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November 22, 2009
First Friends Meeting
1 Timothy 4:1-5, A&Q #10
‘Living the Queries, Part 2’
This morning we return to our series on the Quaker queries. The
queries are questions we live by, questions we grow by, questions with
no final answers, questions that keep us from getting too
comfortable. The queries are really the Quaker testimonies
restated in question form. When we think of the testimonies, we
usually think of the social testimonies – peace, equality,
community, integrity, simplicity. And we’ll get to those
queries as this series goes on. But it’s important to
realize that Quaker social practices are built upon a foundation of
spiritual practice. Otherwise, they become just ideals, values,
opinions. So Bonnie has read for us one of the foundational
Advices and Queries, about faithfulness in worship. Early Friends
considered their form of worship their most basic testimony.
It’s the testimony that Christ can teach each one of us directly,
in our hearts, if we quiet ourselves and wait to receive
something.
This week, I was thinking about the questions we ask our parents as
children. All those ‘why?’ and ‘why not?’
questions. These are important conversations. A child is
trying to piece together his or her world, make sense of it. A
child is also trying to see where they fit in, where they need to
stand. As I commented in the first message in this series,
consciousness literally means ‘knowing together’.
Consciousness is creating some coherent whole out of the jumble of
experience and information we receive. A child is forming a
spiritual consciousness with the questions he or she asks about God,
about prayer, about Church or Meeting. Conscience is the moral
aspect of our consciousness. It’s that part that asks,
given what I understand about the world, where should I stand, what
should I do? There’s a lot about the world that
doesn’t make sense, that offends our moral sense of right and
wrong. We have to decide how to live with integrity in a world
that doesn’t work perfectly.
During our Bicentennial weekend in September, Marcie Roberts spoke at
‘Future of Friends’ forum. She talked about our
Richmond Friends School and its impact on the next generation.
She told of hearing her daughter, Ellie, playing with her
cousins. They got into a conflict that was about to boil over in
some hitting. Ellie responded, “At my school we don’t
hit. We talk it out.” Ellie had asked some questions
and learned some things. Now she was making her
testimony. She was applying the peace testimony in a heated
moment.
Often come up with their best questions in idle moments with their
parents. The television is off. No other electronic
distractions going on. Sometimes in the car, the child has the
chance to reflect while a parent drives. Idle, blank moments,
when nothing seems to be happening. But these are important
moments – not just for children, but for adults too. Our
open worship is a conscious attempt to create those blank, idle
moments. Our query this morning urges us to keep coming to
meeting for worship regularly. Even when – especially when
– we’re tired, depressed, uninspired, angry. The
silence of open worship is a chance to be with God like we were as
children with our parents. We may not always be filled with
wonder, but we can wonder about things. We can wonder as we
wander. Sometimes blank, idle, undirected moments give rise to
the key questions of our lives. In those moments, we drop the
illusion that we’re at the wheel of our lives. We become
passengers, trusting children for a while, and ask whatever comes to
mind. We may ask, “Why is such-and-such the way it
is?” or “What should I do about such-and-such?”
Answers usually don’t come distinctly or immediately. But
sitting with the questions puts us in a position to receive answers or
some kind of help sometime soon.
The query urges, “Ask for and accept the prayerful support of
others joined with you in worship.” At First Friends, we
create an explicit opportunity to do that early in our worship
together. We share our joys and concerns with each other and
before God. Doing that, we put ourselves in a better position to
do what the query advises: “Find a spiritual wholeness which
encompasses suffering as well as thankfulness and joy.”
Worship aims to take us to a place beyond both our joys and our
concerns. It takes us beyond the asking to the place of
receiving. As the query states it, “Prayer, springing from
a deep place in the heart, may bring healing and unity as nothing else
can. Let the meeting for worship nourish your whole
life.” This is the foundation-work for whatever we do in
the world. This is what sustains us in our family live, our
friendships, our work lives, our social witness.
In every age, there are difficult moral and social questions. The
Scripture Bonnie read for us comes late in the New Testament period of
the early Church. It seems even the earliest Church was divided
by conflicting teachings and practices. Some taught that
Christians should abstain from marriage and sexual life of any
kind. Some taught not to eat certain foods. But the writer
of First Timothy disagrees. Everything created by God is
good. Nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with
thanksgiving. For then it is sanctified by God’s Word and
prayer.
Ah, there’s the catch. Prayer is not a magic incantation
that makes everything OK, that blesses whatever we want to do.
We’re not talking about mindless consumption. This is
receiving with thanksgiving. This is eating and drinking in
God’s presence. There’s a conversation going on over
this meal. We’re not saddled with a long list of do’s
and don’t’s, but were living with questions. For
example, if we pray for good health, then we have to live with
questions: how much and what kinds of food and drink are healthy for
us? If we pray for a world of peace and justice, we have to ask
questions: how are the foods we eat grown? Are the people growing and
processing our food paid and treated fairly? We know that some
agricultural chemicals and methods are harming the environment.
We know that some food is produced in conditions that amount to human
slavery. And we know that long-term, grinding economic
exploitation sows the seeds of war. So what are we going to
do? How, then, shall we live?
The danger of ignoring these questions is that we become
hypocrites. We say one thing and do another. We become like
the prophets Jeremiah condemned: those who say “peace,
peace,” when there is no peace, when we are praying for peace and
paying for war. We become like those James (2:16)
criticizes: What good do you do if you say to the hungry and
homeless, “Go in peace, be warm and eat your fill,” if you
do nothing to help them? If we don’t live the queries, live
the questions of our lives earnestly, our consciences are numbed. As
our passage this morning says, it’s like they’ve been
seared with a hot iron. These questions are very painful at
times, like a hot iron. But if we don’t learn from the
questions and alter our lives, we go numb.
Well, I’m not trying to ruin your Thanksgiving Day this
Thursday. May we all feast with friends and family in full
enjoyment of the harvest bounty. But may we also receive these
gifts of God’s creation with a spirit of thanksgiving. Let
the day be sanctified by the Word of God and prayer. Perhaps let
the queries and questions rest that day. The tryptophan in the
turkey will probably make us too sleepy to think very clearly
anyway. The questions will still be there on Friday. But
the spirit of thanksgiving, the sense of life as a gift from God, will
strengthen us to face the difficult questions and make the difficult
choices.
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