First Friends Meeting
Luke 14:12-24
Quaker Testimonies, Part 3: Equality
Doug Gwyn

We’re continuing this morning with our series on the Quaker testimonies. I want to focus on the testimony of equality. Or at least, ‘equality’ seems to be the best word we have found for something Quakers have cherished and tried to practice over the years. The testimony of equality began with Quakers in a specific way. Even before there was a noticeable Quaker movement, the young George Fox had a way of teaming up in ministry with powerful women, a good deal older than himself. His first ally was Elizabeth Hooton, a Baptist drop-out about 20 years older than George. She was a fearless prophet and street-preacher who was imprisoned for her ministry more than once. Then, of course, Margaret Fell came along and became George’s long-term ally. Margaret had great organizational gifts and was George’s key ally in organizing the Quaker movement. They never actually spent much time together, even after they married in 1669. But these key alliances set a tone in the Quaker movement. Women had status and roles as leaders in the movement from the beginning. It was scandalous to their Puritan neighbors that women should have such a voice in the Church. But George Fox’s answer was basically this: when you see the Spirit working in people in a powerful, healthy, and transforming way – get out of the way! It’s not for us to limit God’s freedom to work with whomever God moves by the Spirit.

From a very early stage in his ministry, Fox began to notice the same Spirit in all kinds of people. They might not know it was there in them. They might not feel themselves worthy of God’s love and Spirit. Or they might be fighting against that Spirit with every ounce of orneriness they could muster. Or they might be trying to repress the Spirit in other people with their prejudices. But God’s Spirit is there in everyone, and we can respond to people in ways that liberates God’s Spirit in them. Sometimes, kindness, respect, and encouragement will help. Other times, you may have to confront a person with their immoral behavior or their prejudiced attitudes. Other times, you can preach the gospel to them – let them know of God’s love for them and for all people. And all these approaches are expressions of what we call the testimony of equality.

William Penn gave this testimony an international and cross-cultural meaning. As I’ve mentioned before, Penn made treaties with local Indian tribes when he founded Pennsylvania. He treated them as equals and as reliable covenant partners who would live up to their promises. As a consequence, Pennsylvania’s beginnings were much more peaceful than most American colonies. For the first 75 years, Pennsylvania didn’t even have a militia. King Charles II had given Penn such a generous colonial charter partly because he was sympathetic to Quakers. But he also knew that Penn would provide religious liberty for all. And indeed, all kinds of persecuted groups from all over Europe came and settled in Pennsylvania. It became a kind of religious Disneyland of the 18^th century.

There are many more heroes and heroines of Quaker history whose stories I could tell you, whose lives were living testimonies to the truth that God’s Spirit is still moving at large in the world, that God is no respecter of persons – and we shouldn’t be either. But let’s go back to the Scripture that Wini has read for us. Jesus did a lot of his teaching at dinner parties. He got invited to dinner a lot – which was good, because he and his disciples were poor and homeless. But Jesus also had a habit of inviting other people to come along with him for dinner. People the host would not have thought to invite. People whose table manners and hygiene probably made some of the invited guests lose their appetite. But Jesus kept extending the invitation to dinner. And, at one of these dinners, he told this wonderful parable about a man who prepared a nice banquet for some of his well-to-do friends. They had been invited in advance, so they knew the day and time. But when the time came, they had other things to do and begged off. Most of their excuses were about being too busy with business to come over just now. So the host became angry and sent his servants out to invite the poor, the beggars, people on the streets, to come to his banquet. These people are not selling land or buying oxen today, or any day.

The great thing about these people is that they’re available. Again and again in the gospels, Jesus finds his best headway with the poor, the disabled, the outcast and unclean. And it’s most of all because they are available. They have no illusions of self-sufficiency, no big plans for their lives. They’re open to offers. Jesus keeps extending the kingdom of God to these people. And it surprises everyone. It still surprises everyone today, when it happens. When the liberation theology movement broke out in Latin America in the late sixties and early seventies, one of the controversial ideas was called “God’s preferential option for the poor.” Liberation theologians like Gustavo Gutierrez wrote, oh, sure, God loves and accepts everybody. But God starts with the poor. Anything significant God is going to do in the world will start with the poor. Because they’re available. It continues to surprise and shock people – especially people in the Church.

When you’re in the Church, it’s like you’re one of the guests invited to dinner with Jesus. It’s great, especially at first. You may not have thought yourself worthy. Or the Church may not have been a dinner you wanted to go to. But you discover this wonderful fellowship. And the Spirit is moving among us, and it feels good, it feels right. But it also gets a bit cozy. You can have the most generous, liberal attitudes toward other Christians, toward people of other faiths, toward the poor, toward all kinds of people. And that’s good – our social attitudes and political philosophies can predispose us to do the right thing when the opportunity comes. But still, it’s cozy in here. Are we ready to extend the invitation, or are we content to keep things cozy?

I like equality as a concept. It makes a general principle out of the very concrete and specific things that Jesus did, that George Fox did, that our heroes and heroines of the faith did. I hold equality dear as a principle. But maybe in practice, the more apt word is extension. Because we don’t live in general. We live in specific situations. And most of our situations in life are circumscribed. They tend to include some people and not others. Jesus models and teaches us a way of living that keeps extending the invitation. Jesus keeps the circle from becoming too closed, the truth from becoming too tidy, the fellowship from becoming too cozy.

There are still good reasons to be in a Church. There are still good reasons to have serious Christian beliefs and liberal social values. There are still good reasons to value and nurture fellowship in a congregation like ours. But we have to keep an eye on ourselves. We may find ourselves too busy with business – even Church business – to answer God’s invitation to the love feast of the kingdom. We may be too caught up in correctness – either Christian orthodoxy or political correctness – to see the person in front of us who is hurting and needs our help. They entire history of the Old and New Testaments, and 2000 years of Church history, is a long saga of people who thought they were on the cozy inside with God and ended up on the outside. Who camped out in the sanctuary, and the sanctuary turned out to be a prison. Who thought they were at the party, but the party had moved on.

As I’ve said before, the Quaker advices and queries are something Friends have traditionally used to keep asking ourselves, are we living up to our testimonies? As we move into Open Worship, I will close with two of them that address the testimony of equality (Britain Yearly Meeting’s Quaker Faith & Practice). #22 addresses our life together as a Meeting: “Respect the wide diversity among us in our lives and relationships. Refrain from making prejudiced judgments about the life journeys of others. Do you foster the spirit of mutual understanding and forgiveness which our discipleship asks of us? Remember that each one of us is unique, precious, a child of God.”

#33 addresses our life in the wider world: “Are you alert to practices here and throughout the world which discriminate against people on the basis of who or what they are or because of their beliefs? Bear witness to the humanity of all people, including those who break society’s conventions or its laws. Try to discern new growing points in social and economic life. Seek to understand the causes of injustice, social unrest and fear. Are you working to bring about a just and compassionate society which allows everyone to develop their capacities and fosters the desire to serve?”