The Reardon’s returned to us from the Mennonite Church USA Convention in Kansas City. Tim spoke on Matthew 5:33-37 as part of our summer series on the sermon on the mount. Someone at the conference suggested that given the Anabaptist affection for the sermon on the mount, we be called “Mounties.” Hence the adaptation of Arnold Friberg’s Canadian mountie.

This week’s topic is the swearing of oaths — which many Mennonites still refrain from doing.

Tim shares an anecdote of Glen Guyton, Executive Director of Mennonite Church USA, sang a rendition of Come as You Are by 90’s grunge powerhouse Nirvana, with the chorus “And I swear I don’t have a gun…”

Jesus says simply let your yes be yes and your no be no. Be people who speak truth at all times, and demonstrate it with our deeds.

Another aspect of the passage deals with who and what we are swearing ourselves to. As we commit ourselves to God, we cannot know what will be required of us, and can only do so by walking the road of discipleship behind Jesus.

Though this passage was debated in the early church, many understood that the forbidding of oaths by Jesus was forbidding us to bind ourselves to authority or power other than God. This is not a new interpretation. We are to be a people whose allegiance is only to God and to nothing else. This refusal to swear oaths can be dangerous to a world that depends on oaths — as was seen in the anabaptist martyrs of the early church — martyred for civil disobedience.

What things demand our allegiance today? Studies show that our small decisions and choices impact our decisions to come. We are constantly making commitments. The body of Christ, the church, exercises small acts that unite us in the bonds of peace all the time — acts of humilty and generosity. Our baptism is a submission to Jesus and to one another. When we take communion we commit ourselves to Jesus. These acts bind us together in bonds of peace into something bigger, and impact our identity in the person of Jesus.

However the world we live in is also fighting hard for our allegience. How will we be bound to God’s justice and peace in today’s world? Hear Tim’s stories from personal to Tolstoy to foot in the door examples in the recording below.

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