Daily Old Testament: Isaiah 27 and My Own Book "Leadings: A Catholic's Journey Through Quakerism" (Part 25)

Isaiah 27 – The Lord’s “terrible, swift sword” will “punish Leviathan, the swiftly moving serpent” (27:1). And, following up on image of the vineyard presented in Isaiah 5, the prophet tells us of God’s love of it. “I, the Lord, will watch over it, watering it carefully. Day and night I will watch so no one can harm it. My anger will be gone (27:3-4).

The Lord will burn up the “briers and thorns” (27:3) that try to invade them, but if they “make their peace with me” (27:5), they will find shelter in the Lord. The exiled will return and worship on the holy mountain

From Leadings: A Catholic’s Journey Through Quakerism

Part 25

In January of 1980, I had an opportunity to attend a conference in Pennsylvania of a Quaker group called New Foundation Fellowship, led by a man named Lewis Benson. Born a Friend in 1909, Benson discovered the writings of George Fox, founder of the Religious Society of Friends, early in his life, shortly after experiencing a Christian conversion similar in some respects to the conversion Fox had undergone. Benson had been amazed to learn how different Fox’s message was from the message he had grown up with as a birthright Friend [even then]. By the late 1970s, he had become the leading authority on Fox and Fox’s theology among Friends. The disparity between that theology and the relatively incoherent theology of twentieth-century Friends distressed him, so he made it his life’s work to try to revive the Christian vision of Fox in the Society of Friends. New Foundation was only his latest effort to promote this mission.

The gathering was my first formal exposure to Fox’s thought and to the kind of worship that could happen when everyone was gathered into the same vision of Christ. It was very inspiring. I had read a little of Fox in shorter pamphlets and collections of early Quaker writers, but now I became familiar with his journal. Because of the importance of Fox’s vision to my own ideas and my own journey, I need to spend some time presenting his thought. To do that I must also touch a little on the historical context in which he lived.

Fox was born in 1624 in the midlands of England. To put that date into some historical context, 1624 was just a little over a hundred years after Luther posted his Ninety-five Theses on the door of the Wittenberg Church and just a little under a hundred years since England’s Henry VIII had broken from Rome to start the Church of England. In that hundred years, England had suffered enormous religious turmoil. Henry’s daughter Mary had tried to reestablish the Roman Catholic Church, burning at the stake some three hundred Protestants in the effort. Elizabeth I reversed her sister’s work and reestablished the Protestant church along more “moderate” lines – keeping a good deal of the Catholic pageantry and hierarchical structure while moving away from Catholic dogmas a bit more than her father had.

At the same time all these religious changes were taking place, the economic and political stability of the country was also being shaken to the core, a shaking that brought forth numerous splinter groups of religious dissenters. The dissenters had radical ideas about the shape England’s social and political structure should assume. By the time Fox was born, religious tolerance had gained a modest foothold in England, but radical Protestants and Catholics were still subject to persecution – lose of property, jailing, whipping, branding, and other trials. The brutality and persistence of religious conflict in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries would ultimately bring about an antireligious reaction with the coming of the Enlightenment, but Fox lived in the turmoil just before, a period of radical religious thought and millenarian expectations. Fox was sixteen when the English Civil War broke out. He was twenty-five when Charles I was put to death by the Puritan faction of the English Parliament.

        

Fox describes himself in his journal as an ardent Christian from his earliest years, but his devotion to Christ and his constant reading of the scriptures did not bring him happiness. This depressed and distressed him. At nineteen, he left home to seek out someone who could give him advice or guide him, encourage him, and help him achieve the kind of peace he thought the gospel of Christ promised to believers. He visited everyone he thought might be able to help – all the “experts” in religion – but no one could help him. His relatives tried to get him to find a wife and settle down, but he was persistent. After a few years, he began to have what he called “openings” into the gospel and the Scriptures – things he felt clear and certain about. He realized, for example, that true believer in Christ is not just someone who calls himself a Christian, but one who has in some way “passed from death to life” (Fox, Journal, 7); that being a real “minister of Christ” (Fox, Journal, 11) meant more than just getting a degree at a university; and “that God, who made the world, [really] did not dwell in temples made with hands . . . but in people’s hearts” (Fox, Journal, 8).

Then, sometime in the year 1647, when he was twenty-three, Fox had a powerful personal experience of God’s presence. He described it as a voice saying “There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition . . .[and] when I heard it my heart did leap for joy” (Fox, Journal, 11).  It is hard at first to understand why these words had such revelatory power for Fox. He already believed that God dwelled in human hearts, and he already knew that Christ was the center of his faith. But what he experienced was not an intellectual idea but and experience of God’s voice opening Christ’s presence to him in a very immediate way. Fox’s experience of Christ’s voice and presence in him were not the end of his seeking, any more than they would be for me centuries later. It was the beginning. For several years after this opening, Fox continued struggling with the temptations and worldly habits that kept him from entering into Christ’s peace. But he finally did come into a state of mind and heart so settled and so sure of Christ’s support that he described it as a kind of reentry into paradise. The idea that a Christian could come into such a blessed state in this life outraged many contemporaries of Fox, who believed as a matter of doctrine that man could never overcome sin in this life but had to wait for God’s reward of peace in heaven. Fox didn’t mean by his claim that all the outward incidences of life could be perfect – he suffered many outward hardships over the course of his later life – but he never retracted his statement that believers could come into a state of spiritual restoration in this life. In fact, many of the “testimonies” Friends later became famous for flowed directly from the conviction that they could.

Daily Old Testament and Early Christian Writings: Numbers 11 and Irenaeus Selections: The Unity and Number of the Gospels

Numbers 11 – The first of what Schocken Bible editors call “rebellion narratives,” [there will be six] the people become discontented in the year following the second Passover celebration, angering God, so that “the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed the outskirts of the camp” (11:1).

Despite the organization of the people and the establishment of a kind of community order; despite the loving care of the Lord in providing manna and water for the people, a spirit of discontent and longing for the comforts of the life of slavery in Egypt comes upon the people and angers the Lord.  The immediate cause of the people’s discontent is the memory of the good foods they can no longer get: the meat, the cucumbers and melons.  They are tired of the simple sustenance God has provided them with.  But beyond the immediate causes, one senses that there is just a conflicted spirit in the people.

They are ambivalent about the freedom God has brought them into.  The desire for freedom is not unequivocal.  We desire also the things that satisfy our appetites.  If we look into the universal meaning of this story we see that we too are not single minded in our desire for the kind of freedom that comes from God. 

As George Fox puts it in his journal, “I found there were two thirsts in me, the one after the creatures, to have gotten help and strength there, and the other after the Lord the creator and his Son Jesus Christ.  And I saw all the world could do me no good.  If I had had a king’s diet, palace, and attendance, all would have been as nothing, for nothing gave me comfort but the Lord by his power.  And I saw professors, priests, and people were whole and at ease in that condition which was my misery, and they loved that which I would have been rid of.  But the Lord did stay my desires upon himself from whom my help came, and my care was cast upon him alone” (12).

We who are in the process of deliverance, the time of conversion must be stayed upon the presence of the Lord and be satisfied with the simple food he gives us.  It may not be a feast at first; we may feel ourselves called strongly by desires more superficial and more likely to lead us backward, but we should not be surprised by our ambivalence either.  The people of Israel felt restless and ungrateful at times; they even fell into complete apostasy.  The time in the desert is a time of drama, not a time of unceasing rejoicing.  It is only the power of the Lord that can bring us through.

The Lord tells Moses to assemble 70 elders: “I will . . .take some of the spirit that is on you and will bestow it on them, that they may share the burden of the people with you.  You will then not have to bear it by yourself” (11:17).

But he also tells him that He will provide meat for the people—for a month, until they’re sick of meat (11:20). The sated appetite cloys after a while. Moses doubts the Lord can bring them victory, seeing there are 600,000 soldiers. 

The burdens of leadership are dramatized throughout the story of Moses’ life—he is set apart, he is alone, rejected by his people for trying to help them; he must run away, yet his “call” to lead will not leave. He feels overwhelmed by the burden God puts on him; he feels ill-equipped humanly speaking.  He is asked to do the impossible—confront the most powerful ruler on earth on behalf of an enslaved group of people.  He must deal with the frustrations of failure, the logistics of success and the burdens of leading; now he must contend with the venality of the people he wants to save, and the wrath of the God, who is angry that the people are ungrateful.  He must wrestle with God for His support and help on a number of occasions and later he will be challenged by others who feel they too should share in leading, even by members of his own family.  In the end, he will not even get to enjoy the reward of entry into the land he has labored to bring his people into.

The spirit does come down on the elders (11:25), but two men who had been asked to come, were not there. Still the spirit came to them in camp, and they prophesied [or as Schocken translates, “acted like prophets”].  Moses is told and people ask him to stop them, but he says: “Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets! Would that the Lord might bestow his spirit on them all!” (11:29). Then the quail come. 

Irenaeus of Lyons (c.180 AD)

Selections from the Work Against Heresies

Book III – The Faith in Scripture and Tradition

The Unity and Number of the Gospels – “These, then, are the principles of the gospel. They declare one God, the maker of this universe, who was proclaimed by the Prophets, and who through Moses established the dispensation of the Law, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and besides him they know no other God, nor any other Father.”

The Gnostics know that the Gospels refute them. That is why they dispute them or cut them up [Marcion]. The followers of Valentinus turn to John, but Irenaeus repeats that the preface of John totally undermines Valentinus’ views.

Then he gets into a little Christian “numerology” – he argues that there is a reason why there are only four gospels; they correspond to the “four zones of the world in which we live, and four principal winds, while the Church is spread over all the earth, and the pillar and foundation of the Church is the gospel, and the Spirit of life, it fittingly has four pillars, everywhere breathing out incorruption and revivifying men.”

He goes on to make reference to Psalm 80, thought to have been written by David, to emphasize the “fullness” of the number four. He says, “the cherubim have four faces, and their faces are images of the activity of the Son of God. For the first living creature, it says, was like a lion, signifying his active and princely and royal character; the second was like an ox, showing his sacrificial and priestly order; the third had the face of man, indicating very clearly his coming in human guise; and the fourth was like a flying eagle, making plain the giving of the Spirit who broods over the Church. Now the Gospels, in which Christ is enthroned, are like these.” This is “the first appearance of the creatures of Ezek., ch. 1, and Rev. 4:7, 8, as symbols of the Evangelists; later the lion is assigned to Saint Mark and the eagle to Saint John” (note in online text).

The Gospel of John corresponds to the first “face” – the lion – for he “signif[ies] his active and princely and royal character.” The second, Luke, shows “his sacrificial and priestly order.” Matthew, the man’s “face” tells of his human birth, and Mark represents the eagle, for he “takes his beginning from the prophetic Spirit who comes on human beings from on high, saying, ‘The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet,’ showing a winged image of the gospel.” 

He also points out that there were four covenants “given to mankind: one was that of Noah’s deluge, by the bow; the second was Abraham’s, by the sign of circumcision; the third was the giving of the Law by Moses; and the fourth is that of the Gospel, through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Daily Bible Reading: Ezekiel 37 and Revelation 6

Ezekiel 37 – The Dry Bones – The hand of the Lord carries Ezekiel to the middle of a valley full of bones. He makes him walk up and down among them.

“He said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ I said, ‘You know, Lord Yahweh’. He said, ‘Prophesy over these bones. Say, “Dry bones, hear the word of Yahweh. The Lord Yahweh says this to these bones: I am now going to make the breath enter you, and you will live. I shall put sinews on you. I shall make flesh grow on you. I shall cover you with skin and give you breath, and you will live; and you will learn that I am Yahweh”’ (37:3-7).

As Ezekiel prophesies to the bones, they stir and come back to life – “the bones joined together. I looked, and saw that they were covered with sinews; flesh was growing on them and skin was covering the, but there was no breath in them. He said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man. Say to the breath, ‘The Lord Yahweh says this: Come from the four winds, breath; breathe on these dead; let them live!’” (37:7-10).

He continues: “O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of Israel. . .I will put my spirit in you that may live. . .” (37:14).

Ezekiel’s passage on the “dry bones” is all about being spiritually resurrected from the dead, and early Friends understood resurrection. What Ezekiel describes here in 6^th c. Palestine, Christ brought to life in his own resurrection from the dead and it was also what early Friends experienced in 17^th c. England:

Wait to see the law set up within . . .and the rebellious nature yoked.  Wait in patience for the judgment, and let the Lord’s work have its perfect operation in you; and so as you turn to him who has smitten and wounded you; he will bind up and heal.  And give up all to the great slaughter of the Lord, to the Cross . . .And as the earth comes to be plowed up, the seed which is sown comes up; and, the rocks broken, the water gushes out.  You so will see that some promises will arise in you to the Seed which is coming up out of the grave, and so the love of God will appear in you, and you will be stayed, and see hope in the midst of calamity . . .And as you come to be redeemed from under the bondage of sin, and come above the bonds of death, and the pure principle lives in you, there will be a delight in you to do the will of the father, who has redeemed you from sin and its law to righteousness and its law, . . . (Francis Howgill)

.  . . he that hears not the Voice of the Son of God, does not

live but is in death. . .And the hour is come, that they which

have been in the graves have heard the Voice of the Son of

God and do live.  They that do not hear . . .are in the death

and the grave.  They that come to believe in the Light, hear

the Voice of the Son of God. . .and live over death, the grave

and hell, and so come to Life (George Fox).

Ezekiel’s prophecy is of God’s gathering of the loyal remnant.  “I will make them a covenant of peace; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them, and I will multiply them, and put my sanctuary among them forever.  My dwelling shall be with them; I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”  These words which were so central to the exiled Jews and to the early Christians, who saw in them a prophesy of Christ’s resurrection, and were also so important to Friends who saw the churches of their day as dry bones scattered all throughout Europe are hopefully also applicable to the condition of the church today. I believe they are.  I do believe Christ will gather us all together somehow.  His intention is inextinguishable.  It has been there from the very beginning of creation and I do not believe the world will end until He has brought forth what he meant to bring forth and he’ll do it without violating our freedom.

Revelation 6 – Now the Lamb breaks the seals of the scoll:

First – a white horse appears with a rider holding a bow; he is given a victor’s crown.

Second – a bright red horse whose rider will take peace away and set men killing each other; he has a sword.

Third – a black horse whose rider has scales to weigh out wheat and barley skimpily and who will give no oil or wine.

Fourth – a deathly pale horse with a rider called plague with Hades at his heels.

These four are given authority over a quarter of all the earth to kill with sword, famine, plague and wild beasts (6:8).

Fifth – he sees “underneath the altar the souls of all the people who had been killed on account of the word of God, for witnessing to it” (6:9). They all shout, “’Holy, faithful Master, how much longer will you wait before you pass sentence and take vengeance for our death on the inhabitants of the earth?’” (6:10) They are told to be patient.

Sixth – at the breaking of the sixth seal, there is a violent earthquake and the sun goes black. The moon turns red and the Great Day of God’s anger has arrived. The rich and powerful race to the mountains to hide from the anger of the Lamb.

Daily Bible Reading: Judith 9 and Hebrews 10

Judith 9 – Judith throws herself to the ground, scatters ashes on her head and cries out to the Lord. This is her prayer:

“[Y]ou have made the past, and what is happening now, and what will follow. What is, what will be, you have planned; what has been, you designed” (9:5).

“See the Assyrians, boasting in their army, glorying in their horses and their riders, exulting in the strength of their infantry. Trust as they may in shield and spear, in bow and sling, in you they have not recognized the Lord, the shatterer of war, yours alone the title of Lord” (9:9).

“Break their violence with your might, in your anger bring down their strength” (9:11).

“Your strength does not lie in numbers, not your might in violent men; since you are the Lord of the humble, the help of the oppressed, the support of the weak, the refuge of the forsaken, the savior of the despairing” (9:11). The numbering of the verses in this book is very chaotic – probably different texts having different orders, so it is not easy to note verse numbers. That is why this is a repeat of 9:11.

“Give me a beguiling tongue to wound and kill those who have formed such cruel designs against your covenant, against your holy dwelling place, against Mount Zion, against the house belonging to your sons. And demonstrate to every nation, every tribe, that you are Yahweh, God almighty, all-powerful” (7:18-19).

Hebrews 10 – The fact that the sacrifices of the Old Covenant were repeated annually is a sign to this writer that they were not successful in eradicating sin, or at least the consciousness of sin. This is where Christ’s sacrifice is seen as superior. It happened once, and it effectuated the elimination of sin once and for all time.

Quoting Psalm 40, the writer notes that God was not pleased with the holocausts or sacrifice for sin that were offered. What God wanted was obedience to His will (10:7). “And this will was for us to be made holy by the offering of his body made once and for all by Jesus Christ” (10:10).

It is probably a good thing to note that the psalm, believed to have been written by David, contains the same perspective we still bring to the whole question of religious practice. What we seek in the rituals is an experience of the “inward” reality of overcoming sin, transience, meaninglessness. Good Jews sought this throughout their history; superficial Jews settled for the routines. I think the language here can make Christians feel a little superior – carelessly superior. If you think you can enter into the “power of God” without some spiritual “work” even as you read that it’s all been done “once and for all” then I think you are not getting it. The writer of Hebrews will emphasize this towards the end of this chapter.

From this point on in history – post-incarnation - we are dealing with a New Covenant. “By virtue of that one single offering, he has achieved the eternal perfection of all whom he is sanctifying. The Holy Spirit assures us of this; for he says, first: This is the covenant I will make with them when those days arrive; . . .I will put my laws into their hearts and write them on their minds” (10:15-17). No more sin offerings are to be made.

Through the blood of Christ we will be able to enter the Sanctuary – through the curtain that is his body.

The generation that lived during the time this book was written did not know how much time would come, how many generations would pass before the end of time would come; we still do not. They saw it all as DONE. Their job as they saw it was just to remain faithful to Christ, and remain perfect in His sight, until the promised end arrived. And it isn’t really any different for us. The END arrives for all of us pretty quickly – as promised. We still must be patient in our faith, and the fact that Christ put an end to all the Old Covenant sacrifices and offerings DOESN'T MEAN believers can assume it’s all been done without any effort.

The writer of this epistle reminds them that if they “fell away” there was no second chance. “If, after we have been given knowledge of the truth, we should deliberately commit any sins, then there is no longer any sacrifice for them” (10:26). It is interesting to remember that the earliest Christians did not think they could “fall away” [deny their Christian faith] and then repent and return to Christ. That is why a good many did not become baptized until late in life. If you fell away after being baptized, that was it – you could not return – even if you fell away because of persecution. Hebrews reflects this severe message.

They are reminded of the vengeance of the Lord at this point – “It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (10:31). The writer reminds them of the sufferings believers endured in the early years, and he encourages them to remember that the time will not be long: “Only a little while now, a very little while, and the one that is coming will have come; he will not delay” (10:37).

There is a whole lot of George Fox in this book. In Jesus we have the fulfillment of all “types and figures” of God’s presence that emerged over the centuries of worship; he is both sacrificial lamb whose blood does wash away sin and the obedient servant whose only desire is to do the will of Him who sent him.  What my own heart tells me, however, is that this was a community that believed the end of time was very near and that the Son/Sun whose presence did away with all the shadows would not descend again over millennia. But we will not remember this Son if we do not keep a connection with the latter-day “types and figures” that contain His story – rituals, reminders, scriptural narratives, and Christian lives that inspire us.

Daily Bible Reading: Judith 6-7 and Hebrews 7-8

Judith 6 – Holofernes turns on Achior and tells him Nebuchadnezzar “is their God” and he will “display his power and wipe them off the face of the earth, and their God will certainly not save them” (6:2). As for Achior, when they are wiped off the face of the early, he too will die for trying to play the prophet.

He is ordered taken and turned over to the Israelites. Because of their tight defenses, they cannot take Achior to the Israelites, but he is bound at the foot of the mountain where the attack will occur. The Israelites get him and bring him to Bethulia.  They hear his account of what happened and praise God: “’Lord God of heaven,’ they cried, ‘take notice of their arrogance and have pity on the humiliation of our race. Look kindly today on those who are consecrated to you’” (6:19-20).

Judith 7 – Holoferne’s massive army advances on Israeli highlands. They have a force of 120,000 infantry and 12,000 cavalry along with a “vast number” of men involved with moving the supply train they have.

Auxiliaries from the coastal areas suggest they post guards at the springs from which Bethuliah gets its water and simply besiege the place. Holofernes likes this. The Israelites call on God., but they are “dispirited because the enemy had surrounded them and cut all line of retreat” (7:19).

For 34 days, they are completely surrounded, weakened and despairing. The people blame the leader Uzziah and others for not suing for peace. They are sure they will be enslaved, but they prefer that to death. Uzziah begs them for patience – five days more. “The town was full of despondency” (7:32).

Hebrews 7 – The nature of the high priesthood of Melchizedek is explored – he is a priest who is not part of the earthly priesthood of the Levites. The priesthood Jesus represents is an eternal priesthood that existed even before Abraham in the Holy Land and that foreshadowed Christ. Melchizedek was the king of Salem and a priest of El-Elyon, God Most High; he goes to meet Abraham with an offering of bread and wine after he helps to defeat Chedor-laomer and the kings allied with him. He was in some ways like the “Son of God” (7:3). Abraham paid a tithe of all he had to Melchizedek.

A new priesthood has arisen, putting an end to the Levitical priesthood and being similar to the priesthood that went before it. This change in priesthood implies a change in the Law as well. Jesus came from the tribe of Judah, not of Levi. Christ became a priest “not by virtue of a law about physical descent, but by the power of an indestructible life” (7:16). This fulfills the prophecy set forth in Psalm 110.

The earlier commandment and Law “was neither effective nor useful, since the Law could not make anyone perfect” (7:19). And this new priest has been made by God’s oath (Psalm 110), making the new covenant greater than the first. And our priest – Christ’ remains forever. He “is living forever to intercede for all who come to God through him” (7:25). He is the perfect High Priest and the perfect offering – “holy, innocent and uncontaminated” (7:26).

William Barclay’s comments on this part of the Hebrews text is very interesting. He notes that the author’s use of the Melchizedek reference embodies a very Jewish way of approaching Scripture: “To the scholarly Jew any passage of scripture had four meanings to which he gave four different names: First, there was Peshat, which is the literal and factual meaning; Second, there was Remaz, which is the suggested meaning. Third, there was Derush, is the meaning arrived at after long and careful investigation. And fourth, there was Sod, which is the allegorical or inner meaning. To the Jew the most important meaning for far was Sod, the inner meaning. He was not nearly so much interested in the factual meaning of a passage as in the allegorical and mystical meaning which could be extracted from it, even although it might have no connection whatever with the literal meaning” (Barclay 67-68).

Hebrews 8 – Our high priest is all of this. Christ is a minister of the “true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man” (King James, 8:3).  The Jerusalem Bible calls it “the true Tent of Meeting which the Lord, and not any man, set up” (8:3). And he goes on to say that the gifts offered by priests on earth are “only . . . a model or a reflection of the heavenly realities” (8:5).

It is interesting how closely George Fox followed these words. His analysis, that the earthly ministries of the Old Testament were merely “types and shadows” of the realities Christ would offer is right from here. What I don’t think Fox saw was that in the time on earth after Christ we still need “types and figures” to embody what he was and did.

The author of Hebrews sees “access to God” as the whole point of religion. Jesus removes every barrier between man and God. And access to God could also be seen as “access to reality.” The Greek or Neo-Platonic approach would interpret the Old Testament sacrifices as “shadows” (types/figures) of the “real” sacrifice Jesus would embody. Greeks “thought in terms of two worlds, the real and the unreal. They believed that this world of space and time was only a pale copy of the real.” Jesus was the only true, real and eternal mediator – connecting link between God and man.

The author goes on to compare the two “covenants” – Old and New. This present covenant is better than the first; it is “written on our hearts”  (King James). Quoting Jeremiah, he says “I will put my laws into their minds and write them on their hearts. Then I will be their God and they shall be my people. There will be no further need for neighbor to try to teach neighbor, or brother to say to brother, ‘Learn to know the Lord’. No, they will all know me, the least no less than the greatest, since I will forgive their iniquities and never call their sins to mind” (8:10-12).

Rex Ambler's Light to Live By

There has been an amazing level of interest expressed in Quaker circles here in the US and abroad in the work of Rex Ambler to explore the experience of early Quakers in arriving at a spiritual state of incredible peace and fulfillment, a state that permitted them to form vibrant communities that felt in some way corporately that they had overcome sin. He spent a lot of time exploring early Friends writings and over a period of time managed to reduce the inner experiences they described to a relatively simple meditative formula that helped him to overcome inner turmoil and unhappiness, and then help others to overcome their deepest problems as well. The process - or "practice" - as he calls it is pretty simple and is laid out on pages 46-47 of his book, Light to Live By: An Exploration of Quaker Spirituality:

• Relax body and mind - Feel weight of your body on chair, release tension in your body. Let worries go and preoccupations. Relax mind and be wholly receptive.
• Let the real concerns of your life emerge – what is really going on in my life? Do not answer from the head. Silence.
• Focus on one issue – one thing that makes you uneasy – try to get a sense of the thing as a whole.
• Ask why it is like that – wait in the light, and let the answer come. Pursue to deepest place
• Welcome whatever answer comes – trust the light. Submit to it and it will show you the way through.
• A different feeling will arise in you about it. Accept it.

He says in the book that when he went around to different Meetings in England and Europe he found that people mostly responded to the practice with great enthusiasm but some few did not take to it. They either were not open to some new way of approaching their worship routine, or they felt it was maybe even a little dangerous to plumb so deep into one's psyche, or that it seemed a little too self-centered. But he no where apparently ran into the objection that the practice totally abandons the biblical language in which early Friends insights were articulated. He starts from the words they used but he soon departs from these words and frames his experience in general meditative language or psychological language that no doubt modern people, even Friends are more comfortable with.

I am not saying here that the practice Ambler has developed is ineffective. It may indeed be helpful and fruitful for many Friends. But my own experience has led me to see the issue of biblical words and the biblical narrative as very important in my spiritual life and I feel that is what I should give testimony to. I have written about this before in my book Leadings: A Catholic's Journey Through Quakerism and I feel it is relevant here. I understand that most people today, at least most people among Friends, are pretty educated and secularized. While they might see the importance of the biblical narrative to early Friends, they feel that the language they used really doesn't resonate with modern people. People in the 17th century, when Fox lived, did not talk in psychological terms about their inner lives. They, like everyone in their society, saw things largely in biblical terms. The world was full of disputes, anger, unfaithfulness, violence - the fruits of man's sin, man's fallen nature. There was no Freud, no Buddhist Meditation around to dabble in. You talked about problems in religious terms. You conquered problems or felt you conquered them by coming to see them conquered through religious commitment. Here are the words George Fox used:

“And when all my hopes in them and in all men were gone, so that I had nothing outwardly to help me, nor could tell what to do, the, Oh then, I heard a voice which said, ‘There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition’, and when I heard it my heart did leap for joy. Then the Lord did let me see why there was none upon the earth that could speak to my condition, namely, that I might give him all the glory; for all are concluded under sin, and shut up in unbelief as I had been, that Jesus Christ might have the pre-eminence, who enlightens, and gives grace, and faith, and power. Thus, when God doth work who shall let [prevent] it? And this I knew experimentally” (Fox's Journal, 11).

Ambler knows from reading all of Fox that what he experienced transformed his life and eventually the lives of many. So he tries to translate that experience out of the Christian, biblical context. But my experience was different. I grew up in 20th century secular America. I had little exposure to religion in my early years. My parents were atheists but I lived with a lapsed Catholic grandfather. I went to church from time to time but it wasn't part of my life in a deep and consistent way. I did hear all the stories of Adam and Eve, of Jacob and Joseph, Moses and Egypt, Jesus in Bethlehem, the cross, the resurrection. You can't grow up anywhere without getting them somehow, however shallow-ly [new word]. When later in my life I came to see the biblical story as very real and important to me, I compared my experience with a scene from the movie, Miracle Worker, about the life of Helen Keller. She had lost her vision and hearing at a very early age - somewhere around 14 months, I think. And as she grew up she learned no way of communicating at all until the teacher Annie Sullivan is hired by her parents to try to tame her. Over the next months, the teacher tries to teach her sign language, felt through symbols impressed on her hands. Helen doesn't really get it. She learns the signs. She accumulates a whole vocabulary but she really doesn't have a clue what the signs and symbols mean. Then in a revelatory moment in the turmoil caused by her behavior, her teacher desperately tries to show her that the signs that spell the word W-A-T-E-R actually do relate to something real - the water she pumps out onto Helen's hands. Somewhere deep in Helen, a link is established between the hand sign and the reality of the water. This revelation opens ALL reality to her because she SEES the link between the game and the world around her and in her. My experience was the same. A moment came in my life when I saw that the biblical narrative and the language used to communicate it were deeply wrapped around my inner spiritual reality, and that Christ was in me to redeem me, guide me and help me live my life. The truth is it doesn't really matter to me if every detail in the narrative is historically or scientifically "true" - it's truth on a deep spiritual plane is very real and completely relevant to me today.

Is the experience one has through that medium the same as you would get through the more detached meditative language? The German title he used to describe his method tells me he thinks it does - Wo Worte Enden. Ambler obviously thinks so, but I doubt it. And the words of scripture are the words the whole cloud of witnesses before have used - even those Quakers we love. If we want the historic community of Quakers to continue with the vibrant spiritual message they gave us, I worry about abandonning the words of God we encounter in the Bible.

Being Catholic AND Quaker

Well, I don't know how this is going to work, but I've decided to put the Bible Study on a separate blog that is linked to this page, but not on this page. This is partly so I can continue having a blog that is completely dedicated to the reading and study of the Bible, but also have space to have posts on other things. So Catholic-Quaker will be a place I can post my ideas about other things.

How is it possible to consider oneself a Roman Catholic AND and Friend/Quaker? I consider the Catholic Church to be the original home of the gospel of Christ at least in the west. The Eastern Orthodox Churches go back to the beginning too, but I am from the western world. The separation of church and secular state is something achieved by the church in the west and I think that was a good thing. There is a lot of history and a lot of religious diversity within the Catholic Church that a lot of people don't appreciate. There is a deep tradition of mysticism and many stories of individuals feeling "called" by God to live out their faith in different ways. As my husband once said, I am drawn by the history and the mystery of the church.

Then how can I be a Quaker as well? Quakers arose in 17th c. England in a landscape of religious ferment brought on by the Protestant Reformation. With the rebellion of Martin Luther and the crumbling of church unity that came as a result of his prophetic call, the political ferment of the times, the revolutionary role of the printing press and people's access to the Scriptures and the church's inability or unwillingness to respond constructively, a whole array of new voices emerged and many groups that believed that they had recovered a vision of the gospel that was truer, more faithful than what the church was teaching. I think that many if not most of these voices were authentically prophetic and should have been listened to better. George Fox was one of these voices, and his vision of Christ's gospel - the new covenant and "gate" or portal into the Kingdom of God - as a way we could truly enter into Life as God meant us to live it. The difference between Fox's message and the messages of St. Francis or probably many other holy people was the this was a way not just for those who committed to "religious life" as the Catholic Church understood it - it was for all lay people who wished to live the consecrated life.