“Let's move on! I've got some great plans for you!" --- God
The unknowns of life can be scary. If you are like me, stepping out into unfamiliar territory can be daunting. But for the people of God, it's not an option. In that regard I'm sure you will recognize the
following words from the prophet Isaiah to the people of Israel languishing in
exile.
"Forget the former things; do not
dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not
perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.” (Isaiah 43:18-19 - NIV)
The “new thing” is
God’s intervention on behalf of the exiles to bring them home, and to give them
a new hope and a new future.
Some may say I am
pushing the envelope applying these words to the present situation facing
Indiana Yearly Meeting. But I suggest they can be applied to the Friends
meetings that find themselves in the non-B category of the reconfiguration
issue, wondering if there is for them any hope and any future. In fact, if
reconfiguration eventually happens, I suppose those that move on as IYM-B
meetings may also claim these words. And that’s fine. It wouldn’t be the first
time Christians have found the same passages of the Bible speaking to more than
one side in conflicted situations.
But in this blog I am
applying them to non-B meetings. That may seem premature, since there still
hasn’t been a final resolution to the reconfiguration question. However, in
spite of the pleas and prayers for unity and reconciliation from around the
yearly meeting, there are strong voices that are determined to see reconfiguration
happen. If it does, that shouldn’t mean these groups cannot find
ways of fellowship and worshiping together. At least we hope not.
Joyce and I happen to
find ourselves in a non-B church, not because we looked and looked until we
could find one, but because after a year of visiting different meetings, and
lots of prayer for discernment we felt
led to Winchester Friends following our retirement as pastors at Friends
Memorial Church in Muncie. Upon joining in with them we found Winchester
Friends to be dealing with this issue, as were all of the rest of the meetings
of Indiana Yearly Meeting. But that is why I use the pronoun “us,” to include
Joyce and me as part of the non-B Friends on a possible exciting new journey.
Christian history is a
story of multiple schisms and splits, and Quakers within that story have had
their share. Some have been without great rancor. Others have been rather
boisterous. On one of my trips into Ohio with some IYM Training and Recording
candidates to get in touch with our Friends roots we visited the meetinghouse
where we were told there was an Ohio Quaker split years ago. If I’m not mistaken (I was once before) we
saw where, in the midst of this Quaker row, the Presiding Clerk’s chair was
tossed out of the window. Fortunately the Clerk was not still in it.
But along comes
the prophet’s call to get past the past---at least to not keep dwelling on it. Frankly,
Isaiah, that’s not always easy to do. There are ties and co-involvements in a
myriad of ministries that are a part of that past. There are memories of
meetings and conversions and conversations that are precious. You can't just shelve those easily. Therefore it doesn’t mean
that these must be erased. It does mean they should be placed in proper
perspective. The reason: we are otherwise liable to miss what God wants to do---to
us and through us---in the present and the future. I have read some really
exciting words on that infamous medium called Facebook from some persons who feel
God could be calling non-B Friends back to Christ-centered holistic missions,
with spirit filled meetings reaching out to a new a generation of seekers. God
can certainly be pleased with that!
But if we are too
absorbed in issues of financial assets, we can miss God calling us back to other
kinds of assets, such as ample gifts waiting to be used. If we are too absorbed
in matters of formal identity, such as whether we will be called Indiana Yearly
Meeting “this or that,” we can miss the calling to the most important identity
of all: the people of God through whom he wants to do a new thing.
If reconfiguration
happens, this is not to minimize the importance of financial assets and formal
identity, and there are other issues that will require trained and patient minds.
But it is to encourage those non-B meetings who are interested in travelling
into a new future together to plan a gathering where there can be celebration in praise
and prayer, worship in silence and vocal expression, all to the end that we can
discern the new way forward. Who will pick that up?
After all, when God
told the people of Israel in exile that he was “making a way,” he didn’t expect
them to just sit there and stew. They had to get up, put one foot of faith in
front of the other one, and move into that new future. And to us God is lovingly
saying: “Get the point?”
