Instead of journal-writing in the tradition of Friends, I have developed the habit of writing down any worthwhile ministry I have spoken during Meeting for Worship.  I do this afterwards - which requires remembering what I said - so as to comply with the Advices on prepared ministry.  Some of these mini-sermons may be publishable; we shall see.  And some I will post here, like this one from today in Palo Alto Friends Meeting.

Love and Unity

I find myself contemplating one of the queries from our book of Faith and Practice.  This is not something I ever intentionally do, so it must be important.

The query asks, “How are love and unity maintained among you?”

Whenever I hear this question, my first response is “Aw, gee! Do we hafta do BOTH?”

Love and unity seem fundamentally unrelated to each other.  The query would be easier to answer if it were “How are love and fellowship maintained among you?” or “How are good order and unity maintained among you?”

Love and unity don’t seem connected when I examine my feelings toward our Quaker community.  I find much that is lovable about all of you.  I feel in unity with some of you most of the time, and with most of you at least occasionally.

But the originator of this query – I do not know its history, but it has been around a long time – did not just pick words from a list that included love and unity, along with fellowship and good order.  He or she meant a depth of love beyond living happily ever after, and a kind of unity beyond coming to a decision in business meeting before going our separate ways.

Combining love and unity in a single question suggests their roots are intertwined, or even identical.  If we follow both love and unity from their surface definitions to their roots, we would discover a union of love and unity, which needs a new definition.

I do not know this new definition. I do not know the name of the coin that has love on one side and unity on the other. All I can do is rephrase the question:

“What do we all share in common that makes us worthy of love?”

- Eric E. Sabelman

19 December, 2010