Lotus Light Sangha Blog - Quakers & Jesus, A Good Friday Contemplative Meditation

April 6, 2012, Don Kovacs

 

On the occasion of Good Friday it seems appropriate to spend some time with Jesus for our meditation.  What follows are two brief talks I presented in 2010 as part of a public outreach program called Quaker Quest put on by Carlisle Friends Meeting.  In them I present some of my personal thoughts on Jesus in the context of my Quaker experience. I believe they are compatible with the philosophy of our Lotus Light Community and its openness to learning from all religious and spiritual traditions.

 

Quakers & Jesus

First reading

 

Jesus must weep over how many Christians have killed each other over Theology.  So, I don't want to talk theology, or "notional religion" as George Fox would say.  I want to talk about experience.

 

Each of us has our own personal experience of Jesus: colored by

 

1. Our religious upbringing—not just what we learned about Jesus, but also our experience of the religion that claims his name
2. Adolescent and adult reevaluation—forming our own system of belief or disbelief
3. Our living encounters with the living Christ, encounters that happen every day, usually unrecognized as such, which Jesus describes in Matthew 25

 

for I was hungry and you gave me food,

I was thirsty and you gave me drink,

I was a stranger and you welcomed me,
I was naked and you clothed me,

I was sick and you visited me,

I was in prison and you came to me.'

 

And both the blessed, and those who failed to bless others, both of them asked, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you,or  thirsty and give you drink?  And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?" To which Jesus replies, "As you did it to the least of these my brethren, you did it to me"

Like most people in our Quaker Meeting, I came from a different religious background. Mine was fundamentalist Baptist with large doses of guilt and dogmatism from both church and home.  It is hard to argue with someone who is born-again Saved! and backed by the infallible Word of God.

 

I might have rejected the Christian religion altogether but for the influence of my older brother; the writings of C. S. Lewis, Thomas Merton, Frederick Buechner; and then the Christian/Universalism I found among Quakers, where I was free to be, or not to be, a Christian, without judgment or dogmatism.

 

Many Seekers find the experience of the Inward Light of Christ,

and that of God in everyone,

and our encounters with Christ in our brothers and sisters,

to be more important than the Christ of creeds or dogmatic statements.

Quakers sometimes like to say, "My karma ran over my dogma."

 

Let me tell you about one powerful encounter I believe I had with the living Christ:

 

One Sunday I was on-call for our group of family doctors. I was relaxing outside on a pleasant afternoon, when I got a call from the emergency room.  I was "up" for the next service admission, and the police had picked up an old man walking along Interstate 81. His legs were swollen from heart failure, but the first order should be for a bath. I grumbled as I hung up the phone. There goes my pleasant afternoon. But then I tried to "correct my thinking" as my Christian Scientist, Great Aunt Debbie used to say.  And I thought about those words in Matthew 25, "I was sick and you visited me." The nurse called when he was on the floor and cleaned up, and I drove over to the hospital, trying to go in that spirit.

 

I found a delightful old man, fresh and clean, and lying in bed.  I sat down to take a history, and listened to his story. He liked to drive around the country picking up hitchhikers so he could tell them about Jesus.  His last rider had pulled a gun on him, taken his car, and left him at the side of the road. Whether this was before or after he told him about Jesus, I never learned. He seemed more upset about losing his dog than his car and belongings.

 

I was touched by his story, and charmed by his presence, an old man with long white hair, white bushy beard, his sun-tanned face lined with age. I stood up to examine him, and as I listened to his heart and lungs, I looked over his shoulder and saw a piece of paper on his bedside table. And I saw where he had written, "I was sick, and you visited me."

 

It was a very powerful moment for me, affirming for me how Jesus specifically told us to look for him and find him in such encounters.

 

Finding Christ and serving him in those loving human encounters described in Matthew 25 is much more important to my faith as a Quaker and a Christian than theological correctness.

 

Second reading

 

I have seen and experienced those loving human encounters described in Matthew 25 where God is present. 

 

In our Meeting community (and in our Lotus Light Community) I have seen, and heard, and felt a presence, and found a place…

o   Where those who hunger to be heard and known and accepted are

o   Where those who thirst for spiritual refreshment share the water they have found

o   Where the stranger is welcome, however strange

o   Where we can feel safe to bare our souls to each other and be clothed with care and forgiveness

o   Where we are loved and cared for in times of illness and death, and…

o   Where the prison of our failures and short-comings does not alienate us beyond the love of the community

 

Our community sometimes falls short of giving all that we have to give, but that is the kind of community I believe we all long for, the kind of community I see witnessed in the New Testament.

 

Jesus said, "People will know you are my disciples by how you love one another."

And, "A new commandment I give you: that you love one another as I have loved you." Jesus calls his disciples into a loving community where we serve each other, and needs are met.

 

Where the True Way of Life Jesus showed us is practiced in lives that are often inconstant and inconsistent, and yet taking steps, however short and few, along that path. 

 

We have some very special people among us. Each of us is broken in a unique way providing unique opportunities for the grace, forgiveness, and healing we are seeking and finding.

 

When I first came among Quakers I was in great need of parental love and acceptance. Once that need was starting to be met, my need was for a place where I could develop and share my spiritual gifts—we all have them, and to use them is our special purpose in life.

 

And I needed a loving community of people giving and receiving grace to heal and forgive.

 

At our best, we are amazingly free of factions, gossip, judgment, and envy.

 

So although we may not preach Jesus, he is the unseen, but manifest presence in our midst, vessels of clay though we are, sharing his grace and truth.

 

So I have a faith in Jesus present among us:

As personal as that of God in everyone

As sacred as the Inward Light of Christ

"Christ in you, your hope for glory"

Creative and powerful

Confronting suffering and evil with miracles of healing and forgiveness.

 

We are all beginners here.  No one has arrived.

I am inspired by the Living Witness of Jesus as the indwelling Christ, which we have seen and felt and heard of, and have even experienced in our midst, though we may not have recognized him, or known him by that name.