When the article on the Holy Spirit came up the first time (January 4th) I excerpted part of the confession of faith where it said, “prophets and writers of Scripture were inspired.” Mennonites believe that those who wrote the scripture were prompted to by the Spirit. That is not to say that all of them got it absolutely right, but that each one of them felt that the message they passed on came from God. And we honor that. Using the same Spirit we read scripture and interpret it for ourselves, and share that interpretation with others. We believe that God is always with us, through the Holy Spirit and that Spirit is God’s way of bridging the gap from where our Lord is in heaven and where we are on earth.

The author of Micah voices the same belief that we have, that “the Spirit of the Lord” can and does fill us and that we can declare to others what God says to us. This belief is also the basis for what happened after Jesus was taken into heaven. The confession of faith says, “At Pentecost, God began to pour out the Spirit on all flesh and to gather the church from among many nations. As a dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, the church praises and worships God and brings forth the fruit of the Spirit. By the gifts of the Holy Spirit, all Christians are called to carry out their particular ministries. By the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the church comes to unity in doctrine and action. By the power of the Holy Spirit, the church preaches, teaches, testifies, heals, loves, and suffers, following the example of Jesus its Lord. “ The power of the Holy Spirit is much like the power of God, which I (and the confession of faith) spoke to on January 26th, just a few days ago.

It is no coincidence, gentle reader, that the Holy Spirit’s nature is much like God’s, because the Holy Spirit is from God, and is God. The Spirit helps our faith and our Christian journey evolve and move forward. Ever encouraging us, the Holy Spirit partners with us to grow closer to God – which the Holy Spirit is. This would be confusing if it were not for the fact that God is ever present in all things – which happens because of the Holy Spirit.

But perhaps I have confused you/said enough. May you gentle reader rest in the Holy Spirit this day, and journey with the Spirit all your days. Selah!

There are “good” men and women who obey the laws of the land (mostly), live modest and accountable lives, and are friendly to most of the people they meet. There are “great” men and women who have excelled in their field, have impacted the human race in a positive way, and will be remembered for their extraordinary nature. And then there is Jesus.

The confession of faith says “We believe in Jesus Christ, the Word of God become flesh. He is the Savior of the world, who has delivered us from the dominion of sin and reconciled us to God by humbling himself and becoming obedient unto death on a cross. He was declared to be Son of God with power by his resurrection from the dead. He is the head of the church, the exalted Lord, the Lamb who was slain, coming again to reign with God in glory. “No other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”

Starting out by being conceived through the intervention of the Holy Spirit, and growing each day in closer alignment to the nature and mission of God, Jesus was destined for supreme greatness. Then he died and arose again three days later. That kind of cinched it. And what’s more Jesus ascended to heaven and dwells as one with God. You. Just. Can’t. Top. That.

I was driving somewhere the other day, and this song came on the radio. The title was “Let my words be few” and I think the original composer is Matt Redman, but I could be wrong. The lyrics are the following:
“You are God in heaven
And here am I on earth,
So I’ll let my words be few-
Jesus I am so in love with You.
And I’ll stand in awe of You,
Yes I’ll stand in awe of You,
And I’ll let my words be few-
Jesus I am so in love with You.
The simplest of all love songs
I want to bring to You,
So I’ll let my words be few-
Jesus I am so in love with You. “

And suddenly the concerns and worries I had just dropped away as I realized that loving Jesus and living as God wants me to puts everything else into perspective and orders my priorities.

Good people makes us feel good just by knowing them. Great people inspire us to reach for greatness. But Jesus is our model and inspiration for our lives. You just can’t do better than that.

May you gentle reader look to our Lord Jesus Christ and find in his life your reason to live. Selah!

If you wonder about my title, and what God would be impossible to please, let me quote a little bit from the latter part of the article on God from the Mennonite Confession of Faith.

“God’s awesome glory and enduring compassion are perfect in holy love. God’s sovereign power and unending mercy are perfect in almighty love. God’s knowledge of all things and care for creation are perfect in preserving love. God’s abounding grace and wrath against sinfulness are perfect in righteous love. God’s readiness to forgive and power to transform are perfect in redemptive love. God’s unlimited justice and continuing patience with humankind are perfect in suffering love. God’s infinite freedom and constant self-giving are perfect in faithful love. “ God is perfect! How can we hope to be pleasing to God, we who are imperfect!?

But the answer to that is found in God’s nature. Because God is so perfect, the Divine will not look down on or disdain humanity. In fact God worked out a way for us to change from imperfect to perfect – Jesus Christ! So if you look again at the verse from Hebrews, and allow the possibility of Jesus Christ to mediate the verse, this is what you get. “With faith in Christ it is possible to please God, because everyone who comes to him [God] earnestly seeking and believing God and Christ will be rewarded.”

May you gentle reader believe in God and earnestly seek our Lord who is manifested in God and Jesus Christ. Selah!

What we believe as Mennonites comes from the scriptures as we understand them through the Divine assistance of the Holy Spirit. The New Testament tells us who Jesus was and what Jesus Christ taught and passed on to his followers. It tells through many vignettes the story of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. The Old Testament tells the story of God’s people being formed and/or the struggle to be formed into a faithful nation. God is in heaven. All instruction and truth comes from heaven where our Lord dwells. When all things have come about as foreseen by God, God will gather again creation to the God-self and we will be returned to our Lord. Until that time, we dwell on earth while God dwells in heaven. What comes from God’s heaven we heed and obey. And we strain to listen for God’s voice that the Lord might say to us, “you are my child, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

May you gentle reader listen from God’s voice and dwell under God’s reign until the end of this age, and into the new age. Selah!

[This is the last article in the Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective . Tomorrow we will start again with  the "Sip of Scripture" being a scripture passage from the first article in the confession faith. I will again identify which article each scripture passage is associated with.]

I have often said, “ I don’t do politics . . . I am not political . . . I do not weigh in on political matters” and other such statements. There is a reason for that . . . I am a “traditional” Mennonite. Not Conservative and not Fundamental, but traditional. When I was growing up, there was good bit of discussion around our supper table as to whether Mennonites should vote or take part in other political actions. It was an evolution from being “the quiet in the land” to demonstrating for and on peace issues. But peace issues and politics issues, while having many intersection points, are not the same thing.

The confession of faith says, “We believe that the church is God’s “holy nation,” called to give full allegiance to Christ its head and to witness to all nations about God’s saving love. The church is the spiritual, social, and political body that gives its allegiance to God alone.”

If we speak out on peace issues (which I have done – 2009 being a year that I spoke on peace for nearly 365 days) it is to witness to God’s love and shalom. Within my lifetime, the question as to whether Mennonites should vote was a hot topic – of course, that was in Canada and not in the United States. Let me say that on several issues Canadian Mennonites and United States Mennonites do not use the same perspectives, although we are covered by the same confession of faith.

So what does it mean to be a Mennonite and be a citizen of a nation? The phrase “in but not of” covers a good deal of ground. We live in a nation, that is are born and raised in a country, state/province, town, and are subject to the laws and guidelines of all citizens. But if a law conflicts with God’s law, God’s law takes precedence. Now, Mennonites do not seek to break laws, and for the most part the “laws of the land” and God’s laws both seek to protect and keep the peace. But at times, God’s law calls us to a higher standard and accountability. We respect governments if the government seeks to protect its citizenry, but when governments to not seek the good of all people, we are compelled to raise above that seek the good of all people according to God’s laws.

I have not yet spoken about the “commentary” that accompanies the articles of faith. Perhaps it would be help to excerpt some of that here to help explain what I mean. “We believe that Christ is Lord over all of life. Church and state are separate and often competing structures vying for our loyalty. We understand that governments can preserve order and that we owe honor to people in government. But our “fear” [meaning reverence, awe, and love] belongs to God alone. When the demands of the government conflict with the demands of Christ, Christians are to “obey God rather than any human authority.”

So there you have it . . . I am a Canadian citizen living in the United States but pledge my allegiance first and foremost to God.

May you gentle reader pledge your loyalty to God, and may that pledge guide all your other decisions and actions. Selah!

Back in 2007, the originator of this blog asked the question, “What is a plowshare, anyways?” Being a good Mennonite girl whose formative years were in lived out in a small town that had farms all around, I knew what a plowshare was.

That type of knowledge can be learned best in quiet countrysides, rolling hills, and the undisturbed solitude of being the fields planting and harvesting so that those around you can be fed and nourished.

But if war and violence should come, and break the peace in the land, we should not fight back. We should not take those implements that have allowed us to earn a livelihood and turn them into the means to hurt, maim or kill. If it be the choice of striking down another or being strike down ourselves, we will face the violence and accept its consequences. But we will not wrest the violent tool away and turn it against another.

The confession of faith says, “We believe that peace is the will of God. God created the world in peace, and God’s peace is most fully revealed in Jesus Christ, who is our peace and the peace of the whole world. Led by the Holy Spirit, we follow Christ in the way of peace, doing justice, bringing reconciliation, and practicing nonresistance even in the face of violence and warfare. “

Mennonites do not develop the tools of violence and war, so we have never had to need to remake them. But we seek to remake the aggression and violence that is in the world into peace, compassion, caring, forgiveness, and mercy. It takes time, and it is a task that is passed on from generation to generation.

But gentle reader, it is with great sadness that I must say, that while it is our confession of faith, some Mennonites today do not give it the same weight and authority that others do. Not all peace-niks are Mennonite, and not all Mennonites are peace-niks. Just like so many things, there are people at all points of the spectrum coming from all sorts of places and backgrounds. But the broad identity of Mennonites is that of lovers of peace.

May you gentle reader dwell in peace, and may God’s peace surround you. Selah!

The confession of faith says, “We believe that everything belongs to God, who calls us as the church to live as faithful stewards of all that God has entrusted to us. As servants of God, our primary vocation is to be stewards in God’s household.”

I like to think that I started recycling before it was in vogue. My mother had bought a large wicker basket at one of the Mennonite Central Committee’s stores (they sold items made by locals in the countries where Mennonite missionaries were stationed to help the locals of the country earn a living) and declared that we were going to wash all metals cans, plastic containers etc and take them to a recycling center. It was very cutting edge for the time (1974) and somewhat radical. But I quickly became accustomed to it and did the same thing when I set up my own household. Now that EVERYONE does it, its not such a big thing. But as I said, I like to think that way back then, our family set the standard.

Another example of Mennonite stewardship is the More With Less cookbook that celebrated its 25th anniversary last year. While in 1976 I was well into recycling, the idea of making more out of a lessor amount food did not really make sense to me. Soon after it came out I had opportunity to look at some of the recipes. They didn’t appeal to me (I was 17 at the time and was not thrilled about wheatgerm and brown rice) so I stuck with the Mennonite Cookbook that was a compiling of recipes handed down and around for over 50(?) years.

But stewardship is more than just packing materials, consumer byproducts, and food choices. It is taking from society only what one needs, and giving back in whatever ways are possible. It is making all of one’s resources go as far as possible, and not seeking to acquire things for the joy of simply possessing them. And it is living and working to insure that all people have access to what they need to live a safe and equitable life.

May you gentle reader give thanks daily for what you receive in this world, and may you be trustworthy and accountable stewards of what you have been given. Selah!

“We commit ourselves to tell the truth, to give a simple yes or no, and to avoid swearing of oaths. Jesus told his disciples not to swear oaths at all, but to let their yes be yes, and their no be no. . . . An oath is often sworn as a guarantee that one is telling the truth. This implies that when one has not taken an oath, one may be less careful about telling the truth. Jesus’ followers are always to speak the truth and, in legal matters, simply to affirm that their statements are true.”

From the first time that “Law and Order” was broadcast, I loved it. There was something about it; whether it was the process of gathering information, or the drama in the court room, I loved every aspect of it. Often Jack McCoy (while another actor, Michael Moriarty was on the series the first few years as Ben Stone, Sam Waterston’s performance as ADA McCoy stands out the most for me) discovered that witness, defendants, and others did not tell the truth, or anything close to the truth. Swearing by the Almighty did not seem to deter lying and covering up.

I am not sure if a Mennonite would make a good witness or not. During my growing up years I heard stories of Mennonites trying to explain to the court why they could not take that oath, neither hand on Bible or swearing by God. Let your nay be nay, and your yea be yea. No fudging or trying to hide out between the two. I do not know if it is because that was such a part of my upbringing, or if its just me, but I value truthfulness over a lot of other things.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not the sole and breadth of honesty and truth. I don’t lie, but when it comes to squeaking by on the slippery side of the facts and omitting uncomfortable details or inconvenient truths – if I have to be honest, I have done that. And I feel so terribly guilty about it.

But neither do I believe in brutal honesty. That is not a Mennonite trait. When truth and honesty are used to cut a person, or give license to say horrible, hurtful things – it is as bad as lying. It may be the truth, but truth needs to be tempered by compassion and caring.

The scripture passages attached to this article of faith are very few, so I may not have the opportunity to say a great deal more. But then, may be not a lot more needs to be said.

May you gentle reader dwell in truth and honesty, speaking what is actual and not hiding behind lies and misinformation. But may you also speak with care and kindness so that what you say may be remembered and treasured. Selah!

I have wonderful memories of family growing up. Although I was an only child and from a broken home, I was surrounded by family. I spent an entire summer with my aunt and uncle while my mom had to work full time. I spent many afternoons and weekends at another set of aunt and uncle when my mom worked late and when she had to work on Saturdays. And then there were family reunions and Christmas when all the aunts, uncles, and cousins got together. I spent many, many hours in the bosom of family.

And there was my church family also. Peers my own age and mentors who guided me through my years of maturing in the faith. I was fortunate to have caring compassionate pastors who helped me discover what it meant to live a Christian life, and youth sponsors who took a genuine interest in me. And through it all I felt the compassionate presence of God the Parent, and Christ who for a time (for me) functioned as an older brother teaching me the ways of the Holy Parent.

And church family and biological family merged when a deacon of the church became my step-father. And through him I gained a step-family who became as dear to my as the family I was born into.

Through birth, marriage, and baptism, I gained family the molded me and shaped me. Mennonites are not the only faith denomination that puts emphasis on family. But for me, growing up Mennonite meant that family was always there, always surrounding me and caring for me. Mennonites, historically and traditionally, we known for large families – many brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. And because Mennonites are found all over the world, the “family of faith” spreads across continents and cultures.

The confession of faith says, “We recognize that God has created human beings for relationship. God intends human life to be blessed through families, especially through the family of faith. All Christians are to take their place within the household of God, where members treat each other as brothers and sisters.”

May you gentle reader find “family” wherever you journey, and may you always have a family to come home to at journey’s end. Selah!

The Mennonite confession of faith says [with my comments inserted], “We believe that to be a disciple of Jesus is to know life in the Spirit. As we experience relationship with God, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ take shape in us, and we grow in the image of Christ.” [This is the pledge we take when we are baptized and take up our Christian journey, that we will allow the Spirit to take strong root in us and grow, so that we might more align ourselves with the Spirit – that God's will takes over our will.] “In individual and communal worship, the Holy Spirit is present, leading us deeper into the wisdom of God.” [This is one of the reasons we attend worship services, that we might join with fellow believers to experience God. The experiences of being lead in worship – that is, have someone outside of our own consciousness lead us – is different than personal worship that is keyed to our own psyche.] “By confessing Christ and receiving baptism, we are brought into a new relationship with God through Christ. In God’s love, our whole life is freed, transformed, reordered, and renewed. In loving and knowing God, we experience communion with God and allow more and more of our life to be conformed to the way of Jesus–his life, death, and resurrection. We yield ourselves to God, letting the Holy Spirit mold us into the image of Christ.” [I was introduced to the German name for this during an Anabaptist history class, “Gelassenheit” which in Mennonite theology means surrendering to God's will. While it is not a term I heard growing up, it reflects what I saw in my elders, the allowing of God's will to prevail as opposed to demanding and insuring that one's own will came out on top.]

While many Mennonites say they have a “theology”, not many will claim having a “spirituality.” That comes too close to Catholicism and other “New Age” practices that Mennonites stay away from. But the concept and idea was starting to be embraced during my seminary years. It was a reality for the Anabaptists, and many people are starting to read and re-read Anabaptist writings, and gleaning from that what their inner spiritual life might have been like. I applaud whole-heartedly the developing and pursuing of Mennonite spirituality. It was a large part of my seminary studies were about.

May you gentle reader cultivate your own spiritual life, and my Christ our Lord and God our creator lead you in paths that bring you reflection, contemplation, joy, and shalom. Selah!