Saying Yes & No With Ancestors

Three major commemorations converged last week: the birth of the Anabaptist movement, the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. (and the broader movement of which he was part, including our Anabaptist ancestors, Rosemarie and Vincent Harding), and the anniversary of the first national collective action of Mennonite Action. Thanks to the Pastoral Team for Mennonite Action, we notice a thread through these significant commemorations: “the willingness of ordinary people to take actions that simultaneously speak a no and a yes.” Another story for today: fisherfolk in Luke’s gospel who leave everything (including a mountain of fish, representing a mountain of wealth) to follow Jesus. God, grant us wisdom and courage as we join these many ancestors of ours in walking a path that says NO to security and status quo and YES to the risky, uncertain, and liberating Way of Jesus.

Sermon begins at 6:14

Scripture: ​​​​Luke 5:1–11

Resources

• This sermon was taken whole cloth (with some of my own riffs added) from “Prayers for a significant week” from the Mennonite Action Pastoral Team, January 20, 2025.
• Anabaptist Community Bible
• Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde imploring President Trump to “have mercy” on immigrants and LGBTQ people targeted by his policies, at the end of her inaugural prayer service sermon in the National Cathedral, Washington D.C.: video clip linked here.
• The Movement Makes Us Human: An Interview with Dr. Vincent Harding on Mennonites, Vietnam, and MLK, Joanna Shenk, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2018
• Remnants: A Memoir of Spirit, Activism, and Mothering, Rosemarie Freeney Harding, with Rachel Elizabeth Harding, Duke University Press, 2015.
• BibleWorm podcast: Episode 623 - The Call of Simon, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, Jr
• others?
• Image: covers of the two Harding books noted above
• Hymn 57 Holy Spirit, Come with Power. Text: Anne Neufeld Rupp (USA), © 1970 Anne Neufeld Rupp, trans. Barbara Mink (USA), © 1988 Music: attr. B. F. White (USA), The Sacred Harp, 1844; harm. Joan Fyock Norris (USA), © 1989 Joan Fyock Norris. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, license #A-726929. All rights reserved.