To Teach His People Himself

By Kody Hersh

As Friends in the 21st century, we have access to an incredible range of media for publication. We can reach more people, through more avenues, across distances, cultures, and even languages. We can share our beliefs, our witness, and our thoughts about everything from politics to theology from a Quaker perspective. These possibilities make it both challenging and absolutely imperative that we examine together, and prepare to answer, the question: What is Quaker truth today?

When George Fox and the first generation of Friends set out on the religious journey that came to be called “Quakerism,” they were, in the strictest sense of the word, evangelical. They preached the good news of a Gospel that they believed was profoundly relevant to their time. The center of their message was the powerful, even revolutionary, assertion that, “Christ is come to teach his people himself.” For contemporary liberal Friends, the language of our theology may be different, but this message can still be seen as the central truth Quakerism has to publish in the world.

Direct revelation
When Fox said, “Christ is come to teach his people himself,” two fundamental ideas were at play. The first was the “how” of spiritual Truth and experience: we know God, and know about God, because God is directly present in each of our lives. We need no intermediaries, and because of this, we all bear the gifts, responsibilities, and burdens of ministry. There is radical equality and empowerment in this idea, as well as humility. We may be more or less faithful in how we respond to God, but whatever Truth we are blessed to carry is never ours in a personal sense.

These ideas of direct, unmediated revelation and universal ministry lead to the simple, powerful forms we have developed of unprogrammed worship and worship with attention to business. In our best moments, we find creative, transcendent Truth through these practices, which honor the individual and nurture the community while keeping Spirit as our focus and our guide.

The teachings of Jesus
The second idea embedded in the assertion that “Christ is come to teach his people himself” was the primacy of Jesus’ teaching role in our spiritual lives. If direct revelation is the “how,” this is the “what.” For the early Friends, Christ transformed their lives through his teaching in the written Gospels and in their own experience.

Today, as in 17th century England, we live in a society whose religious and political leadership largely professes belief in Christ, but perpetrates war, intolerance, poverty, deceit, and injustice, sometimes in His name. Because of our historic emphasis on the teachings of Jesus acting in our lives, Friends have integrated some of the more challenging teachings of Jesus of Nazareth into a practice that may be a witness to the world and an antidote to widespread religious hypocrisy. We have accepted the challenge to “let your yes be yes, and your no be no” (Matt. 5:37), by practicing honesty in all we do and refusing to swear oaths. We have rejected intolerance and tried, imperfectly but sincerely, to overcome racism, sexism, homophobia, and other forms of discrimination in our midst and in the world around us. We have advocated simple living as both the first step toward economic justice and a prerequisite for right relationship with God, as in Jesus’ teaching to “sell what you have and give to the poor” (Matt. 19:21), and his reminder that, “no one can serve two masters . . . God and wealth” (Luke 16:13, Matt. 6:24).

Perhaps most importantly, through popular and unpopular wars, through conflicts that threatened our lives and the lives of our families, through imprisonment and political persecution, we have maintained that violence and war are violations of the human spirit and of God’s will. Absolute pacifism is probably the best-known witness of Friends, and may be the most important in today’s world, especially for the majority of liberal Friends living as citizens of the world’s most aggressive military superpower.

The challenges of Truth-telling
In this, the first decade of the 21st century, Friends have access to a tremendous range of media for sharing our faith, communicating our convictions, and publishing our understanding of Truth. However, in order to make use of these resources, we must first have a clear sense of our message. In the same spirit as we test vocal ministry in worship, we should wait on the prompting of the Spirit before we share. We can and must test our leadings and messages with our communities, practice corporate discernment, and be willing to hold each other firmly accountable.

If prompted and clear, we cannot be shy. “Evangelism” carries, perhaps, more baggage than it did in Fox’s time—but we still have Good News, and the world still needs it. Our rejection of creedal statements does not mean we have no shared theology; our respect for individual discernment does not mean we have no collective conviction. As we deepen our relationship with the Holy Spirit and with others in our worship communities, we will have an increasingly powerful sense of the Truth that is ours to publish as 21st-century Friends.

About the Author(s)

Kody Gabriel Hersh is a member of Miami Monthly Meeting (Southeastern YM), currently living in Philadelphia and attending Chestnut Hill Meeting. In addition to serving the FGC Youth Ministries Committee and Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,
Transgender and Queer Concerns, he is working under a leading to write a book
for teenagers about the Quaker tradition.