Digital Commons @ George Fox University Northwest Yearly Meeting of Friends Church Evangelical Friend (Quakers) 1-1990 Evangelical Friend, January/February 1990 (Vol. 23, No. 5/6) Evangelical Friends Alliance Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/nwym_evangelical_friend Recommended Citation Evangelical Friends Alliance, "Evangelical Friend, January/February 1990 (Vol. 23, No. 5/6)" (1990). Evangelical Friend. 226. https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/nwym_evangelical_friend/226 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Northwest Yearly Meeting of Friends Church (Quakers) at Digital Commons @ George Fox University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Evangelical Friend by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ George Fox University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Are potlucks a Quaker sacrament? we Make it BY MARY MORSE But an hour is true worshipers shall other members. feel bored and worship the Father people the Father wish for clearer people complain seeks to be His those who worship of the length and and to-the- Him must worship in 1\..aiKI'I'.<jJ, 24 NASB pointness. Others while others too HILE fast. A few ask for l,eii~Jntterni2jiiDa; .._."'lll"Lftil''l"> of hands and woman visiting, others are . The spoken W found· testimony in open some and irritate importance of others. How can sacred experience, ship to be the con1P11mic:m provoke so many ways? Perhaps for integrity and these reasons: God. Worship is an 'mp:ma1re el!CPeneJtlC ~ for the Christian co~!UD111Di1M By sitting through a \fQrsbiip observer can fellowship with · mirror reflecting ulclr.I..III<JLIL As Quakers we kfn<M•waishio nPY'CuwiCI ~.. ~ 11c;LU .Il\..o> seeks for an sometimes we to their own under­ experience. After a !Jleetb:t.gl~)r fl'UJstra(ed with other forms complaints are 2/ EVANGELICAL 4. A lack of preparation for worship, which quiets Second, we can make sure our attenders understand the heart and settles the mind toward communion, the nature of worship, its components and purpose. This introduces a spirit of fracturedness. Therefore without can be accomplished through classes or sermons. And we peace prepared, dissatisfactions are easier to find. can be patient and supporting as learners test and experi­ 5. And if an individual comes to worship with dishar­ ment with the elements of worship. mony toward someone else in the congregation, then it is Third, we can encourage preparation for worship. A difficult for the community to be one in the Spirit during preworship time with choruses is a great opportunity for worship. centering. As members of the Quaker community we These are only a few suggested reasons. Probably should make an effort to model worship preparedness by there are others. But considering these reasons, what can coming early ourselves. we do to develop harmony in worship? First, we need to Last, we should accept responsibility to pray for our examine the complaint of each person for prophetic truth. worship experience. Through prayer the Holy Spirit can The source of the comment/complaint could be the Lord blend our hearts and unite our minds as we worship our as God speaks through all of His persons. If prophetic Savior. And this pleases God. if truth is not perceived, then we need to help the individual Mary Morse is instructor of Biblical Studies at Western come to understand the nature and source of the frustra­ Evangelical Seminary and a member at Reedwood Friends Church, tion. Perhaps there needs to be some teaching or Portland, Oregon. encouragement given. The Meeting I sit facing the reaching, arching trees Lift my thou3hts . the squirming children And my noisy nrf•t#>1'1"nt".I"R And wait foryou. Sometimes I Because of How could Come? The silence (ieepe,ns within me while without I hear The necessary ~!amor fro$, the Sunday School And sing the hymn that Bs:ther said was Nice. Slowly and!!t~ a gentle weaving motion like a breeze Blowing a curtain in at the cOpen window The pattern ofy.o.ur pr~n~e is Revealed. -BILL CATHERS The Farm 1I 89 jANUARY/FEBRUARY I990 I 3 SPEAKING THE TRUTH n BY LON FENDALL E CAME from the back side of empty philosophizing of Job and his and imagine that God has willed each the desert, a place called friends and let all of them have it event in our lives, good and bad, since Teman in the land of Edom. between the eyes: "Who is this that He is, after all, Lord of the universe. He You've probably met the type. He had darkens my counsel with words without is Lord indeed, He is all-powerful. But an explanation for everything. Things knowledge?" (Job 38:2) here the concept of mystery has to be were crystal-clear to him and if you The essence of God's response was a placed alongside the concept of sover­ would let him, he would rattle on end­ sharp rebuke for those who think they eignty. And here we have to take spe­ lessly, explaining truth and reality, all in can figure everything out, who are ready cial note of God's reply to Job and his neat little compartments. with a cause for every effect. "Where friends. If we could understand the rea­ His name was Eliphaz and he is were you when I laid the earth's founda­ son for everything and glibly identify introduced in the Old Testament as a tion?" God asked the men. "Tell me, if everything as God's will, then we our­ "friend" of Job. In this case, the cliche you understand:' No, they didn't under­ selves would be God, we wouldn't need clearly applies: "With friends like that, stand. They understood very little, yet God at all. who needs enemies?" they were trying to take on God's func­ It is important to think soberly and Actually, Eliphaz sounded fairly rea­ tion, to be able to explain the unex­ prayerfully about the bad things in our sonable and compassionate at the outset. plainable. lives. Some are unavoidable conse­ He began his comments to Job with quences of poor choices we've made. some affirming statements, "Think how Some are the result of others acting in you have instructed many, how you ways that hurt us. God shouldn't be have strengthened feeble hands. Your blamed for those. But we undoubtedly words have supported those who stum­ can learn and grow from these things. bled; you have strengthened faltering Here Eliphaz has some good advice: knees:' (Job 4:3-4) So far, so good. "Submit to God and be at peace with Then Eliphaz dropped the brick on him ... Accept instruction from his Job's toe, still seeming to sound quite mouth and lay up his words in your friendly and levelheaded. "Who, being heart:' (Job 22:21-22) innocent, has ever perished? Where Joe Bayley wrote a poem about were the upright ever destroyed? As I tragedy, entitled "A Psalm on the Death have observed, those who plow evil and of an Eighteen-Year-Old Son:' He speaks those who sow trouble reap it:' There it Ambiguity and mystery are absolutely of the senselessness of the death: is, heresy disguised as friendly concern. essential ingredients of the Christian "the act is void of reason Heresy? Yes. It simply isn't true that faith. Some things, of course, are abso­ sense bad things only happen to bad people. lutely clear and certain. Solomon Lord In my Bible, it takes 36 more pages to proclaimed such a certainty, as recorded madmen do such deeds contain the seemingly endless exchanges in 1 Kings 8:56: "Not one word has not sane:' among Job and his pseudo friends. 'frue failed of all the good promises he gave Then he ends the poem by praying: to form, Eliphaz continued to insist that through his servant ... :' The New Testa­ Job's hard times were because of his ment also speaks of the certainty of "that I may see ungodly behavior. There was no room God's promises as an "anchor for the beyond this world in his one-dimensional world view for soul, firm and secure:' (Hebrews 6:19) beyond myself ambiguity, for events that were unex­ There are plenty of other theological your sovereign plan plainable. If Job was suffering, then it truths about which we can be emphatic or seeing not had to be the result of Job's sin. and certain. But the heresy of Eliphaz is may trust you A few years ago Harold Kushner to carry our confidence and certainty spoiler of my treasure:' wrote a book entitled When Bad Things into places it doesn't belong. Some acts and events are without Happen to Good People. In spite of its We run a stop sign, smash into apparent reason and sense. To cling to having sold two million copies, there are another car, and end up in the hospital. our faith in God when it seems so still plenty of people around who think We spend our time, in between griping wrong, so unfair for things to happen and talk like Eliphaz. about hospital food, trying to identify the way they do is to have real faith, the The fundamental heresy of Eliphaz is the sin in our lives that brought this kind that Christ wished Thomas would the untruth that everything has an about. What a waste! The accident have had: "Blessed are those who have explanation, that cause-and-effect analy­ probably resulted from a momentary not seen and yet have believed:' Blessed sis can be applied to any event.