Life before 2008 09 Apr 2007 01:52 pm
Monster Yawn
Snippets from a weekend of travel, of a first paschca, and of a chilly Easter:
- what good is getting paid vacation time off from work if one never uses it?
- Georgia has a really packed-full AM dial, which is valued on an 11 hr. drive with four kids and a dog with no working FM radio.
- Georgia also made a lot of revenue in speeding tickets this weekend. I think we saw a patrol car every 2 miles, both there and back, on the major interstates and the country roads. Trust me, this is only exaggerated slightly.
- sometimes the idea of something is more easily manged than that reality…this thought applicable to many situations here lately.
- always plan to arrive at a pascha service EARLY. Do not trust there will be parking. Do not trust there will be room to stand inside. Bring coats if it’s cold outside; you may very well be out in it. Be thankful when the priest wears a mic and forgive him when he forgets it’s on when he’s snappish to the ones near him; it’s a busy night for him too!
- The Easter Basket comes from the pascha basket, has nothing to do with rabbits, and can be filled with some very, very interesting things!
- it is totally normal to see a large bbq grill and tailgating chairs set up at 3 in the morning on pascha.
- it’s too beautiful to describe what it sounds like when hundreds of people shout “HE IS RISEN!” in four languages repeatedly in the middle of a starry and candlelit night.
- it is pretty cool when you sit the next morning in a baptist church and hear the minister say, “the early church used to say ‘He is risen!’ and the people replied, ‘He is risen indeed!’”, hear the congregegation do this as well, and know that that same ancient church is still in existance and did that very thing, hours ago, when the day began.
- large russian women will push cute little redheaded children, almost smooshing them like a bug, if you get between them and where they are going. Old russian men will smile apologetically for them and pat the same child on the head. Young russians may not even acknowledge you though they will be very stylishly dressed.
- being in a room jammed shoulder to shoulder with excited christians while candlelight is passed, making the room start to glow with beauty, and as the stench of someone’s wayward burning hair mingles with incense, can be a slightly scary place to be. Add in disorientation and uncertainty of what is going on and what comes next and one and one may really start to long for the familiar.
- “Communion To Go” is a scandelous and irreverent idea that will not grow on one who finds it shocking at first. If it is shocking at first, it will be nauseating next, and heartbreaking after. Indignation and anger follows and at the end…clarity. It is good to know where one stands on these things.
- when a road block of patrol cars is stopping traffic to check drivers for licenses, and there are only black drivers being checked (and ticketed) while white drivers are waved on through, and one is in Folkston, GA when this happens, can one really then trust a statistic that black drivers are more likely to drive without a license than white?
- In perry, GA, a young mother can walk her two young sons to the car by jerking their arms and smacking their behinds in a crowded parking lot and people will not take notice. That same mother can then practically throw the same sons into the back of her shiny SUV while still hollering at her husband. No one will catch this on a camera phone and report it or apparently even act as something disturbing just occurred.
- When Arby’s says they have Roast Beef Sandwiches and fresh salads, they may mean that is ALL they have. No milk, no soft drinks, no stuffed peppers, no fruit cups, no ham, no turkey, no cheese. Just so ya know.
- Thank God for Starbucks.
- driving through the night is wiggy. And chocolate easter bunnies are not good for dogs.
- if you drove off and left your very-big-son behind for a few weeks of time with his grandpa, you will feel like you are forgetting something the whole trip home.
- you know it’s cold when you get home at 3 am and it’s so frigid in your house that you can see your breath. You know you’re married to a good man when he decides to build a fire before crashing into bed.
- finding hungry (and still pregnant) cats, the food completely and inexplicably gone (HOW did the animal sitter go through 12 packages of food in 3 days?!?!), the chicken house nailed shut, and the mail missing is not a fun thing to find when one gets home.
- Sleeping in is a good thing. Coffee is good too. And that paschca and easter are not usually on the same week and will be different next year is the best.
on 09 Apr 2007 at 2:56 pm 1.Carrie said …
Paschca sounds very interesting. I was reading about our local Greek Orthodox celebration in the paper last week. they mentioned the food after the midnight service.
Chocolate is very bad for dogs; it can kill them.
I didn’t understand your reference to Communion on the Go. ?
I identify with the feeling of “forgetting something” when on of my children is gone for any period of time.
Glad the cats are okay, hope the chickens are, and did you find your mail???
Welcome home.
on 09 Apr 2007 at 3:17 pm 2.Tia said …
Thanks Carrie. The dog is thankfully fine. We knew chocolate could kill him and were so glad that he seems to be no worse for the wear.
puppies are too curious sometimes!
About the “communion to go”… I’ll try to explain sans commentary: my parents go to a mega church in Jacksonville. http://www.fbcjax.com/ They had their easter musical last week which, to my understanding, included a scene with the Lord’s Supper. At every door at the beginning of the service, each person was given a bag containing a visitor’s card, a program for the musical, and an individually wrapped wafer and cup of juice. Everyone got one regardless of age, profession of faith, or membership. At that time in the service, everyone took the elements while the actors on stage did. Nothing was said about taking communion as an unbeliever and many apparently were unable to get the packaging open.
I have a lot more to say about it but I’m still processing this thing which has left me quite stunned.
on 09 Apr 2007 at 8:09 pm 3.Beth said …
Tia, It’s nice having you back in the blogosphere! OK, I need a tutorial…what’s the difference between pascha and easter? I understand your feelings of longing for the familiar after being in the orthodox setting….it felt very foreign to me, and eastern (and that feeling was borne out when I visited Greece and Russia), and that’s why I ended up exploring Catholicism…same thing but western. Either way, the cultural influences (whether Greek Orthodox, or Lebanese Catholic, or Irish Catholic, or Russian Orthodox, etc.) really does flavor the liturgy, theology, everything. So in the Orthodox Church, does this mean you’re still a catechumen, or were you received into the church at Easter? I know the process in the RCC, but don’t know what’s involved in the EOC.
The communion to go thing is appalling to a Catholic (and probably to an Orthodox as well) because of our view of what the Eucharist IS. I completely would share your difficulty with it. But I’d find a way to get philosophical about it and move on, I think.
on 09 Apr 2007 at 8:53 pm 4.Nickey said …
I was going to ask about the communion to go, but someone beat me to it.
All I can say is blech…
I am not even sure they had communion at the service we went to yesterday. We left early because dh was sick, but he was really not happy being there anyway.
on 09 Apr 2007 at 11:21 pm 5.dalimama said …
Well, I’m still kind of stuck on the whole communion to go thing and would be surprised to find that even in a regular evangelical church… there are really now words.
I hope those kitties have their babies soon… maybe they ate so much because they are storing up?
I hope your cat sitter is the one who has the mail or maybe your post office? I hope you find it and find out whay your chicken coop was nailed shut… weird.
I’d love to hear exactly what a Pascha is as well but can look it up on wikipedia if you don’t get around to explaining it.
Thoughts about your business and book have been on my mind a lot recently and I’ll probably email you soon to tell you them at some point.
Glad your home safe!
on 10 Apr 2007 at 7:43 am 6.gina said …
Man, I don’t like the way that communion sounds at FBC. Sometimes, I long for a bigger Baptist church, but this certainly makes me rethink that! No communion to go! Definately not the norm even there, I would assume.
on 10 Apr 2007 at 7:44 am 7.gina said …
Another note on the communion to go- I can imagine it was quite the experience to relive the Lord’s supper though! A neat idea that just wasn’t thought through;-)
on 10 Apr 2007 at 8:54 am 8.Tia said …
Beth~ by “familiar” I meant I longed for our parrish and the people I’d gone through lent with. We were at a church in Jax for the paschal service and while it had that “church universal” feel to it, we still felt very much on the outside just because we didn’t know anyone there. I love our priest and parrish and missed them very much. We are no longer catechumens now but still so new that we feel like we are constantly learning. It is not even fair to assess the church we visited in light of pascha; just like everywhere else it was full of attendees that only come at major feasts like christmas and easter as I’m sure our own parrish was as well. Only at home we’d have had marvelous godparents guiding us through uncertain times and we’d been more included in the celebration.
pascha and easter are the same thing but due to a difference in which calendar is used, they do not typically fall on the same weekend.
On the communion thing~ I looked up “pre-packaged communion elements” yesterday and there is a company that produces a product called “Remberances”. I knew this wasn’t an original idea to FBC Jax and that they had to have bought them from somewhere. I found lots of other stuff online about them too; one sight called them “rip and sips”. The whole idea is offensive to me on both an Orthodox and a protestant level…the Lord’s supper is NOT a theatrical prop and that only scratches the surface of what I think…
on 10 Apr 2007 at 9:16 am 9.bannergranny said …
I too have done some research on how communion is done in different denominations and also how different denominations treat this doctrinally. While I found it disturbing how this was done at FBC, I know beyond a doubt that the one who initiated this as part of the program, did not do it flipently but rather most likely did not think it through carefully enough….. I understand very well how these huge programs are put together in way too short of time, always trying to make it the most realistic and full of the whole story in less than 2 hours….and perhaps the pastor was caught off balance by it as well..( he had only just returned from a 10 day trip before the program)..many denominations practice “open communion” which would be offensive to other denominations where communion is such an intregal part of their worshipand doctrine. I am deeply soory for those in the family of God who have been so deeply offended by this. I would rather we practice “closed communion”, but this is old school I guess to many evangelical churches and may even become a thing of the past. There is such a huge contrast between the modern day church that is always trying new things and the churches that follow the same pattern of worship for centuries without changing anything. Both have their benefits, both have their drawbacks and it depends on where you are in your life journey to follow Jesus. Please do not mark FBC as having gone off the deep end….we make mistakes just like every one else. We must hold up each other in love, mercy and prayer and remember that we do serve the same Jesus and He extends His mercy and forgiveness to us in countless ways each day.
on 10 Apr 2007 at 11:45 am 10.Mimi said …
Wonderful reflections - thinking about the dichotomy between Pascha and Western Easter.
Christ is Risen!
on 12 Apr 2007 at 7:17 pm 11.C&C said …
Very interesting blog posting as well as comments. All gave cause for examination and study. I would highly recommend the reading of a book titled “The Two Babylons” by Alexander Hislop — a book which examines church traditions, their origins, and where they stand biblically. As for communion — which should be available for all who are a part of the Body of Christ — it definitely should be a time to reflect on Christ’s death and why He came to die in our place and not something taken lightly.
He is Risen Indeed !!!
on 12 Apr 2007 at 10:13 pm 12.Kyra said …
Hi Tia! Welcome back…another thing about Pascha…We typically do not refer to Easter because it was a ritual that celebrated a Pagan goddess…it is even referred to in the Bible by one of the Pagan emperors.
However, Pascha means Passover and refers to our eternally passing from death to life and from earth to heaven….
As to communion on the go…back in my non-denominational days we travelled to a festival that was rather like a Christian Woodstock…their communion for 100,000? A grape and an oyster cracker….I shudder to think back to those days.
Christ is Risen!
on 18 Apr 2007 at 5:38 pm 13.queenofthehill said …
Kyra’s comments are interesting to me — in my faith, we don’t celebrate Easter because it pre-dated Christ and was in honor of a fertility goddess (thus the obscure bunny connection: http://altreligion.about.com/cs/alchemy/a/mpreviss.htm). Instead, we observe Passover and take the bread and wine and participate in footwashing, as Christ did on the eve of his death. I guess that is similar to your “Pascha”.
Neat!
on 28 Apr 2008 at 11:57 am 14.Living-Deliberately.com » What Felt Like My First Real Pascha said …
[...] wasn’t, technically, of course. A year ago we were chrismated on Lazarus Saturday and had our first Pascha here in Florida, as it was also the same week as Easter, while we visited family. It was freezing [...]