Musical prelude: Judy Blue
Scripture: Mark 10:17ff
Announcements:
- Monthly Meeting for business via Zoom at 1:00 p.m. Click on the link in the email to join the Zoom meeting. Two documents have been sent out: one is the pastoral exit policy (a proposed edition to the Meeting handbook), and the other is a letter regarding our affiliation with Mid-America Yearly Meeting.
- Personnel would welcome suggestions of persons who might be suitable as a part-time office secretary. The person should be personable, computer literate, and not a member of the Meeting. We’re looking at 16-20 hours per week in a low-traffic office, paying $13 or so per hour. Contact Doug Chambers or have the person send him a resume. Thanks!
Prayer concerns:
- Nellie Peters and her family on the death of Nellie’s daughter, Valerie Guilliams
- The Stan and Eloise Brown family on the death of Stan’s brother Floyd
- Greg and Rhonda Newby as Greg deals with cancer at the site of a shoulder fracture
- All of us as we deal with the pandemic, especially the frontline workers and those who are most impacted by the lack of jobs and access to healthcare
Prayer
God of all peace, we turn to you.
Message: The Quaker Testimony of Simplicity
This morning I am beginning a new series of messages on the Quaker testimonies. This series fits into our congregation’s time of transition, as we consider the question, who are we? We are Quakers, and Quakers hold to a particular set of values that we call testimonies.
We often refer to the testimonies as SPICES, an acronym or abbreviation that stands for these ideals:
- Simplicity
- Peace
- Integrity
- Community
- Equality
- And service or stewardship
For the next several weeks, I plan to bring messages focused on these “spices.”
Resources that I depend on as basic to these ideas are two:
- Wilmer Cooper’s A Living Faith: An Historical Study of Quaker Beliefs
- Britain Yearly Meeting’s Quaker Faith and Practice
According to Cooper’s book, the idea of the testimonies is grounded in the perspective of early Friends,
… that Quakerism is not just a set of beliefs or a statement of faith; it is a practical, ethical, and functional religious approach to life. That is to say, it is a religious faith to be lived out and not just professed and talked about. That is not to suggest that Friends do not regard a faith commitment as primary and prerequisite to action. Indeed, our first responsibility is to seek the truth in terms of God’s will. But after we have discerned it, we are obliged to carry out the will of God by ‘doing the truth.’ The inward journey of faith can never be separated from the outward journey of practice…(Cooper, Living Faith, p. 99).
In some ways, Quakers over the years have focused less on what we believe and more on how we live, how we live out our faith, how faithful we are to what God is calling us to be and do.
The idea of the testimonies is also grounded in a particular view of the world. Cooper writes,
Since the time of George Fox, Friends have had a deep sense that one ought to be able to live as if the kingdom of God were a reality here and now and not some golden age of the past or some blessed event of the future. (Cooper, Living Faith, p. 102).
The kingdom of God, the reign of God is at hand. That kingdom is not “pie in the sky by and by” but now. What is God doing in our world today? How can we best be part of that? That’s what the testimonies are about.
So, what’s a testimony?
Here’s Cooper on that:
A testimony is an outward expression of an inward leading of the Spirit, or an outward sign of what Friends believe to be an inward revelation of truth. … The testimonies have a sacramental quality for Friends. They are an outward expression of an inward spiritual discernment, constituting faith in action. The testimonies provide the moral and ethical fruits of one’s inward life of the Spirit (Cooper, Living Faith, p. 101).
Over the years, these particular values have held up. They have stood the test of time. These ideals, as experience has borne out, are true signs of faith.
This morning I’m going to talk about the testimony of simplicity. So, what’s simplicity? Simplicity says less is more. Less stuff makes for a fuller life.
Here is Mark 10, beginning with verse 17, from The Message:
17 As [Jesus] went out into the street, a man came running up, greeted him with great reverence, and asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to get eternal life?”
18-19 Jesus said, “Why are you calling me good? No one is good, only God. You know the commandments: Don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t cheat, honor your father and mother.”
20 He said, “Teacher, I have—from my youth—kept them all!”
21 Jesus looked him hard in the eye—and loved him! He said, “There’s one thing left: Go sell whatever you own and give it to the poor. All your wealth will then be heavenly wealth. And come follow me.”
22 The man’s face clouded over. This was the last thing he expected to hear, and he walked off with a heavy heart. He was holding on tight to a lot of things, and not about to let go.
How do we get eternal life, abundant life, satisfying life? By following Jesus. And things can get in the way of doing that.
That’s what simplicity is about – recognizing that the things we own can get in the way of doing what God is calling us to do. Truth.
We all need to pay attention to the ways things distract us from following Jesus. So, do we all need to sell everything we own? I don’t think so. But it is an issue for people who have more than enough.
Quakers, back in the day, decided that simplicity meant dressing in plain clothing. Do we all need to dress in plain clothing? I don’t think so. I mean, I don’t want to give up my red cowboy boots. Not to mention my flashy blue car. 😊
In the 1600s in England, Margaret Fell was a woman of means, the wife of a judge. She became a Quaker, and, after her husband died, she married George Fox, the founder of Quakerism. Some call her the mother of Quakerism.
When Friends were considering the idea that all Quakers should wear plain clothing as a mark of simplicity, Margaret Fell spoke against it.
It’s a dangerous thing to lead young Friends much into the observation of outward things which may be easily done. For they can soon get into an outward garb, to be all alike outwardly. But this will not make them into true Christians: it’s the spirit that gives life.
… Christ Jesus saith, that we must take no thought what we shall eat, or what we shall drink, or what we shall put on, but bids us consider the lilies how they grow, in more royalty than Solomon. But contrary to this, we must look at no colours, nor make anything that is changeable colours as the hills are, nor sell them, nor wear them: but we must be all in one dress and one colour: this is a silly poor Gospel. (https://qfp.quaker.org.uk/chapter/20/)
Simplicity doesn’t work so well as a rule. When we make a rule about it, we focus on following the rule rather than following Jesus.
Rather than a rule, simplicity is a guiding principle, in recognition that things can distract us from God. How that works out is going to be different for you than for me. I mean, not everyone needs to have red cowboy boots. Not everyone needs to give up their red cowboy boots. But we do all need to attend to how things can come between us and God.
Simplicity is good for us, then, as a move away from being burdened by things and as a way to live better with what we have. It’s a recognition that we can have enough.
We might call simplicity a practice of enoughness.
Here are some throughts from a blog by Jill Chivers, called Shop Less, Live More.
We each get to choose what is enough for us, in every area of our lives. Your enoughness point may be different to mine. Or we may have a similar enoughness point in one area, but a vastly different one in another. It’s all personal.
…
We live in a world that glorifies achievement, advancement, striving and other subtle ways of telling us that we aren’t enough as we are now. How could we possibly be enough, if there’s another smart phone that has one teensy little technological “advancement” on it that our current phone does not have? Or if there’s another level of success to strive toward? …
Finding and living your own enoughness is a personal practice. It is a daily choice, and will … be maintained through … mindful practice.
Enoughness is a focus within. It is a checking process of what you need – for your soul and spirit, for your heart, for your mind, and for the practical realities of your world.
There are many distractions to take your attention away from that within-focus. This is why … mindful practice is so important.
If you believe you are enough, that your relationships with others are enough, that you have enough right now – then it will infect every other part of your life. Feeling and living your own enoughness has the power to transform your life. …
8 Simple Truths About Enoughness
Enoughness, simplicity, from this perspective is a spiritual discipline, a personal journey.
Simplicity is personal journey, but it’s more than that. Simplicity is a personal journey with broad effects.
Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa are both credited as having said, Live simply so that others may simply live.
Someone has written thoughtfully about what that means.
By choosing our lifestyle carefully, we are in effect helping many other people around the world who have it a lot less fortunate than we do. Buying organic cotton clothes and bedding keeps pesticides and other toxins off farm worker’s bodies. Choosing to use biodegradable soaps and cleaners prevents our oceans and rivers from becoming toxic waste dumps. Giving money to charity instead of splurging on yourself … enables a kid in some far away land to get a textbook. In almost everything we do, there is an effect on someone else in the world. Just being wise to this fact can separate you from the herd.
Only a few extreme environmentalists want anyone to go live in a cave, eat only wheat grass, and read by candlelight only. Most of us are not that type of “green”; I just want everyone to be able to live comfortably and mindfully, within their means, while having a minimal negative affect on the rest of the people on the planet. No matter how far away they are or what they do for a living, they are still people. And we all share the earth together, regardless of age, creed, sex, or the size of our wallets. If we all do our best to keep in mind the other 6 billion people on the planet every time we shop or make lifestyle changes, we will all be better off. And there is nothing wrong with that at all… (https://thegoodhuman.com/live-simply-so-that-others-may-simply-live/)
John Woolman, the Quaker who is known for spearheading the effort to take a stand against slavery in the 1700s, also spoke about simplicity, not so much because of how things can distract us from God but because of how things can cause problems in the world. He wrote,
Our gracious Creator cares and provides for all his creatures. His tender mercies are over all his works; and so far as his love influences our minds, so far we become interested in his workmanship and feel a desire to take hold of every opportunity to lessen the distresses of the afflicted and increase the happiness of the creation. Here we have a prospect of one common interest from which our own is inseparable, that to turn all the treasures we possess into the channel of universal love becomes the business of our lives…
And also this:
May we look upon our treasures, the furniture of our houses, and our garments, and try whether the seeds of war have nourishment in these our possessions. (https://qfp.quaker.org.uk/chapter/23/)
The things we buy, the things we own, can be channels of love or seeds of war.
Before we enter into a brief time of open worship, I will close with these words from a Virginia Quaker:
How are we to honor the testimony of simplicity in our modern world? To many of us, our culture seems so “busy” and so complex, so full of disturbing news and distractions, that we are sometimes overwhelmed. Our time is often overcommitted, and our wants are manipulated to make us desire what we do not need. … We need to think of simplicity not as an impossible demand, but as an invitation to a more centered, intentional, and fulfilling Spirit-led life.
Simplicity flows from well-ordered living. It is less a matter of doing without, than a spiritual quality that simplifies our lives by putting first things first. A simple way of life, freely chosen, is a source of strength, joy, and comfort. Friends are advised to strive for simplicity in the use of our earnings and property, and in our style of living, choosing that which is simple and useful. This does not mean that life is to be poor and bare, destitute of joy and beauty. Each must determine, by the Light that is given, what promotes and what hinders the compelling search for inner peace that enables us to listen deeply to God.
The testimony of simplicity is like a bell that calls us to an awareness of the Center. It challenges us to ask “What matters?” It reminds us that much of what worries us and stresses us is not important. It asks us to recognize the burdens we carry needlessly and to lay them down: our anxiety about our appearance, our struggle to afford what we do not need, comparisons between our lifestyle and the lifestyles of others, squabbles born of tension and stress, worries that leave us exhausted and unable to find time for what matters in our lives. (https://www.fgcquaker.org/cloud/resources/testimony-simplicity-0)
May you hold fast to that which promotes the inner peace that enables you to listen deeply to God.
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