Jeffrey C. Long

This article was written for the most current issue of the Pacific Northwest Mennonite Conference newsletter The Evangel.

Today I had the pleasure of watching a video of Guy Doud, 1986 Teacher of the Year as a part of my education towards a teaching certificate. One of the many stories he told was how as a child he was very overweight. When he was the last person to be picked for recess games, he learned that he wasn’t just not good at sports, he wasn’t good. The result was that he gradually participated in less and less activities the more his self-perception told him he wasn’t good.

It’s my opinion that we Mennonites can struggle with similar feelings. Because we are different from other Christians, we can sometimes limit our activities based on our self-perception. I know for myself, I struggle to invite people to attend church with me because it will mean explaining what Mennonites are, that we don’t all drive horse and buggies and that I will have to explain the position of non-resistance.

And so, just as Guy Doud’s self-perception as an overweight young boy got in the way of his activities, my self-perception as a Mennonite gets in the way of my participation in outreach.

I would like to suggest that we can change our self-image in a way that could hopefully open doors for us to participate more actively in outreach as an extension of our identity as peacemakers.

At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus entered a synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth and opened the scrolls to the prophet Isaiah and read.

“’The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’ (Isaiah 61: 1, 2 and Luke 4: 18, 19).”

This was essentially Jesus platform statement for the inauguration of the Kingdom of God. He was saying that the ministry that would happen from this time forward would take on this character. I believe that this ministry extends to his followers today. As Christ’s body, we carry on this year of the Lord’s favor in the world we live in today.

There are three implications from this that we can practice as we learn to see ourselves more positively as peacemaking Mennonites.

The first is that our ministry flows from the Spirit of God being upon us. This is both a warning and a blessing. It is a warning that we need to not step forward into ministry unless we are doing so under the Spirit of God. In Larry Crabb’s new book “SoulTalk” he says “After fifty years of following Jesus and thirty years of intense conversations about every imaginable struggle, I’ve got enough experience to address most of what I hear with pretty decent insight. I can see a fog-lifting perspective on a great variety of problems, and I can steer people in directions that are healthy and helpful. And I can do all of that without the Spirit’s power.” There is so much good we can do through good motivations and natural strength that it’s all too easy to do our work without the Spirit’s power. But the blessing of Jesus’ words is that through the anointing of the Spirit, the Kingdom of God comes. And so the first lesson is that we must learn to wait for the Holy Spirit’s direction as we relearn our identity as peacemaking Mennonites.

The second lesson is that we are anointed to preach good news. I believe that one of the obstacles Mennonites feel is that the message of pacifism in the midst of wartime patriotic nationalism is too countercultural for their neighbor’s ears. But we may very well have the cart before the horse. The good news we preach is not foremost pacifism but rather reconciliation between people and God through the intercession of Jesus Christ. It is only through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit that believers can live out the radical love that results in nonresistance to violence. And so, the second lesson we need to learn is that our message is good news. As Mennonites, we need to practice speaking good news to those around us, both in the church and outside of it. And we need to practice speaking about the reconciliation that Jesus has made available.

The final lesson is that the Kingdom of God provides relief for the downtrodden. “He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed,” said Jesus. And this is where we Mennonites often excel. Ministering to prisoners. Medical missions to foreign countries. Bringing release to those oppressed under poverty. I believe we need to learn to practice these in grassroots efforts on a local level, and so bring the year of God’s favor to our neighbors.

The conclusion of the Guy Doud film was that through the work of teachers in his schools, his self-image changed and he began to learn that he could do activities he’d otherwise felt inadequate to do. It is my hope that as we gather together in the spirit and learn to speak good news to our neighbors and minister to the downtrodden, we can learn that as Mennonites there are many activities we can participate in that we have otherwise felt inadequate to do.