Sermon by Herman Kauffman
Union Center Church of the Brethren
July 27, 2003

Grandpa Wore A Beard and Mama Wore a Covering

1Peter 2:9-10
Romans 12:1-2

I am convinced that churches in ministry in the 21^st century must hold in tension two of the same guiding principles that the early Christian Church struggled with: a vision for the future and a rootedness in our past heritage. Our heritage gives us identity and our vision gives us direction. Pastor Ruth recently completed a sermon series on vision using our new vision statement. This morning I want to remind us of our roots - our heritage within the Church of the Brethren.

Kenneth Gibble, one of my favorite preachers - now retired, shares the following story from his boyhood days growing up in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania:

Growing up in Lancaster County, the heart of the Pennsylvania German culture, I knew that tourists came from around the world to stare at the Plain People - mostly the Amish and the Mennonites. [Although 50 years ago] most Brethren in that area also considered themselves "plain people." Our older preachers and deacons still wore the plain-cut, black garb that had once been common among all Dunkers. My mother, like the other women of her age in our congregation, wore her hair long, pinned up, and covered by a prayer veil. As a boy, I gave such matters little thought.

But sometimes our family took car trips. On one such outing - I no longer remember where we went - we chanced to stop at a restaurant. I was in my early teens, an age at which self-consciousness and identity can become painfully acute issues. As we walked through the restaurant, I became aware that people were staring at us, at my mother in particular. I saw a woman lean over and whisper something to her husband.

And in that moment, I was ashamed. Ashamed of my mother and her prayer covering, ashamed of my dad and his job at the feed mill, ashamed of my heritage, of being part of the plain people, ashamed of my church, ashamed because all of it had conspired to make me and us somehow "different." I took my seat with ears red from embarrassment and sat there in utter dismay.

Now before you get upset with that young fellow sitting there in the restaurant, Gibble continues, let me assure you that no one could be as hard on him as I have been. Countless times in later years I have been grieved by that boy's shame. I have scolded him, rebuked him, for that moment of betrayal. And I have asked forgiveness - not of my parents, for they never knew of my embarrassment - but forgiveness from myself ... and forgiveness from God. I have been forgiven. ⁽¹⁾

I retell Gibble's story with you this morning because, in part, it is not only his story: it is my story and it may be for some of you your story as well. I, too, remember my mother wearing her covering to church every Sunday, and that was OK when I was younger and we attended a church where most of the other women wore the covering as well. But then we moved and in our new church home the other women no longer wore the covering.

The disappearance of the "covering" is but one of the changes I have seen in the Church of the Brethren during my lifetime. And just to make sure that you don't think I'm picking on the women this morning, let me add that most of you men aren't wearing beards or the plain-cut, black garb this morning. We've come along way from the "plain people" who saw "being different" as a good way for Christians to make a witness to the world. Perhaps, like Gibble, we were embarrassed and ashamed by our manner of dress and so we changed and became like everyone else.

Floyd Mallot, in his book Studies in Brethren History, summarizes the changing dress customs early in the 20^th century at the same time our mode of transportation was changing, with this line: "The Dunker elder bought an automobile and stepped on the gas; out of the window went his broadbrim (hat), followed by his wife's bonnet, followed by his whiskers."⁽²⁾

Earlier in my faith journey I struggled with this issue. Several years after feeling embarrassed about the issue of mom's covering, I did a complete turn-around myself. I had gone to seminary and in the process of learning more of my Brethren heritage, I decided to grow a beard and to stop wearing a tie. The beard lasted eight years, the no-tie-look about two or three years.

I finally came to the conclusion, that for me, my garb and manner of dress is not the crucial factor in how I live my life or witness to my faith. But I'm still not ready to say it's OK to be like everyone else. Christians are different from non-Christians and we shouldn't be embarrassed to be different in the way we live our lives. And among Christians, Brethren have some unique beliefs and practices (ie. "all war is sin" or the Brethren love Feast) that we shouldn't be ashamed of either. It is good to understand and affirm our heritage as Brethren.

One of the most treasured books in my library was written by Kermit Eby in 1958. Now out-of-print, it is titled For Brethren Only. The book is a compilation of Eby's Brethren heritage as it was discovered and lived out a short distance from here in the Baugo Church of the Brethren. Through a series of stories and reflective commentary, Eby makes a point that was true 45 years ago and is even more true today: we have lost touch with our roots and our heritage. As a result, we are in danger of not knowing who we are or what we believe. Eby writes:

Not only do I want ... Brethren to know their Bible; I want them to know their history. Alexander Mack and Christopher Sower must become real men who wrestled with war and totalitarianism and worldliness, and who produced out of that wrestling, Brethrenism.

I want this heritage so well understood that every Brethren ... is proud of it, and may I say as emphatically as I know how that neither our Christian nor our Brethren heritage can be taught in a thirty-five-minute period on a Sunday morning. It must, if it is to be made meaningful, be a part of our daily living, the very marrow of our bones.⁽³⁾

One of my favorite chapters in Eby's book is titled, "Grandfather Schwalm Had a Red Beard." I find it appealing because the writer shares stories describing how he learned his Christian faith from his Grandfather. As Eby writes, "...I believe attitudes and values are more often caught than taught." Listen to an excerpt from this chapter about Grandfather Schwalm:⁽⁴⁾

My Pennsylvania German Grandfather Schwalm was an elder in the Church of the Brethren for some thirty years. As an elder he was responsible for administering the affairs of Baugo and of several other neighboring churches. As an elder he also had the task of maintaining church discipline: seeing to it that the older members of the church kept the faith, that we younger ones joined the church when we reached the age of accountability, and that no Brethren youth married outside the fold to be unequally yoked with unbelievers.

Grandfather preached on Sunday, went to prayer meeting on Wednesday night, and presided at monthly council meetings and semi-annual love feasts. His regular church work was enough to keep him busy, but it did not end in the pulpit and in conference. Grandfather performed weddings, anointed, comforted, and prayed for the sick, and preached funerals when God chose to call. The poor, too, were his responsibility. Widows and orphans were supplied with food and fuel. The improvident were helped on butchering day and at Christmas. The lazy were admonished to work a little harder and to save a little bit more; seldom were even his expenses paid and, if they were, he passed the money on to some needy person or gave it to advance the Kingdom in some foreign land.

Grandfather was a farmer preacher. He worked during the week with the same men for whom he preached on Sunday. His life extended into his farming. ... My memories of Grandfather are mixed and varied. When I was five, he gave me an orphan lamb, which I desperately wanted. When he gave it to me, he said: "Kermit, this is your lamb. Love it, and take care of it." And to my mother he said: "Lizzie, he must always care for it, never you!"

Later when I was in my teens and big enough to go threshing he taught me the same lesson even more graphically. We were threshing some smutty oats. Clean-up time had come, and dirt and smut were almost strangling me. (So I thought.) I stepped back and permitted one of the neighbors to do double duty in the dust. Grandfather saw me, stepped up and asked for my shovel, and took my place. I stood there awkward and alone. After the job was finished, Grandfather stepped back and said, "A man always helps clean up!"

...

Grandfather was the kind of man who could be looked at close up! He and Grandmother believed theirs was a responsibility to live in a way that would be an example to their children, to their church, and to their neighbors.

Ken Gibble's mother and Kermit Eby's Grandfather Schwalm represent for me the best of what members of the Church of the Brethren have always tried to be - persons of integrity who were not afraid to be different and who were willing to stand up for and to live out the ideals of the Christian faith.

I would never advocate a return to a time of beards and coverings, broadbrims and bonnets - when members of the church could be identified primarily by their physical appearance. However, it is my hope that we will never forget our roots, our Christian values and our Brethren heritage, as we live our lives and seek to be the church in the 21^st century. Perhaps the church needs a "Heritage or Identity Statement" to stand alongside our "Vision Statement."

In the scripture that was read from 1 Peter 2:9-10, the Apostle Peter is reminding the early Christian church of their identity and heritage: "...you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people...."

And in the Apostle Paul's letter to the Church in Rome we find an early Vision Statement. If indeed we are a chosen people, God's people, then Paul calls us to live our lives as God's People: "...present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God - what is good and acceptable and perfect."

Both 1 Peter 2 and Romans 12 were among the key texts that shaped the Church of the Brethren over nearly 300 years. Historically Romans 12:1-2 was used among the Brethren to support the doctrine of nonconformity to the world. While much of that focused in the 1800s and early 1900s on the issue of dress, it was always and continues to be focused on living a Christian existence in a non-Christian world.⁽⁵⁾

Grandpa wore a beard and mama wore a covering - this was symbolic of their nonconformity to the world and served to keep them focused as living as a Christian in a non-Christian world. While the symbolism of the beard and the covering have lost their meaning to most 21^st century Brethren, the issue of Christian identity and lifestyle must continue to be taught and caught in the church today.

We find our identity as God's chosen people rooted in our heritage, even as we find direction and a vision for our future ministry as a congregation by discerning together the will of God.

May it be so. Amen.

Sources:

1. "Should Dunkers Be Different?" by Kenneth L Gibble, Messenger November 1982

4. Ibid., pp. 65ff