Meeting House (Part 2)

This is third section of a series of reflections upon my time with the Mennonites of Delano.  To read the first two sections, simply click on their link in the adjacent column.

My dad let me use his truck and my family was gracious enough to let me spend a Sunday with my mistress Mennonites.  So I left in what I thought was plenty of time.  However, when I arrived I discovered another difference between my world and the Mennonites; they don’t spend any money on church signs.  I drove around their dirt lanes for 30 minutes taking in its beauty and simplicity until finally I came upon a sort of buggy parking lot below a meeting house.

          I knew the service had already begun by the singing.  An a cappella melody of male and female voices floated down from the meeting house informing me where to go.  I walked upon the wooden porch and found myself standing at the head of the aisle.  To my right was a sea of white bonnets and long dresses.  To my left were blue and gray suspended shirts and bearded faces of the men.  There was no separation by age.  Everyone from a few weeks to 90 years old was there singing. 

          Had there been electricity, you might have thought the record skipped at my entrance as heads turned to see this stranger.  A man rose and offered me his chair at the end of the aisle.  I sat next to a boy of perhaps 3 and his father who looked to be in his late 20’s and wore a thin red beard.  He handed me a hymnal and we sang.  After each song a person would say a hymn number and start singing after which the whole congregation joined in.  They sang all the verses, with no instruments, but with great depth.  The hymns seemed ancient and familiar at the same time.    

          After singing a man rose, read scripture and spoke on prayer, after which we turned kneeled, placed our elbows on our chairs and prayed.  After this another passage was read and another man rose and talked for about an hour.  Now, keep in mind through all of this that it is Tennessee, it is July and there is no electricity, which means there is no AC.   The room is full and everyone has on long clothes and there are children.  To be sure, it was warm, and yet, there was something refreshing about the breeze that flowed through the open windows.  At one point a kitten wandered through the open door and down the aisle as if on its way to baptism only to be swept up and deposited on the porch by one of the ladies.  

          The service ended with a song at about 12:15 almost 3 hours after it started.  A long time by any one’s estimation, yet everyone from the youngest to the oldest made it through.  I wasn’t sure whether to feel awe for their endurance or sadness for their Sunday morning worship marathons.  When I expressed my amazement afterwards one of the brothers replied, “Yep, all of us have trouble paying attention at some point.  The services can get a little long.” 

          After the service the gentleman who’d offered me a seat introduced himself as Leon.  When I smiled I realized that he was the same person who told me the joke at the market.  He invited me to stay for lunch if I had time, which I was more than happy to oblige. 

Over 200 folks crammed around several long tables.  I sat at the end and talked with Leon and one of his 9 children, Caleb while we dined on homemade bread, peanut butter, egg salad, pickles and lemonade.  A meal and conversation were like the Mennonites; simple and good. 

After the meal, the men and women lingered with their respective genders chatting about the weather and crops.  The red-bearded pew mate introduced himself as Nick.  When he did so, I realized that he was the one who I’d met at the market and asked about coming to their service.  He and his wife had been in the community for a couple of years and were the parents of seven children.  To this day I’m not sure what possessed me, but before I could stop myself I asked if folks ever came to spend a few days in the community.  Nick nodded slowly with a yes and then said that the fall was a much better time to do such a thing as things slowed down.  Even as the question came out of my mouth I knew that such a visit was highly unlikely and that it would end up on the same ‘to do list’ as building a basketball court and scattering my dog’s ashes from Mt. Si.    

As I drove away that summer Sunday, I struggled to decide how I felt.   Was it envy or pity?  They have so little; electricity, transportation, news, clothes.  Yet, they have so much; land, good work, faith and one another.  Such a question was too rich to leave unexplored.  Little did I know that a path back to Delano would open up just a few months later.

Up next: (Return to Delano)

The Eye of the Needle (Part 1)

Even before entering the community, one is greeted with a parable.  The drive to their market runs through a train trestle that is large enough for only one car.  I laughed out loud when I read that the name of the road was Needles Eye Lane.  In Matthew Jesus says to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.  Again I tell you it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”   Could there be an entrance more appropriate for a wealth shunning community?  In later conversations I discovered that the Mennonites didn’t even give it this name.  Apparently the name preceded the Mennonites purchase of the land in 2003.  Had they needed a sign to purchase the land I’m sure that would have been more than enough.  To paraphrase John Donne, ‘tis stranger than fiction, but true.’  Or as another friend of mine says, ‘You can’t make this stuff up.’

          When one passes through the needles eye in summer they are greeted with a different world.  A simple white market sits at the end of a gravel parking lot.  To its left down a sloping hill is the land unfolded like a quilt.  Various horses, buggies and bearded men in straw hats scatter the land.  Like worker bees they drive their produce laden wagons to the basement of the market where I would later learn it was sorted into bins with each farmer’s name.  Other brothers then prepare the produce, cart it up wooden steps to the market above where they fill the half-empty stalls for the shoppers.  I imagine that I was like many other shoppers who were enamored as much with the heirloom tomatoes and pepper jelly as with the men stocking the shelves.  I was examining a cantaloupe when one of the brothers paused beside me with a box of cucumbers.  In a slow measured voice he said, “Last week a lady asked me if the cantaloupe were good.  I told her I thought so, but if you really wanted to know you should probably ask their parents.”  He then grinned broadly and continued to stock the shelves.  Who would have expected jokes at the Mennonite market?

        If you have ever asked someone on a first date than you know how I felt when I was checking out.  I wanted to get more time with these folks, but I didn’t know if they wanted time with me.  I didn’t know how they felt about outsiders.   Certain that I’d get rejected; I almost departed without a word.  But just before stepping away with my champagne grapes and watermelon I blurted out, “Do you all allow visitors to your worship service?”   Instead of answering he turned and walked away.  I was certain I’d offended him until he pulled a couple of sheets of paper from a display and handed them to me.  “Yeah,’ he finally said, “the service is at 8:30, just drive on around the community to the meeting house which is just over that hill.”  And just like that, I had a date with the Mennonites of Delano.

(next: The Meeting House)

The Mennonites of Delano (Intro)

In reference to GK Chesterton, CS Lewis once wrote that “It might have been expected that my pessimism, my atheism and my hatred of sentiment would have made him to me the least congenial of authors...[yet] strange as it may seem, I liked him for his goodness.”  After three days with the Mennonites of Delano I know what Lewis means.  I’d easily have been able to dismiss them as irrelevant if not for their simple goodness..    

There are many reasons to dismiss old order Mennonites, or plain people as they tend to be called.  They practice a literal interpretation of the Bible.  They have a great, perhaps even extreme distrust of modern culture that leads to their isolation from society.  And perhaps most difficult, women play what at first seems like a secondary role in the community.   These beliefs flow into practices that are equally odd.  The women wear head coverings, the men refuse to shave their beards.  They drive buggies instead of cars and reject electricity and modern plumbing.  They refuse military service, government assistance and public schools.  There is enough in their way of life to offend everyone be they liberals or conservatives.  No getting around it, they are strange.  Yet, as Flannery O’Conner once said, “you shall know the truth and it shall make you odd.”  Instead of quoting Flannery, the Mennonites would have simply pointed to the apostle Paul who wrote in his letter to the Corinthians, “The foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.”  No doubt about it, the Mennonites are fools.  So what does it say about me that they are starting to make sense?

          My attraction to plain folks began in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania.  In 2006 a mentally unstable milkman entered a one room school house and murdered 5 of the Amish girls.  As horrific as it was, it was not the violence of this tragedy that grabbed my attention, rather the response to it.  According to the tales of the girls who survived, one thirteen year old girl named Marian Fisher was shot only after she offered to go first in hopes of saving the others.   What would it take for a child to do this?  How does one train a child that they might act in such a way?  You might rightly call her act ludicrous, but you most certainly would also have to conclude that it was very much like Christ.  Later, the world would learn that such behavior was not relegated to the children but also the adults.  At the funeral of the man who murdered these girls over half the attendees were Amish.  Had it been me, I might have come to the funeral, but only to spit upon the grave.  Not so with the Amish.  They came as a sign of forgiveness.  They even came to offer their help to the grieving widow and children.  Again, you might rightly claim their action is ludicrous, but you must also conclude that it was like Christ.  Now I ask you, what does it take for a community to respond in such a manner? 

          This question haunted the recesses of my mind and even played no small part in my move to pacifism.  So, a few years later when I heard a Mennonite community had settled just 20 miles from my hometown in Tennessee, I knew I had to visit.  And so it was in August of 2011 that Erin, the kids and I drove to investigate the Mennonite market in Delano.  

Next: The Eye of the Needle

Advent 1: Waiting Together

Preached on Sunday, November 27, 2011

Before reading this passage, I want to first set it in its proper context. We must first understand that it comes at the end of a chapter long sermon all of which begins with a statement by the disciples. “As he was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!” Knowing that Jesus was a man of God and having just left the temple of God, one of the disciples likely wanted to curry favor with Jesus by pointing out how awesome God’s temple was. It is likely he expected some kudos from Jesus, but he gets just the opposite. “Do you see all these great buildings? Not one stone here will be left on another; everyone will be thrown down.” What, the disciples must have thought. This is lunacy. These stones are twice the height of a man and impossible to move. They’ve been here for centuries and most of all, they are the home of God who would never allow such a thing. Saying they will be torn down is like claiming the Titanic will sink or the twin towers will fall, such a thing could never happen. Or so thought the people prior to 1912 and 2001.

A few verses later, Peter, Andrew, James and John (the first disciples called by Jesus), pull him aside and ask when. When will this happen and it is in response to this question that Jesus offers his message.

He goes on to speak of a time of distress when there will be wars and rumors of wars, nations will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes and famines. He goes on to talk about the personal trials that the disciples will face being handed over to governors and kings. He goes on to speak of the troubles that families will have where even brothers will betray their brothers. Things will get so bad that women will wish they weren’t even pregnant because ‘those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning…’ Are you feeling that Christmas spirit yet? Nothing says Christmas like a little distress. Of course, if you’ve been to the Mall, then you probably already know about distress. And so our passage comes after this distress.

Mark 13:24-37

24 "But in those days, following that distress, "'the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; 25 the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.' 26 "At that time men will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.
28 "Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. 29 Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it is near, right at the door. 30 I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. 32 "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come.
34 It's like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch. 35 "Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back-- whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. 36 If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. 37 What I say to you, I say to everyone: 'Watch!'"

The way in…

“But in those days, following that distress, ‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.” And a Merry Christmas to you. Nothing says happy holidays like a little distress followed by a cosmic apocalypse. The Christmas decorations are now on the streetlights, the santa commercials all over the television and if you live in South Tacoma then you know that the blow up yard decorations are inflated and bringing holiday cheer to the cold dark evenings. This is the season of light and joy and lots of sweets, yet we come into our church, of all places, and what do we hear? Instead of light, we hear about darkness. Instead of joy, we hear about distress. And instead of sweets, we hear about fig trees. What in the world is going on?

Lectionary

Most of the time I would have to shoulder the blame for our Sunday passages, but this is not one of them. You see, there is a thing called the lectionary which indicates the passages that are to be read each Sunday. The passages are loosely based upon one of the gospels and run in a 3 years cycle. Year A is Matthew, year B is Mark and year C is Luke while John gets sprinkled into all three years. Today begins year B which belongs to the gospel of Mark. So, lest you think I came up with this passage this morning, just know that all across the country, even all across the world, millions of other Christians were welcomed to the Advent season with this very same passage. But now the real question, what are we to do with it? Or perhaps more accurately, what are we going to let it do to us?

In the days following the distress

In our passage this morning, Jesus tells the disciples what is going to happen, when it is going to happen and how they should prepare. In short, he tells them that he will be returning in the heavens to gather all of the chosen ones. To know when, look at the fig tree. And to know how to wait, consider the servants whose master is coming home.

Our Christmas culture tells us how to do these things, doesn’t it? What is going to happen? Santa Claus is coming to town and he will even be coming in the sky. When will this happen? It will happen on December 24^th, late at night. And how shall we wait? Well you better not pout, you better not cry, you better not shout I’m telling you why? Santa Claus is coming to town. He’s making a list he’s checking it twice, he’s gonna find out who’s naughty and nice… Santa Claus is coming to town.”

Is this all that Jesus is? A cosmic Santa Claus? Is this all we are? Kids trying to be good so that we’ll get more presents? Surely there is more than this? Please tell me there is more than this. This morning I have god news. Yes, Virginia, there is more than this.

Waiting

364 nights of the year, parents have to be creative with ways to get their children to go to bed, but not so on Christmas Eve. For on that evening they hold the trump card. Raise your hand if you’ve ever uttered something like the following, “Santa can’t come until you are asleep.” Well, here is where the Santa myth and the Jesus reality part. On more than one occasion what does Jesus tell his disciples? In verse 5, “Watch out…” In verse 9, “Be on guard…” In verse 33, “…keep watch.” And finally, “What I say to you, I say to everyone, ‘Watch!” The NRSV translates this word more literally as it says, ‘Stay awake.’ Instead of sleeping, Jesus invites us to stay awake.

There are times in the Bible when Jesus seems to be talking just to his disciples or to the people. And then there are times when Jesus is talking directly to or about us. In the gospel of John, Jesus prays for all of those who will believe in him. In that he is praying for us. Here, when Jesus says, ‘everyone,’ we are included. Very simply, Jesus is telling us to watch, to stay awake. And so I ask this simple question. How will we wait? In typical Jesus fashion, he offers a parable.

Servants

“It is like a man going away; he leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch. Therefore, keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back – whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn.” (The fact that Jesus puts the rooster crowing and dawn at different times is an indication that he understood farm life. In my time with the Mennonites last week I heard the rooster crowing and was about to get up until I looked at my watch and realized it was just 4:00. My host Nick laughed when I told him and just shook his head, ‘there is no rhyme or reason to when they crow, sometimes its at 1:00 in the morning.’) “If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone, “Watch.” So how do we watch? Like a servant waiting for his master to return. But what does that look like?

A child in trouble

Perhaps you were like me and grew up with a mother who hated to dole out punishment. If such were the case, then it is likely you heard a phrase something like, “Just wait until your father gets home.” And wait I did, but I did not wait with hope, with joy or with eager expectation. No, I waited with dread, with fear and even some trembling. I can still hear the sound of my Dad’s car pulling in the drive way. The engine stopping, the car door shutting, the back door opening and closing and then mumbling. The conversation was too far from my room to hear the words, but there was one sound I could always hear. I could always hear the drawer opening. The drawer that held the paddle. If I heard that drawer opening, I knew my doom was near.

Is this how Jesus is inviting the disciples to wait? In fear of punishment. To be sure, fear is a powerful fuel to keep one awake. Though I might pretend it as last ditch effort, I was never asleep on these days. Fear is powerful, but is it how God wants us to wait? Consider another option.

A surprise party

My family isn’t very big on birthdays. Over the years, we’ve lowered the expectations to the point that a phone call is enough. This year my brother and I have even taken to wishing one another happy birthday in advance, just so when we forget to call, we can say that we’d already done it. So, when my Dad turned 50 and we told him we were taking him out for dinner, he was very pleased. This was more than he’d expected and he expected nothing more.

But as it turns out, my brother and sister and I had gotten together and planned a surprise party. We reserved and decorated the church fellowship hall. We invited a whole host of Dad’s friends, both from when he was younger and recently. We asked people to write letters that we could read to him and we made some of his favorite foods. Once we’d gotten it all done, we were pretty excited, but we still had to get the surprise part.

The plan was pretty simple, my mom and sister would get dad to stop by the church claiming they had to get something forcing Dad to come along with them. But to make sure that we weren’t surprised, what did we have to have? A lookout, just like in Jesus’ parable. When they saw my parents car, they would alert us to turn the lights out and prepare for their arrival. Have you ever been in that group? The group in the room, with the lights out, crouched behind the table ready to stand and shout surprise? Were you tempted to fall asleep?

Perhaps this is how God is inviting us to watch and wait together. Not as one fearing punishment, but as a group of people ready to celebrate his arrival. Can we disappoint God? Sure, imagine a surprise party that had no food, no decorations or no people. Jesus did assign each of us tasks and if we fail to fulfill those tasks it can detract from the party. But the opposite is true as well, when we’ve prepared for this celebration and the guest arrives, it is a joy to shout surprise and celebrate. Let you think I’m making this approach up, just because I like to think in this way, listen to how Luke describes the waiting servants.

“Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose master finds the watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them….” (Luke 12:35-37) Luke takes this analogy one step further and claims that the master will offer a surprise party for the servants by turning the tables and serving them. Imagine if we waited in this manner; expecting to share the goodness of God.

Waiting with those in distress

Shall we wait in fear? Shall we wait in eager expectation? Or perhaps there is even another way for us to wait. Both of my examples focus on the 2^nd coming of Christ which to be honest, we’ve been waiting quite a while for. But here’s the thing about Jesus, he isn’t one to wait to teach the disciples, for almost immediately after offering these words, he gives them a chance to practice it. Do you know what I’m talking about?

In the very next chapter, the very next chapter, we read this: “They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” He took Peer, James and John, along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed. (there is that word again, distressed, but this time it is Jesus experiencing it) and troubled “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” He said to them, “Stay here and keep watch.” (keep watch, stay awake, same word). Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him, “”Abba, Father, he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me, yet nto what I will, but what you will.” Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Simon,” he said to Peter, “are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Watch and pry so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing but the body is weak.” Once more he went away and prayed the same thing. When came back he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. They di not know what to say to him.” (Mark 14:32-40)

They did not know what to say to him. Do we want this to be our response to Jesus? All he asked of his disciples was to stay awake with him. All he asked was for them to wait with him. All he asked was for them to be present with him during this time of distress and they could not do it. Jesus did not use fear, he did not use reward, he only used friendship, which apparently was not enough to keep them awake.

What about us? Brothers and sisters, though I speak this morning of end time events, of things that will occur at some point out there, we have an invitation to practice waiting right now. As Jesus invited his disciples to wait together with him in his distress, I wonder if there is someone in a situation of distress that Jesus might be inviting me to wait with? Now, here what I am a saying, because this message often gets confused at Christmas time. Often what we hear is that it is time to go to someone in distress and try to fix their problem with a turkey basket or some toys. This is good, but it is not what Jesus was asking of his disciples. They could not fix his problem. He only wanted them to sit with him in it.

Think for a moment, is there anyone you know who could use a friend to sit with them in their time of distress? Do you know of a person who has recently lost a loved one? Do you know of someone who is in the hospital or a nursing home? Do you know of someone who is depressed? I invite you to think of someone who is in a time of distress which you cannot fix and then offer to stay awake with them.

Now, what do I mean by that? It may mean to just pray for them. It may mean to write them a letter. It may mean to give them a call. It may even mean that you go and knock on their door and ask if you can come in and sit for a while. Does someone come to mind?

The way out…

Most of you know that I spent 3 days with an old order Mennonite community in Delano, TN. It is likely that you’ll hear me refer to them in more than a few upcoming sermons as it was a profound experience for me. I couldn’t help but think about something one of my hosts, Leon, told me. We were near the meeting house and he pointed to a little grave marker about 100 feet away. “That is our cemetery. We’ve had 3 deaths since we’ve been here. Two were stillborn infants.” What about the 3^rd I asked. “Well, that’s interesting,’ he said. Turns out, there was an elderly man who was terminally ill. His family had largely abandoned him and he was facing the prospects of death in a nursing home…alone. He’d gotten to know some of the Mennonites over the years and so he asked if he could come and live out the rest of his days with them. Now, this man was not a convert, he had no blood connection to them and for all I know, didn’t even have the spiritual connection. This community had no reason to bring this man in, they couldn’t fix his problem, he couldn’t offer anything to the community, there was no reason. And yet, they welcomed him, they cared for him, they stayed awake with him in his time of distress.

This is advent, waiting together. Let us pray.