Lets Face It Quakers are Unique, and Other Denominations are too

I consider myself an ecumenical Quaker.

Why?

I am a lifelong Friend, who goes to a Presbyterian Seminary. Last summer, I interned at an United Methodist Church where I still am involved with the youth group during the school year. This school year I am working at the Episcopal Campus Ministry on the Rutgers University campus. I attend meeting for worship twice a week: On Tuesday nights at Canal Friends Worship Group and on Sunday mornings at Princeton Friends Meeting.

On an average week, I go to two meetings for worship, celebrate the Eucharist with college students, attend Chapel at the Seminary, and spend time with the youth at the United Methodist Church.

I made the decision to go to Princeton Theological Seminary because I wanted to see what the wider Christian world has to offer Quakers and I wanted to see if all denominations were just as dysfunctional as Quakers. I can happily report that the wider Christian world has lots to offer Quakers and yes, they can be just as dysfunctional as any monthly meeting. (Too bad sometimes I thought we took dysfunctional to a new level, but now I see that we have stiff competition.)

When I came here to learn more about the wider Christian world, I realized that people are interested in learning more about Quakers and what we have to offer other denominations. I have had several meal time conversations with fellow students. Several seminarians have attended Princeton Friends Meeting. A local hospitality house has asked me to come to talk about Quakers. My supervisor this year is interested in having me talk about silence at some point during Lent to the college students at Rutgers. Even at parties away from my seminary community, people want to know more about Quakers when they find out I am one.

We have a lot to offer the world, especially in the midst of daily chaos, 24 hour news cycle, smaller and smaller technological devices. How can we still hear the voice of God in the midst of all this noise and clutter? How can we be comfortable and even live into the silence?

Also the belief that anyone can be called to minister is still radical 350 years later. I have dear friends in the Catholic Church who are struggling for Women's Ordination. Also, I just met a woman, who was talking to her non-denomination church about being ordained. It has taken a year but she is finally making progress with her church and pastor to be the first woman ordained in her church. Being ordained will help her in finding a job as a hospital chaplain. Our pulpit is always open to anyone who feels led and our structures allow ways to nurture ministers and new ministries, if we choose to follow them.

We Quakers have a lot to learn from other traditions. We can learn about what it means to support young people with paid staff and offer opportunities for them. We can learn how to better support our elders as they age. We can learn that talking about our faith in public is not always bad. We can learn better techniques at letting people know we still exist and how to greet and welcome newcomers. Some monthly meetings do this well, but, based on my opinion, a lot do not. I have been particularly impressed by the United Methodist Lay Leader program.

Quakerism is an unique faith and we have a lot to offer our siblings in other denominations. We can also learn a lot from them too.

Sermon- Gospel Writers in the Windows Luke

Last Sunday, August 5th, I preached my last sermon at Princeton UMC and it was the last day of my internship there. I had preach two other sermons there this summer: Have We Crossed the Line? and Neighborly Love.

My sermon began a new sermon series for the church "Gospel Writers in the Windows", which will explore the four Gospel Writers in the stained glass windows in the sanctuary in order of they appear. Luke, Matthew, Mark, & John (Luke is first because the Tiffany Studio artists a century ago thought the color sequence of the robes was preferable this way.)

I based the sermon on Luke 12:22-34.

Today we begin a new sermon series as Russ said, exploring the four Gospel writers. Each writer brings different elements into their telling of Jesus' life and ministry. The first three gospels, known as the Synoptic Gospels, share a lot in common in terms of stories. Biblical scholars tend to agree that the three gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, & Luke had similar sources. Mark is considered to be the oldest and the two writers used Mark and other sources for their own Gospels. For example, 76% of Mark can be found in the other two Gospels. But yet they each use different literary styles and have highlighted different themes in the story of Jesus. 

Stained Glass Windows at the Church

Then lastly we have the Gospel of John. In that gospel we encounter a Jesus, who is acutely aware of his divinity. There are numerous differences between the Synoptics and John. For instance, in John, John the Baptist does not baptize Jesus. Then, at the Last Supper, Jesus washes the disciples' feet and does not offer them bread and wine as sacraments. Because of these differences, Biblical scholars think John used different sources than the three Synoptic Gospels.

Today I will focus on Luke. Like the other Gospel writers, we know very little about him personally. In Colossians the Apostle Paul refers to Luke as a physician. Also Luke has the distinction of writing two books in the New Testament, this Gospel and the Book of Acts. These two books parallel each other in their structures. The Gospel tells the journey of Jesus and His ministry and then in Acts, he tells the journey of the early church beginning after the death and resurrection of Christ. Luke has a social justice bent, which is apparent by the numerous parables in the Gospel on this topic, like the story of the Good Samaritan. Lastly he dedicated them both to Theophilus, which means "friend of God" in Greek. There are theories about whether this person was Luke's benefactor or even an actual person.

When I began my internship, Pastor Jana gave me a choice on which Gospel to preach on. Immediately I chose Luke, unaware about the history of the beautiful windows on my left. I wanted to preach on Luke because I love all of the parables about social justice, something that I have been passionate about all my life.

A couple weeks ago I happened to read Luke 12 and I knew I had to preach on it. This one chapter has a lot of challenges for us as Christians living out our daily lives out in the wider world and for the church body as a whole. I think I could preach for hours just on these twelve verses.

But in the interest of everyone's time and patience, I will limit my preaching and I will just focus on two messages I hear in this passage: one for individual Christians and another for the church body.

The message I hear for individual Christians is: Can we give up? Can we just give up everything to act like lilies in the field to follow Christ?

A picture of me in 2004 talking on a cell phone

My ego tells me that I tread lightly on this earth and that I have few attachments to my material possessions. But my ego is wrong. Yes I might have fewer possessions than I once had due to moving frequently. But my material possessions still own me. You will rarely see me without two devices: my laptop and my cell phone. These two possessions have a tight grip on my life. I can't even begin to count the numbers of hours I have spent on these two electronic gadgets alone and not even for worthy endeavors. (A side note: Never buy a cell phone with Solitaire on it. I tried to give it up for Lent this year and I failed miserably!) 

Frequently these two devices take me away from the present moment and from the people around me. I can spend hours at a time with these two devices and ignore the loved ones in my life. These possessions allow me to be distracted from my relationship with God and focusing on living out Jesus' teachings. 

What are the material possessions that distract you from deepening your spiritual life? What can't you give up in order to act like lilies in the field?

This line of thinking is counter-intuitive within our current culture, which values consumerism. When we leave the front doors of this church, Nassau Street and beyond are full of messages that tell us that if we buy this one thing, or take that one pill, or amass a lot of possessions, our life will be more valuable and we will be happier with ourselves. But when we overindulge ourselves, we just end up feeling emptier and then we get more material possessions to fill our lives and our homes, ultimately just to feel Loved. Let me remind you all: You are already great and beautiful as you are. In Christ, all are one, no matter if some humans might try to tell you otherwise. Most of all, You are Loved. Jesus is reminding us in Luke that material possessions aren't the way to build the Kingdom here.

The second message I have today is: Are we ready? Are we ready as a church to support each other in responding to a call to ministry? 

If a person stood up right now and offered herself or himself to ministry, how would we respond? Let me guess: some might say "Hey, I think she is nuts." Or "Won't he just sit down? We can't even see the choir." Wouldn't we? Are we prepared for that?

My friend Maurine is a traveling Quaker minister. Several years ago she felt a leading from God towards this ministry. But her Quaker church was not ready to hear this and soon she felt uncomfortable attending that church, knowing that they weren't ready to support her calling. Let me tell you this church was large and wealthy, so it had more than enough resources to support her, but they weren't mentally and spiritually ready to.

Eventually, another Quaker church welcomed her with open arms and she moved there to be under their care. This church was much smaller with a lot less resources and was hours away from the wealthy suburb. Now several years later, she feels supported in her traveling ministry there. And guess what? Since her arrival at the church, two other ministries have been started by other church members and they are fully supported too. The meeting is alive with the Spirit of God in their mist.


That is the remarkable part of ministry. Once someone follows a leading, others can get inspired too and follow their own leadings. Last week Cindy spoke about lay ministry and one integral part of lay ministry is the support of the congregation because it can be scary to take that first step alone. In Quakerism, we have support committees for people following a leading, no matter what it is.

In this church we already have a lot of great ministries here. But I want to ask you: are we ready for more ministries? Are we ready to support other lay members in following their leadings? If not, what is holding us back from being ready to respond?

The great theologian Howard Thurman once said: "Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." What makes you come alive? What makes us as a congregation come alive? We need more Christians to live out their faith daily, not just by coming here on Sundays. The world is waiting for us and the world needs us to come alive today!

Sermon "Neighborly Love"

This is the second sermon that I preached last Sunday at Princeton United Methodist Church as part of my summer internship. (You can read the first one "Have We Crossed the Line?" here and my last one will be on August 5th on the Gospel of Luke.) Since the first one went so well, I asked to preach one additional time. I have wondered a lot about the contradiction between God giving land to the Israelites and Jesus' command to love our neighbors, so I decided to preach on it. 


Also I had an elder in attendance for this sermon, following Friends tradition.


This sermon is based on Joshua 1:3-6 and Matthew 22:34-40


"Neighborly Love"

Won't you be my neighbor?

I have been thinking a lot about that question in the last few weeks since Scott sent out the link to the video of Mister Rogers remixed in the church e-newsletter. I do not remember watching Mister Rogers a lot growing up. What I know about the show is very little. I think I learned his famous question from one of the few times that I did watch the show.

Anyway I absolutely love this question. Won't you be my neighbor? It was a leading question when Mister Rogers asked it. How could anyone say no to a kind man, like Mister Rogers? How could anyone respond with No I don't want to be your neighbor. Leave me alone! That question is like the command that Jesus gives His followers about loving their neighbors. It is an invitation to something greater.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus offers to the people two commands: Love God and Love your neighbor as yourself. Again this sounds so simple, doesn't it? It is almost a checklist for us to do: Buy Milk check, mow lawn check, love God check, love your neighbor check. Such simple words but it is such a hard task, especially loving that nosy neighbor next door. But at the same time what does loving your neighbor mean in the larger context outside of just meaning the people living next to you? How can we love people who live in a different context than us?

Something I have struggled with is to put Jesus' simple, yet challenging command to love our neighbor in Matthew with the proclamation that God made to the Israelites in Joshua 1. There God promised the land to the Israelites and led them there. But the land was already inhabited by other people, the Canaanites. We are told conflicting stories about the Canaanites, but in the end we never hear about what finally happened to them. Biblical scholars have several different theories about what happened to the Canaanites. The theories range from the Israelites destroying them all to the Canaanites co-existing with the Israelites peacefully. What is the Canaanites' side of the story of the Israelites coming into the land? What would that story sound like?

This week we will celebrate the 236th anniversary of our nation's independence. A nation that was founded with the claim that God meant for the Europeans to have this beautiful land that they had “discovered" by accident a couple centuries before even though there were already millions of people living here. Even at the time of the founding of this country, most of the land, that we now know as the United States, was still inhabited by Native Americans.

Our country's story is told from the European's side, from the side of the conquerors. What is the Native American story of the United States' Independence? What would that story sound look? Unlike the Canaanites, we actually know the history of the Native Americans. I will give you a hint: It is not pretty. That story involves lies, broken treaties, slavery, and massacres. It is still not pretty. Some of the worst poverty in the nation exists on the Native American reservations. Also there are high suicide rates among Native American teens, just to give you a small glimpse into the current situation on the reservations.

Don't get me wrong! This is not a "Shame on the United States of America" sermon on the Sunday before Independence Day. I love this country. I have traveled this country countless times by car, bus, train, and airplane. Some of the most beautiful places in the world are within our borders. I love the diversity of our land and the people who live within the borders. We have a lot to be proud of about our country and our freedoms. But at the same time, I am not going to sugarcoat our country's history and ignore the problems we have had and still have as a nation.

As Christians we should not shy away from this history. Because if we do, we are bound to keep repeating the same history over and over. As a people yoked together in Christ we commit to be honest about our sins, both personal and corporate. Let me be honest. We are not a perfect people. I am definitely not perfect, so let not pretend to be perfect. In not pretending to be perfect, I mean admitting our sins that we do to each other and our neighbors out of contempt, jealousy, and even carelessness. The good news is that we can strive to be better, strive to something greater especially as a corporate body gathered together in Christ's name.

That is the radical message of Jesus. He called on His followers to break out of the religious complacency existing in the First Century. Jesus showed His followers a new path! He advocated for His followers to hang out with the least of the society, their own neighbors, while at the same time challenging them to live to a much higher level. And that challenge is still before us today.

What does that mean for us right now? What does loving our neighbor in the 21st century look like? In what ways can we live out Jesus' command today?

As a church, we have started by inviting our neighbors in for meals on Wednesdays; we help each other during times of need. Right now 51 members of our congregation family are traveling to work with our neighbors in West Virginia, while another member is in the Democratic Republic of Congo working with our neighbors there. What more can we do? Do we know our neighbors of different faiths, our neighbors around us who believe differently than we do? How do we as a congregation reach out to them?

I think this all starts with an invitation to join us at the table, an open invitation to sit with us on an equal level to get to know each other. A little like what will happen when Susan invites us to the communion table later in the service. Mister Rogers' simple yet powerful question, "Won't you be my neighbor?" provides a great way to invite others in for fellowship and learning about each other. 

Isn't that a great way to start relationships with our neighbors and live out our faithfulness to Jesus' second command in the book of Matthew?

Update About Life

I wrote a letter to my home church, Columbia Friends Meeting, updating them on how seminary is going so far and my life. I thought others may want to read it too, so I edited it slightly for a wider audience. 

Dear all,

I want to update you all on how I am doing at Princeton Theological Seminary so far. This past year has been a year of learning and growing. At several points through the year, I felt challenged both by the mainline Protestant theology and being one of the most theologically liberal students here. At the same time, I missed being a part of a diverse religious community which I had grown accustomed to after attending Earlham College and then living in Washington, DC. But through these challenges, I have learned more about Christianity, leading me to more closely examine my own beliefs and deepen my faith. Some of the classes I have enjoyed the most have been Theology and Practice of Community Organizing, Critical Race Theory, Pastoral Care of Adolescents, and Models of Young Adult Ministry.

With the other Quaker student at the seminary and her husband, we have held meeting for worship one evening a week over the past year, whenever possible with the rigorous academic schedule. We have welcomed several visitors in the past year, including a local young adult who is new to Quakerism. We will start again in the fall, and we hope to attract more people from the seminary and wider community. At the same time, I have begun making connections with Princeton Friends Meeting. I look forward to spending more time with the meeting starting in the fall and helping them think about outreach.

As part of my field education, I have to intern at two sites. I decided to do both of my site placements outside of the Friends tradition because I wanted to see how other church bodies function. This summer, I am interning at Princeton United Methodist Church. As part of my duties, I am working with youth and young adults as well as running their social media outreach campaign. In the fall, I will work at an Episcopal campus ministry on Rutgers University campus in New Brunswick. I look forward to working with the campus minister on growing relationships with groups from other faiths and to encourage service among the campus ministry student population.

Last Sunday I preached for the first time on Amos 7 about the plumb line. The sermon was received well! I enjoyed preaching so much that I asked to preach more, so I will preach again on July 1 and August 5. I welcome your prayers as I plan these sermons. I will follow Friends tradition so I will have an elder with me when I preach.

In other news, Jenn moved to Princeton in late April, and we are glad not to be dating long distance anymore. She graduated this Spring with a Masters in Social Work degree and currently works at a farm for the season helping with their Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. In the fall, she will look for a social work job. Lastly, at the start of this year, I joined the board of Quaker Voluntary Service. We are launching our first service house in Atlanta with seven young adult Quakers, and we hope to expand in the following years to other cities. It is very exciting!

In service & peace,

(signed)

Greg

Sermon - "Have We Crossed the Line?"

This summer I am interning at Princeton United Methodist Church as part of my field education requirements for my Masters of Divinity degree. I preached the sermon yesterday (for both services), which was the same day I was formally introduced as the summer intern. The church's current sermon series is called "Majoring in the Minors" with the focus on the minor prophets. Yesterday was Amos, so I preached on Amos 7:1-9. I am pretty happy with the message God gave me. (This was also my first sermon I have ever given in a church outside of the Friends' tradition.)


Also, following Friends' tradition, I did not wear a robe and I had an elder praying for me (She became violently ill on Saturday and could not physically attend the service, but I still felt her presence)

Have we crossed the line?

A long time ago God erected a wall with a plumb line upon Israel reconfirming God's faithfulness to the Israelites despite their disobedience. In erecting this line, God made a promise to never leave us. As confessing members in the Body of Christ, do we keep our own promise to God to remain faithful? Do we cross the line into unfaithfulness? How do we practice this unfaithfulness? What would God answer today if we asked for God's perspective on this question?

Have we crossed the line?

 Last week Anna preached on Hosea. In Hosea we find a disobedient family and an unfaithful spouse. In her message she confessed to being an unfaithful spouse to God. This week we are focused on Amos. He is speaking to the community of Israelites about their collective unfaithfulness to God. Earlier in Amos, he talks about how the Israelites have not practiced justice and righteousness towards both God and their fellow neighbors.

This language is key. Amos does not call out certain people. He doesn't blame John or Jane, or the ancient equivalents of those names, but instead he calls out the whole community of Israelites. The whole community is responsible for their actions, not just one person. In today's world, we always look for a scapegoat, someone else to blame, whether it is an individual, a neighborhood, a political party, a business... How many times have we witnessed this? We can open today's paper and read this sort of blaming. That goes back to the question I asked in the beginning: Have WE crossed the line? Please note that I didn't asked: Have YOU crossed the line?

We are a community of seekers. We worship together, we break bread at the communion table together on the first Sunday of the month. We play softball together, we have BBQs. Christianity has always been a communal faith. In the early church they would meet in each other's houses to worship, in that intimate of a setting Christians could not forget that their faith was communal. In the body of Christ, we are yoked together for better or worse. We are together in this journey. Sometimes many churches have sadly lost this sort of intimacy and in those churches, strangers worship together and then go home failing to connect with each other. In my first two weeks here, I feel that this church is different, but I think there are still strangers within our midst. These people are the ones who stand alone at coffee hour or avoid coffee hour altogether, the ones whose hands we rarely shake during passing of the peace, the ones who feel utterly alone during difficult times, not knowing who to reach out to in their time of need.

Have we crossed the line?

Amos is talking as an outsider to the Israelites. He came from the Southern Kingdom of Judah to the Northern Kingdom. As an outsider, he has a special point of view because he is not entrenched in the everyday life. Because of this viewpoint, God has led him there to witness to the Israelites about their sins. They are very apparent too, so Amos tries to warn them about God's wrath if they do not change. Even though they do not listen to him, he still tries to stand up for them. In the passage we just heard, Amos begs God not to shower locusts or to bring fire on to Israel. God relents and instead builds a wall to signal that God will never leave them behind. I see that as a line of faithfulness for us too. But unlike God, we cross the line with our actions outside of our Sunday mornings together.

How would an outsider view Christians' actions today? If Amos traveled here, what would he see? Would he see Christians living out the Gospel in everyday life and building the Kingdom here on Earth? In many ways I see us 21st century Christians in the same position as the Israelites in Amos' times. Sure we worship other gods, they are not named Baal, instead they are named Google, Starbucks, Whole Foods. I could go on. Consumerism is the god in this country and the effects are all over us and our community. We value consumerism more than anything else in this land.

What about injustice in the midst of us? It is obvious. Right now we have over two million people involved in the penal system. 1 in 3 black males will end up in prison at the current rate due to discriminatory factors in our judicial and penal systems. Then let’s look at how we spend our money as a country. The number one expense in the federal budget is for our military. Often times that money goes more towards private defense contractors than our own soldiers. We spend more money on the military than feeding people. More than 1 million of our neighbors here in New Jersey have to worry about having access to food, about where their next meal will come from. Surely this wasn't what Jesus meant when he preach that we should love our neighbors.

Have we crossed the line?

Do you enjoy those windy country roads that are around Princeton? I know I do. One of my favorite roads is Canal Road up in Montgomery Township. It is a narrow road with a couple one-lane bridges. Sometimes when I drive that road, I get distracted by looking out at the canal on one side or at the beautiful homes on the other side. Then suddenly I realize that I have crossed over the center line and a car is coming the other way, so I have to get back into my lane quickly. How many times has that happened to us? We get sidetracked by something while driving and cross over the center line. Then we look up and realize this and quickly get back into our lane. Or sometimes it is just easier to go over the line to smooth out the curves than staying in our own lane, especially if no one is looking.

God laid down a clear plumb line in front of Amos, but we don't see that line today. That line is not as clear as the center line on Canal Road. It is not as finite. Back in Missouri near my parents' farm, there are a lot of back roads with no center lines, so as a driver I have to pay extra attention to where I am on the road so I do not cross the invisible line into the other lane. But it is sometimes hard to tell where the line should be. I think following God is like that. It is hard to know always what to do, especially when it’s against the cultural norms. Sometimes faith is just not easy or clear-cut.

The good news in all of this is that God will remain faithful to us, no matter how unfaithful we are towards God. God won't cross the line like we do. Just as Anna reminded us last week, I will remind you again that God will remain with us. God will always welcome us back with open arms. By setting that plumb line in Amos' presence, God made a commitment to us, the followers of God. As people gathered together in Christ, We have made a commitment to follow God. We may wander but we do come back. Our presence here today confirms that.

Also we have each other. We are not alone in our journeys and struggles. Christianity is still a communal faith, even in the great age of individuality. In a community, as we know, not everyone will always agree on everything, but we do all look out for each other. We help each other, offer comfort and aid during hard times, give advice and mentorship during difficult moments. We can ask each other questions in an open and loving environment. We share in each other’s joys and accomplishments.

We are extending our Christian love beyond the people sitting here today. Just this last week we began our Cornerstone Community Kitchen where we open the doors to anyone to have a meal. All walks of life are welcome. We do not have ulterior motives in this ministry. We aren't trying to fill our seats on Sundays or enticed the unchurched with a free meal. Instead we just want to nurture our community through food and good conversation in the heart of our beautiful town.

It is also through our love that we are acting this month to help a fellow congregation, Turning Point UMC, with collecting donations for their congregation and their own ministry to their neighborhood in Trenton.

Lastly, in the fall the church will sponsor a 5K run/walk to help raise funds to help people in the Democratic Republic of Congo. These three things are just a small bit of our work for others.

So I ask once again: Have we crossed the line?

Yes we do cross the line from time to time, but as a community we can hold each other accountable. And yes God will still love us when we do. And finally yes we, as a church community, do practice our Christian love out in the world, even if we each falter now and then. Our love for others can be seen within our own community and by our collective actions for our neighbors across the world.