The Inner Sanctuary of the Soul

In the first part of A Testament of Devotion, Thomas Kelly begins to talk about living life from inner resources and shares his deeply held belief that there is "an inner sanctuary of the soul" within every man, woman and child. In this inner "holy of holies," the Spirit of God draws us to seek him deep within. Kelly speaks of the Seed within all of us, the Inner Christ, the Inner Light, moving us to awaken.

Thomas Kelly is a Quaker. The Quaker way of life is a celebration of the discovery of the Creator of life in our very souls. And, reliance on external resources like an ordained clergy, denominational polity, sacred buildings, and even sacred rituals seem to Quakers to keep human beings from discovering the greatest spiritual truth of all: that God is literally present in the depths of each individual human soul, waiting to embrace and heal and guide into all truth, and bring the human spirit closer and closer to the Divine.

"It is a dynamic center, a creative Life that presses to birth within us. It is a Light Within that illumines the face of God and cast new shadows and new glories upon the face of men. It is a seed stirring to life if we do not choke it." (3)

Speaking of Christ, Kelly says: "And He is within us all." (3)

These Quaker beliefs arise from the Biblical witness of what God has done in the history of humanity through the Divine Incarnation in Jesus, the Christ. But, the Quaker of way of experiencing and living this faith is distinctive from other wings of the church, and other wings of religion as a whole. In some ways, the Quaker emphasis on the inner world similar to mystical traditions of Christianity, Judaism (maybe Islam as well) and Buddhism, Hinduism or Daoism. But, the Quaker experience as communicated by Thomas Kelly seems to be based on the deep conviction that God has planted a seed deep in the soul of every human being when Jesus was "planted" in the earth by his death on a cross. And, Quakers like Kelly believe that this seed is stirring to life in the soul of every human by the power of God's blessed life-giving power - the very power that raised Jesus from death to life. This is a mysticism grounded in history, grounded in the saving acts of God in human history and the history of this world.

In a remarkable way, this Quaker faith expresses the core of the Biblical faith (see how much sense the above description makes of Paul's letter to the Romans Chapter 5). And, this faith in the universal effect of Christ's death and resurrection opens doors of communion and fellowship with all people who are seeking the Divine.

The Quaker way is very confident in the graciousness and universal reach of God,and Kelly was very confidnt that the "Seed" in every human being was the very seed of Christ. There is a universal graciousness and confidence in God's love for all people, but also in God's redeeming action for all people in Christ. It is as if every human being is claimed and marked by God, marked as a child of God, and destined for goodness and glory and communion with the living God and fellowship with the children of God.

From a long and personal study of Romans about 25 years ago in seminary, I came to believe in this amazing graciousness and reach of the death of Christ: how God literally claimed the whole world for redemption and union with God's very self. For the first time, it became clear to me that the deep structure of the whole world and the depths of every human being had become altered by the death of Christ, and the raising of his body from the tomb was God's promise of a good destiny for all people and all things.

The whole world lives under this promise, but somehow we have suppressed this Good News. And, the world suffers from not awakening to the promise it lives under. I guess not many people know it because they haven't had the chance to know it. The Church has not really proclaimed this promise, because by and large the Church hasn't really believed this Good News. No, generally the Church has believed in some truncated form of the Gospel that goes like this: 'God so loved those special people who accept the teachings of the Church that he gave his only Son that whosoever accepts the teachings and practices of the Church will have eternal life." The Quakers realized that they needed a better teacher than "the Church" to rely on, and they had found that better teacher in their very souls: the Inner Light of God,the Inner Christ was speaking within their very hearts. And, they didn't believe they were some special elect, but believed they had simply awakened to what was possible for every human being. "There is that which is of God in every man," is what George Fox once said. And, the prophecy of Jeremiah had come to pass with the Quakers: "In that day, no one will teach others, saying: "Know the Lord," for each will know me, from the greatest to the least, for I will write my law on their hearts." (paraphrase of Jeremiah 31:31-34). The external teacher has faded away; the internal teacher has come in his glory. This is the way the Quakers discovered, which is the experience of the early church that we read about in Paul's letters, in Acts, and well, this is the experience that comes to people like you and me even now. So long as Church teaching keeps us from experiencing God in the inner sanctuary of soul, it is unholy. Whenever any teaching enables us to experience God in the inner sanctuary of the soul, it is holy.

But, when is an experience genuine, when false? Because, surely human beings can come up with all sorts of inner experiences that may or may not have anything to do with God. The only answer I have is to test any experience over against the way of Jesus in this world. The way the Gospel writers described Jesus way in this world. Is your experience illuminated, embraced by this way of Jesus? Does the way of Jesus that is described strengthen, clarify and bring celebration to your experience? I simply do not trust any other revelation of God's way enough to make it the touchstone and authority in my life. I have found this way of Jesus to be true. And, this way is not always described too well by Church teaching. But, if you read the Bible's account of Jesus as the very revelation and presence of God and look deep within, there is some clarity. Maybe others have found other ways to test and guide their experience. If so, that is great with me. Jesus is the only way I know of that cuts through all the falsehood of the external and, yes, internal world I live in. On this way, we find peace with God and each other and ourselves.