The Menno Melange

Don’t worry, I will do more writing than just my short story serial. Anyhow, the next issue of Silent Talkie was released to today, which includes part two of my ongoing story entitled Alter Call.
Thanks for reading, and I appreciate any comments.

On Wednesday, the second issue of Silent Talkie was released. This time my story was one of the features.

At first glance you might not think it belongs in an art magazine, but it deals with the intersection of celebrity and faith in a musical context … Okay, so maybe it still doesn’t belong in an art e-zine, but as long as they print it, I’ll keep submitting them.

The next part of the story will be released next Wednesday.

They were dicussing on CBC this morning whether or not there should be a by-law against drive-thru’s. Here is my two cents about that.
I think drive-thru’s are a bad idea, and should all be removed. Here’s why:

1) From a traffic stand-point: Sometimes the line gets so long, it causes traffic congestion, in the parking lot and more seriously, on the road.
2) From a quality of living stand-point: For those people who live near drive-thru’s, they have to hear the various orders being made all day long.
3) From a discipline stand-point: Drive-thru’s only foster the sense that we are too busy in our lives to stop for just a few minutes, we have to GO GO GO, and only encourages us to be lazy, as does much of our latest technology
4) From a practicality stand-point: The whole point of drive-thru’s is CONVENIENCE and QUICKER SERVICE, and yet how many of us have found it to be quicker to go inside? (I’m raising my hand)
5) From an environmental stand-point (this is last because it is MOST important: TOO MUCH IDLING! If we really cared about our environment, we would stop our cars, and take the extra 2 minutes (and in some cases LESS time than the drive-thru), take those much needed steps for exercise, maybe interract with other human beings, rather than a computer, and get our order.

The only positive thing I can think of with drive thru’s is for safety. If you’re a woman driving alone at night, whether in the city or secluded area, you might choose the drive-thru over getting out of your car. I know I would.

Other than that, let’s say “We’re through with drive-thru’s!”

February was my month again to submit an article to the local newspaper on behalf of the ministerial. It includes some excerpts from my “sermon” from Patrick & Liz’s wedding. Enjoy.

It was an unconventional wedding. We had gathered in mid-January on a frigid Ottawa Saturday afternoon. Guests and attendants were coming from many different places and hadn’t been able to spend much time together before the actual wedding day. The couple met before hand to take photos. Contemporary weddings are often void of many of the rituals and images that were once viewed as normal, so maybe now the convention is to have a non-traditional wedding.
I was honoured to have been asked to officiate at this wedding. Knowing that the guests would be coming from a variety of religious traditions and faith experiences, I wanted to be careful not to overwhelm anyone with overly spiritual language or excessive Biblical imagery. However, I had been given the freedom to preach “the way I normally do, just shorter.”
I was surprised by the number and style of comments I received. Some of the “churchie” folk complimented me on my “pleasant homily,” despite the lack of pulpit, crosses or ornamentation in that log cabin chapel. At the other end of the spectrum, one girl told me that she liked my sermon because it was funny and it “wasn’t too religious,” despite the numerous references to God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit and that it was centered on a key Biblical text.
Since this week’s Gazette comes out on Valentines Day, I felt it might be appropriate to share some of the thoughts from my wedding reflection.
Throughout history, humans have set out to explain why we should love, what it feels like to love and to be loved, what love actually is, and where it comes from. There is no more frequent subject in music, poetry or drama. Yet all these creative expressions put together have not been able to encapsulate what love is. The technical definition of love, the rational understanding of love, wouldn’t leave room for many of these notions. Love is an emotion - an affection. According to the scientific ways of looking at things, love is merely the result of a chain of chemical reactions within the body that set off a series of electrical impulses. I don’t know about you, but for me, that description is simply inadequate.
With all the books I read, songs I listened to and movies I watched, I still wasn’t prepared for love. In fact, I thought that I was too rational to be swept up in love’s games. I thought that I was far too civilized and mature to ever use cutesy nicknames with my girlfriend, and if I did, that would surely stop when I got married. The unfortunate ones who have seen my honey-bunny and I together know that I was wrong. Just like the scientific definition of love, my preconceptions were inadequate. Love is not rational or predictable, and so it cannot be approached solely with routine and formulas.
Students of history will know that the image of an angry, vengeful God has been used to keep people fearful and obedient; parents with children, teachers with students, church leaders with their congregations and government authorities with their citizens. This image has also been used to justify military aggression and the brutality of war.
Now some of you may be suspecting that this is where I talk about God so that you’ll think about love in a more divine way. However, I want us, in our reflection of love, to re-envision who God is. “Love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” Isn’t that a nice image of God? So much better than the image of a God who blesses self-righteous people for being holier than everyone else or the God who justifies unnecessary wars. God is love, plain and simple. May we, God’s creation, be people of love as well.

… it’s a re-launch.

The second volume of SilentTalkie was released on Wednesday. It is a weekly online art magazine devoted to highlighting interesting and engaging works of art which surround us in a variety of formats.

I have volunteered to submit articles for it. You won’t find any of my work in the first issue, but a series of short stories that I’m working on will begin in next Wednesday’s (the 21st) edition. The writers come from various expertises. Most of its writers, including myself, like to think that we are cutting edge and zany, but we’re likely more inline with Moe Sizlak’s definition of post-modern, “weird for the sake of weird.”

I’m hoping to have a lot of fun with my short-story series. It’s about a celebrity gospel singer, which is why it sorta fits into an arts magazine, but besides music, it’s about love, faith, enchantment and dis-enchantment. I hope you’ll like it.

I had big plans to do something radically different on a Sunday morning. As the weeks went by, I tempered my ambition with a realization that either I couldn’t carry out a particular idea well or that it likely wouldn’t achieve the desired outcome. By the time Sunday morning rolled around, most of my crazy ideas had fallen at the chopping block, but I did keep a few of them.

I’m certainly no pioneer, but some of these things were certainly new to the congregation and to me.
I wore jeans - Every time I preach, I wear a dress shirt and a tie, this Sunday I didn’t. Not only did I wear jeans, I also drew attention to it. In true Anabaptist fashion, I cited a lack of Biblical evidence for the tradition of dressing up for church and used it as a justification for my rebellious act.
I strayed from the pulpit (a little bit) - This is a personal victory. Every sermon I’ve ever preached is my own thought plus a few quotes from other places. However, since it’s written out in front of me, I am slavishly bound to the pulpit where I can find my sermon. I just don’t trust myself to do a 20 minute sermon from point form notes in front of me, or even worse, from memory. If the whole manuscript is in front of me, I’m stuck. This Sunday, I asked for a lapel mic and deliberately walked out from behind the pulpit to make a few points.
I invited input - My sermon required input from the congregation at various times. Their suggestions dictated the flow of that part of the sermon.

So nothing radically different in style, but with the weather and a few prominent families being away on holidays that particular weekend, I knew I could try a few new ideas. Perhaps my content may have been viewed as radical.

The lectionary story from that morning was where Jesus goes fishing with Peter, and afterwards calls him to come along and catch people instead of fish. Sure every metaphor falls apart somewhere, but I challenged them to take this fishing/gospel sharing image a little further. I asked them to think about different styles of fishing so that we could look at what they mean for living out our Christian faith that way. None of it was deeply intellectual, but if I can paint an image in someone’s mind, it’s as satisfying as a good joke and more effective than a mnemonic device I use to send my point home.

Here are a few of the images I came up with:
Ice fishing - involves a small isolated hut with an even smaller hole cut in the ice. Some Christians like to shield themselves from the elements, and only allow themselves a narrow avenue for the task they were actually sent here to do.
Trawling - is power fishing. You get a big lure attached to a big rod, dragged by a big boat with a big engine, hoping to catch a big fish. The fishing conditions can change dramatically, but you won’t know because you’re going too fast. I compared this style of fishing to the kind of Christians who leave gospel tracts laying around, but don’t stick around long enough to explain them to people.

The following Sunday, I found a gospel tract in my mailbox at the church, and nobody took credit for it. Is there some truth that I’m supposed to be convicted of, or does someone in the congregation have a similar sense of humour to me? I hope it’s the latter.

I am pleased to announce that our musical, The Shadows of Grossmunster is well under way!

Since I last wrote about it, we now have our complete cast! We have a band, a stage manager, a music director, and have received reviews from our script readers. We have ordered the tickets from Ticket Master (they now do custom tickets), and we’ll have them ready to sell informally by next week. If anyone is interested in purchasing them in February from us directly, feel free to do so.

If you won’t be running into us anytime soon, we’ll be selling the tickets formally starting in March at various locations: The Mennonite Savings and Credit Unions in Waterloo, Kitchener, Elmira and New Hamburg, the St. Jacobs Visitor Center (starting in May) and Tavistock Mennonite Church. Please see our website for more details:
www.grossmunster.com.

We are very excited at how things are coming along!