The Beginning of Resurrection

My last post was made just before Good Friday. This post is now after Easter. And that, it seems, has made all the difference.

I've been offered a TA position in Old Testament, which will be a lot of fun. I've also worked out a plan to work with the history professor that I wanted to work with so badly, and in a way that will give me much better feedback on the places I need work. And, just moments ago, my new thesis proposal was approved without reservation. (A quick note to all you kids out there: if you can't beat them with brevity, overwhelm them with length and details. A 12,000 word proposal for a 40,000 word thesis gets approved apparently.)

In fact, quite ironically, one of the committee called the new one "much tighter" than my original 3,500 word proposal. Unbelievable!

Apart from that I'm only waiting on Cambridge, but that is largely irrelevant, since I won't be going in October anyways. It's been a tough lent, but worth the wait.

Disappointment...

Well, the first of my "waiting list" is answered. I was turned down for the history TA position. I feel bad, and sad, and I'm not quite finished pouting yet, but the process of applying for this has gotten me into some really interesting material that I wouldn't have otherwise read:
-Hegel
-Works on Historiography (Bebbington, etc.)
-Darwin
-The Communist Manifesto
I'm also finding that it is hard to be disappointed with people rather than God. God has a ready ear and you can say all that you want to to him. That is not always the case with people.

In some ways, the church calendar this year is perfect. All this waiting, and then, great disappointment (and more to come, I'm sure! I still have many more on my list.)
I don't quite have the faith yet to look for the resurrection... I'm not quite ready. Perhaps I'll go fishing. But I'll keep an eye on the shore.

Still Waiting

I think I'm finally getting what Lent is actually about. The rack-like tension of waiting. My culture has taught me to want to have instant gratification. Our instant e-mails mean we get answers nearly as soon as we ask the question. Now, however, I am waiting. And the answers are not coming. And that is not a bad thing. It is shaping me, like the burning blade being shaped and forged under the blacksmith's harsh hammer strokes. There is no easy way to do it.

Unfortunately, instead of waiting throughout Lent for the death and resurrection of Jesus, I have been waiting for answers in my own little world. Some days I remember to transfer my thought and my waiting to the greater story, but mostly I don't. That, however, will be my goal for this last week - to wait for the story of the passion week to be played out. To wait for the passion, the death, the resurrection.

To live again the story of how my faith came to be.

(The clock is the chronophage clock at Cambridge - the time devourer)

Preview: Next Lent

So, at lunch today with the Anglicans, I decided what I would do for next year's lent: eschatological vegetarianism. I mean, if you are going to go vegetarian for lent, you might as well go eschatological as well...

What? 'What does it mean' you ask?
Well, the eschatological vegetarianism is a recognition that we exist in the already but not yet kingdom of God where the continual inbreaking of the Trinitarian God in Sabbath calls us towards a sacramentally ontological paradigm of existence while recognizing that the outpouring of shalom from that eschatological reality involves the entire cosmos in its redemption scheme.

Got it? Good.

Spread the word.

Merry Christmas!! .. I mean, Easter?!

So, we are a little confused about the seasons here in Vancouver. Apparently, the Powers that be thought a really good April Fools joke would be to cover the whole city in snow... again. So I'm sitting in the relative warmth and safety of Regent watching the white stuff come down all around me. Still amused at the native Vancouverite inability to deal with the stuff. It looks like buses are still running, since it hasn't yet piled up on the roads, but if this keeps up, the whole city is liable to grind to a halt.

How much snow in a winter does it take for these BCers to realize that it snows in Canada and they should be prepared? Then again, why am I here if it is snowing in April? I thought moving here was supposed to avoid this kind of silliness. Apparently not.