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Introduction
Lat week we began a new series titled “Rooted”.
We started looking at the roots of where our church comes from.,,
what makes us tick.
Over the three week span of this series I will cover six key distinctive’s of our Anabaptist history.
Last week we covered as an introduction, two of the most distinctive identity markers of the Anabaptist’s.
Adult Baptist or re-baptizing, which is what the word Anabaptist means.
Jesus as our Example.
The Christ centered nature of our theological and practical thinking.
We looked at how Anabaptist’s see everything through the lens of Jesus.
In Christ we see the full nature of God, therefore we view all of scripture through the lens of the person and work of Jesus.
He revealed God to us, and we are to become just like Him.
Disciples of Jesus, followers of the ways of Christ, this is the centerpiece of all of our theological and practical thinking.
It’s who we are.
We Jesus people.
He lived the life we are called to live.
The Sermon on the Mount is a key text that drives our thinking and way of approaching living life for Christ.
It is out of this worldview that come the next two distinctive’s that we are going to look at this morning.
One note to remember, even though we come from a Mennonite background, this series is not dealing with the ethnic history of our denomination.
Instead we are focusing on what drives our theological thinking.
Ok, that being said, lets dive into our two distinctive’s for today.
Living a Life of Simplicity
Rooted in the mindset of Jesus being our example our first distinctive today is simplicity.
Living in the world but not being of this world.
The early Anabaptist’s believed that in order to live as disciples of Jesus we needed to be distinctly different then the world around us.
One of the key texts that drove this thinking outside of the Sermon on the Mount is found in 1 John:
Loving the world to an Anabaptist would drive you away from following Christ.
Historically, this became something that Anabaptist’s took very seriously.
So much so that some groups became totally separate communities that alienated themselves from the culture around them.
The early Anabaptist we persecuted so badly that they separated from the world in order to survive.
This survival became something that caused the Anabaptist to become legalistic about.
They were so driven by not letting the world corrupt their way of living for Jesus that they purposely stayed away from the material things of the world.
Many of you have seen people from this way of life, not owning cars, wearing simple plain clothing, staying away from technology, and the ways of the rest of the world.
Living in separate communities and only engaging with culture when they absolutely have to.
The challenge to this is the legalism it created.
They were so driven to stay away from the things of the world that they would analyze everything, and make community rules on how everyone dressed etc.
So much so that if something became a trend in the world that was similar to something they did, they would change it.
A good example of this was the beard.
The married men wore the mark of a beard.
In culture at one point, people began to curl their stash as a fashion statement.
To counter this, the Anabaptist made a rule, no man could have a stash.
So they has a beard, but no stash.
You see how something with good intentions can become legalistic, and have nothing to do with the scripture that drove it.
The passage we read in 1 John calls us to a life of simplicity, but not how it was once interpreted.
What John is telling his readers is to not love the world because the world is focused on self, on being flashing and prideful.
The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life.
These are things that will distract you from being a disciple of Christ.
But, hiding from the world and wearing simple clothing, being poor, these things miss the point.
A simple way to look at what living a simple life looks like according to the passage is rooted in how we think, what drives our worldview.
Do you strive to have possessions, to be rich, to be important, so that people will notice you.
Is this what drives your thinking.
Because if it is then John would say you love the things of the world, and they are distracting you from Christ.
You love the world more then Jesus.
The passage calls us to a simple life by calling us to understand that there is nothing in this world worth holding onto as our identity.
Our identity is found in Jesus, not material stuff, not wealth, not social status.
We are called to lives of simplicity, which means we center our lives around Jesus, not stuff.
We are driven in life around the world of the cross, not pride of what we have.
The simple life is a life that sees the stuff as not being the most important thing in our lives, instead Jesus is.
You can have the stuff as long as you are willing to let it all go, as long as it is not what drives your identity.
Anabaptist would hold a value of others above keeping up with the Jones's.
In other words, they would practice the Acts two life of making sure everyone’s needs were met, rather then showing that they had more then another.
Generosity is more important then having stuff.
So we are called as disciples of Christ to simple lives, meaning Christ drives our lives, not material gain.
You can have the stuff, but don’t love the stuff so much that it becomes who you are.
This is why the early Anabaptist’s stayed away from the stuff, they felt it would corrupt them.
So they did everything they could to stay away from things that would corrupt them.
Simplicity is something that we need the Holy Spirit to guide and convict.
If we are focusing on the world rather then Jesus, we need to repent and change.
Focus our hearts and our minds on what truly matters, our relationship with Jesus.
The second distinctive we are going to look at this morning is a big one for Anabaptist.
Love and Non-Resistance
As you study the Anabaptist movement you would soon find out that their position of pacifism was more of a posture of peacemaking.
In October of 2006 there was a story in the news about a tragic shooting of Amish school children in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania.
The story itself was not the remarkable part, unfortunately there are shooting often in the United States.
The remarkable piece of the story was how the Amish community responded to the shooting.
They expressed forgiveness toward the gunman and reached out in compassion toward his family.
This reaction many would call pacifism, but I would argue that pacifism stands back and does nothing, whereas peacemaking acts.
This Amish community could have just forgiven the gunman, not retaliated but stayed quiet.
However, they didn’t, instead they acted, but not the action most would choose.
Instead of getting back at the gunman and his family, they made the effort to forgive and reached out to his family in compassion.
This is the posture of peacemaking.
The call to biblical peacemaking challenges us to be more than passive non-resistors.
The word “peacemaker” combines the meaning of well-being or wholeness with the idea of action.
A peacemaker is one who actively intervenes in situations of conflict in order to establish peace.
Jesus teaches that one of the ways to live as peacemakers is to refuse retaliation.
The idea is both clear and radical.
Do not resist but turn the other cheek.
Do not insist on legal rights.
Surrender personal property.
Do not resist those who demand assistance.
Give money instead of lending when a loan is requested.
The Gospel according to Luke observes that we should refuse retaliation because of who God is.
He is a God of grace and mercy.
We should therefore respond to oppressors in like manner.
These are the things that drive a peacemaker.
The proactive biblical warrant for peacemaking is not only emphasized in the Gospels.
The apostles describe the life of believing community in the same manner.
Followers of Christ are to serve their enemies:
Return good for evil:
Do good to all people:
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