Spokane Friends Meeting

It doesn’t feel like Easter. Not to me, anyway. Not right now. Let me be honest.

On Easter, Jesus emerged from the tomb. He put two feet on the ground. He took fresh air into his lungs. He gardened, I think. Jesus told Mary, who came to care for his dead body but found him living, to spread the good news: the power of death could not hold our beloved; our True Friend breathes. Later in the day, Jesus stood before his friends. They were in the same house. He preached peace through a wall of fear. Jesus breathed on his friends, breathed the power of courageous life into them. 

In a way, I feel like we are being called into Jesus’ tomb today. Much of our world is closed. Many of our streets are empty. Few dare ride the bus. No basketball, no spring training. No school. No happy hour at Clinker Dagger. No Bloomsday in spring. People are in hospitals, struggling to breathe. Over a hundred thousand have died of Covid-19. Millions upon millions are losing their jobs. Millions more are going hungry. And fearful. How will we pay for rent? The car? The energy bill? If we are lucky to have a home, we are ordered to stay there. Tragically, home is not always a safe place. When we do go out, we live afraid to touch people we love, to breathe on strangers at the grocery store. We are wearing masks. Physical distancing has become a ministry of compassion. Who would have thought?

Some of us are glued to our TV sets and radios, waiting for good news from far off places. Is Wuhan up and running again? Has the curve flattened? Is there a treatment? When will there be a vaccine? When can the kids go back to school? When we can return to our Meeting House, sit in our beloved pews, hug, and see our banners. Hope, Peace, Joy, Love.

Today, we live waiting for good news and for new life. It doesn’t feel like Easter Sunday. Not to me, anyway. Not right now. Let me be honest.

To me, today feels more like Holy Saturday. Holy Saturday is a day in the church calendar that’s easy to forget. We prefer to hide Easter eggs and drink spiked punch than attend to the spiritual reality of Holy Saturday. Holy Saturday is a liminal time between Jesus’ death on Good Friday and his resurrection on Easter Sunday. It is a day of heavy mourning, dizzying confusion, and traumatic separation. According to the Christian tradition, Holy Saturday symbolizes the time Jesus descended into hell after his death. Why Jesus descended into hell—and what hell actually is—is a complicated theological question good people debate. The reason is clear as day to me, though: Jesus’ descent into hell on Holy Saturday is a symbol for the spiritual fact that there is no place Love will not go; that Christ waits in solidarity with those who hunger and pine for the breath of new life. Holy Saturday is a reminder that even life as we know it cannot contain the power of Christ’s Love.

So, yeah. If I am being honest: today feels more like that. More like Holy Saturday than Easter Sunday. I feel like I am in a tomb, not outside of one. Today it feels like our invitation is to create physical distance but refuse to allow fear and suffering to separate us; to practice compassionate spacing but still go where Love is calling; to wait patiently with Christ and all of creation for new life. Holy Saturday invites us into a query, I think. How, today,shall we wait for new life? What must we lie die? And what kind of life do we want to live once Covid-19 is finally yesterday’s news?

Why is a Christian a Christian? Easy answer, you may say: A Christian is a Christian because a Christian believes Jesus was really God and a Christian is a Christian because a Christian lives as Jesus lived.

I think it’s true that Jesus showed us who God is, and where God is, but I think we think too much about Jesus as God. Looking for God, we stare too long at the sky and the stars and into the great beyond. Searching for Christ, we look too hard into the slow, fascinating, and complicated book of history. We forget that Jesus came not just to reveal God but also to reveal us to ourselves. That Jesus was the True Human. That Jesus shows us what is like to be really alive as a person. That Christ is in the mirror in the morning, looking at you when you look at yourself. 

Being truly human, Jesus shows us still, means washing stinky feet, comforting the sick, feeding the hungry, and visiting the prisoner. It means setting the captives free. Being truly human, Jesus shows us still, means speaking truth to power, bringing peace in storms of fear, and experiencing the joy. To be truly human and really alive is to dance among the lilies of the field, drink wine and feast with one’s friends, and laugh until hurts. True worship is the sound of a big belly laugh in the midst of Covid-19.

Jesus’ life also shows us that being truly human means accepting a kind of death as a natural part of life. It means learning to love the tomb and greet death as a caring brother. But Jesus’ life also shows us that love is stronger than death. Within a kind of tomb, Jesus shows us how to die and wait for new life to emerge. To be truly human is to wait in faith, hope, and love.

Sings of new life. Last week, I saw a couple dancing on the sidewalk across the street from my apartment. Their hands were in the air, swaying to a song. The guy was laughing and shaking his booty. The woman was smiling. The sun had been out all day. It felt cool out. Yellow daffodils were shooting up from the soil, announcing spring.

It may not feel like Easter, but it is. As Quakers, we are mindful that every day is Easter because Christ’s presence is our true and abiding reality. Christ is the sun that does not go down. We are the yellow daffodils, always shooting up and announcing the spring.

Life is coming alive all around us. Let us fall down on the grass and be truly happy. There is no place Love will not go. We are never alone, not even in the tomb. Joy is the final word. Big belly laughter is our home. But let us not rush past this season in which we are called into a holy waiting and a holy dying so that we can create a better, more beautiful life on the other side of the curve: not just for ourselves, of course, but for all who yearn for the sun. And friends, we all yearn for the sun. God is breathing in all of us as we shoot up from the soil.

Let us enter into a time of waiting worship now. If God calls you to share a word of edification for our meeting, please be faithful to that call. If God gives you a word for just yourself, please remember to savor that word as a true gift within yourself as we sit in extended silence. 

This message was given by Deborah Suess to Spokane Friends during Sunday worship service on Easter Sunday, April 17, 2022.

 Giving the message is a privilege that I appreciate.  I pray that something I say will be of spiritual benefit to this community that has so warmly and kindly welcomed Erin and me. I will give the message and then we will have the silence afterwards.

The theme for January is Peace.  Working for peace often involves dealing with evil, violence and injustice.  Let’s see what Matthew has to say.

Matthew 5: 38-41 NRSV

You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ ³⁹ But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer.  But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well, and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. 

Aye yi yi.  Sorry, Matthew, but that just doesn’t make any sense.

Do not resist an evildoer?  The people that hid Jews during WWII were resisting the evil Nazi regime. How could that have been wrong?

Turn the other cheek?  The abused wife is supposed to submissively take blow after blow?

Give your cloak as well?  A poor person unjustly evicted from their apartment should ask their greedy unscrupulous landlord if they would like their car.

Go also the second mile?  The sex trafficked woman tells her pimp she will work an extra 6 hours a day?

Did Jesus not resist evil?  Did he collaborate with evil?   Was Jesus submissive to injustice? Did Jesus act in a manner consistent with Matthew 5:38-41?  NO. 

Matt 23: 15

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hellas yourselves.

Matt 23: 27

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful, but inside they are full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of filth. 

Matt 12: 9-14

He left that place and entered their synagogue; ¹⁰ a man was there with a withered hand, and they asked him, “Is it lawful to cure on the Sabbath?” so that they might accuse him. ¹¹ He said to them, “Suppose one of you has only one sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath; will you not lay hold of it and lift it out? ¹² How much more valuable is a human being than a sheep! So it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath.” ¹³ Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and it was restored, as sound as the other. ¹⁴ But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.

Jesus is doing direct active non-violent resistance and the Pharisees want to kill him because of it. It is as if Jesus says, “Peter, what day is it?” “It is the Sabbath Rabbi.” “Great. Time to go heal someone.”

Matt 21: 12

Then Jesus entered the templeand drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. 

A good time to pause and think about why Jesus did that.  Temple system according to John Kinney:

Vineyard owner Jacob from Damascus arrives at the temple and explains to a priest that he wants to make a sacrifice so that Yahweh will look favorably on him and grant him an abundant harvest. The priest asks Jacob “Do you want an average harvest or a really big harvest?”  Jacob, “Big.” That will be 2 goats and two doves for a total cost of 225 shekels, temple coinage.  Your Greek drachmas need to be converted to shekels. The money exchange department is on the 3^rd floor, 2^nd office on your right.” You know what is going to happen.

Noah from Tarsus arrives at the temple carrying an unblemished lamb to present for sacrifice to atone for losing his temper and breaking his neighbor’s arm. Priest, “Your lamb needs to be inspected to see if it is truly unblemished.  Be back in a minute” Priest, “Sorry, Noah, but your lamb has a nick in its ear so it is not unblemished.  But Noah, Buddy, Pal, always loved the name Noah, you are in luck.  Just today a flock of brand new 0033 AD, pre-certified lambs arrived.  Take a look at this little beauty.  Notice the stylish lines.  Go ahead and get a whiff of that new lamb smell. Feel the plush genuine wool upholstery.  Tell you what I’m going to do.  Trade in your lamb and I’ll give you a 10% discount.  Have we got a deal?”  Noah, “Ok, sure”  Priest, “Great.  Now can I interest you in the extended warranty package?”  Noah, “What!  You are going to slaughter the lamb. Why do I need a warranty?”  

Priest,   “Well right now there is a big back log at the altar of sacrifice and your lamb isn’t scheduled for 4 days.  If your lamb dies between now and then the warranty provides a replacement lamb.”  Noah, “You know what, give me back my lamb and my money. I am headed down to the Jordan.”  Priest, “Why the Jordan?”  Noah, “There is crazy dude there who I am beginning to think is not so crazy.  He is called John the Baptist and he says that Yahweh’s mercy and love are as abundant and free flowing as the Jordan. Adios.”

The Priest goes to high priest and says, “Caiaphas, just this week I have lost 10 sales to that nut job, John the Baptist.  We are in trouble.”  Caiphas, “Not to worry.  John’s days are numbered.  It is just a matter of time.  I am giving you a heads up that John is going to be getting a heads off, if you know what I mean.”

The image of god the religious authorities have created is petty, small, needy, vindictive, always needing to be placated.  Religion was one big transaction.  You had to pay for God’s mercy, favor and forgiveness.  Jesus’ action was a head-on assault against the “religious system”.  That was a very dangerous thing to do and surely the last straw.

A word about systems.  Richard Rohr: 

Whenever Jesus says “the world”, he is talking about systems.  Systems are the way groups, cultures, institutions, and nations organize to protect themselves and maintain their power. This is the most hidden and denied level of evil. We cannot see it because we are all inside of it, and it is in our ego’s self-interest to protect the deception. Example: Banks too big to fail.

Over and over Jesus speaks truth to power and acts against injustice.  George Fox, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. advised by Quaker Bayard Rustin, Solidarity in Poland, the velvet revolution in the Czechoslovakia, Desmond Tutu in South Africa, all based their non-violent active resistance on the teaching of Jesus to fight injustice and bring about peace.

So either Jesus didn’t say what Matthew records or he didn’t do what Matthew records or we are misinterpreting Matt 5: 38-41

Most of what follows I have taken from a brilliant little book, Jesus and Nonviolence, A Third Way by the theologian Walter Wink.

Let’s start with “resist not evil.”

Wink.  The Greek word is antistenai, pronounced On Tea Stemy. Anti is easy; it means against.  In the Greek stemy is used primarily for military encounters, specifically to the moment two armies collide, steel on steel, to potentially lethal disturbances or armed revolution.  A proper translation would be, “Don’t strike back at evil in kind.” or “Do not retaliate against violence with violence.” or “Don’t react violently against the one who is evil.” 

King James’ faithful scholars translated On Tea Stemy as “resist not” instead of “Do not react violently against the one who is evil. “ Why? King James would not want people concluding that they had any recourse against his or any other sovereign’s unjust policies.  The translators were translating non-violent resistance into docility.

DUH!  It’s King James’ bible!  Of course he is involved in the process. Protestants! Always letting secular powers have their say.  That would never happen in Catholicism.  Oops.  Sorry. My bad.  The first 7 councils of the Roman Catholic Church, spanning the time from 325 to 787 were all convoked by guess who?  Emperors.   God help us.

It is important to think about who Jesus was speaking to.  Wink says in every case Jesus’ listeners are not those who strike, initiate lawsuits or impose forced labor, but their victims.  His listeners are people who were beaten, sued and subjected to forced labor.   People that had to stifle their inner outrage at the dehumanizing treatment meted out to them.

Next problem verse: “strike you on the right cheek, turn the other also”.  In the time of Jesus the left hand was only used for unclean tasks.  To even gesture with the left hand carried a penalty.  So how do you strike someone on the right check if you can’t use your left hand? 

[Demonstrate: “You idiot”.  Slap.  “Don’t get uppity with me”. Slap. “I told you to fill all the water jars”. Slap.  “Know your place, woman”.  Slap. “Stinking shephard”. Slap.]

The strike is a back-handed slap meant to humiliate, put you in your place.  It was the way to admonish inferiors.

[Demonstrate] When you turn your check, the blow has to be more of a punch and you would only punch a peer, an equal. The message sent to the striker is, “I deny you the power to humiliate me.  I am your equal.  I will not be demeaned”.  The response, far from suggesting passivity and cowardice, is an act of defiance.  And yes, you could be flogged for your defiance. Matt 5: 10-11 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake”.  Non-violent active resistance will cost you.  Think of the march for civil rights across  the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Next:  If anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well. Jesus’ audience, the poor, are those with only two garments, an inner and outer.  The situation that Jesus refers to would have been all too familiar.  The poor debtor has sunk ever deeper into poverty, the debt cannot be repaid, he is hauled into court to have the only thing he has left, his outer garment, taken. 

Jesus’s council to give over your inner garment as well means marching out of court stark naked.  You have said in effect, “You want my robe?  Here, take everything!  Now you’ve got all I have except my body.  Is that what you will take next?”  Nakedness was taboo in Judaism, and the shame fell not on the naked party, but on the person viewing or causing one’s nakedness.  The poor person does it to bring shame on the person bringing the suit.

Go also another mile?  Roman soldiers carried 60-70 lb. packs and they could force subjected people to carry their packs.   However, a soldier could not force a civilian to carry his pack more than 1 mile.  To force the civilian to go farther would result in severe penalties for the soldier under Roman military law.  Rome wanted to limit the anger of the occupied Jews but keep its army on the move.

But why walk the second mile?  From a situation of servile impressment you have seized the initiative.  Imagine the Roman infantryman pleading with a Jew, “Give me back my pack.”

Wink’s interpretation of Matt 5:38-41 is not iron-clad but it makes sense to me.  Jesus calls us to a third way which is neither violent nor passive. Oppose evil without becoming evil.   Quakers believe that nonviolent confrontation of evil and peaceful reconciliation are always superior to violent measures.

Here is the rub.  I like passivity. It doesn’t ask anything of me. Things are going really well for me right now, thank you very much.  I am immersed in and surrounded by systems that are evil, but I am also very comfortable.  Why rock the boat?

But Jesus calls.

Between now and 2030 the government is going to spend $634 billion dollars to upgrade our nuclear arsenal. If all the missiles on 1 trident submarine were fired we would have 5 years of nuclear winter. This year’s defense budget is $768 billion.  The botched drone strike during the evacuation of Afghanistan killed 10 civilians including 7 children. The taxes I willingly pay fund that. Am I not complicit?

Jesus calls.

The United States locks up more people at a higher rate than any country in the world.  4.1% of people currently on death row are likely to be innocent according to the National Academy of Sciences.  Nobody I know.

Jesus calls.

One in nine Americans struggle with hunger.  I stuffed myself over the holidays.

Jesus calls:

There are peace activists in prison right now because their Christian convictions compelled them to do civil disobedience. It was G K Chesterton who said, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.”

Am I doing enough?  I struggle with that.  It isn’t a guilt thing.  It is more of a feeling that to become fully transformed, Christ is calling me to let go, step out, to change, to . . .  I don’t know.  I don’t know.  Maybe you sometimes wrestle with the same thing?

Thank you.

Today is my birthday, and it’s really fun to start the day with all of you!  I noticed in the Spokane Friends newsletter that three pastors connected to SFC are celebrating birthdays this week: Paul Blankenship, Leeann Williams, and me!  This is a party place for sure!

One thing I’ve noticed as I’ve grown older is how my body has changed – it’s something I can’t avoid noticing! My hair started turning gray when I was in my 30’s, but a lot of other things have changed since then!!!   I’m less able to do some things I once used to do!  Since back surgery two years ago, I’ve started taking water exercise classes, and they’ve been great.  To work against the resistance of the water has been healthy for me, while I use the buoyancy of the water to help me along.  But our instructor has told us how necessary it is to do weight bearing exercise as well to build muscle.  To carry our own weight, to do the work needed to be healthy.  

I’m a body, soul, mind and spirit kind of follower of Jesus.  I take God’s instruction to love God with everything I have – physically, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually.  The other day I found a bag of rubber bands.  Not one of them was useful anymore.  They had become so old that they’d hardened, and when I stretched them out, they snapped.  It made me think about my faith – our faith.  How elastic, how flexible is my faith and yours?  How pliable is the capacity of our souls?  Do we follow God with all that we are and have?  Do we lean into all that God has given us – the potential we have in being who we are created to be?  Or do we ‘sit in a drawer’ and harden in our understanding of ourselves and of God, and become useless?

God has given us the gift of wonder.  The way of knowing God – and each other – with heart, soul, mind, and spirit.  Not just recently, but historically, humankind has been offered wonder only to turn away from it into hard places of determined rigidity.  We lose our capacity for inquiry and curiosity.  Certainty has become the rule rather than surprise.

Genesis 1:26-27: ²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make humankindin our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”

²⁷ So God created humankind in God’s image,
    in the image of God he created them;^[f]
    male and female he created them.

Desmond Tutu interpreted this passage for children in his ‘Children of God Storybook Bible’: “I will make people and I will make them like me so they can enjoy the earth and take care of it.” 

Imagine with me the mystery of the sixth day of Creation. Of waking up into that day – into the welcoming Presence of One who created us, who wanted companionship with us. Waking up into wonder… Can we imagine the relationship God expected tohave with us – and still does? 

God didn’t need humanity to “like God”.  God created us to be like God – to be as God was.  To companion with God.  To be creative, caring, loving, discerning, able to take responsibility, to care for the earth.  God intended us to be Present with Godself.   

Richard Rohr’s recent post held this teaching: ‘The presence of God is infinite, everywhere, always, and forever. You cannot not be in the presence of God. There’s no other place to be. The only change is always on our side—God is present, but we’re not present to Presence. We’ll make any excuse to be somewhere other than right here. Right here, right now never seem enough.’

Here’s what Mark Twain had to say: “God created man in his own image, and man, being a gentleman, returned the favor.” 

Too often, we make God into our image.  Do we only see God as we see ourselves?  Does our grasp of God become limited to what we know of ourselves?  Where did the wonder of that Sixth Day go?  Where is our curiosity?  Where is the mystery of faith that dares to believe things we are not certain of? 

Are we willing to stretch our souls?  Do we dare use the buoyancy of love to help us move against the fear of new exercises of faith in God?  About God?  About others?  Does it matter enough to us to do the work of carrying our own weight in order to strengthen our faith – to be present to the Presence of God?  To be present to others?

Elizabeth Barrett Browning knew something of love.  Her tyrannical father – a wealthy English sugar plantation owner in Jamaica forbade any of his 12 children to marry.  Her father held slaves, and sent her siblings back to Jamaica, leaving Elizabeth in England alone.  She eventually eloped with Robert Browning.  Her father never spoke to her again. Elizabeth’s Sonnets from the Portuguese, dedicated to her husband and written in secret before her marriage, was published in 1850. Critics generally consider the Sonnets—one of the most widely known collections of love lyrics in English—to be her best work.  I think you’ll recognize this one – Sonnet 43 – my favorite!

Sonnet 43:

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

Elizabeth is asking this – wondering this: “How do I love you, Robert?”  But I am asking us, “How do I love you, God”.  How far does my soul stretch in my love for God – the depth, the breadth, the height my soul can reach?”  How stiff has my faith become?  How supple is my heart for God?  How healthy is my experience of wonder, of imagination?  

Is our passion for God one of old griefs or childhood’s faith?  Have we become so stuck, so hardened in our love for God, for what we know of God – in what we want to know of God – that our faith has become an image that we still hold on to, rather than a living, breathing, growing, changing, centered part of life in us?  Do we worship an idol of faith, or do we worship a living Presence that stirs faith to life within us?

Do you remember when you or your kids came home from Kindergarten with a clay handprint?  A treasure for sure – baked in a kiln, or dried in the sun, these were remembrances of a certain point in time – an imprint of childhood.  Our faith must be more than an imprint – a remembrance of times past. 

Paul talks about the grace of God and the ‘the mystery of revelation’ – and tells us of how God taught him things that he hadn’t understood before.  [Romans 16:25-27] Paul’s faith was being stretched.  His understanding of God’s intention became far greater than he’d ever imagined.  If Paul had not opened his mind, his heart, his soul to the awareness of God’s present Presence, to God’s Now, to God’s life and light, he would have been useless.  Instead, he preached the ministry of Christ’s love for all persons.  How did Paul do this?  How do we do this?

How do we stretch our souls?  With exercise. By thinking.  By imagining.  By working.  By hoping.  By praying against all odds.  By going as far as our souls can reach, and then reaching even farther in the next step we take…

 Ephesians 3:16-19

¹⁶ I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, God may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, ¹⁷ and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. ¹⁸ I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹ and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Are we willing to open ourselves up?  To be filled up with God?  To wait for the power of God’s Spirit to move in us and then to act to exercise that power?  To allow God to love us fully?  To teach us the dimensions – the breadth, length, height, and depth of Christ’s expansive love?  Are we willing to make room for Christ in our hearts in faith – the stretching, bending, reaching, hard work of faith – as we become more rooted, grounded, and self-confident in love?  Are we willing to discover the power of God’s spirit strengthening us inwardly, in ways we haven’t known before?  Do we have the capacity and the willingness to stretch our souls?

References:  Richard Rohr, “First Sunday of Advent: To Be Awake Is to Be Now– Here,” homily, November 30, 2014 (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2014).

https://poets.org/poet/elizabeth-barrett-browning

This message was given to Spokane Friends via Zoom by Ruthie Tippin on Sunday, November 17, 2021.

Luke 15: 11-32 (NIIV)

There was a man who had two sons. ¹² The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.

¹³ “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. ¹⁴ After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵ So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. ¹⁶ He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

¹⁷ “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! ¹⁸ I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. ¹⁹ I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ ²⁰ So he got up and went to his father.

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

²¹ “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

²² “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. ²³ Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. ²⁴ For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

²⁵ “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶ So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ²⁷ ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’

²⁸ “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. ²⁹ But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. ³⁰ But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

³¹ “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. ³² But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

They say that familiarity breeds contempt. With parables I think familiarity breeds, “Isn’t that nice.”

I don’t think the targeted audience would have found it “nice”. I think they would have concluded that Jesus was mad and a potential threat.

So here we go. Chapter 15 vs 1-3 gets the ball rolling. “Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to him, but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

Why are they upset? To them religion is a meritocracy, a reward and punishment system.  If you are good, God loves you. If you are bad, God despises you and will punish you. You need to earn God’s love, become worthy. The Pharisees are all about who’s in, who’s out, winners and losers. Achievers and failures.  Sinners are lost causes. Rubbish. A waste of time. So bad that contact with them makes you unclean. Associating with “those kind of people” will damage your reputation. Let’s update it. Who are “those kind of people to you? Drug pushers, Gang members. Meth heads. Any group that makes you cringe. Yes them. Yes me.  Yes you.

In the parable Jesus spells out how his Father deals with “those kind of people”. “So he told them this parable”

The son asks for his inheritance. The oldest son always gets a double share. Oldest son gets 2 shares, youngest 1. That is three shares. Oldest will get 2/3 and youngest 1/3. Assume it is a farm of 150 acres with 60 sheep and 30 goats. Young son gets 50 acres, 20 sheep and 10 goats. Bad thing 1. For farms there is an economy of scale. By taking his share the youngest son has jeopardized the continued successful operation of the farm. Bad thing number 2. He sells it all for cash. You give a cherished prize possession to someone and they sell it. Awful, hurtful thing number 3.  We all know when we would normally get an inheritance so it is as if the son goes to the father and says, “Father, I hate this lousy farm and I am tired of waiting for you to die. I want my share and I want it now! “

Pharisees. Figure the next line will be,” And the father has his son stoned”. Deuteronomy 21 18

No, the father gives it to him. The Pharisees are dumb founded.  SOMETHING TO PONDER.  WHY DOES THE FATHER GIVE THE ESTATE SHARE TO THE SON?

Son goes to Vegas. Hits all the strip clubs, is a high roller, throws lavish parties, invests in dubious get richer quick schemes. Losses it all. Hits the bottom. Worst job imaginable for a Jew.  He thinks about how well his father treats his servants. Obviously a good man to work for. He is not sorry about hurting his father. Just wants a job. Formulates an insincere fake confession, starts rehearsing it sa he heads home.

Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. ¹⁹ I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’

Notice the son just hasn’t gotten it.  He is making a demand in his statement of remorse.  MAKE ME A SERVANT.

Father has heard about the plight of his son and

Pharisees: Serves the jerk right. About time he got his comeuppance. God punishes the wicked.

No, father is worried sick. Longs for the return of his son. Hikes to the top of the hill everyday watching. “He saw his son from afar.”

Pharisees. What a poor excuse for a father.

One day he sees a figure in the distance disheveled, in rags, barefoot. Realizes it is his son and

Pharisees: finally mans up disowns him and banishes him.

RUNS TO Him, embraces and kisses him. Take the characteristics of the best father and mother and you have the father.

Pharisees:  Are disgusted.

The sons starts his speech,”Father I have sinned… “and the father isn’t even interested. He is filled with joy. The son is confused.

Father:  You are back. You are back. Starts an immediate restoration with not a speck of retribution. Gets him a cloak and sandels and a ring (signet ring symbol of family heritage, authority.

Son, “No father, you can’t do this.   I hurt you so badly.  Couldn’t wait for you to die.”

Father Throws!! a party. Fatted calf pull out all the stops. The youngest son has just been overwhelmed by a tidal wave of unconditional love. Unmerited, unearned and in the warmth of yet another of his father’s embraces his heart melts.

The older brother is like the Pharisees. ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. ³⁰ But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him He earned, he deserves.  Unconditional love makes no sense. There has to be winners and losers.  The older son is more upset with his father than his brother.  His father is “breaking all the rules.”

Yet the father reaches out to him.

Pharisees: Jesus is mad and his undermining of the established order is a threat.

Think back to when the ball got rolling “the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to him.

It isn’t just the Pharisees that are listening to the parable.  The tax collectors and sinners are also listening and as they listen their hearts are melting.

Query:  Who are “those kind of people” to you?  Does your attitude towards them need to soften?

When approached about speaking I was reluctant and not sure it was a good idea.  But I decided to trust the elder’s discernment and give it a go.  If they think I might have something to say, maybe I do.

Keep in mind that I have no theological training and if I say something you disagree with you probably have a valid point.  

I will read three short bible verses.  You do not need to grab a bible and follow along.  May as well start at the beginning. Genesis Chapter 1 verses 1-2  In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  Now the earth was a formless void, there was darkness over the deep, and God’s spirit hovered over the water.  God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Gospel of John chapter 1 vs 4-5 (refers to Christ). All that came to be had life in him and that life was the light of men, a light that shines in the dark, a light that darkness could not understand.

Started at the beginning may as well end at the end.  Revelation Chapter 22 vs 5 It will never be night again and they will not need lamplight or sunlight, because the Lord God will be shining on them.

And lest I forget, George Fox referred to ““that Inward Light, Spirit, and Grace by which all might know their salvation”. Inspiration for talk.

Light appears as a metaphor for God 250 times in the bible.  Buddhists, Muslims and Hindus use the light metaphor in their spirituality.  When stuff appears again and again it is the Holy Spirit whupping you upside the head saying, “Pay attention!”  Actually the Holy Spirit does not do that.   For me it is more like I get this thought.

When we use metaphors it is saying _____ is like _____.   Final exams are hell.  Stubborn as a mule.

Why use metaphors? If you are going to try and speak about the sublime and ineffable, that through which we live move and have our being, that which is the ground of being, that which is utterly beyond me and totally within me,  how else are you going to do it? 

1. Listen to Terri Grose’s Fresh Air interview of God?   “If you are just joining us, my guest today is Yahweh.  In the 1956 movie “The Ten Commandments” when you speak to Moses, your voice is deep and commanding.  Is that you natural voice?“  Well Terri………

2. Buy a copy of the autobiography, “God-My Life of Unconditional Love” when it is available on Amazon?  Actually you have it in front of you, the bible.

Theologian Karl Rahner said there is a mystery we call God.  He did not say God is a mystery.  Get the difference.  Rahner said we should stop using the word God for 50 years because we do not know what we are talking about.  The word God has been distorted, carries a lot of negative baggage.

The prosperity God.  The warrior God.  The clock maker God.  The “tribal” God that just loves members of our denomination.  The God of hell fire and condemnation

Do those images make sense?

St. Augustine, no theological slouch said, “Quid ergo amo, cum deum meum amo.  What do I love when I love you my God?”

When we think of a mystery we commonly think of it as something we can’t figure out like what happened to Jimmy Hoffa.  When we refer to the mystery of God it means you can never stop figuring it out.    It is like an onion with infinite layers to be peeled away. Hey I just used a metaphor!! 

So why is light a good metaphor:

1.  Light is how God, the invisible, in the form of his creation, became visible.  I call this first manifestation of God the visibleination.  How’s that fancy pants theologians.   Scientists even date it.  13.7 billion years ago, the big bang. 

Aside: I did not include the following in my message.  It is interesting to think about and I truly believe that God has to have the most amazing sense of humor.

Imagine if you will that the Genesis story is literal, God has night vision and forgets to create light.

And the Lord took it upon himself to walk with Adam in the garden.  And behold, God looked upon Adam and spoke unto him, “How is it that thou art covered with bruises, scraps and scratches more numerous than the stars in the sky?”  Adam cried out unto to the lord. “I can’t see anything and keep bumping into stuff, tripping and falling.”  And the Lord spoke unto Adam, “Did I not giveth thee two eyes to see with.  Art thou blind?”  And Adam spoke, “It is pitch dark, duh!” And the lord spoke, “My bad. Let there be light.”

2.  Light allows us to see.  The mystics say that a goal is to see with the eyes of God so that we will see things as they are because, surprise, we see things as WE ARE.

3. Can anyone tell me what this acronym means? ROYGBIV (Red, orange, yellow, green , blue, indigo, violet)  If you shine light through a prism you see that it is composed of all the colors.   Light is all inclusive.  

4.  Light sustains us.  If you really think about it, eating a baked potato can be an experience of total awe.  In the sun two hydrogen atoms combine to produce helium by nuclear fusion.   Oversimplification: 1 g hydrogen + 1 g hydrogen does not = 2 grams helium.  You get 1.9 g.  Where did the 0.1 g go?  It was turned into energy, a boat load of energy in the form of sunlight.  Aside:  For the Hiroshima bomb the energy came from the conversion of .7 gram of mass to energy. (7/10 of the mass of a dollar bill).  The sun loses 5 million tons of mass per second.

But how does the light energy get all the way from the sun, 94 million miles away, to us?  Imagine 20 boys at one end of a swimming pool and one boy at the other end on an air mattress. The 20 boys bet the 1 boy $5 they can knock him off the mattress without touching him.  Bet is on.  The 20 boys jump in the pool all at once.  The wave they create moves down the pool and knocks the boy off the mattress.

In a kind of similar way the wave of light energy travels all the way from the sun to earth. The leaves in a potato plant take water from the soil, carbon dioxide from the air and the light energy from the sun and make glucose.  The light energy did not disappear.  It changed form and is now chemical energy in the glucose.  The plant packs a bunch of glucoses together in the form of starch and stores it in the underground potato.  You eat the potato, convert the chemical energy in the potato into a more manageable form of chemical energy and then convert the chemical energy into sound energy, mechanical energy, and heat energy.

HOLY TOLEDO.  IF THAT ISNT TOTALLY AMAZING, WHAT IS?

If the sun went out, even if we could stay warm, it is game over.

Think about this.  As the sun produces the energy that sustains us it is dying.

5. Last one.  Light makes your shadow visible.   (Talk about walking down street at night from street light to street light).  Directly under the light, no shadow, move away from the light and my shadow is in front of me and getting bigger, half way between lights very dim shadows in front and behind, walk towards the next light and my shadow is behind me.  Lots of stuff going on here metaphorically.

As we enter the silence:  Comment on anything you feel moved to comment on.

Query:  There are many metaphors for God.  There has to be.   Are there specific metaphors you are drawn to?  Why?

This message was given by John Kinney to Spokane Friends during Sunday worship on August 22, 2021.

I’m so glad to be with you again…

The very first thing I want to tell you today is that God loves you.  More than you can imagine, more than you would ever think possible – God loves you.  No matter how you name God in your life, or even if you don’t, I am here to tell you that the Divine, the Creator, Christ Jesus, the Spirit, God, loves you.  How can I say that?  How do I know this?  This I know from my experience of God about myself, about you, about all of life.  If you can’t believe that God loves you, I will hold it for you until you can.  And if you doubt it, you can always say, “I’m not sure that God loves me, but Ruthie is, and she told me so.  She’s holding on to that for me.”  And I will be.

‘God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.  For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.’  John 3:16-17

God so loved the world.  God so loves you.  God so loves me.  God loves us all so much.

When was Jesus in Jerusalem?  How many times?  The first time was when he was eight days old… Scripture tells us that “when it was time to circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived.  When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord”. [Luke 2:21-22]

And for Passover?  Every year!  “Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom.” [Luke 2:41-42]

This Sunday, as we gather in Meeting for Worship, I wonder what Jesus would have been thinking about so long ago on this very day.  Perhaps he would be anticipating Passover.  It starts at sunset this coming Saturday evening. 

God with us – Emmanuel – came to live among us many years ago, after centuries of speaking directly to and through us, doing God’s slow work of salvation through various people, *patriarchs, judges, kings, prophets, and then through the life and ministry of Jesus, whose name literally means ‘to save’.  When Hebrew people heard his name – as Mary heard it from Gabriel – it wasn’t ‘Jesus’ they heard, but ‘Yeshua’… like ‘Joshua’ to us, and it means ‘salvation’. 

Jesus loves us.  Jesus saves us. 

Jesus’ ministry was his second career.  He had grown up in Nazareth, working in the family business – his dad’s shop.  Like a lot of his friends, he would have learned his father’s trade and taken it over as his dad aged out, becoming the carpenter his father once was.  Joseph would have taught Jesus how to build very simple pieces – a shelf, a bench, a box, and steadily brought him more and more challenging work to do – first with him and then on his own.  We’re not told much at all about his life, but this young man didn’t strike out on his own until his early 30’s.  And then, it was to do something that had been lingering in his heart and mind since he was a young boy.  How do we know this?  Because Jesus ran away.

Well, lots of kids run away.  Our son Matt ran away at a shopping mall in Iowa City when he was three, and the clerks found him giggling under a round rack of clothes at JC Penney’s.  Jesus ‘ran away’ by staying put at the Temple, talking to the rabbis, while his parents went on their way home after Passover.  And what was it he said to his mother when Mary found him there?  “Wow mom – where else would I be?”  Remember – he wasn’t a little boy anymore – he was twelve, middle school age, and by then, pretty independent and probably figured his folks would know what he was up to.  Some kids like screen time, some hang out with their friends, some head to the ball field.  “Didn’t you know I’d be at the Temple?”  That must have been quite a trip back home.

When Jesus left home, he moved from the family business to his Father’s business – his second career.  Ministry – preaching, healing teaching.   His cousin, the Baptizer, blessed him.  God ordained him with the sign of the dove, and he began the torture and testing of seminary in the desert!  And then…

Jesus didn’t begin his ministry to teach us how to make real life stop.  Christ, the Rabbi, ministered among us to teach us how to live!  To transform our lives – to save our lives from indifference and to live in pursuit of purpose, with heart, soul, mind, and strength governed by love.  Lives filled with love – everlasting, never ending, always available, love.  This life is not an easy life to live, nor is it an easy life to choose, and Jesus knew it.  He preached it, taught it, and lived it out. 

Jesus had seen the example of this life as a little boy in Joseph’s carpenter shop.  An inert piece of wood became a table leg.  A table leg became a part of a table.  A table became a serving place.  A serving place became a gathering place.  A gathering place became a space for the exchange of ideas.  Ideas became action.  Action brought change.

That piece of wood, that table leg, had been carved, shaped, and fit for a purpose.  That table had been moved across many a room, perhaps many a mile.  That table had served many meals, many gatherings.  It had been pounded on, argued over, dreamed, and caressed over, spilled over.  Ideas had been drawn out on that table.  Plans had been made.  Decisions had been reached on that table.  That piece of wood did not stop being a piece of wood.  But by being transformed into something beyond only a piece of wood, it became something much more than one might expect.   

This is the power of a transformed life.  We don’t stop being who we are.  We become more than we had ever imagined.  Our lives are saved from indifference and instead, we are changed into people with purpose.  How does this happen?  Through the power of God in us.  The same power that was in Jesus, lives in us – is alive in us – and transforms us. 

This is the power of God in a twelve-year old boy, who twenty years later returned to Jerusalem for yet another Passover that meant his death.  Where was God in that?  A dead Jesus can’t save anyone.  Where was God’s power in that?    It was God who raised Jesus from the dead.  [Romans 10:9-10] Not Moses, Not Elijah, not his mother, or his disciples.  Not Mary Magdalene at the tomb.  It was God.  The power of God.  And that same power lives in us – is alive in us – and transforms us. 

This is what we believe as Friends… that the power of God, the Spirit of God, lives in us just as it did in Christ during his ministry so many years ago…  And, the same power of God that changed peoples lives then changes our lives now.  That message and power transforms us, and through the power of God in us, God changes the world. 

There are a lot of people, a lot of Christians who don’t believe this.  They think they must die in order to see God, and experience God.  That change will eventually come.  That their work now is to be saved – to become, as it were, the leg of a table – but they remain unattached, ready for the transformation of life with God only in heaven.  That is not the Quaker way of experiencing God! 

The experience of God is present and active in the life of Friends. God is with us now, loving us, lighting our way, empowering us, urging us on, in the living of our lives, both in inward devotion and in outward action. We believe and hope to live into our testimony as Friends that ‘every person is enlightened by the divine light of Christ.’  [Barclay’s Apology, 1676].  Not just the chosen, the perfect, the rich, the blessed, but everyone.  What was it Jesus said?  ‘The poor, the brokenhearted, the captives, the blind, the bruised….

Who are these people?  What is God asking us to do?  Do we wait until we see God in heaven to work out our salvation?  Or do we rise up, remembering that the power of God is within us – both as individuals and corporately.  Do we challenge ourselves to be what Jesus called the Kingdom of God at hand?  

Just imagine the power of God unleashed in our world today!  The power of love.  The power of life.  The power of life over death.  The power of transformation.  This was God’s intention, and I believe God meant it to happen through the power of God’s Spirit in us.

O Lord, thy kingdom come.  Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.

This message was given by Ruthie Tippin to Spokane Friends via Zoom on Sunday, March 21, 2021.

It is so great to be here and to see all of you. Our lives have been intertwined for many years and we are so blessed to be with you today.

Today marks the end of a year of meeting remotely as spiritual communities in North Carolina. I bet it is much the same for you as we all have had the pandemic woven into our lives for this year. It has been a challenge but also a door to ministry in new ways.

This morning I want to talk about a few reflections on this past year, but before we get there I would like to share this story. Don’t you find that stories are the stuff of our lives as we ply our way in this world? One of mine unfolded some years ago; in fact, it was 10 years ago now that I experienced a heart attack. That heart attack led to a six-way bypass which is, thankfully, still holding well today. Suffice it to say that I am a miracle of modern science and a miracle of God’s blessing as statistics show that one in three die from their initial cardiac event. I share this story because as I laid in bed after surgery I awakened to the medical staff removing the respirator from my airway. I remember how parched was the feeling in my throat. I had had nothing to drink for days. “Would you like a cold drink Mr. Jackson?”, the nurse asked. I nodded and she handed me a cup of ginger ale. Nothing had ever tasted so wonderful as being alive to that cold drink. The nurse, to this day I am sure, does not know how much that meant to me. It was metaphorically the cup of cold water of Matthew chapter 10. It brought an awareness of life and that I am still here and I am alive. I know and trust she is blessed and rewarded where ever she is, and of the one who savored that drink I can say I am blessed as well.

Looking again at the scripture Jonas read in Matthew 10:40-42:

40 “We are intimately linked in this harvest work. Anyone who accepts what you do, accepts me, the One who sent you. Anyone who accepts what I do accepts my Father, who sent me. 41 Accepting a messenger of God is as good as being God’s messenger. Accepting someone’s help is as good as giving someone help. This is a large work I’ve called you into, but don’t be overwhelmed by it. It’s best to start small. 42 Give a cool cup of water to someone who is thirsty, for instance. The smallest act of giving or receiving makes you a true apprentice. You won’t lose out on a thing.” [Message Bible]

Jesus says, “We are intimately linked in this harvest work;” and then goes on to say “This is a large work I’ve called you into, but don’t be overwhelmed by it. It is best to start small. Give a cool cup of water to someone who is thirsty, for instance. The smallest act of giving or receiving makes you a true apprentice. You won’t lose out.”

Today, I want to affirm the many acts of grace and blessing I am seeing all around us in this time of the coronavirus. Acts for which I know you are participants along with countless of our fellow travelers. To use the metaphor, cups of cold water are going out everywhere. You are bringing what you have and sharing it with folks in the Meeting and the wider community. I am reminded of those stories of how God uses what seems to be the smallest of things and multiplies them greatly. Like the boy with 5 loaves and 2 fishes there seems to be enough. Charmin is abounding where needed. Here are a few things I know you have been doing:l

You are still wearing masks to honor and keep safe your fellow human beings.

You are staying 6 feet apart when being out.

You have been sharing recipes to use the food we have.

You know a friend is alone so you call or write or both.

You are alone but then you hear from a friend.

You are sharing links to Zoom services with the wider community and far-flung friends who want to be in your lives.

We miss being together but know we are expressing our love by distancing for this time.

Take just a minute. What else would you add to this list of gifts of cold water – either giving or receiving?

I would add to the list the gift of prayer. Luke 18:1 says that we ought always to pray and not lose heart. As I said, we have been experiencing this time of the virus for at least a year and I sense some of us are growing weary and wondering when the heck with all this be over. As far as I can see no one knows exactly when that will be, but we know that vaccines are on the way, and the time of full in-person gathering is drawing nearer and nearer. So as a first resort, pray.

The Apostle Paul says: Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. So, for all who are growing weary, we hear you, and will continue to encourage you as we make our way. We ask you to encourage us as well.,

Speaking of hearing, I encourage all of us to be the best listeners we can be. If we are heard, we know we are someone of value. This is something we need at all times and especially now.

I asked around in our community about this question. What are we learning from this pandemic time?

Here are some of the answers I got:

The value of relationships. Even if we are not together we find strength in our family, our Meeting, our community.

Essential workers are heroes.

Being alone is boring and hard but sometimes required. Learn to be content with quiet.

Don’t lose your sense of humor.

For example, recently a restaurant in South Carolina opened its doors but with inflatable dolls seated at half the chairs to create a warmer environment while still ensuring patrons sit at least 6 feet apart. A national publication had a contest to ask what would be an appropriate name for the new socially distanced restaurant chain that fills its chairs with inflatable dolls?

The Winner was:                   “IPOP”

Second Place went to:          “Chick-fil-Air”

And my favorite:        

Third Place went to:              “Dollive Garden”

A sense humor is essential in this time.

I close with two queries to take into open worship: What are you learning in this time? How is God speaking to you in this time?

Thank you to all of you for bringing your cup of cold water. Let us pray.

O, Lord, in this time of pandemic be with us. Thank you that we are not alone and thank you that nothing can separate us from Your love. Amen.

This message was given to Spokane Friends by Tim Jackson via Zoom on March 7, 2021.

Along with being Valentines Day, according to the Narrative Lectionary, today is Transfiguration Sunday. It’s the day when we commemorate Jesus inviting three of his disciples to go away with him for a time of prayer. When I was approached about being with you today, it was near the end of the four week long season of Advent. In recent decades Friends have paid little attention to the historic and quite intentional Quaker disdain for the keeping of the seasons. Most of us have found it convenient to allow the lectionary to move us through the Christian year. And like most Christians, as we decorate for Christmas, we include lighting colored candles during Advent. Like the majority of the church the season of Advent has become the season of pre-Christmas. We put up Christmas lights, do our Christmas shopping and decorate our Christmas trees. We act like Christmas starts at midnight on Christmas Eve and by sundown Christmas day we are ready to take down the tree. But according to the perspective of orthodox liturgy, the season of Chistmastide has just begun and and it continues until February 2^nd, Ground Hog Day, not a universally acknowledged religious holiday.^. By the time Punxsutwney Phil is pulled from his lair, we’ve long since taken down all the Christmas decorations we put up during the season of Advent.

Traditionally Advent is not about the birth of a child in a manger. Its purpose is to reinforce the belief that it is Jesus’ intention when he returns to slam the door on the current period of human history. The time when Jesus will return has been given many names: the Second Coming of Christ; the Day of the Lord, the end time and the Parousia. Friends embrace a scriptural understanding of Christ’s return that is quite distinct from the orthodox perspective embedded in the Advent focus. That accounts for why Quakers, early on, refused to follow the liturgical calendar.

In the first chapter of Acts: starting with the fourth verse the text reads: And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father. “which” He said “you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, in the all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

After two-thousand-plus years since the writing of the Book of Acts, the majority of the Christian community continue to live in anticipation of a future return of Christ. Friends have held to a simpler understanding. When Jesus told his disciples that they should stay in Jerusalem because he would return soon, that is exactly what he did. For Friends Christ’s spirit returned at Pentecost, as promised, and that Spirit continues to inspire today.

This was the heart of the Gospel for George Fox and early Friends. Underlying Fox’s message of good news was the firm understanding that ‘Christ has come to teach his people himself.’ No intermediator, like a priest or teacher, nor the institutional church was needed to communicate what Christ had to share with his people. Of course in the 17^th century this got early Friends in trouble with churchmen of all stripes. This is the core of Quaker faith, that Christ can and does speak directly to us. Quakers have held that we need not live fearing some other shoe to fall on creation. The second coming occurred two thousand years ago and we can live in that life and power today.

I can’t stress this enough. When the Holy Spirit was given it was given to the community of faith not to individuals. With the communitarian nature of the community of the faithful it is essential that we share our leadings with one another and feel the responsibility of giving each other feed back to clarify or challenge the leading one may have.

As I said before, according to the Narrative Lectionary this Sunday is the commemoration of Jesus’ Transfiguration. We find it reported in all three of the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew 17:1-8; Mark 9:2-9; Luke 8:28-36; and referred to in II Peter 1:16-18. The simplest report is that in the Gospel of Mark.

After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Peter said to Jesus. “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” He did not know what to say, they were so frightened. Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”

According to the record provided to us by the evangelists Jesus had been extraordinarily busy, doing one healing after another, the last, the raising of a young woman thought dead brought back to service. Despite the miraculous, there was also his human need for rest and restoration. We have stories of Jesus going off, alone, to pray. But not this time. This time he conscripts Peter, James and John to go apart with him.

Jesus’ intent was clear, this was to be a prayer meeting. A meeting for worship.

Evidently in that meeting their heads weren’t bowed and their eyes weren’t closed because they reported what took place. It most certainly would have been awe-inspiring to be in Jesus’ presence while he was praying. But beyond that these disciples saw Jesus in the company of two extraordinary spiritual leaders, a visitation by the two most celebrated persons of their faith, Moses and Elijah.

Hebrews 12 speaks of our being “surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses…”  I have to wonder when we gather for worship whether we have that sense of being in the company of extraordinary spiritual guides? That small Meeting for worship became enveloped in a cloud. Is that anything you’ve experienced before? The sense of having a cloud descend and settle on the group; closing in around you, shortening your horizons like a dense fog. Some Quakers have described meetings for worship that feel like that as having been ‘gathered’.

Words failed the disciples. In both the Gospels of Mark and Luke the evangelists admit they didn’t know what to say, and when they did speak they suggested that three shelters be built; one for Jesus and one for each for the two spiritual visitors. The idea was turned down. What happened next in that gathered meeting is important “A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” This is the essence of worship. Not a sermon or a liturgy, not an anthem or a praise chorus. “This is my Son, listen to him”.

Christopher Robin speaks with Pooh Bear. He says “Say, Pooh. Why aren’t you busy?” Pooh replies “Because it’s a nice day” Christropher started to say, “Yes but…” and Pooh interrupts him saying, “Why ruin it? “But” Christopher Robin says “you could be doing something important”. “I am” said Pooh. “Oh? Doing what? To which Pooh replied “Listening.”

I once heard Howard Thurman say that “it is out of silence that all sounds come”. Soren Kierkegaard wrote: “If I were a doctor and were asked for my advice, I would reply: “Create silence! The Word of God cannot be heard in the noisy world of today.”

That’s a lesson Jesus’ disciples learned on their trip up the mountain. When we come to worship, it’s tempting to build structures and follow patterns that memorialize the past, and unfortunately it is as real a problem for Quakers as it is for others. The challenge is to follow the words of the Gospels, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen, listen to him”

David Steindl-Rast wrote what for me is a blessing and a benediction:

May you grow still enough to hear the small noises earth makes in preparing for the long sleep of winter, so that you yourself may grow calm and grounded deep within.

May you grow still enough to hear the trickling of water seeping into the ground, so that your soul may be softened and healed and guided in its flow.

May you grow still enough to hear the splintering of starlight in the winter sky and the roar of the earth’s firey core.

May you grow still enough to hear the stir of a single snowflake in the air, so that your inner silence may turn into hushed expectation.

This message was given to Spokane Friends Meeting via Zoom by Nick Block on 14 February 2021. During that service we also sang the song below:

 Teach Me to Stop and Listen