Congregational Response

for Christian Citizenship Sunday 2003

"What has been your recent experience in talking about your Christian relationship to government in your congregation? You might comment on sermons, Sunday school lessons, or private conversations."

"Not of one mind, but of one spirit"

Our church (Community Mennonite Church of Markham, Illinois) is not of one mind, although, thanks be to God, continues to be of one spirit. As pastors, we have felt free to share without reservation and to teach and preach emphatically on matters related to war and peace, violence and non-violence. While we have been very clear about our sense of Christ's call to peacemaking, and while we have spoken and acted on our opposition to this and all wars, we have also found ways of showing our respect and concern for those who differ in their perspective and conviction.

We have people in our congregation who are retired military career people. We have families with members presently in service. We have family and friends serving in Iraq and elsewhere. That requires another kind of sensitivity.

Since September 11, 2001 we have stated openly and clearly that we need to be honest and diligent in our desire to be Christ-like during this time. When differences exist, let us flee (not from each other) but to each other!

In addition to proclaiming the Gospel's call to peacemaking, we have also proclaimed that there is "NOTHING" in all the world that will separate us from the love of God and from each other. "We may not allow this war or our understanding about this war to separate us." That's a strong word, but it is the word we spoke.

Conclusion: We gathered on Veteran's Day and on Memorial Day. On both occasions we had people present and involved who represent both ends of the spectrum. On both occasions we accomplished two things:

1. We respectfully noted our various perspectives, as well as our nation's perspective, about those celebrations. We didn't offer a critique; we just noted them.
2. We then placed our understanding of Christ's call alongside those other notions. The Gospel's call stood, and indeed continues to stand, in stark contrast and as such has tremendous power.

"Lively Sunday School Discussions"

At Kern Road Mennonite Church in South Bend, we recently had a 12-week Sunday school class entitled, "Choosing Against War", loosely based on the book of that same title by John Roth. A wide variety of experiences and perspectives were represented in the class. During that series we had an excellent Sunday with Roth, who preached and then entered into conversation during the Sunday school hour. During one of the last sessions we focused on the relationship between church and state. We discussed the two-kingdom theory, its strengths and weaknesses and an alternative approach which speaks of the lordship of Christ over both church and state. I found the diagram on page 123 of the book Mennonite Peacemaking: From Quietism to Activism by Leo Driedger and Donald Kraybill helpful in preparing for this session. Also chapter 16 on "Nonresistance" in John Howard Yoder's book Nevertheless. We reflected on Ephesians 3:10 as a model for the church building a new world in the shell of the old, crumbling world. We finished by discussing an insightful passage from a sermon by Titus Peachey, MCC US staff, which challenges us to become engaged in and sometimes resist death-dealing government policies. I'll copy the excerpt below:

From a sermon by Titus Peachey, January 2003:

One morning several years ago, I was merrily on the way to work in our Lancaster-to -Akron carpool...that 7:30 a.m. experience in intentional community that some of us find irresistible. It was my turn to drive that day, so I was in the driver's seat enjoying the early morning banter in the car while negotiating the ever-changing patterns of Lancaster County's rush-hour traffic. As we approached an intersection on the backside of Akron, I noticed a road crew off to the side and a back up of several cars on the approaching street. Suddenly, from the back seat of my car came a chorus of voices. "Titus...watch out...the car! The car!"

Apparently my eyes had lingered too long on the road crew, for we were rapidly preparing to place the front end of our car into someone else's trunk. Happily for us, the warnings from the back seat had come in time. I was able to avoid a crash and work our way safely through the intersection.

Not surprisingly, the voices in the back seat got on my case for being absentminded, but then they turned on Ed, my passenger in the front seat. It seems that Ed, the one in the best position to see the approaching danger...and the one most likely to have been injured in a crash...had remained perfectly quiet the whole time. He didn't raise his hand, open his mouth, or move a muscle. And so in true car-pool "care-fronting" form, the voices in the back challenged Ed with: "Ed, why didn't you say something? We were all going to die and you didn't say a thing!" To which Ed in his usual unflappable style replied: "I didn't think it was in my place to say anything." Needless to say, we used that phrase repeatedly over the next number of months to pick on our good friend, Ed.

Now... analogies only go so far...so we'll try not to overdo this one.... but let's use it momentarily just to highlight a couple important questions. The United States is the car...and we are all in the carpool...it may not be the irresistible intentional community I spoke of earlier, but it is clear that at some level we share a common destiny in the world as U.S. citizens. It also appears that we are in a time of great danger. The traffic on this road in our world is heavy, and not everyone is obeying the rules. People run red lights or go the wrong way on one-way streets at very high speeds. Sometimes we hit vehicles in the left lane, because actually...we're a tank and we take up most of the road....and we routinely travel at about 90 miles an hour. Just up ahead of us, covering the entire roadway, is another vehicle. In response, our driver has stepped on the gas. Many in the tank are cheering and urging him on, saying the other vehicle shouldn't even be on the road, and that since we have a tank we can simply push it aside. Others are urging caution, suggesting that we should perhaps take another road, or at least slow down and take some time to think.

The question I would like for us to consider this morning is...during this time of danger in our country and in our world...where is the church? Are we seated in the back of the tank? Can we see what's happening? Are we shouting, "Hey, look out, look out...there's a vehicle ahead!" Are we seated in the front of the tank by the driver quietly thinking: "It's not really in our place to say anything." Have we joined the chorus of voices urging the driver to keep his foot on the gas pedal? Do we have a clear vision of another path we could take...Can we imagine transforming our tank into a tractor and plow? Do we have some alternative to all the other voices? Andre Gingerich Stoner, Pastor of Mission
Kern Road Mennonite Church
18211 Kern Rd.
South Bend, IN 46614

"In communion we pledge our allegiance to Jesus"

Rich Meyer, who spends several months every year working with Christian Peacemaker Teams in Hebron, West Bank, first suggested that we think about having communion every Sunday during the war in Iraq. It was one of those things that was said in passing and nothing happened with it. About a month ago he came with a specific proposal: why don't we have communion every Sunday from Easter until Pentecost? The idea of communion every Sunday is that it will act as a countermeasure to the ways our culture inculcates in us daily the way of war. We have the flags waving from cars, businesses and homes. We have newspaper articles and letters glorifying the war. It is difficult to resist this way of life when it is so inextricably woven into our society. By having communion every Sunday, we are reminded weekly that we serve a Lord who suffered and died rather than resist his enemies. Those who follow the way of war pledge allegiance to the flag, in communion we pledge our allegiance to Jesus. So this is to remind us of our identity in Christ and our allegiance to the way of peace.

I stumbled across the Balthasar Hubmaier's "A Form for Christ's Supper" when I was looking in the Minister's Manual for resources that would support the specific approach we wanted to communion. The manual includes the pledges at the beginning, but then I saw that the whole order is supportive of our approach because Hubmaier emphasizes the unity between Christ and the body of Christ, the church. This is not just a mystical unity, but a unity of way of life. This also helped me to realize too that "Lord's Supper" is a more appropriate name for what we are doing than "communion." I was surprised that Hubmaier, one of the few non-pacifist Anabaptists, included the reference to love of enemies. I did add that phrase to the concluding comments, though Hubmaier has the wording about us being the body and Christ being the head, so we should conform to the head.

The response to the communion service has been positive. People appreciate the words, find the pledge at the beginning challenging, and really enjoy the hymn that we sing. Andrew Kreider's "We are joining the army that sheds no blood" is both joyful and a reminder of our commitment. Many people smile as they receive the bread and then dip it into the juice. This is a reminder that we have made this commitment together; we are not alone in this commitment. It also keeps our peacemaking commitment connected with the person of Jesus. This is not just an abstraction but a flesh and blood reality. That is one thing that is nice about communion; it is not just an abstraction but a bread and wine reality. We ingest these reminders of the suffering and death of Jesus. My hope is that it is helping our commitment to the peaceful ways of Jesus to not just be maintained, but to flourish.

There you go, Susan, I suppose this is more than 200 words, but feel free to edit away. You can probably do without the Hubmaier paragraph, although I hope you find that helpful for yourself. Feel free to edit the order of worship too, if you want. I don't use the prayer verbatim, saying it a little differently each time.

Douglas Kaufman, Pastor
Benton Mennonite Church
15350 C.R. 44
Goshen, IN 46528
(574) 642-3245

"Hearing God's small voice through the noise of politics"

The following is an excerpt from our March newsletter, Hope Headlines. Written by Doug Luginbill

"The climate of war has always shaped churches and church institutions. The crisis in Iraq will stretch and shape us as a congregation and as individuals. My prayer is that we can search the foundations of our faith, the depths of our conscience and the breadth of our minds so that we might hear God's still, small voice speaking through the noise of politics, fear, rhetoric and posturing.

My hope is that we can trust and respect one another enough to be able to share our own fears, concerns and perspectives while hearing the fears, concerns and perspectives of one another. This demands courage, wisdom and calm."

On March 30, Gary Flory, Director of the Kansas Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, presented a workshop at Hope Mennonite entitled "Speaking our Peace." Gary provided helpful information and ideas about how to talk to our friends, neighbors, coworkers and others about what "peace" means to us especially during a time of war. The workshop included role-playing and interactions with others.

On the evening after the war with Iraq began and on the following two consecutive evenings, a half-hour service of prayer and reflection was held in the sanctuary. Participants had the opportunity to light candles, pray at the cross and sing songs of peace.