Clothes
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I've been giving some thought to Layton Friesen's article “Who Really Wants to See a Naked Anabaptist” from the May issue of The Messenger.
I do.
I want to know that beneath whatever clothing we choose to put on there is a substantial, well-formed, healthy body. We don't generally get naked in public but taking care of our bodies involves examination and regular cleaning of our naked selves. We sometimes go to the doctor and have uncomfortable but helpful procedures done that involve taking off our clothes. That applies to our church culture as well as to our physical selves. We choose clothing to serve and fit our body and our clothing forms and shapes us but that our clothing is not our body. We want to become bodies appropriately clothed for whatever we are doing so that we are neither sunburned, itchy, and over-exposed like the guy in the picture with Layton's article nor are we running around in a suit that is too big like an imposter or a small child wearing firefighter's gear who can barely move. We want to be a healthy body clothed in ways that fit what we do.
Layton's examples of John H. Yoder and Harold Bender were people who were embarrassed about how their Mennonite community in Pennsylvania and Ohio was seen from the outside. Bender wanted to be seen in a more established, respectable, clean-cut set of clothes suitable to the aspirations of post-war Americans. He was embarrassed about Mennonites stereotyped as backwards know-nothings in beards, bonnets, black hats, driving horses and buggies. Yoder, writing to the same audience 15-20 years later, wanted Mennonites to become radical, counter-cultural, revolutionary politicized activists like his progressive hippie students of the '60s and '70s. He was embarrassed about a Mennonite stereotype of clean-cut respectable establishment people who you could not tell apart from any other generic American. He liked the story of Jesus turning over the tables in the temple and he figuratively pictured Harold Bender sitting at one of those tables. Bender wanted Mennonites to ditch the plain coat and put on a nice tie. Yoder wanted Mennonites to ditch the tie and get some tie-dye.
In his 2010 book The Naked Anabaptist, which Layton refers to indirectly, Stuart Murray, a British person outside of Mennonite cultural connections, tries to understand the appeal of Anabaptist Christians and whether it can be separated from the cultural forms of the Mennonites he is familiar with. He does come to seven tentative suggestions but they are vague and could be summed up by saying that Mennonites are Jesus-focused Christians. The book was most popular among people who come from within Mennonite cultural traditions as a sort of 'see, I told you so' statement. It turned out that the people interested in getting Mennonites out of their cultural clothes were mostly Mennonites wearing those clothes.
The stream of Mennonites that Bender, Yoder, and Stuart are connected to is somewhat different than the cultural forms in the EMC. Layton notes that EMCers put some effort into moving away from their own set of Mennonite stereotypes and landed in the middle of non-denominational American evangelical culture. So, as that fad (hopefully) comes to an end, we move towards yet another round of shedding one set of clothes for someone else's hand-me-downs that seem fashionable at the time. Layton suggests, and I agree, that “we should seek far more culture, not less. … Our commitment to the gospel should result in peculiar art, food, music and ways of dressing, that give expression to how we know Jesus.” He then goes on to lay out a plan that Harold Bender would be happy with - “We need schools, websites, clubs, and associations for this or that venture – this is how we build and sustain Christian culture over time … [that] … by its very distinctiveness has an alternative to offer the world.”
I suggest we could also use some clothing inherited from John Yoder and others more willing to be seen as radical, counter-cultural, revolutionary politicized activists. We are constantly putting on new cultural clothing for our faith and deciding which pieces of clothing we have on now no longer suit the cultural weather around us. We build and sustain a Christian culture that is vibrant, active and stands as an alternative to the world. We put clothes on as needed and we also remove clothes and choose other ones as the weather changes and as our body of faith grows into different shapes and sizes.
But still, the questions remain whether the body beneath the clothing is healthy and if the clothing it has on at the time fits. Both of those questions assume at least some ability to think about Anabaptists (or any Christians) separately from our clothing. Here are some things to think about that are about our, MEMC’s, cultural clothing on the surface but quickly get below the clothing to the size, shape, and health of the body that supports those clothes:
We have a building that is, for its age, quite accessible to people of varying physical ability. What does that say about our priorities as a body of believers and in what ways will that enable us to grow in faith?
In the last few years, we have moved the music leaders from the floor to the stage and then back to the floor. We sing some songs and not others. We pray and speak in certain ways during our worship. How much time we spend with preaching, music, scripture reading, and prayer is fairly consistent in our worship services. The preacher generally speaks from the middle of the stage. What do those practices in public worship say about our beliefs in God, Jesus, scripture, church leadership, and the role of worshippers?
When public health restrictions end will we start with Sunday School groups and then move to whole congregation worship services or the other way around? How does that reflect our faith priorities?
A couple of years ago we set congregation-wide priorities on teaching, visiting, and mentoring. What do those priorities and whether we think about them now say about our goals for ourselves and one another in faith?
If we had an opportunity to host a community vaccination clinic in our church would we take it? What would that decision say about our priorities in faith and ethics?
If we were to host an inspiring guest who would it be? Who would you approach about making that happen?
Does our congregation represent our community in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, and political inclination? Should it?
