In Christ Alone

I.        Vows of Affirmation

“We devote our daily life to God, and to serving our neighbors as images of God” 

("Agnus Dei" by Trish Steel, CC)

   
1. I will daily offer my life to God with reverence and a living faith; I will daily pray to be used as a servant by God for the good of my neighbors near and far. 

Making—and keeping—a discipleship covenant is no easy thing, especially one with twenty different vows! But this Covenant of Christian Nonviolence  is not mostly about individual moral heroics and rigid perfectionism. We will follow it incompletely (the Covenant itself is incomplete), we will miss the mark. Yet the main focus is not simply on our getting it exactly right, but in serving God and neighbor with as much of our being as possible. Love of God and neighbor is at the true center of our peacemaking, not some outside ethical principle of pacifism.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer says much the same in the following paragraph from The Cost of Discipleship:

The Impossible Life

IV.    Vows of Voluntary Sacrifice

“We freely offer up our appetites, wealth, and pride to relieve the suffering of the world, for the sake of our neighbors and God’s joy.”
 

20. I will seek out and yield to the counsel and direction of my sisters and brothers for growing into the Spirit and likeness of Jesus Christ; I will regularly examine my life under these vows, and seek the aid and instruction of my brothers and sisters for growing in faithfulness.

There is one unavoidable piece that hasn’t yet been mentioned in these twenty Covenant vows: the necessity of participating in Christian faith community. If our nonviolent discipleship to Jesus is to cover every aspect of our life and have the strength to last through the ups and downs of our entire lives, it will have to be formed in Christ’s own body, the church. Granted, it’s true we can all think of folks we know who better exemplify bits and pieces of these peacemaking vows who aren’t consistently, deeply networked into a Christian faith community—they may not even consider themselves to be Christian. It may even be you trying to live Jesus’ cross-bearing life on your own! But there is something about Jesus’ call that is not possible outside of his community of people.

The Words and Witness

 I.        Vows of Affirmation

“We devote our daily life to God, and to serving our neighbors as images of God”

6. I will daily read the Scriptures and meditate on the witness of Jesus Christ.

(by Luz Bratcher via Flickr)

There are many ways by which we seek to discover new things and model new habits. We peruse books and talk shows and magazine articles drawing on social science and psychology and economics and health sciences and counseling and trade guilds and sports or political analysis. We reflect on our own experience or draw on conventional wisdom and tradition. Sometimes we watch or read maestros and imitate their work. When it comes to being the church as a community of disciples, though, these sources of knowledge and formation and practice take at least a secondary role. We trust—even though we sometimes doubt—that God’s way of peace in the world is shown in the full life of Jesus, depicted in Christian scriptures.

In our hyper-modern world where nonviolence and conflict can be studied from so many helpful  and necessary angles beyond the apparent treatment of the Bible, what makes it important for you to ground your discipleship-peacemaking in Christian scripture? [No, today’s reflections are not meant to be easy!]

In Secret

Diana Kathrina Leomo via Flickr

I.        Vows of Affirmation

“We devote our daily life to God, and to serving our neighbors as images of God”

5. I will daily seek to do good for someone without reward or recognition.

We love to make our decisions on cost-benefit analyses. Will the costs and the gains at least equalize, if not bring significant reward? But the way of Jesus often leaves behind this safe, business-wise pragmatism—at least at first glance. “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you for righteousness sake and utter all kinds of evil against you on my account.” Really!? The costs look a lot more painful than the ambiguous “blessedness” gain! “Love your enemies, do good, and lend expecting nothing in return.” What kind of foolish risk is this? 

An Elemental Offering

 I.        Vow of Affirmation

“We devote our daily life to God, and to serving our neighbors as images of God:”

1. I will daily offer my life to God with reverence and a living faith; I will daily pray to be used as a servant by God for the good of my neighbors near and far.

(Photo by justin tippins via Flickr)

During the opening to Lent, we may sound like a recording from the first week of the New Year: “I resolve to eat less and healthier, to be a nicer person, to turn this resolution into a new habit.” How many of us really make it through more than a few weeks of our resolutions? But the commitments we make at the beginning of Lent are of a different nature. Unlike most New Year’s resolutions, Lenten vows are made as a covenant between us and our God (and hopefully our faith community). The focus shifts toward serving God and others more than just our own self-improvement.  And rightly focused, God—more than our human initiative and willpower—becomes the source of our resolve and strength to carry out our Lenten vows.

Introducing a Covenant of Christian Nonviolence

The Peace Committee of Virginia Mennonite Conference (VMC) invites you and your congregation to invigorate or refresh your pursuit of Jesus’ calling to be peacemakers in the path of obedient discipleship. Toward this end, we offer a solid Covenant of Christian Nonviolence for reflection, conversation and adoption by groups and individuals seeking to deepen their practices of peacemaking and witness. 

This thick Covenant is rooted in the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount and the practical experience of peacemakers in past generations. The goal of the Covenant is not to create a new church program or a new sub-group within our churches, but to create new opportunities and awareness in our hearts for the Spirit of Jesus to shine forth the light of the gospel in our lives, which is the peace of God’s Kingdom.   

The Covenant is not intended to be a checklist for achieving a status, but a set of spiritual exercises for seeking more intimate fellowship with God and peace with our neighbors, our own selves, and all creation.  For adolescents establishing their faith-identities, and adults seeking deeper faith, this Covenant can be a resource to visit again and again for clarifying Jesus’ call to the path of God’s Kingdom in the midst of a violent world.