by Ty Olson
Here you will find a starting place for thinking about the direction to go for preaching about each of the Friends testimonies. The goal is that you will include your own sense of calling and struggle with each of these topics, invite members of your congregation to share their experiences and give ample space for listening to Christ together during open worship. For a more complete explanation of the Friends testimonies, read the essay at the end of this document (also available online) entitled “SPICE: The Friends Testimonies” by Cherice Bock.
January 1 – Simplicity
“Simplicity sets us free to receive the provision of God as a gift that is not ours to keep
and can be freely shared with others.”
~ Richard Foster
Scripture:
- 2 Corinthians 12:8 – ours is a testimony of “simplicity and godly sincerity”
- Luke 9:58 – Jesus lived a life of simplicity (using this metaphor)
Exploring simplicity as Friends:
- The testimony regarding simplicity has deep roots in the Quaker tradition. Simplicity for the Friends has traditionally included myriad components, from placing less focus on material objects and more value on the spirit, to abstaining from becoming overly involved in contemporary trends and popular culture. Not busying our lives in a way that detracts from our spiritual life is also important, and Friends also emphasize simplicity when striving to live in harmony with others and the earth.
- Share from your own experience: in what ways have you felt called to greater simplicity in possessions, time management, relationships or other ways? How do you see this calling connecting with your faith and your understanding of the Bible?
- This would be a good time to have someone in your community share from his/her own experience on what the call to simplicity looks like in his/her life, as well as in your meeting.
Queries for open worship:
Community
- What does the testimony of simplicity signify for our Friends meeting?
- How is our community practicing and living out this call to simplicity?
Personal
- What does simplicity look like in my life? In my family’s life?
- Am I (are we) allowing myself (ourselves) to become distracted by the material world?
January 8 – Peace
“There is no time left for anything but to make peacework a dimension of our every waking activity.”
~ Elise Boulding
Scripture:
- Matthew 5:9 – blessed are the peacemakers
- Romans 12:17-21 – respond to evil thoughtfully from a position of peace and love
- James 3:18 – righteousness comes about by those who sow peace
The Friends peace testimony:
- The very first Friends were peacemakers: they refused to use violence to resolve conflicts or fight back when violence was used against them, and they also worked to create peace in their communities by rejecting unjust laws, such as laws that continued a strict division of social classes and, therefore, human worth. (See the Declaration to Charles II, “We utterly deny all outward wars and strife and fightings with outward weapons….” Full text here: http://www.quaker.org/peaceweb/pdecla07.html, quote here: http://www.kimopress.com/early.htm)
- Throughout the centuries since, Friends have continued to be involved in peace work, both in our local communities and in the international arena, from engaging in restorative justice work in prisons to standing in solidarity with marginalized people in oppressive regimes.
- You could refer to the individuals we studied during last year’s Peace Month: George Fox, Margaret Fell and the Valiant 60; John Woolman; Lucretia Mott and Elise Boulding (their bios are still online here: http://nwfriends.org/ministries/active-peacemaking/peace-month-2011/.
- Invite a peacemaker from your community or a member of another Friends meeting doing peace work to come and share about their involvement in peace work, specifically speaking to the role of their faith in their work. (Peace work is not limited to working against violence or war, but can include social action such as ministries to the homeless or aged, conflict resolution and mediation, work against sex trafficking, human rights work of all kinds, etc.)
Queries for open worship:
Community
- How are we engaged in peace work?
- Are we doing a good job to support those in our community directly involved in vocations of peace-building? If so, how can we improve? If not, how can we begin?
Personal
- What does peace look like in my personal life, both in daily practice with others and in spiritual practice?
January 15 – Integrity
“I want my inner truth to be the plumb line for the choices I make about my life – about the work that I do and how I do it, about the relationships I enter into and how I conduct them.”
~ Parker Palmer
Scripture:
- Matthew 5:33-37 – Let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no,’ ‘no.’
- Luke 16:10 – those faithful in little are also faithful in much
- 1 Peter 3:10-12 – speak truth, seek peace, and be attuned to the Spirit through prayer
Living with integrity:
- Friends are committed to living truthfully, which is grounded in the notion that the Spirit is in us and guides us in the truth of God. Integral to this is living attuned to how the Spirit moves us, both in the spiritual and religious realm as well as in our daily social and vocational interactions.
- Early Friends were very intentional about following Jesus’ instruction in Matthew 5:33-37, sometimes to the point of going to jail for refusal to take an oath. Do we live with this kind of integrity today? Is that much “integrity” necessary? Did early Friends go overboard with integrity, or are we too careless with our words today?
- Open up a conversation about this, or tell some of your own stories about struggling to speak truth and stand up for what is right in difficult situations. How did this connect to your faith?
- Invite a meeting member to share struggles and successes in living with integrity and truthfulness, especially highlighting the importance of trust and faith with regard to following the leading of the Spirit in his/her life.
Open worship queries:
Community
- How do we as a community of Friends realize this notion of living truthfully and with integrity?
- How do we as Friends realize and follow the Spirit’s guidance for our community?
Personal
- Do I trust the Spirit’s directing in my own life? Am I following this direction?
- Where and to whom might I go in my community to ask for help and support with regard to knowing and following the Spirit’s direction?
January 22 – Community
Scripture:
- Acts 4:35-44 – the community comes together to support one another
- Luke 14:7-23 – the call of Jesus to expand our community (as opposed to being insular)
The power of community:
- Jesus was always expanding his community, though he did have a smaller, intimate group who supported him. He pushed out the boundaries of many people’s understanding of who was “in” and who was “out” of God’s grace and, therefore, of the religious community.
- Jesus calls us to expand our community. As Friends, in our best moments, we have reached out to include others beyond our immediate meeting members into our community. No one is excluded from the love of God: God wants all people to be God’s beloved children, to experience a loving “family” where positive spiritual growth can occur.
- In expanding our community we are called to support one another. This often requires us to go outside of our comfort zones and our favorite routines, to notice the needs of others and do something about them.
- Is anyone in your community engaged in community-expanding work? Invite him/her to speak to this work as well as highlight how his/her more intimate community—their church or meeting—is a support in that work.
Open worship queries:
Community
- How are we engaged in community-expanding work?
- How are we supporting the members of our more intimate community (financially, socially, emotionally, etc.)?
- What is holding us back from working to expand our community?
Personal
- What am I doing to support my community?
- Is there anyone in my community that has a need that I have the capacity to support? If so, how can I thoughtfully do this?
- What fears do I have about expanding my idea of who’s “in” my community this way?
January 29 – Equality
“Quakers hope to hold up worthy ideals and spiritual practices that can lead the way to those ideals. With grace, may we continue to be open to conversation with all, aspiring to practice a genuine hospitality that has characterized Christianity at its best.”
~ Michael Birkel
Scripture:
- Galatians 3:28 – all are one in Christ
Realizing equality:
- If we are indeed one in Christ, how do we live that way?
- How many of us spend our lives trying to “get ahead,” trying to be acceptable to others, have as much stuff or respect or as many friends as others?
- This says, first of all, that we may not believe we ourselves are equal to others.
- Secondly, it says we think that if we can only have this one thing–be it a physical object or an intangible thing like respect–we will be “more equal” than others, we will be better than others.
- Belief in the equality of all people is what holds the testimonies together (see the “SPICE: The Friends Testimonies” document at the end of this packet).
- Tell a story from your own life, either of a way you were treated unequally, a way you noticed someone else not being treated equally, or a way you treated someone else less-than-equally. Another alternative would be to invite someone from your congregation to share such a story.
- What did that sense of inequality feel like?
- When did you notice that is what was happening?
- Did you try to change the power dynamic between you and the other person/people? What reaction did you get from the other person/people? from onlookers?
- As we love others, we love Christ (Matthew 25:34-40)
Open worship queries:
Community
- In what ways are we intentionally welcoming those into our community who may be different from “us”?
- How are we called to stand up against inequities in our society and world?
Personal
- Do I treat all people as equally-beloved children of God?
- How is Christ prompting me to accept my status as “equal to others,” and to shower others with God’s equalizing, abundant love?
- Who is it hardest for me to treat with equal respect and love? (myself? a particular other? a certain group?)
