Luke 15:11-32
Then He said: “A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants...”’
In the mid-1970's Timm Rautert travelled from Germany to photograph one of America's most peculiar communities. This search brought him to Lancaster, PA but he wasn't looking to document the whole town but rather a community within the community. This community was actually a Church, but it was unlike any other of churches communities in Lancaster. This church was different because it had constructed its own culture. This community/church/culture was that of the Amish. Often times we classify the Amish and their Anabaptist brethren (including the Mennonites and Hutterites) as Protestants. That may be okay in our simplistic Western polarizing description of Christian differences, where everything is either Catholic or Protestant (leaving no room for the Eastern Orthodox), but it is not historically accurate. The roots of Protestantism are found in Timm Rautert's native Germany, when Martin Luther's critical call for systemic repairs in the Roman Catholic Church inspired a generation of religious revolutionaries that we call the Reformation. In response to the growing influence of the reformers (such as Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, etc.) the Catholic hierarchy convened a movement called the Counter-Reformation. This was generally seen as a doubling down on Catholic identity and evangelistic zeal as the Church sought to define itself in light of perceived heresy. However, these two weren't the only shows in town. Counter to both the Counter-Reformation and the Reformation itself was the Radical Reformation. This smaller movement was essentially started by the students of the Reformers who thought that the religious revolution was not going far enough. Granted the Radical Reformation was initially a mixed bag of those with both good and bad ideas (some of them even being violent), but by the time thinkers like Menno Simons came onboard the movement had developed into a countercultural collection of pacifistic, simple folks who thought that being the Church started and stopped in the imitation of Jesus. That being the case they rethought many Christian traditions such as church hierarchy/organization, baptism (eschewing infant baptism in favor of adult of "believer's baptism), militarism and even nationalism. This countercultural genesis is where the Amish find their roots. But that is not to say that the Amish are against traditions: on the contrary they are known by their traditions. Their customs of barn-raising, simple dress and abstinence from electricity/technology are what attracted Timm Rautert to attempt to photograph this religious group (that ironically sees photographs and all image-making as breaking the second Commandment). Yet their is another Amish tradition that I would like to document today: one that perfectly captures the image of the Prodigal Son parable. It is a tradition in which the famously counterculture Amish free their children to experience the surrounding culture outside of their community, culture and church. Then at the end of this period of both freedom and trial their sons and daughters decide whether they will return home or remain prodigal.
“...And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry..."
The name of this distinctively Amish tradition is Rumspringa. According to Wikipedia "Rumspringa is a Pennsylvania German noun meaning running around. It is derived from the verb rumspringen. It is closely related to the Standard German verb(he)rumspringen meaning "to jump around or about." This period occurs between ages 14-16 where the normally stringent rules governing all Amish are relaxed a bit while the young decide if the path of the Church is the road that they will continue to travel on. The youth are permitted to examine the non-Amish world around them replete with all of the vices that it offers. If the youth decide to rejoin the Amish community after this period then they are also choosing to officially join the Church and are initiated through the rite of baptism (hence the term "believer's baptism"). The reader can probably see a strong parallel between the practice of Rumspringa and the parable of the Prodigal Son. The wayward child has tested the temptations of the world and after repenting of his folly he returns to a forgiving father. This makes for easy sermons that end with you crying while walking down an aisle, praying "the sinner's prayer" and shaking Billy Graham's hand. End scene and roll the credits, right? Wrong. Even though we usually hear the parable end at this point in sermons it is not where Jesus ends it. Actually it doesn't even include the focal point and overall theme of the story. It appears that Rumspringa has ramifications.
The Brother and Self-Righteousness
“...Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.’ But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. So he answered and said to his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him...’
I have heretofore presented the Amish and there traditions in a fairly glowing light. You might even be wondering if I am Amish who has mysteriously gotten his hands on a laptop and Internet connection (albeit a wooden one powered by a frantic hamster). Although I do reserve a warm place in my heart for Anabaptists in general, I am not Amish. I am also aware that the Amish are also known for having a few ugly traditions. Whether these be an overly wooden literalism when it comes to images and iconoclasm, shunning sinners/avoiding outsiders or resisting the potential of good in technology all of these maladies have one mutual diagnosis: legalism. By "legalism" I mean the refusal to accept the simplicity of God's Grace due to complicating it with the tradition's of men. Now I am not using this as a point of departure to start railing off a Protestant works versus grace attack on Catholics because the Catholic Church of today is quite different than the one that the Reformer's faced. In spite of other differences most in both camps stand on the same Augustinian foundation theologically. I mention legalism because it is what Christ was arguing against in the character of the Prodigal Son's brother. This character was the reason for the parable because it was a symbolic of the Pharisees. Remember that Jesus' parable starts out by telling us that the Forgiving Father had two sons. The one that was not prodigal was older, just like the traditions that the Pharisees followed. These legalistic traditions of men led the Pharisees ugly customs such into an overly wooden literalism, shunning sinners/avoiding outsiders and resisting seeing the potential for good in their brothers (also like the Amish they also had no Internet access). Like the older brother their self-righteous pursuit of justifying themselves through meticulous rule following caused them to miss the move of God in mercy. Like the Forgiving Father, God has two types of children: one who knows his Father's mercy through repentance and the other who never knows repentance and therefore never knows the mercy of his Father. The return from Rumspringa is the choosing of your family.
The Father and Repentance/Salvation
“...And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.’”
Rumspringa may be a tradition that is particular to the Amish but all Christian communities have their own equivalent to the post-Rumspringa process. Those churches who (like the Amish) exclusively practice adult baptism as the norm require a profession of faith and repentance before baptism into Christ and his community. Those churches who hold infant baptism (or paedo-baptism) as normative start with baptizing the child into Christ and then after catechism the much older child (closer to the age of Rumspringa) is afforded the opportunity to fully join Christ's community through Confirmation. All of these are wonderful traditions to have as they through ritual and rite remember the life of Christ in the life of the Church and the lives of individual believers. I have no qualms with this. What I am arguing is that if we capture the fullness of Jesus' parable then we will expand from only onetime individual acts to signify repentance to a collective Church-wide paradigm shift that signifies a lifestyle of continual forgiveness. The reason of the Prodigal Son parable may have been to highlight the theological problems of the self-righteous brother/Pharisees but the message is bigger than that. The story is that some may be like the Prodigal Son (seeking mercy) while others are like the Self-Righteous Brother (seeking to justify themselves) but both should emulate the Forgiving Father. Because of course the Forgiving Father is God. That was Jesus' consistent message, "be perfect, just as your Father in Heaven is perfect." Herein lies the key to this godly perfection: taking the sins that others commit against you from and returning mercy. The full context of this command being, "You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect." Jesus reveals the fullness of God that has been there from Creation: that of a Forgiving Father calling out to Mankind "Where are you, Adam?", as He waits for His son to return to Him. Waiting for Mankind to return from Rumspringa.
Whether it was images of the rural farms of the Amish, de facto segregation in big cities or the banal art world of Andy Warhol, Timm Rautert was the German that showed America to the Americans. The power of good photography is that it invites you into the visual experiences of the photographer. The strength of this phenomenon is doubled when the eyes of the beholder that you view through points the lens at your own culture and gives you an outsiders perspective. It shows you things that you never saw and things that you saw but never noticed. The Radical Reformation forefathers that the Amish tradition is heir was inspired to look at their own culture through the filtered lens of Jesus' life and teachings. It led them to form a counterculture that the evils of nationalism, violence and religious superfluidity that plagued both houses of the Western Christendom of their time. It would do us well to consider the priceless insights of these simple people in every corner and generation of the Church. It is presently very popular to think of Christianity as a countercultural agent but we must also stay vigilant that we not turn counterculture Christianity into its own idol. There is nothing salvific about just being different. Besides, the truth of the Prodigal Son (and all of Jesus' ministry) is not that we should necessarily be counterculture. Sometimes we can work with and through culture to redeem culture (you know like making an Art blog that is also a Bible blog. #patsselfontheback). The truth that Christ commits to us is to be counterintuitive. Because Grace is counterintuitive. It shows you things that you never saw and things that you saw but never noticed. Grace is the lens of a camera showing us a God who has been waiting with a feast for our return. It is the image of a Father whose genes of forgiveness and mercy are our inheritance. It is a picture that is counterintuitive to anything we thought before but it all makes sense if we just look through Jesus' eyes.
So come back home.
