Jeffrey C. Long

The following sermon was preached at Filer Mennonite Church on Sunday October 30th, 2005.

In the article: “A call to faithfulness: Dutch Mennonites facing the storm in 1940,” Gerlof D. Homan tells of the Mennonite churches situation following the Nazi invasion.

“On May 10, 1940, Nazi legions invaded the Netherlands, a nation that remained unscathed during the First World War and hoped it could also escape the ravages of the new conflict that descended upon Europe in September 1939 when Hitler attacked Poland. The Dutch resisted the German invasion, but the struggle against overwhelming odds was short-lived, and on May 15 the Dutch military capitulated. At that time few Dutch citizens realized what horrors lay in store for them in the next five years of Nazi terror. 

Dutch Mennonites would share in the general agony and pain as they and other citizens were subjected to many humiliating and cruel measures. Many of them would lose their lives, suffer mentally and economically, and in a few instances see the destruction of their houses of worship. How well were they prepared to face the storm? 


Knowing they faced an bleak future, F. Dijkema, one of the pastors of the large Mennonite congregation in Amsterdam and member of the executive committee of the the Dutch General Mennonite Conference sought to inspire the church to faithfulness by holding up the example of the great cloud of witnesses, the 16th century Anabaptist martyrs.

He wrote to the struggling church:

“We hope that you feel with us that we must, with God’s help, do everything that is in our power to bring the ship of the Brotherhood through the turbulent waters to a safe haven. Our fathers did that too in times that were equal in difficulties and dangers, yes, which in that regard, in many ways, even surpassed them. Thinking back to those stirring times of our Brotherhood, here and elsewhere, we can look up to that cloud of witnesses who “kept what they had,” and we must do that with thankfulness towards those faithful, and with the humble prayer that the Almighty God will strengthen us as He did them… For four centuries our Brotherhood has resisted the undermining and destructive powers of the world. Ours task is to extend the burning torch, given to us by the ancestors.”



Today is Reformation Sunday a time when Protestant churches remember the time of the reformation of the church in the 16th and 17th century. The Mennonite Church has seen it as a time to remember the work of the anabaptist of that time, the radical reformers.

Technorati Tags: Anabaptist, Mennonite, preaching, sermons

Cloud of witnesses. What can we learn from those that came before us.

Hebrews 12:1, 2

Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

How this text is understood Biblically.

What is the cloud.

Cloud: Mass of clouds. Not a single cloud

The metaphor refers to the great amphitheatre with the arena for the runners and the tiers upon tiers of seats rising up like a cloud.

Who are the witnesses?

Hebrews 11

1. They lived by faith

verse 1 Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen.

2. They were our elders. Those who came before us.

verse 2 For by this, the elders obtained testimony.

Could go on with the whole chapter. Pick it up at verse 35

3. Some were martyred

Verse 35 “Others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. 36 Others were tried by mocking and scourging, yes, moreover by bonds and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned. They were sawn apart. They were tempted. They were slain with the sword. They went around in sheep skins and in goat skins; being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated 38 (of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts, mountains, caves, and the holes of the earth. 39 These all, having had testimony given to them through their faith, didn’t receive the promise, 40 God having provided some better thing concerning us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect.”

The witnesses in the great ampitheater are not mere spectators, but testifiers who testify from their own experience to God’s fulfilling his promises as shown in chapter Heb 11.

They speak to us. Through their witness.

verse 2 says that through their faith, they attained God’s testimony.

So, those of whom God testified are testifiers of us today.

How this text has been understood by the Church throughout history.

We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us.

My Grandmother who died. I continue to dream of her occassionally. She is still alive in my memory of her. Not in some hoodoovoodoo spiritual sense. Have you ever had an argument with someone and then later on continued the argument with that person in your head? Who are you arguing with? The person inside your head. Your memory of that person. That person exists to you in your memory of them. Same with my grandmother. Same with the cloud of witnesses. As long as we have a memory of them, they still exist to us.

As long as we remember them, they are still at work in us.

Ever wonder where the idea came from of the Saints praying for us? From this passage.

For us, that cloud includes the Anabaptists who became the Mennonite church.

In my study, I had two things that were important enough to the Mennonites to die for. Today, I’m going to share about one of them, and we’ll pick up the rest next year on the next Mennonite Heritage Sunday.

1). How to maintain a holy church.

What is a holy church?

Ephesians 5:25-27

Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the assembly, and gave himself up for it; 26 that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word, 27 that he might present the assembly to himself gloriously, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

Melchior Hoffman wrote “And the bride has now so covenanted herself with the Lord under the sign of the covenant, which is baptism, and so given herself over to him and he to them, through his Word and again with the bread, that many brides are become one congregation and bride of the Lord and he the husband and the Bridegroom.”

According to the anabaptists, we are each brides and together the bride of Christ, set apart from the flesh, made holy by the bridegroom Jesus himself.

The leaders of the church are Christ’s emmissaries sanctifying the church. Through leadership, through example, through discipline.

1. No longer coercion

Walter Klaassen writes, p. 211

“Virtually all the Anabaptists we know by name had experienced church discipline at the hands of the Catholic and Protestant church authorities. What we today call persecution was regarded in the sixteenthg century by those who did it as church discipline. Anabpatists were always regarded as members of the churhc, Protestand or Catholic, who had gone astray. The church authorities therefore felt responsible for them.”

“This discipline was often severe, involving imprisonment, torture, exile, deprivation of property and even death. The deat sentence as the ultimate act of discipline had a long history. In a society in which everyone was regarded as Christian there was no longer a world into which the offending member could be excommunicated. Thbe only way of getting rid of an incorrigible heretic was to put him to death.”

2. Instead the ban.

Anabaptists said that physical violence was not permitted the Christian. And because Anabaptists saw a clear distinction between church and world, when someone was excommunicated, that person was sent out of the church, God’s kingdom into the world, the kingdom of Satan.

Matthew 18:15-17 15 “If your brother sins against you, go, show him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained back your brother. 16 But if he doesn’t listen, take one or two more with you, that at the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the assembly. If he refuses to hear the assembly also, let him be to you as a Gentile or a tax collector.

Lovingly.

Matthew 5:43, 44

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you,

Hans Denck, an early anabaptist wrote :For the children of love may not for the sake of love act against love. Here all the wise need wisdom and all the friends of God need love so that they do not prefer the love of man to the love of God.

We must act in love. Otherwise the ban becomes coercion.

We must be quick to forgive

Luke 17:3, 4

Be careful. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him. 4 If he sins against you seven times in the day, and seven times returns, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.”

John 20:23

Whoever’s sins you forgive, they are forgiven them. Whoever’s sins you retain, they have been retained.”

Conclusion

Take you back to the words of pastor Dijkema,

“Thinking back to those stirring times of our Brotherhood, here and elsewhere, we can look up to that cloud of witnesses who “kept what they had,” and we must do that with thankfulness towards those faithful, and with the humble prayer that the Almighty God will strengthen us as He did them… For four centuries our Brotherhood has resisted the undermining and destructive powers of the world. Ours task is to extend the burning torch, given to us by the ancestors.”

Our task is to extend the burning torch given to us by the ancestors.

Let us be known to God and to the world as a holy church without spot or blemish.

Let us be known for love even in times when a brother or sister is caught in sin.

Let us be known as a place that forgives sins.