Pnomh Penh, Persepolis

Pnomh Penh: a great Cambodian/Vietnamese restaurant in Chinatown. I'd never heard of it until tonight, when Benja suggested we go there for dinner. So we did, Benja, Sanjit, Clau and I. I will definitely go back. The menu looked great, and the food that we ordered (we ordered four dishes and ate communal style) tasted fantastic. Clau also ordered an iced coffee and Benja ordered a Vietnamese coffee, and both of them raved about it. Sadly, I couldn't even have a quick taste because I'm lenting from coffee. :(

Persepolis: a good movie, but an animated movie, and I'm not a all a fan of animated movies. Somehow, I find it hard to take animated movie serious (although this movie certainly was a serious movie, telling the story of an Iranian woman who after the Islamic Revolution in Iran witnesses many injustices and refuses to remain silent). Because the film had a purpose that was more than just entertain (ie - educate the viewer about the Persian mindset), I walked away with a positive impression of the film.

Interview: HSBC

I had a job interview today with HSBC, for an HRIS Analyst position, doing similar work to the work I'd done previously.

This opportunity fell into my lap thanks to my friend Gonnie whom I worked for a few years at Glenayre. She called me a few days ago out of the blue and asked if I'd be interested in working at a bank (hmmmm, not sure), 4 days a week (yes!), doing similar work to my previous line of work (yes!), in a job-share situation with her (yes!).

This appealed to me from various perspectives. Working 4 days a week is by far the most compelling factor, since it would enable me to practice offering hospitality one day a week at home, maybe enable me to purchase a house, and most importantly, figure out a longer term plan.

So today I had an interview. It went well. I think I have a very decent chance to get this job.

Lord Jesus Christ, if it pleases you, look favourably upon me as I apply for this job. And if your plan, heavenly Father, is different for me, than give me the strength and grace to take the outcome in stride and still praise you for your goodness and faithfulness.

Schism And False Dichotomies

Today's a sad day. It's a sad day because our church voted to separate from the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC). The national church has over the past 20 years stepped away from the faith once delivered to the saints, adopting a revisionist theology that cannot but destroy the future of the church.

Scripture is no longer the inspired word of God, but a cultural product (a human document that has no more of God's revelation than the Vancouver Sun newspaper). The incarnation, suffering death of Christ, and the resurrection are no longer taken literally, but they are 'metaphors that display God's unconditional love for the world'. Sin is no longer something we need to repent of and turn away from, because God is all-loving and all-forgiving; instead, sin is a an unhelpful, oppressive human construct that prevents us from self-actualization. And finally, the Easter Feast is no longer the accomplishment of God's plan in Christ before the foundation of the world, namely reconciliation with creation, but rather, it's a 'season of renewal and rebirth for all creation'. Sounds nice and warm ...

But it sounds like (among other things) a modern version of gnosticism to me.

Furthermore, Jesus is not the Son of God, but rather, he's a great man, the greatest of men who ever lived. He shows us what it means to be human. Agreed. He does indeed. He showed God and us what it means to be truly human. However, we can't leave it at that, because Christ also showed us what it means to be God. He showed us the way God deals with the world. Not so for the ACC though.

If the ACC's version of Christianity is true, why become a Christian? If Jesus didn't die/resurrect, neither will we on that final day when the New Jerusalem comes down. With such a view of Scripture, and with such a wimpy God that loves (a good thing indeed) but with no regard to holiness (hello?), God becomes like the fuzzy teddy-bear I went to sleep with as a young boy, who kept me feeling nice and warm at night, who was fun to hug, whom I could tell everything and would keep all my secrets. Like my teddy-bear, such a God does not require anything of me, because everything's just fine. God becomes a fuzzy, mushy, wimpy, and without a backbone God, made according to my own imagination, and worse yet, who caters to all my whims, desires, and tastes. Such a God is surely not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible is no bobble-head smiling Jesus.

The God of the Bible is indeed loving, but he's also righteous and holy. Ask the Israelites or better yet, ask Moses, about God as a consuming fire, or ask Israel and her surrounding nations about God's righteous wrath, they might be able to tell us a few things. The revisionist God has no interest in safeguarding his righteous name and reputation. He's a washboard. And he has even less interest in transforming us into the people he's created us to be, namely, into the likeness of his Son Jesus Christ, the perfect revelation of the Father. Why? Because everyone's just fine as is.

To be a Christian in the eyes of the ACC, it seems to me, is no longer to identify with the revelation of the Triune God of the Bible, but to identify with the local "hot potato" issues of the day, always aiming to please the culture. The future of the ACC lies therefore in key words such as "tolerance" and "acceptance", depending on what our culture says, and it lies in running bingo halls (because the churches will be empty) in order to raise money to sustain ecclesiastical structures and to remain involved with the social justice issues of poverty, human rights, etc... (which, agreed, is part of the mission of the church).

On the positive side, St. John's is still a part of the Anglican Communion worldwide, because we left the ACC in order to join the province of the Southern Cone. This province, as far as I know, has remained orthodox to the faith, and has offered to accept us as a member church. The fact that we still remain a part of the global communion is, for now at least, what keeps me in the Anglican church. I'm not interested in going back to the "Free" or "Evangelical" church, and I'm even less interested in forming a new denomination.

The hard thing for me is the theological implication this break has on the church. Is the church a purely spiritual organism, or do the structures also constitute the church? To me the answer lies not in spiritualizing the church, but in joining the material and spiritual dimensions of the church. That's the unity Jesus spoke of in John 17:20-26.

I guess I'm coming to terms with the dualism and not-too-far-away gnosticism that accompanies a separation of the spiritual from the material, the sacred from the secular. I think these are false dichotomies that break the unity of God, and the unity he has in mind for both the spiritual and the material realms.

More on that another time, but as it is now, I think that churches that uphold a sacramental world view, or, traditions that hold together in balance the spiritual and the material dimensions of the cosmos, do justice to the character of God and his good creation. And of these traditions, the Orthodox Church is the example par excellence. Maybe it's time to consider a lengthy pilgrimage to the Orient.

Lord, have mercy on your Church.

Pics From Chinese New Year

Here are some pics I took on Sunday at the Chinese New Year parade (and afterwards) in Chinatown.

Sore Back

The most comfortable position for me is not lying down or even sitting down, but standing up! My lower back's so sore I can't do anything .. absolutely everything's uncomfortable.

This morning I went to massage therapy on Commercial Drive. After massage therapy I feel great for a day, and then I feel horrible for the next 2. But overall I think massages help.

After the massage I went to my favourite coffee shop, Abruzzo, an Italian establishment where they show futbol all day and all evening. Blackburn was playing against Arsenal today, so I sat down and watched a bit of it.

The only downside today was that I had to order hot chocolate instead of the usual cappuccino.

On another note, it's been 10 days now since I'm without a laptop. This is a bag of mixed blessings, for sure. Annoying, because I can't check my email. But helpful, because it forces me to focus my current non-working days on ways other than internet surfing.

Laid Back

Today I went to church in the morning, then I went to the Chinese New Year's festivities in Chinatown with Clau and Rachelle, and then early evening I went to a small chapel near my place with Clau to pray.

The tension at church is rising, because of the upcoming vestry vote. I'm torn, not sure which way to vote.

No Soccer .. Again

Usually we play soccer on saturdays, but the past few weeks we haven't played because of "bad weather", and because people are busy with other activities.

Life without futbol is like life without air. It's suffocating.

Ash Wednesday

Today I went to 2 Ash Wednesday services. One at noon, at St. James' Anglican Church, and the other in the evening, at my home church at St. John's Shaughnessy. Both services were excellent, though very different.

The liturgy at St. James' placed much emphasis on the sacraments, whereas at St. John's the word was at the centre. If only we could focus on both equally. Why one at the expense of the other?

Regardless, at both services I was reminded of my mortality: "From dust you were made, and to dust you shall return".

So with this day the season of Lent begins, 40 days focused on repentance and spiritual renewal, leading to a climax on Holy Week, with Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, the Vigil on Saturday, and of course, the glorious resurrection on Easter Sunday.

Clau's Mom Gone

This morning at 4am Clau's mom went back to Bolivia. I drove them to the airport.

I think Clau has a difficult few weeks/months ahead. Relational brokenness. Mother's gone back home. Karla, her best friend, is also gone back to Aussie.

Maybe in the silence of loneliness God will meet her. That's what I pray for.

Lord, have mercy on Clau.

The Goods

I was on the phone with Apple today for close to 3 hours, speaking with 4 different people, negotiating the goods.

After all was said and done, here's what I asked for:
* an upgrade; no more CrapBook .. gimme a MacBook Pro (hope it's not a Crapbook Pro .. that would truly be frightening)
* replacement of all my accessories: a power adaptor, a new case, and a keyboard protector
* new software: iWork
* retrieval of all lost data

Of the above, I got everything except iWork. I'm disgusted with them. I can't believe that after 5 crashes/replacements, I had to fight for 3 hours to get what I did.

Another Mac, Another Crash

My 3-week old MacBook (aka "CrapBook") crashed again. For anyone following, that's 5 crashes, 5 defective laptops, in 9 weeks. This time I've had it.

When I call Apple on Monday I'm going to give them a piece of mind, and it won't be a pretty piece. This time I want the goods....

Listerine

I often times think that "helping" is a one way "transaction." I "give" someone something, and get nothing in return. I get to feel good about myself because I've been "generous", while the other person owes me gratitude, and perhaps even loyalty.

This is the case in many scenarios, but it's evident most to me in two particular scenarios: Evangelism, and serving the poor. In both instances I have "something" that the other person "wants" or "needs" (or should want/need), and the other person has nothing that I want or need in return. In the first scenario, the other person needs the gospel, and in the second, food or shelter. Both scenarios seem to imply help as a "one way road."

Over the past few years this view has been challenged, and yesterday again, I was challenged to take a bigger, broader perspective. I have much to learn from others, regardless of who they are, regardless of their spiritual state or their socio-economical situation.

This became evident to me at the GCBC overnighter, where I participate every so often. Along with another volunteer, I spend the night at the church, with close to 40 homeless men and women. As a volunteer my job is to ensure that everything runs smoothly: we hand out mats, blankets, pillows, we turn off the lights at night and back on in the morning, and we give them water, tea, or tylenols if they wake up at night.

Usually overnighters go smoothly. The occasional temper flares, the occasional argument, but nothing too physical (although fights do happen occasionally).

Well, last night, not all went so smoothly.

One of our guests, Phil, had snuck in a bottle of Listerine, and guzzled it down like a child does milk. He got drunk, and in his stupor, he stole someone else's epilepsy pills and gulped them down too, without anyone else noticing it. The result was that Phil became very agitated, nervous, and anxious. He became increasingly obnoxious.

We wondered whether we should 1- call the police to pick him up (because he was waking up everyone and preventing them from sleeping); or 2- let him stay. The temperature outside was below 0, so kicking him out was not an option.

We decided to let him stay, not so much because we wanted to extend grace to him, but because we noticed that the guests - the very people who were impacted most by Phil's annoying behaviour - were ok with the situation.

They realized in a profound way that I did not (because of my orientation towards "keeping the law/rules"? or "maintaining control"?), that this man was a broken man who needed not to be dealt with harshly, but who needed grace. The best thing to do was to ignore him, let him sober up, and try to get some sleep amidst the noise. So we adopted our guests' approach, and just "put up" with him.

In the morning Phil woke up hung-over but sober, and realizing his sin and unacceptable behaviour, he came up to us, apologized, and thanked us for our graciousness.

So what did I learn? Primarily one thing: 1- Helping requires openness to give and to receive by both people. I'm not convinced there's such a thing as a "helper" and a "helpee" (is that a word?). Both people in the given situation are open to "giving" and "receiving." It is, therefore, a two-way street.

In the above scenario, I helped provide a safe place for Phil to sleep. On the other hand, I received help (indirectly, perhaps) by Phil, who helped me see the pride and lack of generosity present in my heart. The other guests present were open too, because by putting up with Phil they helped me see what generosity looks like. In all likelihood they saw Phil's brokenness as a mirror of their own brokenness.

It seems to me that I have something to learn from everyone, because everyone is made in the image of God, meaning, something of Jesus is in everyone. I think that in a very real way, Jesus is in everyone. I wonder if this is what Jesus meant when he said "as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me" (Matthew 25:40).