Baptist Values – Freedom – 1 Corinthians 2:1-12
Over the last few weeks, we have been working through a series on Baptist values, thinking, talking, and learning about where we, as Baptist Christians came from, what has shaped our distinctive community of faith and what should continue to shape our discipleship emphasis, our ways of being and doing church, our call to mission and, today, our commitment to religious freedom.
And each Sunday, we have given meaning to these values by engaging with powerful Baptist symbols: doing down deep under the water and emerging to new life as a symbol of discipleship; gathering at this table to remember what Jesus did for us and re-member (bring back together) ourselves as Christ’s body; hearing God’s word proclaimed from a pulpit or lived out and shared out at a picnic; and today, it is appropriate, that we reflect on religious freedom or freedom of conscience by having a book launch!
Because it was by launching a book that this extraordinary idea – extraordinarily Baptist idea – of religious freedom began. Not this book – though I am sure you will find it in this book! But this book – with the less catchy title of A Short Declaration of the Mistery of Iniquity (sic).
The Mistery of Iniquity was written in 1612 by Thomas Helwys who – you may remember – with John Smyth established the first Baptist church in Amsterdam in 1609. They had fled there, along with other Separatists, when the English authorities began to jail them and raid their houses. Helwys was relatively wealthy – he owned an estate – and he financed the emigration. As another Separatist leader said, “If any brought oars, he brought sails.”
It is worth noting that Helwys’ wife, Joan Ashmore, the mother of his seven children, was also a committed Separatist. When Helwys fled, he assumed his family would be safe, but Joan was arrested, imprisoned for three months, and given a sentence of banishment when she refused in court to take the oath of obedience to the Anglican church.
In Amsterdam, however, John Smyth was having misgivings about having re-baptised himself having discovered that the Waterlander Mennonites also practiced regenerate church membership (that the church consists only of people baptised after a confession of faith) and he joined them in 1610, taking around 30 of the 40 Baptist church members with him! Helwys and the remaining 10, however, did not join the Mennonites, in 1611, Helwys wrote the first Baptist confession of faith. Over the next twelve months he wrote three more important works; A Short and Plain Proof, By the Word and Works of God, That God’s Decree Is Not the Cause of Any Man’s Sin or Condemnation: And That All Men Are Redeemed by Christ; As Also That No Infants Are Condemned (Yes!, would have been a better title!), a polemic on their differences with the Mennonites, and, finally, The Mistery of Iniquity.
In 1613, knowing they would be persecuted, Helwys and twelve others returned to England to found the first Baptist congregation on English soil in Spitalfields, east London, and they sent a copy of The Mistery of Iniquity to King James I with a handwritten inscription arguing for freedom of conscience. (Four copies of the book remain, including this copy which is found in the Bodleian Library.) “The King,” Helwys wrote to King James, “is a mortal man, and not God, therefore he hath no power over the mortal soul of his subjects to make laws and ordinances for them and to set spiritual Lords over them.” King James’ response was to imprison Helwys, who died, still in prison, in 1616 leaving ten pounds in his will to his wife, Joan.
That is not much, even then, but Helwys left all of us, Baptists and humanity, with much more! The Mistery of Iniquity is an extraordinary book for although it critiques the failings of the Church of England, Catholics and other Separatist congregations, it is the first book in the English language to articulate and defend the principle of religious freedom. And not just religious freedom for Baptists, but for everyone – Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Muslims or atheists! Helwys writes, “Men’s religion to God is between God and themselves. The king shall not answer for it. Let them be heretics, Turks, Jews, or whatsoever, it appertains not to the earthly power to punish them in the least measure.”
Where did this extraordinary idea come from, long before it was taken up in the work of others?
For Helwys it came from reading the Bible, particularly the New Testament, and seeing how Jesus related to people. In the words of Baptist minister, Alec Gilmore, he saw, “Persuasion rather than compulsion. The right of the one to proclaim, balanced by the right of the other to reject.” And he saw this modelled by the early church. Paul, in our passage today, saying; “I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified…”
(It is interesting to compare this balanced respect, this defending even the freedoms of those you disagree with – “heretics, Turks and Jews” – with the recent Religious Discrimination Bill. Reading the commentaries, it seemed it was Uniting Church President, Dr Diedre Palmer’s words that resonated most with those of Helwys. “We support protecting the human right to religious freedom for all people,” she said, “but in exercising our rights, we want to ensure we also uphold the human rights of others…[particularly the most vulnerable.]”)
It was this identification, too, with the vulnerable that shaped Helwys’ views; Jesus’ struggle with the Pharisees and ultimately the power of Roman, the early church oppressed by Judaism and the law. In 1 Corinthians 2: “We speak God’s wisdom….None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”
It also came from this very Baptist idea that each person comes to God by a personal faith decision, that this is their decision to make, and no one else to control.
And it came, as our passage testifies, by the reading of Scripture and the revelation of God’s Spirit! As another Separatist leader of this time, John Robinson, said, “I am verily persuaded the Lord hath more truth yet to break forth out of His Holy Word.”
It was this book [the Bible] that shaped Helwys’ book and shaped his story and has shaped the stories of so many other Baptists right to this day.
Allan Demond, a Baptist pastor from Victoria, gave an address to Australian Baptist Ministries speaking about the values of our Baptist movement, and the symbols of our Baptist movement, and asking, “What are the stories of our Baptist movement?” We may not all launch books, but we all have stories! “We need to lose some old, jaded stories,” he said. “’Baptists don’t….’ is a sorry old yarn. It makes for bad jokes. Whether we a referencing a dance, a drink of wine, a deck of cards, a non-Disney movie… Today, Baptists do!”
This is our story! In this church, we Baptists do! We continue to call people to love and serve God, to explore what it means to follow Jesus today, to be led by the Holy Spirit. And we call people to be baptised and to join this church. If that sounds like you – please come and speak to me – today or whenever you get a chance.
In this church, we Baptists do! We work hard at community navigating difficult issues while respecting people’s freedom of conscience and – as the video emphasised – remaining in healthy relationships. This is something we have called for from our denomination as well. And we continue to do community, despite all the challenges of a pandemic, making every effort, as Ephesians 4 says, “to maintain the unity of the Spirit in our bond of peace”, recognising the gifts bestowed by God, as 1 Corinthians 2 says, on us, and raising up and supporting in their ministry new leaders, new small group leaders, new youth coordinators, new deacons, and a new ministry team.
In this church, we Baptists do! We do mission. We do mission in our daily lives – it has been noted before in the National Church Life Survey and I am sure it will be said again – that this church shares its faith – not in big evangelistic programmes – but by thoroughly engaging, deeply engaging, with the lives of others, our friends and family and our community. We do mission through our Community Centre, too, a place where all are welcome – to quote Helwys again – whether they are heretics, Turks or Jews – where we can share what matters to us, and they can share what matters to them – in the spirit of genuine hospitality, not hospitality with strings attached. And we do mission – sharing God’s love and justice – as Lisa and Rebecca beautifully expressed last week – here in Canberra and as far away as Uganda.
And finally in this church, we Baptists do freedom! We do freedom for our younger people to explore faith. We do freedom for our older people to explore faith. We stand with other Baptist churches to preserve freedom of conscience as a value for our denomination, and we believe that freedom of conscience is part of creating a society where all can live freely and flourish. This is our Baptist story, and we want to continue sharing it with the world.
Prayers of Intercession
God of freedom, we give you thanks that you have come into our world and revealed to us through your Son’s life and death and through your word that “if the Son has set us free, then we are free indeed.” Help us to live this freedom.
Help us not to be concerned about accumulating wealth and power, help us to be generous.
Help us not be concerned about our influence or reputation, but to boldly love.
Help us not to be fearful, but to know that your wisdom is deeper and stronger.
We pray for Bev’s family, for James, Cameron, Kendall, Jonno, and their partners, and all the grandchildren, and all of us, as we grieve. Comfort them and comfort us as we celebrate Bev’s unshakable faith in you this week and continue to mourn her loss.
We pray for all who ill in our community, for all who love and care for family members who are ill – Max and his son Brendan having further cancer treatment, Liz with her faither in Queensland, and we pray especially for those making decisions and caring for each other, and balancing difficult needs, as they age. We lift to you especially Beth and David, Margaret and Colin and Marlene and Keith. Give them the love and the strength they need now.
We pray for the younger people in our church – continuing to be vaccinated for Covid 19 and continuing to deal with the disruption of Covid alerts. May we be a church that provides the support and the care these families and these young people need at this time.
And, Loving God, we bring you as we bring you all the needs of our world, Ukraine. We pray for the European Baptist Federation (EBF) and with Ukrainian church leaders who have asked us to pray in this way:
• For the people of Ukraine – for those in shock at this sudden and violent violation of their country – that they will fine safety and know the comfort of God’s presence.
• For the Baptists in the region, as they prepare to use their churches as safe havens and emergency supply distribution points for those fleeing.
• For those who are fleeing; that their paths will be clear, that will be able to get the fuel and food they need and find places to rest. And for neighbouring countries – that they will welcome and care for those who choose to flee across borders
• We pray for those who cannot, or will not, leave. Pray that they are not discouraged by those who do and do not feel that the international community has given up hope for the possibility of peace and freedom for the people of Ukraine.
• And Pastor Igor Bandura, Vice President of the Ukrainian Baptist Union also asks that we pray for his fellow pastors to “keep believing that God will be glorified”
For we seek, Loving God, to speak your wisdom, secret and hidden, which you decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified you But, as it is written,
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the human heart conceived,
what God has prepared for those who love him”—
May this be so. Amen!