Last Sunday’s (September 30) Pathways class focused on the theme of “Restoration and Commitment.” This fits in the series’ goal of renewing our sense of commitment to Christ, to discipleship. Well-known among Mennonites is the signature statement of Menno Simons, “True evangelical faith is of such a nature it cannot lie dormant, but spreads itself out in all kinds of righteousness and fruits of love…” Then we usually name the “kinds of righteousness and fruits of love” which Menno mentioned, which our service agencies, like MCC and Voluntary Service, also engage in, such as “clothing the naked” and “feeding the hungry.” Absolutely, well and good.
By “evangelical” Menno did not mean the kinds of cultural, political and social associations that “evangelicalism” often carries today. For reformers of the 16th Century, like Luther, Calvin and Menno, an “evangelical” church was one based on the proclamation of the Gospel and the Word of God, rather than on a connection to Rome, to St. Peter, his successors the popes, and to the sacraments administered from Rome on down. While Menno agreed with Luther and Calvin on the importance of proclaiming the Word and the Gospel, that was not simply a verbal and intellectual exercise. It included a transformation of the heart, of the person, of the conduct, as well as of the church hierarchy, its doctrine, and the proclamation of the Word. Menno’s list of 17 characteristics of “true evangelical faith” are very concrete and behavioral, and not just theoretical nor doctrinal. They amount to a proclamation of the gospel in work as well as word. They also weave together and give equal weight to those actions that we today might lump together as “peace, social justice and activism,” and those we might consider “pious, devotional, spiritual and moral.” Neither Menno nor the Bible separate those things, nor pit them against each other, the way we so often do today.
The 17 commitments of “true evangelical faith” Menno Simons identified:
- it dies to flesh and blood
- it destroys all lusts and forbidden desires
- it seeks, serves and fears God in its inmost soul
- it clothes the naked
- it feeds the hungry
- it comforts the sorrowful
- it shelters the destitute
- it aids and consoles the sad
- it does good to those who do it harm
- it serves those that harm it
- it prays for those who persecute it
- it teaches, admonishes and judges us with the Word of the Lord
- it seeks those who are lost
- it binds up what is wounded
- it heals the sick
- it saves what is sound
- it becomes all things to all people
One point that generated much discussion was #2: “..it destroys all lusts and forbidden desires.” That sounds to some like some sort of moral re-armament crusade in which we go around examining and condemning others and enforcing our standards and values on them. Menno did anything but. It was the effort of the crazy cult in Muenster, Germany, to do just that that pushed Menno off the fence and made him an Anabaptist leader. Menno probably meant #2 to apply to the believer’s own life.
#17 also generated some discussion. That’s scary! Where does being “all things to all people” stop? Again, Menno and his disciples were no craven, cringing, compulsive people-pleasers. But they were missionaries, in fact, the only major missionary force in the Christian West at the time. Christian mission is the reason for which the Apostle Paul first used those words in 1 Cor. 9:19-23. Paul meant the ability to step into other people’s shoes, get to know them and learn what is already of God in them, to listen as well as speak, to speak their lingo, and so “scratch where people itch.” The Anabaptists did this across the many cultures of Europe, in contrast to state churches which presupposed that they served only certain ethnic groups and nationalities.
We also looked at the very hard story of Jesus and the rich ruler, in Luke 18: 18-30, where Jesus says, “This alone you lack: go give all you have to the poor and come follow me.”
With which character in the story did we identify most? Mostly, the rich ruler (we live in the affluent West), the befuddled disciples and Peter.
What does it mean that those who have sacrificed to follow Jesus will “receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life”? That sparked some discussion over how much that reward is for the world to come, after death, or for the here and now. Majoring in one to the neglect of the other leaves much lacking. Other answers included: “a leap of faith;” “benefits on a different plane” “sacrifice;” “Is this the prosperity gospel?”
Questions we did not get to, but which are worth pondering:
- In Mark’s telling of this story, Jesus looked at the ruler and loved him. How do we affirm Christ’s love for us even when we lack some aspects of faithfulness?
2. What might Jesus be inviting us to leave behind so that we may follow him more faithfully? Or, what word of encouragement might Jesus offer us if we have left much to follow him?
A class assignment for this week: “Throughout the coming week, be attentive to opportunities for your faith to “spread itself out in all kinds of righteousness and fruits of love.”
Then we concluded the class with this prayer of St. Francis (13th C. Italy):
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.