Spiritual Resistance: Flipping the holiday script

Twenty to thirty years ago when I was growing up in the Mennonite church, we rarely observed Lent or Advent.  As a child I asked my mom why all my Catholic friends give up something for Lent but we didn’t.  She said, “Well, we try to live our whole lives in Lent.” 

Certainly there is much to ponder in that statement in terms of simple living, but the underlying reality was that Lent (and to a lesser degree Advent) where things that other Christians do but we Mennonites (and Evangelicals) don’t.

That’s no longer the case today.  Over the past generation more and more Mennonites (and Evangelicals) are recovering the traditions of Lent and Advent as periods of prayer, preparation, and spiritual renewal leading up to the two biggest Christian holy days. 

I believe that one reason for this recovery is that we are far enough removed from historical animosities to realize that there are good things in those “high church” traditions.  We are now able to admit that we’ve discarded too much over the centuries. 

But I also believe that another reason for this recovery is because we intuitively know that we need fully-formed religious practices to withstand the forces of commercialization and consumerism that continue to co-opt our holy days.

Our somewhat-Christian but secular and consumeristic culture lacks patience.  Therefore, a typical lead-up to and celebration of Easter goes like this:

Spring sales, candy, flowers, egg hunts, pictures with the Easter bunny, then off to church on Easter Sunday, followed by dinner at grandma’s, then it’s all over. 

This sequence is even worse for Christmas:

Thanksgiving, black Friday, cyber Saturday, more shopping, office parties, school plays, lights, more shopping, hot mocha peppermint lattes, shopping and finally some more shopping, then Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, then it’s all over.

Our society celebrates too early and ends too abruptly.  As a result, we suffer from post-holiday let-down.  The end result of the holiday is more disappointment and emptiness than lasting joy and fulfillment. 

The church needs disciplines of spiritual resistance to come out from this pagan rhythm and flip the cultural holiday script.  We can do this in two steps.

First, we resist the temptation to celebrate too early by observing the seasons of Lent and Advent.  Our worship and discipleship should mine these spiritual seasons for depth in order to curb our appetites and focus our hearts. 

Then, we resist the let-down of ending to abruptly by prolonging the celebration.  Easter should not just be one day of worship but a season of basking in the resurrection.  Sing Easter songs for weeks after Easter Sunday.  Don’t buy or use any Easter decorations or candy until after Easter (you’ll even save money by getting everything on clearance).  Have people over for dinner the Sunday after Easter Sunday.    

Do similar things for Christmas too.  Christmas is not just one day of presents but a time of resting in Christ’s presence.  Don’t sing Christmas carols until Christmas, but then keep singing them through January.  Recover the 12 days of Christmas and give one present each day for 12 days starting on Christmas. 

Flipping these holiday scripts would remind us as the church that though we are in the world, we are not of the world.  We may not be able to totally buck the system of consumerism around us, but we can set up spaces of sanctuary from the chaos around us through worship, prayer, and spiritual discipline. 

Easter Message

It is not the goal of the church to say anything new on Easter.  Rather it is the goal of the church to say something faithful to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. 

The church gathers for worship on Easter to keep the memory and hope of resurrection alive. 

This is a vital act of faith; to proclaim the suffering love of God and God’s redemptive victory within the world of death.    

Jesus stresses three times throughout his ministry that it is necessary for the Son of Man to suffer, be rejected and crucified, and to rise again on the third day.  Jesus warned and told his disciples about this, but they were slow to download this message into their hearts and lives.  How could they?  This was complete and utter newness beyond their wildest hopes and dreams. 

Our society and culture worship at the altar of the new and the novel.  The world competes after hot takes and first scoops and innovative technologies.  Trendy is the currency of the day.  Something that is old is assumed to be obsolete. 

The gods of mammon and consumption, whether of things or ideas, and the systems of market production and technological progress have invaded imaginations.  And let us be humble enough to admit that these gods have infected our faith at times as well. 

The wisdom of scripture proclaims that there is nothing new under the sun. All this competition for the newest and latest is really the age-old human quest for power.  It is really just the age-old race to the top; the top of politics, the top of the market, the top of the academy, the top of the family, the top of our friendship circles, etc.    

All this has been done before, and so it is, in fact, all so very old.  This obsession, this race for the new and the novel has left a wake of disaster and will leave you stretched thin, tired, anxiety-ridden, and driven toward despair and nihilism.

It will, in the end, kill you. 

On Easter (as we should every Sunday) the church steps out of this very old race for the illusion of the new and the novel.  Instead of saying anything particularly new today, the church aims to say something specifically faithful. 

The church proclaims Christ crucified, Christ executed, Christ assassinated, like a common criminal, like a disturber of the peace. 

The scripture makes clear that he was executed by a perversion of justice between religious and political powers; a collusion of church and state.   

What was his crime?  He healed the sick and spoke good news to the poor.  He welcomed the outcasts and ate with sinners.  He spoke against sacred institutions, preached openly about the coming Kingdom of God, and called all to change their hearts and lives. 

           

But on that first day of the week as recorded in the gospels, something changed.  For the first time something new actually happened. 

On the first day of the week, at early dawn, the women came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared, but they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.  Suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them.  The women were terrified, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” (Luke 24:5). 

“Why do you look for the living among the dead?”

It’s not there.  You won’t find it there.

The body of Christ is not to be found in that which is dying and decaying and fading away.  Rather the living of Christ is to be found out beyond the tomb, out beyond the places of death.

           

Christ is risen!

He is risen indeed! 

So why look for the living among the dead?

That is the Easter question.  That is the Easter question that summons us to true newness. 

           

So often in our human quest for power we look for newness and significance among the tombs.  We settle for a mere resuscitation of what has already been tried before, but is merely repackaged and re-branded as something novel.

But Easter is not just one more go-round with resuscitated, old ideas.

Easter is about resurrection! 

John of Patmos recounts the words of Christ in the concluding witness of all of scripture, “See, I make all things new” (Revelation 21:5).

This is Easter: Complete and total newness.  Not a resuscitation of old ideas.  Not a recycling of old and tired games into new and fancy packaging.   

Easter is about resurrection.  Easter is about Jesus, the son of God, entering into creation, suffering and dying at the hands of that very creation, but being raised up again to redeem, ransom, and transform all of creation into something completely new. 

Each of us must consider the burdens and sorrows that we carry.  Each of us must examine the sin that weighs on our conscience.  Each of us must name and lament the miscarriages of justices that are heavy on our hearts.  It is on account of these that Christ died.  But it is in spite of these that Christ now lives and calls us to follow him in newness of life. 

Because the resurrection is God’s answer and God’s solution to all our personal, social, and yes, even our political problems. 

It is only the hope by which our lives and our world are transformed. 

This is the resurrection.

And I believe in the resurrection.

And I have hope in the resurrection.

Both for this life, and in the life to come. 

Thanks be to God

Christ is Risen!  

AMEN  

Zurich

After our trip to Bodensee, we decided to take a spontaneous trip into Switzerland to visit Zurich.  This wasn't an original part of our sabbatical plans, but we were only 1.5 hrs away and it's Zurich... why wouldn't we go?

So on Tuesday April 7th we cleared out of our vacation home in Bodensee, Dave and Rebekka and their kids drove back to Bammental, but we loaded into our VW Passat for a day in Switzerland.


I'm glad we did.  Zurich was amazing.  One of, if not the, most beautiful city I've ever been in.  We had a wonderful day too; it was a bit cool, but not cold, and very sunny.  I wish we would have had more than 4-5 hours there.

Walking around a city is not Roslyn's favorite thing to do.  In fact, she hates it.  We knew this going into it.  But still.  It was worth dealing with her tantrums and fits for the opportunity.

Zurich is also an important city in Reformation/Anabaptist history.  To the left is a picture of the Grossmunster, the cathedral where Ulrich Zwingli began his reforms in Switzerland.  Zwingli was an influential leader and peer to Martin Luther during the Reformation.  He also was the teacher of Felix Manz and Conrad Grebel, students of his who would go in a more radical direction and become leaders in of the Anabaptist Movement.  Several debates between Zwingli and the Anabaptist ensued.  Eventually, the Anabaptist broke with Zwingli and his reforms.  The Anabaptists wanted a free church that was separate from state influence/control, rejected the use of the sword as a tool of the church, and advocated baptism for adults upon an open confession of faith.

Sitting outside the Grossmunster, I imagined what it would be like 500 years ago when these men worshiped, studied, debated, and argued together in this very place.

Just beind the Grossmunster, on a small street called Neustadtgasse, was the location of the first adult re-baptisms ever recorded.  On January 21, 1525, on the street pictured to the left, Conrad Grebel baptized George Balurock in the home of Felix Manz's mother.  After Blaurock was baptized, he then baptized the others present.  This was a powerful rejection of the state-sanctioned baptism of the Catholic and Reformation churches of the day.  It also marked a significant moment in the development of the Anabaptist movement. And it all took place on this little alley right in the shadow of the Grossmunster itself.




The Anabaptist leaders were ordered to stop their baptizing, teaching, and evangelism or leave Zurich.  When they refused, they were further threatened with imprisonment, fines, and even death.  Still, the Anabaptists refused and remained true to their convictions.

In particular, Felix Manz continued to preach and baptize and give leadership to the Anabaptist movement.  He was eventually arrested, imprisoned, and put on trial.  In the picture to the left, the two towers are cathedral spires of the Grossmunster, the bridge is the place where Manz was sentenced to death, and the place where I took the picture is the place where he was drowned in the Limmat river on January 5, 1527.  For all it's beauty, there is a tragic history that took place here.

But it's not without hope.  When I was in the Grossmunster, after admiring the architectural beauty I went to the book table.  On the table I saw the book pictured to the right, which I bought. It is true that steps toward reconciliation have happened.  The Reformed church has made official confession of their persecution of Anabaptists, and Anabaptists have also expressed a commitment to walking together in peace.

I had a brief conversation with the man at the book table in the Grossmunster.  Through a combination of his broken English and my limited German he made sure I had the directions to the Shipfe, the location where Manz was drowned.  It was a moment in which I felt like we both owned our common history together and are striving to learn and grow from it.

Frohe Ostern!

On Easter Sunday we attended worship service at Dave and Rebekka's church.  We got really good at saying "frohe ostern" which is German for "Happy Easter."

Like any pastor, Dave and Rebekka were busy during Holy Week.  But once Easter Sunday was over, their schedules freed up.  To celebrate we all took a road trip to the very south of Germany to Lake Constance.  The Germans call it Bodensee, which literally means "bottom see" because you can see the bottom through the crystal clear water.




Bodensee isn't internationally know, but it's a place where Germans go to vacation.  I would compare it to Sleeping Bear Dunes in Northern Michigan (only substitute the sand dunes for medieval towns and castles).  Rebekka's mother works at managing vacation condos, so she hooked us up with a last minute deal for all of us to go down for two nights.

When you look south across the lake, you are looking at Switzerland to the SW and Austria to the SE.  You can also see the snow-caped Alps in the background.  The view was much more magnificent than what my Sony Cyber-Shot 10x zoom could capture.

We met Rebekka's parents and sister at their home, and the kids had an Easter egg hunt.

Rebekka's mom served us Kaffee and Kuchen at 4:00.  It consisted of rolls, danishes, and "bee-sting cake," which is a delicious honey cake as the name implies.

I thought this would be our supper for the day, so I ate a lot.










But I was wrong.  Because at around 6:00 they served us a full-on Aben Brot, which means "evening bread."  This is the typical German supper that consists of fresh bread, sliced meats and cheeses, lots of butter, fruits and veggies, and other sides such as olives, pickles, etc.





The next day we were able to work off some of the food from the night before by walking around Bodensee and the town of Meersburg where we toured a castle.

Back in Toledo

We've arrived safely back to Toledo.  Our 9-hour return flight from Frankfurt to Detroit went smoothly, mostly because Roslyn watch TV for six of those nine hours.  We landed yesterday at 3:00 Eastern Time, which is 9:00 Germany time.  The girls both fell asleep in the car on the way home from the airport, and that helped us stretch to 7:30 before going to bed.  Then the girls got up a little before 5:00 am this morning, but that wasn't even so bad.  

What an amazing trip!  It's hard to even describe it at this point.  In total, we spent 50 days abroad in five different countries speaking three different languages.  We had four flights, two train rides, one long-distance bus ride, a boat ride, dozens of hours in cars, and numerous trips on subways, trams, and buses.  We slept in 8 different locations, and I lost count of how many homes and restaurants we ate in.  We saw amazing beauty in very different climates, and of course we interacted with amazing friends all over the world.  Such and adventure!

I've fallen behind on some posts, so even though our travels are over now I still plan to write a post about our trip to Zurich and a post about some other events in Germany.  

Since our girls were up early, and we had no food in the fridge, we went out for breakfast at Uncle John's Pancake house in Toledo.  Emiley and I were craving biscuits and gravy.




Then we went to the Toledo Farmers Market to buy some food for the week.  It was fun to see the vendors we've come to know at the market.  Now it's 10:30 and I'm not sure what we'll do for the rest of the day ahead.

Anabaptist History: Augsburg

On Wednesday April 1st, Dave and I took a trip to Augsburg with Wolfgang Krauss, who is the regional expert on Anabaptist History.  Dave has known Wolfgang since Dave's parents were missionaries in Germany when he was just a boy.  Dave has also been a colleague of Wolfgang's since Dave did an international service assignment at the Mennonite Peace Committee office here in Bammental.

So thanks to Dave for arranging a private tour of Augsburg with the leading Anabaptist expert in Germany.  Much of what we saw I had already learned about in Anabaptist history courses, but of course it was nice to see for my self.   Here are some of the sights we saw.

This street is the location where Hans Denck baptized Hans Hut, and is located next to the old city gate.  It is known to be the sencond adult re-baptism upon confession of faith that took place in Augsburg because of the records of Hans Hut's arrest and trial.  Scholars still wonder who was the first Anabaptist in Augsburg, with the leading theory being Hans Denck himself.  But since no records exist, it is merely speculation.  

The two pictures above are of a house in Augsburg at the corner of Hinterer Lech and Schleifergasschen.  It was the house of Susanna Daucher who hosted Anabaptist gatherings.  Eventually, her and the house were discovered by the ecclesial authorities and many people were arrested and imprisoned.  Susanna herself was then banished from Augsburg.  Wolfgang was instrumental in getting this memorial plaque placed on the house, and it is the first officially-recognized commemoration of the Anabaptists in the city of Augsburg.  

This intersection is where the old horse market was located.  It is significant because city records indicated that a meeting of 60 leading Anabaptists took place in a "house near the horse market."  It was at this meeting that some core convictions were agreed upon by Anabaptists in Switzerland and Southern Germany, and from this meeting the participants were sent out two-by-two to do evangelism across the region.   This meeting of Anabaptists became known as the Martyrs' Synod because eventuall 58 of the 60 participants were tracked down, arrested, and martyred.  You can read more about it by clicking here and here, and here.  

These two photos are of the meeting place of the modern-day Augsburg Mennonite Church.  They meet in a cafe/club called the Neruda, named after the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda because he's the owner's favorite poet.  The Neruda is a cafe throughout the week, and closed on Sundays.  Wolfgang got to know the owner and came up with an arrangement where the church can use the space once a month on Sunday morning.  They start their gathering with a potluck meal, then sing a few songs, have conversation around a scripture passage, share communion, and then close with a prayer and benediction.  We went into the Neruda on this particular night and it was packed with people listening to live music.

Berlin to Bammental

We said goodbye to the Whites and left Berlin on Saturday, March 28.  Roslyn was sad to say goodbye to her new friend Ariella, and we of course were also bummed to say goodbye to Ryan and Alethia.  It had been about three years since we had last seen them, and who knows how long it will be until we see each other again.





We had a good train ride from Berlin all the way to Bammental.  It involved two transfers, one in Frankfurt, and one in Heidelberg.  Both transfers went smoothly and we've found we really enjoy train travel.  Train travel is the way to go; less stressed and cramped then air travel, and more leisurely than car travel.

Our train out of Berlin left at around 11:30, so we were soon ready for lunch after departure.  We decided to go to the dining car, and we had a really good and pleasant meal.  Also, Roslyn made a new friend (which has become a theme of our travels).  You can see the little girl in the background, and her name was Johanna.  She and her mom even invited Roslyn to go with them to their car and play for awhile after lunch.  Which was great for us because we took Liz back to our car for a nap and then Emiley and I had some adult time to ourselves.


After about a 6-hour trip we arrived in Bammental.  Bammental is a village of about 6,000 people in the hills of southern Germany about 20 minutes from Heidelberg and one hour from Frankfurt.

To the left is a picture of our little apartment where we are staying in the Hausgemeinschaft.




We are visiting our friends Dave and Rebekka Stutzman who are in Bammental through a partnership with Mennonite Mission Network, Virginia Mennonite Missions, and the Mennonite Conference here in Germany.  They are working as part-time pastors with an intentional community while also doing some networking among Anabaptist-minded young adults.  When their term ends later this year, they will be starting a new church planting project. In my mind, Dave and Rebekka will make excellent church planters, and it's been exciting to catch up with them about their ministry, talk theology, and dream big dreams.

Thus far we've been worshiping with the community for Holy Week as well as taking some time to visit the surrounding areas.  I'll post more about our adventures later, but let me just say, Southern Germany is gorgeous.  It is quintessential Germany in my mind.  The weather has been cool and rainy, but even so, that hasn't stopped us from getting off on the right foot here in Bammental.