Here are my FRIENDLY MUSINGS
"Take heed, dear Friends, to the promptings of love and truth in your hearts." from British Faith and Practice
WITH THE CONSTANCY OF TIDES
If we are inclined to focus our attention mostly on contemplation, then we risk not sharing with others the insights contemplation can offer and losing touch with the larger world around us. What good does it do to study and not benefit others with the knowledge we acquire? If I envisage something new but take no steps to make that vision a reality, then have I accomplished anything? The writer of the New Testament book of James answers such questions emphatically: “…faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead” (James 2:17 NRSV).
At the same time, if we attend primarily to our actions in the world on a daily basis without times for reflection, even if we are pursuing good ends, then we risk the possibility of cutting ourselves off from the resources an inner life can provide. Action without contemplation can eventually cause us to see what we do each day as lacking in meaning and purpose, thus weakening, and perhaps eventually destroying, our incentive to continue the work we are engaged in.
We are told in the book of Luke that Jesus recognized the importance of finding and maintaining a balance between a life of action and one of reflection:
“But now more than ever the word about Jesus spread abroad; many crowds would gather to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. 16 But he would withdraw to deserted places and pray.” Luke 5:15-16 (NRSV)
Around the time I became convinced that the Quaker way was the right path for me to take on my spiritual journey, I began volunteering in the Westerly Hospital emergency room. As Sunday morning worship gives meaning to the Friday afternoon tasks of cleaning up a room after doctors and nurses complete a medical treatment, bringing a warm blanket or a cold cup of water to a patient, or transporting someone in a wheelchair, so too do these tasks bring to life the words of Jesus in Matthew 10:42. Contemplation and action are meant to flow back and forth into each other with the constancy of tides.
THE NAME QUAKER
Our Quaker Meeting doesn’t have many members or attenders. Before the pandemic, there were usually between fifteen to twenty or so people who gather to worship on a Sunday morning in a meeting room that could hold four times that number. This is true not only of our meeting; according to the website for Friends General Conference, an association of yearly meetings in North America, in 2007 there were about 87,000 Quakers in the United States. This total is only a few thousand more than the number of Roman Catholics found in the Diocese of Evansville, Illinois. Despite so few members, the name Quaker is familiar to many people, even if they don’t know much about Quaker faith and practice. This is due in large part to the famous Quaker Oats cereal company. The name Quaker was chosen for the company in 1877 by Henry Seymour and William Heston, the original owners, because of the good reputation Quakers had in their business dealings. Taking Jesus’ statement to “Let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’ and your ‘No’ be ‘No’” as their guide, Quaker storeowners were known for having one set price for a product, a practice that went against the common 19th century custom of haggling for the best price. Quakers developed a reputation for integrity by running stores people could send a child to, knowing the child would pay the same price and receive the same honest value as an adult. When Henry Parsons Crowell bought Seymour’s and Hester’s company in 1881, he made sure to include the company’s most valuable asset, the name Quaker, as part of the transaction.
A FLOWER IN A MEADOW
A sacrament, for Catholics, is an experience believed to provide in tangible form the spiritual reality of God’s love. There are seven Roman Catholic sacraments given directly from priest to people: Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Communion, Confession, Marriage, Holy Orders, and the Anointing of the Sick. For Protestants, an ordinance, rather than a sacrament, provides the means for receiving in symbolic form the spiritual reality of God’s love. In many Protestant Churches, God’s love is celebrated in the two ordinances of Baptism and Communion.
Quakers view all of life as being a sacrament. With this perspective, a flower in a meadow can be, in a moment of awareness, a gateway for looking at life as an ongoing miracle, a limitless mystery, a priceless creation. If this moment of awareness expands our understanding of the truth of God’s presence within and among us, then we have taken another step in an ongoing inner journey of spiritual growth and commitment.