The Corinthian Plan: An Opportunity For Mutual Aid – 6/07/09 – 2 Corinthians 8:1-15

This past week the New York Times Magazine ran an extensive article on the health care agenda that will soon be taking center stage in Washington.  Its focus was on how this administration is positioned politically to try and carry out the major reform that it is hoping for – comparing it to past attempts, especially that of President Clinton’s first term.  The article highlighted key players who will be leading the debate.  It spoke some about the influence of the health care industry in shaping the outcome.  It also mentioned, briefly, some of those staggering statistics that reveal the sorry state of health care in our country.  Health care spending has doubled since the mid-90’s, now the highest percentage of GDP that it has ever been, over 16%.  46 million people without health insurance in the US.  This is a debate that we’ll soon be hearing much more about.

Two years ago Mennonite Church USA delegates gathering in San Jose were asked to look closely at health care issues.  It was acknowledged that we need national health care reform, but it was also proposed that we as a denomination can do something about one small part of this puzzle.  We can come up with a health care plan that would guarantee health care coverage for all of the pastors of our congregations.  At the time it was estimated 80-100 US Mennonite pastors were without health insurance.  In San Jose delegates voted for such a plan to be researched and organized, and since that time a plan has been proposed, called the Corinthian Plan, that will be voted on in our meetings in Columbus one month from now.  If 80% or more of MC USA congregations vote to participate in the plan, it will take effect January 1, 2010.     

The message today will be focused on the values and some of the details of this health care plan.  And the messenger is going to look something like a three headed monster, although we’re pretty sure it will be a nonviolent Mennonite monster, nothing to be feared.  Myself, Ed Diller, and Steve Hitt will each share about some aspect of this plan.  Ed will go more in depth with the denominational process in creating this health care plan and speak to some of the vision behind it.  Steve will talk about what this may mean for us as a congregation, look at how we may think about it in terms on our financial reality and how that connects with some of our ideas about stewardship and mission.  And in the remaining time that I have I’m going to be leading some Bible study. 

One of the key practices behind such a health care plan is the concept of mutual aid.  Mennonites and Amish and other Anabaptist groups have a rich history of practicing mutual aid, which basically means that when one member is in trouble or has a loss, that the resources of the community are made available for coming to the aid of that person.  Historically, this is community as insurance.  An iconic image of this would be the barn raising event.  If someone’s barn burns down or is damaged through a storm, the entire community comes and rebuilds the barn for the family.  This is made more complex in our modern world of larger assets, more privatized and less communal living, and extremely high health care costs, but that value of mutual aid remains a part of who we are.

One of the passages of scripture that speaks of the practice of mutual aid is 2 Corinthians 8.  And this is the Bible study part.  If you could please open your Bibles to 2 Corinthians 8, we’re going to walk through this briefly to get a small window into some of what was going on with the communities that the Apostle Paul was forming in the first century Roman world.  This 2 Corinthian passage is why this health care plan has been called The Corinthian Plan. 

So Paul is writing this letter to these Jesus followers in the city of Corinth, which is a little southwest of Athens, and he begins this part of the letter by saying “we want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that has been granted to the churches of Macedonia.”  This area of Macedonia would have been their neighbors to the north, two of the cities, Philippi, and Thesalonica, you may recognize because these were also cities to which Paul has written letters which we have in our New Testament – Philippians, 1,2 Thesalonians.  In verses three and four Paul is sort of bragging about them, or holding them up as an example saying, “For as I can testify, they voluntarily gave according to their means, and even beyond their means, begging us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in this ministry to the saints.”  And then he goes on in verse seven to name some things that are a part of their life of faith – “Now as you excel in everything – in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in utmost eagerness, and in our love for you (or some manuscripts read “your love for us”) – so we want you to excel also in this generous undertaking.”  This ‘voluntary giving, according to their means,’ was something Paul was asking that they see as a part of their life as a community along with these other things.”

Now it should be noted that what Paul refers to as “sharing in this ministry to the saints,” is a specific designation.  The ministry to the saints refers to the poor believers in Jerusalem.  There are other parts of his letters where that designation is spelled out more clearly, but what Paul was asking of those churches in Macedonia, who gave generously, and what he was asking of the Corinthian church, was to give some of their wealth to go back to the poor who were associating with the mother church, the place where it all started, the Jewish believers in Jerusalem. 

Paul’s mission is ambitious, to say the least.  Imagine all of these different ethnic groups, each with their own religious history and gods and myths, spread out over the Roman Empire, all in the mix together in these cosmopolitan urban centers, and then imagine Paul and other apostles coming through and teaching to whoever would care to listen that in Christ all of these groups can be reconciled to each other – Jew and Gentile, and Gentile to other Gentile.  It would be one thing for these little communities to form within these urban centers with people of all types and start worshiping and learning together, but then it would be another thing to be told that your little eclectic community here in Philippi, or Corinth, or whatever, was connected to all of these other communities popping up around the Roman world.  You are all “In Christ.”  The well-being of one community should effect the well-being of all communities.   At one point Paul describes this by saying, You who were not a people, have now become a people.  At another point in his writing to the Corinthians Paul tries to give an image to this in developing what might be called body theology.  You are all a part of the same body, different parts, different locations, all working as one whole.  “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.” (1 Cor. 12:26)

Part of what this looks like, Paul is now writing to the Corinthians, is the practice of mutual aid.  If there are poor Christ followers in Jerusalem, then well-off, or even not so well-off Christ followers in Macedonia and Corinth should feel the sting.  Paul clarifies what he means in verses 13 and 15 of 2 Corinthians 8.  “I do not mean that there should be relief for others and pressure on you, but it is a question of a fair balance between your present abundance and their need, so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there may be a fair balance.  As it is written, ‘The one who had much did not have too much, and the one who had little did not have too little,’” a reference to the manna in the desert – enough for everyone. 

That’s a very quick glimpse of where some of this Corinthian Plan is coming from.

One of the main questions and critiques behind this plan has been not that this is a bad idea, but that it’s not enough.  If we value mutual aid so much, why are we creating a plan that only covers pastors and not making it available for others in the congregation to buy into?  It’s a fair question and one that has been addressed in some writing in our publications.  Being a pastor, I don’t feel like I personally want to try and justify why this is just for pastors, so perhaps this is something that Ed can speak to a little more.    

I’ll end my part by simply adding a personal note and saying that this is a year when our family is especially thankful for having health insurance.  This plan feels like a small way of seeing that more people are covered, in the spirit of mutual aid.  Along with this, it is our hope that our country can address this head on in a way that gives everyone access to quality affordable health care.

 

Returning to the Broken Ice – 10,29,06

What’s in a name?  Cincinnati Mennonite Fellowship.  Well the Cincinnati part is easy enough to figure out.  Members of this group live and work in and around this city.   And the city of Cincinnati is an important part of this church’s identity.  Fellowship, well, I suppose it could be Cincinnati Mennonite Church, but a church can be a building or a group of people and this congregation existed quite a few years without owning its own building.  Fellowship indicates that this is about the people, about the relationships, about being a community together wherever.  Mennonite.  Cincinnati Mennonite Fellowship.  If you’ve ever told someone that you go to a Mennonite church maybe you’ve had the experience of having to explain that no you don’t drive a horse and buggy, that you’re allowed to wear typical American clothing, and that yes, you do have electricity in your house.  Anyone?  These are parts of the Mennonite tradition that this congregation has chosen not to emphasize.  So what is a Mennonite and why is that an important part of the identity of this fellowship?   

 

Mennonites don’t have saints, but if we did we would be sure to include Dirk Willems among them.  You know, maybe it’s good that we don’t have saints.  Saint Dirk just doesn’t quite have that ring to it.

Mennonites don’t have icons, but if we did, perhaps our premier icon would be this image printed on the front of your bulletins – Dirk Willems turning back from escaping his pursuer to pull him out of the broken ice.  There are a couple different versions of this story.  One version, the one presented in the reader’s theater, has Dirk escaping from prison where he was being held for trial for being an Anabaptist.  The other version has Dirk escaping from his home when an official arrives at his door to arrest him.  Either way the key feature of the story is portrayed in this etching which was made by a Dutch artist around 1685.  At some point in his escape, Dirk successfully crossed a frozen pond, making it to the other side.  The man pursuing him was not so fortunate, he fell through the ice.

            Being an Anabaptist in Dirk’s time was dangerous because it meant you had made a decision which shifted your primary allegiance away from the state which was closely aligned with the church.  In a time when infant baptism was like filling out a birth certificate to register you as a citizen and future tax payer of the state, Anabaptists had the boldness to believe that baptism had much more to do with an adult decision to become a citizen in a different sort of kingdom, the new creation of God’s peaceful reign.  So, beginning in the first half of the 16^th century, these people began privately rebaptizing each other and declaring themselves as servants of Christ, not servants of the political authorities.  They were first called Anabaptists, re-baptizers, by their enemies as a term of contempt, much like early followers of Jesus were first called Christians, little Christs, by their enemies.  And much like the early Christians, Anabaptists were hunted down, arrested, and executed because of the perceived threat they posed to those in power. 

            Dirk Willems was not going to passively accept his fate as a martyr.  He valued his life.  He tried to escape capture.  But over the course of his escape he made what was probably a split second decision that ultimately led to his death.  He had crossed the frozen pond safely, but his pursuer had not.  Maybe Dirk looked over his back to see how much distance he had established between himself and his pursuer.  Maybe it was the sound of the ice breaking or the sudden cry that made him look around. 

            Standing back from the situation I have the tendency to try and judge the decision made here.  I have plenty of time to sort through all the pros and cons for Dirk to keep running away or for him to do what he did.  But for Dirk it was most likely more like a reflex, an impulse to turn around and attempt to help this man.  A reflex for indiscriminate love.  Somehow Dirk was able to pull him out of the pond without himself getting dragged into the freezing water.  Then the guard, bound under his legal duty, hauled Dirk away to prison.  A little while later, the courts pronounced this sentence against him: “Whereas Dirk Willems, born at Asperen, at present a prisoner has…confessed, that at the age of fifteen…he was rebaptized in Rotterdam, at the house on one Pieter Willems, and that he, further, in Asperen, at his house, at diverse hours…permitted several persons to be rebaptized…therefore, we the aforesaid judges…do condemn the aforesaid Dirk Willems that he shall be executed with fire, until death ensues.”          

 

            The apostle Paul, in 2 Corinthians 5, wrote this: “if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!  All this is from God, who reconciled us to Godself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.  So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us.”

            An ambassador is someone who represents a certain nation to another nation, someone who speaks on behalf of her country to another country.  Mennonites have believed that the New Testament teaches that our primary citizenship is in the Kingdom of God.  Our baptism gives us a different sort of birth certificate to live under a new authority.  Ambassadors speak not just for themselves, but for the ones they represent.  They act as agents, crossing a bridge between two different lands.

            This isn’t a matter of heaven and earth, as in after life and during life.  This is a matter of living in the ways of God in the present moment.  Paul goes on to say just a few verses later: “See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!”  We may not feel like we are living in the middle of salvation, but that is exactly what Jesus has invited us to do.  There is something new that can happen here with us.  There is reconciliation that can happen.  We are reconciled to God when we see God present in the loving face of Jesus, and we are reconciled to each other as we begin to represent this loving face to one another.

 

Mennonites are direct descendants of the early Anabaptists.  We take our name from Menno Simons who was an influential leader early on in the movement.  And we have always felt that we should stand out in some way from the dominant culture.  We have always felt the tension between being a citizen of the reign of God and a citizen of the reign of Caesar.  Menno and others believed that the New Testament offers us a reasonable way of living and that this way will often make us seem odd, perhaps even foolish to many people. 

We are in a very different context than Dirk and Menno and the early Anabaptists.  We are no longer a persecuted minority.    We may feel like we’re in the minority with our convictions about peace.  We may feel out of place in this hyper-materialistic militaristic society.  But if we’re to be honest with ourselves, we have to admit that quite a bit has changed since the time of our Anabaptist ancestors.  If we look behind our backs, there’s no one chasing us.  We have citizenship in a democracy. And we have access to a wide range of economic and educational resources.  Put simply.  We have power.   

And I think that’s one of the reasons I am so drawn to this image of Dirk Willems and feel that it can give us some guidance for who we can continue to be as Mennonite, Anabaptist Christians.  I gazed at this image quite a bit this past week.  It has a way of growing on you, working its way inside you.  Of all the situations Anabaptists have found themselves in, here is one where they held some power, at least temporarily.  Look at the picture again.  Dirk was not seeking power for himself.  He was in the process of seeking safety, simply trying to get away harm.  The only power he thought he had was his power to move quicker than his enemy.  And then, without asking for it, he suddenly found himself with a great deal of power.  His pursuer is in the icy cold water.  Dirk is safe on the other side.  And that’s the point where I am most easily able to enter the story – just a few seconds before the scene portrayed in the etching.  Finding myself on solid ground but recognizing that someone has fallen through the ice behind me. 

So here we are, 21^st century urban and suburban American Mennonites, with a certain degree of power.  Finding ourselves on solid ground, yet aware that all is not well.  What does it mean to be an ambassador of God’s reconciliation?  What does it mean to represent the new creation?  What does it mean to continue living in our Mennonite heritage? 

How about this as one possible answer?  To be a Mennonite is to be one who returns to the broken ice – to extend the hand of compassion to whoever has fallen through.  There is always the choice of going away to safety, of leaving the troubled scene and blending in with the scenery.  But if we are children of Dirk Willems we carry with us this reflex for turning back.  I see Cincinnati Mennonite Fellowship as living this out, committed to returning to the broken ice, reaching out as an ambassador of peace to a hurting world.  This is who you have been, and by God’s grace, this is who we will continue to be.

 

Response

Congregational Reading from Menno Simons: “True evangelical faith…”