My Quaker Roots

Yesterday I was digging through a box of old files when I came across a very old folder from my days as a youth leader at New Garden Friends Meeting in Greensboro, NC (1978-1983).  In the file was a sheet that contained some witty Quaker sayings and stories, and it was great to discover them again. Among the gems I rediscovered were these...

• A Quaker farmer was attempting to milk his cow, but the cow was having none of it. After twice being kicked by the animal, the peace-loving Quaker had just about had it.  He spoke to the cow these words of warning: "I would not strike thee for the world, Friend Cow, but if thou dost not produce thy milk I will sell thee to the Baptist down the road, and he shalt beat the hell out of thee!"
• "I mind the Light, but I was born to boogie!"
• "I am a Quaker. In case of emergency, please be quiet."

I enjoyed my reminiscing, and then put the file back in the box.  I was reminded of my Quaker roots and how important the influence of the Society of Friends was on my own spiritual journey.

So it should have come as no surprise this morning that I woke up humming The George Fox Song.  George Fox (see picture; and yes he was the model for the Quaker Oats guy!) was the first Quaker (England, 1652),although he had no intention of founding a new denomination.  Like most great church leaders and denominations fathers/mothers, he was simply seeking Jesus.  He found that to really connect with Jesus, he had to find his way outside of the trappings of the Anglican Church of his day. He was very much a 17th century John the Baptist, right down to the way he looked. He fell in love with the references from John 1 referring to Jesus as "the Light." He came to believe in pacifism as taught by Jesus, and that since we are all created by God that "there is that of God in everyone." Not that we are God, but they we each have a divine spark. He sought to put all else aside and follow the Christ.  When I was a teenager I learned The George Fox Song, and to this day it is still one of the best ways of teaching what Fox came to believe about faith and the church. So today, I share the lyrics and the wisdom of George, and hope that it may inspire you the way it still does me.

There's a Light that was shinning when the world began

and a Light that is shinning in the heart of a man

There's a Light that is shinning in the Turk and the Jew

and a Light that is shinning friend in me and in you

Chorus: Walk in the Light, wherever you may be

Walk in the Light wherever you may be

In my old leather britches and my shaggy, shaggy locks

I am walking in the glory of the Light, said Fox

With a book and a steeple and a bell and a key

they would bind it forever but they can't, said he

For the book it may perish and the steeple will fall

But the Light will be shinning at the end of it all

If I give you a pistol will you fight for the Lord?

No- you can't kill the devil with a gun or a sword

Will you swear on the Bible?  I will not, said he,

For the truth is as holy as the book to me

There's an ocean of darkness and I drowned in the night

'til I came through the darkness to the ocean of Light

Oh the Light is forever and the Light it is free

and I'll walk in the glory of the Light, said he!

Just so you know, I sang those words as I typed them.  I have been away from Friends Meetings since 1994, but it turns out that my Quaker roots run deep- and strong.  And for that, I give thanks.  May today be a day filled with the Light in each of our lives.

Because of Jesus,