Quakers or religious Society of friends started in the 1640’s. They were a group of people who were dissatisfied with the established church who believed one could get the direct experience of Jesus Christ without mediation of clergy or like minded people. The founder of the Quakers was George Fox and he found other people who thought like him and they began to spread their message. As they expanded they faced opposition and persecution. Many were imprisoned or beaten especially in the British Colonies. The Massachusetts Bay Colony would banish the circle of friend’s members or punish them by death and hanging. They were most welcomed in Rhode Island and made up most of the population. They also came to be in Pennsylvania. They made peace treaties with the Indians have good relations with them after that. In 1947 the friends accepted the Nobel Peace Prize for 300 years of working for peace. There are approximately 160,000 friends in North America but occupy many parts of the world including Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. The religious circle of friends also helped or contributed to found current states such as NJ, Delaware, Penn and RI.

 (picture of Quakers protesting war and a picture of George Fox)

            For my field assignment I ventured to the land of Quakers. At first to be quite honest I thought that the Quaker religion was very much like Amish and expected it and the people to be very strict; wearing bonnets, having long facial hair and such. I am very surprised to learn that not only are Quaker people everyday people but they actually believe in a lot of what I believe in its just that they have made it a religion. 

(picture of Presence in the Midst)

(picture of Freedom Friends Church and our banner)

            The church I went to is a semi programmed and socially progressive Quaker church. It has been around for about five years and as Peggy Sengerson (the pastor) told me they are an “experiment” taking on all sorts of the different beliefs that many Quakers have with a few basic key ones. They believe in a few key things I think are important to share. They believe in God, Jesus and spirit. They believe god is our creator and loves every single person no matter what and that he is creator. They believe Jesus died for our sins and was resurrected conquering sin, death and hell once for everyone.  They do not believe that communion or baptizing is something that you need other people for but is between you and god. One of the big things they believe in is peace. They don’t agree with war, violence of any kind, or anything else that corrupts holy living. They are one of the few religions that do not have to participate in war but as Peggy was telling me you have to go thru a lot to prove that you’re a true Quaker to get out of this. They don’t believe in capital punishment, abortion, domestic violence and child abuse. They believe in simple living meaning that greed, envy, and security based on wealth are not examples of holy living. They have these meetings to conduct business. In bigger societies they have yearly meetings but not at hers. Conducting business in their place is a big deal because there is no boss. Everyone has the right to think what they want but basically if not everyone agrees no one agrees. If they do have a problem that comes up and can’t decide on an answer they leave it and come back later.

            Three things that the Freedom Friends Church opposes greatly are Slavery, Fundamentalism and Evil. Slavery, not just of person to person but of yourself and your addictions to anything. Fundamentalism as they think that what they believe is on the correct path to what god wants but they in no way saying their way is the only or right way to go. They are truly against trying to be evil or anything that has to do with it. I asked Peggy how you don’t do that and she said like for example when everything is going wrong and you want to hate something or someone you think instead of all those bad things what can I do to make this better or make the situation better?

(picture of  Hold On - Let Go quilt at FFC)

Either Hold On - to God, to each other, to the truth - or Let Go, of your expectations, fears or anything that keeps your from proximity to God and to freedom. Sometimes the answer is do both.

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It is not often that I go to see a movie twice in three days.  Not often like maybe never.  But this movie rattled so many of my doors that I had to go back and pay closer attention to why. Sure it had cowboys and I like cowboys. And horses, I like them even better. And a spunky gal - that’s always good, but that didn’t explain the fascination. Those Coen boys can’t seem to stay away from old timey Gospel stuff and Biblical references, I knew that. They Gospelled up Odysseus just fine. But that didn’t explain it either. I never saw the John Wayne version of the thing, so I had no dog in that fight. I watched it at the Saturday afternoon matinee expecting a good time, mind and heart. I did not expect that my soul would jump up, sit on the edge of the seat and steal all the popcorn.

The movie starts with silent opening credits and I counted it off at about 30 Quaker seconds. This of course made the audience uncomfortable and at one showing some wisenheimer had to break it. But it sets up a sub-theme of who speaks, who is silent, and who publishes truth.

After the silence you get a black screen with the scripture quote - the text for today’s message.    Proverbs 28:1 “The wicked flee when no man pursueth. One of the things I presume about a Coen Brothers movie is that you may mid-rash to your heart’s content. Go as deep as you wish. The layers are there, they are intentional. So I feel perfectly safe in interpreting not just what they put up there, but what they left out - the second half of the verse - but the righteous are bold as a lion.” This movie is an exploration of who is wicked and who is righteous.  It is also about the vengeance of God, the “B” side to God’s grace. God’s pure vengeance is played by 14 year old spunky gal Mattie Ross.  She is on the path of her father’s murderer, and she will not be denied. It is she who sheds the light on the quick and the dead, showing their goodness or depravity. She herself is unstoppable. It is she who lays out the eternal paradox as narrator when she says that while the killer may have thought he got off scott free that there is “Nothing free in life except God’s grace.” Mattie’s theme music is the 1887 hymn “Everlasting Arms”

Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms;
Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.

Mattie is pure of heart,  unaffected by the  proximity of death, knows no fear, and is bold as a lion.

The speaking truth about judgment theme continues as Mattie arrives in town just in time for a triple hanging.  The three condemned men each have their say. The first tearfully blames his wickedness on others, lack of good training and drink. The second does not deny his sin but claims relative goodness, saying that he is no greater a sinner than many he sees before him. The third, an Indian, is hooded mid-sentence. He is allowed no voice. The three conditions of human kind it seems.  Through poverty she ends up sleeping in the undertakers workshop in the presence of these three and says that she felt like Ezekiel in the valley of dry bone.  The bones Ezekiel sees were resurrected. Prophet Mattie must produce a resurrection of her own.

The Bad guys are not all bad. One unlucky criminal is stabbed to death by his own partner, who is then dispatched by Cogburn. They dying man gets to be the voice of Grace. He asks Mattie to send word of his death to his brother, a Methodist circuit rider. Cogburn asks him if they should tell him that he took up thievery. “It does not matter, I will meet him later, walking in the streets of Glory.”  And so the dying thief presumes paradise - it is an optimistic Gospel.

But things do not go according to plan. The trackers fail. The trail goes cold. Ambushes fall through, and eventually both Cogburn and the Ranger Le Beouf are ready to quit. Mattie tries to encourage them, shame them and beg them to no avail.  When all is lost she finds the man by pure chance, or the hand of God, which ever you like. She is captured and rescued and takes a mortal wound, but not before she, herself, takes vengeance on her father’s killer. Her last word to him are “Stand up, Tom Cheney.” She calls his name to judgment and, as the Gospel says, his life was required of him that day. She makes several passes through the Valley of the Shadow of death, but shows no fear of Evil. She is eventually saved by deep sacrifice. Cogburn and LeBeouf are proven to be righteous.

Some people knock re-makes. But every good story is a re-make. Joel and Ethan Coen know this. There are only so many stories. The best of them are hard-wired into our souls.  We could not stop telling them if we tried.  Love trumps death. Truth will out. Sacrifice saves. Mercy and Justice are two sides of a coin. Redemption happens. Sin causes fear. Righteousness is unstoppable. Etc. etc. etc.

I believe in wrestling a blessing out every Biblical topic. True Grit rustled me a blessing out of Vengeance.

I am grateful for the excellence of our great storytellers. I heard the Coens on NPR. They state that they are non-observant and non-believing Jews. Couldn’t prove it by their work.  Their name is Hebrew for Priest. Their name claims a genetic descendance from the Temple. Apparently you can take the Coen out of the temple but not the temple out of the Coen. Holiness persists unto many generations.

Now a request: Please, Ethan and Joel. I have been waiting for another famous supposed non-believer, Joss Whedon to do this, but you could do as well, maybe better.  What you have done for fourteen year old girls and sixty year old drunks - this empowerment and redemption. Could you please do this for a menopausal woman? Please? If you need a story line, call me, we can talk.

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