The Louisiana Quaker eLetter

ISSN 1523-4924—Vol. 1, No. 4

"OUR MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION"

Christianity is not a natural religion. No one is born with the informed belief or knowledge of the existence of God, his nature, or our divine obligations or moral duties to the creator. This is not to say that one cannot imagine gods (or create gods through a fervent imagination); after all, thousands of these creatures have been worshipped throughout history, and even into the current day. Surely, too, there is much in nature for us to look upon with awe and wonder—enough, in fact, that we may be encouraged to think that nature is pregnant with gods and spirits. Some of us even make up our own gods to worship.

Christianity is also not arrived at through any mystical expedition. One does not get to the Father through careful meditation, deep thought, special chants, extraordinary breathing techniques, sleep or sensory deprivation, hallucinogenic vegetables, spirited liquors, or any pharmaceutical-grade chemicals.

Christianity, like its Jewish lineage, is revealed. Abraham did not seek out God in the first place—God made his existence known to Abraham. Moses did not go wandering in search of God—God himself spoke to Moses. In this tradition, Jesus made himself known to others. He presented himself and said: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." [John 14:6] Jesus presented himself—and said, "[B]elieve the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father" [John 10:38].

Regardless of what we do in efforts to find him, God always presents himself to us—even if we often refuse to acknowledge him. In its simplest manifestation, the world was created in a way that makes it obvious to the careful observer the presence of its author and characteristics of the creator. And we are endowed with the ability to discern from this creation God's eternal power and divine nature—his qualities "being understood," says Paul, "from what has been made, so that men are without excuse" [Rom. 1:20]

God has also been known to go to extraordinary lengths to reveal himself to people. Moses served up ten plagues to the Egyptians to make his presence known [Ex 8:14-12:30]. Elijah humiliated the prophets of Baal in an amazing display of God's power [1 Kings 18:16-39]. King Belshazzar was made to see the writing on the wall [Dan. 5]. Jesus healed the sick and wounded, subjugated wind and sea, created food and drink from what was not there before, raised the dead, and was himself resurrected.

Why does God present himself to us? Because he wants a relationship—with you and with me. What impedes that relationship is always the simple fact that he is holy and we are not. In order to approach the Father, we must be made righteous in his eyes. In our tradition, there is no way to achieve this except through the regenerative powers of Christ Jesus, so that we may be reborn as children of light [Eph. 5:8; 1 Thess. 5:5], as children of God [1 John 3:2].

But just as God has made himself known to us through inspection of the created world and through the testimonies of those to whom he has already revealed himself, he also permits tragedy to bring us into his presence. A broken marriage, death of a loved one, failed health, chronic illness, terminal disease—these have all been instrumental in bringing persons near to God. It is as if, by allowing these afflictions, he is saying: "I have tried to bring you closer to me. Over time, I sent several of my followers to speak to you, to reveal the Gospel, but you turned them all away. Do you now hear me calling to you?"

As we celebrate the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ during this Easter period, and remember this great gift of reconciliation with the Father, we should also heed Paul's advice and not "receive God's grace in vain" [2 Cor. 6:1]. We need to take seriously our role as "Christ's ambassadors" [2 Cor. 5:20] and our calling to this "ministry of reconciliation" [2 Cor. 5:18]. As we seek to heed the great commandment—to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves [Matt. 2:37-40; Mark 12:29-31; Luke 10:27]—we need to be especially diligent in ministering to those who are hurting, for now is a proper time for them to hear the voice of God and for them to see Christ in us. This, after all, is how Christianity is now revealed to the world.

—Merle Harton, Jr., The Louisiana Quaker

All biblical references are NIV unless otherwise noted.

BOOK for the month:

Quakers in Conflict: The Hicksite Reformation. By H. Larry Ingle. Pendle Hill, 1998. ISBN 0-87574-926-7.

"And what sort of religion is this?" So asked Jonathan Taylor, clerk of Ohio Yearly Meeting, 1828, as he lay on the ground after tumbling out the door of the Mount Pleasant meeting house following a struggle with Hicksite reformers over physical possession of the clerk's desk. Needless to say, he lost the desk (it was literally pulled apart) and his usurper reconvened the meeting using the desk drawer as a table top. So it was that Quakers in Ohio split themselves into two separate groups. Like the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting before it, this was a division that was repeated (although not always with the same energy) in New York, Indiana, Baltimore, New Jersey, and elsewhere in New England. Not until 1955, nearly three generations later, were any of these factions reconciled.

What led to this division? Who were the main players? What was at issue? How could this happen among Friends? These are important questions, and Ingle takes it upon himself to answer them all, at the same time arguing—persuasively, I think—that the religious reformation promulgated by the predominantly rural Hicksites was in no small part a response to the new world order brought by the explosion of industrial capitalism in the US. Indeed, how to live an authentic Christian life, how to live daily in the Spirit, how to share with our children our values, how to keep marriages together, how to avoid alienation, how to do this in a surly world of profit, pleasure, credit, and consumption—this is the legacy Christians must now struggle with every day. To see this all played out over a hundred and seventy years ago is both exciting and dispiriting.

In the end, the most significant issue rested on the true source of authority within the community of Christian believers. Each side (orthodox Friends and the Hicksite reformers) here answered with a different voice, neither side being faithful—really, sadly—to the common tradition of Friends. - MCH

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Copyright © 1999 by Merle Harton, Jr.