Teaching Peace to Children

with the Martyrs Mirror

July 6, 2011Presented by: Gerald & Carrie Mast

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Introduction

The Martyrs Mirror is a collection of stories and letters from prison that have strengthened Christian faith and peaceful witness among Mennonites for over three centuries. The stories tell of persecuted Anabaptists who affirm that the faith of Jesus Christ must by definition be freely offered and peacefully lived. The letters from prison offer encouragement for faithful living amidst conflict and suffering.

The “defenseless Christianity” promoted by the Martyrs Mirror has taken root in many readers over the years, some of them captivated by the striking and often times violent images included in the book. One example is Eastern Mennonite University professor of peacebuilding Lisa Schirch, who attributes her passion for making peace in part to the images and stories she found in a copy of the Martyrs Mirror in her church library as a child.

Some readers have also been troubled by the violent images and have raised questions about the negative attitudes toward Catholic and Protestant persecutors encouraged by the book. These negative experiences concern us too. We believe that our children can be strengthened in their faith journey toward a life of peace when we present the content of the Martyrs Mirror in a way that is consistent with the vision of its editor: to help readers “rejoice in the salvation of the Lord.”

This small booklet represents our first attempts to share the Martyrs Mirror with the children of our church in a way that is life affirming and peace loving. We hope it inspires other such edifying uses of the Martyrs Mirror in the Christian education practices among our people.3

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Age of Children: Grades 3 – 5 Method: Stations Time: 1 ½ hours

Station 1: An Introduction to the Martyrs Mirror

Display the book. Look at the title page. Explain the titles and what they mean.

o Bloody Theater – What is a theater? A place where a show is happening; involves blood, life and death matters.

o Martyrs Mirror – What is a mirror? What is a martyr? Someone who shows us how Jesus wants us to live even when we are in trouble, even when people want to hurt us or kill us.

o Defenseless Christians – The people in these stories are Christians who do not use weapons when they are afraid, who are peacemakers; in the stories everyone is a Christian, but only some of the Christians are “defenseless.” These defenseless Christians are where our church comes from—Anabaptists or Mennonites—who “baptized only on confession of faith.”

Share that there are stories of Biblical figures in the Martyrs Mirror like Jesus, Stephen and Paul. Pass out handouts with the pictures of these martyrs from the Martyrs Mirror. Ask questions about each martyr and share additional comments like the following:

o Jesus Christ (p. 68):

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Who is this? What is happening to him?

Why is this happening? (Jesus Christ came to show us how to live and to save us from the sin in the world—he did this by confronting the badness in our world with love and peace, even when people hurt him and killed him. And then he was raised by God from the dead.)

This is a book of stories about people who followed Jesus by being peaceful even when other people are violent and hurtful.

o Stephen (p. 71): This is a follower of Jesus. What is happening to him? Why do you think this is

happening? Stephen was a follower of Jesus

and his story is in the Bible. He was the first Christian martyr.

Why do we call him a martyr? (He shows how Jesus wants us to live even when we are in trouble, even when people want to hurt us or kill us. The people who are throwing rocks at him are angry because he was preaching and telling them that God wanted them to change their lives and follow Jesus.)

How is Stephen responding? Is he fighting back?

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o Paul (p. 82): Some of you heard about Paul in

Sunday School. Who was he? (A missionary, a preacher, a follower of Jesus who travelled all over the place telling people about Jesus and starting churches, etc. He got in trouble with the government—the Roman emperor (like the President) because he was telling people about Jesus. And after he was put in prison for a long time, eventually the government killed him.)

VIGNETTE: Read the story of Stephen from the Martyrs Mirror. (70-71)

Station 2: Images from the Martyrs Mirror

Display enlarged images from the Martyrs Mirror through use of PowerPoint and a screen. Explain that by enlarging the images, details emerge which enrich the story or hint of what life was like in the 16th century. Show images of what Anabaptists were doing that got them in trouble.

Ask general questions of each image, or see specific questions and additional details to share of identified images below:

o What’s happening in this picture?o Who is that?o What details are in the background?o Identify one detail you find interesting.

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Suggested images include:o Jesus (68)o Stephen (71)o Paul (82)o Dirk Willems (741)

Do you recognize him? What’s happening in this story? Why is he helping the man in the

water? Why are they on the pond? Why was Dirk running? Why was he being chased? What happened to Dirk after he

rescued the thief-catcher? What do we learn from this story? Does Dirk show us how Jesus wants

us to live? Is he a martyr?

o Andres Langedul (634) What is the man sitting in the chair

doing? (reading a book) What book do you think it is? (a

Bible). Do you have any idea who the man

is who is coming in through the door?

Does he look friendly? The man in the chair is Andreas

Langedul. He had just had a church service in his house and the other people left.

Why do you think he had a church service in his house? (He/they thought that the big church in town

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was not acting like Jesus. He was a defenseless Christian but the big church in town was not. Also, the big church in town did not want people to read the Bible unless a priest was there to explain it.)

Why do you think the big church did not want people to read the Bible by themselves? (One of the reasons that the defenseless Christians or Anabaptists got into trouble is because they read the Bible and discussed it without a priest being there to explain it.)

Is there something else going on in this picture? Look in the upper left hand corner. A baby has just been born to Andreas’s wife. The nurse helped her get away by giving the policeman some wine and sneaking her to another house.

o Simon the Shopkeeper (540) This is a picture that shows why

people got upset at the Anabaptists/Mennonites back in the 1500’s. At that time it was common for there to be parades with holy symbols, like communion bread/wine and crosses, that people were supposed to bow down to as they passed by. People thought that when the priests blessed the bread and wine they

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turned into Jesus’ flesh and blood. But the Anabaptists did not think that priests could turn wine into blood or that people should bow or salute objects made of wood or stone or wheat. They thought people should worship only God.

Can you think of times today when people are expected to salute or give special reverence to objects made by humans?

What is Simon the Shopkeeper doing?

Is he bowing down to the parade? Do you think he got into trouble?

o Maeyken Wens (979-80) Does anyone have an idea about

what has just happened in this picture? Look at the posts on the right. Someone has just been burned. You can see the crowd of people leaving on the left. You can see the chains that were holding the people to the posts.

One of the people who was burned here was called Maeyken Wens. These are her sons that she left behind. The younger one is named Hans and the old one that is stooping down is named Adrien. The story in the Martyrs Mirror says that when he heard his mother was going to be killed, he took his

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younger brother to see what was happening. But when they brought his mother out, he fainted and didn’t wake up until after she had died. So now he is looking through the ashes where he found a tongue screw.

Does anyone know what a tongue screw is? When Anabaptists were being killed, they often sang songs and preached to the crowd that came to watch. This made the people in charge angry so they screwed their tongues down so they couldn’t talk or sing. Adrien found the tongue screw and took it with him.

Why do you think he did this? Maybe because he felt bad that he was unconscious while his mother died? Maybe he wanted something that she was wearing? The story says that he wanted to remember her.

Mayken wrote a letter to Adrien. I’m going to read a little bit of the letter (981).

o Anneken Hendricks (873) What is happening in this picture? The story about her is that her

neighbor was a policeman who figured out that she was an Anabaptist, so he went into her

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house and captured her. The people who captured her tried to get her to give up the name of her friends who were part of her Anabaptist church. They also tried to get her to change her mind about her beliefs. In the Martyrs Mirror there is a court sentence that tells why Anneken was burned. (Read sentence, page 874). She married a Mennonite in a home (not in church); she didn’t think the communion bread and wine actually turned into flesh and blood; she didn’t think babies should be baptized; she didn’t attend the big church in town; she had small group meetings at her house where people read the Bible; she disturbed the peace.

Do you think she was scared? Can you think of a time when you

were afraid of something that would hurt?

What is she doing in the picture? Do you think praying to God helped

her?

VIGNETTE: Read the story of Hendrik Sumer and Jacob Mandel (1057).

Share one last image before moving to the next station. The image of Anna of Rotterdam

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is not included in our English edition of the Martyrs Mirror but can be found in Mirror of the Martyrs (38).

o What is going on in this picture? o Why do you think the woman is passing

her child to another man? To learn what happened, we are going to go to a different room.

Station 3: Drama based on the Anna of Rotterdam

Story in the Martyrs Mirror

Share the story of Anna of Rotterdam. Prior to this presentation invite 3 people to assist by acting out the story in the roles of Anna, the baker and his wife. As the story is read, each character should do as the story indicates. Props should include a chair to represent the wagon Anna rides in, a rope to tie around Anna once she is arrested, a rolling pin for the baker,

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an apron for the wife, a swaddled doll for Anna to pass to the baker.

Without acting, read how Anna died. This story is missing in the Herald Press English edition of the Martyrs Mirror although it appears in the German edition and an earlier English edition. Anna’s letter to her son is included in the Herald Press edition. Since the account is hard to find in English, we include it here.

“Anna Janz was born at Briel, as I was informed by her grandson, Isaiah de Lind, residing in Rotterdam; she was the only child, and was wealthy; she and her husband had fled to England on account of religion. But when she returned to Holland, to transact some business at Delft, or as some suppose, to speak with David Joris, or his company, and was riding in the wagon from Isselmonde to Rotterdam, some one who rode in the wagon with her suspected her, because she sang a spiritual hymn; she was informed on at Rotterdam, and was apprehended by the minister of justice as she was entering the ship sailing for Delft. When she was imprisoned for some time, she was condemned to death, and was drowned. As she was led out of prison to be executed, she looked about her upon the crowd to see whether there was one who would take her little son Isaiah, aged five years, and raise him as an adopted son; she offered him some money as a recompense, which she had with her in her purse. A certain baker, who was poor, and had five children, offered himself; to him she gave her son on the proposed conditions, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. When he brought the child home, his wife at first greatly opposed him; but afterwards he enjoyed the blessing of God so

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richly, in whom he trusted, when he had receive the child, that he not only succeeded well with baking and maintenance, but he also purchased a brewery, and left an estate to his children, among whom was his adopted son Isaiah.” (379, I. Daniel Rupp translation, Lancaster, PA, 1837)

Ask questions like:o How do you think the baker’s other

children felt?o Do you think the baker’s wife was happy

about taking in a child?o Years later, how do you think Anna’s

child felt after finding out what happened to his or her mother?

o Anna wrote a letter to her son so he could read it when he grew up. We are going to listen to this letter a bit later.

Station 4: Communion as Shared by Anabaptists in

the Martyrs Mirror

Discuss how communion was shared during ordinary meals. When the Anabaptists gathered for church, they sang and prayed and discussed the Bible, and they ate a meal together, just like Jesus told his disciples. Remember that people were upset at the Anabaptists because the Anabaptists said that in communion, the bread and the wine did not turn into the flesh and blood of Jesus. But the Anabaptists did think that when they shared food around a table Jesus was present in the

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way they were together. So, let’s share food together and ask Jesus to be present.

Pass out a snack including food which would have been typical for 16th century Anabaptists like bread and cheese and pour grape juice to drink. Pray before eating.

VIGNETTE: Read the letter Anna of Rotterdam wrote to her son while children are eating. (453-54)

Station 5: A Review and Concluding Comments of

the Martyrs Mirror

Discuss how old the Martyrs Mirror is. It was first published in 1660, 350 years ago. It was first published in Dutch, then in German, and then in English, so we could read it.

Show children the copy of the Martyrs Mirror. Share that very old copies of the book still exist, some which are hundreds of years old.

Ask ‘why did Mennonites keep publishing this book?’

o to remember the faith of the ancestors.o to help us remember to be defenseless,

to follow Jesus, even when other Christians are going to war and even if we are afraid.

Conclude with these comments: This book has many exciting and interesting stories about people who decided to follow Jesus, even when it was not popular or safe to do so. This is a

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book full of heroes. But these heroes are heroes of faith, people who trusted God rather than in their own power or in weapons. They show us how we should live too – peaceably.

Distribute handouts with images from the PowerPoint.

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES: Ask children if they know any martyrs. Let them

share their stories. Share stories of present day martyrs like ____. Allow time for the children to look at the Martyrs

Mirror and leaf through it. Assist children with role playing a story from the

Martyrs Mirror.

Age of Children: Senior High Youth Method: DramaTime: 1 hour

Motivational Activity: Excerpts from Tongue Screws and

Testimonies.

--from the story “OMG!! Geleijn Cornelus is HOTT!!”

by Chad Gusler

“At night you thumb through the book while lying in bed. The text is dull, like your history book mashed with a Bible, but the pictures are kind of cool. The engravings of the martyrs are gory, sure, yet you find them strangely alluring and moodily glamorous, like the models in the Vogue, which is opened across 17

your Bible on the floor. No one appears to be in pain, not really, as if both martyrs and persecutors are actors in a play and are, off stage, actually BFF who desperately drink liters of bottled water between scenes. You turn the pages. There’s a stubborn man with a smirk on his face refusing to bow to the wafer, and his friends are trying to pull him down into submission. There’s a shirtless guy, a student, according to the caption, pushing away a crucifix while his persecutors pour hot oil on his head. You like his ripped abs, but his shoulders are slouched – a real turn-off. There’s a man named Dirk helping another man from a hole in the ice. There’s a woman being thrown into a fire, a woman being drowned, a woman being buried alive. There’s a man having his tongue clamped. All this for Jesus you think, and you wonder if you’d be able to do that, to put your life on the line for some great cause. But, honestly, what good would it do? Look where it got them: they’re dead now, reduced to pictures in a book. No, you think, you couldn’t do that, you’d cave in a heartbeat. You want to live – thank God we’re past that,” (56-7). Share some background from Chad Gusler’s story.

The narrator is a girl who was recently baptized. Her grandmother’s baptismal gift to her was not the gift card to her favorite clothing store like her friend Staci received from her family after being baptized, but a copy of the Martyrs Mirror. Clearly, she is less than impressed. We’ll hear more from this story later.

--from the poem “who is this coming from the wilderness,” by Audrey Poetker-Thiessen

“out of so many martyrshow do we live” (32)

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Introduction: What exactly is the Martyrs Mirror, and

why should I care?

Display the book. Ask if anyone has read any of the Martyrs Mirror or if anyone is familiar with any of the stories.

Explain the titles and what they mean. Emphasize that there is drama of “bloody theater” that we are supposed to be watching and also a mirror that will reflect back to us whether our own lives are faithful to Jesus Christ.

Read an excerpt from Thieleman van Braght’s preface, such as his discussion of merry Grecian theaters versus dark valleys on page 6 or his examination of the difference between the martyrs and us on page 8. Ask what it is that he promises in his introduction.

Discuss how to remember the stories of the Martyrs Mirror: faithful followers of Christ not victims of fate.

Drama: Searching for the Peaceable Life

Discuss how the Martyrs Mirror can be applicable to life today. Spend some time focusing on the lives of the martyrs rather than their deaths. Then consider their deaths and how they approached impending death.

Distribute handouts that include stories and accompanying images. Each group will receive one story with one image. Offer to groups that they will spend some time applying an example of the faithful and peaceable life of a martyr to their own life.

Offer these instructions:o Read your story.

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o Study the image.o Think about what the Anabaptist did that

got them in trouble.o Discuss the story and the image with

your group. o Think of a scenario in your own life that

parallels the story of the Anabaptist. The setting could include school, a sporting event, hanging out with your friends, etc.

o Choose one of these scenarios from your group and think how to act it out.

o Prepare a statement of how the Anabaptist martyr demonstrated peace in their story.

o Your group will have 15 minutes to prepare your drama and statement. At that time, we will move back together. Groups will take turns sharing with the larger group.

o Each group will: Display their image to the larger

group. (Use a PowerPoint image displayed on a large screen behind the area where the group is performing their drama. Leave the image projected as the group performs.)

Share a summary of the story of the Anabaptist martyr.

Perform their drama. Share the prepared statement of

how the Anabaptist martyr demonstrated peace in their story, as well as how the drama demonstrated peacemaking in life today.

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Invite other groups to comment on each of the dramas and statements.

Ask questions like:o Would you really act this way?o Should you act this way?o Does society encourage the actions you

performed? Suggested Stories and Images:

o Anneken Heyndricks (872-74)o Dirk Willems (741-42)o Simon the Shopkeeper or Simon de

Kramer (540) Note: Image not included in Martyrs Mirror but is included in the Mirror of the Martyrs. Here is the image:

Conclusion: Final Excerpt from Tongue Screws and 21

Testimonies.

Offer a brief summary of the events in Chad Gusler’s story “OMG!! Geleijn Cornelus is HOTT!!” The girl becomes friends with a new student named Jesus from Guatemala. He is short, but very muscular. One day while in the cafeteria, another boy begins beating Jesus, who is not fighting back but lies curled up on the floor. The girl uses her copy of the Martyrs Mirror to hit the attacking boy and she is stopped by the football coach who moves in to break up the fight. Later, at home, the girl is in her room reflecting.

--from the story “OMG!! Geleijn Cornelus is HOTT!!”

by Chad Gusler

“You wonder about Jesus, wonder how he’s doing…You don’t have homework because Mr. Anders said that this week it’s all zeros for you, young lady. You stand at your dresser and look at the engraving of Geleijn you ripped from the book and taped to your mirror. You see your reflection next to his, and you notice how your dark hair matches the circles under your eyes, how pale your skin glows. Is that what you look like? You lie on your bed. You hear Grandma Ediger complaining, your mom’s soothing voice. You want to save Jesus, you think, to keep him from the boys at school, and you will, you completely will,” (58).

Ask youth to think about who needs saving in this story according to our society. Then ask them to think about whom the Anabaptist martyrs would say needs saving.

Offer this benediction before sending:“Oh God, you have received us in grace, and made us your ministers. With your help we can fulfill your ministry in our weakness. Preserve us in your Word. 22

We desire to obey you. Come to our aid and be our comforter. Amen.” This is adapted from the prayer of the fifth martyr on page 434.

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Sources and Additional Resources

Beachy, Kristen, ed. Tongue Screws and Testimonies.Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 2011.

Jackson, Dave and Neta. On Fire for Christ. Scottdale, PA:

Herald Press, 1989.Lowry, James. In the Whale’s Belly. Harrisonburg, VA:

Christian Light Publications, 1981.Lowry, James. The Martyrs’ Mirror Made Plain. Aylmer,

ON: Pathway Publisher, 1997.Oyer, John S. and Robert Kreider. Mirror of the Martyrs.

Intercourse, PA: Good Books, 1990.

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IMAGES FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

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