The Witness of Rufus Jones

Words & Music By Bryan Sirchio

About a 100 years ago, a Quaker man named Rufus Jones

Authored over 50 books

I know this because I just looked him up on the internet using Google.com

Which was linked of course with Amazon

So I bought Rufus Jones’ biography

Got a hunch it’s gonna speak to me

But right now, the only words I know that were written once by Rufus Jones

Were found last year by a friend of mine

On the wall of a Quaker school in Palestine

My friend sent them out in a Christmas card

And when I read the words, well, they hit me hard

They rang true in the same way that babe in the manger does

Rufus Jones wrote…

I pin all my hopes on quiet processes

And small circles in which

Vital and truly transforming events take place (repeat)

But…In this violent world of ours --clashing principalities and powers

Market fear like they market soap

Loud and clear we’re told our hope

Lies only in the hands of those who will kill in order to impose

What we claim we need to be secure

These are dangerous times for sure

And yet a circle seems to gently say, there is only us—there’s no we and they

And those words sent out by that friend of mine

Are still hanging on that school wall in Palestine

Between bulldozed homes and suicide bombs

The witness of Rufus Jones lives on

And rings true in the same way that Christ on the cross still does

Chorus