Five of us went to Lancaster to join Mennonite Action in standing against war and supporting the victims of war. It was an amazing experience as it eliminated all political partisanship by advocating and praying for the victims of war, not for Israel, not for Palestine, not for the US, etc. We prayed for the victims, all victims, not just some. We prayed for Israeli victims and Palestinian victims. We prayed for the suffering of those being deported and for families being torn apart. Speakers spoke about the abuses that accompany war and capitalism. Most of all, we stood quietly, holding up our signs, “God loves everyone.” “Love knows no borders.” “Blessed are the peacemakers.” There was no shouting or chanting, and since we were in a public place, we made openings in our group so other pedestrians could pass through. Many stopped and took pictures of our group. TV cameras were also there.
And we sang. We sang hymns of praise and hymns of joy, hymns of confession and hymns of sadness. If you’ve never heard a gathering of Mennonites singing, you have missed something special. Many of the more conservative churches do not use instruments, but they have taught themselves to sing in four-part harmony. Standing there with hundreds of like-minded followers singing acapella in praise of Jesus was a fantastic experience. It was one of those times when I was so proud to call myself a Mennonite. It was truly a mountain-top experience for me, and now I am home again, doing the laundry, emptying the dishwasher, and wondering how to share some of that energy we experienced here at home.
One of the gifts of Anabaptism to the world has been the separation of church and state. Unfortunately, we are seeing real efforts to link the two together again with Christian Nationalism, just as it was the accepted norm in Europe after the time of Constantine. Jesus was very clear that we cannot serve two masters, that we will love the one and hate the other. We can’t serve both the state and Jesus. They stand in opposition to each other. The state is about power. Jesus is about love. We like to think we can have it both ways, but all that does is delude us, convincing us that we can have our cake and eat it too.
Standing there in Penn Square in Lancaster, I realized that as much as I love this country, as good as America has been to me, I choose to first be a Jesus follower and only secondly a US citizen. What that may mean in the days to come, I have no way of knowing, but then Jesus never promised us that following him would be easy. I am reminded of those lines in the Serenity Prayer: “Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace, taking as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it. ” And that’s the challenge facing all of us, isn’t it? Accepting this broken, beloved world of ours as it is, yet knowing deep down that hardship is the only pathway to peace, for that is the way of the Cross.
Thank you for sharing your message with the rest of us. I’m great broken that so many of my brothers and sisters in Christ believe that we “must return to our Christian roots” and throw everybody else out. Never did Christ seek to overthrow the Roman’s. As you said so well, our path isn’t the world’s path. But it’s a good path with our good God. We walk in love and peace; that is our radical, upside-down message. Keep gathering and praying and sending our these messages.