Thoughts on Advent; Life is Vast & Wonderful; Thia is home

This past week has been overwhelming: anatomy lab exam (cumulative), biochem presentation prep; finishing ceramics things; Christmas parties, etc., etc.

And on Saturday Thia came back from South Africa. So many stories shared already, so much left to hear.

Today at church we were focused, of course, on advent. On waiting; on what we are waiting for. It was a good morning, and what made it even better was that after the service was over my home group presented me with a basket of food - cookies and an orange and coffee and tea and pretzels - a Christmas present and finals care-package all in one.

I know lots of people who are critical of church & have been hurt by churches; I am sometimes one of these people. But I am beginning to see (and to know deep in my bones) the ways in which it is possible to become part of a family (even when your family is far away) through a community of faith. I love Early Church. I feel loved there. My Advent prayer for this afternoon is that as we wait in expectation for a future redemption we do not settle for anything less than striving to live into the Kingdom of God now.

i'm starting to feel like the only thing i blog about is church

...but i feel like it is more interesting to read about than, say, the hours per week i spend doing organic chemistry or reading paradise lost.

anyway, i was at the early church today and i knew it would be an awesome morning as soon as i stepped through the screen door and heard jason singing Farther Along. (i was completely right. it was an absolutely beautiful church service).

things that i loved this morning:

ron's prayer: help us to hear Your word so that we can be changed.
the paper globes hanging from the ceiling, like multi-colored jellyfish.
an understanding of the necessity of silence - the way that we had time this morning to sit in silence and to greet our neighbors.
the old man with filmy eyes and damp fingers who grabbed my hands when i went to the counter to get coffee.
little children; the boy who played the drum while lucas was singing.
the trisagion remix (love, love, love. holy immortal, have mercy on us).
walking into the service this morning and hearing 'farther along.'
jason praying for oppressed women.
someone prayed for syria during the Prayers of the People.
conversation during lunch with an EMU grad who had taken classes with some of my professors
connections with lessons from my cross-cultural - martin said that we can take risks because we are not afraid of death. he said, i don't want to change what Jesus said, but maybe we can read it like 'You cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven unless you are like an adolescent.' 
the thought that our waiting for a future redemption should be something full of hope.
singing 'I bind my heart this tide.' mmm hymns.
all of the men with beards. they make me smile; i think because i feel like i'm stepping back in time or something...
beautiful people all around me.

question from church

i haven't been to the early church recently because first my bike tire was flat, then i went to PA for the weekend, then i slept in, then it was fall break. but i went today and after the service we circled around the room and joined hands and each person said something they were grateful for. a man standing near me asked if i was new and i laughed and said that i am an occasional attender of the early church. he smiled at me and asked, did you find what you were looking for this morning? 

and right then was when the grateful-circle started, so i just smiled back at him and nodded, but his question kept banging around in my head all during lunch and my bike ride home. what was i looking for this morning? do i even know? how will i know when i find it?

reminder of life

Today in chapel Linford was the speaker, and he was talking about things that reminded me of my cross-cultural. I've attached the podcast of his message below:

http://emu.edu/now/podcast/2011/09/28/do-not-get-into-a-boat-with-jesus-if-you-want-to-stay-dry-linford-stutzman/

I highly recommend listening to it - it is only about 20 minutes and he has great things to say.



This week EMU is focused on missions, and today in chapel there were people from different missions groups visiting campus. After chapel they were set up in the Campus Center and then representatives also ate lunch in the cafeteria, holding conversations with students. I was lucky enough to eat lunch with some students from my cross-cultural, Linford, Janet, and a man from Our Community Place, which is the community center that meets in the building of the church I attend. We had a conversation that lasted about an hour and a half about lots of things, including whether or not international missions is a good thing, the difference between evangelism and development work, questioning whether programs and money impede or help spread the gospel, what that word "gospel" means, how to read the Bible, symbology on EMU's campus (we have, for example, a statue of Jesus washing Peter's feet, but not a cross), the way scripture felt different to me in Israel than it does in America, how to remove the threat of violence from the concept of conversion (and whether this is possible), the idea that Jesus should always make us feel uncomfortable - my friend Tim asked, "have we become too comfortable with the idea of a peaceful Jesus?", the pervasiveness of the false dichotomy of dualism- the separation of mind and body... my list could go on and on. It was so wonderful to be among other people who are asking some similar questions but also have some answers, or at the very least some faint stirrings in their spirit pointing them in certain directions. It is good to be in community, to join with Jesus and people, to practice listening, to learn.

Church :)

This morning I biked to the Early Church and got there are few minutes early, just enough to get to have a brief conversation with someone who goes to church there year-round. And then my friend Taylor sat next to me when he arrived, and then we sang the trisagion remix (it is so nice to have people know you), and then the sermon was about communion (the mystery of the sacrament, the miracle of it), and then we had communion and I stood around a table with 8 people I didn't know and recieved the bread, the cup, I passed it on, and then we had prayers of the faithful and I said God, be with my friend Thia who is traveling in South Africa. Reveal yourself to her. We pray to the Lord and all around me voices echoed Lord! Hear our prayer!

The trisagion, for those of you who don't know, is an ancient hymn that is commonly used in Orthodox and Catholic churches. The text of it and a melody is in one of the hymnal supplements. The words are:

Holy God

Holy Mighty

Holy Immortal

Have mercy on us

The Early Church has taken the words and created a new melody for it - if you search YouTube for the trisagion hymn, you will see that traditionally it is a sort of slow chant (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPgT7--3Q0E). I happen to think that the orthodox way of singing it is beautiful - we just sing it differently. A lot of life, hand drums, everyone just sort of adding their own harmonies, sometimes just singing over and over have mercy on us, have mercy on us.

What a mystery it is: that what was unseen and eternal became visible, taking the form of flesh and blood; that Christ invites us to take the mystery and miracle of his incarnation into our bodies; that we can pray to the immortal, mighty God to have mercy upon us. Thank you, God, for mystery and miracles. Amen.