Don Friesen
A Mennonite leader recently referred to our Anabaptist DNA, a curious combination of the experience of faith and the language of genetics. The assumption is that among Mennonites there are some things that are inherent, carried from one generation to another in our religious genetic code. ("Mennonites and D.N.A.," Equipping, November, 2003) It seems like a clever metaphor, but I don't know enough about DNA to use the metaphor with any panache, and what little I know makes me uncomfortable.
My brother and I share some genetic code, and it's quite apparent in the red colour of our hair, yet only one of us is smart, talented, and handsome — and I'm not telling you which one! And to a large extent, my four siblings and I took five different directions in our faith journeys.
Now, I know that Mennonites are in love with genealogy, and that there are businesses on the internet that cater to Mennonites, offering DNA testing for genealogical purposes! Linking the languages of genetics and faith, however, seems to me an especially perilous notion for the Mennonite community, a community that serves as a bountiful source of research because of its genetic anomalies! What other group could come up with a disease called Mennonite Maple Syrup Urine Disease? It reminds me of the joke about the person who paid a genealogist $500 to research her family tree and then had to pay the person an additional $1,500 to keep it quiet! Mark Twain is reputed to have said, "Why waste your money looking up your family tree? Just go into politics; your opponents will do it for you!"
I once found a famous person in Dorothy's family tree, but when I shook my own family tree all sorts of stuff fell out, including a murderer who was sent up the river to do hard time! Saturday Night magazine recently (April, 2004) did a cover story on the Mennonite Mob, a story that reflects very badly on the rest of us. Lurid as the story may be, however, it is part of the Mennonite story. In fact, some of these reputed mobsters may be my own relatives! My wife, Dorothy, however, insists there is no truth to that claim whatsoever!
Peter Failed the DNA Test!
I am not well versed in genetics, but it strikes me that there is something of an incontrovertible nature about it. We can be quite sure that some of our genetic code will be passed on to the next generation, whereas passing along our faith is a much more uncertain enterprise.
Our reading from the book of Acts relates the Apostle Peter's experience with genetics and faith. There was something quite incontrovertible about Peter's faith. His faith community had a common genetic base, something that defined the community to a large extent, and lest there be any doubt as to who was inside the community and who was outside, a thick layer of rules was added to the genetic base — rules regarding eating and socializing. And so when Peter dined out with some fellows who were uncircumcised (Acts 11:2-3), it caused quite a stir among the more conservative Christian believers.
At one time Peter would have thought that his faith was incontrovertible, but he had an experience that tempered that notion. He tried to explain it to the believers in Jerusalem. He said, "I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision." (Acts 11:5) The vision was like a food menu of sorts, featuring everything that Peter's ethnic and religious upbringing forbade him to eat. It was like offering a choice selection of meats to a vegetarian! Or offering a rich selection of cholesterol-laden pastries to someone whose arteries are already clogged! And when in the vision Peter was invited to eat up, he said, "By no means, Lord; for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth." (11:8) In the vision a voice answered, "What God has made clean, you must not call profane." (11:9)
This visionary interaction took place three times, causing a spirit to move within Peter that affected him deeply, and that had immediate implications for the three Gentile visitors that appeared at his door. Peter told the Jerusalem believers, "The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us." (11:12) Peter followed the Spirit's leading, and as he was sharing the gospel with these Gentile visitors, he said, "...the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning." (11:15) The whole experience changed Peter's way of thinking about genetics and faith; he said, " If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?" (11:17) Or as another translation phrases it, "...who was I (to) ...stand in God's way?" (NASB) Peter's experience convinced even his more conservative brethren that something new was afoot.
Now, it would fall to the Apostle Paul to wrestle with the specifics of incorporating Gentiles into the Christian community, a process which he likened to the grafting of one kind of tree onto another. Paul uses the image of a tree to convey how the Gentiles were grafted onto the Judeo-Christian family tree. (Romans 11:17-24)
Family Trees Are often less than Ideal
It would be great if there were such a thing as a Christian family tree without the need for grafting. The Apostle Paul wrote to his young colleague, Timothy, "I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice...." (2 Timothy 1:5) Was Paul saying that Timothy's faith was a genetic gift from his mother and grandmother? I doubt it, but wouldn't it be wonderful if that were so? Wouldn't it be wonderful if I had inherited my paternal grandmother's gentle love instead of my maternal grandfather's petulance and stubbornness! Wouldn't it be wonderful if I had inherited my father's tenderness instead of my mother's caustic tongue!
It would be nice if we had a natural, even genetic predisposition to do good, but I don't think that's the case. In the 1930s a fellow by the name of Langdon Gielke graduated from Harvard, and after graduation went to China to teach in a private school. Like many people of his era he assumed that people had a natural predilection for the good. Gielke was in China when World War II broke out, and when the Japanese invaded China, all of the allied citizens on the mainland were gathered up and sent to a prison camp. Fifteen hundred American, British, Canadian, Dutch, French, and Australian citizens were suddenly thrust together in very crowded circumstances, with an uncertain food supply. Their existence was insecure, at best. Young Gielke was amazed that people who had gone to China for humanitarian purposes — missionaries, teachers, social workers — reverted to utter savagery when their security was threatened! It was every person for him- or herself! He saw missionaries stealing food and hoarding it for their children, even though others in their group didn't have any! In other words, fear cast out love and the common good was absolutely lost. (story told by John Claypool, February 11, 1996)
Family trees, even spiritual family trees, are also often less than ideal, prone to damage, disease, and death. It reminds me of a large tree we have in our yard that was a favourite of our children because it invited climbing. And when I tied a one-rope swing to one of its high boughs, it became the favourite of neighbourhood children as well. It was an attractive tree, but it became a casualty of the 1998 Ice Storm and now looks like a tree that might appear in a Dr. Seuss book! It also looks like it is not long for this world.
Our family trees are also often less than ideal. Mine certainly is! But I take some consolation from the fact that Jesus' family tree has some knots and gnarls in it as well. The Gospel of Matthew starts with Jesus' genealogy (Matthew 1:1-17) — something that would appeal only to first century Christians and some Mennonites — but if you look closely at the list of Jesus' ancestors you wonder why Matthew bothered! The list falls into three sections. In the first section we have Jacob — Slick Jake — who thought little of cheating his father-in-law, his uncle, or his brother! The first section also lists Rahab, who ran a brothel in Jericho, as well as Ruth, an immigrant from an enemy nation!
In the second section we have a list of kings, and our present royal family has nothing on this bunch! The story of these kings is a sad story of murder, mayhem, unfaithfulness, idol worship, the occult, mass slaughter, and many other vile goings-on. Among them is a peeping Tom who falls in lust with a woman, seduces her, gets her pregnant, arranges to have her husband killed, and then marries her. His name is King David! And the third section in Jesus' genealogy seems to consist of a bunch of no-bodies, for we know very little about them.
This is Jesus' family tree — a group of moral rejects and losers! As someone has said, this is hardly a roll call for the Institute of Halos and Harps! It appears that even before he was born Jesus had a special kinship with sinners! Or, as some cheeky fellow put it, "Without Bathsheba, you can kiss Christmas goodbye!" (Ken Gehrels, "Tough Beginnings")
Some of these people were victimized, others marginalised, and some despised, but it's as if God is saying, That's okay. I can work with people like that. They have value in my eyes. I will work with them and make them count for good in the eternal scheme of things. No DNA testing is required in the kingdom of God. We are ordinary people who stumble and bumble along, but God can use downright sinful people like us to accomplish amazing things!
Jesus' family tree was less than ideal, much like our own. Most of the families gathered here this morning are less than ideal. I don't see many — if any — ideal mothers! I don't see any ideal fathers! I don't even see any ideal children, although some of you are pretty cute! What I see are real people who are struggling to be faithful, their DNA notwithstanding! I see people struggling to love each other in spite of their human limitations and flaws.
There was a moving story in the Ottawa Citizen yesterday. It was called "A Love Story," concerning a couple who decided to adopt an abandoned child. They were determined to do it right, and Laura Stevens, the mother, relates how she read books on adoption and prepared in a number of ways for this big event. She entertained elaborate fantasies about parenthood, but when she first met Ana, the toddler they adopted, she writes, "...I didn't love her. It was hard to even like her. Standing in the orphanage, she wouldn't look at me. She wouldn't turn when she heard my voice. ...she screamed when we bathed her and ...she pooped the stinkiest, most toxic, practically alien substance — every 30 seconds, it seemed. ...cooped up with a hyper 2½-year-old, I felt a big part of me urging me to run for my life."
It was not an easy beginning to parenthood, and one day, in desperation, when Ana was running through the kitchen on overdrive, Laura says, "I took Ana's face in my hands, made her look at me, took a deep breath, and told her I loved her. I was lying, but I needed to hear myself say it. Amazingly, Ana held my gaze. I said it again. And again. Six times I forced it, still feeling the anger and desperation. And then I just stared at her. A moment passed, her face still in my hands. She opened her mouth, forming her words carefully the way she did every time she repeated things, and replied, ‘I lub do, Mom.' Whether or not she understood what she was saying was a mystery to me. But it didn't matter. Ana and I spent the next five minutes or so saying we loved each other — and I swear, when it was over, we did." (Laura Stevens, "A Love Story," Ottawa Citizen, May 8, 2004, page I2)
Family Trees Require Pruning, Shaping
Jesus said, "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:34-35) And it's a commandment Jesus emphasized with his own vivid example when he washed his disciples' feet.
Just like fruit trees require pruning in order for them to bear abundant fruit, so our family trees need pruning, not in the sense of lobbing off undesirable family members, but in the sense of shaping the continuing growth of today's families. It's not so much the tree as it is this season's growth to which we must attend. I may be able to depend upon my DNA to pass on my red hair to my children, but I cannot depend upon it to pass on my faith in God. We can pass along genetic traits, but spiritual ideals and convictions can easily be lost over a single generation. A vital faith requires regular pruning, and shaping, and nurture. A vital faith requires a will to sustain. And sometimes, like Laura Stevens, we need to force it, willing ourselves to love because that is the nature of our calling.
Earlier I related Langdon Gielke's experience with Christians in China. Gielke found their behaviour under pressure disturbing, with one notable exception. There was a group of Dutch Roman Catholic monks who had gone to China to run a school. If there was extra help needed in the kitchen of the prison camp, it was always a Dutch monk who volunteered. If some repairs needed to be made to the camp, they freely and joyfully offered to do it. They were willing to do what had to be done. They were willing to serve, even under stressful circumstances, and to serve even those among them whose behaviour was most un-Christlike. Maybe it was a genetic predisposition — but I doubt it. I'm also Dutch, and it doesn't come naturally. It's a spiritual discipline one has to cultivate. But of such spiritual determination the New Jerusalem will come into being! Praise be to God!
All quotations of Scripture, unless otherwise noted, are from the New Revised Standard Version.