Greetings to Mennonites Church USA

Dick Hamm, Executive Administrator
7/2/09

It is great to be with you and I am grateful for the marvelous hospitality I have received here! I am especially grateful to Andre Stoner, who is doing such excellent work and who is the face of your denomination among many other Christians in the United States. My thanks to Elizabeth Soto Albrecht for hosting me in this meeting. My thanks to Ron Byler and especially Jim Schrag, who has provided such excellent leadership over the years. My congratulations to Jim and all of the executive staff as well as to your moderators and board members for the good work that has been going on.

As one who was head of his own denomination, I am accustomed to thinking, “Like a mighty tortoise moves the church of God.” But as I heard Sharon’s recounting of the work you have done in the past several biennium’s, I have been genuinely impressed. You have been led well and have followed well. Congratulations for all your good work as you move into God’s future for this denomination.

During the Last Supper, Jesus took the bread and the cup, blessed them and said, “Do this in remembrance of me.”

Re-membrance.

There is so much that would dis-member us as the body of Christ, the church. But in the act of communion, we remember and are re-membered as his people, his body.

Jesus’ last prayer was that his followers might be united, so that the world may know that he was sent by God. When we build dividing walls of hostility and isolation from one another, we weaken our witness to the world.

When the church no longer has a place of privilege in the culture, as is the case today, we can no longer afford the “luxury” of division and of living in silos.

Just as we are called as individual Christians to be salt to the world, to be leaven for the Kingdom of god, so each church is called to be salt and leaven to the whole body of Christ.

The Mennonite Church USA brings such flavor to the body of Christ, such seasoning!

If the Mennonite Church were to go away, God would reinvent it (OK, with a few changes, perhaps!). But God would raise up another part of the body to bring your unique gifts, your particular flavoring, to the whole body of Christ.

You have steadfastly and powerfully stood against the use of the church by the state, often bearing this witness even unto death. You have embodied Jesus’ call to be servants of the world while avoiding spiritual attachment to the world. You understand the difference between mere democracy, which seeks to know the will of the people, and discernment, which seeks to know the will of God…..an undertaking which requires exceedingly great humility.

You bring these gifts to the world and to the whole church in a unique package.
Christian unity, as Jesus prayed for it, does not require the surrender of these gifts….but it demands the sharing of these gifts for the up-building of the whole body.

This is exactly what you are doing through your inter-church relationships, including your engagement with CCT!

And not only do these relationships give you the opportunity to share your gifts, but they also give you the opportunity to receive the gifts of others. Thanks be to God!
And, thanks be to you for being who you are as the Mennonite Church USA: salt and leaven!

May God continue to bless you. May you, indeed, continue to grow as communities of grace, joy, and peace, so that God’s healing and hope may continue to flow through you to the rest of the body of Christ and, indeed, to the whole world.

Amen.