How Jesus Treats People

Preached at Wayside Friends Church

May 3, 2026

 Jesus Christ is alive and present to teach his people himself.  This was a central teaching from the founder of Quakerism, George Fox. It came out of his own personal shattering experience of meeting Jesus for himself without the help of preacher or priest. (His experience was not the first of its kind in the world, to be sure, and it followed the pattern of mystical experience around the world.) He was convinced that God is present for each person, not just special people, and that God is speaking to individuals and to communities of believers.  The central requirements are being open to hear and being willing to obey. Some branches of Quakerism have no pastors, only elders, and the pattern of worship is to sit in silence until someone is moved in the spirit to speak to the gathered congregation.  Others, like the one we come out of, have pastors and the expectation that someone will deliver a sermon, preferably short, and that there will be a time we call open worship in which anyone moved in the spirit may speak to the congregation.

But sometimes people ask, “How do you know if it’s God speaking to you?” (I don’t plan to differentiate between the members of the Trinity in this sermon, and I plan to talk mostly about how Jesus spoke to people when he lived in Israel.) This is a legitimate question because the minds of humans are subject to physical and psychological pressures and indignities, and we cannot claim to control everything we think and feel. I, for instance, am accompanied through life by migraine, and sometimes when I’m working into one, I am weepy, irritable, chatty, and/or even funny, but eventually I am migraining. I sometimes see stars or pixels, I sometimes lose words out of my vocabulary, I sometimes fall asleep.  So those things are not under my control.

Another problem we have is having sick consciences.  We either feel shame and guilt where there is no fault of ours, or we feel no shame and guilt where we are at fault. In 1 John 3:18-20, the apostle advises us that we cannot just talk about loving our neighbor, but our love has to show up in what we do, how we work, in our real lives. (IRL) And our active love is how we know we are from the truth, and it gives us confidence in God’s presence. Then, if our conscience finds fault with us, blames and accuses us, we know that God is bigger and stronger than our conscience and understands everyone and the whole of everyone.  If our conscience is clear as regards active love, then we have cheerful courage and can speak freely before God.  How I understand this is that the nagging inner voice that shames and finds fault cannot be in control of our lives. John tells us in ch. 1 of 1 John not to hide our faults but every time to bring them right to God, tell God the truth, and God will wash us clean.  And no voice can bully us after that, whether inside us or outside us. 

Before we look at specific examples of how Jesus spoke to his contemporaries, we need to recognize that 1) not everything Jesus said or did is written down; 2) not every aspect of any one encounter is written down; 3) what was written down was from memory, not diaries, so events which left a trace of emotion or mystery, or events/stories that occurred more than once are likely to be included; and 4) almost nowhere is tone or facial expression specified. I do believe that the Spirit helped the writers remember, in addition to the way writing memories drags up more specifics and further memories. And I will not limit how the Spirit can illuminate any one passage to the individual, even if I don’t see it that way.

So here are the few encounters I want us to think together about.

The Rich Young Ruler

This one shows up in three gospels, from which I infer that it was surprising to the disciples. When this young man speaks respectfully to Jesus, and asks him what he can do to have eternal life, Jesus is confrontational rather than welcoming. Jesus says, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God.” I think that young man must have been taken aback.  Then Jesus says, “If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” 

Intriguingly, the young man says, “Which ones?” What might be behind this question? Perhaps his own self-awareness that he is not keeping all of them, and he hopes he’s keeping the right ones.  

Jesus says, “These:  no murder, no adultery, no stealing, no lying about another person; yes honoring parents, yes loving your neighbor as yourself.”

The young man says, “I have done these since I was a child. What do I still lack?”

And here is the heart of the confrontation. Jesus says to a person who believes he has been loving his neighbor, “Sell your possessions and give the money to the poor. You will have treasure in heaven. And come, follow me.” 

What I want us to observe here is that 1) Jesus won’t be flattered, and 2) Jesus lets him make his case, and 3) Jesus doesn’t shame, and 4) Jesus is direct in pointing out the next step he needs to take.

The Woman at the Well

This is only in the gospel of John, who says that he is trying to cover things the others did not and also that it would be impossible to write everything Jesus said and did.

Jesus strikes up this conversation, as he sits alone by the well.

He says, “Give me a drink.”

She says, “You, a Jew, want a drink from me, a Samaritan?!”

He says, “If you knew the gift of God and who I am, you would have said, ‘Give me a drink.’ and I would have given you living water.”

Let’s pause here to see what might be going on. I don’t think she’s going to start any conversation with a Jewish man, so Jesus begins, very directly. 

But she’s a bit spiky, or at least shocked, that he would speak and take water from a Samaritan woman, and she says so.

Jesus says, “You have no idea what’s going on here or who I am or what I’m here to do for you.” This seems to me to be a confrontational response to her spikiness.

She changes tactics. “Sir, you have nothing to draw up water with.  Where will you get living water.” At least now she’s polite, but she’s certainly skeptical. “Are you greater than the patriarch Jacob, who gave us this well, and drank from it himself, along with children and livestock?”

Jesus replies, “Whoever drinks this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water I give will have within them a fountain of water springing to everlasting life.”

I still hear a hint of skepticism in her reply.  “Sir, give me this water, so I don’t thirst anymore and have to come to this well to draw water.”

Jesus says, “First, bring your husband here.” And she says, “I have no husband.” Now Jesus is getting personal, as he did with the rich young ruler. 

“You speak truth, you have no husband, because you’ve had 5 and now the one you have is not your husband.” 

Jesus is direct again.  Jesus does not shame, but I suspect he uncovers some shame for her, shame that may explain her spikiness, her defensiveness, her evasiveness in their conversation. 

So she tries to deflect one more time. “Sir, I perceive you are a prophet. What is your opinion about where we should worship, here on this mountain or in Jerusalem?” 

Jesus says, “Woman” (which is how he also addressed his mother), “believe me, not long from now people will not be limited to worshipping the Father here or in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship a vague idea of God, whereas we Jews at least know whom we worship. But soon true worshipers will worship anywhere and everywhere, in spirit and in truth. These are the kind of people the Father is seeking. God is spirit, and those who worship God must worship in spirit and in truth.”

She says, perhaps defending her lack of knowledge), “I do know that when God’s chosen one comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus says, “I who speak to you am God’s chosen one.”

And she runs to town and brings the whole town back to see if this man is indeed the Christ, this man who told her everything she’d ever done.

I hope you can see how Jesus moves this conversation closer and closer to the bone, not so as to make her miserable, but so as to make her honest. She flatters, spars and parries, as one does when one is ashamed.  But when she caves in, she isn’t shamed.  Instead, she is set free. Her feet have wings to spread the gospel that the Chosen One is right outside of town by Jacob’s well.  

When Jesus promised his disciples that he would send the Spirit of Truth, who would guide them into all truth, I think it was more about two kinds of truth: the truth about ourselves, learning to be honest and open with God and with others; and the truth about God, learning that God welcomes our honesty with forgiveness and instruction, and meets our openness with God’s own open-hearted love.  

I used to think that God spoke to me through my fear and shame, that I could never be good enough, and that I would easily slip through God’s hands because of my ignorance and my errors. As God taught me to trust in God’s character and love, I came to hear God speaking differently. 

After about a decade of semi-forgiveness of a deep wrong done me, I heard God say, “You can do better now.” And I said, appropriately, “You are right, I can. Please forgive him. I let him off the hook.” I found a new freedom in that moment that persists to this day, even though occasionally the pain resurfaces. There was no shaming in that voice, and I wasn’t required to weep and wail for my previous insufficient efforts.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I heard God say, “You don’t need to swear so much. I notice that it makes you more rather than less angry.” And I said, appropriately, “You’re right.  I’ll work on that.” Again, direct, not shaming, no threats, just a truthful observation. (BTW, I will tell you honestly that it was just a couple of the swears, not all of them, that I’m working on.)

I conclude that we can recognize that God is speaking to us when the voice is neither shaming nor condemning but instead is direct and on point. We can choose to reject it or to open ourselves to it, admitting in honesty that God is right, and taking the steps God prescribes.

Someone asked me to describe how I sensed God asking me to share something in open worship, and I replied that it was how I imagine feeling if a lion was getting near me—I feel alert, maybe in awe, a little apprehensive, and appreciative. That any of us can sense God approaching us personally and can share out of our honest relationship and understanding at God’s request is such an honor, such a grace. 

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Lifting the Weight

Preached at Silverton Friends Church

April 26, 2026

Maybe the most memorable religious phrase from my early life was “born again.” I went forward at every altar call, knowing for a fact I had not been completely good since the last one, and usually felt renewed, what I thought of as “born again.” Unbeknownst to me, I was more correct than mistaken about that phrase, as I understand it today.  I want to explore the interaction between Jesus and Nicodemus in John 3, wherein Jesus says to a mature man, “You must be born again,” and he says, “What?” As I sat with this passage, several thoughts opened up to me that spoke to my heart and chimed with other things I’ve been thinking about since Easter.

First, to review the story, retold in my own style. Here’s Nicodemus, a man of status and holiness, a Pharisee and a “ruler of the Jews.” He will show up again after the crucifixion with about 100 pounds of myrrh and aloes for Jesus’s burial, so he respects Jesus. This respect shows up right away when he says, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher come from God.  No one could do the things you do unless God is with them.” Jesus sees that Nicodemus has come after dark. It is costly for him to be seen conversing with the man who had driven the animals out of the temple and overturned the moneychangers’ tables. (When asked who said he could do such things, Jesus retorted, without clearing anything up, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.”) 

Jesus says to him, “No two ways about it, unless a person is born again, they cannot see the kingdom of God.” “How can an old person reenter the womb and be reborn?” Nicodemus asks.

“Don’t be surprised that I said you must be born again,” says Jesus. “I’m speaking the simple truth that unless a person is born of water (natural) and the Spirit (supernatural), they cannot enter the Kingdom of God. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear it but cannot explain where it comes from or where it is going. That’s what it’s like to be born of the Spirit.”

“How can these things be?” asks a puzzled and perhaps skeptical Nicodemus.

Jesus replies, “Are you a teacher of Israel and you do not know these things?” This pulls Nicodemus up short and challenges his security in his identity as a man, a ruler, a Pharisee, a scholar of the law, an elder.  He can be glad Jesus didn’t go on to say that children understand this better than Nicodemus does, which he said to God about the disciples at least once in their hearing.

As an aside, Jesus explained to his disciples during his ministry and after the resurrection how someone like Nicodemus should have known these things from the Jewish scriptures. I’m going to take a guess that some of the passages are those referring to God writing God’s law in their hearts and minds (Jer. 31:33); creating a clean heart and renewing a right spirit in the contrite (Ps. 51:10); giving them a new heart and a new spirit (Ezek.36:26). But what this suggests is that Nicodemus kept the law and considered that he was righteous, which is why Jesus spoke to him like this. 

The long speech which follows is full of things to think about.  Jesus asserts that he came down from heaven, he takes on the prophetic title given Ezekiel, the Son of Man, and he foretells that he will be lifted up like the serpent which Moses lifted up in the wilderness. That story all by itself deserves a sermon.  And then Jesus tells why it is important to recognize who he is and start over anew:  whoever looks to Jesus on the cross and trusts him will not be annihilated, but will have everlasting life.  Jesus asserts that God sent the Son into the world not to condemn the world but to save the world, and that this is God’s gift of love to us.  What condemns any one is that Jesus has brought God’s light into the world and some have loved to stay in the shadows because they do not want their evil deeds exposed.  But those who love and do the truth run towards the light, where their deeds are clearly seen to have been done in God.  

This is so dense with hope for humanity. God loves us and the world. God wants to save us and the world.  Jesus came to make that obvious and to do the necessary work.

The song that has been going through my mind this Eastertide is “Big Bad John.” I won’t read all the lyrics to you, and they don’t all apply well, but this is the main story.  An outsider, a loner, and a somewhat terrifying figure, John came into town, no one knew from where, and took up working at the mine.  

Then came the day at the bottom of the mine

When a timber cracked and men started cryin'

Miners were prayin' and hearts beat fast

And everybody thought that they'd breathed their last, 'cept John

Through the dust and the smoke of this man-made hell

Walked a giant of a man that the miners knew well

Grabbed a saggin' timber, gave out with a groan

And like a giant Oak tree, he just stood there alone, Big John

…

And with all of his strength he gave a mighty shove

Then a miner yelled out, "There's a light up above"

And 20 men scrambled from a would-be grave

Now there's only one left down there to save, Big John

With jacks and timbers they started back down

Then came that rumble way down in the ground

And then smoke and gas belched out of that mine

Everybody knew it was the end of the line for Big John

…

Now they never reopened that worthless pit

They just placed a marble stand in front of it

These few words are written on that stand

"At the bottom of this mine lies a big, big man, Big John.” (written and sung by Jimmy Dean)

What Big Bad John did for the miners reminds me of what Jesus does for us every one of our days.

What’s been on my mind is that Jesus came into our dark, dusty, dangerous mine with us. This mine represents the way we often see our world. We’re like the servant who fell into a ditch on his way to run an errand for his boss, and who cannot get himself out of the muddy disgusting ditch.(See Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, ch. 51,https://www.gutenberg.org/files/52958/52958-h/52958-h.htm#THE_THIRTEENTH_REVELATION).  When the timber cracks, and it is always cracked and cracking, we start crying and praying. And then Jesus strides under the timber, or onto the cross, and lifts the rubble off of us, and we can see the light and escape. Jesus lifts this weight up for everyone all the time. It is an eternal job, an event in eternity. Jesus is always and forever lifting our shame, our guilt, our fear, our selfishness up so that we can escape into the light of day, the love of neighbor and the love of God.

Jeremiah wrote in his Lamentations, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness, O God.”

We also need to be born again every morning, born again into our confidence in the steadfast love of God. We lay it all down, every single morning, and invite the Spirit to tell us what to do in the moment.  

What do we lay down every morning, what do we let the Spirit blow through or away?

Nicodemus brought a lifetime of doing the right thing, of studying the scriptures, of being careful in his judgments, of caution—and of being male, a religious leader, well-off, spiritually comfortable.

Start over. Jesus says. We might feel a bit smug about Jesus setting Nicodemus straight, but we are Nicodemus in this encounter; we’re not Jesus.  We need every day to hear Jesus say, “Be born again.” Not words of comfort, but challenge.

In the first letter by John, he tells us what a being-born-again person does. When we do harm by our actions or by our inertia, we must not deny it or hide it, but instead admit it to God. When we tell the truth, running into the light of God, God is faithful and just and forgives us, and washes us clean from all of it.  Every time, not just once. Every day, be born again, start anew. Let Jesus lift the timber and rubble, and live the windswept life of the Spirit.

Meditations on the Resurrection

Preached at Silverton Friends Church, Jan. 12, 2025

I've been preaching on what scripture says the crucifixion of Jesus means to us, and today I want to talk about the resurrection.  Let me just say that without the resurrection and the loosing of God's Holy Spirit on those waiting for it, the crucifixion is just another death of a good man. One meaning of the resurrection is that Jesus is who he claimed to be, and he is a reliable witness to the character and purposes of God. Now on to the rest of the sermon.

I have a friend I’ll call Dorothy whom I met at the Pacific Northwest Quaker Theological Conference. This was a biennial meeting of women from North Pacific Yearly Meeting, what at the time I called liberal Quakers.

Dorothy stood up in our closing unprogrammed worship and said the following: “Some of you know that i occasionally see Jesus.” I was not expecting this.  She went on, “I first saw him while I was in heavy traffic in Seattle, and other drivers were getting on my nerves. I looked over at the passenger seat and there he was. He said, "Dorothy, do you have to use such language?” This was not all of the conversation, but I remember only this. I was both impressed and a little envious. I’d love to see Jesus in his glorified and yet identifiable physical self.

Some years later, Dorothy stood and said that Jesus had shown up  (while she was exercising, if I remember correctly) and told her he would be her personal trainer for the following year. She was looking forward to this. As it turned out, her personal training took her through breast cancer. She survived both the cancer and the treatment, and she learned about accepting help rather than being the one giving help.  

For many, the thought of seeing Jesus, or for that matter, his mother Mary, fills them with skepticism. People who see what they call apparitions are particularly credulous or vulnerable in some way, and their experiences can be dismissed as delusions.

But not dismissed by me. Dorothy is a grounded, sensible, scientific type person, and she occasionally sees Jesus. And she isn’t the only one. 

I’m not sure whether it was Jesus or a messenger from God that I met one despairing day.  I was sitting in church, weeping quietly over my pain over memories of my childhood, and I couldn’t bear it. So I got up and drove toward Champoeg Park. I came to a place in the road where the pavement had been removed and there were barriers with “No Through Traffic”; as I sat there stuck about what to do next, a big green boat of an American car came from the other direction.  The driver, whom I did not see clearly, leaned out of the window and said, “You can make it through.” I received this as the word of Jesus to me, and it comforted me.

You may have your own stories about hearing or seeing Jesus.

Robert Willis, the Dean Emeritus of Canterbury Cathedral, put morning prayers on youTube during the pandemic. He helped me through the pandemic and to this day. Dean Robert said the best evidence for the resurrection (for those who have not seen Jesus personally) is in the book of Acts. This chronicles how people behaved who had seen the risen Jesus, and there is no other good explanation for their behavior and their attitudes. (YouTube "How We Know the Resurrection Was Real, start around 11:28)

In the culture of a religious power base, the one that manipulated the Romans into killing Jesus: 

they are unafraid 

they speak their truth 

their confidence knows no limits

they hold authorities accountable for wrong-doing

they urge everyone to repent (which means to change one’s mind)

they promise hope

they forgive

Here are some of the things those first Christians said:

After healing a well-known beggar on the steps of the temple, Peter and John were hauled in before the priests, the temple guard, and the Sadducees, the religious power base and their muscle. These folks told them to shut up and lie low.  Here’s what they replied: “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:19)

Not long after, the apostles were imprisoned for preaching, and an angel let them out.  They were again brought before this group of powers that be, who said, “We commanded you not to teach in this name, and instead you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and intend to blame us for this man’s death.”

But Peter and the other apostles answered and said, “We ought to obey God rather than men.  The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered, raised him up to his right hand to be prince and savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins, and we are his witnesses to these things and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.” When the leaders heard this, they were furious and plotted to kill the apostles.… They beat the apostles and again commanded them not to speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for Jesus’ sake. (Acts 5:29, 60)

Ignoring these orders, Stephen, a man full of faith and grace, preached and did miracles. A conspiracy arose to accuse him of blaspheming Moses and God, so he was brought before the council.  He took the opportunity to review the history of the Jewish nation at length and God’s call on them, ending like this: “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! you always resist the Holy Spirit as did your fathers before you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers.” They ground their teeth in rage. Then Stephen said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” (Acts 7:56)

They hauled him outside the city and stoned him to death, leaving their coats with a young Pharisee named Saul.

And as Stephen was dying, he said, “Lord, receive my spirit.” Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin,” And when he had said this, he fell asleep. (Just a side note, Jesus also viewed death as sleep, which we can understand better since the news of the resurrection.)

And then there is the meeting Saul the persecutor had with Jesus: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:4) It’s worth nothing that no one else saw or heard anything. Saul’s spiritual blindness manifested in physical blindness, and he had to be led to Damascus. His personal encounter with the risen Jesus resulted in a life dedicated to making the good news known, often at great personal cost; it eventually cost him his life, as tradition has it.

Paul writes many times about how important it is that Jesus died and rose from death to glorified life. It’s too much to read all the passages, but here’s a sampling:

Romans 4 ending

Just as Abraham’s faith counted for him as righteousness, when we believe in the God who raised Jesus from the dead, our faith counts for us as righteousness, our faith in the God who raised Jesus from the dead, Jesus whose surrender to death contains our side-slips, our falling, our failing, and whose resurrection from death contains the pronouncement from God that our guilt is removed and we are just what we ought to be, innocent and righteous..

Indeed, Paul rises to exhilarating heights in Romans 8 as he lists out what the resurrection means to us: 

We are not condemned;

We walk according to God’s spirit in us; 

We are God’s children.

“If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. (Romans 8:11)

Paul doesn’t gloss over the fact that life here will be difficult for any number of reasons calling them “these present sufferings”: Both the creation and we ourselves groan, eagerly waiting for the redemption of the body, and the earth, For we were saved in this hope, which we do not yet see.

His hope gives him the courage to say this: These present sufferings are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us…For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:18, 38-9)

This is what the resurrection means for people of faith in the God who raised Jesus from death. 

Jesus himself said that he listened to what his Father told him and did what he was told; and that he was doing only what he saw his Father doing. He told his disciples that he was going away and that the Father would send them the Spirit of truth who would guide them into all truth.

The early Quakers affirmed the idea that Jesus is present to teach His people himself. We can see that they were fearless in preaching this insight; they were confident when facing authorities; they listened and obeyed.

The Spirit that descended on Jesus and filled Him, that galvanized the first generation of Christ-followers and their descendants the early Quakers, (and other renewals too numerous to mention) is the same Spirit the resurrection lets loose all who believe, including us. How do we live according to the Spirit?

 As James wrote, “If anyone lack wisdom, let that person ask of God, who gives to all liberally and doesn’t scold.” (James 1:5)  Let us, full of the hope given us by Jesus rising from death, ask, listen, and obey.