2025

For the Grace of God Has Appeared, Bringing Salvation to All (December 22): “It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Friends have a wide range of opinions about heaven, from the possibility of its existence to the qualifications for admission.”

Set Apart for the Gospel of God (December 15): “For the greater part of Quaker history, the core testimonies that inform our activism have derived from something far weightier than political judgment.”

What, Then, Did You Go Out to See? A Prophet? (December 8): “Imagine yourself in a crowd listening to John the Baptist in first-century Judea, or to George Fox in seventeenth-century England.”

Even Now the Ax Is Lying at the Root of the Trees (December 1): “The end, in George Fox’s mind, had already begun, and the Spirit of Christ was already moving through his world.”

You Know What Time It Is (November 24): “Throughout history, people have tried to frighten the masses into believing the world will end, plunging us all into eternal torment.”

I Will Raise Up Shepherds (November 17): “Quakers’ anti-ecclesiastic tradition empowers any of us to follow our leadings and become the shepherds this world needs.”

Anyone Unwilling to Work Should Not Eat (November 10): “Paul certainly wouldn’t have encouraged the Thessalonians to let their neighbors go hungry.”

My Spirit Abides Among You—Do Not Fear (November 3): “Nobody wishes for times such as these—but what will we do now that they’ve arrived?”

If They Persecuted Me, They Will Persecute You (October 27): “The Romans crucified Jesus because ‘he resisted and protested against everything that was an obstruction to a just world.’”

God, Be Merciful to Me, a Sinner (October 20): “The humble prayer of the tax collector in Jesus’ parable embodies the original Quaker faith.”

I Solemnly Urge You: Proclaim the Message (October 13): “Quaker faith and practice has provided a context in which I can remember the promise of a better world.”

That Is My Gospel, for Which I Suffer Hardship (October 6): “Friends will likely find ourselves in authoritarians’ crosshairs if we persist in confronting their wickedness by embodying our Quaker testimonies.”

Join with Me in Suffering for the Gospel (September 29): “Living out Quaker testimony puts us at odds with the gods of this world at the best of times, and we left the best of times in our rearview mirror quite a while ago. “

Woe to Those Who Are at Ease in Zion (September 22): “When you read Amos, you can understand why oligarchs fear class struggle.”

I Mourn, and Horror Has Seized Me (September 15): “Or, as Robert Alter vividly translates Jeremiah 8:21, ‘I plunge in doom, desolation has gripped me.’”

Fools Say in Their Hearts, “There Is No God” (September 8): “Society drifts further and further from the covenant; people become increasingly ‘all alike perverse.’”

I Have Set Before You Life and Prosperity (September 1): “The Beloved Community already exists. We just need to choose life.”

O That My People Would Listen to Me (August 25): “Quakers hold meetings for business not to decide what we want, but to listen for Spirit’s calling.”

You Shall Go to All to Whom I Send You (August 18): “We like to think that if Spirit came to us with a calling, we could drop everything to follow where God led.”

Let the One Who Has My Word Speak My Word Faithfully (August 11): “We should make our lives a counterexample to the world, challenging evil rather than accepting complicity.”

Abraham Looked Forward to the City That Has Foundations (August 4): “Abraham humbled himself and became obedient to the point not only of his own death, but to that of his son Isaac’s as well.”

Mortals Cannot Abide in Their Pomp (July 28): “As the Common English Bible puts it, ‘people won’t live any longer because of wealth.'”

He Disarmed the Rulers and Authorities (July 21): “As Paul saw it, Jesus didn’t just offer some new ideas, he rendered all other philosophies of life powerless.”

They Shall Run To and Fro, Seeking the Word of the Lord (July 14): “Any message that gives us permission to not love someone else and to treat them unjustly does not come from God.”

And the Lord Took Me from Following the Flock (July 7): “Prophets, the twentieth-century rabbi Abraham J. Heschel tells us, strive ‘to reconcile man and God.’”

Your Peace Will Rest on That Person (June 30): “Jesus told his first followers to live not as conquerors, but as sojourners—to graciously accept hospitality from those who offer it, to quickly walk away from those who do not.”

The Dawn From on High Will Break Upon Us (June 23): “The Inward Light does not condemn; rather, it serves as a beacon, guiding Friends’ feet into the way of peace.”

Declare How Much God Has Done for You (June 16): “Jesus had faith in the man he had cured of demons—or, rather, he had faith in the man’s faith.”

I Still Have Many Things to Say to You (June 9): “The early Quakers saw themselves as the spiritual heirs of the disciples who had accompanied Jesus from the beginning of his ministry.”

All of Them Were Filled with the Holy Spirit (June 2): “Pentecost matters because of what happened after the apostles began speaking in tongues.”

Why Do You Stand Looking Up Toward Heaven? (May 26): “As Acts begins, Luke revisits the final scene of his own gospel—Jesus’s ascension into heaven.”

I Saw No Temple in the City (May 19): “Quakers have no need of a ‘steeple-house,’ as George Fox would call it, to show their love for God and their neighbors.”

See, the Home of God Is Among Mortals (May 12): “Can you imagine George Fox’s reaction as he turned to Revelation, finding in John of Patmos a kindred spirit?”

They Who Have Come Out of the Great Ordeal (May 5): “Early in his spiritual development, George Fox reported, he had received ‘great openings concerning the things written in the Revelations.'”

By God’s Mercy We Are Engaged in This Ministry (April 28): “Francis reminded Quakers that we can find ‘friends of the truth’ in any religious community.”

The Stone That the Builders Rejected (April 21): “Some of us know the sting of rejection from our churches of origin. Maybe we had the ‘wrong’ politics, or the ‘wrong’ sexual orientation or gender identity.”

Then the Lord God Will Wipe Away the Tears from All Faces (April 14): “Even as ‘the kings of the earth… will be gathered together like prisoners in a pit,’ Isaiah announced that a holy kingdom would reign on Mount Zion.”

If These Were Silent, The Stones Would Shout Out (April 7): “Yes, the crowds thrilled to see Jesus approaching Jerusalem—but their excitement was born of their keenly felt desire for a liberator.”

I Press On Toward the Heavenly Call (March 31): “Quakers had long recognized that while everybody had the little incorruptible seed of Christ in their heart, some people might come to notice and nurture that seed without explicitly recognizing it as Christ.”

Do Not Be Like a Horse or a Mule (March 24): “We should not require a metaphorical bit and bridle to steer us down the path of righteousness. We should walk that path willingly, confident God has our back with every step.”

Who Am I That I Should Go to Pharaoh? (March 17): “Bayard Rustin called upon his audience to accept their ‘individual responsibility’ in bringing about a peaceful world.”

Get Away from Here, for Herod Wants to Kill You (March 10): “Jesus went to Jerusalem to invite everyone caught in the grip of empire to re-embrace God’s plan for humanity.”

See, Now Is the Acceptable Time (March 3): “Friends can draw upon resources far greater than the wealth or might of any secular empire.… If we lean into the day of salvation, God will give us the strength to push forward.”

And They Were Terrified as They Entered the Cloud (February 24): “You’re living your life out in the mundane world when suddenly, for whatever reason, the divine intrudes itself upon your existence and makes its presence felt.”

You Did Not Choose Me, But I Chose You (February 17): “James Nayler told his prosecutors at Appleby that he ‘did exceedingly rejoice’ when God spoke to him—and yet he still wavered, even though God’s instructions came with a substantial promise.”

Like a Tree Planted by Water (February 10): “Yes, Jeremiah wouldn’t stop talking about how Israel had abandoned God. But he also wouldn’t stop talking about how, if the people of Israel would put their trust in the Lord once more, their society would once again flourish.”

Who Can Endure the Day of His Coming? (February 3): “We remain very much haunted by the specter of the end times, though many of us fear that humanity will usher in its own destruction without God’s help.”

Whom Shall I Send, and Who Will Go for Us? (January 27): “Perhaps God chose an Episcopal bishop, with the eyes of the nation upon her, to deliver a prophetic vision of a far more blessed world.”

For I Did Not Receive It from a Human Source (January 20): “As I read about the spiritual revelations that changed George Fox’s life, I could see how his experiences echoed Paul’s.”

In Your Light We See Light (January 13): “For those who believe in God’s promise, no other guarantee is needed.”

…And They Received the Holy Spirit (January 6): “We want what the earliest Christians—the ones who hadn’t even thought yet to call themselves Christians—experienced in giving themselves over completely to God.”

2024