Canadian Mennonite
Volume 12, No. 12
June 9, 2008
Readers Write
We welcome your comments and publish most letters sent by subscribers intended for publication. Respecting our theology of the priesthood of all believers and of the importance of the faith community discernment process, this section is a largely open forum for the sharing of views. Letters are the opinion of the writer only—publication does not mean endorsement by the magazine or the church. Letters should be brief and address issues rather than individuals.
Please send letters to be considered for publication to letters@canadianmennonite.org or by postal mail or fax, marked “Attn: Readers Write” (our address is on page 3). Letters should include the author’s contact information and mailing address. Letters are edited for length, style and adherence to editorial guidelines.
Killing for peace is not an option, but fighting injustice is
I say, “Well said,” to Tim Miller Dyck, editor and publisher of Canadian Mennonite, for his editorial, “Overcome evil with good” (April 14, page 2).
I have on hand a paper from the Church of the Brethren General Board called “Take the Pledge,” which states: “I won’t fight to kill.” “I will fight injustice.” “I will fight hatred.” “I will fight racism.” “I will work to make sure that everyone has what they need to live as God intends.”
For those of us opposed to “killing for peace,” even as a last resort (as was implied by some in the “Caring for the least of these” feature article in the same issue), “overcoming evil with good” and “working to make sure everyone has what they need to live as God intends,” should be a must, but it has to actually happen, not just be lip service.
I think it’s fair to say much of this is already happening, but as we all know, there is also much room for improvement. We live in a suffering world; let’s redouble our efforts, and more.
Hard to trust governments with the responsibility to protect
Thank you to Ross W. Muir and the contributing activists/scholars for their insightful and thoughtful reflections on the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine (“Caring for the least of these,” April 14, page 4).
It seems to me that a successful R2P is dependent upon a rational and cautious government. It is dependent upon a non-judgmental analysis of available facts. The government in the U.S. is internationally upheld as the democratic model for the world to follow. However, in light of Iraq, it is neither rational nor cautious, and ignores non-judgmental thinking. If the U.S. can’t properly implement its version of R2P, then how can citizens expect the rest of world to respond with care and wisdom?
Our own government is spending over $1 billion per year in Afghanistan with questionable results. In addition to these dollars is the more serious personal destruction of Canadian and Afghan families with death and permanent disabilities.
Currently, our duly-elected federal government is quietly spending more than $200 million dollars arming border guards with small arms. The decision to arm border guards was made without debate or discussion, and probably made with pressure from the U.S.
Even if one agrees with a policy of R2P, Canadians cannot trust our governments to make sound independent decisions. As Mennonites, we need to voice the alternative and, as Gene Stoltzfus pointed out, it is our “gift in a world teetering on the brink of self-destruction.”
Children not present at the first communion meal
After reading all of the articles on kids and communion in the April 28 issue of Canadian Mennonite, I am concerned with what I have read. There were no Scripture passages to back up the discussions.
Please read I Corinthians 11:17-32. At communion, the bread we take represents Jesus’ body; the wine we drink is Jesus’ blood that he gave to wash our sins away. How do we respond? Have we confessed and made right the things we did wrong? If we didn’t and then partake of the bread and wine at the Lord’s Supper, we are eating and drinking damnation to ourselves (verse 29).
How many churches still have the Sunday before communion as a preparation Sunday? There was a hard sermon on making things right. You had one week to make things right. If things were not right, you didn’t take the supper.
When Jesus had the Last Supper, they had it in an upstairs room—the 12 apostles, no children.
We need to praise Jesus for what he has done for us, but we cannot forget what is our part.
Mennonites should take Canadian government to court over ‘war tax’
In the April 28 issue of Canadian Mennonite, Henry Rempel commends Benno Barg for his concern about military activities being carried out on our behalf by the government (“Alternatives to not paying a Canadian ‘war tax’ suggested,” page 11). Rempel suggests two alternatives to paying the war tax. I would like to suggest a third.
When he was sworn in as prime minister, Stephen Harper made a solemn commitment, under oath, that he and his government would govern according to the rule of law; his predecessors did the same thing. Nevertheless, the Canadian Forces, an arm of the federal government, consistently and repeatedly violates the rule of law. It did so when soldiers murdered three young men in cold blood in Somalia in 1993. In killing Afghan civilians, and turning prisoners in Afghanistan over to others who torture them, it continues to violate the rule of law today. Yet almost no one calls the Canadian Forces or the Government of Canada to account.
Mennonite Central Committee, the Mennonite Church of Canada and the Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches of Canada all have the intellectual capacity, the technical skills and financial resources to challenge the Canadian government to make good its commitment to ensure that the rule of law prevails in Canada. We have the democratic right to do so. Further, I believe we also have the moral and ethical duty to do so (see Ezekiel 3:16-19).
I believe we could credibly challenge the government in a court of law—and the court of public opinion—to demonstrate that it is abiding by the rule of law, and that it is not using the taxes we pay to commit criminal acts. But are we committed enough to our Confession of Faith to do so?
A court challenge could be mounted on the basis of Part 1 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which states: “Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law.” Another clause that could be used is Article 27, which states: “This Charter shall be interpreted in a manner consistent with the preservation and enhancement of the multicultural heritage of Canadians.” Our Anabaptist heritage has held since 1528 that paying the war tax is paying blood money.
We shouldn’t complain about paying taxes, but as followers of the Prince of Peace we should insist that, as a minimum, our taxes are used only in ways that are consistent with the rule of law and, preferably, in ways that create peace—rather than perpetuating the cycle of violence.
Is this all there is?
In my travels, I am running into people who are discontented with church. Some of them are young adults who question the current functioning of church and dream of a new way of being church. Others are older adults, even some pastors, who have been in the church for years, and they wonder, “Is this all there is to Christianity?”
As I hear these people’s longings, I am reminded of Nicodemus’s encounter with Jesus (John 3). Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a faithful Jewish leader. However, for him, Jesus embodied a Jewish faith full of life, courage, truth, love and power, elements missing in his own faith. And so he secretly visited Jesus one night.
Many church people can relate to Nicodemus. They sense there is something missing in their Christian faith, and since they haven’t found it in church, they have looked beyond its walls—in workshops, retreats and books. They have done this searching in secret, like Nicodemus, not wanting to be judged by their Christian friends.
Many church people can relate to Nicodemus. They sense there is something missing in their Christian faith...
If Jesus were to speak to the modern-day Nicodemuses, I believe he would share the same message: “You must be born from above.” Normally this story has been interpreted to highlight the importance of Christian conversion. I see this story as stressing the importance of spiritual formation.
Jesus basically tells faithful Nicodemus that he is a follower of the flesh. In modern language, the term flesh refers to the human ego. Our ego, made up of all our history, seeks to control our life, for it is fearful, self-centred and desires pleasure. Our ego shapes all of our thinking, feeling and doing, and as a result we become identified with our ego and our history.
We think this is who we are until one day, when we are in a place of openness, we encounter the Spirit of God in our life. When this happens, we become born from above, as Jesus says, for we discover our true identity as children of God. Upon this spiritual birth, we are baby spirits, one could say, and there is an entire journey of development that our human spirit passes through until we are able to fully embody the fruits of the Holy Spirit like love, compassion, generosity, self-control.
This journey of spiritual formation involves continual acts of prayerful surrender, something our ego resists at every turn, for our ego wants control. As a result, a major part of this spiritual journey involves transforming our ego so that it slowly loses its ability to influence our life.
My hope is that the church will create more settings where people can work intentionally at their Christian formation. As they do so, they will discover the “more” that can be found within Christianity—a life in which the Holy Spirit is more able to freely flow in their lives, thus allowing them to be even bolder and braver servants of Christ in the world.
Out of the Box
I willingly have to
Every Sunday morning a stream of people make a stupendous countercultural declaration. They decide to gather as the church.
Although some youths might disagree, there are very few people who are dragged against their will to gather with Christians for corporate worship, where they experience life beneath God’s Word, Christian conversation, mutual encouragement and pre-Swiss Chalet coffee.
Long gone are the days when stores were closed, playground swings chained and the western world screeched to a Sunday halt out of respect for the gathering of the faithful. These days we shop, golf, play hockey, read the paper or go to work without anyone so much as blinking an eye. Every day is mostly like every other.
Long gone are the days when stores were closed... out of respect for the gathering of the faithful.
This is the day of the truly voluntary, willing church. It should be wonderfully encouraging that anyone gathers at all, given the myriad of options and distractions, work schedules and family realities. For possibly the first time in Canadian history, the church gathered is a willing countercultural statement, and most Christians don’t realize how rebellious they really are. If only they would!
We come together not because we are forced to, but because we have to. Perhaps that sounds contradictory, but there is an enormous chasm between “force” and “have” in this case. No one in our culture is remotely forced to gather with other believers. There is no overt state pressure to be together. There is nothing in the wider culture that encourages or supports the corporate gathering of the church on Sundays, or any other day for that matter. Christians gather—whenever they gather—because of Jesus, because the Spirit draws, and because we have to.
So, we’re not forced, but how is it that we “have” to gather? We have to because we who have determined to follow Jesus with shouldered cross need to be “unperverted.” While it’s true that the whole of life is given to God, that my whole life from breakfast to coffee-break to midnight snack is worship, I live in a world in which I am ever swimming upstream against a raging torrent of consumerism, idolatry, selfishness and indifference. Given that the following of Jesus is increasingly a lonely journey on the street corners, in the factories and in the schools of our nation, it is increasingly necessary for Christians to gather. If we don’t, we inevitably catch the common “cold” of our world, lose the fire of our first love, miss how beautiful Jesus is in the face of our neighbour, and begin to wither.
We simply have to be together as more than two or three—not simply so that hymnals get used, pastors have something to do, or offerings get collected—but because every day we are hammered by the perversion and ungodliness of our culture and we need the time together to “unpervert” ourselves, to remember who we really are, to support one another, love one another and hear the Word again, all in order that we may be re-commissioned to love the world as Jesus does.
We are a peculiar people. We’re really quite strange. Every time Christians gather we are making a shocking declaration that there is another way and only one Lord. We gather because we willingly have to. So, “let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25).