September 6, 2009
Matthew 4:18-25; I Cor. 3:11; Phil. 2:1-11
Good Morning! It is good to be back among you again. As I walked in this morning I wondered if I should sign the guest book. With a new building, new people attending, and children getting taller – it sort of made me feel like maybe I am the guest here.
As most of you know by now – this is my first week back from being gone for three months on a sabbatical.
I want to say thank you to everyone for allowing me the opportunity to take this sabbatical. It was a restful, it was inspiring, and it was a good time of reconnecting with God, with my family, and with friends.
Over the next weeks and months I am sure that you will hear some stories from me about my sabbatical. I am open to share about it, but at the same time I am very eager to hear about what has been happening in your life.
I hope I can reconnect with you in some way over the next few weeks to hear how God has been at work in your life while I was gone.
I also know that many of you have worked so hard in getting us moved into this building. Thank you for your tireless work. I know there is still much to do, but things are looking good and we are gradually getting settled in.
Like any move – it just takes a while to unpack boxes, arrange the furniture, and get things on the wall. Sometimes we have to walk around boxes for a while.
It will take me a while to get used to this place but working here this week has already made me feel more at home. I am a little “directionally challenged”, so for me not to get lost in the building this week is a good sign.
Well, as I come back from sabbatical I want to do a three-part sermon series on “what is an Anabaptist/Mennonite Christian?”
Periodically, I think it is important to look at our roots and to understand what has shaped us and how a tradition continues to shape who we are as a people today.
For those of you newer to the church, the name Anabaptist was given to those Christians in the 16th century who rejected infant baptism and instead baptized only adults upon confession of faith in Jesus Christ.
The name Anabaptist actually just means “re-baptizers.” As Mennonites, our roots go back the Anabaptists, which is sometimes seen as the third wing of the Reformation. We didn’t quite fit into the category of Catholic or Protestant.
In 1943 Harold S. Bender, a Mennonite, who was president of the American Society of Church History gave a lecture on Anabaptism to other scholars. His lecture, titled “The Anabaptist Vision” was meant to do two things.
First, among his colleagues, he wanted to give a positive perspective on Anabaptism. As you know, the winners often write the history books. In this case, for many centuries Anabaptists were seen as the terrorists of their day.
They were linked with an uprising in Munster, Germany where a few early Anabaptists tried to violently overthrow the city. Ultimately those Anabaptists were rejected by other Anabaptists but that incident colored how the other reformers saw the Anabaptists.
Harold Bender’s lecture painted a very different picture of Anabaptists and today Anabaptist thought is widely valued in many circles. In fact, Anabaptist ideas are more influential today than at anytime in our history.
The second thing Harold S. Bender attempted to do with his lecture was to influence Mennonites. He wanted to make Anabaptism a new third way between the polarizing influences of theological liberalism and fundamentalism that was coming into the Mennonite church.
Bender identified three core values or beliefs that he saw central to Anabaptism and what he thought should also be central to Mennonites. The three were: Christianity is discipleship, the church is a brotherhood, and followers of Jesus practice an ethic of love and nonresistance.
A few years ago Palmer Becker, in a little booklet, renamed Bender’s three core values as:
1. Jesus is the center of our faith.
2. Community is the center of our lives.
3. Reconciliation is the center of our work.
I think this is still a very helpful way to identify what it means to be an Anabaptist/Mennonite Christian today, so for the next three Sundays we will focus on these core values.
Today, I want us to reflect on the first one – “Jesus is the center of our faith.”
One thing I pondered on during my sabbatical was – what does it mean to be the church in our time? How do we live out the good news of Jesus Christ in the 21st century?
I think most of us are aware that over the last couple of decades the Christian church in the United States has been on a steady decline.
The average age of church members is going up, many young people are no longer going to church, and many churches are closing their doors because they can’t make it financially.
At the same time, the perception by non-Christians of who Christians are is becoming more and more negative. One book I read this summer was titled “Unchristian: what a new generation really thinks about Christianity.”
The Barna Group did a national survey of 16 to 29 year olds. What their research discovered is that Christians are known more for what they oppose, than for what they stand for.
When non-Christians were asked to describe what comes to mind when they hear the word Christian the most common responses were – judgmental, hypocritical, antihomosexual, boring, too motivated by a political agenda, insensitive to others, and out of touch with reality.
These same young people concluded “Christianity is no longer as Jesus intended. They called it Unchristian.”
What research like this tells me is that people today are rarely seeing Christians who embody a life of service, compassion, humility, forgiveness, patience, kindness, peace, joy, goodness, and love.
In another Barna Group study from 2007 it was found that born-again Christian’s behavior differs little from other people.
When asked to identify their activities over the last 30 days, born-again believers were just as likely as others “to gamble, to visit pornographic websites, to take something that did not belong to them, to consult a medium, to physically fight or abuse someone, to get drunk, to have used an illegal non-prescriptive drug, to have said something that was not true, to have gotten back at someone for something he or she did, and to have said mean things behind another person’s back.”
Again, this research shows that many Christians don’t really expect their lifestyles to change when they become Christian. They are happy to have Jesus get them to heaven, but they don’t expect him to transform their life.
What all of this research reveals to me is – how wide the gap really is today between the Jesus we find in the gospels and how the Christian life is actually lived out.
Now, this isn’t really anything new. No one is perfect and as Christians, on this side of heaven, we will never fully embody the life Jesus revealed to us.
However, when this gap gets too big there will always emerge renewal groups who will try to narrow this gap between who Jesus was and how Christians act.
Right now the Christian church, particularly in the United States, has allowed this gap to become too wide. Our lives simply don’t match our beliefs. Our attitudes and actions often don’t resemble those of Jesus.
The gap is so wide today that in many churches it is almost impossible to recognize the Jesus revealed to us in the NT.
One renewal group that tried to narrow this gap between the Jesus of the NT and the embodiment of his life in the church was the Anabaptists in the 16th century.
500 years ago most people didn’t recognize Jesus in the church either. The church was corrupt. Many of the clergy were corrupt. The church was powerful and wealthy but most of the people were poor. And a majority of people were tired of the religious wars that had devastated them.
Indulgences – the giving of money to the church to have your sins forgiven – were widely practiced. In particular, the wealthy would pay indulgences instead of fighting in war. And often times this indulgence money went to build huge cathedrals instead of helping the poor who were suffering greatly.
The Anabaptists, like the other Reformers in the 16th century, simply wanted to renew the Catholic Church by going back to the Jesus of the NT.
The Anabaptists held many of the same beliefs as Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli and John Calvin but they felt like these reformers didn’t go far enough. They also interpreted some core convictions differently.
One of those convictions they interpreted differently had to do with the meaning of Jesus’ life.
The Anabaptists felt like the other reformers were not giving enough attention to the life, example and teaching of Jesus.
They challenged the Reformers, who spoke about the centrality of Jesus for salvation, but didn’t make Jesus normative for their lifestyle and mission.
The Reformers were eager to worship Jesus, but not follow him in life.
The Anabaptists sited many scriptures like we had read today from Matthew 4. Wherever Jesus went he gave a simple invitation – “follow me”.
- To Peter and Andrew he said – “follow me and I will make you fishers of people.”
- To the rich young ruler he said – “one thing you lack: go sell everything you have, and give to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven; and come follow me.” Mk.10:21
- To the tax collector he simply said – “follow me.”
- And to the crowds he once said – “if any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” Mk 8:34
The Anabaptists also believed that through the power of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives it is possible to imitate Jesus’ life. They read scriptures like these:
- “As God in Christ has forgiven us, so we should forgive one another.” Eph. 4:32
- “As Christ accepted us, so we should accept one another”. Romans 15:7
- “As you received Christ Jesus as Lord, so walk in him.” Col. 2:6
- “Just as Christ was raised from the dead, so we too might walk in newness of life.” Rom. 6:4.
- Or in Philippians 2:5 Paul writes – “let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.”
For the Anabaptists, these scriptures all seemed to suggest that Jesus intended his followers to live as he lived.
The Anabaptists thought that conversion actually changed people’s behavior. They thought the Sermon on the Mount was meant to be lived now – not in the future sometime.
They thought the Holy Spirit could work in people’s lives as it worked in Jesus’ life. They believed that if one followed Jesus as the gospels portrayed him that Jesus would never lead one to hatred, violence, greed, earthly power or material wealth.
In a sense, they thought, through the work of the Holy Spirit, that Jesus’ DNA was present in us – so we would be “little Jesus’ in the world”.
The Anabaptists didn’t believe that Christians could die for others as Jesus died for our sins, but they did believe we could offer ourselves sacrificially in service to others.
The other Reformers tended to primarily stress Jesus’ death on the cross for our sins – Jesus died for me, my sins are forgiven, and I am going to heaven.
The Anabaptists also believed that Jesus died for our sins but they believed his life was just as important as his death and resurrection. Jesus’ teaching and example are a part of salvation.
They believed Jesus wasn’t just getting people saved for heaven but saved to actually follow Jesus in life now, to do good works and to live a godly life.
They believed that Jesus not only saved us “from” sin and evil and judgment but that he also saved us “for” doing good works and living a new life.
Instead of only focusing on Jesus’ death the Anabaptists emphasized Jesus’ incarnation, his life, his death and his resurrection.
One of the earliest confessions of faith found in the scriptures is in Philippians 2. And the interesting thing about this confession of faith is how it keeps together Jesus’ incarnation, his life, his death and his resurrection.
For the early Christians Jesus was not only their savior but he was also their guide, teacher, example and lord.
I want to suggest this morning that if we want to renew our lives and our churches we must also return to making Jesus the center of our faith as the Anabaptists did.
Let me make several suggestions on how we might do that.
- First, we must make the Gospels our primary text.
Now this doesn’t mean we don’t read the whole Bible – we do, but because the Gospels tell the story of Jesus’ life and ministry they become the primary text for what it means to follow Jesus.
We always read the rest of the Bible in light of how Jesus is portrayed in the Gospels because they are the primary record of Jesus’ life.
As we meditate on the words and teachings of Jesus in the Gospels our imaginations and consciousness can be reshaped around his life and ministry.
When we begin to allow Jesus to re-capture our imaginations – our actions and priorities will begin to mirror Jesus’ lifestyle and teaching.
I would like to encourage us to read through the gospels over and over again each year. When commissions meet or small groups get together or families have devotions – spend some time reading from the gospels and talk about what the Holy Spirit is saying to you.
Look at Jesus’ spirituality, prayer life, his treatment of people, who he spent time with, who he ate with, how he sustained his life with God, and explore what he focused most on in his teachings.
Our goal is to reconnect with Jesus so that he reshapes our life, instead of us trying to make Jesus fit our agenda.
And because we are constantly bombarded by the messages of nationalism, consumerism, individualism, and the use of violence to maintain control we need to have our imaginations continually reshaped by Jesus and what the good life really is as described in the Gospels.
So, if we are going to keep Jesus central to our faith we must make the Gospels our primary text. We must rediscover the interesting and often outrageous life of Jesus and allow him to remake us from the inside out.
- Secondly, I think we must continually stress that Jesus is both Lord and Savior.
As I said earlier, to be Christian means more than affirming a creed or being justified by faith. To be Christian means to be empowered by the Holy Spirit to follow Jesus in daily life.
As we are transformed in thought, attitude, and action we begin to behave differently in relationship to God, to each other, and even to our enemies.
To claim Jesus as Lord, not only as savior, will mean that there is some cost involved in following Jesus. Because we have freedom of religion in this country – we usually don’t have to worry about imprisonment or death for following Jesus.
However, risk-taking and self-sacrifice are still a part of what it means to follow Jesus.
- When we are wronged it is always a risk to respond with forgiveness, instead of revenge.
- When we speak up for peace in a time of war – we risk ridicule, opposition, and being called unpatriotic.
- When we do the right thing – even when others misunderstand us or it costs us more money – that too is part of what it means to carry Christ’s cross.
So, to keep Jesus central in our faith we have to emphasize not only Jesus death for our sins, but also his incarnation, his life, and his resurrection.
When we do, Jesus will call us to come and join him on a far more reckless and exciting adventure than mere church attendance. It will involve every aspect of our life.
Now, in closing I want to offer a word of caution.
I think the emphasis on following Jesus in life is right and is the right message for the church today if we want to become more like Jesus in thought, word, and deed. At the same time, I am aware that we can distort following Jesus too.
Mennonites have distorted discipleship as much as other churches have made God’s grace cheap.
Sometimes we Mennonites have turned Jesus into a great teacher or prophet and forgotten about him also being our savior. But Jesus wasn’t just a great teacher or prophet – he was God with us.
Through Jesus – God shows us how much we are loved. God passionately loves us beyond anything we can ever imagine. It is God’s forgiveness that elevates us from a hopeless attempt to impress God – to a joyful adventure of enjoying Christ’s presence by following him daily in life.
The other way we Mennonites sometimes distort discipleship is by making it a set of rules to follow. Our past is full of “do’s and don’ts”.
Martin Luther was partly right when he said the Anabaptists emphasis on following Jesus would turn into works righteousness. Sometimes it has , but it doesn’t have to.
And then the other problem we often encounter is despair. For some people, our emphasis on following Jesus in life leads to despair because they feel like they are “never good enough”.
We have to remember that many of Jesus’ disciples also found following him too hard. At some point they all left him and he even had to die alone.
Sometimes, like the disciples we are too weary or fearful to take up the challenge of following Jesus.
And yet, the good news of the gospel is that even though our belief in Jesus and our actions may be incomplete or imperfect – we can still follow Jesus despite our doubts, questions, or fears.
And even though we will fail along the way and have to start over again – God remains faithful even when we aren’t. God will carry us through even when we think we can’t go on.
Like Peter, who wept bitterly over his betrayal of Jesus, when we fail, we too can be forgiven and restored. We can recommit ourselves to following Jesus because God is at work in us and one day God will bring that good work to completion.
The good news this morning is that not only is God calling us to a radically new way of life, but that the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is alive in us to reshape us and lead us on an adventure beyond our wildest imaginations.
The call to follow Jesus is not a call to a burdensome moral perfectionism – but a call to leave the old ways of death and darkness, and to walk in the new way of abundant life.
Just as God clothes the birds of the air and the flowers of the field – God provides for us too so that we can live with a lightness and a joy that befits the children of God.
My prayer is that we will continue to make Jesus central to our faith – so that we become more like him every day. How we live does matter. May our lives give a clear picture of Jesus to a watching world.
I want to take a moment this morning to listen for what the Holy Spirit is saying to you. What is God whispering in your ear? Is it a word of comfort? Is it a word of hope? Is it a word to “fear not”? Is it an invitation to journey with Jesus?
Take a moment in silence to listen for God’s word to you.