A reflection on Query 2 of the EFC-MAYM Faith and Practice
By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
February 9, 2025
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Query 2
Do you love one another as becomes the followers of Christ?
Are you careful of the reputation of others?
When differences arise do you make earnest efforts to end them speedily?
John 13:31–38 (ESV)
31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. 33 Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’ 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” 36 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered him, “Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward.” 37 Peter said to him, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” 38 Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times.
Many of you are aware that our Faith and Practice contain a spiritual checklist of sorts called the queries. Quakers began using queries early in our history, and they encourage contemplation on the areas those within a meeting found beneficial to spiritual growth. As I have grown in my faith I have found these queries, this list of questions to be important, even though some have neglected the practice.
Do you love one another as becomes the followers of Christ? It is easy to simply say yes to this and move on, but when we do this we are not allowing God’s Spirit to examine our spiritual health. What does loving one another as a follower of Christ actually look like? This is an important question, especially for us as part of our mission statement is to live the love of Christ with others.
Shortly after the civil war, when the various yearly meetings across the world began to attempt to make a unified discipline for Friends, they penned this query. There was a great deal going on in the world at that time. The historic Hicksite schism was still fresh in the minds of Friends in America. This first major challenge of theological positions among Friends brought into question what we thought about scripture, Jesus, and other positions of faith that are largely taken for granted in a community where the vast majority of people have similar beliefs.
This split was not the only struggle those Friends of the 19th century faced. The nation was divided, so divided over the issue of slavery that a war was fought. Friends were among those that participated in the abolition movement, and they participated because of our testimony of equality. We believed that men and women were equal in the eyes of God, that each individual is visited by the Spirit and we are responsible to be obedient to that call. Those early American friends did not apply this testimony to people of their own cultural heritage, but they extended it to all people. They made every attempt to treat the indigenous people living in the land with dignity. They invited people from other nations to settle within their colony, welcoming people from Catholic and Jewish faith traditions as well as persecuted Mennonites from mainland Europe. But there was one people group that was neglected. I do not wish to justify their thinking, or the thinking of the wider English culture, but slavery was unfortunately part of that culture. The early Quaker colonists did participate in this, but soon they began to see the hypocrisy of their actions. They began to ask themselves how they could enslave one people group denying them the dignity they offered to others as bearers of God’s image. They recognized their own hypocrisy and they began to participate in a culture of change.
This activity began first through boycotting the buying and selling of goods using exploitive labor. They would refuse to buy sugar because the cultivation of this commodity was largely done by slaves in the Caribbean. They also began to abstain from the consumption of alcoholic beverages for the same reason, sugar from the plantations was used to brew these spirits. And they would wear simple undyed garments, because often the dyes used for clothing was obtained by the enslaved people of Africa.
They began by boycotting, but soon great action was required. Several Friends began to join a movement of people that would help enslaved individual escape from the plantations, and assisted them with shelter an food as they made their way north into the Canada. This action put their lives at risk. Yet they were willing to take that stand. Eventually this movement grew, as did the tensions between the cultures that supported and denied the practice of slavery. Some believed that the only real way to end that evil practice, was to go to war.
This brings about a third major issue faced by the Religious Society of Friends in the 19th century. It was one thing to die for what you believed, but were they willing to kill for it?
I mention this brief and inadequate history because it adds depth to this query. Do you love one another as becomes the followers of Christ? Where do we draw the lines? Who is included, and is there any exclusions?
Those Friends that sought to unify the Meetings, looked not only to the stirrings within their hearts, but they looked to scripture. We are not just a religious society, but we were Friends, and that name did not just come about because we wanted to be inclusive, but they called themselves Friends because of their deep love and devotion to scripture. In John’s gospel Jesus would say, “Your are my Friends if you do what I command you.” They took this to heart. They wanted to friends of Jesus, and they believed that Jesus was and is our ever present teacher and guide. If we silence our hearts before God, they believed that we could know the mind of God, and the revelations we received in that time of silence could be confirmed through the testimony of Scripture, which we believe to be the witness of the Word of God, Jesus.
These Friends, Friends from across America and from Europe joined together in Richmond, Indiana and they began to formulate the basic framework of our Faith and Practice. And included within was the queries we still use today. They had faced challenges that divided the church and a nation, and they encouraged each one among them to silence their hearts, set aside their ideological prejudices and to ask themselves, “Do you love one another as becomes the followers of Christ?
How do we begin to answer this question? We go to the Word of God.
But not just scripture. This is important to remember. Humanity can twist and manipulate the words of scripture to meet whatever situation they want. I say this and I know that some will misinterpret what I am saying. I love scripture, I believe that it is inspired and has authority, but as John says the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The Word of God is and always has been Jesus, the Incarnate and unique son of God. To begin to answer the query we need to look at Jesus, his life, his lifestyle, and his actions.
Those Friends in Richmond began to consider what it meant to be a follower of Christ and they were drawn to the section of scripture we know as the Last Supper. As this supper was coming to a close, Jesus said to his disciples, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once.” There is a lot of glorification going on.
He continues, “Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’ A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
I want us to just consider what Jesus is saying as he offers them this teachings. I want you to not just focus on what will eventually happen later in the Gospel, but what Jesus had just done. The gospel of John is unique among the gospel accounts because it is the only one that provides more to this story.
Jesus as we know has spent that last three years traveling throughout Judea and Galilee. He traveled up to the northern most region which is that part of Israel that now boarders Syria, and through the land most Jewish people avoided, Samaria. Throughout these travels, Jesus would join with the community within the synagogue worshiping and teaching. He would go out into the wilderness and other isolated places to pray, and he would walk among the people healing the sick and even feeding a multitude with a basket of dinner rolls and a couple of fish. The people loved Jesus and the people hated Jesus. He did not let them think of themselves as righteous because they had the right ancestry, but he challenged their understanding of what God was teaching in the scriptures. That is what we know as commandments in our language, we often see it as law but in the Hebrew culture it was teaching. It was a collection of teaching by God given to Moses, to get us to think about how to live a life loving God with everything we have and are, and to live with those around us.
The religious leaders hated Jesus because he challenged their understanding, and that challenge threatened their lifestyles. If they were no longer seen as the singular possessors of God’s wisdom, how would they maintain control over the people? And that was the point. God does not want us to control each other, he wants us to love each other as we love ourselves.
Jesus encourages his disciples to find a place, where they can celebrate the feast and they go and set things up. Jesus then enters, he takes off his outer garments and wraps a towel around his waist. He pours water in a basin and he kneels down before them and begins to wash their feet.
The disciples are in shock. Why is the teacher washing their feet? This was the most undignified task anyone could do. To stoop and place your face by one’s foot meant that you were socially beneath them, that you were the lowest servant. Peter looks at his teacher, the man he devoted his entire life to, and he cries out, “No you will never wash my feet.” and Jesus looked at him and said, “If I do not wash your feet you will have no part of me.” Peter then just as passionately pleas, “Not just my feet but my head also.” To which Jesus replies, “One who is clean only needs his feet washed.”
Once this was complete, Jesus dresses again and sits at the table. He then informs them that one among them will betray him and turn him over to the religious leaders. The disciples then debate among themselves and wonder who among them it might be. I think it is important to remember that they were uncertain who among them would betray their Lord. These men had left their careers, their families, and their friends to follow Jesus. They faced social ridicule because they walked with him, and they experienced the elation of praise when they were able to participate in the ministry. Yet when Jesus said that one of them would betray him, each of them knew that they were capable of that grievous sin.
Jesus gave the eleven some relief saying, “it is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it.” And he handed that bread to Judas. After Judas had gone this is when Jesus speaks the words those Friends in Richmond attached to our Query. Do we love one another as befitting a follower of Christ? “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”
Each of them had just experienced Jesus washing their feet. Each of them including the very one that would betray him. Each of them had eaten at his table. Each of them had been accepted into his cohort of disciples. And he is telling them to love one another as he loved them. What does that mean?
It means that we serve. It means we get down on our knees and roll up our sleeves. Jesus told them as they traveled and argued among themselves, that if you wanted to be the first, you must become last and servant to all. And he said that the rulers of the world, or the Gentiles, lord it over others. They exercise power over those they see beneath them. They exploit those who do not have the wealth of this world. They manipulate the legal system so that they can remain in control of the wealth and power within their society. Those opposed to God will use force to bend your knees to do their will. But Jesus said that will not be among you. The kingdom of God does not operate as the kingdoms of this world operate. No, the ones great in the Kingdom of God serve, they serve even those society see as being beneath them.
Do you love one another as befitting a follower of Christ? Are you careful of the reputation of others? When differences arise do you make earnest efforts to end them speedily?
When Jesus told them that one among them would betray him, each of the disciples knew that they were capable of that unthinkable sin. They knew that it was possible that they could be swayed. This is where that second part of the Query comes in. We can easily fall into sin, as can anyone around us. Because of this we should be careful with the words we say and the activities we participate in. We ourselves would not want to be accused of something, why would we allow that to be done to someone else.
Until Judas took the bread and left the table, each disciple was just that, a disciple. Each of them were loved by Jesus, each of them were served by Jesus. They were equal. They could not tell which person would betray Jesus because the thought of one of Jesus’s closest friends doing such a thing was something they could not imagine. And even when Judas left the table they did not realize that he would betray Jesus, thinking only that he was going to buy what they needed or give something to the poor because he had the moneybag. Not one of them jumped up accusing Judas of being a turncoat.
This too is how we should act. We should give everyone the benefit of the doubt. When we hear idle gossip we should not assume that it is truth. The disciples did not accuse Judas of betrayal at the table, even though the idea was placed in their minds that one of them would be. They even trusted that Judas was going to do something honorable. It was only after the actions were done that they were able to confirm that Judas was the one that betrayed their lord. Until he kissed Jesus in the garden Judas remained in the eyes of the disciples as one of them. This is how we should act as well.
Watch the actions and listen to the words people speak. Do not let untruth about someone stand. But protecting the reputation of others does not mean we deny their wrong doing. If they did in fact do the things that they are accused of and we know it. It is just as wrong for us to deny our knowledge because that denial may harm others. It is important to be honest and seek the truth. And it is imperative that if harm has been done we do all we can to bring comfort, aide, and reconciliation.
I gave you a brief history of Friends as we consider this query and scripture. I gave this because the ones that first penned these words lived through some of the most difficult years of American history. These words cut them deep. They possibly knew someone that took the opposing side during the Hicksite schism. And some of them might have participated in the discussions that eventually led to the split. Some of the words spoken and recorded in the writings of those early Friends were not the most flattering, nor do they shine the peace loving unity our name has come to represent.
And although we like to say we have a testimony of equality, not everyone treated those that stood up for the abolition of slavery well. Levi Coffin, the one that is often credited with founding the Underground Railroad, was written out of his Meeting of Friends. They kicked him out of his church because they did not want to be seen as a collaborator.
And there were some that decided that they should fight in the war between the state, and others held to their conscientious objection to the killing of others to advance their beliefs. Some even rejected their faith because they sought the acceptance of their community instead of standing for faith.
They wrote these words down. They asked the question, and as they wrote it, they had to wrestle with themselves. Did I love Levi as Christ loved him? Did I reject the soldier because he did not share my faith or did I encourage them to love as Christ loved? Did I show the enslaved, the widow, the other the love God has for them, did I honor that of God in their life? They asked these questions knowing full well that everyone that knew them would look at them as they answered their own query. They knew that they would stand before their own community and would have to prove through their words and their actions that they loved others as Christ loved them.
Which brings us to the last portion of scripture today. Jesus told his disciples that they could not follow him now, but will follow afterward. Peter, being Peter quickly proclaimed, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” This is often our response to our life of faith. We are quick to say, “Yes!” I will live the love of Christ with others, but what happens when we find out that person standing or sitting next to us has a different opinion than I have? What happens if everyone is looking at you to offer some glimmer of hope? What happens when the world around you decides that it is acceptable to do something you know is contrary to the testimony of Christ?
Jesus answered Peter, “Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times.”
We will fail. We will not live up to our standard. Peter did deny even knowing Jesus multiple times before the sun rose the next day. He held that sin and dishonor within him. He knew that he failed. His lord, his teacher, and friend had been lead to prison and he denied him. Jesus died, and Peter failed. We speak of the eminence faith of Peter, we honor him as being the rock of faith. But when Jesus was buried in the tomb, Peter knew he failed his closest friend. He did not protect his lord’s reputation, he did not quickly seek reconciliation, and now his friend was buried in a grave. We will fail, and we have failed. What will we do with this? We should not justify our actions but admit the truth and seek forgiveness.
Peter denied Jesus, just as Jesus said he would. Yet when Jesus rose from the grave, he offered Peter a chance to stand again as he asked three times for Peter to affirm his faith and devotion. And with each of those affirmations Jesus issued a command to tend the sheep, feed the sheep, and feed the lambs.
Do you love one another as becomes the followers of Christ? Are you careful of the reputation of others? When differences arise do you make earnest efforts to end them speedily?
As we enter this time of centered worship. Ask yourself if you are the person you say you are. Consider the manner you are living and affirm like Peter that you do love Christ and will love those around you as Jesus loves them today.
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