, most of all, speaks in the depths of our own being: for we ourselves are words of His.” (pg 4-5) “in the end the contemplative suffers the anguish of realizing that he no longer knows what God is. He may or may not mercifully realize that after all this is a great gain, because God is not a what, not a thing…There is no such thing as God because God is neither a what nor a thing but a pure Who. He is the I Am before whom with our own most personal and inalienable voice we echo I am.”

 

“In all the situations of life the will of God comes to us not merely as an external dictate of impersonal law but above all as an interior invitation of personal love. Too often the conventional conception of God’s will as a sphinx-like and arbitrary force bearing down upon us with implacable hostility, leads men to lose faith in a God they cannot find it possible to love. Such a view of the divine will drives human weakness to despair and one wonders if it is not, itself, often the expression of a despair too intolerable to be admitted to conscious consideration. These arbitrary dictates of a domineering and insensible Father are more often seeds of hatred than of love. If that is our concept of the will of God, we cannot possibly seek the obscure and intimate mystery of the encounter that takes place in contemplation. We will desire only to fly as far as possible from Him and hide from his Face forever. So much depends on our idea of God! Yet no idea of Him, however pure and perfect, is adequate to express Him as He really is. Our idea of God tells us more about ourselves than about Him.” (pg 15)

 

Friends, as we enter our time of waiting worship, I ask you to consider these queries –

 

Do I limit God to fit my boxes?

 

How might I expand my understanding of God?

 

In what ways do I need to deepen my contemplative practices to experience God more fully?

 

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6-12-22 - Let Us See What Love Will Do - Shawn McConaughey

“Let Us See What Love Will Do”

June 12, 2022

1 John 2:9-11

Shawn McConaughey

 

Good morning, Friends.

 

I was reading some of the history of Western Yearly Meeting. WYM is the group of Quaker Churches that formed in 1858 and which still exists today. Indianapolis First Friends is a part of that.

 

I was happy to note that when this group of Quaker churches officially formed WYM, they established 4 committees. Quakers can’t do anything with committees. Nothing has changed. 

 

I digress, the list is not anything like our committee list today, any guesses as to what the 4 committees were?

 

Books and Tracts

Indian Civilization

Education

Concerns of People of Color (this included abolition efforts, education, and lobbying efforts).

 

In time an orphanage was established that served more than 3000 African American children. Of course, John Williams’ bequest for his estate to go to this effort and the faithfulness of Quakers for more than a century gets us to this point.

 

I was reflecting about what might have caused Quakers in the 1800’s to make this such a high priority. That their actions and concern would carry through to today. These scholarship recipients are an on-going testimony to that concern.

 

What is it that leads a group of people to go to such lengths and risks as the underground railroad, setting up schools and educational experiences, to help freed men find their way? 

 

I think it was love. 

 

Love is sort of a smarmy concept. Why not justice, or peace, or liberty? Those things seem more righteous. But all of those concepts are encapsulated in love. I’m sure it was far from perfect with motives that were not always pure. 

 

But I can’t get away from this idea that obedient love really played a role in this effort. Now obedience does not sound much like a word that describes love. It sounds like work, it sounds like duty, it sounds like risk. We prefer to think of Love as free flowing, emotional, and makes us feel warm inside. Right?

 

Jesus is asked, “what is the greatest commandment?” 

 

We read of his reply in Matthew Chapter 22. He responds, “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

 

A command to love? We might say, “I can’t just love on command?” But any of us who have moved beyond the initial flirtations of attraction to a deeper relationship based in love, know that often it is a daily decision to love. It is to act in loving ways, to put the other’s needs ahead of our own, to serve even when there is no promise of love returned. Truly loving our neighbor is often not easy but it is the center of anything good in our world. 

 

Jesus makes this concept even more outrageous by stating that love is not just reserved for those we like but even for our enemies. 

 

Jesus keeps on with this kind of talk. He tells ludicrous stories of the scum of the earth, who in the minds of his listeners is someone no better than a dog, who dares help his bitterest enemy after he gets jumped by thieves. In this “love story” the concept of love gets turned upside down.

 

Jesus tells of a disrespected Jewish father that is so foolish as to give his son his inheritance. The son in turn goes and wastes it on a lifestyle that would make good Jews blush and turn their backs. But this father, this distinguished father, does not even wait for his bedraggled washed up, spent out son to stagger up the driveway on his knees. No, he gathers up his robes and runs, not to hurt his son, not to scold him, not to disown him but to throw his distinguished arms around his son in a fools embrace. 

 

You must understand that to his hearers, Jesus’ stories were ridiculous. We think of them as a story that challenges our spiritual life. No one talked like this, especially the religious. Jesus was so over top. Most were left picking their jaws up off the floor. I’m sure that some stormed out in a rage, (quiet pause) but some…well some were strangely drawn to this absurd love that was so profound. I am sure that amidst the skepticism, many were attracted to this love. They were warmed by it, ached for it. Especially those who were the outcast, the spat upon, the bottom rung of society.

 

You see, this kind of nonsense had the power to completely upset the political and religious power structures of the day. This kind of talk….. well this kind of talk could get you crucified…….

 

Jesus then has the audacity to not only say these kinds of things, but to say them out loud, in the public square where everyone could hear, and then, maybe the most radically of all- he then goes about living his life according to this absurd, dangerous kind of love.

 

 

Friends, the times we live in are no different. There is still a maddening scramble for the top, to be in charge, to rule, to have power, to only love those who deserve it. It’s not just people out there, sadly it's people who call themselves Christians, who get into bed with the temptation to power. The culture wars are doing great damage and unfortunately some of it is being done in the name of God. The weapons of this war are fear-mongering, disinformation, shouting others down, rancor, ridicule, homophobia, racism, sexism…..all the isms.

 

Friends, it is my desire this morning to urge you to set aside the scramble to the top that tramples all over one another? To set aside these weapons of war. See all of these will never ultimately win. They may for a time, but they will rot your soul in the meantime. 

 

I’m not suggesting that we should not stand up for justice, or for what is right that is part of love. We should do our best and strive to succeed, be a bright light in our community, but as the apostle Paul reminds us.

 

“If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mystery and all knowledge, and have great faith so as to move mountains, If I give away all my possessions, and if I sacrifice my body… so that I may boast….If I have all of this but do not have love- I gain nothing, I am nothing.”

 

Love is work Friends. Should we decide today and tomorrow to live out Love, we must recognize that this love is often upside-down from the way our world describes it. Love, like so much of the Kingdom of God, is so opposite from what we are bombarded with. Love involves sacrifice, turning cheeks and patching up our enemies. Praying for our persecutors. Love is not necessarily meant to be a martyrdom unless that is what is required, loving is not worm-theology or self-hatred. Love rejoices in truth, it bears, believes, hopes and endures all things. 

 

It is choosing daily how to respond amid a darkened world that longs for the Light. Jesus describes both himself and his followers as the Light of the world. To be able to truly love we must reflect the Christ-light. We cannot love most completely without knowing the one who is the light of the world.

 

I pretty much think that anywhere in the NT where the word light is used, we could replace it with the word love, especially in Jesus’ words. “You are the Love of the World. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket. But on the lampstand, and it gives light/love to all in the house. In the same way, let your love shine before others….”

 

I am imagining each of you as the bright light that you are and that you will become. Light guides us, Light warms, Light exposes Darkness, Light Heals, Light Purifies, Light draws us, Light makes it possible for us to see, Light gives life. Will you be that?

 

Where is God calling you to be light to demonstrate this love? Do you consider how you reflect this Christ-light into your circumstances? Where in your life are those who need guidance, warmth, healing?

 

Friends, In the beginning God spoke Light into being. May we live into the calling to be the Children of Light. Let there be light in the homes, neighborhoods, schools, and jobs where we find ourselves.

 

In the words of Quaker William Penn, “Let us See What Love Will Do”.

 

1. What Light/love does my own heart and soul need right now? 

2. Where in my life am I seeing the Light/love shine most brightly?

3. Into what darkness might God be nudging me to shine Light/love?

 

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6-5-22 - God the Nonbinary

God the Nonbinary

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

June 5, 2022

 

Palms 139:1-18 (New Revised Standard Version)

 

 You have searched me, Lord,
    and you know me.
 You know when I sit and when I rise;
    you perceive my thoughts from afar.
 You discern my going out and my lying down;
    you are familiar with all my ways.
 Before a word is on my tongue
    you, Lord, know it completely.
 You hem me in behind and before,
    and you lay your hand upon me.
 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
    too lofty for me to attain.

 Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?
 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
    if I settle on the far side of the sea,
 even there your hand will guide me,
    your right hand will hold me fast.
 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
    and the light become night around me,”
 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
    the night will shine like the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.

 For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.
 My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made in the secret place,
    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.
 How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
 Were I to count them,
    they would outnumber the grains of sand—
    when I awake, I am still with you.

 

Wednesday, June 1st marked the beginning of Pride Month and this morning, I want us to focus on what that means for us at First Friends.  We are blessed to have many in our midst who identify as part of the LGBTQIA+ Community and find this place welcoming and their spiritual home.  As well, many of us are parents, grandparents, siblings, friends, and relatives trying hard to create welcoming opportunities for those we know in the LGBTQIA+ community.

I will never forget my first day on the job at First Friends. Sue, Sam, and I attended Shawn and Brett’s wedding – the first same-sex marriage to take place in this Meetinghouse. That day I knew, with standing room only, that First Friends had opened the doors and their hearts to the LGBTQIA+ community. 

Over the last several months when I have had the privilege to attend the New Attender Dinners put on by Connections, that openness has been clearly affirmed by those attending who are looking for a church. I just heard last week several of our new people exclaiming this is why they are at First Friends, and that makes me happy that we are communicating this welcoming spirit.

Now, please understand, this does not mean we at First Friends have this all figured out, and that on occasion we may stumble, or need to learn more. You and I must see this as an ongoing and evolving subject covered with a lot of humility. And that means every so often we are going to need some reminders, teachings, or even specific days to celebrate ALL of God’s family.  

That is why this morning, I am considering this Pride Sunday, even though as Quakers we consider all days the same, it seems important to embrace our LGBTQIA+ Friends and Family and take a moment to teach more about it.    

To focus our attention today, I am going to take a slightly different approach, not a political, social, or even activist approach – but rather as a pastor, I am going to take what comes natural – a biblical approach (or maybe I should say a “God approach”). Either way, I think the approach will include some fresh, new ideas for us to ponder.

As I was preparing this message, I came across a teaching by Rev. Whitney Bruno of the United Church of Canada.  As I read and then listened to his words – the teaching seemed almost poetic and prophetic in nature.  Rev. Bruno took me back to the Genesis story of creation to emphasize something I had not considered – that being the non-binary nature of God.

Not only did it open my eyes to things I had never noticed, but it also gave me a new appreciation for the great diversity that God embraces and uses to create in our world.

So, with a little help from Rev. Bruno, this morning let’s go back to the beginning, when God was creating the heavens and the earth – as in ALL that is above, and ALL that is below. ALL things.

The scriptures say that in the very beginning the Spirit of God, the wind of God, danced over the waters and God spoke – God sang – God created with a word – word and deed being one – and there was light.

God judged this new creation.

God declared it good.

Not perfect.

Not unchangeable.

Not immutable. But GOOD.

 

And God created more.

Now from light and darkness.

Now naming these things.

Now time itself.

 

You and I have heard this beautiful, wonderful, story. We know how plants and animals, waters and mountains, birds and fish are called into being by God.

But it makes one wonder, when did God make dawn and dusk? Have you ever thought about that?

It’s not specifically named, but we assume dawn and dusk are there, on that first day of creation, since light and dark, day and night, are made.

What I find interesting is that by naming opposites, a storyteller can say they include everything.

Rev. Bruno points out that, we know when Amazon offers everything A to Z, it means they also offer items beginning with BCD and WXY and all the other items that begin with the other letters in between.

When God declares “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End” We know that means God is also in the in-between times. The now times. The present.

When scripture says God made day and night, we know that means God also made the hours between day and night.

Do you see where Rev. Bruno is leading us with this thought process?

When God made humans male and female… doesn’t that mean God also made all humans who are the shades between male and female?

We in our American culture want nice, neat categories from “Macho Men” to “Dainty Ladies.”  But like with many other things, we can’t put everyone in just two categories.  There are all kinds of people or as Rev. Bruno states – all different shades between male and female.

So, I am going to make a logical, but also important claim.  I believe opposites are named to affirm a God that includes and makes, ALL.

And to us, human creatures, is gifted the image of God (the Imago Dei). This is not just an image, but a form. The form of God.

What is this form? Rev. Bruno says it is creativity.

You and I are being called to take part in creating the wealth of plants and animals and life.

We are gardeners. From Eden to all the earth.

We are stewards. Being wise, just, gentle, and faithful stewards of the many lives we are entrusted to by God.

What is the image of God within us? It is power…SHARED.

Creativity to make good and very good things.

It is relationships and that means it is also Love.

When God sees all of this… the opposites and all the in-between, the diversity on land, in the air, and in the ocean, and in the ground, and even in space… God over and over declares it VERY good in the scriptures.

This means that if we look really close in Genesis, we hear of a God who won’t settle for two – who won’t settle for binaries.

Instead, we hear of a God who wants every hue of color between dark and light; every creature between germ and killer whale; every human diversity between and including male and female.

Rev. Bruno then turns to the quintessential aspect of this passage from chapter 2 – that being Adam and Eve.

The story is told over and over, and this time, God makes “adamah” – the Jewish word for dust, soil, dirt.

This living dirt is lonely, and needs a co-worker. Much like God wanted a co-creator.

But the living dirt turns down every other living thing God makes and brings before it.

Finally, God separates the living dirt into two living dirts – and now, with something in its own image, the living dirt is happy.

Hawwa in Hebrew, Eve in English means breath and Adam means dirt, and combined breath and dirt make life.

This is a way of explaining how we live. We are dirt and breath combined. Breath or Spirit and the dust of the cosmos that is who we are.

·        Nowhere is this a story saying who can, or cannot, get married.

·        Nowhere is this a ranking of love from pure to impure.

·        Nowhere is this a statement that *only* men who romantically love women, and women who romantically love men are correct.

No, this is actually a story about where we come from – God.

Who we look like — all of us — God.

Rev. Bruno says, “This is a story that we are made with intrinsic value. That we each matter. That we are worth love. Worth a good life. Worth belonging to community. Worth loving relationships. Worth shelter, food, water, health care, education, and security. We are worthy of being part of this very good creation.

This is a story about the common lot of being human. The common thread, common condition, of finding ourselves in the surprising state of being alive as us. As humans.

Why are we here? What are we supposed to do?

To create. To live together. To be good stewards. To make community.

So again, this is a story about how we are made…” which the Psalmist in our text for this morning sums up even better, he says, we are “…fearfully and wonderfully made. Knitted in our mother’s wombs, woven out of that living dirt from the depths of the earth” — those same molecules and atoms and star dust God has been breathing life into for trillions of years — and seen by God before even fully formed.

We are made with God hemming us in – being around us on all sides. Above and below. Behind and before. And all those other areas between the opposites.

Genesis is a story of how our God, who transcends gender and sexuality and IS all genders and sexualities, makes us just who we are.

Straight.

Bisexual.

Homosexual.

Asexual.

And more.

Intersexed.

Female.

Male.

Transgender.

And more.

Gay.

Lesbian.

Feminine.

Masculine.

And more.

Hemmed around on all sides, we are surrounded by the Divine who calls us, as we are wonderfully made, part of this very good earth.

Such knowledge is too wonderful not to proclaim. Our minds cannot fathom the depths of all the colors of the rainbow; nor the breadth of all the life forms on earth; nor the depth of the stars and distant galaxies.

We simply must say… how wonderful.

So today as we ponder all that God has created, the many varieties of people, plants and animals surrounding us, let us not look with binary eyes, but rather with the beautifully diverse, multifaceted, and creative eyes of the God within each of us.  And just maybe we will see, acknowledge, and affirm ALL the Friends of God around us.

 

As we enter waiting worship, take a moment to ponder the following queries:

 

·        In what ways am I too binary in my view of others?

·        How might I more deeply see with the diverse, multifaceted, and creative eyes of God?  

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5-29-22 - Sometimes the Wilderness is What We Need

Sometimes the Wilderness is What We Need

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Beth Henricks

May 29, 2022

 

Our scripture today is from the Old Testament.  Exodus 13:17-18 and 16:10.

 

Exodus 13:17-18

17 When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was nearer, for God thought, “If the people face war, they may change their minds and return to Egypt.” 18 So God led the people by the roundabout way of the wilderness bordering the Red Sea.[a] 

 

Exodus 16:10

10 And as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the Israelites, they looked toward the wilderness, and the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. 

 

I always like this holiday because there is no pressure for gifts or decorations or fancy dinners or being with a lot of people.  It seems more about casual dining with family and friends,  or spending time in quiet solitude, or outdoor barbeques, and the welcome of summer and a different pace of life for a couple of months.  It is also a weekend that we reflect on those we miss and treasure and remember with joy and sadness those that have touched our lives and also those that have sacrificed their lives for our country and for our democracy.

 

I can’t share a message today without  mentioning the devastating event that occurred this week in Texas where 19 children ages 7-9 years old (and some adults) were gunned down in their school.  I can’t express my grief, sadness  and tears that this tragedy occurred.  I know you share in the horror of hearing about this and learning some of the details and hearing about these beautiful children of God.  The anguish we feel can turn into despair when we watch these horrific acts occur and as a country, we seem to be doing nothing to prevent these tragedies.  Mass shootings are occurring on a regular basis and my heart continues to break again and again every time we hear news like this.  I know God is weeping with us today.  I pray we take some kind of action to help prevent these tragedies. I also believe deep in my heart that God is at work in these darkest moments.  

 

My message today is about the wilderness.  Recently Bob suggested I read a book called Church of the Wild, and I read this narrative in fascination about this new type of church being created across the country that worships outside with an emphasis of how we are connected  to God through creation and nature.  But the chapter in the book that really struck me was one that focused on being in the wilderness. 

 

When many of us hear the word wilderness we think of a place that is barren, without life, a place of wandering without direction and something to avoid.  I have heard many talks about “wandering in the wilderness” that denotes a period of loss, being alone, losing one’s groundedness, not feeling centered and feeling abandoned and rudderless.  I have heard many sermons in my life talking about the wilderness as a place where God takes things away to teach us to appreciate God’s gifts or a place for us to receive the refining that we need  to receive God’s blessing.  From all these accounts, the wilderness I is not a place that I want to be.  I want to feel the opposite of these emotions  and  work hard to try to avoid these barren times of life or times of distance from God. 

 

This book turned the idea of wilderness on its head for me.  Rather than being a place of punishment or abandonment, sometimes the wilderness is what we need to bring us into wholeness.  The scripture I just read is a story that I have heard my whole life.  God frees the Israelites from Egyptian control, and they are no longer slaves.  God has promised them a land of their own and this is now their opportunity to be free.  But through a series of events that highlights their fear, their complaining, and their lack of faith, I always heard that God punished them by not taking them directly to the promised land but sending them into the wilderness for 40 years.  This seemed like a punishment because of their lack of faith.  It was their actions and their attitude that sent them into the wilderness, and they had no idea how they were going to survive. 

 

The author of Church of the Wild, Victoria Loorz offers a different interpretation.  She said “rather than simply a harsh  backdrop for a human drama, like we often portray the site of forty years of wandering, the wilderness as a place that speaks, completely changes the tone of the story.  What if Moses and his traumatized people were sent into the wilderness not as some sort of intense punishment or intense object lesson?  What if the wilderness was instead the place to listen to the sacred speaking through the voices of burning bushes, calling humans to remember that they belong to a greater story?” (pg 62)

 

This had me really examine all my perceptions and preconceived  ideas about wilderness.  I have always found God in nature and one of my favorite things is to get up early and sit on my back porch to hear the many birds, watch the leaves change and feel the gentle breeze through the branches.  I love to take walks and experience creation in this way.  But this doesn’t feel like wilderness – wilderness is where wild animals are and where my fear of the unknown rises.  But what are we afraid of in the wilderness?

 

Loorz suggests, “ From Moses to Jesus, and from Hagar to Isaiah to Paul, the uncompromising directive from God to enter the wilderness at a pivotal moment in history had to mean something more than internal wrestling with ego or demons.” (pg 52)  Maybe the physical dirt, the heat, and the wild creatures are part of our development in our journey to God.  Maybe this is the place that we need to go for healing during a period of trauma in our life.  Maybe its the place we face our life and our death?

 

In the Hebrew scriptures the word midbar is usually translated as wilderness.   But it also listed in the Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon as a noun meaning mouth, the organ of speech.  This gives a different context to the word wilderness and suggests something that is alive, that gives breath and speech and expression.  It whispers, it shouts, it speaks tenderly and lovingly.

 

When Jesus went to face his shadow self, his false self he didn’t go to the Temple to pray but he went to the wilderness and stayed there for 40 days.  He faced his life and his death in the wilderness and lived among the stones, the wild animals, and his demons.  It is here that he heard the call of God and wrestled with his calling.  I think the wilderness was more than a setting but a character in this story that brings Jesus into his true destiny.  He experienced the intimacy that the wilderness can bring to us. It was a place of connection, hearing and seeing God through this wild place.

 

 

My son Greg has introduced me to the Welsh poet, philosopher and writer David Whyte.  I listened to his story of an encounter with a black hawk in the Galapagos Islands.   David was trained as a marine zoologist intent on subduing nature and classifying, organizing, and naming species in the Galapagos Islands where he was stationed.  One day he comes upon a black hawk at eye level on a branch staring intently and deeply into his soul.  This was a rare bird in the Islands and one that David was wanting to identify.  David stares back.  In that moment David had a revelation that he was staring into the essence of this hawk and that this hawk was so far beyond his naming or categorizing.  David’s body was unraveling within this insight.   He realized there is no language to describe the interconnectivity to what he was witnessing in the wilderness, and it changed him forever.   He set aside his scientific training and become his true calling of poet and philosopher.

 

Here is a poem by David called Sometimes

 

Sometimes

If you move carefully

Through the forest,

Breathing

Like the ones

In the old stories,

Who could cross

A shimmering bed of leaves

Without a sound,

You come to a place

Whose only task

Is to trouble you

With tiny

But frightening requests,

Conceived out of nowhere

But in this place

Beginning to lead everywhere.

Requests to stop what

You are doing now,

And

to stop what you

Are becoming

While you do it,

Questions

That have patiently

Waited for you,

Questions

That have no right

To go away.

 

 

 

The wilderness is interconnected with how I face my shadows and my false self and is part of my journey to allow my true self to begin to emerge.  It is a place that I need to visit to go beneath my surface, to face my fears, to move beyond my ordinary life and gaze deeply into the hawk’s eyes and understand that my naming, identifying, categorizing, aligning with my tribe is not who I really am and it’s not who you really are.  I need to enter the wilderness to become that which God is calling to me to out of my soul.  The wilderness brings me into the intimate love of God.    The wilderness is not a place of punishment and abandonment by God but a place of love.

 

I have always appreciated the quote from Parker Palmer’s book Let Your Life Speak.  He shares of entering the wilderness and the wild animal through silence.  Silence and respect of the soul.  Our soul is like  a wild animal. 

 

“The soul is like a wild animal, tough, resilient, savvy, self-sufficient and yet exceedingly shy.

If we want to see a wild animal, the last thing we should do is to go crashing through the woods, shouting for the creature to come out.

But if we are willing to walk quietly into the woods and sit silently for an hour or two at the base of the tree, the creature we are waiting for may well emerge, and out of the corner of an eye we will catch a glimpse of the precious wilderness we seek.”

 

Friends, I feel a strong sense that we need to spend more time in our unprogrammed worship or Quaker communion today, as we all wrestle with so much inside of us.  Here are a few queries to consider but I know each of you have the questions that you need to wrestle within for our time together. 

 

Am I afraid of entering the wilderness?

 

What do I need to face in the wilderness?

 

What in my soul needs to quietly emerge?

 

 

 

 

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5-22-22 - Learning the Unforced Rhythms of Grace

Learning the Unforced Rhythms of Grace

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

May 22, 2022

 

Matthew 11:28-30 (Msg)

 

28-30 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

 

It is clear from our scriptures this morning that God is concerned about rest.  Actually, Jim Smith author of The Good and Beautiful God says, “The number one enemy to our spiritual formation is exhaustion.” 

 

As a long-time student of spiritual formation, that bold proclamation grabbed my attention. Exhaustion is an enemy to our soul.  Just sit with that thought for a moment. Anyone feeling exhausted, worn out, burn out, and needing a rest?

 

Today, marks our entry into the summer months hear at First Friends. The choir takes a break, Sunday School takes and break and during the summer months we give space for some needed rest for our souls.

 

I like to think of this time as a sabbath for our corporate soul and for our individual souls.

 

Honestly, in my years as a pastor I have often heard people exclaim, “I am exhausted by my church.”  This is usually due to over-programming, a lack of volunteers, or not having a clear vision for the future.

 

Burnout has become one of the key reasons people simply up and leave the church, today, often after being extremely involved.

 

Sadly, I continue to watch many churches run people into the ground by ignoring the importance of rest. And therefore, I do not want that for us at First Friends.

 

As well, many currently in the helping professions (educators, medical professionals, social workers, etc.), suffer from exhaustion and lack of rest – especially as we continue to try and come out of this ongoing and evolving pandemic. 

 

Then there is our obsession with technology and social media which has added to this exhaustion 3-fold.   

 

It has become so bad, that we now must set limits for screen times and set reminders to exercise. We even must be reminded by our technologies to have interactions with real human beings to avoid isolation. The latest commercials of apps are helping you schedule mindfulness experiences or naps into our workday. 

 

Naps are not something new for many cultures outside of the US. 

 

People head home from work in Spain for a siesta. And in Italy they take a riposo. And in China workers break after lunch and put their heads on their desks for an hour-long nap (it is a protected right by their constitution).  This is something we in our driven American culture could learn from.  

 

Some major corporations in America have realized this and just before the pandemic had added Nap Rooms to their office spaces and tech companies.

 

The pandemic offered this opportunity in new ways as people were forced to work from home. Statistics showed that one of the major factors for quality production levels rising during the pandemic was directly due to people getting needed rest.

 

Matthew Walker, who has studied our need for sleep says, “…sleep is the single most effective thing we can do to reset our brain and body health each day.”

 

Sadly, I don’t think the struggle for rest is something new in our world, and it is evident from a simple glance at our bibles. Even people 2000+ years ago dealt with the lack of rest. You might be surprised at how many times the bible talks about people needing rest. Just Google it sometime – you might be surprised at how much the Bible has to say.   

 

Even when drafting the original 10 Commandments – rest was a key component.

 

“Remember the sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work.  But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work.” (Exodus 20:9-10).

 

When I was in my doctoral studies, I was challenged to find what our Jewish friends consider sabbath rest. 

 

Sabbath comes from the word shavat which means to “cease” or “desist.”  The main observance of shavat was from sunset on Friday to nightfall of the following day.

 

Now, Quakers consider all days equal which can confuse this needed opportunity for rest. It also may at times create a lack of trust with rest or resting, making people feel as though they must be literally worn out for God’s purposes.

 

Thus, I think it is important that we consider rest not so much about day but instead about a discipline.      

 

Richella Parham, in an article posted by Renovaré titled, “The Spiritual Discipline of Rest” points out,

 

“…the way the human body functions has not changed much in the years since God commanded his people to observe a day of rest. The amount of time generally set aside for sleep has shrunk, but the need for it has not. In these days filled with artificial light and late-night opportunities for work and play, we must now be very purposeful in the pursuit of physical rest.  

I think we often fail to consider that we must choose to rest or else we’re likely to have rest forced upon us when we are exhausted to the point of physical, mental, or emotional distress.”

Ask yourself this morning, Have I ever found myslef forced to my bed after pushing myself too hard?

I know I have been in this place on many occasions. Ministry while trying to raise a family can be life-draining and exhausting at times. Statistics show that most pastors struggle with burnout on a regular occasion in ministry and the pandemic took those statistics to a point that found pastors fleeing from ministry, retiring at record rates, and finding new careers.

I know I must protect my time of sabbath rest.  So, don’t think I am rude if I do not answer a call or respond to an email on Friday, this is part of my discipline and hopefully makes me a better pastor.  I know that when I do not protect it, I start to feel sick, or on edge, and quickly find myself forced to rest.  

And folks, I’m also not just talking about students cramming for finals who need more rest, rather I am talking about retired folks who have schedules fuller now than before they retired – you know who you are out there.

We have busy lives – all of us – and we need to pay attention.

I had a friend once who would say, “My getting sick is God’s way of slowing me down.” 

Please understand, I don’t think we should buy into blaming this on God, but rather we need to become more aware of our own lives, our own body’s needs, and about how much we are able or trying to do.  That is what Parker Palmer was talking about last week in the pieces of the commencement speech I shared.

This is where, I believe, Jesus is very helpful.  I consider him a great example of one who understood the need for rest. There are plenty of places in scripture that show us his discipline of rest.

Often, we get so caught up with other aspects of the stories that we quickly read over or completely miss the more human aspects to which we can relate that often speak directly to his need for down time. For example:

Mark 1:35 But after this one day, “very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place and there he prayed.”  

 

In this moment Jesus secluded himself so much that his disciples could not find him, and they had formed a search party. 

 

Or after John the Baptist’s death, Jesus said to the disciples,

 

“’Come away by yourselves to a quiet place and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.” 

 

This reminds me when our boys were young, and they would play all day and come to the dinner table and suddenly, the head-bobbing would begin. Sometimes even with a spoonful of food in their hand. On occasion one of them would just fall head-first into their plate completely exhausted.  

 

In Matthew 11:28-30 it clearly shows that Jesus understood the importance of rest. He incorporated rest into his life and his teaching.  I love how Eugene Peterson translated it in our scriptures for today,

 

“Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it.  Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.  I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

 

I think that may be one of my favorite phrases in scripture: to “learn the unforced rhythms of grace.”  I need to make a sign with this phrase for my house – because it is so important. 

 

But probably the story I love the most is found in Mark 4.  Most of us are probably familiar with this story.  Jesus and his closest followers set out across the Sea of Galilee by boat. Exhausted and spent from his day of ministry and teaching, Jesus falls fast asleep on a cushion in the stern of the boat. While Jesus is “sawing logs,” major storms blow in and fear sets in on everyone else aboard the boat. 

 

In Mark 4:38 we find everyone a bit upset at Jesus and they shake him awake saying angerly, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

 

Now, you must remember that many of Jesus’ disciples were fisherman and knew just how dangerous the Sea of Galilee could get when a storm would arise. So, if they were frantic during a squall or storm of this nature – that was a big problem.

 

Yet Jesus shows us that even in the literal storms of life, rest is vital to building our trust, confidence, and definitely our peace.

 

The reason I love this story so much is because it is just how it seems to be. You finally decide to nap, rest, take a day off, or make some time in your schedule and then someone comes and says, “What are you doing? You don’t have time to rest.” 

 

Folks, there will always be another emergency, more work to do, someone to help, something to fix, but sometimes to help us be better people in our world, more understanding, clearer about our decisions, we are going to need to say, “I am taking a rest, because that is more important at this time.”   

 

And when you and I are in the thick of the storms of life, do we take Jesus’ advice or simply push on? 

Do we find a quiet place to rest? 

Do we intentionally find time to recover and renew our life? 

Do we, while everyone else is frantic around us, have the personal awareness and fortitude it takes to find a place stop the madness around us and really rest? 

 

Ask yourself, am I in need of rest, today?

Would my week start better if I rested today?

If I allowed myself to slow down and pause for a while, might I be able to center down and worship in a more meaningful way?  

 

As we enter the summer months, I want to challenge you to consider your own discipline of rest and what you need to do in the coming weeks and months to help you truly rest.

 

Many consider Waiting Worship a time to “rest in the presence of God.”  I pray as we enter this time, you may center down and begin a time of needed rest for your soul today. 

 

When I am in the thick of the storms of life, do I take Jesus’ advice or simply push on? 

Do I find a quiet place to rest? 

Do I intentionally find time to recover and renew my life? 

Do I, while everyone else is frantic around me, have the personal awareness and fortitude it takes to find a place stop the madness around me and really rest? 

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5-15-22 - Open to the Grandeur and Glory of Life

Open to the Grandeur and Glory of Life

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

May 15, 2022

 

Our scripture for this morning comes from 2 Corinthians 9:8-11  and I will be reading it from the Message version.

 

8-11 God can pour on the blessings in astonishing ways so that you’re ready for anything and everything, more than just ready to do what needs to be done. As one psalmist puts it,

 

He throws caution to the winds,
    

giving to the needy in reckless abandon.


His right-living, right-giving ways
    

never run out, never wear out.

 

This most generous God who gives seed to the farmer that becomes bread for your meals is more than extravagant with you. He gives you something you can then give away, which grows into full-formed lives, robust in God, wealthy in every way, so that you can be generous in every way, producing with us great praise to God.

 

 

At this time of year, I find myself reflecting and reminiscing about my own graduation ceremonies over the years.  My high school graduation was held outside at Zolliner Stadium in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The graduates sat in full sun in the same place where the Zolliner Pistons (who became the Detroit Pistons) played professional basketball outdoors back in the day. We moved back to this location at the last minute after a brief storm came up which made it miserably hot in the sun.  Most of what I remember is sweating a lot. I also had to leave immediately after my graduation party that day to get to the camp where I was to become a camp counselor – the same camp where one year later I would meet Sue. 

 

My undergraduate college commencement at Concordia University in River Forest, Illinois was interesting as well. Our commencement speaker was the Mayor of Gary, Indiana. They went all out. He had graduated from my college and was doing some great work in cleaning up the city of Gary.  Earlier when I started college, I remember watching on the news military tanks being moved into downtown Gary as the violence in the town had escalated.  Things have changed immensely in Gary since that day, greatly due to my commencement speaker. 

 

When I received my Master’s Degree, we were all lined up in the basement of the Library at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois awaiting our processional.  Our commencement speaker had been kept a secret until he arrived to greet us all in the basement. Later, we found out this was mostly due to his controversial status with people at the time. But it came as a surprise as the political advisor to Richard Nixon, Chuck Colson, made his way through the graduates, shaking our hands, and looking for a table to sit at to cut down his message.  See, he was told he had 15 minutes, but his speech was almost 40 minutes.  I was standing nearby as he argued why he deserved more time.  It was awkward.

 

My doctoral hooding ceremony with George Fox Evangelical Seminary in Oregon was probably the most beautiful of my graduation experiences.  Our speaker was one of my professors, Len Sweet, who not only challenged us but spoke a charge to us to step up to the challenges of our world with being like Christ. My family, along with many from my Quaker Meeting came to celebrate the occasion in Beaverton, Oregon.  It was a beautiful and memorable event. 

 

Over the years, I have often thought what I would say if I was asked to give a commencement speech.  And immediately my mind goes to the many commencement speeches that have lived on after they have been given, such as

 

Chadwick Boseman’s speech at Howard University in 2018 when he said, “Purpose is an essential element of you. It is the reason you are on the planet at this particular time in history.”

 

Or there was Steve Jobs’ speech at Stanford University in 2005, where he said almost prophetically, “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet – keep looking.”

Or how about the speech Oprah Winfrey gave at Harvard in 2013 where she said, "Learn from every mistake because every experience, encounter, and particularly your mistakes are there to teach you and force you into being more who you are. And then figure out what is the next right move. And the key to life is to develop an internal moral, emotional G.P.S. that can tell you which way to go."

Or one last one from David Foster Wallace speaking at Kenyon College in 2005 where he said, “The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able to truly care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day. That is real freedom. That is being educated.”

These were all in the top 15 of all-time commencement speeches in history, but the one that I believe speaks to our condition whether graduating or not and continues to make the list of top commencement speeches is from Naropa University in 2015.  Where Quaker Parker Palmer gave the commencement address.  Many consider it the best commencement message every given.

This morning, I want to share some of Parker’s words. These are not words just for those graduating – these are pieces of immense wisdom that we can all take with us and work to develop in our daily lives.  Palmer labeled them “The 6 advices for living with wholeheartedness.” He starts by saying, 

Be reckless when it comes to affairs of the heart.

What I really mean…is be passionate, fall madly in love with life.

Be passionate about some part of the natural and/or human worlds and take risks on its behalf, no matter how vulnerable they make you.

No one ever died saying, “I’m sure glad for the self-centered, self-serving and self-protective life I lived.”

 

He goes on to say,

 

Offer yourself to the world — your energies, your gifts, your visions, your heart — with open-hearted generosity. But understand that when you live that way you will soon learn how little you know and how easy it is to fail. 

 

To grow in love and service, you, I, all of us, must value ignorance as much as knowledge and failure as much as success…Clinging to what you already know and do well is the path to an unlived life. So, cultivate beginner’s mind, walk straight into your not-knowing, and take the risk of failing and falling again and again, then getting up again and again to learn - that’s the path to a life lived large, in service of love, truth, and justice.

 

Palmer’s second point of advice speaks to the difficult art of living with opposite truths and speaks of inner wholeness. Palmer says,

 

As you integrate ignorance and failure into your knowledge and success, do the same with all the alien parts of yourself. Take everything that’s bright and beautiful in you and introduce it to the shadow side of yourself. Let your altruism meet your egotism, let your generosity meet your greed, let your joy meet your grief. Everyone has a shadow…

 

But when you are able to say, “I am all of the above, my shadow as well as my light,” the shadow’s power is put in service of the good. Wholeness is the goal, but wholeness does not mean perfection, it means embracing brokenness as an integral part of your life.

 

As a person who…has made three deep dives into depression along the way, I do not speak lightly of this. I simply know that it is true.

 

As you acknowledge and embrace all that you are, you give yourself a gift that will benefit the rest of us as well. Our world is in desperate need of leaders who live what Socrates called “an examined life.”

 

In critical areas like politics, religion, business, and the mass media, too many leaders refuse to name and claim their shadows because they don’t want to look weak. With shadows that go unexamined and unchecked, they use power heedlessly in ways that harm countless people and undermine public trust in our major institutions.

 

In Parker’s third piece of advice, he calls for extending this courtesy to others and treating them with the same kindness that we do our own:

 

As you welcome whatever you find alien within yourself, extend that same welcome to whatever you find alien in the outer world. I don’t know any virtue more important these days than hospitality to the stranger, to those we perceive as “other” than us.

 

The old majority in this society, people who look like me, is on its way out. By 2045 the majority of Americans will be people of color… Many in the old majority fear that fact, and their fear, shamelessly manipulated by too many politicians, is bringing us down. The renewal this nation needs will not come from people who are afraid of otherness in race, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation.

 

Palmers fourth piece of advice addresses the small-minded lists and unimaginative standards that measure all the wrong metrics of “productivity” and “progress.” Palmer urges:

 

Take on big jobs worth doing — jobs like the spread of love, peace, and justice. That means refusing to be seduced by our cultural obsession with being effective as measured by short-term results. We all want our work to make a difference — but if we take on the big jobs and our only measure of success is next quarter’s bottom line, we’ll end up disappointed, dropping out, and in despair.

 

Our heroes take on impossible jobs and stay with them for the long haul because they live by a standard that trumps effectiveness. The name of that standard, I think, is faithfulness — faithfulness to your gifts, faithfulness to your perception of the needs of the world, and faithfulness to offering your gifts to whatever needs are within your reach.

 

The tighter we cling to the norm of effectiveness the smaller the tasks we’ll take on, because they are the only ones that get short-term results… Care about being effective, of course, but care even more about being faithful…to your calling, and to the true needs of those entrusted to your care. 

 

You won’t get the big jobs done in your lifetime, but if at the end of the day you can say, “I was faithful,” I think you’ll be okay.

 

In his fifth point of advice, Palmer echoes Tolstoy’s letters to Gandhi on why we hurt each other and offers:

 

Since suffering as well as joy comes with being human, I urge you to remember this:

 

Violence is what happens when we don’t know what else to do with our suffering.

 

Sometimes we aim that violence at ourselves, as in overwork that leads to burnout or worse, or in the many forms of substance abuse; sometimes we aim that violence at other people — racism, sexism, and homophobia often come from people trying to relieve their suffering by claiming superiority over others. 

 

The good news is that suffering can be transformed into something that brings life, not death. It happens every day.

 

Parker says, I’m 76 years old, I now know many people who’ve suffered the loss of the dearest person in their lives. At first they go into deep grief, certain that their lives will never again be worth living. But then they slowly awaken to the fact that not in spite of their loss, but because of it, they’ve become bigger, more compassionate people, with more capacity of heart to take in other people’s sorrows and joys. These are broken-hearted people, but their hearts have been broken open, rather than broken apart. 

 

So, every day, exercise your heart by taking in life’s little pains and joys — that kind of exercise will make your heart supple, the way a runner makes a muscle supple, so that when it breaks, (and it surely will,) it will break not into a fragment grenade, but into a greater capacity for love.

 

In his sixth and final piece of wisdom, Palmer quotes the immortal words of Saint Benedict — “daily, keep your death before your eyes”— and, echoes Rilke’s view of mortality, by counseling,  

 

If you hold a healthy awareness of your own mortality, your eyes will be opened to the grandeur and glory of life, and that will evoke all of the virtues I’ve named, as well as those I haven’t, such as hope, generosity, and gratitude. If the unexamined life is not worth living, it’s equally true that the unlived life is not worth examining.

 

Folks, what Parker Palmer was addressing was not just a set of graduates from Naropa University, but he is sharing wisdom with us all for life in this present moment. This is timeless wisdom that I hope we take in and make part of our lives. I believe we all need this message, today, and as Parker said, may our eyes be opened to the grandeur and glory of life!

 

Now, as we center down and enter waiting worship, let us take a moment to ponder the following queries:

 

·        Am I passionate and falling madly in love with this life?

·        How might I introduce myself to my “shadow side” this week?

·        In what ways do I need to work on embracing “otherness”?

·        How am I transforming my suffering into something that brings life?

 

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5-1-22 - To Be Jesus to the World

To Be Jesus to the World

Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting

Pastor Bob Henry

May 1, 2022

 

Good morning, Friends and welcome to Light Reflections – this morning we return to the post-resurrection stories by looking at John 20:19-29 from the New Revised Standard Version of scripture.  

 

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

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

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

 

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

 

“Now, what are we to do?”

 

Today, we heard in our text of the disciples cowering in fear behind locked doors.  Fearing not only the Roman Empire, but also the religious leaders of the day.  No one was safe at this time.

 

I believe the disciples were in fear just as many of the people in Ukraine or Palestine are today.

 

The disciples knew that the religious and state authorities had found a way to have Jesus crucified, and they knew they were already on the trail to find and do the same thing to them and the other followers of Christ.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

It is one thing to watch someone die for a cause, but when you find out that the attention has turned on you because of your followership of this person, ANXIETY, FEAR, the NEED TO HIDE quickly overcome you.

 

Your mind flashes with visions of you being tortured by the authorities, carrying your own cross through the city of Jerusalem, and being hung to suffer the agony of public execution on a cross. These would have been vivid images in the minds of the followers of Christ at that time.

 

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

 

“Now, what are we to do?”

 

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

 

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

 

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

·        What was your difficult situation?

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

Isn’t that how it is for us, often? The presence of God is in our midst, or even in our own hearts, and we don’t recognize or acknowledge God.

 

Folks, we are Quakers, the ones who are always to look for that of God in those around us.  How often has the presence of God been in our midst in the likes of a friend, a parent, a child, at teacher, even a complete stranger, and we totally missed it?

 

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

 

If you remember, it was these words that Jesus used to calm the storms on the water as their boat was violently shaken by the storm and everyone was in fear.  The disciples would have known these words to be an acknowledgment and reassurance of God’s presence in the storms of their lives.

 

Yet, with all that they had been through during the last several days leading up to their best friend being executed in front of them, they still showed doubt this time.  This time they had been so shaken that he had to prove to them who he was so that their joy and peace would return. 

 

The disciple, Thomas, even must go one step further – I think you and I might have been the same. Thomas needed a hands-on-experience before he could believe. 

 

Sometimes our lives are in such tumult that we need something a bit more tangible – a real-time, real-life experience.

 

Sometimes we need a physical – incarnate – experience.  We need to hear a parent’s voice, sometimes we need a hug, sometimes we need a physical connection. I think Thomas has been shafted by history. 

 

Beyond needing proof, beyond assurance, beyond even finding inner peace, Thomas needed a physical connection as he tried to wrap his mind around that question, “Now, what are we to do?” 

 

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

 

I think too often the reason we cannot relate to Jesus, is because we cannot truly see him as a human being – with flesh. He was no different than any of us in this meetinghouse.  He had skin and bones, aches and pains, he bled…no different.  And what we need to realize is that Jesus showed us how with these fully human, fleshly bodies to truly live! 

 

He taught us how to forgive, how to bring hope, how to reconcile, how to “incarnate” his life and ministry to our neighbors and to our world in this present moment. 

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

You and I are now the incarnated Christ to our world.  We are the light-bearers being sent into our world.

 

I know I mentioned this two weeks ago in my Easter message, but have you ever thought about the fact that the gathered meeting (or the universal church) was considered or called “The Body of Christ.”  We are the official incarnation of Christ to our world.  Let that sink in for a moment.

 

St. Teresa of Avila prayed a prayer that speaks to this incarnation – it went like this:

 

Christ has no body now but yours,

No hands but yours,

No feet but yours,

Yours are the eyes through which

Christ’s compassion must look out on the world.

Yours are the feet with which

He is to go about doing good.

Yours are the hands with which

He is to bless us now.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Fear which lingers,

Fear which lives on in us,

Fear which does not prompt us to wise remedial action,

Becomes engraved upon our hearts,

Becomes an addiction, becomes an armor which encases us.

This fear guards and guides us and determines our action.

It leads us directly toward that which we fear.

 

We can’t let our fear keep us in a tomb of death. 

We can’t let fear keep us worried or fretting about what is going to happen. We can’t let fear keep us hiding and avoiding and not acting.

That I believe is the case too often with the church, today. 

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Be encouraged.

 

So folks…Now, what are we to do? 

 

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

 

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

 

·        How am I incarnating Jesus to my neighbors?

 

·        What fears are getting in my way? 

 

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