10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and another man is building upon it. Let each man take care how he builds upon it. 11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if any one builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— 13 each man’s work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 14 If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. 16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 17 If any one destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and that temple you are.
Sermon Outline:
Anabaptism Radically Turns our attention…
- …From Christian………..to …….
- What does Semper Reformanda mean?
- …To the Whole……
- Who makes peace between ….….and……
- Who Makes Peace between……..
- ….To A Simple, Christ-like…….
- ….Because of……..
- The Importance of Anabaptism Today:
Why Mennonites? Almost 500 years after they started, why should there be yet any Mennonites churches, or Christians, today? If the Mennonites and our Anabaptist ancestors were revolutionary in their call for the separation of church and state, that is in our US Constitution and international law. If the first Mennonites went to bat for believers’ baptism (and that’s why our spiritual ancestors were called “Anabaptist,” or “re-baptized”), that’s now a mainstream practice in many Protestant and most Pentecostal bodies today. As for our historic nonviolence stance, Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King, Jr., took that farther into political practice than Mennonites ever did. And Menno Simons himself did not labor, under pain of death, simply to start a denomination bearing his name.
So, what’s the point of Mennonite churches today? Are we just tending a flame in a shrine to generations past? A relative asked me that very question when I told her that we were about to join a local Mennonite congregation. Another relative asked, “Do they even let people join? Don’t you have to be born one?”
That is also a question that has challenged many people who grew up in a Mennonite home, like some who went into alternative service during World War 2, the Korean and the Vietnam Wars. Some of them heard their neighbors call them cowards for not taking up arms against the Nazis or Communists. Or free-loaders on American freedoms. When these young adults first saw the world beyond the farm in Pennsylvania or Kansas, or went on to get jobs and education in the big secular cities, they too had to answer the question, “What’s the point of being Mennonite? In a world of such complexity, desperate need and violence, how relevant and helpful are our separation from the world, simple dress, and shoo-fly pie?
Maybe that’s why I got the response I did—or the non-response– when I was trying to plant a Mennonite Church in the Detroit metro area, about 25 years ago. I sent information about our church plant, and a survey to gauge their interest, to nearly a hundred people on the lists of Mennonite College alumnae. Only a few of them replied. Most of them asked something along the lines of: “Oh dear; how did you ever find me?” They thought they had escaped.
I speak today as one who did not grow up Mennonite (some might ask if I have grown up). But I value the heritage highly. Including the generations of Mennonite people and families who kept alive a constellation of beliefs, often at great cost to themselves, one which challenged and critiqued themselves as strongly as it does the world. I’m grateful for that.
In fact, while many have left the church of their youth, most of the growth in our denomination has been from people, and even whole churches, who join precisely because they are attracted to distinctive Mennonite history and beliefs. If you ask them what in particular drew them, I think they would point to the same thing that the man from whom we got our funny name, Menno Simons, did, in today’s passage, especially verse 11: “…no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”
Those words were Menno’s signature passage, found somewhere on nearly everything he wrote, and he wrote a lot. It’s rather ironic that it all started with a physical building, St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, the Vatican today. Pope Leo the 10th wanted to repair and expand it. So he sent a German monk north to sell Indulgences. Those were papers with the Pope’s seal, proclaiming the forgiveness of sins for a price. Not only for sins you had done, but even for sins you intended to do. And not only your own sins but those of your beloved relatives in Purgatory, allegedly. That monk, Johann Tetzel, would hawk those indulgences shamelessly, saying, “As soon as a coin in the coffer rings, a soul toward heaven springs.”
That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Outrage over such corruption and exploitation in the church had been building up for some time. Next Saturday, Halloween, will mark the 498th anniversary of when another German monk, Martin Luther, nailed a document with 95 points of debate onto the door of the church in Wittemburg, Germany, arguing against indulgences and other abuses of the gospel for profit. Thesis Number One says, that “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said to repent, he meant that repentance should be a Christian’s stance throughout life,” and not a one time bargain. I can’t think of more fitting words with which to start the Reformation.
But Luther saw himself as much a Restorer as a Reformer. He was not trying to push the church forward toward some modern idea of progress, but was trying to pull it back to the simple gospel, to clear away the clutter of so many practices and traditions piling one atop another, burying Jesus and the gospel from our view. He too would have said “no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”
Twenty-some years later, another Roman Catholic clergyman, in Holland, was having his own doubts about all the practices and traditions he was supposed to uphold, and for the same reason as Luther: he had been reading the Bible, a no-no according to his archbishop. This was Menno Simons. He was also reading Luther’s works on the sly, another no-no. He ended up with even more questions than Luther had. Menno had met some church Reformers who were more godly and gospel than himself, who were put to death for their faith, the first Anabaptists. He also knew of some Anabaptists so-called who were violent revolutionary crackpots, sincere in their beliefs, but misled and exploited. The deaths they caused, and the deaths they died, weighed heavily on Menno’s conscience; he believed that his fence-sitting and comfort-seeking contributed to both kinds of tragedies. So, he left the priesthood and declared himself with and for the peaceful Anabaptists, and lived the remainder of his life underground, with a price on his head. The wanted posters went from saying, “Wanted, Dead or Alive: The Anabaptists” to “Wanted, Dead or Alive: The Mennists,” to “Wanted, Dead or Alive: The Mennonites.” And that’s how our name changed from “Anabaptists,” the “rebaptizers,” to “Mennonites.”
We could call that just “history,” but the Reformation is not over. It never is. With that we come to the answer to the first point in the message outline: Anabaptism Points Us back from Christian Tradition to Christ. And so the importance of those words to Menno Simons: “No other foundation….than Jesus Christ.”
Now, the Anabaptist Reformers did not say that all Christian Tradition is bad, just because it’s tradition. Mennonites have some very good traditions, like the Mennonite Central Committee Relief Sales and auctions. But church traditions and practices that seem like good ideas at first, can multiply and pile up like dust bunnies under our beds. Or one tradition can lead to another, and another and another until we end up with something like the sale of indulgences. Or, Easter chickens? At some point, we all have to ask ourselves, Is this practice, or this tradition, biblical? Is it still leading me toward Christ and his gospel, or is it obscuring them, under layers of laziness, nostalgia and sentimentalism? If so, then we have to do some trimming and thinning and restoring. Reformation, then, is never a one-and-done task; it’s also an orientation, a way of life by which we always evaluate our practices and traditions by Scripture. If ever the two should clash, Menno and the Anabaptists said we choose the Bible over tradition.
And so the 16th Century slogan of the Reformers in Latin, that’s also in the outline: Semper Reformanda: “Ever Reforming.” Ever and always evaluating our traditions and our practices, however they started out, and why, to see if, in new times and settings, they still square with Jesus and the gospel. Or have they come to mean something entirely opposed? Do they still point faithfully to Jesus and the Bible, or do they now obscure them?
On this Menno and Luther agreed: the very nature of the church is Semper Reformanda, ever reforming, back toward the simplicity of Christ. That’s what Paul was showing the Corinthian churches in today’s reading, after they had jumped the tracks. But Menno and the Anabaptists were willing to go much further back than Luther and question any and all traditions and practices that were not in the Bible, and to pay the costs for it. For example, Luther wanted the government to keep protecting the church against enemies and heretics with the sword. Menno said, No, Jesus told Peter to put his sword back in its sheath, so we shouldn’t take it out and start swinging it, either. Luther wanted to baptize infants so that his fellow Germans would always think of themselves as Christian, by birth and nationality. Menno, said, No, Let’s get back to believers’ baptism, because it’s the faith that matters most to God, not the water.
A second key feature of the Anabaptist wing of the Reformation is that Anabaptist teaching, preaching and practice pointed back not only toward Christ, but to the whole Christ, even to those aspects of Christ and his gospel that were dangerous, difficult and costly. That’s the second point in the outline: Anabaptism turns our attention to…The Whole Christ.
First of all, Subpoint A, Anabaptism points to the Whole Christ….. who makes peace between people and God. Luther and Menno had no argument on this point. They would have said, with the Apostle Paul, that “there is one mediator between God and mortals, the man, Jesus Christ.” They both taught that Christ died for our sins and rose to newness of life so that we might, too. Menno wrote: “Yea through this blood on the Cross He reconciled all upon earth and in heaven above. Therefore, dear Lord, I confess that I have or know no remedy for my sins, no works nor merits, neither baptism nor the Lord’s supper (although all sincere Christians use these as a sign of Thy Word and hold them in respect), but the precious blood of Thy beloved Son alone which is bestowed upon me by Thee and has graciously redeemed me, a poor sinner, through mere grace and love, from my former walk.”
Both Luther and Menno believed in the peace between God and people that Jesus accomplished on the cross, by his death. But what about Jesus’ life? Menno and the other Anabaptists kept asking. “So what difference does Jesus’ death, resurrection, and his life, make, not only in heaven, but in the here and now, on earth?” Faith in the atoning, sacrificial death of Jesus is vital. But the Apostle James tells us that such “faith without works is dead.”
For Menno, one key work that faith should lead to was a practical, concrete, even sacrificial generosity and hospitality toward your brother and sister, especially, but not only, in the church. If you want to see real Christians, don’t just look in the pews on Sunday mornings, nor just in the baptismal records. Look for the sincere, steady, practical ways in which we love and serve one another throughout the week, Menno would say. In his “Exhortation to the Dispersed,” Menno wrote, “With unfeigned, true brotherly love, and out of a pure heart, love each other sincerely, as those who are regenerated not of a corrupt but of incorruptible seed, out of the word of the living God…” Consider that he said that in a day when it was very dangerous to be seen and associated with other Anabaptists.
But such sacrificial love was not only for friends and family in the church. The other proof of a living, saving faith, for Menno Simons, was that we would be willing to die not only for like-minded brothers and sisters, but for the oppressor, the persecutor and the enemy, rather than killing him or her. In this way, Anabaptism turns our attention to the Whole Christ who, in subpoint B, makes peace between people, even people in deep disagreement, even with enemies and persecutors, even at the cost of life, on pain of death. As Menno wrote: “My dear reader, if the poor, ignorant world with an honest heart accepted this our hated and despised doctrine, which is not of us but of Christ, and faithfully obeyed it, they could well change their deadly swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, level their gates and walls, dismiss their executioners and henchmen. For all who accept our doctrine in its power, will by God’s grace not have any ill will to any one upon earth, and not against their most bitter enemies, much less wrong and harm them by deeds and actions; for they are children of the Most High who from their hearts love that which is good and in their weakness avoid that which is evil; nay, hate it and are inimical thereto.”
This wasn’t just theoretical for Menno and his Anabaptist friends. Europe was going through a bloodbath at the time. Turkish Muslims were besieging the city of Vienna, Catholic and Protestant armies were fighting each other, and all of them were hunting, imprisoning and executing Anabaptists. But another one of Menno’s marks of a true, restored, church was to suffer opposition in patient, peaceful love, as did Jesus. Peace between God and people, and peacemaking with people, were two sides of the same coin, for Menno and the Anabaptists.
Which brings us to the third point of the outline: Anabaptism Turns Our Attention to… a Christ-like, Simple Church. As much as I admire Martin Luther and get good quotes from him, I sense that he and Pope Leo X locked horns as much because of their similarities as for their differences. They were both still thinking inside the cathedral. They were both fighting over what a powerful, privileged, state-sponsored church would look like, and who would run it. They were fighting not only over what they taught and believed, but over altars, liturgies and sanctuaries, and which kings would sponsor, protect and fund them.
But to Menno and the first Anabaptists, we are not to fight over the princes of the world, but to fight against The Prince of this world. Rome and the Reformers can worry about who gets what kingdom or which city after the battle next week, or which cathedral; Menno and the Anabaptists focused on building lives, relationships and congregations whose character lined up with the foundation and the cornerstone of the church, Jesus Christ. Another key verse for the Anabaptists was Matthew 18: 20, “Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in their midst.” Simple Christ-like community, between Jesus and at least two people in covenant with him and each other, that constitutes the eternal, temple of God that will remain long after steeples have toppled and cathedrals have crumbled to dust.
Which brings us to the fourth point: Menno and the Anabaptists did all they did, and endured all they suffered, because of….the Last Day, the end point and goal of God’s work in the world, when God’s kingdom comes and everything is made new. Then, as we heard in today’s Bible passage, “every saint’s work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.”
While earthly kings and lords passed judgment against the Anabaptists, they cared more about the verdict of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Then, what is eternal and of God will no longer be hidden in powerlessness, but will endure and shine for all to see. The rest…..well, like so much wood, hay and stubble.
Yes, their age was rife with end-times expectation. The world of the Middle Ages was coming down around their ears, the Turks were coming from the East, wars and rumors of war ravaged the land, especially Holland and Germany, where Menno ministered. While Menno believed in Christ’s eventual return, he did not indulge in the wild end-times speculation going on in his era, about just when next Tuesday Jesus would return, and where. He had seen how some of it fed into violence, immorality and the abuse of authority.
For Menno and his brand of Anabaptists, the more pressing deadline was death. They all had prices on their heads. The final inspection of your life and ministry could come any day, whether meeting your Lord upon his return, or your executioner on the scaffold. Building the great cathedrals of Europe had taken centuries, but you knew you had much less time to do your part in building the invisible but eternal temple of Christian character, and Christian community. There was never any question in Menno’s mind as to which temple would endure forever.
As for the last point, number 5, The Importance of Anabaptism today: I think we’re entering a time like that of Luther and Menno, when the old social compact of church and society is again breaking down. After the Reformation, Western societies adjusted and made space for both Catholic and Protestant churches. So we Mennonites got the tax breaks, the Christmas holidays, the Sundays off, and some respectability, with the bigger, historic mainstream churches.
I don’t think that’s where we’ll end up after today’s social earthquakes finish rumbling. The global church today is getting squeezed in a conflict between rising Islamic militancy, and an increasingly militant secularism. Persecution in some countries, like Islamist Sudan and Marxist Vietnam, is approaching what it was for 16th Century Anabaptists. Some global corporations are wealthier and more powerful than most governments, and whether they are peddling weapons, pornography, drugs, or even food or fuel, the Ten Commandments and the seven virtues are a drag on their bottom line. Their advertising and their lobbying advocate and celebrate the seven deadly vices, especially fear. The Twenty-first Century, then, is starting to look more like the First Century than the Twentieth.
But instead of getting scared or embittered by these looming changes, I can almost hear Menno Simons saying, “What did we expect? That the world would make following Jesus easy? Did we really think that baptism and church membership were tickets to mainstream respectability? If certain traditions, practices or privileges go down the tube, let’s keep our eyes on Christ, the first point of today’s message, the Christ who was, who is, and who is to come, the same yesterday, today and forever, however much our traditions and practices might have to change.
And should our respectability and the world’s tolerance for the church wear thin, Menno would tell us, “Don’t worry; God is at peace with us, (the second point in the message). That’s good news in every age. In fact, the world’s opposition should remind us that we’re free to get on with pleasing God, rather than people. Now we can shine as the alternative, contrast society, the first fruits of God’s kingdom, And for our part, pursue peace with our neighbor, inside and outside the church, even with our enemy and persecutor.
I think I can also hear Menno saying, “Whatever is of God, whatever is most Biblical, gospel and Christ-like, will endure forever; Whatever happens, whatever changes, God always has a way of getting his work done. Maybe a simpler, stripped-down, more relational, face-to-face and local way, like the first Anabaptist churches.” That was the third point of this message: the enduring power and value of the simple church of Jesus and at least two saints in covenant with Christ and each other, should every other structure, organization or arrangement of church fall or fail.
For God has the final word on what stands and remains forever after all our labors in the construction of the invisible temple that is his church, the worldwide body of Christ. When all is revealed in the fire of direct, unmediated divine love, all human empires, ideologies and –isms will vanish. Even Mennonitism and Anabaptism will have outlived their purpose and disappear, because the Christ to whom they witness will endure in all his glory, and with him, the simple church, bearing no one’s name but his.