Message given at Durham Friends Meeting, March 19, 2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019d like to begin with an invitation to open our hearts, to invite in Spirit who is always with us; and The Ancestors:\u00a0 the ancestors who brought us this Quaker Meeting, the ancestors who we carry here through our flesh, and the ancestors we have chosen on our spiritual paths. May they add their Light to our time together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u2026\u2026Friends, I\u2019m excited to share today\u2019s message.\u00a0 My prayer is that we embrace an invitation to listen to Spirit from within, moment-to-moment, so that we may be \u2013 that is, embody \u2013 Love Incarnate.\u00a0 And by becoming Love Incarnate, that we hear the Waterways sustaining all life in this world, so that we may learn<\/em> to listen to the Water of our own bodies sustaining us constantly.\u00a0 From a new folk song to be shared later, this message is titled, \u201cWay opens when\u2026 we remember we are the water.\u201d \u2026\u2026In preparing today\u2019s message, I\u2019ve heard the former \u201cWhen Way Opens\u201d anew as \u201cWay Opens When . . .\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~ ~ ~ \u2026\u2026The program was called Experiment with the Light, a Quaker spiritual practice. The practice unfolds over a series of prompts to encourage sensory impressions especially visualization. Our leaders clearly explained the process, framing our gathering within the setting of First Friends due to location. The leaders\u2019 plan was for the group to practice in the Great Hall, and then for us to create individual block prints in the modern building inspired by our experiences. \u2026\u2026The first night that we gathered in the Great Hall, I had a strong allergic reaction to the space.\u00a0 The idea to open windows did not remedy my condition, which is no surprise; centuries of allergens in ancient walls are not easily \u201caired out\u201d.\u00a0 So, best-laid plans required re-vision.\u00a0 The new plan brought practice sessions in the open outdoors, weather permitting; and, otherwise, encircling within the modern building including early evening.\u00a0 Yet the later night worship sharing would still be held in the Great Hall. ~ ~ ~ \u2026\u2026 ~ ~ Message given at Durham Friends Meeting, March 19, 2023 I\u2019d like to begin with an invitation to open our hearts, to invite in Spirit who is always with us; and The Ancestors:\u00a0 the ancestors who brought us this Quaker Meeting, … Continue reading
\u2026\u2026Preparing today\u2019s message, I held with care the Quaker saying \u201cWhen Way Opens\u201d.\u00a0 I\u2019ve often heard its use to conjure a thing that happens beyond us, like a divine intervention that parts the Red Sea; or a limiting use to mean an exception, like a once-in-a-generation passing of a comet.\u00a0 Yet Way Opening is not by nature an external nor rare event.\u00a0
\u2026\u2026Way Opening is Love, Love Incarnate \u2013 loving as we breathe and have being.\u00a0 Way Opening is the Life-Giving Power of Spirit who lives within us and moves through us, a movement of the Waterways by which Rivers and Oceans continuously join together.\u00a0 The ongoing motion of Love requires open-ended learning rather than a routine or a fixed route.\u00a0\u00a0 Quakers call this \u201ccontinuous revelation\u201d, and it looks like this:\u00a0 being curious, asking questions, pausing, and accompanying one another.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
The Life-Giving Power of Spirit is constricted or expanded by how we think about ourselves, and how we relate to others and our universe.\u00a0 This teaching \u2013 or rather Learning \u2013 of Way Opening is to honor being<\/em> and thereby relationships.\u00a0 Because Spirit lives and moves within and between us \u2013 breathing beings made of water.\u00a0
\u2026\u2026At the same time, this learning teaches on equal footing how harm is caused when we sacrifice our being<\/em> and relationships in a trade for \u201cthings and thoughts\u201d.\u00a0 Some names for Harm are Power-Over, Empire, and Oppression including Everyday Racism in which we all are immersed.\u00a0 In this learning, \u201cthings and thoughts\u201d are the stuff that make up our physical and social structures \u2013 venerated institutions, private property, and white privilege.\u00a0 The leading for today\u2019s message is not to define all of these names, but rather to call us back to the Jesus Way: Way Opening as being<\/em> Love Incarnate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Listening for the movement of Spirit as Living Love and the movement of Water as that of Life \u2013 both in continuous flow \u2013 let\u2019s wade into this message from the Morecambe Bay, the largest estuary of Northwest England and largest mudflats of the UK. Four rivers flow into the Irish Sea here. The mixing of brackish waters nourishes abundant biodiversity. I first walked the shoreline at low-tide with a few companions. We were taking a workshop at Swarthmoor Hall, a 16th<\/sup>-century building famed for use by Early Quakers especially Margaret Fell and George Fox.
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\u2026\u2026In this \u201cstory-ing\u201d of what unfolded \u2013 this version of the story \u2013 the leaders\u2019 shift of plan sounds reasonable, a \u201crational compromise\u201d.\u00a0 What\u2019s missing in this story about \u201coutcome\u201d is how its shape came into being.\u00a0 Late the first night after my allergic reaction, the leaders spoke with workshop participants in the Great Hall without me taking part.\u00a0 I sat in an adjacent room hearing muffled voices through very thick doors.\u00a0 The morning after, one of the leaders spoke with me for us to finalize a new plan.\u00a0 Our gathering as a whole never discussed together what was unfolding.\u00a0 Does that sound familiar, Friends?
\u2026\u2026Gratefully, a few participants took interest in me beyond our formal program.\u00a0 I learned from one person how she and a few others said aloud during that decisive talk with leaders how I ought to be included in the process.\u00a0 A few felt that nothing of the program ought to held in the Great Hall if I would be excluded.\u00a0 My low-tide walk along near the grassy side of the Bay\u2019s mudflats was with these few companions. What a difference a few companions make!
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Friends, my leading to give today\u2019s message arose months ago, originally to honor the Water on World Water Day, which is March 22nd<\/sup>.\u00a0\u00a0 The United Nations focus for 2023\u00a0 is \u201cabout accelerating change to solve the water and sanitation crisis,\u201d continuing, \u201cAnd because water affects us all, we need everyone to take action.\u201d\u00a0 This theme resonates my experiences in recent months, listening to the Waterways within this body right here.\u00a0 Because there is a need for clean-up and urgent care throughout our wider world and right here with one another.
\u2026\u2026In my journey to become Love Incarnate and to focus on loving neighbors, I\u2019ve bumped into a lot of \u201cthings and thoughts\u201d including our Beloved Community \u2013 right here and regionally.\u00a0 I\u2019ve witnessed harm done to others and experienced it done to myself:\u00a0 harm as Power-Over, Empire, and Oppression of Everyday Racism \u2013 which for some is beyond recognition like swimming in a fishbowl, and which for me as a mixed-race person is daily painful in this wider world and hurts even more in Beloved Community.
\u2026\u2026What God calls me to now is to love myself as I would love my neighbor, and to remind us that we should not confuse Love Incarnate with methods or monuments.\u00a0 Friends, the Jesus Way is not our Meeting Houses, Handbooks, business agendas, nor current practices of Gospel Order.\u00a0 The Life-Giving Power of Spirit arrives through our bodies and through our relationships, not our \u201cthoughts and things.\u201d\u00a0 Power-Over is never a reasonable option, and Everyday Racism is never not a part of what we are dealing with in our relationships.
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As we ready for expectant waiting worship, Friends, I invite us to flow with the Waterways within us and across this Blue Ball \u2013 our Earth and only home.\u00a0 Let us hear what God asks of us, moment to moment.\u00a0 We will hear a folk song titled \u201cStrangers\u201d by Nickel Creek; that\u2019s what\u2019s inspired today\u2019s title.\u00a0 I invite a full-bodied listening that opens us up to the Life-Giving Power of Spirit through the music, through the instruments and voices.\u00a0 What do you hear arise?\u00a0 How do you and we become Love Incarnate?\u00a0 How do we all come together to become Love Incarnate?\u00a0 And in this Loving, how do we name harm and repair our relationships?\u00a0
\u2026\u2026Don\u2019t worry about following all of the lyrics.\u00a0 The invitations is to enter in and hold the query, listening to our bodies.\u00a0 If you need to get up and sway, go for it!\u00a0 The lyrics I\u2019m reading out are from the outro, which again has inspired today\u2019s message title:
As we drone on
(As we drone on
Past the break of dawn)
Hit rock bottom
(Of that dry well)
And get to shoveling
(Fellow stranger)
We’re our own water
(And we’ve been too long)
Too long coming
To be gone<\/em>
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Afterword for publication.<\/em>
Gratitude to Friends who accompanied me in preparing and giving this message, Andrew Grant (Mt. Toby MM) and Melissa Foster (Framingham MM); as well as \u201csteadying\u201d Friends from Three Rivers Worship Group.\u00a0 Deep listening to three \u201cwells\u201d abundantly watered this message:
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