This sermon comes with a warning! It is a warning for all of us celebrating and looking back right now at our Anabaptist-Mennonite history at 500 years. It is a warning to all those who hold up a Mennonite understanding of faith as the way that makes sense to them as the most faithful way to be a Christian. It is a warning for the 9 earnest folks who will be joining this congregation of St Jacobs Mennonite later in this service. It is a warning that reminds us that the church, and its history, and its theology, and its practice, and the very people who make up the church, are not perfect, that they fall short, that they sometimes fail to live up to the callings and visions of God, that they so often have need for repentance. It is a warning to those who don’t really get into historical analysis, that I will do a lot of that today. This sermon looks at parts of our Anabaptist tradition and stories that we would rather avoid, or are embarrassed by, the parts we don’t like to talk about, but know linger underneath our tradition and don’t always sit well. This sermon also claims that by lifting off the cover of some of our shortcomings and sins, it actually allows the grace of God, and the Holy Spirit’s power of transformation and compassion to lead us and restore us. Renewal might just come through repentance, as hard as that might be.
For the last three Sundays, starting with the cluster service of music and song at Breslau Mennonite, we have been telling the story of Anabaptism – 500 years after the first adult baptisms, when Felix Manz, George Blaurock and Conrad Grebel baptized each other, on January 21, 1525. Janet shared lots of that early history and story, and the importance placed on reading Scripture in community to discern the will of God. Last Sunday, our guest Christina Moss shared about the central theme of Gelassenheit, yieldedness, and how that played out then and now. At Silver Lake last weekend, our Saturday evening worship service took place in the Anabaptist Cave of the round lodge, as we snuck into the darkness with lanterns and imagined and enacted what some of those first secret gatherings might have felt like. It has been so good to go back to some of our origin stories.
Janet talked about sausages two Sundays ago, so I thought I would mention ketchup. I am a ketchup lover, and people who know me, know that I put way too much ketchup on too many things, including sausages. Well, growing up, my Dad did not approve. The word I heard over and over again from him, both with ketchup, and with many other things in life, was ‘Moderation.’ Moderation was like a mantra for him. You eat in moderation, work and exercise and sleep and play, and live your life, in moderation. Never to either extreme of excess or scarcity/sparseness. It was about moderation and balance and judiciousness. Even one’s theology needs that balance of moderation – that takes into account multiple perspectives, so it does not harden into extreme positions. Looking back, I wonder if it was also because Dad understood and talked about the shadow side of things. In his pastoral care and walking with people, he would notice when lives became unbalanced. He liked the writings of Carl Jung and the Myers Briggs personality tests, that recognized the strengths and gifts and tendencies people had, but with each of those, there was also the shadow side. To be healthy, an extrovert for example, with all their gifts of connecting with people and the world, needed to develop their shadow side of introversion, and spiritual depth, and visa versa.
This morning’s sermon helps us look at some of the shadow side of Anabaptism, the places in our history and our present, where we have fallen short and failed, sometimes even out of the very attributes that have been our strength and that we highly value. It does not negate those strengths, but points out that without moderation, without dealing with the shadow sides, theology, church, practice, and life can become unbalanced and destructive. That is why the sermon comes with a warning.
For the last decades, Anabaptist scholars have pointed out the complexity of Anabaptist history, and the multiple origins and streams of Anabaptism, that move beyond a kind of sanitized version of our history. Like Janet, I am relying on some of my research on the recent 2024 book by Grebel professor Troy Osborne called ‘Radicals and Reformers’, in which he writes in the introduction, ’I hope that the story that readers encounter in these chapters is an honest account of people who can inspire by their faithfulness as well as instruct from their failures.’ (Radicals and Reformers – A Survey of Global Anabaptist History, Troy Osborne, Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, 2024, p.13). In doing so, renewal can happen through repentance.
In this series, we have heard some of those early origin stories of the Anabaptist movement – and we tend to follow the trajectory of the group that rejected violence, wrote the Schleitheim Confession in 1527 that set many of the Anabaptist ideals we hold to, and distanced themselves from the sometimes violent Peasants Revolt that was closely associated with Anabaptists. A story we don’t hear as often is that of the city of Münster (story told, Ibid, p. 82-106). The radical aspect of the movement could go in vastly different directions. Already in 1535, 10 years into the movement, there was a group of Anabaptists, men and women, who marched through the city of Amsterdam totally naked, crying ‘Woe, woe, woe! Heavenly Father. Wrath, wrath, wrath.’ These folks were caught up in a fervent Apocalyptic vision of forming a new Jerusalem in anticipation of the immanent return of Christ. Leaders like Melchoir Hoffman, Jan Mattthijs and Jan Van Leiden promoted this vision. Eventually, it coalesced in the city of Münster, where people flocked here, thinking this was where the end times had begun. Polygamy was introduced, and communal living, and these Anabaptists became armed and could justify the use of violence. There was strong dictatorial control by the leaders. On June 25, 1535, the gates of Münster were breached by the prince-bishop’s forces, most of the men executed, and Jan van Leiden and two other leaders put on display in cages until their brutal executions, cages that still hang in the city until today. An Anabaptist reputation as dangerous and violent extremists stuck in much of Europe for centuries. This too is a part of our history. Separation from state and the official church taken to a different kind of extreme, without moderation. Part of our shadow side.
I could try to tell all sorts of our shadow stories through the centuries, but I want to jump us to the mid-20th century, to a time when Mennonites, long removed from these early Anabaptist times and after centuries of persecution and migrations and shifts in identity, began to really look back to our origin stories and try to define Anabaptism for a modern world. On December 29, 1943, Harold S. Bender, influential history professor at the Mennonite Goshen College in Indiana, delivered the presidential address at the annual gathering of the American Society of Church History – a speech entitled ‘The Anabaptist Vision.’ (Ibid, pages 336-340). Bender ‘argued that the biblically inspired discipleship and voluntary church membership of the Swiss and Dutch Anabaptists was the fulfillment of the Reformation and the restoration of the New Testament church… Anabaptists took Luther’s and Zwingli’s reforming ideas to their logical conclusion.’ (Ibid, p. 337) This Anabaptist vision caught on in both academic circles and the church itself, and has shaped much of what we still define as Anabaptist essentials today. There is certainly recognition in church and academic circles, that this vision did not recognize the full complexity and nuances of the movement, but it did set a trajectory that we are still on. So I want to name his three guiding principals of that Anabaptist Vision – all of which have been such good and faithful directions, but also which each have a shadow side that we also need to name and include today in our repentance. For today, I will spend most of the time on the shadow side, a brief naming of some of these, even as I so value the gifts of these three guiding principals. Note that Palmer Becker, in his more recent book on Anabaptist Essentials (Herald Press, 2017), also has his parallel formula in somewhat similar but more updated language, which I will also name.
- Discipleship: Bender’s first guiding principal is that of Discipleship – that the essence of Christianity is following Jesus in daily life. Palmer Becker phrases it ‘Jesus is the centre of our faith.’ I have heard that message since I was a child. It is part of our theological DNA as Mennonites. We have been Jesus centred people. We read the Scriptures through the lens of Jesus. It expresses itself in commitment to service, in having faith visible in daily life, and in living lives of integrity. It is how we follow Jesus. Discipleship is a good thing! I can hardly think of faith in any other way.
And yet, like any good thing, there has been a shadow side, a complexity with how discipleship has been lived out. The danger of asking for discipleship, is that is can turn into a kind of legalism – a lifeless following of certain defined rules or expectations of what it should look like. There can be lots of judgementalism by others, or even of one’s self, for whether one is measuring up to the following. It can also turn into perfectionism, something we have struggled with as a congregation over the years. Sometimes it takes the form of works righteousness – of thinking it is all up to us and our efforts to save the world, forgetting the grace of God – something Luther already accused Anabaptists of in their origins.
As Anabaptist Mennonites, we highly value adult baptism – of making an adult choice to follow Jesus, to be people of discipleship. This makes sense to me. But as a pastor over the years, I have heard so many of our youth and young adults struggle with the idea of baptism, because it feels like you can only get baptised when you have everything figure out and measure up to some kind of standard – a being perfect. The assumption underneath is that baptism, discipleship, following Jesus, is all about us, about what we do as humans. We forget the role of God and the Holy Spirit, we forget the grace that comes as a gift first, and discipleship, following, even baptism, is our response, how we bear fruit to the Spirit’s moving. Retired Professor C. Arnold Snyder, in his little book ‘From Anabaptist Seed’ (Pandora Press, 1999), reminds us that the early Anabaptist movement was primarily a movement of the Spirit. It started by reading the Scriptures, hearing the Word, being convicted by the Spirit, and then believing and being born again, transformed, renewed – an active spiritual process, regeneration, that then bore fruit in daily life, in discipleship, in baptism, but only as a response to the Spirit. It was the Spirit that gave the power as you ‘put on Christ’ – you became a new creation. It is like our live painting that keeps on being transformed, starting from a seed that grows outward, that may bear fruit, but only as it is inspired by the deep roots of the Spirit. If one is not connected to the source, all the discipleship in the world is lifeless and can turn into perfection and judgementalism.
- (Bender’s second guiding principal) is Community: A voluntary church that is separated from the world, often persecuted, and practices mutual aid. Palmer Becker phrases it: ‘Community is the center of our faith.’ If you asked any Mennonite youth or young adult at a place like Silver Lake or Hidden Acres or Rockway or Grebel, they would tell you, sometimes with a smirk, that the sometimes over used key word or catch phrase for these places is Community. Community has been our strength. This week, I have been overwhelmed with the strength and support of so many communities that have been processing the tragic death of Jennie and Zoe Wiebe. People have come together to cry and hug and offer support and simply hold each other during this heart-breaking time. This is community at its best, built on trust and love and deep compassion. I am so grateful for the many communities I am a part of, including our community here at SJMC, a community that is welcoming 9 new members today in a spirit of celebration and joy! Authentic community is a very good thing.
But again, there can be a shadow side. The early Anabaptists drew sharp lines of community, something you needed to do under the threat of death and so much persecution. Already in the 1527 Schleitheim Confession, the first Anabaptist confession, there was strong language about the separation of church and world, of the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the world, and the assumption that you can actually decide to live totally in one or the other – to be in the world, but not of it. Mennonites have struggled throughout our history with this in and out line, with insiders and outsiders, with who really feels part of the community, with who can play the so called ‘Mennonite Name Game.’ I know there are memories here with our older members of lists of behaviours one had to follow to still be acceptable with the community – no alcohol or dancing or going to movies. No hanging laundry on Sundays or women cutting their hair, no jewelry or wedding rings. Dress modestly, for many years, men and women sitting on different sides of the church and women with head coverings. Notice how many of these were gender based, with the burden placed mostly on women. All of these a kind of conformity to community. Another of the 7 articles of faith in that original Schleitheim Confession was the Ban, or shunning, excommunication of members of the body deemed to have sinned and fallen short of the community ideals. The church was to be without spot or wrinkle, its Biblical afterall, Ephesians 5:27, a purity vision or what the church is. This is a part of our Anabaptist DNA too, and we wonder why there have been so many Mennonite church splits and divisions, when our very theology at times cannot live with difference, with diversity. I give thanks that this has changed in many of our settings, and we celebrate and affirm the diversity and inclusivity within community, but it is still a shadow side of that gift of community that we need to pay attention to, and needs repentance, when community becomes an end in itself for its own sake, and is not grounded in the gifts of the Spirit to break down the diving walls into one humanity.
- (The third and last guiding principles named by H.S. Bender was the) Ethic of Love and Nonresistance, the complete abandonment of all warfare, strife and violence, and the taking of human life. Palmer Becker names it ‘Reconciliation is the center of our work.’ This might be the most core to who we have been and are as Mennonites – a peace church, with a long history of opposing war and the use of violence. This may be one of the greatest gifts we need in our world today. We need to keep asking what the way of peace might mean for us. What might in mean in an economic war?
When I think of the shadow side here, I wonder more about our blind spots when it comes to the message of peace. Often in our history – our theology and practice took the form of nonresistance, rather than active peace-making. Mennonites became known as the quiet in the land. Stick to yourself, don’t go to war or take part in the destructive systems of our world, and all is good. We sometimes missed the opportunities to take a more active and engaged addressing of issues and working towards peace in multiple areas of life. We have also been blind to some of the power dynamics within our own communities – who makes decisions, who are insiders and outsiders, what are the gender dynamics, what about those who are different, how do we deal with our own conflicts – again sometimes with splitting and separating rather than working at redemptive ways of reconciling and healing, and letting the peace of Christ guide us. It is only in the last years that we have named our complicity in colonization and that so often lands bought or given for settlement by Mennonites had been taken from Indigenous communities. We have lots of Mennonite institutions that have served us well. But we know that institutions are human, and despite their best intentions, fall into systems and ways of doing things that can bring harm. People are struggling right now with how MCC does HR. Our conferences, schools, and service agencies fall short and have times of needing repentance. I also have to name that our most famous, prolific, shaping Mennonite theologian in the second half of the 20th century was John Howard Yoder, long time professor at our AMBS seminary, who articulated Jesus’ teachings on nonviolence, discipleship, and the kingdom of God, and then it was revealed that he had sexually harassed and abused many women, causing us to re-examine the connection between his life and this very theology. The very core convictions of our Anabaptist theology, have their shadow sides that need the redemption and grace of our God. Maybe it is when they turn merely into formulas, into nice, neatly packaged catch phrases, rather than growing naturally out of our encounters with Jesus, the moving of the Spirit and the compassion of God, that we get into trouble.
Earlier in the service we heard and sang the powerful psalm of David, psalm 51, written after David was confronted by the prophet Nathan –a psalm of repentance and penitence. ‘Have mercy on me, O God, mercy on us, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.’ It does not get more raw and honest than that. It is a psalm of confession and a psalm calling upon the grace of God. As humans, we have our shadow sides, in our lives, in our communities, and churches, in our very theology. This too is a part of our Anabaptist history at 500 years. The 9 of you joining, SJMC, do you really want to go through with this and become members of a congregation? But that is really a question for all of us.
And I for one, say yes. Yes, because ultimately, the church, our faith, our theology is a gift from God, and a gift of grace. Yes, because despite our falling short and failures, God continues to re-create and redeem and transform us, as individuals, as a church, as a world. Yes, because as we will sing, ‘There’s a wideness in God’s mercy like the wideness of the sea. There’s a kindness in God’s justice, which is more than liberty.’ (VT 156). Troy Osborne writes on the last page of his book, ‘The history of Christianity is filled with stories of Christians who fail to live up to their own standards. Even Peter and the other disciples appear to have misunderstood Jesus’ message in the final days of his ministry. Anabaptists might take comfort in embracing both the accounts of their imperfections and the stories of steadfast perseverance and growth… By embracing a history that celebrates the good and repents of the regrettable, Anabaptists may renew the traditional Anabaptist value of humility.’ (Ibid, p. 346)
Psalm 51 continues, ‘Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me, within us. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.’ This is what a spirit of repentance means. This is our hope. May it be so. Amen.