Good morning, Friends! For the last few weeks, we’ve been talking about what Quakers believe. And you might have noticed, that there’s one thing we haven’t talked about.
It’s so obvious, that you might think I’d completely forgotten about it. We’ve talked about light, and truth, and peace, and equality, and simplicity. What’s missing?
Quakers really love quiet prayer. Back in the beginning, that’s all we did – no hymns, no sermon, none of that other stuff.
If you ask people from other churches what’s different about us, one of the first things they notice is the quiet prayer time.
In some Quaker meetings, it takes up the whole worship hour. Here at Springfield, sometimes it’s only 10 minutes. Sometimes it’s longer. But we always include time for quiet prayer – what we call open worship.
Today, we’re going to do things kind of backwards. I’ve handed out about a dozen Scripture readings about quiet. In a minute, I’m going to ask people to read them aloud, one by one, with a little pause in between. Then we’re going to sing a hymn, just a short one, a kind of a meditation hymn.
Then we’re going to have our open worship, our quiet prayer time. If any of you feel there’s something you want or need to say, that’s fine. If there’s time at the end, I may add a couple of things. But quiet prayer time is at the heart of who we are.
For God alone my soul waits in silence;
from him comes my salvation.
Psalm 62:1
Those who dwell in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty
Psalm 91:1
Behold, I stand at the door and knock!
If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,
I will come in and eat with them,
and they with meRevelation 3:20
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.
Mark 1:35
When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Matthew 6:6
Come near to God, and God will come near to you.
James 4:8
Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.Psalm 46:10
There is a time to keep silence, and a time to speak.
Ecclesiastes 3:7
Be still in the presence of the Lord,
and wait patiently for him to act.
Don’t worry about evil people who prosper
or fret about their wicked schemes.Psalm 37:7
This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says:
‘Only in returning to me and resting in me will you be saved.
In quietness and confidence is your strength.’Isaiah 30:15
Let all that I am wait quietly before God,
for my hope is in him.Psalm 62:5
The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
He makes me rest in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.Psalm 23:1-2
If you look for me with all your heart,
you will find me.Jeremiah 29:13
Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, for I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.Matthew 11:28-29
The Lord is good to those who wait for Him,
To the soul who seeks Him.
It is good that one should hope and wait quietly
For the salvation of the Lord.Lamentations 3:25-26
The LORD is in his holy temple;
let all the earth be silent before him.Habakkuk 2:20
Jesus rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Silence! Be still!”
Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm.Mark 4:39
It doesn’t seem like much. Just being quiet. Just praying – sometimes praying with words. Sometimes praying without words.
Paul said that words aren’t always necessary. He said that when we don’t have words, that the Holy Spirit understands, and the Holy Spirit fills in the blanks, and carries our prayers all the way up to God.
You would think, that nobody would get upset about praying quietly. But in that early generation of Quakers, other Christians got really angry at us. Because they felt that quiet prayer was like a criticism of them.
What if we don’t need priests? What if we don’t need stained glass, and church bells, and robes, and choirs? What if we think that sometimes, those things just get in the way of being close to God?
Because that’s what quiet prayer is really all about, isn’t it? Being close to God. And if we’re close to God, we have everything we need.
You can picture it, any way you like. Jesus used to welcome little children, and pull them up into his lap. Sometimes that’s all we need. In the quiet, we can almost hear Jesus singing to us – “Jesus loves me, this I know. . .”
Or you can picture it as holding Jesus’ hand. Or like feeling the waves or the wind wash over you. Or it’s like being on top of a mountain, or like being safe and warm by a quiet fire.
We all feel quiet prayer differently, each in our own way.
Do you feel like the world is a noisy place? Do you get irritated and exhausted by all the commercials, the spam calls, the car horns and sirens? Do you feel like your life is all about junk mail, and political ads, and people trying to use you?
Maybe you need some quiet time.
Or, do you feel anxious about your life? Do you feel worried, or angry, or depressed? Do you feel like you can never rest, because of all the things you have to do? Or do you feel like you’re empty, that your life is echoing and lonely?
Who is there for you? Who’s going to listen to you? Care for you?
Sometimes, we need to come to a quiet place, where we know, in our hearts, that God is here with us.
That’s what it’s about.
We can wake up and discover that God is with us, all the time. Not just words, but feeling, knowing that God is here.
Quakers don’t tell people how to do that. We just offer an opportunity for it.
Walk in, sit down, be quiet.
If you have always liked quiet, you might already be a Quaker!
It’s not something that everybody likes. It’s not even something we do every minute of the day. There are Quakers who like to stand up and cheer at football games. There are Quakers who like to sing loudly, or who enjoy fireworks, or big concerts. But on the whole, Quakers are people who appreciate quiet. And we make times and seize opportunities for quiet prayer.
William Penn, one of the early generations of Friends, once wrote:
“Until we are persuaded to stop, and step a little aside, out of the noisy crowd and encumbering hurry of the world, and calmly take a prospect of things, it will be impossible we should be able to make a right judgment of ourselves. . .” (Fruits of Solitude)
That’s so important. Stop the world. Get off the roller coaster. Lay down your burdens. If we don’t do those things, we will never really know who we are. We may never hear what God is saying.
And we can do that on our own. We can pray at home. We literally can pray anywhere. At school, at work, while we’re driving down the road, when we’re laying in the bed at night. We can pray anywhere, on our own.
But there’s a special benefit, when we come here, and pray quietly together. We feel more than just ourselves. We feel stronger, and truer and better.
Sometimes during open worship, other people will say something that we already feel in our hearts. We didn’t plan it. They didn’t plan it. But it’s a “God thing”. We come away, knowing that God gave that other person a message for us.
Another early Quaker, Robert Barclay, had that experience. He said,
“As many candles lighted, and put in once place, do greatly augment the light, and make it more to shine forth; so when many are gathered together into the same life, there is more of the glory of God. . .to the refreshment of each individual, for that he partakes not only of the light and life raised in himself, but in all the rest.”
That’s what Quaker worship is like.
You know, when we get together on Christmas Eve every year? Everybody lights a candle. We sing Silent Night. And then there’s a quiet time. We look around, and we see the light of Christ, shining in each others’ faces. It’s a holy moment. That’s what I’m talking about.
But quiet worship, here on Sunday, can have some of that same quality. We aren’t alone. We are friends. We are fellow Christians.
During the week, maybe we have family, or maybe we live by ourselves. But here, we’re together.
You’re never alone. We all believe that. We believe that God is always with us. But sometimes, it’s easier to believe, when there’s someone in the same room with you.
It doesn’t always need words. Sometimes words get in the way. But know, that other people struggle, just like you. You may not know what things are bothering them, or bring them joy.
But you know you’re not alone. If you ask, or maybe even if you don’t ask, they will pray for you. They will listen to you. You have friends. They’re listening to God, to hear what God wants them to do, for you.
I could go on. There are dozens of Scriptures, there are honestly hundreds of quotations, about quiet prayer. But I think you all get the point.
As one of our readings this morning says, “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be lifted up above all the nations. I will be lifted up, in all the earth. . .”
Or as Jesus says, in another of our readings, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock! If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with them, and they with me. . .”
Remember all these things. And remind each other of all these things. Share, when you feel God has given you a question, or something to say.
Each of us is a minister. Every one of us can pray. Sometimes we speak or sing. Sometimes we’re quiet. But wherever we are, God is here.