As we gather for our business, as we do our work, as we eat and playtogether, help us to hear each other with love and with kindness throughout this week.
In this meeting house during yearly meeting time, I like to imaginethe faint sounds of traffic outside is the sound of wind whirling and I’m safe within the meeting house. I’m safe within my community, I can just be quietand perhaps know a little of God.
I love the presence of children amongst us, I love the children andyouth and those of us young at heart. I love the squirming, the burbling, the smiles, the singing, the sweeping floors. When I need to remember what it means to walk cheerfully over the world, I only need to remember the children amongst us to remember how near at hand God is.
“There is a river the streams thereof shall make glad the city of God.” I give thanks this day to be gathered with so many streams and thatwe are all a part of that river.
Love. Love! Love is my shepherd. I shall not want.
God is Love. Love is a process. God is a process.
When our hearts are open, we can see the places where the light is shining through and be grateful.
Love be with us. Be our shepherd. Stay close to us. Hold us. Transform us. Refine us.
I have been reading a book I’ve read before many times. It is the story of a woman in Plantagenet England, about the 1300s. One thing that struck me, in part because I was reading it while here, was how much their language was infused with talk of God. They would greet each other with “God’s blessing on you,” and used the phrase “God’s bones” for good and bad. Both peasants and wealthy people, their lives were infused with talk of God. They had many chapels and churches, and people went on pilgrimages. I’m sure one of the reasons was, not only was life was more physically difficult then, but it was also uncertain. They had fires and plague. If they caught the black plague, there was little chance of getting better; there was very little anyone could do. People didn’t live as long. Perhaps that is why they implored through work, words, and pilgrimage the protection of God.Our lives in the present day first world are not as physically difficult. We have heat and air conditioning. If we get really sick, we can go the doctor or the hospital and we will probably get better—we are likely not going to die. At least we have the belief that perhaps we will not die. But our world is still very much uncertain. Things can still happen in a moment as they did then. In a lot of the world, things DO happen and perhaps people can’t get help to stay alive. Why don’t we, in this privileged part of the world, infuse our speech, our thoughts, our time in worship, prayer, perhaps pilgrimages withGod? Perhaps there are a lot of people who do, Friends who do. Perhaps if we’re not, we can be more mindful to gratitude.
There are two stories sitting and living with me. The first is Paul talking to the Romans, whose religion was to build and worship statues, saying God does not live in temples made by human hands.
God is the Source of everything! God made the grass, the stars. What does God need of me? I am a piece of grass. I feel a great sense of inadequacy, of imperfection. Knowing that God is the Source of everything frees me from a legalism, perfectionism, inadequacy that I impose on myself.
The second is the story of the talents. ‘Talent’ is the word for their unit of money, but I think of as all the resources God entrusts to us. The servant who was given 5 talents now has 10, the one who was given 2 now has 4. The master is well pleased. But the one who buried his talent, and who had returned it maybe with dirt on it, he had brushed it clean before presenting it—he buried it because he was scared. He could say, “At least I didn’t lose it!”
He was not experiencing the Spirit of all love and compassion and goodness, the Source of life. He was walled off from God. I know how Ifortress myself from God. But I also know that there’s no place we can go to be too far away from God. The master’s response to the man with one talent was: “Dude, you should have put it in a bank—I’d at least have gotten a little interest!”
It reminds me of a response someone may make to Isaiah’s “Here I am, Lord”: “Here I am—send HER!” And that’s okay. Sometimes it would be nice if we were to think about a person’s condition first. If I’m operating from fear, I’m just putting it in the bank. It would be great in those times forChrist to reach out to our most wounded places and tell us “Well done, my good and faithful servant. I love you, I really LOVE you.” We all need to hear that, and that’s one of the kinds of love God has for us.
A simple form of love in action which makes sense to me is to see a need and fill it, kindly.
Whenever I sit in this meetinghouse I think: where am I? I’m in the U.S., in Iowa, in rural Iowa, surrounded by corn, soybeans, sheep grazing.
I have an image of waving fields of grain, which we don’t have much of inIowa. Perhaps it is prairie grass waving. I had a dream in which I saw anunpronounceable word starting with S, in italics. And I felt a call to saysomething at meeting for worship.
Earlier this week a Friend asked if we would have Iowa YearlyMeeting Conservative if not for Scattergood Friends School. We need to remember that the farm is part of Scattergood too. Would we have IYMC if not for the farm? The people who started Scattergood were farmers and the people who helped them. Agricultural things are so important to remember and Scattergood helps us to remember it. Many of us have grown up onfarms or have parents who did. My message to you is: we are in the country.The farm is so important because it ties us to the people who originally started IYMC. We need to keep alive the image of farms and waving fieldsof grain.
“My heart leaps up when I behold / A rainbow in the sky / So it was when my life began / So it is now I am a man / So be it when I shall grow old / Or let me die! / The Child is the father of the Man / And I could wish my days to be / Bound each to each by natural piety.”
One the joys of being on microphone duty is having to keep my eyes open and sit on the front bench. I get to look out on the rainbow of ourcommunity and my heart leaps up.
We heard a story about Big F and Little F. In my meeting we’re learning how to tell each other things so we can be of assistance to each other. So I’m going to use all of you as a resource. A week from Monday I’m having cancer surgery. I’ve had a long wait and I’m hoping forregression instead of progression. I ask you to hold me in the Light, andthank you for being a distraction. We’ve also been talking about health in general: mental health, health of the earth, and in relationships, so let’s think about health in general as we go forth from this gathering.
As has been said, the view from this front bench is beautiful. My husband and I have been coming to yearly meeting for 31 years. I remember so many beloved faces that I’ve been able to look at in this meetinghouse, from this and other meetings. Some of them can no longer come to yearly meeting, and some have moved on to the next world. I’ve learned so much from them. Now I see other beloved faces and I’ve learned so much from you. And I see brand new beloved faces and, if Way is open, I look forward to learning from you.
The Bible verse that comes to my mind is when I am exceedingly glad or just bored is “God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” (1 John 4:16) Most of the time I’m not sure what
is love, I’m not sure what is God. A Benedictine colleague of Thomas Kelly has helped me labor with my confusion. He said “You don’t trust God.” I asked “How do I trust? What does it mean? What do I do? What steps do I take? I’m not sure what the word means.” He grinned a Thomas Merton sort of grin. “Just say thank you. Say thank you all the time, like when you find a parking space.” He meant for me to live in gratitude.
I’m familiar with thanking for food, for nature, but I have a long way to go to make it a sustaining fiber of my being. Throughout this session and our deliberations, I have been overwhelmed with my sense of thankfulness. Thank you to the Entertainment Committee for the metaphor of bridges. It’s concrete. My bridges are ropes with slats missing. My bridges are often closed for repairs. My bridge to Scattergood has been fragile for nearly 30 years. My bridge to Yearly Meeting has been fragile. I’m grateful for thefaithfulness of those who wait in silence and create an intention that invites all of us together and allows us to feel that fearful and awesome Presence.Thank you.
Looking at the metaphor of building bridges, struggling with the understanding of bridge as a tool to jump over gaps or separation. But
when I’m able to feel the Light, and grasp that idea, I see that there are no divisions. Separation is a thing we build in our head. You cannot divide
the Light. It is One, so why do we need bridges? We need to wake up to theconsciousness of that Oneness where the divisions are categories I put onwith my mind, my ego. If I could wake up I wouldn’t struggle with fear— because in the Light, there is no fear; darkness doesn’t exist. If you have
a candle in a stadium, you can see it wherever you are. With the Light, the darkness disappears. But if I cannot see that we are the same, I cannot knowthe Light and that we are one. So my work is the consciousness of that Light. I can’t hate anyone if we are the same. I’m very grateful for this group of souls who believe there is Light in each of us and work to be aware of that.
We have been given to build bridges. One of them is between Scattergood and young people and their families, who need to know about Scattergood. It’s a gift we can offer, from that love, the belief that we can have a better world.