It was the Saying of our blessed Redeemer, Ye cannot serve God and Mammon. There is a deep Feeling of the Way of Purity, a Way in which the Wisdom of the World hath no Part, but is opened by the Spirit of Truth, and is called the Way of Holiness; a Way in which the Traveller is employed in watching unto Prayer; and the outward Gain we get in this Journey is considered as a Trust committed to us, by him who formed and supports the World. . . . —John Woolman

Questions: What do you think Jesus means when he says we cannot serve both God and wealth? What do you think Jesus means when he says we do not have to worry because God will meet our needs? What about all those whose needs are not met? What is our responsibility? What might help you be free from having to worry? How could your faith community work together to release people from worry?

There once was a man who said and did such amazing things that people followed him. He spoke to them of a reign of God and kingdom of heaven unlike anything they had ever experienced. His message hearkened back to their ancestors’ journey of encounter with God at Mt. Sinai, where Moses received the Ten Commandments. Now, generations later, as the crowds of mostly powerless people gathered on a hillside, Jesus’ message shimmered with echoes of ancient promises. The formula, “You have heard it said. . . . But this I say to you” (used repeatedly in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5–7) is Jesus’ exclamation point to the unfolding God-story that forever connects one’s heart posture with law-keeping. The spirit of the law and letter of the law are woven together in a kinship and kin-dom of grace and love in God’s story.

Today, generations later, I feel like I live among crowds who feel the disruption and disconnection of living in between stories. We increasingly have no common story, no tie that binds, no safe place for difficult questions, nowhere we are seen and known from which to form and shape our capacity to love God, ourselves, and others.

After pastoring among Friends for many years, my current personal journey includes soul care and companioning many Christ followers’ in between stories. Often, they have inherited a constricted or incomplete gospel message, tainted by a lack of Spirit-and-heart experience. I invite them to listen through head, heart, body, and imagination. Howard Thurman’s phrase, “The sound of the genuine,” offers a meaningful way of expressing what it is like to encounter God’s presence for many in this space between stories.

Friends use silence and seek inner stillness through waiting worship, or “communion in the manner of Friends,” as ways to gather a group to listen and respond to Christ’s leading. We need one another to listen with us through meetings for clearness and meetings for worship for business to recognize God stirring in our midst and in our personal life. We need one another to listen for the genuine sound of the story of God in ourselves and for the sake of the world.

The need of the crowds in our generation is not words of belief and information, but a healing encounter with the Eternal Listener and Present Teacher. Silence and stillness offer a way for Christ to shape and guide us toward God’s loving presence, and into a loving community that lives out love.

–Lynn Holt in “Friendly Perspective” from Matthew: The Life of Jesus