Text:  John 14:1-7; Colossians 1:15-20

Introduction

We come now to the second aspect of our rootedness.  We are rooted in Scripture; we are also to be rooted in our heritage.

What is our heritage as Anabaptist Christians?

Our heritage is first and foremost Christian and, as the recently deceased James Reimer was very intent on emphasizing, part of the classical Christian tradition.  Fundamentally, the Anabaptist heritage is a branch of the historical church and its confessions illustrate its affirmation of traditional Christian teaching.

Trinitarian,
a high view of Scripture,
the presence of sin in the world
the need for salvation,
the atoning work of Christ,
the foundation of the church in Jesus Christ
the promise of eternal life.

And yet there are also distinctives which illustrate a particular understanding of these large terms and ideas.  And those are the ones we want to look at over the next number of Sundays.

This Sunday I will begin with the person of Jesus Christ.  To quote Stuart Murray in The Naked Anabaptist, “Jesus is our example, teacher, friend, redeemer, and Lord.  He is the source of our life, the central reference point for our faith and lifestyle, for our understanding of church, and our engagement with society.  We are committed to following Jesus as well as worshipping him.”

For Anabaptist Christians, Jesus Christ is the center of the Christian’s faith and it is in following him that we come to understand and believe in him. In other words, discipleship is the model of the Christian life. “No one can know Christ unless he follows after him in life,” Hans Denck, a 16th century Anabaptist believer wrote.

And so for the rest of this message I want to show how Anabaptist Christians understood Jesus Christ to be the model of the Christian life. To do this most effectively we need first of all to contextualize the historical setting of the early Anabaptist Christians.

Christian history is both fascinating and illuminating for those of us surveying the religious landscape today. A rough survey might look as follows. The first four centuries of the Christian church were spent in mission, and in hammering out of the theology of the church. For example, the doctrines of the trinity, creation, sin, salvation, ethics, the church, etc. were debated, and formalized. The next millennium saw the expansion and consolidation of the church in Europe and its eventual politicization. The last five hundred years have witnessed the globalization and the fragmentation of the Christian Church.

The Anabaptist vision was an essential part of the history of the Christian church in the 16th century and much of it had to do with the issue of what it meant to be a Christian. Were Christians bound by the principles of Scripture or the Church magistrates? Were the clergy the only ones to understand the Bible or was the Bible to read by everyone? Did Jesus just perpetuate the status quo or did he come to reveal the beginning of the Kingdom of God? These issues were at the root of the Reformation period. The first Anabaptists were dissatisfied with what they saw in the lives of the people around them.  Provoked by their own reading of Scripture, they began to question many of the teachings they had grown up with.  Ultimately they came to believe that not only was Jesus the truth and the life of the Christian, he was also the way, and his way was the way of the cross.

Stuart Murray has described this turn as Jesus moving from the center to the margins and then moving back to the center again. By adopting Christian faith as the religion of the empire, Constantine effectively neutered the church’s radical obedience to the call and commands of Jesus. Jesus had been worshipped yes, but not followed.  However, the individual is called to follow Jesus, not just worship him. Some of the Anabaptist leaders described the way of Jesus as having three different but related parts: the way of water, the way of the Spirit, and the way of fire. The way of water corresponded to the way of baptism; the way of the Spirit was linked to Christian living; and the way of fire referred to the possible outcome of martyrdom. Modeled very clearly on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, this “way of the cross” was the template by which the Anabaptist Christian was to pattern his life of discipleship.

Discipleship is following the example of Jesus.

The Christian life is personal and attends to the life of the individual. Each person needs to come to faith and decide to follow Jesus. And then personal baptism offered upon confession of one’s own faith.

The Christian life is radical  ie., it goes to the root of the matter. It is basic faith without all the trimmings. Many doctrines were later inventions, said the Anabaptists and so they advocated a return to the principle of sola scripture – scripture only.

The Christian life is a detached life. It is countercultural. It is like Christians are aliens in a strange land; nomads not settlers. They are neither bound by possessions or seeking after them.

Discipleship is following the teachings of Jesus

The Sermon on the Mount is the new charter for Christian living.

The Sermon is not a collection of Counsels of Perfection for only the elite few but the order of living as the new creature in Christ. The new birth spoken of by Jesus to Nicodemus in the Gospel of John chapter 3 is not just cosmetic. The new birth makes one righteous; it does not just declare righteous. Possessions are meant not to be hoarded but shared.

The Christian is called to be generous with everything.

The Christian is called to give what he/she has to the poor; to love his/her neighbour; to visit the prisoner, heal the sick, and comfort the poor.

The Christian is to live as part of a community.

Jesus lived with his disciples. They shared a common purse and trusted God for provisions.

The Christian church is to engage in mission.

Matthew 20:18-20 gave as Jesus’ final commandment the great commission which called the disciples to go into all the world and make disciples, teaching and baptizing… The Christian of today is still called to the same task.

 

Discipleship is a journey, not as a state of being.

The Christian life is a journey.  It is a journey which is different for each of us but it is a journey on which we can go together. Its end is to follow Jesus wherever that may lead.

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