Starring Me In the Face

“Lightly men talk of saying what they mean. Often when he was teaching me to write in Greek the Fox would say, ‘Child, to say the very thing you really mean, the whole of it, nothing more or less or other than what you really mean; that’s the whole art and joy of words.’ A glib saying. When the time comes to you at which you will be forced at last to utter the speech which has lain at the center of your soul for years, which you have, all that time, idiot-like, been saying over and over, you’ll not talk about joy of words. I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openly, nor let us answer. Till that word can be dug out of us, why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?” - C.S. Lewis in Til We Have Faces

A perennial, burning question on my heart has been for quite some time now, "What is the difference between someone who is actively choosing the redemptive process and someone who is actively rejecting it?" Most of the time, I truly feel as though there is none.

But last night, my Mennonite History class went on a field trip to visit an Old Order Mennonite couple in an Old Order Mennonite school house. And it was inspiring.

Old Order Mennonites are people who felt the Mennonite Church was becoming too liberal and individualistic during the Great Awakening that swept North America by storm. Thus, they formed their own little communities, reverting back in time a bit, and they are now known in this area as the "horse and buggy Mennonites."

I like the way they live. Its more eco-friendly. However, they don't seem to realize this, rejecting cars because "it could cause people to want to get involved in impure things - like going to the movie theatre". Personally, I'm not ready to give up my reliance on motorized transportation. But it gnaws on me that there are people who have given it up and are quite content with that.

Its far more community oriented. If someone gets sick, the congregation pays their medical bills. If someone sins and confesses it, an announcement in church is made that yes, brother so-and-so sinned, but he has confessed it and it is in the past now. Decisions about how to live in the world but not of it are discussed at congregational councils. If a tragedy happens, the individuals know their congregation will be there to support them.

It puts a high emphasis on pacifism.
It puts a high emphasis on discipline.
Its obsessed with following the teachings of Jesus.

Part of me desperately wants to join, or at least try it out. Outsiders are welcome to their Sunday services and if someone wants to join, they are encouraged to live with a family for awhile to see if this is something they are willing to do.

Part of me laughs at how entrenched in legalism they are. Or are they? I HAVE seen many things which have affected my purity in movie theatres, and in the media in general. I don't believe a movie theatre is an evil in and of itself though. I have also seen movies with a powerful Christ-like message in movie theatres, like Water, Amazing Grace and obviously The Passion of the Christ.

Sometimes being a Christian is like doing a little dance on a very thin rope, trying not to fall into the crowd below, or falling in, but justifying it by saying redemption can be found in many secular things and backing that argument up by Scripture.

I feel like Old Order Mennonites try not to even climb onto the rope, preferring to occupy their time with other things that have nothing to do with trying to sort through the evils or redemptive qualities of mass culture.

And they stick out so much that they do get questioned a lot about their faith. The couple re-iterated that a few times last night.

I LONG to stick out so much that I get questioned.

But perhaps the bonnets and flowered dresses are simply their own versions of Christian T-Shirts - something unimportant to identify the in-crowd from the out-crowd.

I used to find Christian t-shirts quite attractive before I learned to scoff at them. They WERE handy. In my mind I would think, "Oh, isn't that great! He's not ashamed of his faith! I should marry him."

*Smiles* if you have made it this far in my post I congratulate you. This is more of a discussion topic than a blog topic. I have far too many loosely related ideas bouncing around in my head. Turrah.