February 12th

Still Radical

At this 500th anniversary of our faith tradition, I've reflected on our history--both Christianity and Anabaptism. Jesus’s message was radical 2,000 years ago. 500 years ago, Jesus’s message was STILL radical. Today, when the white Christian-nationalist church movement twists God’s good news to only being for them, Jesus’s message is still radical. 

The first Christians understood and believed Jesus’s message, and their lives were changed. 500 years ago, the early Anabaptists read scripture for the first time and discovered Jesus’s radical call to a changed life. 

Following Jesus has been costly from the start. Jesus’s message was so powerful that his first followers were killed for it. Anabaptists paid the same price. Just like the Christians in the first centuries, the Anabaptists often met in secret. They radically changed their lives and shared God’s good news. They baptized one another despite the threat of death, willing to sacrifice their lives for their faith. They read, understood, and applied scripture to their lives, despite the cost. 

Our broad faith, Christianity, started with people who lost their lives for having beliefs that went against the powers of the world. Our “narrow” faith tradition, Anabaptism, started the same way. 

We are doubly part of a faith tradition of radicals.

In the face of everything that is going on in the world today, I wonder, “What does that mean?” What does it mean to be led by the Spirit in a world that is far from God’s vision for creation? What does it mean to inherit radical faith traditions? Does it mean that we, too, are radical and called to life-changing action? 

Are we radical enough to spread God’s message in a world that has twisted it? Are we radical enough to live up to the standard set by the first Anabaptists? What could the Spirit call us, the inheritors of Anabaptism only 16 generations removed, to do?

Are we just “the quiet in the land” or are we also radical and empowered to speak out against wrongdoing when we see it? 

When it becomes illegal for some to receive medical care they need, will we fight for them, emulating Jesus who healed even when it was “illegal”? When some are denigrated as not being worthy of basic human dignity, will we remember Jesus saying the glory given him creates all people into one people? 

When vulnerable transgender people are targeted by governments and powerful leaders, will we remember the passages in Galatians, Collossians, and 1 Corinthians that say there is no longer Jew/Gentile, slave/free, male/female, that all are part of one body in Christ, who is all and is in all? Will we see God in every person around us and then act like that matters?

As we learn/remember our faith histories, I pray we can be empowered by the Holy Spirit, led by scripture, guided by our radical ancestors, and emboldened to play our part in God’s radical vision for the world.