|
Friends United Meeting |
 |
RIVER TEETH FOR THE LAMB’S WAR
2005 Friends United Meeting Triennial
Retha McCutchen, FUM General Secretary
July 13, 2005
Welcome to Friends United Meeting – Triennial 2005! What a privilege and pleasure to be gathered with Friends and visitors in this place. I pray that God, through the Holy Spirit moves among us. I can imagine the Spirit of God right now, moving from seat to seat, empowering each person to hear this message at his or her point of need and understanding.
The theme selected by the planning committee is found in Revelation – not the easiest book of the Bible to understand. Yet as Quakers, the concept THE LAMB SHALL OVERCOME, FOR HE IS THE KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS makes sense. That concept is the bedrock of who we are.
The angel explaining this vision to John seemed to know Revelation would be difficult to interpret. The angel begins verse 9 with the statement that this calls for a mind that has wisdom! As we approach these days together here in Des Moines, this too calls for a mind that has wisdom.
Canby Jones and Oliver Kisaka are scholars. They will treat this text in a deep, scholarly and thoughtful way. I am not a scholar so will leave that exposition to them and just talk about God’s call to Lamb-like obedience in the path God is leading Friends United Meeting – to gather people into fellowships where Jesus Christ is known, loved and obeyed as Teacher and Lord through the priorities of evangelism, leadership training, global partnership and communication.
Listening to one another and to the messages this week calls for a mind that has wisdom, and calls for minds willing to listen through the heart of the Spirit of Christ.
My prediction is that throughout this evening, I may offend everyone at one time or another. I’ve even offended myself a few times while I was preparing this message! But stick with me to the end. There is a point to offer.
Howard Thurman was an African-American theologian writing in the 1940’s, at a time in American history when he would most likely be ignored. In his book Deep River he challenges readers to think of life as being like a river – what he calls “a full and creative analogy.”
God’s call for our corporate life together is a Deep River.
Thurman writes: “The analogy is complete in the first place because a river has a very simple beginning. The Mississippi River, for instance, rises in the northern part of the United States, fed by perpetual snows; at its source it is unpretentious, simple.
[Five Years meeting began with a simple structure – to support cooperative mission work, education and evangelism.]
The river increases in momentum, in depth, in breadth, in turbulence as it makes it journey down the broad expanse of America, until at last it empties itself into the Gulf of Mexico. …
[Five Years Meeting (forerunner to FUM) grew, increased in momentum, until today FUM includes two offices, a magazine, publishing arm, bookstore, hospitals, schools, theological college and worldwide missions as simple as a village meeting in Turkana, Kenya to the complex institution lovingly known as the Ramallah Friends Schools and everything in between.]
Thurman continues: “It is the nature of the river to flow; it is always moving, always in process, always on its way. There seems ever to be an infinite urgency that keeps the waters on business bent. They may be caught here and there in swirling pools, or temporarily stilled behind a sudden dam, but not for long. Once again they take up their march to fulfill their destiny, to keep their tryst with the sea. (Deep River, p. 66-67)
[An apt description of God’s call to FUM in 2005!]
David James Duncan expands on this analogy of the Deep River In his book River Teeth. Duncan describes River Teeth as the remains of a centuries-old tree and draws an analogy between the life of the tree and a human life. This tree first lives its life on a riverbank where it provides shade, food and protection to the river and bank. The tree dies, falls into the river and becomes a log, the log begins to lead a kind of afterlife in the river. The breakdown of a river log takes only a few decades. The waterlogged tree joins the rocks on the river bottom. Decomposition continues. The log breaks into pieces, the pieces become mud and mud washes downriver and often lodges someplace and becomes soil. New trees sprout from the fertile muck. The cycle goes on.
[I can see in my mind the many people who over the years have been a part of this life-giving soil from which new trees sprout. – Arthur Chilson and Edith Ratcliff, Herman Otioko and Annis Carter. Eli and Sybil Jones and Charles Vincent. Names like … Wagoner, Kendall, Kimball, Abrikin, Smuck, Davis, Cain, Vernon, Wilcox, Lime, Gates, Mills … the list goes on and on.]
BUT, every downed tree has parts that refuse to disintegrate in this cycle of life and decay. These are the ‘knots’ we see in trees and lumber. These are cross-grained and full of pitch and they do not disintegrate like the rest of the log. They harden. They last centuries, formed and shaped by the work of the river. Duncan called these River Teeth.
Duncan likens River Teeth to the time-defying knots of experience in our lives. These might be moments of shock; moments of violence, or preposterous joy.
…moments that shape our memories and our lives.
I pray that the 2005 FUM Triennial will be such a positive ‘defining moment’ in our corporate life together.
Friends United Meeting is YOU! The offices in Richmond, Indiana and Kisumu, Kenya are NOT Friends United Meeting. When Five Years Meeting was established in 1902 the original wording says FUM’s role is: ‘Advisory supervision over the affairs of the denomination.’ The assignment of the staff is to carry out decisions of the General Board, which now meets both in Richmond, Indiana and in Kenya -- both clerked by the Presiding Clerk of FUM.
The number of representatives of these two sections of the General Board is about equal. All full member yearly meetings appoint representatives to the General Board. In the past, however, only those in or close to the United States were able to attend. The General Board/Africa meeting regularly changes how we do business.
The decision of these two sections constitutes the complete decision of the FUM General Board. It’s exciting, empowering and sometimes a little unwieldy. Yet most people involved agree it’s worth the effort and we must commit to strengthen the voice of the General Board/Africa.
Friends United Meeting is Christian, as set for in the Purpose Statement adopted in 1993. A pamphlet written by Ben Richmond, The Christian Faith of Friends, is available in the bookstore and in Kisumu. It can be ordered for groups. This pamphlet describes FUM well.
However. There is a however.
However, there are differing interpretations among us of what it means to define and live a Christian life. Not what it means – I believe it is well understood the bedrock of FUM is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
But what does that mean to an individual on a journey of faith?
…to a church or meeting?
…to a group meeting as a yearly meeting?
…to yearly meetings meeting as FUM?
The larger the circle, the bigger the opportunity. Friends United Meeting is not called to do things like Bible studies, food kitchens or church planting which are best done on the local and yearly meeting level. We are called to do together things bigger than what might be done by each of us acting locally – like publish a magazine and books, under gird projects like the Lugulu and Kaimosi Hospitals or the Ramallah Friends Schools; train pastors in Kenya. Corporately we can provide the network to get boys off the street in Belize and buy building supplies in Cuba. We might even start a new work in someplace like Russia!!!
In the June issue of Quaker Life I wrote about the “Lund Principle” so named because it was adopted at a World Council of Churches meeting in a city named Lund!
“Do all things together except those things which conscience demands
you do separately.”
This is good advice for us this week. We have a choice to worship and work together in those areas that do not compromise our faith. I believe this is what God calls us, as Christians and Quakers, to do. It is a higher calling than demanding my truth is The Truth.
As a child, I was taught that Catholics are not Christian. Why? Because they practice their faith differently from us? Or that they interpret some Scripture differently from us? I personally know many Christians who practice their faith differently than Quakers, Baptists, Catholics or Pentecostals.
In fact, I personally know many Quakers who exhibit the fruit of the Spirit in their lives who practice their faith differently from one another. Recognition of this diversity at its best is strength of Friends United Meeting. I believe recognition of our diversity being strength required a further recognition that some things we’ll have to do separately. Refusal to accept the diversity can be a weakness of FUM.
In these analogies, the river is made up of a variety of substances. Each piece either adds to or detracts from the value of the river. A disintegrating tree adds to the substance of a river where plastic bags and bottles detract.
In 2005 the debris that threatens to stop the flow of Friends United Meeting is dissention around the sexual ethics policy adopted by the General Board of Friends United Meeting in session in 1988 and reaffirmed in 1991 –simply stated, the policy defines marriage as between one man and one woman and that sexual intimacy be confined to marriage. All staff of FUM must agree to live by and support this corporate policy.
Signing the statement does not mean we all agree to this policy personally, but we do agree to its value corporately in a diverse organization.
This policy means that a homosexual person or a heterosexual single must agree to celibacy while employed at Friends United Meeting.
Folks, we are not going to agree about this policy. This diversity can be strength or a blockage of Friends United Meeting. Our choice.
And don’t jump to the conclusion that whatever you think is what Retha is calling ‘blockage’. The diversity isn’t the blockage. It is what we are willing to do with our opinion that is at issue – no matter what that opinion might be.
Writing Deep River in 1945 Howard Thurman addressed our situation today. He wrote: “No one can live in a social order of which he does not approve without some measure of compromise.”
I think we all admit that the social order in which we live today is not something we approve wholeheartedly. The discrepancies between poor and rich, informed and uninformed are just two examples. Gender issues are hotly debated worldwide.
Thurman asserts that: “Direct and honest dealing make use of the technique of moral suasion (advice, persuasion) and moral appeal. It is the only force admissible. It can be only effective where there are both humility and courage. Lacking either or both of these, there can be neither honesty nor directness in the relations between the strong and the weak. It is in this area and at this point that the battle of Christian ethics is either lost or won.” (Deep River, p. 50)
Moral suasion – to advise.
To advise and appeal is the only admissible force?
To advise is the point where Christian ethics is either lost or won?
Certainly as John wrote in Revelation, this calls for a mind that has wisdom.
Thurman’s counsel – advise – says to me that I can offer my opinion, listen to your point of view, but the decision is yours.
I know this sexual ethics policy is exclusionary.
During this triennium, every session of the General Board meeting in Richmond heard about this issue. As expected, some people think that was a good thing and some wanted to move on long ago. The minute approved frees the General Board to move out in the ministry God has called in our corporate life together.
In part this minute affirms that Friends United Meeting is no more and no less than its constituent yearly meetings worldwide and went on to say Because of this (1) we are greatly heartened by Baltimore Yearly Meeting's considerations and movements toward intervisitation between Baltimore Yearly Meeting and other yearly meetings. (2) We would encourage all yearly meetings in Friends United Meeting to accept their visencourage Baltimore Yearly Meeting all FUMother yearly meetings who to become active in intervisitation on the yearly meeting level.
The minute recognizes there are many important issues causing concerns among Friends, gender issues being one of them. Because of the seriousness of the issues, including Minute 88-GB-52, we realize that a resolution, if there is one, may be long in coming. It is only through seeking God's will together that we hope to find a place to stand.
While acknowledging the complexity of divisive issues and recognizing that as a whole FUM is not in unity on a solution, what do we do with what some call discrimination and others define as a Biblical standard?
The Christian diversity within Friends United Meeting causes me to recognize both interpretations are often faith-based. We are all a part of the river of life that is FUM. That river is flowing – Praise God!!! Being log jammed is the last place we want to be! The last sentence of the General Board minute challenges us to recognize the difficulty of cultural, economic, geographic, etc., differences. However, we remind ourselves as the General Board and we remind you, our constituents, that each member yearly meeting worldwide, hears the voice of God. As Friends we seek to hear the totality of God's word.
My prayer is that the only River Teeth among us are people devoted to prayer, not hardened Bible thumpers or ideological activists.
I’m speaking to this tonight because I have some experience with discrimination. No two experiences or types of discrimination are the same and I make no claim to the depth of experience of others. This is my personal journey through what felt to me like discrimination.
My first realization of God’s call to ministry was as a child. I didn’t doubt. Being part of the Foursquare Gospel Church, founded by a woman, women in ministry was not a question as I later found it to be in broader church circles. In my limited childish understanding, being called to ministry meant either being a pastor or missionary. That was fine.
I was raised in Woodburn, Oregon – the berry capitol of the world! I started picking berries about age five. It was one of the best training experiences of my life. My sisters took me with them to the berry fields where I ate a lot and got paid for those strawberries that went into the crates. This early experience taught me two very important things that have affected my entire life: Work and saving of money opens doors and tithing pays spiritual dividends. Those two financial principles have been a part of my entire life.
The Foursquare have a camp called Crestview overlooking the Columbia River Gorge outside Portland, Oregon. Picking berries enabled me to earn registration costs until I was old enough to work in the kitchen during kid’s camp to earn my way to high school camp. In that way, I got two weeks of blessing instead of one!! I drank up the spiritual training and experiences of these formative years.
Christianity in my circles in the 1950’s and 60’s was a list of do’s and don’ts and I knew how to keep the letter of the law. And if I could keep it, anyone could. The down side of the self-discipline was arrogance and anger. There was not much grace in our theology. My biggest problem was what I knew about myself on the inside, not the external keeping of rules. And it ate at me.
I also watched the lives of adults who taught this judgmental gospel. The railroad track runs through downtown Woodburn. It was the perfect sermon illustration – If you get hit by a train going home tonight, will you be right with God? Well, for one, I was never ‘right’ with God in the absolute sense of the word preached. And I was angry with the adults who claimed and taught such truths when I knew by watching what their lives were like away from the altar.
Instead of graduating high school and getting married like my older sisters, and too fearful of failure to follow my dream of a college education, this angry teenager turned her back on the knowledge of God’s call and bought a one way ticket to Texas. God placed me in the hands of an aunt and uncle that liked me for who I am and were instrumental in shaping who I am today. They were healing people.
During 10 years of walking away from God, I married and had two wonderful children.
As a New Year’s resolution in 1973 my husband and I decided it was time to get our children in Sunday School. We visited neighborhood churches, one being Clackamas Park Friends. Now, I know, many Quakers would not identify this as a typical ‘Friends’ church, but to this former Pentecostal, the quiet was a bit frightening yet extremely healing. I sat on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen in the silence. It took ages to center into the silence.
The outstanding attribute of that church was grace. Love bounced off the walls. The Spirit of Christ was palpable in meeting for worship.
One important thing was that as I kept asking questions, instead of being told if I was right with God I wouldn’t ask questions, this Friends pastor never told me what to believe. He directed me to portions of scripture and books to read so I could formulate my own opinions.
In the midst of this radical spiritual awakening, contrary to everything I believed could be God’s will, I went through a divorce.
Now, it’s the 1970’s and 80’s. I am a divorced, female called to ministry in a climate where women in ministry is questionable, and divorce the unpardonable sin. There were, and still are, places where my ministry is not welcome. Every church where I pastored eventually had a movement to remove me because ‘God doesn’t call divorced people to ministry.’ None of these movements were successful, but I know what it’s like to be the subject of weekly meetings going on for months and with someone’s presumed interpretations of my personal life aired at one public meeting after another.
Discrimination. It was humiliating.
These were the years where many women were activists in the women in ministry movement. That was never my leading.
In 1982, in the midst of the women’s lib stuff I wrote an article published in the Evangelical Friend magazine. It states something I believe more strongly today than I did in 1982 –
It has been my experience that God has created all the opportunities for ministry I can possibly handle at any given time. As I step out on faith in God, God guides, lifts, and provides the support needed for each situation. If I were granted any more ‘rights’ I don’t know what I would do with them! More rights usually lead to more work, you know.
Can you believe I said that over 20 years ago?
My personal advice, not any official Friends United Meeting advice, is that there are enough ministries to go around, and if one can’t feel comfortable working at FUM God will open pathways of ministry that will be equally or even more spiritually rewarding.
I believe my willingness to accept what jobs were offered without demanding ‘what the men’ received, is one reason there are women and divorced pastors accepted in Northwest Yearly Meeting today.
My recording experience was predictable in that environment. “If you’ll tell us your husband committed adultery, we can claim scriptural grounds for your divorce.” I wasn’t willing to stoop that low. At that time I had been working in yearly meeting churches for nearly 15 years. My life is my testimony.
One friend on the committee told me about their dilemma – it’s easy, he said, to be against divorce in ministry. It’s not so easy to be against Retha in ministry. I was recorded.
Experience with one another leads to understanding and grace. This is why the General Board’s recommendation to intervisitation is so important. One may never agree with another’s lifestyle interpretation, while still recognizing God’s work in that life – if we are willing to look and get to know one another. Grace, folks. This is what grace is all about.
I lived a consistent life within Northwest Yearly Meeting for 15 years before some were able to accept God’s call on my life to allow recording. Thirty years after my divorce, there are still some who would not recognize my spiritual journey.
I am convinced that had I fought for my ‘rights’ I would not be where I am today. I would still be fighting that battle and discontented with my lot.
The controversy around FUM’s sexual ethics policy was precipitated by my actions in preparation for the 2002 Triennial in Nairobi, Kenya.
There had been 20 plus names listed for possible worship sharing leaders. We only needed 12. I made a decision not to invite a person in a homosexual relationship to be a worship group leader. This was not a policy decision; just something I felt was a courtesy to our hosts. I also asked American women to wear skirts rather than pants, but no one reacted to that!
It was at the Triennial sessions that I discovered this person had already been asked to serve and subsequently had the invitation withdrawn. This is where the pain comes in. Whether you support the decision I made or not, what is important is the pain and humiliation caused a human being through my actions. And that makes my handling of the situation inexcusable.
Upon discovering that the invitation had been extended and then withdrawn, my immediate response was to apologize. Only through the Spirit of God could what I was feeling be honestly transmitted and received. There were no adequate words.
What I received in return was a blessing of forgiveness like I’ve never before experienced. Again, there were no adequate words. This godly man touched my life deeply in a way that removed my feelings of guilt.
Can he work for FUM? No.
Is he being used of God? Yes.
Do I understand all this? Absolutely not!
What I do understand is spirit-to-spirit communication and I’m willing to accept that at face value.
Revelation 22 “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb… On each side of the river stood the tree of life, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.”
THE LAMB SHALL OVERCOME, FOR HE IS THE KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS
Friends, God is calling Friends United Meeting to participate in the healing of the nations.
Our calling corporately goes way beyond what individuals want, think, or believe. Ours is a cooperative calling based on the leading of the Holy Spirit, discerned by your representative on the General Board to be evangelism, leadership training, global partnership and communication.
Pleas for leadership training arrive regularly from places like Jamaica, Uganda, North American, Russia and Kenya. We are called to do more than ever before. We cannot afford a logjam.
We are gathered here together representing the wide, diverse constituency that is Friends United Meeting. It is the most exciting place to be on July 13, 2005.
Friends United Meeting has been a ‘flowing’ river for 103 years. Certainly there were times when the stream became clogged with debris and was ineffective for its purposes. Today, Friends United Meeting has broken loose from the logjam and is flowing out at an ever-increasing pace.
The 2002 Triennial held in Nairobi, Kenya changed who we are. In the three intervening years Friends United Meeting…
- received its Kenya registration, making our presence there official
- restructured the entire organization to create an Africa Ministries position equal to the long-standing North American Ministries position
- hired an Africa Ministries representative, John Muhanji, who is a counterpart to Ben Richmond in North America
- officially opened a regional office in Kisumu, Kenya
- created a Communications Department
- heard from the General Board/Africa the importance of Kaimosi Hospital and entered into a restructure agreement (and all that entails)
- acquired property in Belize, allowing for expansion
- received USAID grant for Ramallah Friends Schools in the amount of $400,000 and Lugulu Hospital in the amount of $450,000
- hired a local director, Joyce Ajlouny, for the Ramallah Friends Schools
- placed on location four additional field staff families – Patrick Nugent/MK Regard, Andy and Lisa Stout, Eden and James Grace, John Hishmeh
- named the first ever Kenyan field staff, Joshua Lilinde to teach in Ramallah
- approved for future field staff service Tim and Lisa Lowe and Johan and Judy Maurer
…all this happened in addition to continuation. of the normal FUM program!
These are the exciting programmatic results of hard, hard work by the General Board. The adoption of priorities of evangelism, leadership training, global partnership and communication for this next Triennium are the things we are called to do together. These decisions have been prayed over, discussed, discussed again and again, refined and approved by the General Board meeting both in Richmond, Indiana and Kaimosi, Kenya. .
All give strength and direction to the flow of the river that is Friends United Meeting.
May we leave this place a changed people willing to corporately fulfill the vision God gave us through our General Board – to gather people into fellowships where Jesus Christ is known, loved and obeyed as Teacher and Lord through evangelism, leadership training, global partnership and communication.
I close with the words of Jesus:
If anyone is thirsty, come to me and drink. For the Scriptures declare that rivers of living water shall flow from the inmost being of anyone who believes in me. John 7:37b-38.