Quaker Spirituality and Sacraments
When I listened to Winifred Murdoch talking about Quaker Spirituality and the Inner Light, in November, I was in awe at the ease with which Winifred could talk about the Inner light, from her own rich Quaker background, and could show how Friends!
I understood and lived by this inner light, throughout the centuries. I had to ask myself, what right do I have, as a 'blow-in' of only eight years vintage, to speak about Quaker Spirituality.
So, I first want to thank you very sincerely for asking me, given my limited experience in the Religious Society of Friends, to talk about something precious to all of us, our spirituality.
I suppose what 'blow-ins' like me can offer is an appreciation, not of what we have received from birth, but of what we have longed for, struggled for and have finally discovered, within the Quaker family. For this I am immensely grateful. And that gratitude includes the wisdom of Quakers in dispensing with Sacraments as external rites.
Yet, when I received an invitation, through Ian, to talk about Quaker Spirituality precisely in relation to Sacraments, I wobbled a little bit a out the topic.
Why on earth, I said to myself, would we, Friends, be interested in discussing sacraments, given that the whole sacramental system of institutional Christianity has been in deep crisis, at least since the Protestantism Reformation of the 16th century, despite many efforts at reformation through the centuries, in all the Churches. Unresolved Issues about infant v adult Baptism, about the relationship between Baptism/Confirmation, about the real presence in the Eucharist, about clerical power and Sacraments, about whether or not Jesus instituted the sacraments, still plague mainline Christian churches, both pastorally and theologically, and cause deep rifts.
Worse still, sacramental differences also create a problem that is more subtle than rifts. These differences spawn an endless debate, both within churches, and in ecumenical discussions, that keep covering the same ground, endlessly. If we look, for example at the debates and documents about Baptism and the Eucharist since early in the last century, both within the different main Christian churches and in ecumenical and WCC discussions, it seems clear to me that the very spirituality itself, has been wrung out of these debates and they have long gone past their sell by date! I don't want to add to that!
But worst of all, sacraments, when seen as an effective means of receiving God's Grace, are a man-made way of controlling God's Grace. They can easily become, not a help but a distraction or a barricade between us and God, and an artificial outward expression with no corresponding inward response.
However, one of the many precious lessons that I have learnt since I became a Quaker, is that my first reaction, may not be where the Spirit is leading me. When I thought further about this topic, I decided that perhaps the misgivings I had, were the very reasons for addressing the topic, here, in the different setting of Quakerism!
Preparing this talk has helped me, firstly, to become more conscious of the treasure of inner spirituality of early Quakerism that made sacraments inessential and irrelevant; secondly; to want to ask again, why don't we share with other churches, the good news of why Quakers don't have sacramental rites; and thirdly, since the notion of sacrament, as used in the mainline Christian churches, is, in itself, a theological term, to beg the question of whether or not, there is a minor role for a Quaker use of an experience centred theology, subservient to God's inner Word, that would make it easier for us to share with outsiders, and even to discuss misunderstandings among ourselves?
Everything that I can say about Quaker spirituality and sacraments, comes out of a life-time of sacramental practice in Roman Catholicism which ended up in a wonderful, earthquake change in the 1960s, called The Second Vatican Council. This change produced for me, a new vision of Christianity. It was gradually understood, among educators, as a paradigm shift to an emphasis on creation, rather than on Redemption; on Jesus as a teacher rather than Jesus as a Redeemer; on humanity as innately good rather than innately bad! The seven Sacraments had been seen as ways of bringing the fruits of redemption to the faithful. They no longer fitted into the new vision and had to be rethought.
It seems to me that the genius of Quakerism is that from its beginning in the 17th century, by removing itself from all theology, it left Redemption Theology behind; it moved into a positive Christian paradigm that saw humanity as innately good and able, without supernatural props, to commune with God and in this way, to bring inner light out of darkness. In communion with God's spirit, human beings could judge between good and evil. This amazing claim was possible because Quakers saw 'that of God' as incarnate in every human being. God's creation was, in itself, good, not bad!
I am making the claim here for Quakerism that it not only moved into new Christian insights but that, as I see it, it moved into a whole new Christian paradigm that took Christians out of the theology of the Roman Empire and into the simple teachings of the human Jesus who lived so intensely with God that he became known as the Christ - the one who is anointed by God's Spirit.
Protestants in Germany and Anglicans and Puritans in England, had prepared the way for George Fox, by questioning the disparity between inner commitment and outward performance, in relation to the sacraments, but Quakers brought all their insights to a new level, by dispensing with sacraments as external rites, and claiming the whole of creation, as sacramental. This is the goal of creation theology, as I understand it, today.
From 1970s, I had a lot of involvement, as a religion teacher, in helping to implement a reformed understanding of sacraments, within Roman Catholicism. Respect for the innate goodness of God's creation, made it hard to justify any infant Baptism as we moved to the idea of Adult Faith. Preparation for sacraments was removed from the school setting, to the parish community of Faith. As sacraments became de-clericalised through the participation of laity in their spiritual aspects, a lot of the magic began to disappear. It became quite clear to me that the more success there was in establishing adult Faith communities, the more irrelevant sacraments were, as a means of contact with God. It was apparent to me that they often robbed us of a personal relationship with God and of moral responsibility. They gradually became seasonal, community celebrations, of God's presence among us!
These changes never took place in Ireland because the Irish Bishops feared they might upset the Faith of the Irish. Many feel that they feared for their own power!
When I first attended Monkstown Meeting, I was looking for a creation-centred spirituality. I was very impressed, and not at all surprised to find that there were no sacraments. I gradually realised that among Friends, living by God's Spirit was no longer just a theory that was talked about. Instead, there was a sincere human attempt to bring this ideal to its full conclusion in Meetings for Worship, in the Spirit-directed, creative, reading of Scripture, in business Meetings and in relations between members. Intermediary interventions, like sacraments, were clearly, not only inessential, in this Quaker context but would even be counterproductive, for those who trusted the inner light.
My challenge, as a religion teacher in adult Faith development since the 1970s had been to help in forming responsible, creative and critical adults, who were led by the inner Spirit, rather than by outward certainties. But, I had to come among Quakers to see what this meant in practice. All that reformed Roman Catholicism, in the 1960s, had been reaching towards, had briefly attained and then drew back from, seemed to be here before me in Monkstown! That is what finding Quakerism, meant for me!
The new draft of the Book of Christian Experience was being discussed, when I joined Friends in 2003. As I attended the discussions on this, between 2003 and 2006! I was delighted to find a creation-centred understanding of Christian experience, already in place. I had a great opportunity, at these discussions, of discovering the very full-blooded way that Quakers dealt with human experience as the place where humans meant God. I asked myself again and again, why wasn't Quakerism sharing this with other Christian churches .Much of the ecumenical debate could be rescued, from its repetitive boredom, if Quaker insights were offered for ecumenical discussion. But most other Christians had hardly even heard about Quakers!
In our blue book, "Christian Experience", we state, "It was the earnest wish of George Fox and of many other seekers, to find a way of life where Christ ruled in the heart and where outward conduct and inward revelation, were increasingly at one" (p.34) Many non-Quaker Christians had been saying similar things but they tried to reform, rather than dispense with, supernatural sacraments. They didn't see these external rites as potential blocks. That was the difference.
And further on, on page 40 of our blue book we read this very powerful passage:
"To the soul, that feeds upon the bread of life, the outward conventions of religion are no longer needful. Hid with Christ in God, there is for him but small place for outward rites, for all experience is a holy baptism, a perpetual supper with the Lord and all life is a sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. This hidden life, this hidden vision, this immediate and intimate union, between the soul and God, this, as revealed in Jesus Christ, is the basis of the Quaker Faith".
This beautiful passage is quoted from, ‘Essays and Addresses’, John Wilhelm Rowntree, 1868-1905, and breathes the inner spirituality that Quakers cherished.
To me, this beautiful passage said what years of discussions that I had been involved in, were trying to say! I relish the phrases - "to the soul that feeds upon the bread of life, the outward conventions of religion are no longer needful", and "for all experience is a holy baptism, a perpetual supper with the Lord, " Bringing these phrases to life in each moment of our present, precious, lives, is Quaker Faith and spirituality!
In several passages from the Christian Experience book, old and new editions, I am lifted up into the sacred dimension of life, where I can feed on the bread of life and feel that inward and outward revelation are one, and are independent of supernatural gifts. All these words are sacramental and they direct me to a knowledge that is both within myself and yet totally transcends me. They make me feel very proud and happy to be a human being!
Knowledge for Friends, is born of the inner light, as Winifred affirmed so movingly, in her November talk. It seems to me that within the whole Christian family, Quakers bear responsibility for keeping alive this knowledge of the heart and also for sharing this, ecumenically, with other churches. Sorry for repeating this point about ecumenism!
All the structures of the Society of Friends, both spiritual and business, bear upon the knowledge of the heart. When we read Scripture, Old and New Testaments, not literally but through its eternal images, as George Fox did, so impressively, we find it all of this invocation to inner mystical knowledge! When the Hebrew psalmist sings, "deep calls unto deep"~ (psalm 42) it is of this knowledge of the heart that he speaks. Because, when "deep calls unto deep" this, for me, is what both Scripture and Quakers refer to as Baptism by fire. D. Elton Trueblood, 1968, in a quotation in the two Draft copies of CE, describes Baptism by fire as, "one loving heart setting another on fire". Sacrament understood as inward experience of love, points to why sacraments, as external rites, are inessential to a spirituality rooted in the inner knowledge of the heart.
And when Jesus warns us to have, "ears that hear" and "eyes that see", I hear a call to that deep, hidden, knowledge of the heart, that we, Quakers, call the inner light. It is through this Baptism by the Spirit and by fire that Christians today need to understand the whole ministry of Jesus. Christianity, in the past, was so attached to Jesus, as our redeemer who saved us and left us with nothing more to achieve, that we lost Jesus, as our mystical teacher, who warns us that we have everything to do, in bringing light out of darkness as we journey through life. This is the Jesus that both Quakerism and modern theology, revives for me.
A quote from A. Barrett Brown, 1932, in Draft copy of CE reads, "It is a bold and colossal claim that we put forward - that the whole of life is sacramental, that there are innumerable 'means of grace' by which life is revealed and communicated - through nature and through human fellowship and through a thousand things that may become 'the outward and visible sign 'of 'an inward and spiritual grace' ".
Yes, indeed, it is a bold and colossal claim that Quakers put forward, that the whole of life is sacramental. But to see life, in all its aspects, as sacramental, we need to gradually grow into mystical awareness that everything that is secular, is, in fact, holy, "if we have eyes to see and ears to hear". This bold claim that all of life is sacramental is not, however, unique to Quakers. It was the claim of our Celtic ancestors in Ireland throughout many centuries. It also belongs to the Churches who continue to practice sacraments as external rites. A French Jesuit, Jean-Pierre de Caussade, born in 1675, not that long after George Fox, wrote very movingly about, ' The Sacrament of the Present Moment'. He speaks of God living in souls arid souls living in God. But this awareness of God within, of itself, makes us less dependent on sacraments. This, it was, what moved Quakers to dispense with sacramental rites and is, I feel, the big contribution of Quakers to the wider Christian family.
For many centuries, Christians argued that Jesus had instituted the seven sacraments. The notion of closed figure of seven, and later of two sacraments, shuts out creativity. The notion of he world as sacramental opens up creativity! Jesus' ministry was of the creative kind. He invited us to look at the birds of the air and at the flowers of the field to see how beautifully dressed they were, in order to get an idea of what God might be like.
Modern Scripture scholarship, thankfully, has put in doubt the claim that Jesus left us with neither seven or two sacraments and John's Gospel opens up the world of endless sacrament. It is now generally accepted that none of the synoptic Gospels mention Jesus performing Baptisms on those he converted. We also know, today, that the narratives about the baptism of Jesus belong to the post-resurrection additions to the original Jesus material of the synoptic Gospels, and express the interests of the Christian community, rather than the deeds of Jesus. Therefore there is no historical evidence that Jesus was either baptised or baptised others, in the sense of external rites.
The original Latin word. 'sacramentum' had a military use. It indicated the oath of allegiance that soldiers of the Roman Empire swore to the Emperor before going to battle.
That is hardly a word that would delight the heart of George Fox!. During the 16th century Protestant Reformation, the Swiss theologian Zwingli, wishing to get rid of magic elements connected with real presence in the Eucharist, recommended bringing back this original idea of oath of allegiance. Zwingli's idea was that this oath should now be made, by the Christian, as a pledge of his faith in God, so that the reception of a sacrament meant an occasion to renew this oath of fidelity to Christian Faith. At least it got rid of the magic! But the question remains - do we really need an external rite to assure God of our allegiance?
John, the writer of the fourth Gospel, was probably the inspiration for early Quakerism in arriving at its mystical understanding of sacrament. When I use the word mystic, here, I don’t use it to designate special creatures with a special vocation. I mean the mystical as a call to every human being, to look deeply into ourselves and into everything around us and to see our present moment as holy ground. In the story of Nocodemus, John invites every ordinary human being into the world of the mystical, where being 'born again' may bring us into ever newer and deeper ways of being who we are. The Baptism of the Spirit, which we, Quakers, claim, brings us into this world of inner mystery. As with the wind we can feel its influence, and as with the wind, we don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. We live by waiting, in silence, on God's 'openings' and feed upon all of God's creation as "living bread", in the words of JW Rowntree.
Eco Quakerism today, as a new, yet old, expression of creation spirituality, is our way of following these winds of change, wherever they blow. At the beginning of time the visible creation was God's book of revelation and so, as Eco-Quakerism is now reminding us, it still is.
I will end on a mystical passage from George Fox's Journal. In 1648, Fox wrote that in a moment of enlightenment, he was taken up into an understanding of creation as it was, "before the sin of Adam". On page 27 of his Journal, he writes, "And now was I come up through the flaming sword, into the paradise of God. All things were new and all the creation gave another smell to me than before, beyond what words can utter. As people come into subjection to the spirit of God and grow up in the image and power of the almighty, they can receive the word of wisdom that opens all things and come to know the hidden unity in the eternal being."
Thus the bold and colossal claim that Quakers make that all of life is sacramental. The ground we walk on is holy ground!
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