Good morning, Friends! Thank you all for coming to worship this morning.
I’ve got a question for you all today. What do Quakers believe? What do Quakers believe about God, about Jesus, about the Holy Spirit?
Some people say, “Well, when you’re a Quaker, you can believe anything you want!”
It’s true that we don’t have a creed or a list of beliefs that everybody has to agree on. It’s true that people have a pretty wide range of religious beliefs here.
Most Quakers – the overwhelming majority of Quakers around the world – would unhesitatingly identify themselves as Christian. But we’re a different kind of Christian from many of our neighbors.
We don’t have a rule book. We don’t have priests or bishops. We don’t require baptism or serve communion. A lot of the time, it feels like the answer is, “Quakers don’t DO that!”
A lot of Quakers don’t drink alcohol. Some do. Some Quakers refuse to serve in the military as a matter of conscience. Others do, or they choose alternative service.
What do Quakers believe about daily living, about getting along with each other, about relations with our fellow human beings?
And where does it all come from? What are the reasons? What are the Scriptures? What is our religious experience, that makes us different?
Today we’re going to start a series of messages about all this. I’m not sure how long it’s going to be. It may take a few weeks. But we’re going to get down to brass tacks on some of this stuff, so that we all have an idea.
I’m saying right now, and I’ll say it again each time, you don’t have to accept or believe anything that I say. Part of what Quakers believe, is that each person has a choice. Each of us is free, and that’s important.
But if you ask people here what they believe and why, we’re probably going to come out pretty close to each other. It’s because we share a tradition. It’s because of the way we read the Bible, and it’s because each of us, in our own spiritual journey, has asked similar questions.
So, let’s get started! Today, I’m going to read to you from the opening of the first letter of John. This is the epistle of John, which is different from the gospel of John. They’re similar in spirit, but they’re different books of the Bible.
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched – this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.
The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.
We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light. In him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:1-9
Quakers believe in light. “God is light; in God there is no darkness at all. . .”
If you go back to the book of Genesis, n the beginning, God said, “Let there be light!” and there was light. (Genesis 1:3)
The gospel of John says that Christ was “there in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him nothing created was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of all people. And the light still shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never put it out.” (John 1:3-5)
So, God has this light thing going. All the way back when, God was in the light business. And God is still all about light, God is light, today. And always will be.
As human beings, we love light. We like sun rises, and star light, and camp fires. One of our favorite times of the year, is when we light candles on Christmas Eve, and see the light reflected in each others’ faces.
Almost every kind of light is important to us. Light lifts our spirits. And it’s a symbol. Light is a symbol of God’s presence. Whenever there’s light, we feel God closer.
When Quakers got started, we wanted everything about our new movement to be 100% real. People were so excited about what they experienced in Quaker meeting, that they needed new words, a whole new vocabulary, to describe it.
Quakers felt that Light was like another name for God. There were plenty of Bible verses to support that. Jesus himself said, “I AM the light of the world; whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but have the light of life. . .” (John 8:12)
Jesus brought light, wherever he went. He helped blind people to see. He brought light into darkened lives. He shone a glaring light on arrogance and hypocrisy.
So, the Quakers read Bible passages like this, and said, “Wow! This is what it feels like for us!”
George Fox, who more than anyone else started the Quaker movement, said, “I saw. . .that there was an ocean of darkness and death, but an infinite ocean of light and love, which flowed over the ocean of darkness: and in that also I saw the infinite love of God; and I had great openings. . .”
The early Quakers called themselves Children of the Light, even before we called ourselves Friends.
In one of his sermons, George Fox said, “You will say, [in the Bible] Christ says this, and the apostles say that; but what can you say? Are you a child of Light? Have you walked in the Light, and what you speak, is it inwardly from God?. . .”
This is what it was all about for the Quakers: God is light, and 100% honesty. Say what God puts in your heart, without adding to it, and without subtracting from it.
And let God’s light shine! Didn’t Jesus say, “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill can’t be hidden. No one who lights a lamp hides it under a basket. No! You put it up on a stand, so that it gives light to the whole house.” (Matthew 5:14-15)
So, Quakers are BIG on light. It’s one of our favorite ways to talk about God. And that way of thinking has some important consequences.
There’s light. There is also darkness. There is horrible, terrible, life-destroying stuff that goes on in the world. It affects individuals and families. It attacks communities and nations. It threatens our survival on this planet. Darkness is real.
A lot of people in the Christian church blame it on Adam and Eve. Way back in the Garden of Eden, they say, something evil snuck into the world. Adam and Eve got thrown out of paradise, and ever since then, every human being is born, already corrupted with the evil they did.
That’s what they call original sin. It’s an idea that explains a lot, if you think that way. People can be rescued from original sin, by baptism. But anybody who isn’t baptized or who doesn’t believe the way they do, is going to Hell. Pretty harsh.
Quakers have said – often in the face of heavy opposition, and at great personal cost – that everyone still has a spark of God’s light in their heart. That spark can be very faint. It can be almost out. But it’s a spark which God has put there, and our job is to reach that spark, and fan it into life.
That’s why Quakers are so big on education, and why so many Quakers work in health care and counseling. It’s why so many Quakers have worked in prison reform.
When white people came to the New World, most of them thought that Native Americans were lost souls, because they weren’t Christians. Most white people felt the same way about black slaves. Quakers felt that God’s light was already present in their hearts. They are fellow human beings, sisters and brothers.
We are all children of God. And that affects how we treat each other. You cannot be a Christian, and enslave your brother or sister. You cannot be a Christian, and take away their land. That is not walking in the light. That is walking in darkness, and it has never been God’s will.
Almost everybody loves John 3:16, where Jesus says, “God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but have everlasting life. . .”
And a lot of people love where Jesus goes on and says, “God didn’t send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through him. . .”
But then Jesus goes on immediately after that and says, “This is the judgement, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. All who do evil hate the light and don’t come to the light, so that their deeds won’t be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.” (John 3:19-21)
To Quakers, all this makes perfect sense. God IS light. Christ came to share the light. The Holy Spirit speaks the light in our hearts, when we listen.
A whole lot of what we do when we pray, is we wait for the light of God to enter our hearts. It doesn’t always need words. A lot of the time, the light is enough. It shows us who God is, it shows us what we’re doing, and it shows us the way forward.
One of the Psalms of the Old Testament says, “Your word is like a lamp at my feet; you are a light on my path. . .” (Psalm 119:105)
The Light speaks to us. It lights up the dark corners of our lives. It opens our eyes. It shows us the way.
One of the other Psalms, Psalm 27, says:
“The Lord is my light, and my salvation; who shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?When evildoers attack me, to eat my flesh, they shall stumble and fall.
Though an army encamps against me, my heart shall not fear;
Though war arise against me, yet I will be confident.
Come, my heart says, seek the Lord’s face!
Your face, Lord, I seek; do not hide your face from me.I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!”
(Psalm 27:1-2, 5-6, 13-14)
This is how Quakers understand God. This is what we believe.
“God is light; in God there is no darkness at all. . .”
There are lots of other things we can say about God. But this is one of our foundation stones. If this is how you think, you might be a Quaker already.