a collection of thoughts on Mennonites (part 2)

ARGH. I just wrote a big post with this title, just to find that it has mysteriously disappeared. Grr.

Basically, to continue the thoughts of myself, Elliot and Paul, I'd like to comment on an event I attended yesterday that was put on by a group from Bethany College. They sang worship songs at us, gave a testimony, and dramatically read this terribly written poem with powerpoint file photos flashing in the background and the percussionists shaking their rain sticks. Near the end we were invited to sing along with three songs. The basic message of this event was "God is awesome, and Jesus will make you happy."

My beefs:
- I was uncomfortable because I felt like everything was being done "at" us instead of them leading us in corporate worship. The songs they sang on their own were simple and could easily have been sung along with. It's not like this was a fancy choir performance, although their vocals were strong and their harmonies deliciously tight.
- The whole thing was a little too happy-happy-happy for me. I was reminded (by contrast) of how moved I was by the crucifix at St. Joseph's Oratory in Montreal. Our almighty God and Saviour became human and walked alongside us in our sorrows and sufferings, and we are called to take up our crossed and follow him. This indicates a broader Christian emotional spectrum than just "happy" through "ecstatic".
- Direct quote from an in-between songs inspirational blurb: "You won't know joy, you won't know love if you don't know Jesus." What an absolutely snotty thing to say. I believe that God is the source of all joy and love, so in an indirect kind of way her comment is true. However, being created in God's image, we all have the ability to love and be loved, whether we consciously "know" Jesus or not, and no matter how incompletely. This statement really rubbed me the wrong way.

My ponderings:
- Evidently this kind of evangelising touches some people out there, otherwise people wouldn't still be doing it. So it must be good for some people.
- I know that when I was in my late teens, I felt nurtured by this brand of Christianity while working at camp (an MB camp), and so it is still a part of me somewhere deep down even if I don't understand it anymore.

on a lighter note...

Today in the grocery store I saw a woman pushing a side-by-side stroller with two toddlers in it. I enjoyed the two grins and the four actively swinging feet.

I also noticed some nifty blue flowers in an abandoned lot. They were that kind of vague and shifty colour of blue/purple that one more commonly sees in a field of flax...you know, that kind of blue that might look like a lake or pond in your peripheral vision.

This past week has also contained much comfiness and joy in our marriage. Aaron is my best friend. Huzzah.

Also, for those of you who remember my post "today I celebrated life and death," you should know that yesterday we laid Mutti-Oma to rest. She was one month shy of her 98th birthday. The visit I told you all about was the last time we saw her, and it's neat that she got to see our wedding pictures that day.

*shudder*

I just discovered a terrifying blog.

a collection of thoughts on Mennonites

Elliot wants me to post on the topic of Mennonites and evangelicalism and presumably fundamentalism and other such things. So here goes.

Some Mennonite churches are moving away from their Anabaptist distinctiveness (particularly in terms of pacifism, and perhaps also from the emphasis on social justice). Take the example of Portage Avenue Mennonite Brethren Church in Winnipeg, which is now calling itself Portage Avenue Church. There are positives and negatives to be considered here.

Positives:
It's a very open acknowledgement that Mennonites do not have a monopoly on salvation, and that it is faith in Christ that is ultimately important and not one's particular denomination. Also, it is perhaps an acknowledgement that very little remains of the church's Mennonite distinctiveness, and the new name more accurately reflects what a church really is.

Negatives (mostly in terms of my own opinion):
If the church does indeed value its Mennonite identity and has only changed its name as a way to nab more unsuspecting newcomers, that's stupid and seems kind of underhanded.
I am sad to see the waning of emphasis on peace and social justice (which includes/ought to include ecological justice). I think there is a desperate need for such a witness by the church in North America and the West today. I'm not a huge fan of the mainstream American evangelical/fundamentalist brand of Christianity, one of the reasons being that it too often supports the status quo of the American government. One might even accuse Mennonite churches that subscribe to this version of Christianity as being too worldly, because their ways are more widely acccepted and even fashionable (see Elliot's post for a few Christian media and fashion atrocities), and are not particularly radical (as the Anabaptists have been called).

I don't feel like I'm nearly done saying all there is to be said here, and even what I did say wasn't particularly well-edited. Anyone who wants should comment, and perhaps the conversation will bring out more things to think about. It always takes me a certain amount of conversation or just plain blathering to feel like I've properly addressed a topic. I'm not much of an essayist, that would require me to be concise.

Happy Sunday

This morning in church I was made aware of two points that have no earthshattering significance but have nonetheless tweaked my interest. First of all, in the Genesis creations story, each day begins with evening. "And there was evening and there was morning, the first day." Somehow I had never connected this Genesis reference to the fact that the Sabbath begins at sundown. I like this new perspective.

Secondly, God's creation of humankind began with a garden. God's re-creation of humankind at the resurrection also began in a garden. I think this is cool.

Today I also discovered a neat little blue flower that grows in some people's lawns. It looks like candy sprinkles on the lawn. I like it! If I had a lawn with sprinkle flowers, I'd keep them. I'd also keep moss, it makes lawns more springy and less scratchy.

The big news of today is that Aaron and I had our interview for the position of Residence Coordinators at this little Menno residence for UBC students. It went very well, and I even knew one of the girls interviewing us from my youth days in Ontario! They have also interviewed three other couples for the job already. I really want this job! It will be hard if another couple gets it instead of us. I know we had a very good interview and that they liked us, so the only way we won't get this job is if some other couple is EVEN better than us. Secretly, I hope they all sucked, but that's not very gracious of me.

silly plants

As each new wave of flowers come out this spring, it is wonderful to remember each of them and to marvel at the ones I have never seen before.

This week a certain bush has begun to flower. I'm not sure what it's called, but it is absolutely covered in pink and red blossoms, and you can't even see any green leaves! I remember commenting on this plant to Aaron last spring, laughing because the plant was like a young woman going out of her way to say "Look at me! Look at me! I'm pretty! You know you want to cross-fertilize with me!" I also muttered, "I don't know how that plant even breathes, it has no room for leaves."

Aaron summed it up nicely: "So basically, it's the plant equivalent of a corset: all about being sexually attractive but restricts respiration."

remember my Bjork boys?

Remember how I inadvertantly used reverse psychology to get 13-year-old boys to listen to Bjork? Well, today at our youth evening I glanced over to the chalkboard that attracts so many doodlers. Lo and behold, those same boys were doodling "Bjork rocks" on the board! I can't believe they're still hooked on her a month later!

Anglican liturgy rocks my world

So, all my bloggish Anglican friends (see links to their blogs to the <---left) have written the same thing in their blogs for Easter, and every time I read the "call," I feel the need to respond. I can't keep silent. So, here goes:

CHRIST IS RISEN!

HE IS RISEN INDEED!

ALLELUIA!

In my church on Sunday morning, they changed it up for some reason and used a different response, and it was funny when the pastor's own wife, up front in the choir, loudly responded with "Christ is risen indeed" anyway! It's okay though, I did too. I always feel like a little school kid with their hand in the air when someone starts a liturgical call and response-type thing like that. "Oooh! Oooh! I know the answer! HE IS RISEN INDEED! Yesssss!" (Think Napoleon Dynamite for that last bit there.) I find myself muttering "Thanks be to God" all the time in church too. The Mennos must think I'm crazy.

the miscellany of yesterday and today

Yesterday was a good day. I felt like I got much accomplished! I did the laundry. I phoned my brother. I went to work. I ironed and cut out the pieces for my new sewing project (I'm making slouchy jeans, using my dead old orange cords as a pattern). I made dinner. Plus, I successfully organised a group of people to accomplish a bunch of stuff in that oh-so-addictive computer game World of Warcraft. (For anyone who cares/understands, I dinged 44 and got two 14-slot bags and a nice blue mace.)

Worst part of yesterday: finding out that without asking me, it was decided that I am now working THREE weeks in the mall instead of two. I raised a bit of heck about that, so we'll see if they can change it back to two or not. Oh well. I met the mall people, and they're all quite friendly and welcoming, so that is pleasant.

Today is also a good day. There is a tree outside my window that apparently flowers in the spring! I only moved here last fall, and I thought it was a tree with just leaves. I think maybe God designed this tree for people to lie under and look up. I think so because all the flowers face down and maybe a bit sideways, but none of them face up.

As for working in the mall today, I'm still not insane, so that's nice. I worked with a bossy and mildly abrasive Filipino woman, and it actually made me feel right at home! I'm so used to everyone here in Vancouver being white, Asian or Indian, but at one of my old jobs at home in Toronto I worked with a bunch of Filipino people. I think it's really funny when people actually fit stereotypes, like when a Filipino woman is bossy. I also think family resemblances are hilarious, but that's another story.

Worst part of today: stapling my finger. I'm pretty sure I haven't done that since I was five years old.

Balaam is my friend

Balaam is an interesting character in the Bible. C.S. Lewis, after his very first sermon, didn't feel that it had gone so well. He reflected, "At least I can take consolation in the fact that the Lord used an ass to convert the prophet!"

I related this story in a presentation to my high school English Lit class. I was surprised when my friend Noel, who had no discernable interest in matters of faith or religion, exclaimed, "Balaam and his donkey! That's my favourite Bible story!" It turns out that his strong interest in English Literature had led him to read the entire Bible so that he might understand more of the Biblical allusions that abound in most Western literature. I thought that was pretty cool.

This Wednesday at our church youth group, we were shown pictures of different times when God spoke to people, and we were supposed to call out the answer if we knew it. Sure enough, Balaam and his donkey showed up. I called out, "That's Balaam's ass!" Some of the youth did a slight double take to hear one of their leaders say "ass". Andrew (bless his heart) gasped and said, "She said Balaam!" I laughed very hard. Youth are funny and so is the Bible. And the word "ass".

I take it back

We went to church this morning for Good Friday, and there were no costumes. Those people rehearsing must have been preparing for Easter or somthing. I can handle costumes at Easter if need be, it's more jubilant as opposed to solemn. There was a really good use of big drums as the cross was carried into the sanctuary, it really gave me the shivers. So, all in all it was a good service. Inoffensive and appropriate. I am placated. Thanks be to God.

But I still think I'm going to go find myself an Anglican church sometime this weekend yet.

I liked two kids in church this morning. First, there was a girl with a blankie who was standing behind her mother at the piano. She sort of started half-dancing with her blankie every now and then. Cute. Also, there was a little boy who wanted to get very close to the Christ candle in the lobby after the service. He was funny.

on Good Friday services

Unrelated prelude: I'm sick. I ate two little oranges. I called in sick so I don't have to work at the stupid mall food court tomorrow. Too bad I can't call in sick for the next two weeks straight and avoid the mall completely!

Main topic: Church and Easter/Holy Week.

You St. Margaret's people are cool (here's the proof). I both envy you and also am happy I don't have to "do" Holy Week at St. Margaret's. I love how Holy Week is taken so seriously and is the biggest thing of the year, and how every day is celebrated fully. However, I also think you guys are nuts and you are all courting church burnout. I can't handle church more than two or three times in one week, it just begins to feel too crazy and stressful and burdensome, and it makes me pay less attention with each subsequent service.

This year, I have really missed my home church, TUMC. I suppose familiarity in so many ways is synonymous with comfort, and boy am I feeling it! At TUMC, the top three events of the year are the Good Friday service, the Christmas Eve service, and the Carol Sing (that lovely advent event where everyone gorges themselves on Christmas carols and Christmas baking and *cue music* the Hallelujah chorus). I absolutely love Good Friday at TUMC (Easter is important too, but it is in the usual Sunday morning format and thus doesn't stand out as a big tradition or anything). We set up round tables in our sanctuary and we sit and eat a simple meal with each other. Once we're pretty much done, the worship service begins with us all seated at our tables. There are usually many readings, and we end by celebrating the Lord's Supper together around our tables. It is such a simple, solemn and deeply significant service. I will miss it dearly this year. (I will also miss St. Margaret's dearly, no matter how crazy I think they are. My two years there were so important to me.)

I confess that I am apprehensive about Good Friday at Peace Mennonite Church, where I currently attend. I am going to be the narrator for the morning's service. I am excited to be involved. However, this church is a little too excited about their costumes. There are some very talented ladies in this church who have compiled quite the impressive church pageant wardrobe over the years. This is cool. Yet I was somewhat taken aback today (when I was at the church for an unrelated youth event) to see people rehearsing readings in costumes. I asked my husband if every significant service at his home church was a pageant...he wasn't sure. To me, it's beginning to feel like every high holiday of the church here gets turned into a cartoon. (I missed the Christmas Eve hullabaloo at Peace Mennonite, and was deeply grateful. I admit the possibility that I could have enjoyed it if I had been there, but I'm doubtful.)

To sum it up, I suppose I am as stodgy as an old grandma about changing my ways. I want a Good Friday service in the evening, not the morning. I want it to be dignified and solemn, not dramatised with church costumes and quasi-talented church members reading off a script. I want TUMC's communion supper. If I can't have that, I want the liturgical marathon of St. Margaret's. But not pageant costumes from the church closet!

I pray for the humility to set aside my own wants and for the eyes to see the value of Peace Mennonite Church's ways on Good Friday.

yahoo

Good news! I might be able to nab a shift supervisor position at my favourite coffee shop instead of at the mall! This might mean totally shafting the mall people, but who cares? I absolutely love working at this other location, the people really suit my groove and the manager is a sweetheart. It means a longer commute =( but it would be worth it.

On the bus today a man was desperately elbowing his way to the door saying, "Excuse me! Excuse me! I'm getting off here! I don't want to be stuck on this bus for years to come!" Once he had successfully escaped, the older Indian man sitting next to me slowly started to chuckle: "Heh. Ha ha. Heh heh heh HA HA HA HA!" It was awesome, and I started chuckling along too. A few stops later this man moved to stand up (he was in the window seat, so I was in his way) and said to me, "Excuse me. I don't want to be stuck on this bus for years to come," and we all started laughing again. I grinned the entire way home, it was just so funny.

the chain letter that destroyed the world (or not)

Here's a little tidbit about me: I'm a sucker for quizzes. Especially the ones where you fill in a bubble with a pencil. I love those! So, without further ado: the chain letter/blog quiz thinger!

Four jobs I've had:
1. barista
2. office drone (I've had this job several times over in different settings.)
3. toy store!
4. telephone surveyor (two of the wierdest weeks of my life)

Four movies/shows I've been addicted to:
1. Firefly
2. Babylon 5
3. Cowboy Bebop
4. The Late Show with David Letterman

Four places I've lived:
1. Winnipeg
2. Berlin
3. Toronto
4. Vancouver

Four countries I'd like to visit: (off the top of my head)
1. China
2. Israel/Palestine
3. Iceland
4. Bora Bora (or pretty much any other tropical island)

Four popular false assumptions about me:
1. that I'm crazy
2. that I'm sane
3. that I'm confident and don't care what others think of me
4. I give up, I can't think of a fourth.

Four people I look like:
1. my mom
2. Avril Levigne (according to Steph W)
3. probably my mom's 3 cousins who look exactly like her
4. my friend Liz (according to wedding dress salespeople, but what do they know?)

Four things to do before I die:
1. visit all provinces and territories (only 1 province and 3 territories to go!)
2. master how to whistle really loud (like with my fingers in my mouth)
3. have kids
4. live overseas again

four completely unrelated paragraphs

I have good news and bad news. The good news is that my manager may finally have found a shift supervisor position for me (this means a raise/promotion). The bad news is that this position requires me to transfer to a mall food court. It's difficult to consider a transfer from a nice, comfy neighbourhood coffee shop to a food court a promotion...I'm not sure the extra money would be worth it. Good news: I don't have to take the promotion. Bad news: I still have to work at the food court for two weeks to give it a try. Eww, eww, gross, yuck, eww.

A happy thing happened today! I saw a mom playing face games with her baby, and the baby SMILED the way only babies can. Their entire face, body and soul all smile at the same time! It's awesome. I have decided that I need to have a baby in my life. Unfortunately, Aaron and I are in no financial position to have a baby, and I also want to get used to marriage for a few years before we expand our family of 2. So, someone out there needs to have a baby for me! I need a niece or nephew! Unfortunately (again), I have basically zero prospects for a biological niece/nephew unless somebody has an accident, so someone out there needs to give me an honorary niece/nephew! I need a baby! I promise to babysit if you have a baby for me, whoever you are. (Nudge and poke to all you marrieds...also, move to Vancouver so I can babysit your baby.)

The other day I dreamt that my teeth were cracking and crumbling and falling out. It all started with the gums pulling away from one tooth so that its root started poking out. Without the gums to hold it in, it fell out. I was somewhat aware that this was a dream, so I put the tooth back in and willed it to take root again, because sometimes you can do that in dreams. But I failed and my tooth broke in two, and then I really couldn't make it grow back in. So why am I telling you about my tooth dream? I woke up from it and realized that I have had many, many dreams about my teeth breaking and coming out before. These teeth dreams are recurring dreams for me, and I never realized it until now! I've been dreaming this for years! Weird how you don't notice things like that sometimes. My other recurring dream theme is that I'm late and everytime I'm ready to go to the thing I'm late for, something else comes up that makes me even later. I always wake up before I get there. It's so stressful. I like to joke that I married my worst nightmare...*cough*Aaron*cough*.

Yesterday I came home late from work after dark. It smelled like a summer night! Winter nights always smell wet and cold, unless you live in Winnipeg or somewhere that cold and then the night smells like nothing at all because all the smells freeze and drop right out of the air. I like summer night smells because it always seems like you can smell everything that happened that day. At night, the day whispers away its secrets, and if you pay attention, you can smell them.

Stupid Americans

You know what gets my goat? Stupid Americans. (Disclaimer: Stupid Americans are not the same as intelligent, world-aware and non-xenophobic Americans such as my two aunts, my friend Mya, and many other cool Americans.)

Stupid Americans travel across the oh-so-exotic 49th parallel and adopt the mindset of, "Teehee! I'm not in the USA! Look how funny and weird everything is! These people live in a circus! It must be so amusing to live in Not-America!" As a barista, I get the most patronising comments from Stupid Americans who can't take our currency seriously.

Anecdote the first: A teenaged girl asks her mother who that man on the five dollar bill is. "In Canada they put other people on their bills instead of the Presidents, honey." I feel friendly, so I volunteer "I believe that is Sir Wilfred Laurier; he was one of our Prime Ministers." The mother looks at her daughter and laughs ("Ha! Ha!") with a look on her face that indicates that A) she didn't try to understand a word I said, B) "Can you believe that? This caricature is a Sir!" and C) that she views Canada as some sort of Disneyland where everything is obviously designed to be amusing and unrealistic.

Anecdote the second: A mob of teenaged boys on a field trip to Canada are fumbling with their Canadian money, handing me random bills saying, "Is this enough? I can't tell what any of this money is!" and then looking around for their friends to laugh in support of their inability to read. I was willing to forgive them on the count of being teenaged boys, however, their fourty-something leader was also a Stupid American. "Haha! How do you guys know what any of this money is?" Meanwhile, he's only fumbling with quarters, dimes and pennies, which are the exact same shape and colour as American quarters, dimes and pennies. He just felt the need to point out to me that I live in a zoo of a country. Too bad for him he only succeeded in labelling himself as a Stupid American, and in getting the people in line behind him to be extra-nice to me on account of feeling sorry for me.

miscellany

I'm having a blue day, but not with racing stripes this time. I'm feeling blue because I think I was selfish and unfair in a little spat with my husband yesterday, and now I feel bad. But he's forgiven me and he still loves me (and vice versa) so I'll feel better when I wake up tomorrow. I find it hard to forget feelings in the middle of a day, it's much easier to forget them overnight.

To make things better I made treats tonight! Smoothies made of pear, mint leaves, strawberries, honey, ice and gin. Garnish with fresh mint. Actually, the red strawberries with little bits of green mint and white pear make it look a bit like salsa.

Want to know the recipe for not being bored at work? Break something. I was bored, and I decided to clean the bean grinder. I proceeded to lose an important screw inside the grinder, and we had to tip it upside-down to get it out, and that thing is HEAVY. And the screw must have picked up a magnetic charge at some point, because even though we could see it loose in the bottom, it didn't budge. Instead, we managed to gouge the brand new countertop with the corners of the grinder as we tipped it over. The screw is still in the bottom. The moral of the story? Two hours felt like 15 minutes. Then I got to go home and let someone else deal with the mess.