Souhegan Friends Meeting (Quaker)
Souhegan Quaker Meeting (Friends)
Discussion of the introduction through Chapter 2 of “A Near Sympathy – The timeless Quaker Wisdom of John Woolman” by Miachael L. Birkel.
We are reading A Near Sympathy by Michael L. Birkel. At this program we will be discussing the introduction through Chapter 2 of this book. All are welcome.
Souhegan Meeting’s study group last week read a sermon by William Dewsbury, given in London, in May 1688, just a few weeks before his death (and taken down in short-hand by a non-Quaker visitor. Dewsbury was a Yorkshire country weaver, whose seeking led him into Cromwell’s army in the 1640s, and then out again, as he realized that God’s kingdom cannot be established by force of arms. In 1652, he became one of the earliest and most beloved of the “first publishers of Truth,” a powerful “apostle” for the movement, even though he spent 19 of the next 36 years in prisons, in that time of persecution.
The sermon (the only one we have by him) is very different in style from what we usually encounter at Sunday meetings! It gives a taste of the preaching that first gathered Friends in the early 1650s — direct, evangelical in tone, personal, and radical. The core of the message is that each of us man and woman, can be transformed and liberated spiritually, but this requires a baptism of the Holy Spirit and of fire. Standing in the presence of the Holy One, how shall you choose? You can stay in the refining crucible, and welcome Christ’s work and formation in you, or flee and remain in your half-truth or untruth, and reject the invitation of the lord of life to fulness and to joy. If you accept the fire, the Spirit will bring comfort, strength, and bread for the journey. It was the most radical part of the Quaker message to rely completely on the light of Christ as the guide and teacher for each person, and for the faith community.
It seemed to me that the conversation very quickly moved from “discussion” and head-work, to heart-work and seeking. As we tried to hear what Dewsbury was saying, we all found ourselves asking, Is any of this true to my experience, or to my longings? It is challenging to be confronted with so clear a statement, and to try to be plain and honest in response. In different ways, we spoke of wanting to be in a community in which can speak openly about our spiritual commitments, our condition, our desires after God, the baptism of fire and the Holy Spirit as we experience it — or avoid it. What can we do to foster each other’s growth, be accountable to each other as part of being accountable to Christ’s searching us and teaching us? It felt good to get to the level of openness that we were able to come to — good and scary, and the beginning of some new work in us. You could say that Dewsbury’s sermon did its work for us, as it did for the Friends who heard it so long ago.