It seems that he was quite generous with the wealth of others. He took a little boys lunch and fed the whole crowd with it. Some of the people who traveled with Jesus are reported to have been quite wealthy and he seems to be quite generous in asking strangers to travel along and share the wealth, I have always been generous with my wisdom even when no one asked for it.

I was in dire need of a fairly large sum of money when I was in college. A dear friend (known to be of great wealth by the community) saw me walking home after class when he pulled his Cadillac over rather suddenly and leaned out the window as shadowed “Richard, I know you are suffering right now, could you use a thousand bucks?

I was completely blown away because it seemed the Lord had heard my prayers after all because that was exactly how much I had prayed for. “Come over to the house about 3:30 and I’ll have a check ready for you.”

As you can imagine I was quite elated and it would seem I floated up the stairs to his front porch. He said have a seat here and I’ll go get a check. From where I sat on the swing on the front porch I could hear the birds chirping and children playing and laughing and my good friend and his good wife discussing, at a fairly high pitch, just exactly where that money was going to come from. When a surprisingly surly lady came to the front door with a check rather rudely ripped from a resistant check book, I had decided that my need was not as their generosity and suggested that they could use that bit of money at least as well as I could. It took some strong convincing on both our parts as to who should keep that generous gift but I finally won out and they kept it. What followed was a time of praying and crying and hugging out of which grew a deeper love on both our parts from that day to this.

Generosity is a hope in the heart that my need to share is met by another’s need to receive.

I must never offer a bucket of milk to a hungry neighbor after the cow has just stuck her foot in it. Who knows where this line of rhetoric will lead if I let it continue unguided. I will turn the tap of verbal generosity to full off now and let the reader try to decipher to mixed metaphors

These topics seem especially close to my own heart (no pun intended) these days. Some days I walk a tightrope over the abyss and other times I enjoy the broad flat expanse of living in the moment. I, frankly, treasure both times. “Who knows the day or the hour…” Bible.

Sometimes I feel like I have had to surrender ministry altogether. Some days I feel as though ministry has abandoned me. Not the sense that I am not being ministered too, never such a thought. Sometimes I grieve the loss of those things I used to do with such ease.

I have taught the idea that life ends not when one loses the will to live. That may happen a thousand times. The dying comes when one loses the “will to meaning”, I guess I sometimes refer to it as the loss of a sense of “calling”

I do not care to nor have the intent to draw attention to myself with these comments. That sounds like a bit of an oxymoron doesn’t it? Just to say this; I miss the deep rich fellowship of the body as I am less and less able to sit through an entire worship service. Please know that I am at least watching the ministries of NVFC grow and mature as I gaze over the fence from my pasture to yours.

God bless you all and hold the banner high.

Richard

The early Friends, like the early Christians, were given an easy “out.” If they were willing to go home and stop preaching, everything would be forgiven.

It is because they didn’t say “how could I stop preaching of God?” they were persecuted. (I wonder how many took that “out” and quietly went home, to resume their “normal” lives without persecution?)

After affirming that the young man loved God and served those around him (if only we would all get this far, even!), Jesus told the young man, “sell all you have and follow me.”

Everyone was sad as the young man walked away.

The point here is specifically *not* that this young man was somehow a “one-person parable.” If so, it has no place in Scriptures, which are for our teaching and learning about God.

It is because we are exactly like that rich young man that the parable is important. God may or may not require us to give up all our earthly possessions and to walk away from our relationships with our families and friends.

The question is: “Are you willing?”

The reason we don’t see the “Valiant Sixty” today is simple. There are not sixty willing to trust God for everything.

We have reason to hope: God is moving in people’s lives and is seeking out (as always) the Valiant sixty for the 21st century. If we are willing to sacrifice everything for our “pearl of great price” then God can trust us with God’s mission on earth.

Until then we will continue in the same lukewarm way.

Roy

In response to Cherice’s suggestion that we plan some weeks when we would allow ourselves to be flexible with the ending time i.e., allowing ourselves to listen to the Spirit about when to end worship, I think planning to be spontaneous is 1. ironic and 2. a practical way forward. It allows us to think about solutions to one of the practical implications of an extended worship time, namely childcare. I might suggest that on the planned first-day we could have a “second shift” of childen’s church volunteers who might releive those who had already presented and spent time with the children. The shift might allow the children to get a second wind and shift gears into active play or a snack time or some other option. I don’t want to bog down in the details here, but merely to point out one implication that planning might allow us to meet successfully.

Kathleen Gathercoal

It’s hard to know what to do in a culture where time is so important to us. George Fox could preach for hours because no one was going anywhere–there was nothing else to do on a First-day afternoon! But now so many have such set schedules that getting out of meeting a few minutes late seems like a burden.

Should we try to be counter-cultural in this and wait for the Spirit’s leading before we leave the room?

Or do we think the Spirit is working within this cultural way of being, and try to honor the other commitments people have by limiting the length of services and attempting to follow God within that time-frame?

The question of preparation is an excellent one, which I don’t have a good answer for. Of course I sometimes think I will bring the message that week–whwn I’m on the schedule to do so! But a) what would I do if that day came and I didn’t feel I had a message to share, and b) do i come prepared other times? These are excellent questions which I think drive at the very authenticity of our corporate worship and our way of listening to God as Quakers in general.

To me, open worship is a group centering exercise, where we each become still and listen to God. Meaningful messages can rise from that time, as prompted by God.. and good preparation is important. But it’s not just the time in the service for non-pastors to share. Meaningful sharing by non-pastors can be placed behind the pulpit during the sermon time, and it can rise from the unprogrammed time. But the unprogrammed time is more than just a pause to see if anyone else has something to say.

I know you understand it that way as well, Stan. Your questions didn’t really seem to imply that, however. So I offer this potential corrective, and encourage us to get back to YOUR topic about how we can prepare ourselves for a programmed service that has unprogrammed time in it.

Bruce Bishop

The post by Wess can be found at http://gatheringinlight.com/2007/03/21/online-communities-and-radical-reformation-perspectives/

I agree with you that the blogosphere is not the best place for communal discernment, but it does provide opportunity to learn of the diversity of thought and the thorough commitment of Friends from many places.

And, in even a further-out sphere, I have been meeting with Friends on a weekly basis in Second Life. If anyone is familiar with Second Life and wants to attend a Friends meeting for worship there, let me know and I will get you time, date and place information.