An Epistle from Friends in the Spirit of Christ

Eighth Month 30, 2009

To Friends everywhere, and to all who seek love, joy, hope, and meaning in life:

We, a group of Friends gathering at Powell House in Old Chatham, NY for a weekend entitled “Following Jesus in Community,” send our loving greetings to you. We’ve come from places ranging from Maine to Virginia and Ohio and from a variety of Quaker traditions. We have shared our personal experiences of the love of the living Jesus Christ and have been buoyed and stirred by Christ’s healing and forgiving presence among us this weekend. We want to invite you into the joy, hope and love we have known here.

We experienced a divine covering that helped to reconcile us all, dissolving many anxieties some of us felt in gathering with strangers whose theological tendencies we did not know. Knowing that language and doctrinal notions have caused unnecessary divisions among people of faith, we have no desire to add to these, but simply to stand with Jesus Christ at an open door, where He offers His light and love. We have found that these are available to everyone. We are eager to share the experiences that have liberated us from so many burdens and sorrows in hopes that you and others may know the same joy.

We intend to meet again within the year, and invite inquiries to: Friends in the Spirit of Christ, c/o Anna Obermayer, 599 Trumbulls Corners Road, Newfield, NY 14867 (anna.e.obermayer@gmail.com).

In love,

Ann Armstrong (NEYM)
Doug Armstrong (NEYM)
Jim Atwell (NYYM)
Susan Bailey (OYM)
Connie Bair-Thompson (NEYM)
Arthur Berk (NYYM, OYM)
Peter Blood-Patterson (NEYM)
Steve Chase (NEYM)
Shayla Cody
Jim Contois (NEYM, NYYM)
Ann Dodd-Collins (NEYM)
Ann Davidson (NYYM)
Roger Dreisbach-Williams (NYYM)
Elizabeth Edminster (NYYM)
John Edminster (NYYM)
Ellen Flanders (NYYM)
Dorothy Garner (NYYM)
David Herendeen (NYYM)
Seth Hinshaw (OYM)
Raye Hodgson (OYM)
Ruth Kinsey (NYYM)
Herb Lape (NYYM)
Rene Lape (Attender, NYYM)
Reb MacKenzie (NEYM, NYYM)
Barbara Meli (NYYM)
Salvatore Meli (NYYM)
Kate Moss (NYYM)
Anna Obermayer (NYYM)
Christopher Sammond (NYYM)
James Schultz (NYYM)
Stella Schultz (NYYM)
Susan Smith (OYM)
Thomas Swain (PYM)
Lillie Wilson (NEYM)

Key to Yearly Meeting Affiliation:
NEYM = New England Yearly Meeting
NYYM = New York Yearly Meeting
OYM = Ohio Yearly Meeting
PYM = Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

At Last in Print: A Manual for Casting Down Imaginations

“The best help you can have from a book is to read one full of such truths, instructions and awakening informations as force you to see and know who and what and where you are; that God is your All; and that all is misery but a heart and life devoted to him. This is the best outward prayer book you can have, as it will turn you to an inward book and spirit of prayer in your heart.” So wrote William Law (1686-1761) in The Spirit of Prayer (1749; excerpted in Robert Llewellyn and Edward Moss, eds., Daily Readings with William Law, Springfield, IL: Templegate, 1987, p. 68).

I have found such a book; it’s a little 120-page book by the early English Quaker William Shewen, first published in 1683 and just now reprinted by Inner Light Books in San Francisco (Hardcover, ISBN 978-0-9797110-0-8, $25; paperback, ISBN 978-0-9797110-1-5, $15; http://www.innerlightbooks.com). Its title is Counsel to the Christian-Traveller: Also Meditations & Experiences. Among the short works in this slim volume is “A Treatise Concerning Thoughts & Imaginations,” which deserves reading by every person of faith that’s ever endured mental anguish.

Let me share a few sample passages here from Shewen’s Meditations & Experiences:

From No. XVII: This one word or sentence may try all the sects in Christendom, and others who profess themselves lovers of the law of God, yet have not peace in their dwellings; these have not the answer of a good conscience, which keeps void of offence towards God and man. They have not that peace which passes the understanding of man in the fall; they know not their hearts and minds kept by it; but are found in the evil-doing, where the tribulation and anguish is, and in that fear which brings torment. (p. 42)

From  No. XIX: This is my testimony, that none can receive the joy of God’s salvation, enter into the Sabbath of rest, or keep holy-day to the Lord, further than they know a ceasing, and a being saved from thinking their own vain thoughts, following their own wills, and obeying their own wisdom…. So it is a blessed thing for people to meet and wait together, and walk in this heavenly light and day of salvation, which discovers and judges every vain thought and foolish imagination, subdues them, and brings them down into the obedience of Christ. In this, as they walk and abide, they truly differ from all other families of the earth…. In this stands their happiness and safety: Out of this, they are as weak as other people. (pp. 44-45)

From No. XXX: It is a very blessed state, to be found true waiters for, and witnesses of the second coming of Christ, which is without sin unto salvation;  for true happiness does not consist in … being witnesses of his first appearance, wherein he convinces and reproves for sin; but in waiting for the witnessing his second coming to cleanse, save and redeem from sin: herein is the joy of God’s salvation felt and enjoyed. (p. 50)

From No. XXXV: It is a blessed thing, and a high and heavenly state, for every individual to be witnesses within themselves, that self is made of no importance. … Denying of self, and taking up the Cross, are inseparable, and must precede Discipleship; yet this state is short of being a friend of God, and co-heir with Christ, bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh; and short of sitting down with him at the right Hand of God in the kingdom of heaven; …short of knowing it meat and drink to do the will of God, and his fruit sweet to their taste, and to sit under his shadow with great delight, glorified with that glory which Christ had with the Father before the world began. (pp. 55-56)

In the past few days I’ve experienced both a touch of the unspeakable sweetness of God and immersion in the angry nastiness of my own offended self-importance. I’ve also been given a clear warning against the familiar detours from the right way that bring me into those patches of thorns and nettles. In the midst of all this, with his book riding with me on all my travels,  I’ve found William Shewen to be a sensitive and faithful friend who’s very familiar with all the territory I cover, and I’ve been hearing my Shepherd’s own voice in his. Higher praise to a book I don’t know how to give.

Our Mother

I’ve been the silent partner in this blog, for the most part — I think the only posts I’ve made have been silly ones about Talk Like a Quaker Day.

Something suddenly prompted me to post the following prayer/poem, which I completed on August 18, 2007, at Powell House.  It seems to have spoken to both Christians and Wiccans of my acquaintance.  That’s what I was hoping it would do!

Our Mother

Our Mother,
who art among us,
holy do we name thee.
Thy home be here,
thy grace appear
in Act as it does in Spirit.
Prepare with us our daily bread,
and heal us of wrongdoing
as we learn to free those that wrong us.
Test us not beyond our ability,
but keep our souls from destruction,
for in thee is our home,
and our strength,
and our beauty,
now and always.
Amen.

Completed at Powell House, August 18, 2007

Peter Goes Fishing

I did some research that now makes Peter’s fishing expedition in the 21st chapter of the Fourth Gospel a little more vivid to me. First of all, Peter’s “I go a  fishing” (as the King James Bible has it) was hypago halieuein in the Greek, something like “I’m going down a-salting,” reminding me that Peter was going fishing in a freshwater lake and speaking in Aramaic, in which the activity of fishing (unlike the Greek word for it) didn’t imply having salty fingers. The Sea of Tiberias was one he might have drunk from, cupping the water in his hand.

If Jesus was crucified in the year 33 C.E., the month of Aviv would have begun at sundown on April 17 (by the modernized Julian calendar), the approximate time of the first new moon after the Spring Equinox. So Passover, the 14th day of Aviv, would have begun at sundown on Thursday, April 30, the night of the Last Supper, and Jesus would have been met His death on May 1. The stone would have been rolled away from His tomb under a moon that reached perfect fullness during the dark early hours of Sunday, May 3. On the evening of May 3, according to the Evangelist, the resurrected Jesus appeared to all the disciples but Thomas Didymus and Judas Iscariot. Then on May 11, eight days later, He had Thomas put his fingers into the healing wound in His side – a wound then ten days old.

A Memorable Fancy

…we know that an idol is nothing in this world, and that there is none other God but one. For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth (as there be gods many, and lords many: ) But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him. – 1 Corinthians 8:4-6 (KJV)

I was grazing with my herd when the Good Shepherd came up to me, looked into my eyes, and said “I must wake you now.” At once my hoofs became hands and feet, I stood and saw that my form had become like His and was clothed. All that remained of my pleasant fleece were the hairs of my head and a growth of white beard on my chin. Memories of my sheep-life ebbed away as the memories belonging to my human form came back. In most of them the Shepherd had seemed absent. In many of those memories I hadn’t minded His absence, which had only grown painful to me, I realized, with the passage of years.

“Thank You, Lord,” I said, delighted to find Him standing face to face with me. “What should I do?”

“Enjoy yourself. Enjoy My company. Come, sit with me.” There was a large, flat boulder nearby, with a folded blanket on top. He gestured that I should sit at His right hand. “I want you to meet My friends the gods and goddesses.”

What Meeting for Worship Costs

No. This is not a post about how faithful attendance at worship will change your life and cause you to renounce things that you never thought you’d be able to live without–although I’ve known that to happen. 

This is a post about money.

A few days ago, in a daily e-mail I get from Ekklesia.org, I learned about Faith in Action Sunday on April 27. A project of World Vision, Outreach, Inc., and Zondervan–

Faith in Action is designed to be a step toward alleviating the complacency that is afflicting churches across the country, and an effective call to action to follow Christ’s example of compassion.

The project culminates on April 27, when the participating churches–instead of holding worship services–will close their doors and send their members out to work in their communities in service to the poor.

The report on Faith in Action Sunday from Ekklesia says:

Current data provided by the US Census Bureau reveals the national poverty level has increased from 11.7 percent in 2001 to 13.3 percent in 2005, or 38 million Americans.

Additionally, demand for food stamps between 2007-08, a key economic indicator provided by the United States Department of Agriculture, is up significantly in 43 states, increasing the need for significant help among more than 28 million Americans.

“These results, when combined with current census and economic data, expose a discrepancy between Christians who believe they are doing enough and the reality that Christians are just scratching the surface in our communities,” said Steve Haas, vice president for church relations at World Vision.

But the study also reports that 60 percent of respondents “would support their church if it occasionally cancelled traditional services in order to donate that time to help the poor in their community”.

Christians are now being invited to close their churches and mobilize in projects within their communities.

 This caused me to wonder how much it costs to hold Meeting for Worship in the big meetinghouses here in the city, so I went to a Friend knowledgeable about the finances of New York Quarter.

He told me that it costs about $1,000 apiece for Fifteenth Street and Brooklyn to open the meetinghouses, heat them, light them, and clean them for each Meeting for Worship.

I am troubled.

Psalm 22 and Beethoven’s Ninth

A friend sent me the text of a sermon he delivered on Good Friday. It was a powerful sermon, painting a vivid picture of Jesus’s physical, emotional, and spiritual suffering in Gethsemane and on the Cross. It was a message about abandonment and finding the everlasting arms to lean on again. And I was moved, not only because of its eloquence but also because I have some sense of the personal challenges my friend is facing right now as he looks toward a difficult future.

As I thought about my friend’s life and the sermon he delivered out of it, I was humbled by a new awareness of how Jesus meets us exactly where we are, offering us exactly what we need.

Where I am in recent weeks is engaged in musing on whether Jesus was taking a nazirite vow when he said at the Last Supper that he wouldn’t touch any more wine until he’d completed his task. He keeps his word and also refuses vinegar–equally a product of the grape. I don’t know what I’m to do with that musing, other than to share it here, but I’m sure I’ll know by and by.

For me, right now in my life, I have the luxury of not identifying with those last words as a cry of abandonment. Today I can hear “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” as, at one and the same time, a statement of what looks like fact to the eyes of others, an act of self-comfort in quoting Scripture to himself, and Jesus’s final message to the world as he speaks aloud for all to hear, despite the terrible physical state he is in, the first words of Psalm 22.

It’s a psalm that fascinates me. The first twenty-one verses describe both Jesus’s Crucifixion and our own mundane times of crisis and suffering. But then, with no transition whatsoever, verse 21 switches in midstream and flat-out states that rescue has happened. Period. No explanation.

Save me from the mouth of the lion! From the horns of the wild oxen you have rescued me. (NRSV)

In the King James Bible the transition is so abrupt as to require mythical beasts:

Save me from the lion’s mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns. (AV)

It reminds me of the place in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony where the brooding, mournful instrumental music is stopped dead by a human voice singing, “O friends, not these tones!” and then the astounding, irresistible Ode to Joy chorale begins.

That’s what happens in Psalm 22. Both Psalm 22 and Beethoven’s Ninth give me a model of faith as a choice. Turn around and face the other way. Sing another song. Just do it!

Here is the new song of verse 22:

I will tell of your name to my brothers and sisters; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you. (NRSV)

I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. (AV)

And I’m fascinated by verse 29, which seems to be saying that even the dead will worship Yahweh. It’s a wonderful comfort to me to think that I can go to Meeting for Worship from the grave.

To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, and I shall live for him. (NRSV)

All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul. (AV)

From where I am in early April 2008, I can experience those last words of Jesus as his last teaching to me. “Pay attention,” he’s telling me. “I’m leaving you with this psalm. Go look it up. (Study Torah.) It’s all in there.”

My friend, who began my consideration of Jesus’s last words with his Good Friday message, can find a personal companion to be with him as he faces his physical and spiritual challenges.

Both of us have found our shepherd. We shall not want.

The Night Jesus Washed His Disciples Clean

3/21/08. I can’t forget that today is called Good Friday, and that Jesus, on the day of His crucifixion, may have had to use all the mental discipline He could muster to keep His focus on the present moment and prayerfully on the presence of God. Could the Man who stilled the wind and the waves also still the adrenalin, the rage, the fear in His own body? How did He cope with the pain of the nails, the crown of thorns, the blood trickling down into His eyes? More importantly: what can I do for Him and His mission today, right this moment?
 
Reading from the Gospel of John this morning, I noted that the Evangelist prefaced the story of the foot-washing with a seemingly irrelevant parenthesis, John 13:3: “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God:…” – what is this? Something Jesus was just becoming aware of, or something He knew for a long time? If for a long time, why mention it here? The only sense I can make of its placement here is that the writer is using it to put a frame around a part of his narrative he finds particularly important – perhaps the whole Passion story, but  perhaps just this part about the washing of feet.
 
“Knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands:” after such a buildup, we might expect that Jesus then magically made tangerines appear on the supper table, or had the stars in the sky spell out the words “repent, everybody.” But no; He stripped naked and put on a bath-servant’s towel. And then He tells Peter that Peter won’t understand what He’s doing until some time later. There’s something profound going on here. Jesus, knowing that all things are in His hands, is about to do one of His greatest works. Humble Himself and play servant to His own servants? Well, yes, that, but something more: wash His disciples “clean every whit,” so that Peter, his feet bathed, will no longer need his dirty hands and defiled head washed.
 
I’d never seen this before: that was Jesus’ baptism of his disciples. With Judas we’re given to believe that this baptism didn’t “take,” John 13:10-11, but for the others I believe they were, at that moment, made sinless. This is the baptism that the apostle describes as “not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God” (1 Peter 3:21). If it had required a complete removal of the filth of the flesh, Jesus would surely have washed Peter’s hands and head, and maybe even sent him outdoors to gargle.

Sinless? I know that Peter then did a string of inappropriate actions, like cutting off Malchus’ ear and denying that he knew Jesus; and all the disciples fled from the garden, abandoning their Lord and Savior. How can we not think them still sinners? But we have the Lord’s own word that they had been washed “clean every whit.” And this is only fitting for souls of whom Jesus was about to say, first reminding them of their new-found cleanness (John 15:3), “I am the vine, ye are the branches” (15:5). Can members of Christ be unclean? The disciples might still err in minor ways – Paul would later rebuke Peter for dissembling, Galatians 2:11 ff. – but they now had consciences that sins would no longer stick to as they once did.
 
Unstainable consciences, while still capable of minor errors? It’s not as though the disciples had been given Teflon coatings, or – to use the language of Yoga, become jivanmuktas who could generate no more karma, bad or good, because they’d attained to direct knowledge of the timeless Atman and could identify no more with changeable nature – but rather, I think, Jesus gave them what Paul was later to call huiothesia, “son-placement,” translated by King James’ scholars as “the adoption,” Galatians 4:5-6 and Romans 8:13-17, whereby we call God Abba, “father.”

There’s no Teflon coating involved in this: we wash out our errors, as Peter did, only with our tears, and these are tears of real pain. It hurts to see our own laziness or cowardice or greed cause someone else sorrow. But there’s a good reason not to call such errors sin. For we now feel God’s parenthood, protecting us from falling so deeply into sin that we have to block off awareness of our condition with a fabric of lies. Moreover, we now have a heart that yearns to be corrected whenever it strays, rather than go on straying in happy ignorance. It is the heart of what Paul called “the new creature” (2 Corinthians 5:17, Galatians 6:15).

That freedom from sin, I think, was the great spiritual gift passed on when Jesus washed Peter’s feet. It came to me seven years ago, just before I fell in love with Elizabeth, when I heard the Unmistakable Voice in my mind say, “I will not let you fall into sin,” so I know it’s a real thing, given to little people like me who are by no means jivanmuktas. It does not mean that I couldn’t spoil it all if I set my mind to becoming an evildoer, as I did for a time as a child when I thought I might be more impressive if I were one of the bad boys; the sinless life does require vigilance. Robert Barclay (Apology, Proposition 9, §II) comments wryly, “it is to no purpose to beseech them to stand, to whom God hath made it impossible to fall.” What I take my Lord to have meant is that I can trust Him absolutely, and that by His grace I can now, amazingly, even trust the new heart He has given me.

The Graces Evacuated by U.S. Embassy Flight to Nairobi

FUM has just (Wednesday morning) sent out this e-mail from Eden Grace. They have left Kisumu and are currently in the Mennonite Guest House in Nairobi.

At dawn this morning, as I listened to the BBC in lieu of sleep, the reports were that Kenya is breaking apart and that civil war looks possible–even likely. 

 30 January 2008

Dear Friends,

Greetings to you all, and huge thanks for your messages of support and encouragement. You have truly been sustaining us through these troubling times.

Yesterday, our family left Kisumu on a chartered flight sent by the US Embassy to bring out families with children. The situation in Kisumu (and all of western Kenya) has taken a turn for the worse since the horrible events in Nakuru and Naivasha over the weekend, and it was no longer prudent to stay where we were. For the moment, we are staying at the Mennonite Guest House, and taking things day by day. Eden is continuing to work, and can actually get more done in Nairobi, where there is freedom of movement, than in Kisumu where she was confined to the house. James and the kids are planning to spend their mornings doing some informal homeschooling. We are all grateful to be in a calm and restful environment, and plan to do a lot of sleeping!

This comes, of course, as a shock and disappointment, since it seemed last week like things were starting to improve. Kofi Annan is still here, and there is still some hope for the political mediation process, but at this point, it will be very difficult to quell the violence, even if the politicians reach a settlement. Kenya is in desperate need of your intercessions!

We held a very successful National Kenyan Quaker Peace Conference last weekend in Kakamega — truly the Lord wanted this conference to succeed, since a “window” of peace opened up just for those four days, and we were able to travel and meet together! The Conference emerged with some very strong ideas for immediate action that Friends can take. If you haven’t done so, we encourage you to read the conference documents on Mary Kay’s blog — http://www.updatesonkenya.blogspot.com/.

Our work now is to implement the Plan of Action. Eden was appointed Treasurer of the Coordinating Committee, which means that she will be responsible for overseeing the right use of your contributions toward this work. We really hope that you will be able to partner with us, and encourage you to contribute at www.fum.org. The need is enormous!

Our thanks go out to Ginna, who felt a burden on our behalf to draw your attention to the fact that our family’s livelihood is not covered by the outpouring of emergency relief funds from Friends. We have important work to do now, and we do ask for your contribution toward our ministry account, so that we can continue to play our part in God’s work here. Thanks, Ginna, for helping “toot our horn”! We really do need you at this time.

Please, please continue praying for peace in Kenya. Things have reached a frightening “tipping point”, where we can envision a truly horrible future. But at the same time, we know that God is a miracle-worker, and that He has not abandoned Kenya, so we remain hopeful. Please join us in pleading for His hand of calm to stay the angry hearts, His hand of comfort to bind up the wounded in body and spirit, and His hand of wisdom to guide all of us who seek to do His will today and every day.

In Christian fellowship,
Eden

Eden Grace, Field Officer
Friends United Meeting/Africa Ministries
 

Comfort ye, My people: a sermon

[26] And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,
[27] To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. [28] And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.
[29] And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.
[30] And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. [31] And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. [32] He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: [33] And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
[34] Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?
[35] And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. [36] And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. [37] For with God nothing shall be impossible.
[38] And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.

- Luke 1:26-28 (KJV)

This is the story that’s come down to us of how the Virgin Mary came to conceive the Child Jesus by the Holy Spirit. Matthew, Mark and John are silent on this visit from the Angel, though in Matthew the Angel appears to Joseph in a dream after the conception of Jesus (Matthew 1:20-21). But a version very similar to Luke’s, accepted by Muslims the world over, is given in the Qur’an (3:42-51):

[Mary] said: “O my Lord! How shall I have a son when no man hath touched me?”
He said: “Even so: God createth what He willeth: when He hath decreed a Plan, He but saith to it, ‘Be,’ and it is!” – Al-i-’Imran, 47 (Yusuf ‘Ali, tr.)

Christians and Muslims disagree on some very fundamental things, but the great point in both the Christian story and the Muslim story is that with God nothing shall be impossible, to which I can only say, Hallelujah, and Amen. I pray that men, women and children everywhere might come to have trust in God’s power, particularly now, at this time when all life on earth seems threatened by man-made global warming and industrial pollution, when whole societies are threatened by the AIDS epidemic, when the United States Government has gotten itself into an unstoppable-seeming war in Iraq and might now even get us into another one with Iran, when you and I may be struggling with an unconquerable-seeming addiction, an intractable sorrow, an incurable disease, a mountain of debt – yet God loves us, and with God nothing shall be impossible. Let us pray for faith in God, and if we need more, let’s pray for more faith, as the disciples did (Luke 17:5). And God will answer our prayer in the way that’s best for us.

I want to take us from the situation of Mary to our situation. Consider Mary’s position as an unmarried pregnant teenager in a society that might stone (Deut. 22:21-24) or burn (Lev. 21:9) such girls to death, who in spite of that risk said to the angel, “let it be unto me according to thy word. ” Are we ready to take such a risk to have Christ born in our own heart? Because that’s what the celebration of Christmas is about, Christ in us, or else it’s about nothing, a crucified dead body that had no effect on us. Fortunately, the Lord is not asking us to take Mary’s risk; but He is standing at the door of our heart, and knocking (Rev. 3:20), asking us to let Him in.

What happens when we let Him in? What does it mean to invite the Holy Spirit to make us conceive, and become pregnant with Christ-in-us, and become, as the 18th-century Rhode Island Quaker Job Scott put it, the mothers of Christ? [see his Essays on Salvation by Christ, Quaker Heritage Press, 1993.]

It sounds weird, doesn’t it? But it’s no weirder, no harder than Jesus’ “hard saying” that we must eat His flesh and drink His blood (John 6: 32-60) if we want to dwell in Him and have Him dwell in us. This is the impossible thing that is possible with God: that we say “yes” and then let Christ grow in us, till our own proud, fearful, vengeful, desperate, envious, lust-driven, control-hungry animal becomes tame and cooperative with its rightful Master. Slowly, and with effort on our own part (though it is really God working in us, Philippians 2:12), we come to be born again (or, as the Greek may also be translated, “born from above,” John 3:3), so that even in this life we may become incapable of falling back into sin (1 John 3:9).

Then instead of making a fool of ourselves trying to show off our own cleverness and our own righteousness, we may open our mouths and speak forth Christ’s wisdom and Christ’s lovingkindness. Some people may still think we’ve made a fool of ourselves, of course, but someone who hears the words from our mouth will recognize them as the witness of God, for God does not waste effort (Isaiah 55:11: “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it”).

Or if we are timid and lack courage, we may be surprised to find the courage of Christ rise up in us when we need it, and allow us to do and say things we’d never have thought ourselves capable of. Or if we’re easily angered, we may find a great calm settling over us – the peace of Christ – just in the very situation where we’d be most likely to fly into a rage. Are we restless and distracted and unable to concentrate? Christ’s one-pointedness will be ours the moment it’s needed. Does it depress us that our good will, attractive qualities and natural abilities are going unrecognized by an unappreciative world? Christ recognizes them and knows how best to use them. And at the end, when all our gifts are stripped away and we lie helplessly dying, Christ our Life (John 1:4, 9, 12-13; Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:3-4) will be understood to have become Christ our very Self, the Vine in whom we have been branches (John 15), in Whom, and only in Whom, we have eternal life in oneness with God (John 17:3, 20-24).

This is what Paul called “the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). I pray that men, women and children of all faith traditions discover it and rejoice in it, whether or not they ever adopt Christian language to describe it in. But Christ Jesus, who wills that all people should be saved (1 Timothy 2:4) and takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 33:11) knows how to reach everyone that does not let himself or herself be unreachable.

I have prayed that I might be given words to touch your hearts, that might convey the Gospel, not just the Gospel that is the story of Jesus, but the Gospel that is the power of God to salvation (Romans 1:16, 1 Corinthians 1:17-18). With this Gospel comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God (Isaiah 40:1).

Preached at Manhattan Meeting, New York City, 12/16/2007