Message given at Durham Friends Meeting, March 12, 2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why are we here at Meeting? I\u2019ve found myself wondering. And if it seems so important that we\u2019re here, why are there so few of us? Even more I\u2019ve been wondering that too. Are we special? What do others know that lead them to make other choices on Sunday mornings? What are we missing that those others get? Or what are they missing? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I was in graduate school \u2013 yes, a long while ago \u2013 I was part of a circle of friends, good friends, that numbered about a dozen people. They were all smart and curious, and came from all over. Women and men, people from both coasts and from the middle, some from the south, some from other countries \u2013 quite a variety. None of these people, then or now, are religiously inclined. They didn\u2019t, and they don\u2019t go to church. I\u2019m the odd one in that bunch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After graduate school I became a faculty member in the department of political science at Temple University. I was one of about 25 faculty members. It was during that time that I became a Quaker and started going regularly to Quaker Meeting. But I don\u2019t remember any of these other faculty members being at all religiously inclined. Perhaps one or two were, but it couldn\u2019t have been more than that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From Temple I went to Reed College as Provost \u2013 chief academic officer. I looked after a faculty of about 100 men and women. Two of them were serious Roman Catholics, and two were observant Jews, though I think more culturally than religiously. Most of my professional life I\u2019ve been surrounded by people who weren\u2019t religious. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m saying all this simply to observe that today, in the United States, a lot of highly educated, so-called smart people are not religiously inclined. They don\u2019t see themselves as having a spiritual life and they don\u2019t go to church or meeting or synagogue or mosque for the most part. Smart people aren\u2019t buying it, the life religious. They don\u2019t see any point to it. They think there are better things to do on a Sunday morning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it\u2019s not just smart people. Quite a number of surveys have shown that the percentage of people who attend church regularly has gone down considerably in recent decades, and a much larger share of the American population are \u2018Nones\u2019 who have no religious affiliation at all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So why are we here \u2013 here at Meeting for Worship? What are we seeing that others don\u2019t? Or, I suppose, what are they seeing that we do not? What makes us special? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I can\u2019t speak for you, but I want to try to say why I\u2019m here today and why I\u2019m here most Sundays. Let me mention a couple of reasons. They sound different one from another, but they link together in my mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I come to Meeting because I need to work on myself. I have to figure out how to deal with all the many ways I\u2019m not as good a person as I\u2019d like to be. I need some place to work on my failings. I want to seek more clarity. But I also want to seek more forgiveness, because when I see my failings more clearly, I don\u2019t feel great, and I need to find a way to make a fresh start. That\u2019s a big reason. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here\u2019s a second: I have a sense that there is more to this life than meets the eye \u2013 and more than meets any of our regular senses (seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching). What that more is I have a hard time saying. That \u2018more\u2019 is elusive. But it also feels important. Rufus Jones, the great Quaker scholar and mystic, wrote a book titled New Eyes for Invisibles<\/em>. I come to Meeting because I\u2019m trying to develop — together with others — those new eyes for invisibles. He quotes 2 Corinthians 4:18:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2026 we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe must somehow recover our power to see<\/em> essential realities vividly.\u201d That\u2019s the first sentence of the Rufus Jones book. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This second reason is connected to the first. The more I develop new eyes for invisibles, the more clearly I see my sinful nature. The more I develop \u2018new eyes for invisibles\u2019 the more my excuses and delusions fall away, and the better I see new possibilities. Those two go hand in hand. Those first two, you might say, are personal reasons. But there\u2019s more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In coming to Meeting I join with others in building a community of people that share the same wantings \u2013 to see more and more clearly, and to deal with the ways we each fall short. We\u2019re seeking, aren\u2019t we, to build a better community together. Sometimes we call what we\u2019re trying to build \u2018the beloved community.\u2019 We might think of it as kind of a pilot project for the human race. If we can build a beloved community here among a few dozen of us, maybe we\u2019ll be taking a step to building a beloved community for the whole of humanity. Here\u2019s Matthew 5:14-16:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYe are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid.<\/em>\u201d 15 <\/sup><\/strong><\/em>Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. <\/em>16 <\/sup><\/em><\/strong>In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n This third reason is clearly related to a fourth reason I\u2019m here. If we do build beloved community here in a little brick Meetinghouse in Durham, Maine, surely it will show itself to others. Our light will shine for others to see. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s a grand thought, isn\u2019t it. Carved over a fireplace mantle at Earlham College are these words (and some of you know them): \u201cThey gathered sticks and kindled a fire and left it burning.\u201d<\/em> That\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to do by coming here. We\u2019re gathering sticks and kindling a fire and we hope to keep it burning not just for ourselves but for others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n All this has been on my mind recently because there are not as many of us as there were just a few years ago. Why is that? <\/p>\n\n\n\n We all know we have suffered some very sad loses. Margaret Wentworth has gone to her reward. And Charlotte Anne Curtis, too. Sue Wood and Helen Clarkson. And not so long ago Tommy Frye, Sukie Rice and Clarabel Marstaller. We have reasons to be a sad meeting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But it isn\u2019t just those passings. I imagine we can all think of people who once attended worship regularly who do not come any more \u2013 or come very rarely. Some people are drifting away. Perhaps it has something to do with COVID, or perhaps with our moving away from a pastor. I don\u2019t know. It sure doesn\u2019t feel like there\u2019s less need now to find our spiritual bearings in this troubled world. And yet there are fewer of us. That can\u2019t be a good thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Shakespeare\u2019s Henry V<\/em>, there\u2019s a famous scene when Henry\u2019s soldiers are around their campfires the night before the Battle of Agincourt. The English soldiers are tired and bruised from days of travel and fighting. Worse, they know they are seriously outnumbered by the French soldiers they will face the next day. Henry gives them a speech to lift their spirits. He tries to make them feel good about being fewer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Essentially, Henry\u2019s message is this: Because there will be fewer of us, there will be all the more glory for each of us, individually, when we win tomorrow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The fewer men, the greater share of honour.<\/em> And Henry continues:<\/p>\n\n\n\n From this day to the ending of the world, \u00a0<\/em>[From\u00a0Henry V<\/em>, Act IV, Scene III]<\/p>\n\n\n\n We should see it as a privilege to be so few Henry is saying. More glory for each of us because we are so few. We few are special, and that\u2019s all to the good. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We should note his soldiers did win the battle. But it\u2019s Henry\u2019s message, not ours. Ours is exactly the reverse. We\u2019re hoping for more, not fewer. We\u2019re caring for ourselves, we\u2019re caring for one another, and we\u2019re preparing a place for yet more to join with us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In gathering here to worship together, we are always hoping others will join with us. Each Sunday we know \u2013 we hope \u2013 we may be surprised by newcomers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So that\u2019s a fifth reason I come to Meeting: to keep hope alive<\/em>. To make it possible for others to experience what I hope to experience in coming to Meeting. We seek seeing more clearly; we seek the promise of forgiveness; we seek the beloved community. In seeking all these we are kindling the fire. We are nurturing hope. We are holding the door open for all those others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Or that\u2019s why I\u2019m here. Why are you here even if others aren\u2019t? What\u2019s your answer?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Message given at Durham Friends Meeting, March 12, 2023 Why are we here at Meeting? I\u2019ve found myself wondering. And if it seems so important that we\u2019re here, why are there so few of us? Even more I\u2019ve been wondering … Continue reading
God\u2019s will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
we in it shall be remember\u2019d;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n