I am told that Friends are made uncomfortable when
one Friend ministers often, when that ministry feels like a sermon,
when it asks what we should be doing, asks whether we are truly doing
as we should.
Do we come to worship for comfort? Certainly, I'm
sure many of us have experienced a meeting where we came full of
doubt, pain, or fear, and we were held, sheltered and uplifted by the
Spirit as shown in that meeting, in the ministry of Friends, and in
the invisible yet palpable love of the Spirit itself, brought close
to us by the faithful waiting of the meeting.
Yet as we are a gathered people, we are not
gathered for our own comfort and uplifting. We are gathered to be
made a people of God. That does not mean, for us, going through
prescribed motions, as in the liturgies of mainstream churches. Nor
does it mean merely helping and uplifting one another. Nor is it
enough to take the spirit of righteous transformation into the world,
exciting our efforts to mend it.
Righteous transformation must begin with us, and
is never done with us. None of us shall ever attain our full
potential as children of the Light. Faithfulness to that Light means
ever striving, within our faith community, to make it reflect light
and love, and yes, to comfort those who will benefit from comfort; in
our wider community, to relieve suffering and share the fruits of the
Light; and also in ourselves, to let the Light fill us, and transform
us, and never think we have reached a final destination.
This does not mean that we have failed, or that we
are not good enough. Were that so, none could succeed, and none would
be good enough. In the Spirit, love flows freely to all who will take
it.
Written March 2017
