 |
 |
||
 |
|||
 |
N E W S & E V E N T S
EVENTS Choral Camp 2010: July 5–9; July 12–16 NEWS Sailing with Jesus on the Sea of Change August 15, 2007
Speaking to over 1400 people at Maple City Chapel in Goshen, Ind.on August 5, Stutzman urged them to use Paul as their model for how to live and witness as citizens of the Kingdom of God in the heart of a global empire. This includes not being afraid to leave “our islands of faith,” he said. Stutzman, associate professor of culture and mission at Eastern Mennonite University, used his own experience to help his audience “see the world from sea level with Paul.” From May 2004 through August 2005, he and his wife Janet followed Paul through the Mediterranean, visiting every harbor and city that Paul visited, as recorded in the book of Acts. They traveled 4,000 miles by sea and 2,500 miles by land, and Stutzman wrote a book about it, SailingActs: Following an Ancient Voyage. The Damascus road encounter made Paul see things differently, Stutzman said. He glimpsed Jesus’ power and glory and understood the reality of the Kingdom of God, the Roman Empire, himself and everyone else in a new light. Paul spent the rest of his life at sea with the gospel, living and witnessing in a global empire such as the world had never seen. Stutzman described what Paul saw on his missionary journeys: pagan temples overlooking every harbor, pagan temples and seats of government side by side in the cities. On his way into Rome as a bound prisoner walking on the Appian Way, Paul saw both the mausoleums of the rich and famous and the bodies of those who were executed by the Empire. It was an object lesson in power. Stutzman retraced Paul’s steps on that journey. “I walked with Paul down into the cell area…and thought about Paul.” The apostle saw both the resurrected Lord Jesus and the living Caesar who held him prisoner, said Stutzman, but he knew whose hands his life was in. “The Caesar can give death, but Jesus can give life.” Stutzman drew parallels between living in the Roman Empire and living in the United States. We need to recognize, he said, that America, like Rome, is not the Kingdom of God. While it may be a relatively good empire, it cannot give life. “No matter how much you support any of our politicians, they cannot give life – only Jesus can.” The Roman Empire gave its citizens good things and an abundance in life, but at what cost? We need to open our eyes to the cost of our abundance, said Stutzman, and resist the powerful pagan promises of contemporary culture. We need to learn to use the power and privilege of American citizenship “to make the good news of the Kingdom good from the perspective of non-Christians throughout the world.” If you vote, said Stutzman, vote for the candidates who do good for the poor. Stuztman encouraged his listeners not to be afraid of globalization or of living on the sea of change, “for the living Jesus is on the voyage with us.” Go to the ends of the earth with confidence, he said. Bring the good news to people who’ve found that the empire’s promises are false, flawed, or incomplete. Exhibit and explain the power of the gospel in public, but be sure to preach what you practice. “We Mennonites have done a lot of good,” he said. We might be tempted to let our actions speak for themselves, but the danger is that people will see our good works and glorify us. Rosedale Mennonite Missions President Joe Showalter found Stutzman’s comparisons of the Roman Empire and the American empire compelling and sobering. “I hope that we (CMC) will engage in further dialogue with each other about the gods we may be tempted to worship in our empire.” He pointed out that “mission in our day, as in Paul's, places us in the middle of theological and practical tensions, as pagan citizens of the secular empire come to new ways of behaving and thinking in Jesus' empire.” Jon Showalter, academic dean of Rosedale Bible College, especially liked Stutzman’s observation that Paul spent most of his time trying to get Christians to stop living like pagans, not trying to get pagans to start living like Christians. “That is precisely what members of the Christian right who are mesmerized by visions of empire do,” said Showalter. “And the genius of 16th century Anabaptists was to follow Paul’s strategy.” The Anabaptists recognized that the key to change is not coercion, he said, “which is the only tool the state knows how to use,” but new life in the Kingdom. “It was a more subtle restatement of the themes which John Roth addressed more explicitly a year ago, but a presentation that at the end was no less radical and no less Anabaptist,” said Showalter. This story appears in the August 20, 2007 issue of Mennonite Weekly Review.
For more information about these articles or other news at Rosedale Bible College,
|
||
