{"id":5304,"date":"2022-11-14T09:05:53","date_gmt":"2022-11-14T14:05:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/?p=5304"},"modified":"2022-11-16T14:53:06","modified_gmt":"2022-11-16T19:53:06","slug":"the-living-waters-by-mey-hasbrook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/?p=5304","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Living Waters,\u201d by Mey Hasbrook"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Message given at Durham Friends Meeting, November 13, 2022

For me, prayer is like water:\u00a0 We seek water, listen for its sound and follow. We go to fresh water and drink, and bring it back to offer others.\u00a0 We wash and refresh with water.\u00a0

Prayer is akin to worship, and emerges through worship.\u00a0 We may call worship \u201cinviting\u201d the Divine.\u00a0 I experience worship as remembering the Living Presence of the Divine\u2026\u00a0 Who Already Is \u2013\u00a0 Spirit, God, Jesus, The Light.\u00a0 It\u2019s like re-immersing in a body of water \u2013 at times, being<\/em> with the calm stillness that always is; and at others, riding life\u2019s waves and strong currents.
~~
My leading to bring the message came when sitting here in worship.\u00a0 It was during Meeting for Worship with Attention to Healing \u2013 for short, Meeting for Healing. This worship is led by Portland Friends, and I sync Durham\u2019s Owl system occasionally \u2013 the next time being Thursday, December 1st<\/sup>.

Friends first convened this meeting for healing when the Covid pandemic started.\u00a0 I visited by Zoom while living in\u00a0 Michigan, sitting in my home\u2019s basement. Friends continue to gather on a bimonthly basis. I\u2019d like to share the introduction from Portland Friends about their meeting for healing:\u00a0

Meeting for Worship for Healing is an old Quaker tradition.\u00a0 Our goal with this meeting is to focus on the physical and spiritual illnesses of the current world.\u00a0 It’s not intended to be the same as a full meeting for worship but instead is meant to be focused on communal prayer.\u00a0 We are often blessed with a time of deep silence.\u00a0 Messages may arise but should be de-centered from our ego.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Invitation to Worship in clamorous times<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are living through a time when we are inundated with words.

We invite you during worship to sink deeply<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below the political messages,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

below the personal efforts to put things into words
<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Down to the Silence<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Down to the Living Waters
Down to the Source that connects us all
<\/em>~~
Meeting for Healing \u2013 at times also called \u201chealing prayer\u201d \u2013 is foundational to my\u00a0 becoming a Quaker.\u00a0 Preparing today\u2019s message has made this fact plain to me.\u00a0 During Durham Friends\u2019 listening session on October 30th<\/sup>, I heard stories of how people came to be here \u2013 in Quaker worship, at this meeting house.\u00a0 And I could feel the truth of my own:\u00a0 My experience is about seeking the Living Waters, or the Living Presence; and listening to where God would have me be, or to go.<\/em>

Please join me in a journey.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go to Lansing, Michigan, dialing back to October 2007.\u00a0 I attend my first Sunday silent worship.\u00a0 Held in a community room at a neighborhood book store, the meeting is called \u201cearly worship\u201d and hosts a small circle.\u00a0 How have I come to be here?

A seed is planted two years earlier, 2005, by a writer friend who also is a fellow former evangelical.\u00a0 She thinks that I\u2019d like \u201cQuaker meeting\u201d\u00a0 \u2013 that is, Quaker as she knows it:\u00a0 silent or unprogrammed worship.\u00a0 When she gives me this idea, I already know Quakers since 9\/11, through our co-organizing anti-war protests and programs over several years.

So come again to the Fall of 2007, I try out the bookstore location for worship.\u00a0 Firstly, because it is not a church;\u00a0 my body has found it a hardship to sit in a church for several years.\u00a0 And I also come because I recently began sobriety from alcohol.\u00a0 The most basic truth is that I come to Quaker worship because I am thirsting for the Living Waters, and it is the Living Presence that brings me back.
~~
<\/em>A new acquaintance from Sunday worship tells me about another meeting.\u00a0 It\u2019s a monthly meeting for healing.\u00a0 The gathering is at the home of Richard, a cozy cape-cod house laden with knick-knacks.\u00a0 An avid thrifter, Richard is warm-hearted, big-bellied, and a very out gay man who wears amber-beaded necklaces during worship.

I become a regular in this home-based worship.\u00a0 People who show up bring open hearts, and we are human in every way.\u00a0 After worship, many stay to ask questions and share our experiences.\u00a0 We enjoy Richard\u2019s pots of tea and a potluck-style dinner.\u00a0 Through faithfulness and fellowship, friendships grow.\u00a0 And some months later, I do visit the larger later Sunday worship, which gathers in a circular room of a local church.
~~
Friends, let us journey \u201cback\u201d to here and now. \u00a0 And wherever we are \u201carriving\u201d from in the Meeting House \u2013 perhaps sitting on a bench with one another, or physically from another geography \u2013 I pray that we refresh ourselves with the Living Waters.\u00a0 I pray that we hear the Living Presence calling us into relationship \u2013 with Jesus as the Path of Love, with one another, and with persons known and yet known to us.\u00a0 Friend Rufus Jones, from the 19th<\/sup> and 20th<\/sup> centuries with roots in Maine, writes:

…most of our life, whether it is simple or complex, is a life of relationships with other persons. It is this fact of inter-relationship that makes life spiritual, and it is this that often makes it so tragic.\u00a0 We cannot, if we would, fence round our souls and keep them naked and alone.\u00a0 We are good or bad, not in soul-tight compartments, but in our dealing with other persons who fill our world.

Our <\/em>highest* dealings, those which affect our entire being in the profoundest way, are our relationships with God. Nothing else so completely shapes one\u2019s whole nature as his way of responding to his Infinite Companion, for everybody does respond in one way or another. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/em>(*emphasis in original text)

Here is the closing prayer that I lift up: \u00a0 Spirit, may the doors of Durham Friends Meeting open widely \u2013 physically from the Meeting House, and imaginatively as a faith community into our daily lives.\u00a0 May we open our homes to neighbors, seekers, and strangers.\u00a0 May we become invitations to prayer and worship.\u00a0 May we refresh our minds, hearts, and souls with the Living Waters.\u00a0 May we remember the Living Presence of the Divine Who Already Is.\u00a0 Jesus, may we be healed and bring healing to others.\u00a0 Amen.
——–
Resources about Meeting for Healing among historical and contemporary Friends are available on this web page maintained by Red Cedar Friends Meeting of Lansing, Michigan (Lake Erie YM), <\/em><https:\/\/redcedarfriends.org\/join-us-for-worship\/deepening-our-experience\/meeting-with-attention-to-healing\/meeting-for-healing-resources\/<\/a>> .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Message given at Durham Friends Meeting, November 13, 2022 For me, prayer is like water:\u00a0 We seek water, listen for its sound and follow. We go to fresh water and drink, and bring it back to offer others.\u00a0 We wash … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":213,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-message"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9rLvf-1ny","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5304"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5321,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5304\/revisions\/5321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}