July 12, 2020
- Message: Shine Like Stars in the World
- Scripture: Philippians 2:1-15
- Music: Rosemary Nettrouer
- Flowers: Beth McDonald
Good morning and thanks for worshiping with us this morning!
Thank you to Beth McDonald for the flowers and Rosemary Nettrouer for the music.
- If you have announcement or prayer requests, please feel free to add them as comments on the Facebook page.
Announcements
- We are live streaming on Facebook and not gathering at the church for worship, at least through the end of July.
- During the live streaming, we do have room for a few people to come and serve as a kind of facing bench. If you would like to be among a handful of people who worship with us in person, be sure and let the office know.
- Please feel free to share our worship with your Facebook friends by posting a link on your page.
- Also, a video of worship and a text version of my message (with announcements and prayer concerns) are available every week on the church’s newish website, wichitaquakers.org.
- If you’re planning to attend any part of Mid-America Yearly Meeting’s Ministry Conference, the registration deadline is July 20. Sessions and registration are online, and the registration fee of $20 needs to be in the church office by July 22. See The Light This Week for details.
- Among church activities this week
- The 205 Sunday School class is meeting today at 3:00 p.m. via Zoom. Rhonda Newby leads these discussions.
- The Book Club is on for Tuesday, 6:30 p.m., via Zoom or in person in the church library. Discussion is over chapters 7-18 in Phil Gulley’s For Everything a Season, as well as what book we’ll read next.
- Ministry and Counsel is at 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday.
- The Christian Education Committee meeting has been rescheduled for Wednesday at 7:00.
- Finance Committee is planned for 1:30 p.m. Thursday.
- The open house for Jocelyn Mallonee in honor of her graduation from high school is next Saturday, 1-4:00 p.m.
- Our Monthly Meeting for worship with a concern for business is scheduled for next Sunday.
Prayer concerns
- Gordon Smith has been in the hospital all this past week, getting high-powered antibiotics to fight pneumonia and a urinary tract infection. Joan was thrilled to have him back home in time to celebrate her birthday Friday.
- Our church during this time of transition amid a pandemic – may we find clarity and energy for the tasks at hand and the decisions we will need to make as we find our way forward. May we find ways to use our assets wisely and well. May we be a beacon of love in our world.
Worship through song
The Singing Quakers – When I Survey the Wondrous Cross (2020)
Prayer
God of sea and sky, we open our hearts to you. Refresh us with your Spirit.
Message
During this time of transition for our congregation, we are asking three primary questions:
- Who are we?
- Who are our neighbors?
- What is God calling us to do? Or who is God calling us to be?
I haven’t mentioned those questions for a while, but many of my messages over the past months have focused on that first question – who are we?
During February and March, we thought about what kind of Christians we are. Who do we say Jesus is? The Christian tradition offers a wide variety of answers to that question, and it has become clear that we are a congregation that welcomes and affirms people across the Christian spectrum.
Since Easter, most of my messages have focused on Quaker teachings. These messages, too, aim to prompt thought about who we are.
Who are we? We are a congregation that holds to the ideals of simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, and stewardship.
Who are we? We are a congregation of under 100 people who sometimes seem to think of ourselves as a big university church. I need to be clear – University Friends Meeting, despite the name, is not a big university church, and it hasn’t been for a good long while. That’s why we’re considering a different committee structure, one that reflects our current reality.
Who are we? We are a congregation of under 100 people with a building that seats over 400 and, at last count, money to last about 7 more years.
Who are we? We are a congregation that spends a good share of its energy hanging in there and not very much on what one might call mission or service or outreach.
Having been your pastor for going on seven months, those are some of my answers to the question of who we are.
What are yours? Who do you say we are?
As we make progress on getting a clearer picture of who we are, the next looming question has to do with what God is calling us to.
Here are some queries that relate to that:
Who are we called to be?
- What is our mission (unique purpose or reason for existing) as a faith community?
- What values (common commitments by which we will live, work, play tougher) shape and direct our life together?
- What is God’s vision (artist’s rendition of us faithfully living out our mission) for us as a community discerned in light of our understanding of Scripture, the leading of the Spirit, and historic faith commitments?
- How are we communicating/teaching/reinforcing these among our members and with newcomers?
(from “The Local Church as a Missional Community”)
What is God calling us to?
Some research has found that churches tend to fall into one of three types in their attitude toward outreach:
Congregations in the first group … are outreach-oriented in both their self-concept and their behavior. ‘Meeting needs in the community’ turns up often in their descriptions of their congregational life. Working from a strong sense of their own faith tradition, they search for ways to share that historic faith in a changing world.
Congregations in the second group … express an interest in gaining new members, but have neither a mission-centered self-image nor specific outreach methods to translate their interest into action. They are hesitant to make the changes that might be needed to reach others in their community.
A third group of churches … is clearly focused on caring for their current members. New people are welcomed to the extent that they are prepared to fit into existing patterns and activities.
… Congregations that focus outward … have the fullest internal life, as measured by the richness and variety of programs and ministries. They have the fewest financial difficulties, and are most likely to grow – not only in total membership, but also in the number of previously unchurched persons incorporated into their life. On the other hand, both of the other groups tend to report less variety and richness in their internal life, more financial problems, stable or declining numbers, few previously unchurched members, and a ‘poor me’ self-concept. (Mann, The In-Between Church, p. 42).
Some churches focus outward, and some focus inward. Churches that focus outward have the richest internal life.
What is God calling us to?
If we consider the possibility that God might be calling us to work from a strong sense of our faith tradition as Christian Quakers and search for ways to share that historic faith in a changing world, what would that look like?
What would it look like for University Friends to be, as I heard Dr. Chacko say recently, a beacon of God’s love in 2020, in Wichita, Kansas?
What might our faith tradition have to say?
Wilmer Cooper’s A Living Faith offers this perspective:
Evangelical Quakers today place great emphasis on evangelistic outreach and church growth, while at the other extreme there are Friends who seem to think that Quakerism is a secret to be guarded.
In spite of these differences, throughout their history Friends have felt the persistent impulse to make their faith relevant to real life and to try to lead others, either by word, deed, or example, to this treasured life of the kingdom. … there is the strong hope and belief that life, both personal and social, can be made over and improved, if not perfected. … Moreover, [Quakers] have been for the most part a compassionate people so that a ministry of service and reconciliation to those in need has marked the Quaker movement from the beginning. (p. 126)
Our tradition makes faith relevant to real life.
What has that looked like in the past for University Friends?
What might it look like in the future?
What is God calling us to?
What might we need to let go of to enter into that future?
Philippians 2 If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, 2 make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. 5 Let the same mind be in you that was[a] in Christ Jesus,6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited,7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, 8 he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross. …12 Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for [God’s] good pleasure.14 Do all things without murmuring and arguing, 15 so that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine like stars in the world.
Let the same mind be in you that was in Jesus, who didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped but gave that up to minister to our world. God is at work in you to do God’s work. Shine like stars in the world.
What would it look like for us to shine like stars in our world?
I want to share with you this morning something I wrote a while back about my sense of who I am in the world.
Early in 1995, I went to a story-telling workshop that included an exercise in writing one’s own myth. There I began work on … a story that ended with me finding my home in a cottage in the woods, where I lived comfortably with (myself as) as child, a young mother, a middle-aged woman, and an elderly woman. Generosity characterized our life together, and as I described this aspect of my myth to the other participants in the workshop, I gestured with my hand from my chest outward. The workshop leader called my attention to the gesture and asked about its significance. I could not put words to it at the time, but I kept thinking about it.
Around the same time (I think), I visited my daughter Laura in Philadelphia. One evening we happened into a gift shop that had a number of mobiles on display, mobiles made of stiffened fabric and paper, one line featuring women who soared through the air flinging stars. I don’t believe I made a connection between the myth’s gesture and the mobiles until later, but the images delighted me. I didn’t buy one; the cost seemed prohibitive; but after I returned home, I kept thinking about them. Eventually I arranged for Laura to buy one and send it to me. …
During this time, I was seeing a spiritual director, and I talked to her about my myth and the mobile. She recommended a book by Joyce Rupp called A Star in my Heart. I resonated with its central image and connected it to my Quaker understanding of the Light within each person.
I also remember shopping in Shipshewana, Indiana, with [a] friend … and coming across a … t-shirt that said, “We are angels to each other.” I didn’t by it either; perhaps I couldn’t find one in my size, but this idea combined with these other elements to form my notion of being a star-flinging woman. I am an angel who flings stars, a strong, vibrant woman who gives freely of her wisdom and knowledge, courage and caring. In Quaker terms, I walk cheerfully over the earth, answering that of God in everyone.
… I fling with some abandon from what I have to whoever comes into my path.
How do you walk cheerfully over the earth answering that of God in everyone?
What would it look like for us as a congregation to shine like stars in our world?
What do we need to let go of in order to be responsive to God’s call?
How can we become a beacon of love?
The words of this song by John Michael Talbot call us:
I, the Lord of sea and sky, I have heard My people cry.
All who dwell in dark and sin, My hand will save.
I who made the stars of night, I will make their darkness bright.
Who will bear My light to them? Whom shall I send?
I, the Lord of wind and flame, I will tend the poor and lame.
I will set a feast for them, My hand will save
Finest bread I will provide, Till their hearts be satisfied.
I will give My life to them, Whom shall I send? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6fYAiqV-Bs)
Here we are, Lord. We have heard you calling. We will follow where you lead us. We will hold your people in our hearts.
Open worship
Please join together in a time of open worship, communion after the manner of Friends. If you feel led to contribute, please do so via comments on the Facebook page.
We are meeting in person and also streaming our sermons on Facebook at 10:00 AM CST. Watch live:
https://www.facebook.com/universityfriendschurch/
Not on Facebook? You can see all of our posts and videos on our site here!
