David Landis, dplandis@franconiaconference.org

Many people come to the Holy Lands trying to change the world. They come with an agenda, either to speed up the end of the world or find personal spiritual epiphany. Sometimes they try to call down justice to give the land to the Jews or create a Palestinian state. In comparison, most of the people who were born here seem to just want to live their lives in peace. In a land that has been a crossroads of trade, culture and religion for millennia, they are used to visitors coming and going with crazy ideas and absurd goals.

My most meaningful experiences in the past four and a half months have not been with revolutionaries, peace activists or religious leaders. They come from the normal people who populate the towns and cities, spending time with their families, and going to work each day. These relationships are built within an atmosphere of hospitality sharing the normal parts of life—coffee, tea, falafel and shwarama. These people seem to have a greater ability to see their neighbors as human beings, not as others representing a specific religious or ethnic background.

I’ve spent a lot of time walking the routes that Jesus would have traveled regularly in the Galilee. Nazareth, Cana, and Capernaum, as well as most of the places mentioned in the Gospels, were almost inconsequential in relation to the broader ruling empire. The two largest cities of power and glory in the region—Tiberias and Sepphoris—were never mentioned in scripture. Jesus’ disciples were common peasants and laborers with mixed and ambiguous perspectives on the Roman Empire. Many of them would have spent most of their lives just trying to feed their families.

Last week my Israeli friend Maoz and I took a journalist and photographer from the Israeli Newspaper Ha’aretz on the Jesus Trail, a hiking route that we are developing to connect these places. It was a lot of fun to share some of the places of Jesus’ life with them, explaining why they were significant to his history and the Christian story. When we passed by an ancient synagogue at the ruins of Arbella, they shared pieces of their Jewish heritage with me.

Together we visited the Mount of Beatitudes, all remarking on the ugliness of the church’s interior and how much more beautiful the green paths of the countryside is in comparison. I think it all made us wonder about the difference between Jesus the Jewish peasant traveler and the Christianity that has developed since he walked these hills 2000 years ago.

I am currently taking a seminary course that explores the first century context of Jesus’ life. In my research, I am continually struck by his normalcy. Although history does indicate that his life brought revolution to western civilization, I often wonder if his intention was to be someone who would change the world. My suspicion is that he was just trying to live his life well and help a diversity of others to do the same, directing their journeys toward God.

There is a saying that if you spend a week in Israel you can write a book about your experience, and that if you stay for a month you can produce a really good article. The adage continues saying that if you stay here much more than this, you won’t even know what to say.

The longer I stay in Nazareth, the more I just want to live my life in the company of close friends, sharing the hospitable space that happens over a cup of coffee or dinner. This renews and sustains our relationships and brings us joy each day. And perhaps because they’re not trying to start a revolution, these interactions may change the world.

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Elizabeth Ensing Wise
gmht@meetinghouse.info

I really didn’t want to move to the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pa. I’d lived in West Philly ever since I was a Nonprofit Management grad student at Eastern University back in 1997, and frankly, those six miles might as well have been across the state to me. But when the rental my soon-to-be husband and I had arranged fell through, we took a second look at the apartment listing Germantown Mennonite Historic Trust had posted to our church’s listserve. I guess God knew our combined belongings would never have fit in that tiny West Philly place.

I sure had no idea how many records, CDs and sound equipment items a professional jazz musician would own! Ed had moved to Philadelphia from New Orleans, La., on the tail of Hurricane Katrina, recently engaged to me. We got married in New Orleans in October, 2006, in a tribute to the decade he spent there, our mutual love of the city, and a gesture of economic support for the recovering town.

So the campus of the Germantown Mennonite Historic Trust has become our first home as newlyweds, and the historic 1770 Meetinghouse and burial ground have become a part of our everyday lives. It is a serene and beautiful place, with an amazing and peaceful timelessness that is a striking contrast to the cacophony of noise that is Germantown Avenue almost 24/7. Picture high school kids swaggering and swearing on their way home from school. Families bustling in and out of the neon yellow FOODLAND corner market. Random sirens screaming and work trucks bouncing over the cobblestones and trolley tracks. The perpetual ice cream truck jingle in the air and the questionable drug corner a block away.

When Randy Nyce, my friend and the former Executive Director here, told me he’d be leaving Germantown Mennonite Historic Trust, I offered my help if they needed “someone to hold it together” for awhile. Sure enough, the call came, and I’ve been serving as Interim Executive Director since September 2007.

Absorbing the history and roots of the first Mennonite community in America, in combination with actually living on this site, has been a profound experience for me. As I learn more, I am very inspired by the stories of those first families who stepped out in faith in 1683, leaving behind everything they knew in Germany to pursue their desire to worship freely. This place is an amazing touchstone of significance to almost anyone in North America with Mennonite roots, as most of the early Mennonite immigrants passed through here on their way west.

This year we are celebrating the 300th anniversary of several historic “firsts” in Germantown: the construction of the first Mennonite meetinghouse and the first Mennonite baptisms and communion in America. I’m looking forward to the historic conference we’ll hold on October 17-18, with talks by John Ruth and James Juhnke and a worship service in the Meetinghouse. We’ll also be featuring “Colonial Germantown Mennonites”, a new book by Leonard Gross and Jan Gleysteen.

I don’t know how long I’ll be called to stay with Germantown Mennonite Historic Trust. But I can tell you what a wonderful privilege it has been to learn about the Mennonite legacy here in this place and glimpse the future that this Board of Directors has begun to imagine. I am convinced of the special relevance the early Mennonite story holds for today, and not just for Mennonites: I truly believe that the strength of the Mennonite peace witness has a special relevance for this specific community, where violence, poverty and injustice are woven into the fabric of so many people’s lives. If you or your group have never been here or if you’ve been here a thousand times, I hope you’ll come and visit soon!

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Noah Kolb
nkolb@franconiaconference.org

Few of us can deny that Franconia Conference has been somewhat of a closed community, given our long history of more than 300 years, a dominantly German culture, a common rural farm mind set, and a commitment to a Biblical/Anabaptist faith that values a simple following of the Way of Jesus.

Having grown up within this community, it was difficult for me to interact with the culture around me. I did not trust the religious community beyond what was already familiar. In 1970 after college and seminary I was ordained as the pastor for the Pottstown (PA) Mennonite Church, an early mission congregation of Franconia Conference.

I was primarily equipped to maintain the faith community in which I was raised. Yet I had a sense that we needed to connect to the larger community and world, if we were going to share our faith with others. I had little clue how to do it and was keenly aware of the tension this produced within me.

When I read the articles in this issue of Intersections I was deeply aware that we are in a community that is being transformed. Blaine Detwiler, moderator elect, a trusted brother and pastor who grew up in the heart of conference, carries a vision that takes us far beyond the culture many of us were nurtured in.

“This vision calls us to embrace various origins, cultures, and languages, even here in the Northeast corridor,” Forrest Moyer writes regarding Detwiler’s vision. “It calls us…to reach beyond our own culture and language and to give ourselves to our neighbors in the way that Christ gave himself to the world”.

It shouldn’t surprise us that our recent appointed Executive Minister, Noel Santiago, who was born in Puerto Rico and nurtured in two cultures, sees our conference’s culture opening itself to a larger world. He is encouraged by the way this rich and deep faith community with its strengths and weaknesses has been able to show “God’s goodness” to those who come to it.

Both Noel and Blaine see a new vision of community, a vision that calls us beyond our present realities of culture, language, nationality, and economic status. It is a vision of people from the east and west and north and south together at the great feast in the kingdom of God. Such a vision brings much hope and encouragement to me.

I take great delight in new pastoral installations: Tom Albright at Whitehall Church, a relatively new disciple from the community beyond our Mennonite boundaries to do community outreach through creative ministry and commissioning; and Firman Gingerich, a conservative Mennonite from a Midwest Anabaptist/Mennonite community, with rich gifts and experiences to lead the Blooming Glen congregation.

The vision becomes reality within new congregations like Peace Mennonite, ministering to people other churches have not reached and Nations Worship Center, bringing Indonesian and other nationalities together for worship, fellowship, and ministry around Christ.

This vision calls for new and creative ways of doing kingdom work even with traditional structures. Sterling Edward carries out a counter-cultural dream nurturing 60,000 children over the last 20 years at Spruce Lake “learning about God’s creation in God’s creation.” And David Kochsmeier, sees greater opportunities beyond Life With God’s weekly radio message and, with the board, develops additional ministries.

And finally the world is coming to us and needs to hear the Gospel of peace. Mary Jane Hershey tells us this wonderful story of forgiveness and peacemaking discovered by Kholeka Kholly, a South African teacher who came to visit in their home for a weekend.

The hungry world is coming to our door. Do we have any bread? Can we live into the vision that Noel and Blaine hold before us? Or will we protect what we have for fear it will be lost? Jesus reminds us by example and word that “it is in giving that we receive.”

We have light to offer the world. Let’s remove the basket that we’ve sometimes kept over it.

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