Sermon HPMF October 13, 2013 Anabaptist History and Theology part 1 Being who we are Matthew 11:1-6 1 Now when Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and proclaim his message in their cities. 2 When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples 3 and said to him, Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another? 4 Jesus answered them, Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. 6 And blessed is anyone who takes no offence at me. So, here at Hyde Park, for the next two Sundays we are going to be turning back the clock 1500 years or so, to think about our spiritual ancestors, to reflect a bit on Anabaptist history and thought. Anabaptists are the group in the Reformation from which Mennonites draw our faith lineage. Anabaptist, meaning re-baptizer, not Antibaptist as in, against baptism. But the prefix ana meaning re or to do again, because this group of people was the first to baptize adults upon their confession of faith instead of baptizing infants. Those against this rebaptizing began using this name Anabaptist as a derogatory term, but the group picked up and claimed the name. It is this group, who Mennonites have descended from theologically. This act of rebaptism, it was essentially an act of treason. At that time all people were baptized into the church when the were infants; it was not only a spiritual act, but a political act as well. This is how the governments kept records of people, how they took their census, how they knew who to tax, and how much, how they knew who was old enough to be in the army, or working in the fields. And so in saying that only adults should be baptized, well, this was quite a threatening thing to the existing power
structures at the time. And so, these Anabaptists were persecuted they were captured, arrested, and tortured for these acts of rebaptism. They were told that they must either renounce their form of faith, or die. Most of them, thousands, chose death. And we modern day theological descendants of these Anabaptists that were tortured and killed for their faith, we LOVE to tell these stories. We have this book (that I referred to a few weeks ago) called the Martyr s Mirror that chronicles thousands of these bloody and gruesome martyr stories. I even know some people whose parents read from this book to them when they were children quite a gruesome bedtime story, but it illustrates the impact these stories have had on groups like the Mennonites. Even today, the Martyr s Mirror is one of the best selling books of Mennonite Publishing House. We Love to tell these stories. I want to tell one of the famous stories that this book contains, the story of Maeyken Wens, a mother of two that was burned at the stake in 1573 in Belgium for being an Anabaptist. Shortly after she received her adult baptism she was arrested and sentenced to death. What is unique about her story is that we have recorded in this book three letters that she wrote to her eldest son Adriaen while she was in prison, trying to explain to him what had happened and what would happen explaining why she would make the choice to not renounce her new found faith, but instead face death.
In her last letter she writes, Oh, my dear son, though I will soon be taken from you, begin now in your youth to fear God Love one another all the days of your life. Take little Hans in your arms now and then for me. And if your father should be taken from you, care for one another. My dear children, kiss one another once for me, for remembrance.i have written this after I was sentenced to die for the testimony of Jesus Christ, on the fifth day of October, in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ, 1573. On the day she was to be executed, her teenage son Adriaen took his little brother Hans to the town square, because he wanted to bear witness to his mother s death. Many Anabaptists, when they were being executed, would preach to the crowds until they succumbed to death. This would often cause some in the crowd to convert, moved by their passion and steadfastness of these martyrs. And so, the authorities got smart and began putting these hot pieces of iron in people s tongues to keep them from preaching during their executions they were called tongue screws. This is what one looked like. They did this to Maeken s tongue before they burned her at the stake. There are her sons, watching all this happen- her eldest son Adriaen, a teenager at the time, he passed out
perhaps this was a gift from God, so that he would not have to watch this horror happening to his mother. Adriaen, as they book tells us, did not wake again until the whole scene was over, until everyone was walking home. Upon waking up, Adriaen got to his feet and walked to the place of execution, he bent down and slowly sifted through the ashes until he found the iron tongue screw that had been in his mother s mouth. He picked it up and took it with him so that he would have something by which to remember his mother and her commitment to the God we meet in Jesus Christ. And my question is, the question I have been asking myself the past couple of weeks, why do we keep a record of these ancient stories? Why do we continue to tell and retell such graphic and terrible stories of violence? Why would I tell this story, of this ancient martyr, killed 440 years ago in a time and place that seem to have little to do with our current world? These are people are difficult to relate to people a little too zealous and certain of themselves for me to related to. This is the question I have been asking myself, why do still glorify these stories? Because I think there can be a danger in telling these stories. In telling these stories we can feel justified as victims of violence; we can feel that these ancient martyrs sort of get us off the hook for having to live our own life of discipleship. The can also be dangerous in that they can create a sort of elitist mentality, a thinking that we are just a little bit
better than those Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists who persecuted and killed our theological ancestors. Those are some of the potential dangers of retelling these stories. But then I think, imagine how this story would play out if it were a Hollywood movie The Adriaen Wens Story Adriaen would be fueled by that memory to seek revenge. He would grow up with only revenge on his mind, he would train day and night, and if he ever tired from his training, he would take out that tongue screw that he kept in order to remember and be revitalized to fuel his revenge. Sort of a Princess Bride situation Then, as he systematically found each of his mother s captures and murderers, he would show them that tongue screw as they took their last breath. That is how we would tell that story in our culture, that is how Hollywood would remember the story of Maeyken Wens and her son Adriaen.
But that is not how we tell it. That is not why we tell it. We remember and retell such a story as this not to justify a violent response, not to fuel us in seeking revenge; we do not tell these martyr stories in order to justify building a wall around our community to protect ourselves from future attacks; we do not tell them to bolster our stockpiling of weapons, so that we never have to face a time of persecution like this again. Mennonites, rather, have told these stories in order to lift up the face of God that is peace and reconciliation; they have told these stories in order that we might be able to tell the stories of reconciliation. We tell these stories in order to form a community of faith around examples of non-violent love in the face of violence. We have not remembered these stories to justify a violent response, but instead to tell the stories of those that have transformed the violence done to them we remember the trauma, says John Paul Ledarach, to bolster our work for reconciliation. This is who we are. This is the face of God that we know, that we seek to lift up to the world. God has many faces, God is complex and diverse in ways that we will never comprehend. But we do know this particular face of God. We are called to be a different and peculiar people; to lift up a particular face of God to the world. Not that we are smarter or better than others, but that we have a different face of God that we are trying to represent, trying to emphasize. What we are called to do, is to be the people that God has called us to be to lift up the face of God that is love and justice to a world that loves violence. To be formed by stories like Maeyken Wens in a world that lives by the myth of Redemptive Violence. And so, let us be who we are, let us be the peculiar people that God has called us to be. To proclaim the face of God that we understand, that makes sense to us and do it
to the best of our ability: to be the best Hyde Park we can be, the best Emmaus Christian Fellowship we can be, to be the best Evergreen Heights we can be. May the Spirit of God that inspired these zealous and somewhat crazy Anabaptists some 500 years ago also inspire us today, for our time and our context. Amen. Sending Blessing And now may the God who created you, go with you as you leave this place Inspiring you to be just what the world need you to be, yourself, just who God has created you to be and nothing more. Go in peace. Amen.
Intergenerational/Children s Story Being who you are. I want to tell you the story of a man named Reuben. Reuben was a good guy and he tried hard to follow God, but he always felt like something was missing from his life, like he did not quite measure up. Well, Reuben read his Bible a lot, starting in the Old Testament. He read about David, and saw that the Bible said, David was a man after God s own heart. So, Reuben thought, if I could just be more like David, then things would be better. And so, he knew that David was a shepherd, so Reuben went and bought a couple of sheep. But, Reuben, he wasn t a very good shepherd (sheep are not too smart, and Reuben he grew up in the city, he didn t know anything about animals), and a couple of weeks later, his sheep died. He was pretty disappointed. A few years went by and Reuben still felt like he wasn t doing what God wanted him to do. Reuben had a sister Miriam, and she always seemed to have it together she was happy and content. And Miriam, she could pray she was always praying she would even go on retreats sometimes where she would pray for two or three days straight! And, Reuben thought, if I could just be more like Miriam, then I would be happier. And so he tried to pray but you know what, every time he would try to be quite and pray, he would always fall asleep, or not know how to pray. He was getting even more frustrated, because he could not pray like his sister Miriam. Well, a few years later, he was reading his Bible again, he had finally gotten to the New Testament, and he read about John the Baptist. John the Baptist was a really fiery preacher who lived in the wilderness and ate locusts and honey. And Rueben thought, if I only had more fire and energy like John the Baptist, that is what I need. But you know what, Rueben was a pretty quite guy, he was not excitable, he kind of liked to stay home, and he was scared to speak in front of people. So, he could not be like John the Baptist he was quite disappointed. Well, a little while later, Reuben had a dream, and in that dream he died and went up to heaven. When he got to heaven, Jesus came walking up to him and said Reuben Reuben, I am a bit disappointed in you. And Rueben said, I know, I know it is because I was not more like David, isn t it. No, replied Jesus. Oh, well then it must be because I couldn t pray like my sister Miriam, who could talk to you for hours in prayer. No. Oh, well, said Reuben, then it must be because I wasn t more fiery like John the Baptist. No, said Jesus. Reuben, I am disappointed because you weren t more like Reuben. I already created a David to be David, and a Miriam to be Miriam, and a John the Baptist to be John the Baptist. Why I am disappointed is because you were so busy trying to be like others that you weren t the best Reuben you could be. I only made one Reuben!
God has created us all with gifts and talents, and wants us to be the best we can be. Not to be like someone else, but to be ourselves. Our best selves. Thanks for listening to my story.