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Friends United
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January/February 2007
Fox Etched
in His Soul:
An Interview with Leonard Sweet
By Trish Edwards-Konic
Leonard Sweet’s mother was a minister in the Pilgrim Holiness tradition and raised him on a daily diet of Scripture and the Journals of John Wesley and yes, George Fox. On the flyleaf of his Bible he has inscribed these words from Fox, “walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in everyone.” The Biblical understandings of Fox are etched in his soul and come forth in his writing and speaking.
I met with him over coffee early Saturday morning and we discussed the opportunities that Friends have to voice the gospel for our culture and the challenges in doing so.
QL: You stated that George Fox is more for the 21st century than for his own. In what ways are you referring?
LS: The modern worldview focus is on the omnipresence of evil rather than the omnipresence of God, focusing on the need to take Jesus out into a world dominated by the devil.
But George Fox said—God is already at work in everyone’s life and in the world. Our mission is to discover what God is doing and to join him.
In the 1990s there was much focus on vision—tell me what your vision is. But as Christians, we already have our vision—it is Jesus Christ. Christians need to join Jesus Christ in what he is doing by recognizing his voice.
People did not recognize Jesus after the resurrection until He spoke to them, even though they were seeing Him—in the garden, on the Emmaus Road, in the Upper Room.
The world needs to learn the spiritual discipline of not talking, but listening. Shut up and listen so you can begin to recognize the Voice of Jesus in others. Modernity did not have a “sound” theology; it was cognitive, words, not listening.
QL: At FUM we often talk about our listening spirituality equaling transformed lives.
LS: We need to learn to trust our ears but not our eyes. Our ears are receptive and we can trust them; our eyes can be fooled by illusion or our controlling what we see. That’s why we have eyelids but not ear lids. Friends have much to say and teach to the world on how to listen to the Voice of God. Books on listening will be huge in the future and Friends are already there.
QL: In what other ways is Friends theology relevant to the post modern world?
LS: The prophets taught a theology of the future but George Fox said God is already there. That is a very different perception and moves us into a different understanding of evangelism.
Evangelism is not just going out into the world and saving the lost. It becomes as important to open yourself to be evangelized as to do evangelism. I need to be open to the God in you and learn about things of the Spirit from you. There is a mutuality of spirit where we may be converted ourselves and transformed by God.
Also, the church today, especially the emerging church, has little understanding of the ancestors of faith who have gone before them. They don’t have to learn all over about faith; they have George Fox to learn from.
QL: You quoted John 15:14, “I no longer call you servants but now I call you friends.” Why is that verse so important to you?
LS: I really am jealous of your name—you have the best one! Friends of Jesus! Servants imply a hierarchical language. The Lord is over all, but really we all aspire to be lords ourselves.
Paul uses the language of mutuality—children, heirs, friends of God. Relationship theology is becoming so important in the postmodern culture. The language of “friends” is the best understanding there is, even better than “family.” Families can be dysfunctional and hierarchical, but friends are people you choose, who love you unconditionally.
Friends of Jesus become a relational theology that moves you into justice issues. The focus moves from doing peace and justice work to recognizing whom you are standing with—Jesus Christ. In Jesus you stand and walk with the marginalized, the poor, those torn by war and violence. It is not a cognitive choice but recognition that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
QL: What final words do you have for the readers of Quaker Life?
LS: There is a lot of goodwill around the name “Quakers” even though the culture is becoming more anti-Christian. You need to brand Quakers so that people recognize Friends and can join you to transform the world.