Good morning, Friends! Thanks again for joining us at worship this morning.
We’ve been talking for the last couple of weeks about what Quakers believe. That’s always a challenge. Because each of us has different experiences, and each of us sees things in a different way.
The first week, we talked about Light. God is the light, the light of the world.
Jesus calls us to walk in God’s light, and to share God’s light. Each of us is a light-bearer, a light-bringer. Wherever we go, we find sparks of God’s light in every person we meet. Our job is the encourage God’s light in every heart, to fan it into flame, to help other people become light-bearers and light-bringers, too.
Last Sunday, we said that Quakers believe in Truth. When we get together for worship, we’re really searching for God’s truth.
The early Quakers were called Children of the Light. We were also called Seekers of Truth. We believe that God knows the answers. Our job is to try and see the truth God’s way. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me.”
Jesus also said, “This is why I was born, and this is why I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth, hears my voice.”
Today, we’re going to open up a whole new can of worms, and talk about something else Quakers believe. To start us off, here’s a Scripture from the Old Testament, from the prophet Micah.
Micah lived in troubled times. The northern half of Israel had just been conquered by invaders. The southern half of the country was corrupt and the writing was on the wall. Rich people drove ordinary folks into bankruptcy, and grabbed their land, so that poor people had no place to live. It was a dark and troubled time.
But Micah had a vision. He had a vision of how things could change. And he knew that God was the only one who could bring about that change. So, let’s listen to what Micah has to say.
In the last days, the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills, and peoples will stream to it.
Many nations will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.”
God’s law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
The Lord will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide.
They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.
Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid.
For the Lord Almighty has spoken.Micah 4:1-4
Quakers believe in peace. We don’t always agree about how to get it. But we believe that peace is the will of God. It’s what God wants, not just once in a while, but all the time.
God wants peace. And Quakers believe that war is not the will of God. Most wars, now and in the past, happen, because of human greed, human impatience, and human ego.
The Bible says this very clearly, in the letter of James:
“What causes wars? What causes fighting among you? They come from your desires that battle inside you. You desire but you do not have, so you kill. You scheme for things but you can’t get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend what you get on your own pleasure.” (James 4:1-3)
Jesus didn’t live that way. Jesus shared everything he had, all the love and power he had received from his Father, to help others.
He said when we help the least and lowest, anywhere and any time, it’s the same as if we do things to him, personally.
When Jesus said, “Love your neighbor” it’s impossible to believe he ever wanted us to kill our neighbor. And if war and violence aren’t anything Jesus ever did or ever wanted, how can we ever say that war is OK?
There is a lot of violence in the Bible. And there are a whole lot of wars in the Old Testament. Some of them might be self-defense. Many of them came from fear and greed and pride.
In some of the wars, God showed that a few people, with God’s help, could overcome a powerful enemy. In a couple of other places, God said, “You don’t have to do anything at all! Just watch, and I’ll win the battle for you!”
But in many cases, the prophets said that war was a punishment, a punishment for being unfaithful and for breaking God’s laws and for doing things God said never to do.
Today, we see war and violence all around us. Some are hot wars, fought with bombs and bullets. Some are cold wars, fought with information and intelligence. Some wars flare up, and die down. Others go on for decades, for generations.
Quakers have often been caught up in the middle of wars. In the first generation of Friends, many converts to the Quaker movement were actually veterans of the English Civil War, which killed close to 200,000 people – about 4.5% of the population of England at that time.
If that happened here in the U.S. today, a civil war would cost more than 14 million lives. People who say we need an uprising in America have no idea what kind of hell they’re talking about.
The Quakers in that first generation said, “The spirit of Christ, by which we are guided, doesn’t change. Christ doesn’t command us one time to stop a thing, because it’s evil, and then turn around another time, and tell us to do it. We know for certain, and we testify to the world, that the spirit of Christ, which leads us into all Truth, will never move us to fight and war against any one with outward weapons, neither for the kingdom of Christ, nor for the kingdoms of this world.” (Declaration to King Charles II, 1661)
That doesn’t say anything about the bravery or the dedication of people in the military. Remember, many of the first generation in the Quaker movement had been soldiers themselves. It simply says, Jesus doesn’t tell people to go to war.
Quakers are not the only church that says this. Our cousins, the Mennonites, the Amish, the Church of the Brethren, and several other churches have a similar position.
Many refuse to serve in the military, or perform alternative service. But staying out of war is only part of the story.
It isn’t always easy, to know what to do. War is so big, that sometimes it feels as though we can do nothing. But Quakers have always felt there’s something positive we can do, even if it’s something small.
During the American Revolution, the fighting here in North Carolina was especially harsh. Neighbor attacked neighbor, as people were suspected of being loyal to the British side or the American side. After the battle of Guilford Courthouse, the British and American armies both withdrew, leaving their dead and wounded on the battlefield.
The Quakers at New Garden in Greensboro buried the dead, British and American, side by side in their own graveyard. They opened their meetinghouse to nurse the wounded from both sides.
Nathan Hunt, one of the founders of Springfield, was living in Greensboro at the time. The early part of the battle was fought on his farm, and his horses and cattle were all taken by the British army. But Nathan Hunt volunteered to help care for the wounded. Smallpox broke out, but he stayed to help, risking his own life. (He caught it, but only had a mild case, and survived.)
As many of you know, an American soldier, John Brazelton, was killed by British troops near Springfield while hiding in a nearby barn after the battle. He’s buried here at Springfield.
Quakers believe in peace, but sometimes the only thing to do is try to help the victims of war.
During the American Civil War, most of the young men of our meeting refused to fight. Some fled to the North. Some hid in the woods and mountains for four long years. Some were caught, and the Confederate army tortured them or threatened them with execution to try and make them serve.
Knowing what to do wasn’t always easy. The clerk of Springfield Monthly Meeting, Allen U. Tomlinson, ran a large leather making business here before the Civil War.
Quakers said it was wrong to support the war, but Allen Tomlinson made a deal with the Confederate government. He would hire men to make boots for the Confederate army, and the workmen wouldn’t be drafted. Each man had to make at least 3 pairs of army boots a day.
Allen Tomlinson hired a lot of young Quaker men from Springfield, most of whom had never made boots before and didn’t know the first thing about it. The older employees all worked overtime, making extra pairs of boots, while the new young workers learned on the job. It kept them safe from the war.
I could tell you many more stories, from right here in our own meeting, about what different people did, in many different generations. We could probably tell stories all day.
My point is, Quakers believe in peace. We don’t force anyone, either to join the military or to stay out of it. But peace is something we care about.
We don’t put down anyone who serves. We know they’re brave, and dedicated. We respect them. But the way we read the gospel, Jesus came as the Prince of Peace.
Quakers have also had tremendous interest, in preventing war, and in helping the victims of war, on both sides.
Most people don’t know this, but in the early 1920’s, after the First World War, millions of people were starving to death in Russia. Quakers were one of the few groups who could enter the country. Herbert Hoover, a Quaker who later became president, helped to organize a food relief program, which was credited with saving over 400,000 lives.
As you all know, there’s a war going on in Israel right now. It’s been in the headlines for the last year.
Quakers have been trying to help both the Jews and the Palestinians for a long time. It started over 130 years ago, when Quakers started a school for girls in Ramallah, about 12 miles from Jerusalem. Girls didn’t get an education then.
The school expanded and it’s now for both girls and boys, K-12, with about 1,600 students. It’s one of the best schools in the entire Middle East.
Laura Davis from our meeting was a teacher there, for seven years, and some of you still remember her. Max and Jane Carter, who many of you know, just returned from a trip they made to Ramallah over the summer. I spent part of last Saturday, listening to them. I hope we can invite them here sometime soon, so we can all hear about their experience.
You contribute to the Ramallah Friends School, through the Circle and through the askings we pay every year, part of which goes to Friends United Meeting.
But Quakers have also tried to help Jewish people as well. During the late 1930’s, when Hitler was coming to power, Quakers helped more than 10,000 Jewish children to escape from Europe.
And then after the war, when the Israelis forced Palestinians from their homes, Quakers were put in charge of food and medical relief in Gaza. Quakers won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947 for that.
So, in current war in Israel, Quakers know people on both sides. People over there are shooting and dying, rather than talking and sitting down to listen. But when the way opens, I’m sure that there will be Quakers trying to help, trying to build peace again.
My point is, Quakers care about peace. And there are always opportunities to try and build peace, if we look for them.
We don’t have to put other people down. We don’t have to be enemies. We believe that peace is what God wants, all the time.
And making peace is creative. One of the things I’ve said many, many times, is that there are at least as many ways to make peace, as there are ways to make war.
Think about that, any time you get discouraged, and you think that war and violence will never end. There are at least as many ways to make peace, as there are ways to make war. And God is always calling saints to find new ways to make peace.
Most of you have heard the name of Clara Cox, who was pastor here at Springfield for 22 years, from 1918 to 1940. Second longest-serving pastor we’ve ever had. She was a female pastor, at a time when women pretty much didn’t serve as pastors. She helped to build the meetinghouse where we’re worshiping today.
But she was also a pioneer in many other ways. During the terrible Spanish flu epidemic, over 675,000 people died here in the U.S. With our larger population today, we would have lost nearly two million people – almost twice as many people as died from COVID. Clara Cox – our pastor – helped to set up a huge temporary tent hospital in downtown High Point.
She was also a pioneering social worker, who cared for both white and black families and young people. During the Jim Crow era, she was president of the Southern Women’s Anti-Lynching League, which took real courage. She was amazing!
Remember what I said: there are at least as many ways to make peace, as there are ways to make war. Clara Cox was a Quaker who tried a lot of them!
It is so easy to get discouraged, to feel hopeless, just to give up. Sometimes it feels as though all we can do is just thoughts and prayers.
But if we ask God to open a door, if we ask God for a glimmer of light, there is always something we can do.
We can pray. We can build. We can listen. We can teach. We can help the wounded, and feed the hungry. We can support people on the front lines of peace who do these things.
Once again, Quakers respect people who serve in the military, with courage and discipline. We just think there’s another way, a way that Jesus wants.
Our goal isn’t for one side to win, and another side to lose. We believe that people can live together in peace, and we share that belief with everyone.
Let me read again the Scripture we started with this morning:
The Lord will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide.
They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.
Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid.
For the Lord Almighty has spoken.
We believe that this is what God still wants – for people everywhere to live in peace, to have a place of their own, and not to be afraid.