Expectant Listening
© Harold B. Confer
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This month we have a guest author. Harold B. Confer is a long-time active member of Adelphi Friends (Quaker) Meeting, Adelphi, Maryland, USA, and has served in a number of capacities in that Meeting. He also has been deeply involved in the work camping movement for many years.
Quaker worship is traditionally called expectant waiting, waiting upon the Lord with the expectation that God will be present and will be made manifest if we but listen.
William Stringfellow speaks of liturgy as a way of life. He says that all faithful Christians have a liturgy which has three characteristics:
- It is rooted in a worshiping community;
- It is Biblically based;
- As it remains true to that base and expression of the community it becomes sacramental.
Not only worshipping in silence but the Bible was central to early Friends. They read it faithfully and the gospel was clearly understood. God reaching down in human history and putting his son among us was the most significant Holy intervention in human history. In theological terms, Jesus was all man, all God. He was the incarnation of God.
He was crucified by the powers of Israel and Rome. He showed us the way to live but demonstrated that even the son of God is subject to death at the hands of principalities.
Powers and principalities are as prevalent and consuming of humankind today as during the life of Jesus. Quakers, as a small religious sect, have had a remarkable history of doing battle with the powers and principalities of this world. At one time in the early history of Friends, it was estimated that fully three-quarters of the society were in prison. This was not because they were lawbreakers but because they were faithful in their listening and to their understanding of their testimonies and how those had to be lived out in the world; they were faithful to their understanding of the Word of God.
"The single most important credential needed for comprehending the Bible is the intention to listen to the Word...A person must come to the Bible quietly, eagerly, expectantly - ready to listen." (Stringfellow)
