Peacekeepers for Christmas?

I think we all get those toy flyers from a department or discount store about this time of the year. I don’t usually look at them, but this year I thought about a gift for a special little girl, and wanted to see what is out there. I know something she isn’t getting.

“Power team world peacekeepers!” There’s the elite lookout, the fighting vehicle with 2 figures, the military vehicule (sic), the aerial rocket helicopter and the World battlefield with 6 figures. This all looks like attack gear to me. No white personnel carriers with “UN” on the side, lots of camo but no blue berets. Peacekeepers? I don’t think so.

It’s the same bloody lie that governments tell. An invasion is not keeping the peace. It is not preventative first strike. It’s war, declaration of war, and making war. It’s not keeping peace.

Who’s twisted idea was this? Teaching children to play war is a war crime. Oh, yes, I know, kids have always done it, but why should they? Why should children know what war is? For many children it is not play. It is their reality. They live in war zones; they live in death zones. Some will go to war before they have reached puberty. Others will die as victims of bombs and bullets.

For the sake of the future, do not give your children war toys. Give them peace toys. Give them a pretend farm or their own garden tools. Give them a Bible, a roll of kraft paper and a lot of crayons, and ask them to draw a world of peace. Put that up in your home as a poster, as a reminder, with Bible verses about peace. Pray for peace every day. Pray for a day when a child doesn’t have to be afraid of guns and tanks.

“They shall beat their swords into plowshares…and study war no more.”

Reminder on Plain Convocation

I am hoping to hear from more of you. Are you willing to travel to someplace like beautiful Ontario(on Lake Erie, for instance)  for a Plain Convocation? Prayer, worship, fellowship, talks,minisries, witnessing, and that horrid modern word – networking! I am in the very early stages of thinking about this. Wo would be willing to work on it? I am not tied down to place, time, or agenda. I think we would have to be near a major bus line, have local workers on hand, and be able to come up with some housing for a weekend.

Pray about this, and turn thy thoughts to the possibility of making a very public statement of inter-church Plainness!

Rephrasing…

I tentatively suggested that some of us traditonal/Plain Anglicans in Ontario try to mee. That doesn’t seem to be going anywhere… So there’s the answer from the Holy Spirit, maybe. And maybe I made it too tentative and too restrictive.

Conservative Quakers have their yearly meetings. The Brethren have their yearly meeting. Other traditional groups have yearly meeting. These differ from synod and convention in that they are more spiritually oriented, with some business, rather than the other way around.

So the rest of you out there: maybe headcovering, traditional, maybe not Anabaptist or Quaker or maybe yes: Do we need a conference/meeting/gathering? Over and above bishops, presbyteries, conventuals and other defined leadership terms? This is NOT to start a new church, maybe, unless the Spirit so leads. It is NOT to challenge authority but to gently bypass it.

I say this because I am under authority. It isn’t being particularly responsive to me right now,but it is still there in a bizarre and twisted headship kind of way. (And knowing church history, I ask, why is this still happening?)

Is there a need for us isolated Plain folks to meet and do things the old-fashioned way – face-to-face? It is so easy to hide behind the anonymity of the internet, to make statements that don’t have to be carried forward. Is it time to take the leap?

On Loving Our Neighbours

Our Lord Jesus Christ made it plain in the parable of the Good Samaritan: Your neighbour is not just the person next door. The complete Christian response to the needs of others is to go the long way, to give generously, to care with love – “Love thy neighbour as thyself.” You would certainly get yourself off the side of the road when injured if you could; you would dress your wounds yourself, if you could; you would get to a hospital or suitable shelter yourself, if you could. When you can’t, you will long and pray for someone to help you. You will shed tears of pain and anxiety if no one does. If you will love your neighbour as yourself, then you must do these things for someone else. You are to be the Good Samaritan even when the wounded neighbour is someone you distrust, or someone you don’t know.

Sometimes our neighbour is the person next door, down the street, in the next township. It is someone we know, someone we may like, someone with a familiar face and name. Even then we may not respond as we should. I’ve been that neighbour. I have needed a job and received a can of soup.

I bring this topic to your attention because I was watching television. (!!) There is a television here, and Nicholas is getting caught up on the science programmes, I watch the cooking channels, and we both kibbutz the home reno shows. One renovation show I don’t like is “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” It’s extreme in a number of ways, mostly in the manic behaviour of its host and the frantic pace at which a house is constructed. I do not believe that a good house can be built of modern materials in a week, especially the monstrous constructions in which the show specializes. These houses are too big, too expensive to maintain, too up-to-minute-but-out-of-date-tomorrow. The deserving family receives a new house, but they receive a lot more than they needed. These are not Habitat for Humanity houses, small and practical and inexpensive. These are unsustainable Barbie Dream Houses.

What really bothers me is that this team of designers and builders is not part of the community. They enlist community help, and have a group of sponsors for materials, furniture, and appliances. So why didn’t the community do this work without the television people? Why didn’t the local contractor, the local department store, and a team of neighbours come in, tear down the fire-, storm-, or decay-damaged house and build something appropriate and useful? Why does it take getting your face on the airwaves to motivate people to care for their neighbours as they would care for themselves?

On this programme we see families living in motels, in converted sheds, or in basements because their houses are uninhabitable. Did anyone in their vicinity notice this before the Makeover team brought it to their attention? The team builds handicapped accessible houses for children in wheelchairs, structures that will accommodate a large family that has lost income or health, new mini-mansions with rec rooms and pet parlours for fire victims. I don’t think this is an effective use of resources. Several families could be housed in these nightmares! Why doesn’t the community respond in a timely, economical way long before some desperate family sends a video to a post office box?

I’ve worked on teams to help those families who lost homes to fire, collecting emergency supplies, gathering furniture for a new apartment or house, loading the truck on moving day. We could have done better. Churches and communities gave cast-offs, old stuff that might do for now, but would still have to be replaced. Not everyone is expecting a good insurance settlement. Sometimes that settlement is enough to pay the mortage, but not enough for a down payment on a new house. Renters lose the most, even if they have renters’ insurance. Try to get your damage deposit back from a landlord who just lost a whole building! For the poorest people, the loss of that $500-$1000 can mean homelessness. They can’t sue; small claims court may be backed up for weeks.

Christians are expected by Our Lord to lead the way in these desperate times. We are to make the sacrifices of time, goods and money. We are to rally the others to help.  Our traditional aloof stance keeps people out of our churches. We are seen as irrelevant because we are! No excuses anymore, brothers and sisters! No rationalising, no explanations, no politicizing. Open your eyes and look around. Your quiet street is a disaster zone, full of desperate and hopeless people. Time to seek them out, lend a hand, give of your substance, even if there isn’t much of it. Often, it is the poor people who respond the most to others’ needs; they know what it is like, and they’ll go without so others can have a share. They’ve got plenty of practice, and know they can survive a little deprivation.

We are feasting in the midst of a famine, friends. Pray for guidance in this, and start now.

Asking the Right Questions

I started reading Brian McLaren’s book last night, everything must change. The title is a quote from a young woman, living in Rwanda post-genocide, and that, I think, explains it all.

McLaren says that we, as Christians, are not asking the right questions. We get caught up in world and church politics, and start trying to resolve issues that may not be resolved.  We get distracted.  My husband, Nicholas, said a few years ago after a long, slow and tedious day on a church pew, listening to scholars debate the issue of homosexuality and the Christian response, “Can’t anyone see that this is a red herring?” A red herring is false bait, a trail made of something very noticeable to lead the hounds off the true scent. We waste our time in endless debate, instead of coming to a conclusion, because we play it as politics and not as the Word of God. We go haring down the wrong path, all inflated and excited with our own erudition and sense of infallibility.

We are asking the wrong questions.

What are the right questions? I’d start with “Are we listening to the Holy Spirit?” And “Can’t we do better than this?” and especially when we know that we can feed the world, clothe the naked and heal the sick with the resources we have now. But we are so busy enjoying the shopping mall, the big car and enough processed goodies to sink a battleship (which would be a good idea) that we can’t imagine giving up what we have so that others may have enough just to survive. We are not asking the right question – why are we doing it this way?

 

Christians, Ekonomia, and the Kingdom

Oh, this is such a huge topic, it will take me days to write everything that needs to be said! I am starting some serious research on this topic, starting with the Bible and looking specifcially at the Tanach, the teachings of Christ on poverty and possessions, and the epistle as well as the first five chapters of Acts. That’s a lot of material right there. But I am also  reading Robert Schnase, Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, Brian D. McLaren’s everything must change, Richard J. Foster on Celebration of Discipline and a compendium edited by Darrell L. Guder, Missional Church. This should keep me busy for a while, and it’s about time!

“Christians” are the followers of Christ, whether they are ‘cultural Christians’ – those who attend church mainly for social reasons, without being concerned with faith and practice, or they are ‘credal Christians’ – those who take the teachings of Christ and the precepts of the revealed God in the Bible as a rule of life. The devoted Christians, who have made the way of Jesus their creed, or guide of faith, may dismiss cultural Christians as dilettantes, or followers of the world, or even hypocrites. But we need to remember that they are a mission field in themselves, sitting right beside us. How do we reach them, when they have heard the Word, received the sacraments, and yet are not moved to give their life, heart and soul completely to Christ? We must do it through the example we set of faithfulness and devotion, of charity, hospitality and generosity.

“Ekonomia” is a Greek word, meaning the household, with the connotation of the management of the household. When we use it in the church, we mean mostly our expressions of faithfulness, our acts, as well as the management of the church. It has a larger context of the stewardship of creation, the mission that God imposed on all humanity. Humanity has failed utterly in this, especially in the last two and a half centuries, and we weren’t always good at it before, there just weren’t enough of us to ruin everything forever.

“The Kingdom” is the kingdom of God, whether we mean our lives here on earth or our lives in the world to come. Jesus wasn’t particularly clear on that. He may have been deliberately vague, to keep us in a state of tension, caught between here and there, our feet on the ground and our eyes on heaven. we can look at churches and communities that choose to separate from the world, from monasteries to Anabaptists, and churches and communities that live immersed, such as mainline churches and para-church organizations.

What would you like to see on this topic? We are all struggling with day-to-day living, keeping or finding jobs, managing the money which doesn’t go very far, acting in charity and generosity, worshipping, praying, caring and sometimes failing. Why do we think it important to keep on struggling? Or do we? What happens if we give up the good fight?

Plain Living, Plainly

I am becoming a browser of simple/plain blogs and websites, looking to see what others are doing, what others are thinking. And there are a plethora of books out there on the subjects. Some are practical and inspiring, but so many of them are written by people who simplify their lives by buying either the opera or symphony season tickets, but not both this year. The economy, you know.

One book (title and author mercifully forgotten) was about the simple life, so-called, on the West Coast, and it involved noshing one’s way through the farmer’s market rather than loading up the buggy at the Safeway, and the joys of spending the day on the couch in pajamas, reading the huge weekend edition of the newspaper, instead of doing something costly and time-consuming like planting a real garden. (Because there’s the farmer’s market.) One of the author’s tips to simplificationism was to not fold your clothes, just drop them into random baskets in your closet. Oh.

And buy your own coffee, organic fair-trade, of course, and make that latte at home!

I have never had a latte, let alone made one.

 I think it might be a good idea to cut out the coffee altogether, if we can.

The stark reality of life on this planet is that those who are reading this blog are most likely to be living in a house of sorts, buying food most of the time, and are not suffering from any nutritional diseases. Their life expectancies are fairly high, comparitively. We have to struggle to find places and means to grow our own food, cut our own firewood, sew our own clothes. We are stuck in the capitalist economy, and we must fight to shake loose.

If the Amish were open to converts they would probably be swamped with applicants. I’d join tomorrow if it was possible, even if it meant living in someone else’s house and working twelve-hour days. I’d be willing to wait to buy our own farm, or to settle on someone else’s farm. It’s not just the simple life – it’s not that simple, as so many readers here know, to live off the land and make a wage for the things we can’t grow – it’s the Christian life that is the reason for doing things the Plain way. Christ comes first. Christ is the reason for what we do, and what we aspire to do. Obedience to Christ is the reason we keep doing it even when it looks like all may fail, because in faithfulness we cannot fail Christ.

Anxious to Serve

While caring for my husband, and starting here on the Lake as unofficial housekeeper to another priest is rewarding work, my little ordained soul is anxious to get back to ministry. Not that home-based work isn`t ministry…but I`m missing my old work, parish work and outreach. Except meetings.

Perhaps I need to be content with prayer work for a while. Perhaps I need to heed what St. Paul said in I Corinthians 3:10, and watch others build on the foundations I set with God`s help. And then on the chapter 4, at verse 11: `To this present hour we are hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clothed and bèaten and homeless…` Praise God, we are no longer this, but rewarded with mercy.

I long for the honour of service in the Lord, the honour of serving Him, not for praise, but for the joy of seeing His beloved face. I cannot begin to tell thee of the great joy in my heart when I contemplate our salvation in Him, in His grace in allowing us to know Him. He is the most beautiful of the beautiful, the joy of all joys, the best beloved of all loves. He is willing to take weak vessels such as ourselves and put them into service in His temple, His heavenly home. All He asks is that we keep ourselves pure and clean of blemish, as best we can, by prayer and confession. In this way we are lampstands for His saving light.

Thee is a reflection of His light when thee lives in Him. Let thy light shine now in Heaven, a glorious alleluia to His power and grace.

I have suffered recently from discouragement – I truly lost heart for a while. I believe I have been punished severely, more severely than necessary, not by the Lord, but by some of His earthly representatives. It is not enough that what I did, I did from necessity and in love. I let down the side, was a bad example, told the ugly truth, although it was about me and not another. I did not intend to shame, but the church was ashamed of me. I have offered confession, even public confession if so called to do, and I am willing to make penance, but four years of exile, so far, are not enough. This has broken my heart.

And yet, with Job, even from the grave I can make my song, Alleluia, alleluia. A broken and contrite heart is the sacrifice acceptable to God.

A Momentary Note…

I have to say, there’s nothing like the smell of oatmeal-walnut-raisin cookies baking to make a house very cozy. Thanks, Mother Kay, for a kitchen full of good things waiting to be made into yummy food. And thank you, God, for Mother Kay!

Short Note on Long Hair

Ladies have been asking me about managing the mane. I never thought my baby-fine hair was a blessing until I started hearing how other women struggled with thick, long hair. So there, Pantene!

There are a number of ways to pin up your hair. Amish women of Swiss-German background, blessed with beautiful thick hair,sometimes pull it into a high ponytail, then lay it out in the head in a wide, flat bun with a lot of those wonderful u-shaped Amish hairpins. Or the hair can be made into two buns, one forward on the crown, and another lower, so the weight of the hair isn’t pulling at the roots. The traditional back of the head bun may be too much for some people and cause discomfort, headaches, and if the tension is too tight, it can cause alopecia – hair loss – at the front. Braiding the hair first may distribute the weight better, and make it easier to lay the hair into a flat bun.

If none of this helps, then another solution is to braid the hair in a single plait and wear a veil so that it can hang down. If  a braid is impractical, then wearing the hair loose under a long veil, rather like a World War I nursing sister, or even a large kerchief tied at the nape of the neck, will cover the hair. Hold the veil in place at the sides and back with clips or bobby pins. At the times I can’t wear a prayer cap, I use one of my big white kerchiefs in this way. Occasionally someone thinks I’m a nun, but only if they aren’t very observant, and I don’t mind being mistaken for another sister – who would? Much better than being mistaken for another type of working woman while wearing lipstick, high heels, and a tight dress!