Wild Hope: faith for an unknown season
July 13, 2014 | Anita Retzlaff

Grace and peace to you from God the Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus the Christ. As with many stories from the Bible the account of Jesus stilling the storm is told and interpreted on several levels. Commonly we take comfort from this story. That is a very good thing. Jesus is with us through the perils of ordinary living and calms the troubled waters we navigate and the anxieties that we try to hold at bay.

The story however is also a symbolic dramatization of what is happening - at that very time - to the disciples because of their association with Jesus and his ministry. The disciples find themselves in hot water or broiling water, at odds with tradition because Jesus is including foreigners/gentiles in his circle of friends. Crossing a small lake in a standard fishing boat takes on exaggerated proportions becoming a dramatic adventure at sea. With a rather healthy stretch of the imagination the disciples now are crossing not merely a lake but the sea itself: a symbol of danger and chaos... and they are in grave peril, on a voyage into the unknown. By crossing the lake they are going over to the "other side." Leaving the familiarity of Jewish territory and breaking the religious rules of faithfulness and purity they are heading straight for trouble. Symbolically Jesus and his disciples are caught in a maelstrom of disaster as they make this purposeful crossing toward a situation that is deemed unacceptable by mainstream religious folk.

Well, it is into this drama from the gospel of Mark that we were invited as delegates to the biennual Assembly of Mennonite Church Canada in Winnipeg last weekend. I will get back to the story later because it proves to be a powerful image of where we find ourselves today as a church. Our trip to Winnipeg prepared us well for stories about water and storms as we travelled past miles of flooded ditches and water-eroded fields: these being truly transformed into tiny lakes.

I will get right to the point. There are two things on peoples' minds in our national church these days: sexuality and the future of our denomination - of the Mennonite Church. Do we have a future in a society that is morphing into something that we can’t quite grasp yet? What is a faithful response to same sex attraction? These two issues are taking up all of our time and energy producing a great deal of anxiety in the church: causing a great deal of fear - for everyone. I suspect that our preoccupation with these things is keeping us from our mission. Maybe it is pointing us toward it. I am not certain. Today I want to show you how the story of Jesus and his disciples crossing the lake in a nasty storm was used at the Assembly in Winnipeg last weekend adding my own interpretive twist to what I read and hear.

Our church is changing. In what I think is a beautiful transformation our assembly is becoming markedly more ethnically diverse. We are no longer exclusively Caucasian of German and Swiss decent but we now are made up of people who have come from China, Korea, the Philippines, Africa, South America and other traditions. The story of Jesus' calming the waters was read in Chinese and Korean as well as in English. It is an exciting time in the history of being Mennonite. This is a good change.

Brian Quan, pastor at Toronto Chinese Mennonite Church spoke about "leaving and going": following Jesus and being sent. You can imagine the stormy seas of his congregation's journey as he and those who are a little older than him are caught between a former culture of another land and a new culture, one that continues to evolve at lightning speed. The way is not clear. Brian’s message however was abundantly clear: we are clinging to each other as our boat, the Church, navigates its way through turbulent waters.

Ethnic diversity is a reality that caught my attention even though it may not yet be very obvious here in Mennonite Church Saskatchewan as was a recurring theme of living well on our earth: peace-making and ecology. I think there is an inherent link between the two and our younger generations are very, very attuned to living a respectful and gracious way on our planet. This came up time and again in various ways. Working toward peace and for peace in a wholesome manner is a central ethical activity of our Anabaptist way.

"Love is to bear witness to the chaos!" This from David Driedger, pastor at First Mennonite Church in Winnipeg who referred to the story of stilling the storm in reference to our church's conversation and concerns over same-sex attraction and the chaos that we are experiencing as we are trying to figure out a faithful response to this latest "issue" that divides us. He said, "This is NOT a choice between accepting or rejecting the Bible" proposing an example. The two accounts of creation in Genesis stand side by side – and they are different. Right off the top God is re-designing creation. We can relax. Even the bible re-interprets itself. So the pressing question is: “What is a faithful response in a new situation?” In further reference to the stormy sea, David became quite directive. “Wade into the water!” he said. Experience the upheaval firsthand. In so doing we might develop practises and ways of relating to new challenges instead of hanging back on the shore, protecting turf, throwing stones from a safe distance or just plain making waves. "To love is to bear witness to the chaos not to like it or to foster it but to recognize there the unformed future." David used this quote from Catherine Keller. We have choices. Have we no faith that God is working through us to work a new thing?

And so we had table discussions about healthy sexuality and the way that sexuality and spirituality are related to each other. Now that is something to think about. In these conversations and through workshops and plenary sessions we heard more about the BFC process: Being a Faithful Church – how do we respond to our Christian friends who are gay and lesbian – the LGBTQ community? We have submitted some feedback on behalf of Nutana Park to those who are leading this discernment and have told them about the ways in which we have approached this in the last 15 years: we have used Bibles Studies, Adult Education and other venues to talk about this together. Our bulletin now carries a statement every week that welcomes everyone to worship and into community here. The national process has discovered several trends among Mennonites regarding sexuality: “In spite of congregations not being able to reach consensus, responses stated a deep desire for unity and that challenges of same-sex relations should not cause divisions at congregational, Area or National church levels” and that there is “a desire to be more compassionate and welcoming of those individuals who are same-sex attracted.” (BFC 5.1) The invitation to continue to study the bible together discerning a faithful way forward remains open for all people of Mennonite Church Canada. I think that the time is coming soon when we must move on. The Spirit will eventually shut us down and close our doors if it turns out that we have not been faithful. Have we no faith in what the Spirit can do in our midst?

Irma Fast Dueck’s short reflection caught my attention as she spoke of Mahatma Gandhi’s vow of fearlessness. She stated that bad decisions are made out of fear. I checked into this a little – you know, a Google search – and found that this is one of several vows that Gandhi lived by. Fearlessness did not mean aggression, arrogance, aloofness or distance to Gandhi but rather was much like the way we as Mennonite folk speak of making peace and being at peace. Gandhi said, “…one cannot follow truth and love if one is subject to fear.” That is a great thing to remember when we recognize our own fear. Responding out of fear will likely be a response short on truth and love.

And so to the work of the Future Directions Task Force: a desire and an attempt to redirect our mission as Mennonite Church Canada into the future. I have been a part of this discernment for the last 18 months. Some things do not work well today even though it was the way of 40 years ago and sometimes merely 10 years ago. That makes some people really fearful; there are programs at stake and jobs at stake. In the middle of the storm it is unlikely that we will see clearly to the “other side” and know with certainly how everything will sift out over time. The challenge then is to proceed in faithfulness and shalom. How do we do that?

What we have ascertained as a task force are a few observations that do indeed affect the course of our church’s future. One being that the foundational unit of the church is the congregation NOT Mennonite Church Canada or our more local provincial body Mennonite Church Saskatchewan. When things happen they most often happen locally in a congregation.

However, congregations need to bond together in a larger body in order to remain grounded in faith and the Anabaptist tradition encouraged to respond to our world in Christian mission. A reality check: our mission is lived out locally and responsively as needs arise in our own communities here at home. So there is a shift away from overseas mission. An African delegate stood up at a workshop and pleaded with people to help educate immigrants that come here to Canada – his fellow workers. “Educate the people who come here.” he said (and I am paraphrasing his response) and then send them home to do their work in their own space. Do not send your people over there at much greater cost to do the jobs that our own people wish to do for ourselves.” It went something like that. So, you see the shift. Our challenge is to look prayerfully into the future and propose a structure for our national church that is integrated, simpler, yet a sounder structure than what we have at present. Oh yes, the boat is rocking.

And so, we slip back into the story of a sleeping Jesus. Freaked out disciples are cowering against the storm literally scared to death as pounding waves threaten to drown them at any moment. In desperation they rouse Jesus from sleep. “Don’t you care?” they shout, “We are dying here.” Jesus wakes up and denounces the forces that whip the waves into a frenzy, “Peace, be still.” And it became deadly still. “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” Jesus asks his traumatized companions. I can imagine their consternation at his seemingly flippant response to their fear. In fact, Jesus makes it sound like the disciples had a choice in all this. They look at each other and wonder aloud, “Who is this guy who can put a stop to such chaos?” You notice they do not say, “Oh ya, that’s right! With God all things are possible.” OH, there’s the choice! I suspect that my own response would be more like the disciples’ and less likely the one that remembers the power of God accompanying us into a turbulent and an unknown future.

I imagine this embellished lake crossing drama, cast as an encounter with the danger of the sea, to be a sign to the faithful – to you and to me. When we choose to cross over to the other side, to enter unknown territory for the sake of Jesus’ gospel, we are not alone. Even at times when chaos threatens to undo our best intentions the Spirit of Peace will carry forward not only our very lives but our mission too. This is wild hope, hope created and nurtured by the very God who once spoke this wild world into being. Created in God’s image we are created to share with God the work of local and global reconciliation and peace-building. Thanks be to the God who first urges us to “go across to the other side” and does not abandon us but speaks “peace” to our uncertainty and fear. AMEN