Martin Luther: Here I Stand

 

-an article for the Light Magazine denominational founder series

By Rev. Dr. Ed & Janice Hird

In 1934, Hitler tragically became the German Fuhrer. That same year, Mr King, a black preacher from the United States, visited the places of the Reformation in Germany. He was so impressed that he changed his name and that of his eldest son Michael, to Martin Luther. His son Martin Luther King Jr.  is famous for having an anti-racist dream of civil rights for all. In his Letter from Birmingham Jail (1963), Martin Luther King defended himself against the charge of extremism by noting the examples of Jesus, Amos, Paul, John Bunyan, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and Martin Luther himself: ‘Was not Martin Luther an extremist – ‘Here I stand: I can do none other so help me God?”’

The original Martin Luther however was not a King, but rather a copper-smelter’s son.  His dad Hans was always involved in mining conflicts, so decided that he needed his son to become a lawyer.  But after a lightning-filled storm on July 2nd 1505, Martin pledged that he would become an Augustinian monk.  His father, who wanted grandchildren, was so upset that he initially disowned his son Martin.  His dad dismissed Martin’s calling, saying “May it not prove an illusion and deception.” At Martin’s ordination in 1507, his dad suggested that the devil had caused Martin to break the commandment to obey one’s parents. After the death of two of Martin’s brothers, news falsely reached his dad Hans that Martin too had died from the black plague.  This somewhat softened his dad to his ‘wayward’ monastic son. Both Martin’s father and mother were very strict disciplinarians: “For a mere nut, my mother beat me until the blood flowed.” As an Augustinian monk, Martin never felt that he could please his heavenly Father: “I did not love, yes, I hated the righteous God who punishes sinners.” Did Martin have God the Father confused with his often angry and unforgiving earthly father? 

Martin tried very hard to please God through monastic practices.  His day began at 3am with the first of hourly prayers.  He would whip himself and lie outside in the snow in an attempt to be good enough. None of his fellow monks prayed more or fasted longer than him.  Luther would confess his sins for up to six hours at a time.  His tired confessor Staupitz told him “Man, God is not angry with you. You are angry with God. Don’t you know that God commands you to hope? Go away and don’t come back until you have done some real sinning.”

After becoming a theological Professor at the University of Wittenburg, Martin began to teach his students about the book of Romans.  God freed him from guilt through Romans 1:17 which said that the just will live by faith: “This one and firm rock, which we call the doctrine of justification is the chief article of the whole Christian doctrine, which comprehends the understanding of all godliness."  This enabled Luther to bring hope to the hopeless, forgiveness to the guilty, and a born-again experience to those lost in works-religiosity, who were trying to be good enough for God. Luther was so excited about this breakthrough that he changed his family name in 1917 from Luder (cadaver or prostitute) to Luther, based on a Latin & Greek word (Elutherius/eleutheria) for freedom. Because he saw himself as bound and captive to the Word of God, he did not see it safe to go against freedom of his conscience.

You can imagine how upset Luther was when John Tetzel came hawking indulgences in Wittenburg. Indulgences were paper certificates that one purchased to reduce one’s time in purgatory. Tetzel, a Dominican monk, had previously been convicted of adultery, and the Emperor ordered that he be tied in a sack and thrown in a river. Luther’s own parishioners thought that Tetzel’s indulgences were like a ‘get-out-of-purgatory’ card, even if they did not give up their adultery and theft.  The Bible, said Luther, calls us to actually repent and stop sinning, rather than just do acts of penance, like blooding our knees while crawling up stairs.  Indulgences were the bingo of the sixteenth century. At first, indulgences were conferred on those who either went on a crusade or helped pay the Crusade expenses. Indulgences proved so lucrative that it was speedily extended to build churches, monasteries, and hospitals.  Because indulgences were seen as transferable, one could pay money to reduce their relatives’ time in purgatory.  Luther denounced this money-making scheme by nailing his 95 Theses on Oct 31^st 1917 to the now famous Wittenberg Door of the Castle Church.  Where, he asked, is any mention of indulgences or purgatory in the Bible?

Luther never intended to start a new Lutheran denomination, let alone the endless splitting of the 45,000+ Protestant denominations that followed. He just naively wanted to address these financial abuses that needed reforming.  But Tetsel’s indulgences were not just going to pay for Pope Leo’s St Peter’s Basilica in Rome.  Half of it was going directly to the Fugger banking family in Augsburg, Germany. They were the richest merchant capitalists with a GDP-adjusted net worth of $400 billion. Archbishop Albrecht of Mainz owed the Fuggers money after buying his Archbishopric position. Luther was in a lose/lose situation as he upset the financial security of not just the pope, but also the most powerful politicians in Europe. The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who had bought his position with around 3,000 kg of gold from the Fuggers, was determined to capture and execute Luther.  He made it a crime for anyone in Germany to give Luther food or shelter. Luther became Europe’s most ‘wanted, dead or alive’ criminal.

Fortunately for Luther, the Elector Prince Frederick the Wise ‘kidnapped’ him after the 1521 Diet of Worms debate, hiding him away in the Wartburg Castle.  There Luther grew a beard, disguising himself as a knight, Junker Jorg.  During this depressing time of isolation, Luther translated the New Testament into German.  It instantly became Germany’s first runaway bestseller, thanks in part to the new technology of the Gutenberg printing press. 

The Reformation was a back to the Bible movement.  Luther taught that the Bible is over the Church, that the Bible commands and directs the Church, not the other way around. No longer was the Bible only available for the elite who could read Latin, Hebrew or Greek.  It then took Luther twelve years to complete the German Old Testament. The ancient Hebrew of the Book of Job was so difficult that Luther could only translate three lines every four days.  Luther’s Bible had over 100,000 copies purchased by 1525. His bible, like the King James Version for the English, standardized the German language and literature, producing a stronger sense of common identity among those speaking German. Through reading Luther’s bible, German literacy rates skyrocketed. Because literacy is essential to reading the bible, Luther convinced the German nobles to provide schools for all children. Sermons were often not a regular part of medieval worship. Luther’s preaching was based on the Bible and always pointed to Christ Crucified. Because many medieval clergy didn’t know the ten commandments, apostles’ creed, or the Lord’s prayer, Luther taught about these in his German-language Greater Catechism.

How many of our congregations have sung Luther’s A Mighty Fortress, written during the black  plague?  Because he believed in the ‘priesthood of all believers’, Luther as a prolific song-writer restored congregational singing:  “Second only to the Bible, the Word of God, is the importance of music, because music had the singular ability to elevate the soul.” Luther said that he had no use for cranks who despise God’s gift of music: “Music drives away the devil.” He knew that music deeply touches the feelings of the human heart: “My heart bubbles up and overflows in response to music, which has so often refreshed me and delivered me from dire plagues.”  In classic Luther overstatement, he said: “He who does not find (music) an inexpressible miracle of the Lord is truly a clod and is not worthy to be called a man.”

Has God ever amazed you when he uses deeply flawed people like David and Luther?  Both stood against the Goliaths of their day; both fell into tragic behaviours.  God used Luther to launch a 16^th century Jesus revolution that is still shaping our world today.  Luther described himself as a rough woodsman whose job it was to ‘dig out stumps and trunks, hack away thorns and briar, fill in puddles and clear a path.’  His weaknesses were hidden in his strengths. Many deeply admire Luther for his courageous willingness to be an underdog standing for his convictions against impossible odds.  This perseverance sometimes translated into intractable stubbornness where he would not allow other reformed Christians to work with him, if they had a different view of Holy Communion.  For those of us who deeply admire Luther, the most troubling area was his later antisemitic comments in 1543. The younger Luther in 1523 said:

If I had been a Jew and had seen such dolts and blockheads govern and teach the Christian faith, I would sooner have become a hog than a Christian. They have dealt with the Jews as if they were dogs rather than human beings; they have done little else than deride them and seize their property.

Did the endless controversy that Luther lived with cause him to embrace the root of bitterness towards God’s Chosen People? (Hebrews 12:15) As a young student, Luther was known as the King of the Hops. He later boasted that he could outdrink other reformers. Luther spoke publicly about alcoholism: “Our Lord God must count the drunkenness of us Germans as an every day sin, for we probably cannot stop and yet it’s such a disgraceful nuisance that injures body, soul, and goods.” Luther even recommended alcohol as a way to fight off depression: “When you are assailed by gloom, despair, or a troubled conscience, you should eat, drink, and talk with others (…) Copious drinking benefits me when I am in this condition.” Might Luther’s drinking problem have influenced his later antisemitic comments? Fortunately, the Lutheran Church has renounced this serious mistake. 

Luther has had a lasting impact, particularly on the western world and rise of democracy’s emphasis on liberty, equality, and individual rights. More books have been written about him than any other man of history except Jesus Christ and possibly Augustine. More than 70 million Christians in 79 countries call themselves Lutherans, a term that Luther didn’t like. The number of Lutherans is now increasing faster in Africa than anywhere else in the world.  All of the 900 million Christians who identify as Protestants owe a great debt to Martin Luther.  John Calvin saw Luther as a great man with excellent gifts.  He added: “Would that Luther had studied to curb his restless uneasy temper that is so ready to boil over everywhere??”

May Luther’s courageous stand inspire us to also courageously stand for the Lordship of Jesus and the authority of Scripture in 2024.

            Rev. Dr. Ed & Janice Hird www.edhird.com 

Exercising Caution

 

The Canadian Press reported on Tuesday, May 20^, “A wildfire that forced thousands of people to evacuate several Fort McMurray neighbourhoods last week is no longer classified as out-of-control.”

In May my daughter’s friend Jenn, and her daughter, went to Edmonton waiting out the fire in their home community of Fort McMurray. The following weekend much-needed rain and the steady work of firefighters were able to get the fire under better control. I don’t know whether Jenn and her daughter are back home, but I hope they could go back and be safe.

That much is good news. Where do we go from here?

How do we care for our creation?

What we do matters. Each of us plays a part as a caretaker of creation. While we may not be surrounded by an immediate forest, we do have a say in what we do to nurture and heal the land and air.

In Ontario, we are aware of precious farmland closer to home being demanded for housing and industry. As a girl raised on a farm, understanding good agricultural practices, this concerns me.  As well as concern over the amount of water needed for further development. At the same time, I know a young family in our community who do not have enough resources, with a one-family income, to own or even rent a home and must move away do so.

There’s so much to think about, so many factors at play. How are we to manage it all?

 We are the caretakers, stewards of the land (Genesis 1:26). How we use it matters very much. Acting wisely and learning as much as we can about preserving creation, and understanding the balance between the need to feed people, which farmers do, and the need for jobs and places to live, requires us to educate ourselves and sometimes advocate too. 

Our call is to act wisely and pray where we can for changes that can make a difference.

 

 

 

 Carolyn Wilker

https://www.carolynwilker.ca/

 

 

 

Joining the Civility Revolution

 

By Rev. Dr. Ed & Janice Hird

-an article for the Light Magazine

Canadians used to be known for how polite and kind we were. We were famous for saying sorry, and putting others first.  Have you noticed that many of us seem to becoming a lot ruder and insensitive? The COVID lockdowns didn’t help. It often brought out the worst in people and forced many into lonely isolation.  What can we do about the anger and nastiness that seems to be sweeping much of Canada?

There’s good news. Alexandra Hudson and her mom Judi Vankevich have launched a civility revolution, to bring back civility and kindness to our public and private lives.  We recently attended The Soul of Civility book launch for Western Canada where Alexandra and Judi cast their vision for how goodness and decency can be brought back into the very fabric of how we do life together. 

Alexandra came home to BC from her new home in Indiana. This was part of her 35-city book tour – from Canadian Parliament to speaking at the Alabama Supreme Court – promoting the conversation around the need for civility.  Lexi, as she is known by her friends, attended TWU, followed by her Masters’ Degree at London School of Economics on a Rotary scholarship.

Judi is internationally known as Judi The Manners Lady. She is an award-winning singer, family entertainer, educator, and author.  Her book and videos help the often forgotten Ten Commandments come alive for children.  Her CD, “It’s Fun to Have Good Manners!” won Best Children’s Album of the Year for the Covenant Awards. Judi’s new children’s book, The Bad Manners Monsters and The Kindness Keys, is an allegory to help children (of all ages) “take every thought captive.”

Judi first launched the non-profit Civility Project in 2003.  Langley, Abbotsford, and Vancouver were the first communities in Canada to celebrate National Manners and Character Day and now they are planning on launching the Civility Movement across Canada and the US.

Alexandra said that her parents, Judi and Ned, a TWU Professor, are wonderfully intellectually curious.  They gave to Alexandra their love for the great Russian Christian philosophers like Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Solzhenitsyn.  Her upcoming book is on autodidactic learning, which is self-taught and ongoing. She wants Christians to more intentionally reclaim their robust intellectual and historical heritage.

A city councilor from Carmel, Indiana invited Alexandra to launch their community-wide, multi-event civility conversation with the theme, “We Can Do Better.”  Alexandra shared how we can recover civil community through learning to ‘porch’ together. By this, she means not just relying on impersonal social media, but actually hanging out together in person on each other’s porch, front lawns, coffee shops, or similar shared spaces.  The civility revolution can start in very small ways.  Our internet algorithms encourage us to hide from others in our self-absorbed silos, never deeply listening to those who might think differently than us.  Our highly divided culture often encourages us to fear those who hold different view on specific issues.  Alexandra encourages us to rediscover the humanity of every person who are all made in God’s image. So, all people are of deep inherent worth and dignity.  Civility is not yelling at the other person to make your point, but stopping to think and then conversing quietly and gently with them.

As a dual citizen, Alexandra has been active in politics in both Ottawa and Washington, DC. Sometimes she met aggressive, impolite people in the public realm.  What concerned her more though was outwardly polite people who were just as ruthless, first using and then discarding others.  This is why she prefers the concept of civility, because it speaks of genuine character.  Civility is not about pretending to just fit in, but rather graciously listening and then speaking your truth in difficult situations.  She observed that as family, faith, and friendships have fragmented, politics is inappropriately filling the vacuum. The political culture wars are endless.  People never get a break from politics, which Alexandra says, ends up harming our souls and family life.  Politics, which is a good thing, has become for many an idol, the ultimate source of meaning and purpose. What if we spent more time with our family, friends and colleagues celebrating the sublime beauty of God’s creation?  Wouldn’t that be revolutionary in our deeply conflicted culture?

We thank God for this mother-daughter Christian team who have not given up on kindness and civility. Rev. Dr. Ed & Janice Hird

FORGIVENESS - by Eleanor Shepherd

I have been reading again Philip Yancey’s classic, What’s so Amazing about Grace? My own thoughts about forgiveness have been challenged again through my rereading of the book. His chapter on forgiveness caused me to do some serious reflection, particularly concerning the state of our world today.

          I wonder if the current confused and tense atmosphere that seems to colour so many domains of life, is the consequence of a key event that has destabilized so many people, particularly in North America and the Middle East. I am thinking about what is now referred to as Nine Eleven. It happened on September 11, 2001, the day that the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon were hit by aircraft that caused the tragic deaths of many people and evoked an aggressive response of vengeance from the American government.

          When faced with this kind of injustice, it is normal to want to fight back and see that justice is done, but I wonder if in the long term a different response might have been more effective, and the world might be less fractured and fragile today and could have been better equipped to deal with a global pandemic.

When immediately following Nine Eleven, I heard the frantic calls for arming to combat the Enemy who was responsible for this tragedy, I had a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach that this was not the best way to move forward. Yet, I heard nobody objecting to the hue and cry for vengeance, so I thought that I must be the one who was totally out of step with reality. Maybe that is the case. Nevertheless, I feel that I must express what I think would have a much more reasonable way to handle the situation and might have in the final analysis produced some positive results.

          Just image with me for a moment what would have happened if the President of the United States had made some comments like this:  “Today, we acknowledge the terrible things that have been done and the needless suffering and sorrow that has resulted from these horrible actions. We grieve and lament with those who are the victims of such violence. Nevertheless, we consider ourselves a Christian nation and for that reason, how we respond is not with a flexing our military power and bringing out our strongest weapons to retaliate and see that justice is done.”

“We follow One who was willing to Himself bear all injustice and evil, all that we call sin, so that we could enter into a relationship with our loving Heavenly Father, whose greatest desire is for all of us to know His love and forgiveness. Because we receive forgiven for the wrongs that we have done, we are choosing to forgive you for the wrongs that you have done to us. Our desire is for you to discover the Way of Love, the Way that we have chosen to follow as we follow Jesus Christ. That is what it means for us to be Christian.”

          “We believe that it is not our place to see that vengeance is meted out to those who have done wrong. Our God tells us that He will see that justice is done and that if vengeance is needed, He will see that it takes place according to His perfect plans.”

Such speaking would reflect an attitude of trust in God, not a trust in our own wisdom and power. That is why a cross and not a sword is the symbol of our faith.

          While this example is perhaps the most obvious, in whatever country we live today, we are seeing a turning to violence and hatred to deal with whatever we feel is unjust. To my mind these attitudes are an affront to and a denial of our Christian faith. I suspect that Jesus weeps with us as He sees the way that we treat one another. Echoing in our hearts and minds come His concluding words to His followers, according to John, who knew Him well. “The world will know that you are Mine by the love to show to one another.” Love is willing to pay the price of forgiveness.

Menno Simons, Father of the Mennonites

 

By Rev. Dr. Ed and Janice Hird

-an article published in the Light Magazine

How many Mennonite or Mennonite heritage people do you know?  In the Fraser Valley alone, there are at least 24 Mennonite Churches, led by over 100 pastors.  Menno Simons has birthed a remarkable Mennonite movement of around 200,000 in Canada and over two million people in at least 86 countries. There are now more African Mennonites than in all of North America.

If you attend a church, like millions of Baptist, Pentecostal, Alliance, or independent congregations that practice believer’s baptism, you can thank Menno Simons. And if you value freedom of religion and conscience, you can thank Menno Simons.  Many of his ‘unusual’ ideas have become normalized in evangelical Christian culture.

You may be wondering why an Anglican priest would be writing about the ‘founder/pivotal leader’ of the Mennonites. In full disclosure, Mennonites have radically shaped so many key moments of Ed’s life that he has wondered at times if he is an honorary Mennonite.  Both Ed and Janice were rebaptized as adults.  During the Jesus Movement, Ed was led to Christ and rebaptized in Lake Okanagan by Len Sawatsky, who trained at the Mennonite Columbia Bible College.  While serving as a priest at St. Matthew’s Abbotsford, Ed was privileged to be the first (and perhaps last) Anglican priest to speak to the student body at MEI (Mennonite Educational Institute).  He has even given talks at other Christian schools on Mennonite history.

Menno Simons (1496 –1561) grew up in poverty as a peasant in Friesland, Holland. At an early age, he was enrolled in a monastic school, possibly at the Franciscan monastery in Bolsward, to prepare for the Catholic priesthood. In March 1524, at the age of 28, he was ordained at Utrecht and assigned to the parish at Pingjum, near the place of his birth. Seven years later in 1531, he became the village priest in his home parish at Witmarsum.  Simons learned Latin and some Greek, but never read the Bible out of fear that it would lead him into heresy. Instead, he did a lot of cardplaying and drinking as the parish priest.  He commented: “Finally I got the idea to examine the New Testament carefully.” After reading Luther’s books, Menno became known as an evangelical preacher because he began preaching from the bible.  Menno Simon’s favorite bible verse was 1 Corinthians 3:11 “No one can lay any other foundation than that which is laid, Jesus Christ.” Luther never met Menno Simons and didn’t appreciate Anabaptists.

Menno’s first exposure to ‘rebaptism’ came when he heard of Sicke Snijde’s beheading following his adult baptism. The idea of believer’s baptism initially ‘seemed very strange’ to Menno as he had baptized his churchgoers only as infants.

In 1535, Menno’s brother Pieter, and some people from Menno’s congregation, were among a group of 300 Anabaptists killed during a violent revolution led by Jan van Geelen in Munster, just a few miles away from Menno’s parish.  Of the ones who did not lose their lives in the attack, 37 were then beheaded and 132, both men and women, were taken to Leeuwarden, where another 55 were executed after a short trial. Menno admired their zeal compared to his own complacency:

I saw that these zealous children, though in error, willingly gave their lives and their estates for their doctrine and faith…But I myself continued in my comfortable life and acknowledged abominations simply in order that I might enjoy comfort and escape the cross of Christ. 

Seeing Munster as the apocalyptic New Jerusalem, the Munsterites had embraced polygamy and forced people to be rebaptized on pain of death.  This shocked Menno and so he denounced the Munsterites and embraced non-violence:

The regenerated do not go to war, nor engage in strife. They are children of peace who have beaten their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning forks.

We are called, said Menno, to be a church of peace:

True Christians do not know vengeance.  They are the children of peace.  Their hearts overflow with peace.  Their mouths speak peace and they walk in the way of peace. 

Menno was careful, thoughtful, and reflective, a welcome contrast to the more extreme Munsterite Anabaptists. When Menno Simons became an Anabaptist on January 12^th 1536, he joined a movement in dangerous peril. Almost all of its initial leaders were dead, either by disease (Conrad Grebel) or execution (Felix Manz, Michael Sattler, Hans Hut, Hans Denck, Balthasar Hubmaier, Georg Blaurock, and Jakob Hutter). Melchior Hoffman who brought Anabaptism to the Netherlands was in prison.  Anabaptist leaders usually died within two to three years.

The authorities conveniently lumped the Munsterites and the peaceful Anabaptists together.  Baptist historian William Estep suggested that the history of Anabaptists can be divided into three periods: "before Menno, under Menno, and after Menno.” His decision to get rebaptized was very costly: 

I prayed to God with sighs and tears that He would give to me, a sorrowing sinner, the gift of His grace, create within me a clean heart, and graciously through the merits of the crimson blood of Christ, He would graciously forgive my unclean walk and unprofitable life.

After Menno’s rebaptism in 1536, he became a fugitive.  He spent a year in hiding, seeking God’s direction for his new ministry. During this time, he wrote Van de geestlijke verrijsenisse (“The Spiritual Resurrection”), De nieuwe creatuere (“The New Birth”), and Christelycke leringhen op den 25. Psalm (“Meditation on the Twenty-fifth Psalm”). More than forty of his writings survived. 

In 1537, he was ordained by the Anabaptist leader Obbe Phiips, and married Gertrude.  They had three children, two daughters and a son. Only one daughter outlived him.

Many, including Herman and Gerryt Jansz, were arrested, charged and beheaded for having taken Simons as a lodger.  In 1544, Jan Claess’ head was cut off on Amsterdam’s Dam Square and stuck on a stake; his body was placed on a wheel to be eaten by animals and birds. His crimes included rebaptism by Menno and publication in Antwerp of about 600 copies of Menno’s books.  In 1549, Elisabeth Dirks, was arrested on suspicion of being Menno’s wife (she wasn’t), endured imprisonment, inquisition, torture, and finally death. 

Menno taught the Mennonites, in the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount, to value simplicity and avoid pride:

I voluntarily renounced all my worldly honor and reputation…and at once willingly submitted to distress and poverty, and the cross of Christ.

In 1542, the Holy Roman emperor Charles V promised 100 guilders reward ($8,100 CDN) to bring about Menno’s arrest. In 1543, the Netherlands ordered the death sentence for anyone publishing, spreading, or reading Menno Simon’s work.  Pardon of all crimes, and a hundred guilders, was promised in 1544 to criminals who could deliver Menno Simons to the government. Menno’s publisher John Claus was executed that following year. Around this time, the term ‘Mennist’ or ‘Mennonite’ came into use, a phrase that Menno tried unsuccessfully to discourage. In his later years, he often used crutches, calling himself ‘the lame’. Finally in 1544, the Simons found safe refuge in a Holstein cottage near Lubeck, Germany. After his peaceful death, he was buried in 1561 in his garden. In the 1550s, from 2,000 to 4,000 Mennonites were tortured, beheaded or buried alive. The many stories of the Mennonite martyrs are recorded in the 1660 Martyrs Mirror by Thieleman J. van Braght.

Menno sought to establish a believers’ New Testament Church. His desire to separate church from state was unusual in a time of state churches. He saw the church’s identity as a spotless bride ready for her coming husband. Mennonites often speak of being in the world, but not of it.

Menno’s pacifist convictions brought great suffering to his Mennonite followers who left Holland, then Prussia, then South Russia (Ukraine), and moved to Canada in order to say no to violence.  Ukrainian Mennonites were often caught between a rock and a hard place as first the communists and then the nazis tried to break down their pacifism. While Canada initially promised military exemption and private schools in the language of choice, the government reneged on their educational promise, forcing Mennonite children to attend Public English schools. Over 7,000 Mennonites moved to Mexico and Paraguay because of this betrayal by the Saskatchewan and Manitoba governments.  In 1920 to 1921, Canada banned Mennonites from entering Canada because of their unCanadian pacifist views.  Then again from 1929 to 1945, Mennonites were not permitted to move to Canada. 

A major theme of Menno’s writings is the new birth. He was strongly Christ-centered, desiring believers to not just talk the talk, but also walk the walk as new persons. Out of Menno’s deep suffering came a conviction of caring for other hurting people: 

True evangelical faith … cannot lie dormant. … It clothes the naked, it feeds the hungry, it comforts the sorrowful, it shelters the destitute, it serves those that harm it … it binds up that which is wounded … it has become all things to all people.

Menno’s compassion has inspired the MCC (Mennonite Central Committee) to help millions, particularly those who are refugees.  Matthew 25:35 has been described as the ‘national anthem’ of the Mennonites: “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in.” Many lost people first meet Jesus through the practical caring of Mennonites.  Encouraged by Menno’s example, Mennonite communities regularly show the highest level of charitable giving in Canada.

Like their founder, Mennonites tend to be independently minded people.  Life for Mennonites is often like a Mennonite patchwork quilt of joy and suffering.  Because Mennonites fight with words rather than weapons, they have developed a rich body of literature exploring their history and identity. They remarkably turn tragedy into comedy with very dry humour and word-play. 

We thank God for Menno Simons and his caring, peaceful and generous Mennonites who have made Canada a better place to live.

Rev. Dr. Ed & Janice Hird, co-author with David Kitz of The Elisha Code

Mennonite Heritage Museum in Abbotsford, BC

Adam Smith, Father of Compassion

 

ate Economics

By Rev. Dr. Ed & Janice Hird

-an article published in the March 2024 Light Magazine

Many people nowadays have little idea how Adam Smith’s economic ideas have shaped their lives for good. Can a rediscovery of the real Adam Smith rescue our muddled Canadian economy?

In 1776, Smith’s second book The Wealth of the Nations was so popular that he became known as the Father of Economics and the Father of Capitalism.  For some people today, Capitalism has become a negative word associated with Scrooge-like greed and cutthroat business practices. Karl Marx blamed capitalism for all the world’s ills.  Can capitalism instead embrace the compassionate vision in Charles Dickens’ book A Christmas Carol?

Because Smith was a devout Christian economist, God was mentioned a total of 403 times between his two books, including his lesser-known book The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Biblical economics is based on our being faithful stewards, realizing that all things come from God, and of his own have we given him (1 Chronicles 29:14).  Stewardship in the Greek is the same word as economics (oikonomos, manager of the oikos, the house). Smith wanted everyone to earn a decent living, saying ‘No society can surely be flourishing and happy of which the far greater of the members are poor and miserable.’  He lamented how the poverty and poor health care in the Scottish Highlands resulted in many a mother having only two of her children survive after giving birth to twenty babies.  With Canada’s standard of living suffering from governmental and economic mismanagement, perhaps it may be time to revisit the economic wisdom of Adam Smith. Might a rediscovery of the Protestant work ethic of diligence, thrift and efficiency help Canada get back on track?

What might happen in Canada if we once again rewarded hard work rather than punishing it with excessive taxation and regulations? Smith wrote about the Man of system who bureaucratically treated people as if they are chess pieces. In contrast, Smith held that economic freedom with free markets and free trade brings economic progress. Smith observed how God transforms private interest into public good by his invisible sovereign hand.

Born in 1723 in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, Adam Smith never knew his father who had died five months before his birth.  Smith regularly attended the local church with his devout mother Margaret. His strong Christian faith is often ignored or minimized by modern economists.  He never married, living with his mother until her death in 1784.  He then died himself six years later.  You cannot really understand Adam Smith without appreciating his 1759 book The Theory of Moral Sentiments:

As to love our neighbour as we love ourselves is the great law of Christianity, so it is the great precept of nature to love ourselves only as we love our neighbour, or what comes to the same thing, as our neighbour is capable of loving us.

As Christians, our financial choices need to be shaped by the love of neighbour as ourselves rather than the love of money.  The golden rule is God’s golden way economically. When people matter more than profits, everyone wins.

Adam Smith was not just a philosopher and economist.  He was also an early psychologist and sociologist who served at Glasgow University as Professor of Moral Philosophy. He was such an academic rock star in Glasgow that the university bookstore even sold a bust of his head during his lifetime. Smith was fascinated about what made people tick, especially how emotions/sentiments affected our life choices and ethical decisions. Influenced by his lifelong friend David Hume, Smith held that our emotions and imagination shape us far more than our apparent rationality. Like Hume, Smith pioneered the modern scientific method where technology, business, and society are advanced through careful experimental observation. 

Unlike Hume, Smith retained a strong Christian worldview as he embraced science.  With most of his students training to become ordained clergy, he taught them extensively about natural theology, how God our creator impacted our natural world:

…every part of nature, when attentively surveyed, equally demonstrates the providential care of its Author, and we may admire the wisdom and goodness of God, even in the weakness and folly of man.

Smith was struck by the miraculous order of God’s good universe. He called the universe God’s machine, designed to produce at all times the greatest quantity of happiness in us. Romans 8:28 reminds us how all things work together for the good.  In The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Smith commented that:

all the inhabitants of the universe, the meanest as well as the greatest, are under the immediate care and protection of that great and all-wise being who directs all the movements of nature, and who is determined by his own unalterable perfections to maintain in it at all times the greatest possible quantity of happiness.

Since he was fatherless, Smith deeply appreciated that God was indeed our heavenly Father. He commented that ‘the very suspicion of a fatherless world must be the most melancholy of all reflections’, leaving us with nothing but endless misery and wretchedness.

All the economic prosperity in the world, said Smith, can never remove the dreadful gloominess of a world without God our Father.  Smith taught that with this conviction of a benevolent heavenly Father, all the sorrow of an afflicting adversity can never dry up our joy. Smith, who sometimes suffered from depression, knew that because he was not cosmically alone, he had reason to keep going. While there is weeping in the night, there is indeed joy in the morning. (Psalm 30:5) After experiencing academic burnout, he left Glasgow University, serving as a European tutor for Henry Scott, the future Duke of Buccleuch. While in Paris, he became friends to Voltaire and the French physiocrat economists, led by Dr. Francois Q            uesnay, the Royal Physician to King Louis XV. After the tragic death of Henry Scott’s younger brother, Smith returned home, never to again visit Europe.

Smith held that we need to submit our will to the will of the great director of the universe.  While Smith as an Oxford-trained academic was very private about his emotions, he clearly taught that God deserved our unlimited trust, and ardent & zealous affection.

No conductor of an army can deserve more unlimited trust, more ardent and zealous affection, than the great conductor of the universe.

Both economics and theology for Smith needed to be practical. He said that while contemplating God’s benevolent and wise attributes is sublime, we must not neglect the practical call to care for our family, friends and country. As God’s financial stewards, earning money enables us to more effectively care for our family, our neighbour, and our country.

Smith liberated us from medieval mercantilism, which was a zero-sum game of winners and losers where there was no mutual economic growth and value-adding, except in farming. Mercantilism had countries grow wealthier through invading other countries to steal their grain and gold. The mercantilists could not imagine that everyone could win through peaceful international trade.  Smith’s economics involved the division of labour, resulting in specialization and free trade between countries and regions. He blamed the profit-driven mercantilism for the dreaded slave trade. Smith realized that free people are better workers, producing better profits.  Mercantilism was also so tied down with local guilds that workers were often unable to work in neighbouring towns. Smith envisioned ordinary workers being able to move freely around the country to offer their services. Thanks to Smith’s economic revolution, ordinary people, rather than just the very rich or the government officials, could save up enough money to own their own property. In contrast to mercantilism, Smith held that:

A nation is not wealthy by the childish accumulation of shiny metals, but it is enriched by the economic prosperity of its people.

How might our world be better in 2024 if we embraced Adam Smith’s compassionate, Christian-based economics?

Searching for God- Carolyn R. Wilker

 

Malachi writes in chapter 3:1 of his Old Testament book: “Look, I’m sending my messenger on ahead to clear the way for me. Suddenly, out of the blue, the Leader you’ve been looking for will enter his Temple…” (The Message)

Malachi may as well have been shouting from a rooftop with one of those megaphones we hear more than see at an outdoor baseball game. Further in the chapter we read that even though the descendants of Jacob have not listened well to God, he hasn’t destroyed them. He’s got something big coming that he believes will help them understand.

 In the revised common lectionary, Malachi’s text shows up in The Presentation of the Lord alongside the reference for Jesus’s baptism in Luke 2. A fitting pair. John the Baptist prepares the way for Jesus. God had a plan. We learn that it’s not just for the descendants of Jacob, but all people. Put that thought on hold for a moment.

If you’ve been in the big bookstore, you know where to find most things based on the signs above the rows of shelves. There’s fiction, books for children, texts on spirituality, music, art, religion, and poetry. Then all those gift items. If you’re looking for self-help, there’s a big section. Find just about anything there — how to manage your finances, how to sew, how to plant your garden. Seeking something deeper? It’s there too. If the store doesn’t have what you’re looking for, it can be ordered.

Back to looking for God, if you’re having trouble finding him. Where do you search? Do you find him in the mail-order catalog? On the bookstore shelves? A Little Library shelf? Just because you can order or pick up a print copy, or recording, of the Bible and sacred texts, doesn’t mean you automatically understand it.  

Read it, learn about it, and keep on learning. Sermons you’ve been hearing in worship services, or online, can help to understand context. You can also do a study of scripture, such as lectio divina. Is there someone you can study with?

The good news is that God can be found in the stories and teachings. You may feel him near you on a bad day. It could be that a person, acting as God’s hands or feet, may just help you get back up when you’ve fallen. Keep looking. You’ll find him.

 

 www.carolynwilker.ca