He did not many mighty works there

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God,   as anyone might verify who’s returned to the bliss of the Divine Presence through a violent death; but my heart tells me that it’s a more fearful thing not to know that we’re in the hands of the living God already.  By faith I know that those hands are holding me, lovingly, at all times; but my senses tell me that I’m in exile from them, or have fallen asleep and am caught in a bad dream where we’re all absent from God and separated from Jesus Christ our Savior, wandering in a world of separation, cruelty, want, fear, and mortality.  The horrible thing about this dream is that it’s attractive, and as we yield to its attraction, we find ourselves forgetting that it’s a nightmare, no longer caring that we, once the darlings of an Omniscient Teacher, are  now mired in a pit of ignorance.  Perhaps there never was a God, we think.  Soon the enticing smell of coffee, or the jolting sound of screeching brakes, makes the question of God’s existence recede back to unimportance.

A public Friend is to visit our meeting soon, to facilitate a workshop on vocal ministry.  I’m looking forward to it.  He’s published an article in which he writes, speaking my own mind on the matter, “I believe that we… are losing the ability to discern the Divine impetus to speak at unprogrammed meetings for worship…. This disconnect spells doom for our society, for it is only by ensuring that what is spoken in meeting rises to the level of ministry… that we will attract others to stay in those meetings, and perhaps become Friends.”  (Benjamin Lloyd, “The Divine Source of Vocal Ministry,” Friends Journal, December 2004, p. 6.)

I’d be quite sad if unprogrammed Quakerism died out for want of good ministry, but then I’d trust God to provide some other way for the faithful to gather and worship together.  More important than the survival of Quakerism, I seem to hear the Spirit say, is that you remain faithful.  I suppose faithfulness would include resisting any temptation to counterfeit good ministry when I sensed a lack of it; it would also include staying with my meeting, in sickness and in health, until removed from it by relocation, death, dissolution of the meeting, or divine command.

But I’m wondering whether one can restore good ministry by encouraging it directly.  Do we perk up flowers by watering their blossoms, or their roots?  Barclay’s Apology speaks of “words and ministry [arising] from the inward power and virtue of the Spirit of God.  By the same power they reach the hearts of his hearers and persuade them to approve of him and to be subject to him.”   (Dean Freiday, Barclay’s Apology in Modern English, p. 179.) Douglas Gwyn writes, “The function of vocal ministry within the Quaker meeting for worship is to gather the worshipping fellowship into a common understanding of the gospel and of Christ’s will for that group…. Ministry is not a human office, but an event of God’s grace working through his chosen vessels.  All are to wait on him in readiness for service.  Hence, as we have noted earlier, the goal of Quaker worship is that Christ should be the only one to speak in the Church.” (Gwyn, Apocalypse of the Word, p. 168-169.)

But why would Christ be silent in His Church, letting the hour of worship either pass in dead silence or be hijacked by outpourings of junk messages?  I leave that question for the reader to ponder.

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE 1%

Thanksgiving, 2011

Dear brothers and sisters,

There are many ways to divide up a population into a 1% and a 99%: the 1% who are the tallest and the 99% who are shorter; or the 1% kindest, the 1% bravest, and so on. In a case where any 1% is seen to injure its corresponding 99% persistently, the best medicine to restore health is for both sides to resolve to do no more harm. The next steps are to express and request forgiveness, and then look for the source of the evil, not in designated ‘bad’ individuals, but in the larger system of relationships and the false assumptions that it rests on, which allow some fallible people to do widespread damage. For example, is it a false assumption that evil should be countered with evil? (This justifies war, but is contrary to the express teachings of Jesus and His apostles, as well as those of the Buddha.) Is it false that the common good is adequately served through the competition of separate individual interests? Is it to our interest to accumulate wealth, or to give wealth away and learn to be content with less? Which is worse, to suffer pain or to have a bad conscience? It’s time for us to examine many such fundamental questions together. But in order to stay grounded in the truth, we must remember that we’re all part of a 100%, each of whom is dear to God, who wishes the salvation of all and created us to love one another.

Today it’s claimed that the 1% (and a fortiori the 0.1%) of the people of the United States with the most wealth and power are taking unfair shares of the common burdens and benefits, sometimes using predatory means. If you’re among that 1%, you may wonder, “How can they think of us as cheats or oppressors? We’re almost all philanthropic citizens, faithful believers and good moms and dads, trying to do the right thing.” That’s always been a problem: look up close, see nice folks; look from a distance, see devils. But if any of us, rich or poor, look candidly at ourselves, we will see something devilish: Hypocrisy. Indifference to injustice. A will to keep truth hidden. Addictive acting from fear. The use of threats or lies to control others. In a word, selfishness. All this must go if we want a healthy society, economy, and relationship with the rest of creation. It must go from the hearts of the 99%, and it must go from the hearts of the 1%. And we have no more time to put this housecleaning off, for our old ways are at the point of meltdown.

“By their fruits you shall know them,” said Jesus, and many are now taking a hard look at the fruits of the nation’s richest.  Even when we don’t actively will an evil by-product of our activity (for example, the sweatshop conditions under which our clothing may have been made), we are accountable for where we let our shadow fall, and it becomes part of our harvest in due time.  It’s time for the 100% of us, and not just our richest, to look at this shadow together.  It’s darker than most of us think.

It’s fortunate that the streets of this country are now filled with the people of the Occupy movement, telling us that things in this country are not O.K. and can’t be made O.K. with band-aids and P.R. campaigns. The Occupiers cannot be silenced. They may not have all the answers yet – and they will not have the answers unless they think in terms of the common good, not of the 99%, but of the 100% of the world’s people – but they are testifying that the defenders of the status quo don’t have the answers, either. It would be a great step forward now if the besieged defenders of the status quo and its besieging challengers could now open their hearts to one another in gestures of kindness and humility. Bring an open heart to the nearest Occupy site and talk with the demonstrators. You’ll come away wiser and happier, and so will they.

A well-wisher of your souls,

John Edminster
New York City

Fire haiku

Bring the bitter boughs:

throw them on the fire of Love

until they burn sweet.

(Message that came to me during Meeting for Worship while visiting Chatham-Summit Meeting: a haiku version of an image that first came to me at a Powell House retreat on “Dealing with Difficult People.”)

Seated around a virtual campfire, we were asked what about ourselves we’d like to throw in.  My bitterness, I thought.  If I were to throw that in the campfire it would be a log heavy with bitter sap. But the campfire, the refiner’s fire, isn’t just destructive but transformative.  What began as bitter is broken down and made anew as sweet-smelling smoke.

A Message to the Supercommittee

Anyone wishing to spare the wealthy and powerful their share of the suffering our nation has earned by cutting benefits for the poor should remember that we must all answer to God for any hardness of heart we’ve shown to our neighbor.

Toxic Horrors from the Sky: A Letter to a Friend

Albert, Bill, and Charlie are pseudonyms.

Thanks for the warning about the little airborne clusters of microtubes.  Since I have no sound on my computer, I couldn’t watch the video that Albert sent to his brother, but I did read his accompanying e-mail, and I found it very forceful and moving.  You may (after reading my response, if you think it appropriate) convey my thanks back to him, and also to Bill who transmitted it to you.

The torments Albert’s soul is enduring are expressed vividly.  I also see the images in his photos.  It’s the stuff of some of our worst nightmares, this discovery of something frightful and then not being able to get anyone to listen to your report of it, but rather you see people willfully burying, denying, and silencing your witness, often with bland smiles.  I’m praying for him.

But what I’m to do with Albert’s evidence is not clear to me, other than to pray for more light.  Whether these malignant little tufts are actually clinging to us and poisoning us wherever we go; whether or not they’re the intentional or unintentional by-product of some evil human activity, be it greed for wealth, power, pleasure, glory, or sheer delight in cruelty; and whether those we look to for the truth — government, the media — are systematically denying the truth, and lying to us about what they know — I do believe it’s all possible, that human beings can be depraved enough, and that the great enemy of all good has enough witting and unwitting human slaves working for him, that we could indeed be in just the kind of difficult straits that Albert describes.

But, supposing it were all true and I were to be convinced of its truth, what should I do about it?  My heart and my personal experience both tell me that God is infinitely more powerful than Satan, and is an ever-present refuge for any soul willing to repent of its own uncleanness and be saved from all darkness.  In the presence of any great evil, it’s my duty and privilege to bear witness to the power of God to save us all, even if the situation ends in martyrdom and we have to lose our physical bodies.  And in between now and that ultimate salvation, my personal experience corroborates my faith in the Lord’s power to make anything endurable for us.  Therefore, if I minister to resisters of evil of any kind (whether public health workers fighting an epidemic, Occupy Wall Street demonstrators, or protestors of any government and media cover-up), my first advice would be “act as if God were watching, be diligent, do nothing evil yourselves, and trust the power of light to drive out darkness.”

A little over ten years ago, I was inwardly told, while at worship, “I awaken whom I will, when I think best; and comfort thou the ones that are still asleep.”  From that experience, I take it that I’m commissioned by the Lord to be primarily a comforter, not an alarmer or inflamer or pride-shatterer or lie-accuser or hell-warner, although you, Charlie, know better than most people that I was trained for that rougher kind of work too, by one who was very gifted at it.  This means, I think, that I’m to follow Paul’s advice to “weep with them that weep” (Romans 12:15), but not to rage with them that rage or curse with them that curse.  Perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18), and the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle to all (2 Timothy 2:24): these advices tell me not to stir up rage or cursing, which are the weapons of fear, but to study to overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21).

This report of the tufts of tiny tube-structures evidently left by chemtrails makes me think of that other toxic horror from the sky, the seven angels of the Apocalypse who pour out their vials on the earth, the waters and the sun, causing men “to gnaw their tongues for pain, and blaspheme the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores,” Revelation 16:10-11, rather than do the more obvious thing, repent, and let their lives be redirected to the good by the Author of All Good.  When we do that, we experience that “all things work together for good to them that love God,” Romans 8:28, and then the toxic horrors falling from the sky become less important to us than the desire to spread the good news to anyone who can hear it.

The Kingdom of Hell is Within You

For forty years I’ve made my living as a structural designer of packaging, displays and paperboard novelties. Yesterday I explained to my workmate Nathan how I’d lost my former zeal to make clever and beautiful design innovations: “It doesn’t feel important to me anymore. What does feel important is, I don’t want anybody I know, or know about, to go to hell.”

I was astonished by the simple clarity of my own words. I’d just named something I’d long been carrying in my heart. I’d just needed an occasion, and someone I felt safe saying it to. Nathan, a Pentecostal, felt safe to me; Ricky, my frequent companion on the bus to work, a Shiite Muslim, would also have felt safe. Sadly, I reflected that most of the Friends I worship with each Sunday would not have felt safe to speak of hell to. Those who didn’t simply turn away or quickly change the subject might have said, “I don’t believe in a punishing God,” or, “I believe that God saves everybody.”

Well, Friends, I don’t believe in a punishing God, either; and I, too, believe that God saves everybody. But God seems to have allowed a world in which workmen fall forty-four floors to their death when a gust of wind overturns their scaffold, mothers see their children killed by enemy weapons, and folks of all types go mad from shame, terror or depression. So our Creator does allow us to endure terrible experiences; convince me, then, that God couldn’t have allowed a hell, too! Granted, it may be one we condemn ourselves to by our own choice, and that God, who is Love, damns no one; for such was the teaching of Jesus Himself in John 3:19-20 (KJV):

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

But if there is a hell, is there any sort of exit from it, short of the complete severing of spirit from soul so that spirit, life and consciousness may return to their Divine Origin unencumbered? And how is any hell – including the short-lived one experienced by the workman falling from the scaffold – compatible with the infinite goodness of God?  I, who have lived through enough of the little hells of this world to care greatly about the answer, look forward to receiving, one day, a completely satisfactory explanation from my Lord; and in the mean time I have the option of praying, with His apostles, “increase our faith” (Luke 17:5).  But for now I remain uneasy, knowing myself and just about everyone I know to be full of sinful inclinations and highly temptation-prone. I’ve received inward assurances of my own salvation, yet the chief apostle himself warns me that the righteous are “scarcely” saved (1 Peter 4:18).

The teaching that all damnation is self-damnation is well illustrated in a short dialogue, Of Heaven and Hell, by the German mystic Jakob Boehme (1575-1624) (available in William Law’s translation at http://www.iinet.com/~passtheword/DIALOGS-FROM-THE-PAST/heaven.htm). It begins:

The Scholar asked his Master, saying;
Whither goeth the Soul when the Body dieth?
His master answered him;
There is no Necessity for it to go any whither.

Boehme’s point is that when the physical world falls away from our consciousness at death, we are left alone with the abiding inclination of our own will; and if this has been selfish, deceitful and cruel, our afterlife experience must be one of a “self-tormenting Abomination” who dares not even ask for divine mercy because, in its condition, the soul cannot conceive of God as anything but fearsome and wrathful:

The godly Soul, you see, is in the Hand of Christ, that is in Heaven…. But the ungodly Soul is not willing in this Lifetime to come into the Divine Resignation of its Will, or to enter into the Will of God; but goeth on still in its own Lust and Desire, in Vanity and Falsehood, and so entereth into the Will of the Devil. It receiveth thereupon into itself nothing but Wickedness; nothing but Lying, Pride, Covetousness, Envy, and Wrath; and thereinto it giveth up its Will and whole Desire. This is the Vanity of the Will; and this same Vanity or vain Shadow must also in like Manner be manifested in the Soul, which hath yielded up itself to be its Servant….

…Now when the Body is parted from this Soul, then beginneth the Eternal Melancholy and Despair; because it now findeth that it is become altogether Vanity… and a distracting Fury, and a self-tormenting Abomination. Now it perceiveth itself disappointed of every Thing which it had before fancied, and blind, and naked, and wounded, and hungry, and thirsty; without the least Prospect of being ever relieved, or Obtaining so much as one Drop of Water of Eternal Life. And it feeleth itself to be a mere Devil to itself, and to be its own Vile Executioner and Tormentor; and is affrighted at its own ugly dark Form, appearing as a most hideous and monstrous Worm, and fain would flee from itself, if it could, but it cannot, being fast bound with the Chains of the Dark Nature, whereinto it had sunk itself when in the Flesh. And so not having learned nor accustomed itself to sink down into the Divine Grace, and being also strongly possessed with the Idea of God, as an Angry and Jealous God, the poor Soul is both afraid and ashamed to bring its Will into God, by which Deliverance might possibly come to it.

The Soul is afraid to do it, as Fearing to be consumed by so doing, under the Apprehension of the Deity as a mere devouring Fire. The Soul is also ashamed to do it, as being confounded at its own Nakedness and Monstrosity; and therefore would, if it were possible, hide itself from the Majesty of God, and cover its abominable Form from his most holy Eye, though by casting itself still deeper into the Darkness, wherefore then it will not enter into God; nay, it cannot enter with its false Will; yea, though it should strive to enter, yet it cannot enter into the Love, because of the Will which hath reigned in it.

Emmanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) in Heaven and Hell (De Caelo et Ejus Mirabilibus et de inferno, ex Auditis et Visis, 1758; online in English at http://www.swedenborgdigitallibrary.org/contets/HH.html) wrote of heavenly and infernal spirits as having their vision and their love oriented in opposite directions, either toward God or toward “self and the world,” in such a way that an infernal soul can feel nothing but tormenting pain when in the presence of beings whose inclination and delight is contrary to its own; for this reason, he alleges, souls in hell stay in hell by choice:

400. But it must be understood that the delight of those who are in the loves of self and of the world, when they draw near to any heavenly society, is the delight of their lust, and thus is directly opposite to the delight of heaven…. Spirits who go from this world into the other life desire more than any thing else to get into heaven. Nearly all seek to enter, supposing that heaven consists solely in being admitted and received. Because of this desire they are brought to some society of the lowest heaven. But as soon as those who are in the love of self and of the world draw near the first threshold of that heaven they begin to be distressed and so tortured inwardly as to feel hell rather than heaven to be in them; and in consequence they cast themselves down headlong therefrom, and do not rest until they come into the hells among their like. It has also frequently occurred that such spirits have wished to know what heavenly joy is, and having heard that it is in the interiors of angels, they have wished to share in it. This therefore was granted; for whatever a spirit who is not yet in heaven or hell wishes is granted if it will benefit him. But as soon as that joy was communicated they began to be so tortured as not to know how to twist or turn because of the pain. I saw them thrust their heads down to their feet and cast themselves upon the ground, and there writhe into coils like serpents, and this in consequence of their interior agony. Such was the effect produced by heavenly delight upon those who are in the delights of the love of self and of the world; and for the reason that these loves are directly opposite to heavenly loves, and when opposite acts against opposite such pain results. And since heavenly delight enters by an inward way and flows into the contrary delight, the interiors which are in the contrary delight are twisted backwards, thus into the opposite direction, and the result is such tortures. They are opposite for the reason given above, that love to the Lord and love to the neighbor wish to share with others all that is their own, for this is their delight, while the loves of self and of the world wish to take away from others what they have, and take it to themselves; and just to the extent that they are able to do this they are in their delight. From this, too, one can see what it is that separates hell from heaven; for all that are in hell were, while they were living in the world, in the mere delights of the body and of the flesh from the love of self and of the world; while all that are in the heavens were, while they lived in the world, in the delights of the soul and spirit from love to the Lord and love to the neighbor; and as these are opposite loves, so the hells and the heavens are entirely separated, and indeed so separated that a spirit in hell does not venture even to put forth a finger from it or raise the crown of his head, for if he does this in the least he is racked with pain and tormented. This, too, I have frequently seen.

Teresa of Ávila (1515-1582) reports, in Chapter 32 of her Autobiography (1565, as translated by David Lewis), having been shown, while at prayer, “the place which the devils kept in readiness for her” in hell:

But as to what I then felt, I do not know where to begin, if I were to describe it; it is utterly inexplicable. I felt a fire in my soul. I cannot see how it is possible to describe it. My bodily sufferings were unendurable. I have undergone most painful sufferings in this life, and, as the physicians say, the greatest that can be borne, such as the contractions of my sinews when I was paralyzed… yet all these were nothing in comparison with what I felt then, especially when I saw that there would be no intermission, nor any end to them.

These sufferings were nothing in comparison with the anguish of my soul, a sense of oppression, of stifling, and of pain so keen, accompanied by so hopeless and cruel an infliction, that I know not how to speak of it. If I said that the soul is continually being torn from the body it would be nothing – for that implies the destruction of life by the hands of another; but here it is the soul that is tearing itself in pieces. I cannot describe that inward fire or that despair, surpassing all torments and all pain….

…I was placed as it were in a hole in the wall; and those walls, terrible to look on of themselves, hemmed me in on every side. I could not breathe. There was no light, but all was thick darkness. I do not understand how it is; though there was no light, yet everything that can give pain by being seen was visible.

…this vision was one of the grandest mercies of our Lord. It has been to me of the greatest service, because it has destroyed my fear of trouble and of the contradiction of the world, and because it has made me strong enough to bear up against them, and to give thanks to our Lord, who has been my Deliverer, as it now seems to me, from such fearful and everlasting pains. …

It was that vision that filled me with the very great distress which I feel at the sight of so many lost souls… and also gave me the most vehement desires for the salvation of souls; for certainly I believe that, to save even one from those overwhelming torments, I would most willingly endure many deaths….What, then, must it be to see a soul in danger of pain, the most grievous of all pains, for ever? Who can endure it? It is a thought no heart can bear without great anguish. Here we know that pain ends with life at last, and that there are limits to it; yet the sight of it moves our compassion so greatly. That other pain has no ending; and I know not how we can be calm, when we see Satan carry so many souls daily away.

This also makes me wish that, in a matter which concerns us so much, we did not rest satisfied with doing less than we can do on our part, – that we left nothing undone. May our Lord vouchsafe to give us His grace for that end!

Closer to our own time, and to our own condition as souls not yet passed to the afterlife, American Friend Joseph Hoag (1762-1846) reports in his Journal on a vision granted him in his early youth:

Feeling solitary, I laid me down in the twilight of the evening, in a ponderous muse, and whether I went to sleep or not I never knew. But so it was, I was conducted with great quickness, an immense distance down, or from all that was light or cheering, until I was brought into full view of the regions inhabited by infernal spirits. There I heard the cries and doleful lamentations of the miserable, exclaiming against conduct that brought them there. And I saw that every tongue had to confess to the truth, and to acknowledge that it was their own evil conduct which brought them there. Their agonies, and cries, were beyond description, and their habitation a sea to which I could see neither bottom nor shore, and all appeared far below where I stood. And though it did not appear to be elementary fire, yet there appeared a dark cloud of smoke perpetually rising, that spread over the earth. I turned to look, and beheld, as it spread over the earth, that darkness increased, and where the thick columns were, it almost eclipsed the light of the sun; then looking I beheld that there was a few who seemed pleased with the light of the sun, and took pains to keep in it. The countenances of these appeared bright and active; but the greater part of the people appeared disposed to choose the darkened air to breathe in, and where they got under the thick columns of smoke, which were so dark, as almost to take off the light of the sun, and quite the warming beams. These I saw in motion, (and they perceived it not), hastening down a gradual descent; they soon moved more rapidly. As they verged towards the burning sea, the columns of smoke became so thick that little was to be seen; yet they appeared merry, and would make one another so. They seemed to have neither fear nor concern, till they dropped into the burning sea, when their surprise appeared indescribable, and their anguish, no pen can paint. As I beheld, I noticed in the burning sea and in the black smoke, there appeared great motion, as though the sea boiled. The sight seemed amazing, but more, when I beheld the old dragon in his terrific hue, whose appearance, and all the motions of his tail, seemed wonderfully to promote horror and agony through the dark regions, at which sight, it seemed as if I had no strength left. Then I heard a voice from on high, saying to my guide, “see thou and take him back;” he touched me, and conducted me back. When I came to myself, my face and body were much covered with large drops of sweat, much resembling spring-water for coldness. I soon raised up and saw that daylight appeared. (pp.15-16, reprint of 1861 ed.)

Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, observed Jesus (Matthew 7:13), and many there be which go in thereat: Why, then, is there not more widespread fear of hell? Why did the merry-makers of Joseph Hoag’s vision not notice that they were sliding downward out of control? Boehme’s young scholar, fully persuaded that the souls destined for hell already contain hell within them, asks why they do not feel it. His master answers:

They bear it about with them in their wicked Consciences, but they know it not; because the World hath put out their Eyes, and its deadly Cup hath cast them likewise into a Sleep, a most fatal Sleep. Notwithstanding which it must be owned that the Wicked do frequently feel Hell within them during the Time of this mortal Life, though they may not apprehend that it is Hell, because of the earthly Vanity which cleaveth unto them from without, and the sensible Pleasures and Amusements wherewith they are intoxicated. And moreover it is to be noted, that the outward Life in every such one hath yet the Light of the outward Nature, which ruleth in that Life; and so the Pain of Hell cannot, so long as that hath Rule, be revealed.

But when the Body dieth or breaketh away, so as the Soul cannot any longer enjoy such temporal Pleasure and Delight, nor the Light of this outward World, which is wholly thereupon extinguished as to it; then the Soul stands in a eternal Hunger and Thirst after such Vanities as it was here in Love withal, but yet can reach nothing but that false Will, which it had impressed in itself while in the Body; and wherein it had abounded to its great Loss. And now whereas it had too much of its Will in this Life, and yet was not contented therewith, it hath after this Separation by Death, as little of it; which createth in it an everlasting Thirst after that which it can henceforth never more obtain, and causeth it to be in a perpetual anxious Lust after Vanity, according to its former Impression, and in a continual Rage of Hunger after those Sorts of Wickedness and Lewdness whereinto it was immersed, while being in the Flesh.

Fain would it do more Evil still, but that it hath not either wherein or wherewith to effect the Same, left to it; and therefore it doth perform this only in itself. All is now internally transacted, as if it were outward; and so the Ungodly Soul is tormented by those Furies which are in his own Mind, and begotten upon himself by himself.

A veteran street evangelist once observed to me that he’d stopped warning people about hell because moving people by fear, in his observation, had no lasting effect on their conduct, whereas moving them by love was more likely to. And so, readers that have followed me this far, this may be the last you hear from me on this blog about the terrors of hell; I would much rather sing the praises of God’s goodness, and I expect you’d much rather hear me do that, too. But if you would know my heart, you need to know that I’ve seen enough of hell to know that it’s a fact of experience, and that I would gladly do anything the Lord permits me to do to keep you out of it.

And if the prophet’s testimony is true (Ezekiel 33:11), then that’s how God feels about it, too: As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?

Jesus Christ Offers an Alternative to Both Corporate Greed and Rage Against It

Before dawn this morning, I began distributing this tract in New York’s Zuccotti Park, across Broadway from Wall Street, where hundreds of “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrators were gathered, their numbers swelled by sympathizers responding to the mayor’s threat, later rescinded, to have the demonstrators evicted from the park by police starting at 7 a.m.  [The next morning, feeling the Lord's rebuke for tempting my readers to think of themselves as superior to others, I added the phrase "which include all of us to some extent" after "dupes," and a few other minor edits.]

A lie cannot stand forever.  Neither can an economic system built on one.  Capitalism is based on the idea that the common good is adequately served by the competition of separate, selfishly motivated entities in the marketplace.  To believe this is to say “let us do evil, that good may come of it.”  The gospel of Jesus Christ has always testified against such sophistry.  But experience itself bears witness to its falsehood, as the overheating earth now groans from wounds, possibly mortal, inflicted by its industrial despoilers and their overconsuming dupes (which include all of us to some extent).  Meanwhile, the “competition in the marketplace” that sounds so sportsmanlike in the textbooks readily shows its heartlessness, in spite of good ends served by it, to any with eyes to see. Wolves do not “compete” with lambs. But neither is any good served by the lambs’ studying to become wolflike.

The truth is that we were made to live simply, serving one another as brothers and sisters, owning no conflicting interests, but ever saying in our hearts to the Wise and Loving One who made us, “Thy will be done.”  If we seem far from such innocence now, it’s because we’ve fallen from our natural condition; but there is a living and present Savior who will restore us to it for the asking.  And as we change, so may the system we live under change; but without our willingness to change, neither will the system.  Ask for the Savior’s help and healing – for yourself and for those you’re now tempted to think of as your class enemies.  Feeling imprisoned by the system?  Those who vainly expect it to make them happy by keeping them rich may be more deeply imprisoned by it than you are.  Pray for their awakening and you’ll be praying for your own.  The One who hears prayer owns the key to all prisons.

Calling on all Friends’ meetings to become “praying churches”

This morning, after praying hard that I not be allowed to speak unless I had my message right, and that I be clearly shown where to stop and sit down, I gave vocal ministry at my meeting in these words – more or less:

The one God we all worship now calls Fifteenth Street Meeting to learn to pray for itself, so that it might learn to speak with one voice and one heart.

Just a week ago I’d come back from the Friends United Meeting Triennial, whose theme was taken from Romans 12:1-2 (which I here quote in the King James Version): I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed [metamorphoũsthe in the original Greek] by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

I’d come back home praying that Friends United Meeting be granted a metamorphosis, that I myself be granted one, and that my meeting, and the Religious Society of Friends generally, be granted a metamorphosis also — as thorough as a worm’s transformation into a butterfly, as thorough as the Lord thinks the transformation needs to be.  And then, once home, I picked up a copy of Mary Glenn Hadley’s Come Pray (Friends United Press, 2001).  In it I found these words (pp. 76-77):

Our society strongly encourages individual rights.  This thought pattern has subtly found its way into the church making it very difficult to experience fully the power of corporate leading for the body of Christ.

As I visit churches, I find that prayer is considered something very private.  Many people say they pray alone.  Yet when opportunity is given to pray together, people fall silent, seemingly unable to talk with God when in the presence of others.  The forces of evil are very afraid of prayer.  Are our churches weak because we are not claiming the power of prayer?

As I read this, it struck me how far my meeting is from being a “praying church,”  to its great detriment!  I could easily imagine the Friends that make it up finding consensus on sending a plea, in the meeting’s name, to an elected official, to give aid to a distressed nation or protection to an endangered species.  But it was hard to imagine the meeting, gathered as one organism, feeling its unity and praying, in the Holy Spirit, to the almighty and loving Creator of that nation or endangered species!  And my meeting is not the only Friends’ meeting in such a weakened condition!

It quickly became clear to me that my meeting must first learn to pray for itself  before it could be expected to develop its ability to pray for a nation, an endangered species, or anything else outside itself.  It must want to be empowered to pray effectively as a body.  It must become willing to be transformed from the umbrella group of mixed interests and world-views that it so often resembles into a holy, loving, trusting community, for that transformation cannot happen without willingness, and I cannot imagine it becoming an effective praying community without first becoming a holy, loving, trusting community, where grudges are dropped and all communication becomes tender and truthful.

And from the fact that I was given a brief message to express this thought in, I conclude that it’s not just I, John, who think it, but also the Holy Spirit.

Now Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, often say some things hard to believe, like “Go, and sin no more” (is that possible!? that I might be able to sin no more?) or “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk,” but if the Holy Spirit opened my mouth to tell a large, urban, liberal Friends’ meeting that it was time it learned to pray for itself, then I have to believe that it can learn to pray for itself and will learn to pray for itself.  And if Fifteenth Street Meeting, then why not every meeting?

Some of the messages that followed mine hinted at the felt need within the meeting for guidance, education and increased faith in intercessory prayer.  I’m hopeful.

One Friend’s report from New York Yearly Meeting summer sessions

In the short window of opportunity I have before I fly to Ohio for the Friends United Meeting Triennial (July 27-30), I post this unofficial report from NYYM Summer Sessions (July 18-23), just to keep others informed. In the interest of brevity, much that I found important must be left out of this – the meetings of old friends, the profundity of the Bible study sessions presented by Callid and Kristina Keefe-Perry, the sweet calm of the tender atmosphere in the Healing Pavilion, the intimate sharing in my worship-sharing group, the fun and learning had by the Friends in Junior Yearly Meeting; and above all, the sense I had of divine covering over our week together.   A powerful witness was made by my friend, a veteran Junior Meeting counselor, who came back to the children this year in a wheelchair and spoke to them about his process of being progressively paralyzed by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease).   He seemed to be glowing with love and joy every time I saw him.  How does he manage to do that?  I thought.  How do You manage to make him glow like that, Lord?

What follow are the highlights of our business conducted, as I saw them:

1. The Meetings for Discernment are to continue for three more years, still being considered an experiment.  (In my view they’re providing us with an extremely valuable means of “knowing one another in that which is eternal,” to use Fox’s phrase.  Last Tuesday’s M.f.D. broke from a tradition we’d established in that it asked Friends to speak from their own individual experience rather than speaking for their home meeting.  The query we considered was: “How has your faith helped you to keep your spiritual grounding, hope and optimism while living your witness in the world?“)

2. A new draft Earthcare Advice and Query have been brought forward for a first reading, and we are asked to season them and offer concerns and suggestions:

Advice # __: Friends are advised to acknowledge and celebrate our interconnectedness with the natural world and to share with our children and others our love for God’s creation. We are encouraged to live lives that nurture both ourselves and Earth. We are urged to pay attention to such concerns as population growth, climate change, sustainable energy policies and right sharing of natural resources.

Query #__: Are we engaged in nurturing and deepening our relationship with all creation? Do we make time to open to the Spirit through contact with nature? Do we strive to live in harmony with the earth? How can we transform our lives in witness to our relationship with the Earth, and join with others in active stewardship, realizing that we share one planet, now and in the future?

3. The full text of a Minute on the Tenth Anniversary of the Attacks of September 11, 2001 follows; we directed our Clerk and General Secretary to make them widely known:

Ten years ago members of al-Qaeda used four passenger aircraft as weapons to kill nearly 3,000 people on September 11, 2001. The United States Government’s response was to answer violence with violence. In the ensuing wars, hundreds of thousands more people have been killed. New York Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) urges everyone to recognize this anniversary as an occasion to remember that there are always alternatives to violence and that there is a Spirit in every human being which responds with gratitude to these alternatives.

The Religious Society of Friends has always upheld the way exemplified by Jesus, who taught us never to return evil for evil, but to love our enemies and pray for them, forgiving them every offense. We confess that we, being human, do not always fulfill this high standard. Nevertheless, we continually strive to discern the guidance of the living God who loves unconditionally, and extends unlimited compassion, comfort, mercy, guidance, grace and revelation to all who ask.

We testify to the world that we disown all wars and fighting with outward weapons for any cause whatsoever. These are never necessary. There are no “just wars.” Among the weapons we renounce are the tongue and pen, when these are used to provoke prejudice and hatred. Neither will we be silenced by fear when we are called to witness against evil masquerading as good. We seek to build a world in which a just peace is possible. We seek the strength to support and keep faith with those who suffer for nonviolent acts of conscience. We live by the gospel of God’s love for all. Join us.

4. Budget Saturday’s coming up on Saturday, 9/24,  and as I told the relevant people in my home meeting, the Financial Services Committee will want to know what we think our covenant donation for 2012 will be by then.

5. Ministry Coordinating Committee is sending out to the monthly meetings a draft apology to all persons of African descent for Friends’ past involvement with slavery, segregation and discrimination. We will be asked to labor over it and report back to Summer Sessions 2012.

6. The Indian Affairs Committee asks monthly meetings to invite its representatives to come visit with your meeting over the coming year: in NYYM’s Minute 2010.07.37, from last year’s summer sessions, Witness Coordinating Committee presented for a first reading a proposed minute that calls on the U.S. Senate to ratify the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and repudiates the Doctrine of Discovery.  At that time, NYYM directed the Indian Affairs Committee “to share the minute with the monthly meetings and worship groups, together with explanatory and educational materials, and to travel among the meetings to explore with Friends the opportunities and challenges offered by the minute.”  The Indian Affairs Committee continues to seek opportunities to travel among the meetings under this charge.

7. The full text of the Epistle from New York Yearly Meeting, Religious Society of Friends / July 18-23, 2011 – Silver Bay, NY follows:

To Friends Everywhere:

Our session opened with the Clerk telling the story of Peter being called from the boat during a storm. This week on the shores of Silver Bay, Lake George, New York, we did feel a sense of being called. A sudden death among us reminded Friends of how fragile and precious is life and how dear our community.

Despite our blessed squabbles and luxuries, we have tried to step out in faith. We became more determined to free the captives and awaken the dreamers (ourselves included) whose careless sleep, left unbroken, will destroy life on the land and in the oceans of this planet. In extended worship, we told our experience clearly and simply. Among those holding the body, there was a sense of elation and of heaven entering.

We are one body, many parts, each indispensible, each with unique gifts. For example, one Friend has the gift of holding another’s sorrow and joining it with hope; another by the same power is granted the gift of speaking hard truths with love; and yet another has the gift of seemingly irrational optimism.

Quaker testimonies also form one body; Earthcare inseparable from peace, integrity, community, simplicity, equality. A rising generation of Friends embodies these testimonies with their vision, and their witness and service in the world.

Where are we in the story? Are we Peter walking in faith? Peter sinking in doubt? Or among the disciples who remain in the boat? In Earthcare and in our other forms of witness, the question continues to rise: What will we each do? What will the Yearly Meeting do?

Other Friends that were up at Silver Bay are invited to add to this bare-bones skeleton of a report.

The Geometry of Heaven

Paul prays for the Ephesian church “that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God” (Eph. 3:19b). Nice sentiment, we think. Kind-hearted thought. And then we read it again: me? Tiny me, filled with all the fulness of God, who created all this vastness and multiplicity? Does Paul realize what he’s saying?

Paul generally does know what he’s saying; he chooses his words carefully. Moreover, he asks the Holy Spirit to guide his pen, because he’s speaking for God and Christ and does not want the fledgling church misled by a thoughtless word. I take this prayer as strong evidence that it is possible that I might be filled with all the fulness of God. I then stop and wonder how it could be possible – not as a temporary illusion on an LSD trip, but as an everlasting reality I might awaken to. I picture myself as an infinitesimal point by comparison to God’s endlessness – with nothing inside and everything outside. Then I catch myself: I wasn’t really thinking of a mathematical point, which has no inside, but of small things with small but positive inner content: grains of sand, periods printed on paper, neutrons. Of course those things can’t be filled with infinite content inside, but a dimensionless point can, because it has neither inside nor outside but only, if embedded in a surrounding space, “side.” The point is to lose self, have no more inside, and thereby know the Fulness. Not to worry: one remains what one always really was, the creature made in the Creator’s glorious, perhaps dimensionless, perhaps qualityless, image.

I in God, and God in me: it’s all unimaginable, I know, from the point of view of a self embodied in mortal flesh in a world of space, time and change. Poets have sung about this mystery as they passed through mortal flesh, Lao-Tse, Parmenides, John of the Cross, all in metaphor. One of the most beautiful poems comes from the Upanishads:

Om.
Pūrnamadah, pūrnamidam,
Pūrnāt pūrnam udacyate;
Pūrnasya pūrnam ādāya,
Pūrnam evāvaśişyate.
Om. Śāntih, śāntih, śāntih.

Om. That is full; This is full.
From Fulness arises Fulness.
When Fulness is taken from Fulness,
Indeed Fulness remains.
Om. Peace; peace; peace.

A poem more familiar to readers of the Bible begins, “The Lord is my shepherd: I shall not want.” If I were filled with all the fulness of God, how could I want? It dwarfs my worry that I won’t be able to pay all my bills this month, or finish that difficult job on my desk, or live to retire with my debts paid off. God will wipe away all tears from my eyes, your eyes, and in the end all creatures’ eyes, even those that may have exiled themselves to some outer darkness where there’s wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Persuaded that this Fulness cometh not with observation, I wait to be surprised by it. As it’s nothing I can earn by my own merit or ready myself for by special exercises, I can only go on with my everyday life, but enormous gratefulness wells up in me when I think that God’s generosity is such that you and I, who feel ourselves to be deserving of so little, are to be given All That Is.