Letters to the editor

Mennonite Brethren Herald welcomes your letters on issues relevant to the Mennonite Brethren Church, especially in response to material published in the Herald. Please keep your letters courteous, brief and about one subject only. We will edit letters for length and clarity. We will not publish letters sent anonymously, although we may withhold names from publication at the request of the letter writer and at our discretion. Publication is also subject to space limitations. Because the Letters column is a free forum for discussion, it should be understood that letters represent the position of the letter writer, not necessarily the position of the Herald or the Mennonite Brethren Church. Send letters to: Letters, MB Herald 1310 Taylor Ave. Winnipeg, Man.  R3M 3Z6 or send via e-mail. (Please ensure that your postal address is included in your e-mail correspondence.)

Finding leaders

The article “J.E. Toews urges rethinking ordination” (Dec. 5) and the response by Ed Lenzman (Letters, Feb. 6) gave me deep concern. It is based on a perception that ordination is seen as a sacramental act and signifies transfer of power, authority and charisma. That is unfortunate. I appreciate the comment by Lenzman, questioning this. The underlying tone of the article carries innuendoes of error, wrongdoing and unscriptural practice. This troubles me.

The practice of ordination as many of us have seen it and perhaps experienced it, can be described with terms such as: recognition and affirmation of giftedness; commitment and dedication to the Lord and to servant ministry; identification of the minister with the congregation and vice versa and relationships of confidence and trust, as well as mutual accountability; creditability and effectiveness; no particular emphasis on power, position, prominence; pay and parsonage, although always a concern, was not a top priority.

I am not suggesting a return to previous practice, but am concerned that we not err in assessment of the past.

Our fathers were concerned about the propagation of the gospel and the promotion of the Kingdom. They found leaders “amongst themselves,” and established opportunities for training (institutions of learning), opportunities for active participation and ways of affirming them. Let’s find practical, meaningful application of scriptural principles and practice.

The challenge of finding leaders is as great as ever. Jesus spotted them “along the way.” He chose the impulsive fisherman, the tax collector, etc. They had a fair degree of experience and success in their field and were mature. Christ called them, aroused their commitment, walked with them and taught them, and then entrusted them with the task.

I am impressed with the tremendous resource of gifted, well-trained people we have in our congregations. A little trust, encouragement and provision of opportunity generates confidence, courage and commitment. As we rethink our approach to ministry and of finding and affirming leaders, we might be surprised with the leadership amongst us.

Jake P. Doerksen,
Gem, Alta.

The role of love

Thank you for Doug Heidebrecht’s thoughtful and clearly written piece on interpreting the Bible (“The hermeneutical task,” Apr. 9). His brief comments in the final section about the place of love, the role of listening to the Spirit, and the way we talk together in the process of interpretation lead me to offer several additional observations.

Some time ago, while searching the Web for something quite unrelated, I discovered a page about how one congregation interprets the Bible. Most striking was the parenthetical note after their first sentence: “A basic tool for interpreting the Bible is the concept of the life setting of the passage (Sitz im Lieben).” The irony, of course, is in the naïve spelling and grammatical errors in the German. The corrected Sitz in der Liebe, means “setting in love,” instead of the usual phrase known to biblical interpreters, Sitz im Leben, which means “setting in life.”

This intersection of Liebe/Leben, love/life, interests me because it complements Heidebrecht’s article. If we interpret a biblical text as related to two “life settings” – the ancient world and our own – then the text can’t be reduced to an object to be analyzed, or a problem to be solved, or an answer to be received. It comes to us as a participant in a conversation that bridges time and space. If that conversation is grounded in a Sitz in der Liebe, a setting in love, then interpretation will not be driven merely by the competitive drive to get it right, but by the transformative possibilities that become part of any healthy conversation between two or more persons. If our interpretation is truly relational (as implied in the April 9 cover theme, “Oh, how I love Your Word!”) we may avoid the pitfall of Jesus’ opponents in John’s gospel who seemed to have a very good grasp of the Scriptures as source of eternal life, but not a very deep awareness that, more than anything else, Scripture invites us into relationship with Jesus (John 5:39–40).

As that relationship with Jesus/Word grows deeper, and as we read the Bible in a community governed by love, we discover that our understanding of Scripture also grows more profound. In ongoing conversation we come to understand not only our biases, fears, and presuppositions, but also how we are challenged to change our perspectives in the light of another’s insights and experiences. By allowing openness to another (either person, text or Spirit), authentic conversation will take us where we may not wish to go. But it will always create options for creative and hopeful change. In other words, interpretation ruled by Sitz in der Liebe will always be open to another’s perspective. It will not exclude; it will allow me to embrace even what I fear; and, above all, it will keep me listening without always having to assert that the other person(s) must adopt the position with which I began the conversation.

Conversation governed by love can allow church members to disagree on a variety of interpretive issues and still remain committed to working together as a congregation or conference (e.g. diverse perspectives on women in church leadership). After all, the church has been having such conversations for 2000 years. Some of those conversations have led to confessional clarity, others have not. In other words, it’s all right not to get it all right all the time. That is especially important to recognize because mastering a four-step process itself cannot guarantee the kind of relational interpretation to which Jesus is inviting us. Jesus’ opponents in John 5 practiced interpretive consensus. But they didn’t recognize that loving Scripture is only a tool in the service of a higher good: loving Jesus and following Him in life. And that might just be possible in spite of our interpretive disagreements.

Gordon Matties,
Winnipeg, Man.

Resting

Those of us whose activities are never the same from week to week can use the reminder of the injunction to a day of rest. However, in dealing with the Sabbath in depth, I missed two factors.

Can we assume that the first day now replaces the seventh? Or, as George Shillington puts it, the one-in-seven principle? (We discovered that the Spanish calendar actually puts Monday as the first day).

We could also benefit from New Testament teaching on Sabbath as a permanent state of rest. For example, the teaching around Hebrews 4:9, where sabbatismos is translated “rest.” This is a condition for all of us to aspire to.

David J. Esau,
Spain

The impact of The Passion movie

We have received more letters concerning The Passion of the Christ and are excerpting from just a few of them.

—Eds.

My wife and I saw the movie The Passion of the Christ. One truth rings clear in the New Testament that is more powerful than words: Christ paid a severe penalty for our sins and it definitely took longer than a few hours of pain. Don’t take me as bloodthirsty; I was deeply moved and many times had to look away and hold myself tightly, knowing His pain was real and my sin was a cause of that. Though Mel Gibson may have taken some artistic license, the fact remains that because of this movie, people who may otherwise never be exposed to the gospel message are seeing the gospel and asking questions, and some are committing their lives to Christ. In the words of Paul, “But whether or not their motives are pure, the fact remains that the message about Christ is being preached, so I rejoice” (Philippians 1:18).

Don Reimer,
Winnipeg, Man.

My sons ages 20 and 15, and my daughter age 17, saw The Passion of the Christ. They wept throughout the movie because they were so touched by the suffering of Christ and also the suffering that Mary had to have gone through seeing what her firstborn had to go through at the hands of Rome. I believe that we need to use this as a tool to reach out to others and to point them to the Christ in the Bible and not on the screen.

Alannah Kui,
Fort St. John, B.C.

The movie portrays the depth of God’s love. Christ showed no resentment. He took all the abuse and made no effort to avoid any of the shame or the pain inflicted upon Him. “By His stripes we are healed.” In this context the words of Jesus, “no one comes to the Father but by me” give a very forceful message of atonement. Gibson successfully presents Jesus as “. . . the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

Our desire is for the movie to be seen worldwide. The movie is not perfect but you cannot go wrong by telling the world that sin is never satisfied and that Christ took upon Himself the shame, curse and pain of sin so mankind could be freed from its death-sting. Reports of its impact even in the Muslim world are already coming in.

David and Elfrieda Loewen,
Winnipeg, Man.

Disappointed in the movie

I deeply appreciated David Eagle’s review of The Passion of the Christ and agree wholeheartedly. The flogging scene was away over the top and the scene on Golgotha after they nailed Jesus to the cross and then dropped Him face down onto the rocky surface with the cross on top of Him was totally uncalled for and completely unscriptural. I left very disappointed, feeling I had been duped by all the hype concerning the film.

Bob Gibson,
Kelowna, B.C.

STMs not for everyone

Thanks to Randy Friesen for “Five lousy reasons to do summer missions” (Apr. 9). My wife and I are co-youth pastors. We felt that this article confirmed what we believe to be important about Short-Term Missions (STM). We have felt the pressure from within and without to go out of the country with our youth. I’m not saying it will never happen, but God has called all of us to be faithful in the small things and then He will entrust us with great things. (Actually, reaching your local community can be the greatest thing you can do!) We have been so blessed when we have walked in obedience to what God has called us to do. Bottom line: God has called each of us to be missionaries. Some have been called far away from home, others close to home. I pray that we will all walk in obedience to the call God has put on each of us and not put our call on to others. Randy’s words sum it up: “Jesus’ goal was to obey the Father. It should be ours as well.”

Stan Klassen,
Black Creek, B.C.

Another avenue

Because Sophia has ceased publication, Evelyn Labun asks, “How will MB women now tell their stories and voice their concerns?” (Letters, Apr. 30)

For 13 years, I enjoyed reading Sophia, but always with a sense of disappointment that the insightful articles were not being shared with the wider Mennonite constituency. Perhaps now, women will be more encouraged to send their writing to the MB Herald, which through the years, has been very open to printing the work of Mennonite women.

Helen Rose Pauls,
Chilliwack, B.C.