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Feature Article: Fall 2008

What we can learn from Anabaptist forebears

by C. Arnold Snyder

Should present-day Mennonites identify ourselves as Anabaptists? Walter Klaassen has recently made the case that we should not. Unlike the Anabaptists, we are not persecuted, have not been baptized again, and are enthusiastic participants in the cultural and economic life of the world around us. The name Anabaptist, Klaassen says, does not apply to us, least of all in any selfcongratulatory way (Mennonite Weekly Review [October 17, 2005]; Canadian Mennonite [April 16, 2007]).

The point is well taken: a thoughtful comparison of our beliefs and practices with those of the 16th-century Anabaptists is often more cause for repentance than for celebration. But we should not abandon the word Anabaptist. Of course Mennonites are not 16th-century Anabaptists, nor should we pretend to be. Their historical reality will never be ours. Every people in every age must forge their own path. But we don’t start from scratch. Insofar as we choose to stand in continuity and critical conversation with Anabaptist principles and practices, as voluntarily adopted children in this family of faith, I believe that we should claim to be standing in the Anabaptist tradition. For us the historic Anabaptist witness is a defining moment, providing crucial signposts along the Christian way.

I see three such signposts the original Anabaptists left behind that I believe help us get our bearings as persons consciously standing in the Anabaptist tradition today. These are

profound spiritual renewal;
commitment to the family of faith and practice, the church;
a path of discipleship (following in the footsteps of Christ).

Spiritual Renewal

True Christians are [those] who bury all fleshly desires with Christ, who are led by God’s Spirit.
(Ausbund, Hymn 94, stanza 21).

The call to profound repentance, life-changing conversion, and an empowering spiritual rebirth was the most fundamental of Anabaptist demands, on which all else depended. Anabaptist writings express a deep desire for an authentic Christianity, in heart, soul, mind, and body, expressed in word and deed. In hymns, prison testimonies, and confessional writings, the Anabaptists expressed their belief that the living God had made plain the path to salvation and had called them to that path.

They also had a clear biblical understanding that this path was the “narrow way,” open to all, but rejected by most. To enter into this path one had to pass first through the gates of repentance and spiritual rebirth. This was clearly described by Balthasar Hubmaier just six months after the first baptisms in Zurich, in the first published Anabaptist writing. Eleven years later, Menno Simons repeated these same points in his first Anabaptist writing, The Spiritual Resurrection. Here is a brief taste of what Menno said:

There can be no resurrection from sin and death unless this body of sin … [has] endured … penitence and remorse on account of sin … all those who are born and regenerated from above out of God, through the living Word, are also of the mind and disposition … of whom they are born and begotten… All regenerate children of God are minded …[like Christ], for they take after Him who has begotten them. (Complete Writings of Menno Simons, 53–54, 56)

Anabaptist writings express a deep desire for an authentic Christianity, in heart, soul, mind, and body, expressed in word and deed.

Our faith parents believed that the living and loving God was calling humanity to repentance and a new life, and was offering the actual grace and power to effect that spiritual and existential transformation, here and now. God’s gracious offer of spiritual rebirth was open to all who were willing to recognize and lament their alienation from God, willing to submit their will to God’s will, willing to take on the “mind of Christ.”

It would be a theological task of great worth for us in the Anabaptist tradition today to examine our present understanding and practice of the spiritual path. Is it the living Christ that stands as our foundation? Do we focus on the Loving One who offers spiritual healing to those who come with a willing heart? Do our churches make it their primary mission to offer this path of spiritual healing, on a continuing basis, to our members and our neighbors? How do we do this essential work, on which all else depends? Do our worship services illuminate the offer of grace provided here and now by the living God, in Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit?

If churches in the Anabaptist tradition are losing their way in the 21st century, their 16th-century faith parents suggest a powerful remedy: let us begin with the most fundamental truth, which is that God lives, loves us, and asks something very specific of us, here and now: that we turn away from our self-reliance and our self-made paths, and turn to the path and the power God has for us.

Commitment to the family of faith and practice, the church

Whoever receives God's word, whomever it begets anew, becomes God's child. Through baptism we... become a body together in Christ.
(Ausbund, Hymn 94, stanzas 7-8).

Spiritual rebirth and renewal of believers is the necessary first step, without which divine fruit will not follow. But this genuine inward “spiritual baptism” calls for an outward and visible witness by the sign of water baptism: the testimony of a good conscience before God, the sign of having died to the world and risen in Christ as members of his body. Anabaptist baptism was a proclamation of an inward change, but also a promise to live a new life within the community of believers, in the company of those who had also committed themselves to following after Jesus Christ, the head of his body.

With the commitment of water baptism, the “inward” spiritual path generates a parallel “outward” and public spiritual path, walked in the company of brothers and sisters in the faith. According to the biblical witness, this community was led by Christ as Head and characterized by love and obedience, generosity and care for one another in spiritual and material things. In the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, Christ’s sacrifice was remembered and the personal and communal commitments made at baptism were renewed and reaffirmed.

Insofar as we stand in the path walked by our faith parents, our path will not be individualist or private. It will be communal, public, and a vehicle of grace. How do our faith communities and assemblies concretely manifest the love of Christ that is extended to all? In what ways are our churches responding to the loneliness and alienation produced by our “me-centered” culture? How do we recognize and honor Christ in others? How do we welcome all into the embrace of the family of God?

A path of discipleship (following in the footsteps of Christ)

Thus, my dearest daughter … you will find, that we must follow Christ Jesus, and obey Him unto the end; and you will also truly find the little flock who follow Christ. … for we must follow His footsteps, and be like our Lord, the disciple like his master.
(The last testament of Jan Wouterss to his daughter [1572], Martyrs Mirror, 914-15).

Within the “little flock who follow Christ,” a way of life is described, marked out, cultivated, and lived. That path, the Anabaptists believed, is clearly marked in the New Testament, not only in the words of Jesus, but also in the witness of Jesus’ manner of being and living on earth.

As persons committed to being disciples of Jesus Christ, we are called to love all others whether friends or enemies, to bless and not curse, to tell and live the truth, to be generous in all things, to serve gladly and not dominate others, in short, to be “minded” as was Jesus Christ.

In our churches we still hear the call to be a light on the hill; we have not lost the understanding that our tradition has always called for a way of life that visibly expresses our faith and the loving life of our Lord; we are called to be messengers and practitioners of God’s peace. We give thanks to God when transformed lives incarnate the love of God in this world.

Nevertheless, are we finding that sometimes the memory and language of discipleship remains in use, but that the power is waning? If so, can we imagine “works of love” deliberately and actively married to the spiritual path of renewal and sustenance provided by the living God? Can we imagine “ethics” deferring to “spirituality,” as fruit defers to sap, and the branches defer to the vine? Is it possible for us to shift our emphasis from what we must do, and pay more careful attention to how we may be enabled to do what it is we know our Lord calls us to do? The truth is: it is not by pointing repeatedly to the goal that we will reach it, but as our faith parents well knew, the goal is reached by actually walking the path that leads there.

Conclusion

Christ is the head of his Church.
We are members of his body, all who are washed clean and abide in him...
For Christ is the true vine, and we are the sprouts and tendrils.
The vine grower is God, who indeed plants us.
He will quickly correct every sprout which produces fruit so that it bear more fruit
(Ausbund, Hymn 114, stanza 18)

What does it mean to stand in the Anabaptist tradition? I offer the following beginning affirmations, based on the signposts left behind by our faith parents.

The church is created, in every time and place, by the power of God-with-us, the Holy Spirit.
Those who have experienced the living power of God in their lives, and those who sincerely desire this power, will gather together for worship, counsel, and encouragement. We learn together what it means to walk in Christ’s footsteps and to be his body in the world.
It is a natural response for the gathered body of Christ to include and embrace others, so that God’s life-changing power and communion can also be theirs.
This is being “missional” in an Anabaptist way: branches that have been grafted together onto the living vine, who together recognize, celebrate, and cultivate a close spiritual walk with the living God, bear the heavenly fruit of active and reverent love for one another, for all of God’s children, and for God’s creation.

C. Arnold Snyder teaches history at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, ON. He is a member of First Mennonite Church, Kitchener, ON.