Feeling Green

Today I am going to pat myself on the back for the things I do right. Of, course, immediately I remind myself that bragging about oneself is not good. Drat. Why do I always have to be so self-righteous? I am feeling green today, but it was not caused by any conscious political agenda.

I have stopped eating red meat, apart from on special occasions. It has been claimed that beef production causes relatively much greenhouse gases. My husband and I eat a lot more vegetables, particularly roots. Breakfast consists of simple, old-fashioned oatmeal cereal and an apple. Yes, we have changed our diet, but we have not made it complicated or rigid.

I walk to work. Anything else would be silly. It takes less than five minutes. Presently we are in the process of moving to another house, and then my walk would be about 15 minutes. I look forward to a reasonable walk. (Frisking around in sleek looking hyper-expensive training gear on my free time does not fit into my life style.)

We have one car. It is a medium sized car, an older model, but it is very fuel-efficient. It is a 2005 Toyota, which runs on petrol. In Norway the lowest octane available is 95. I think it burns cleaner. We need a car here in the village, but we do not need it every day.

I just mended my husband’s favourite wool shirt, itself a throw-off from family. (It is partly moth eaten and both sleeves were ripped – but he loves it.)

I get most things second hand, by the way – it is more fun that way: Great stuff, good prices. Less waste on the garbage heaps – at least for some time. Sometimes I pick up give-aways. There are several used-stuff networks, Finn.no, local groups, or Missions’ Stores – where all they have is donated and they resell it as a fundraiser for missions. Great idea! Money given to missions is never wasted.

I do not have a dryer these days. I air-dry the clothes. It helps them last longer, I think.

If I need to find gifts, I like to buy things locally. If I look long enough, I normally find something. The village is small, but the stores have good selections. Who cares if it may be a wee bit cheeper in the big warehouse outlet in the city. I like my local stores to stick around. So, I need to support them with my shopping sometimes.

We regulate the heating with wood burning stoves. I wondered about the eco-friendliness of that – and found out that wood rots in the forest, a natural decomposing process, and it is the same fumes and gases produced there as when burning the wood, and in addition, it goes faster. I wondered about deforestation issues, but learnt that cutting down trees for fuel is necessary for the management of certain types of trees.

We sort our garbage in three categories: Paper, plastic&metals&glass, and biodegradable food waste. My husband is pretty strict about this.

There are most likely areas we can improve on. Anyone who reads this will most likely wonder: but what about…? There is room for improvement, I am sure. For it to work for me, though, it should not be too drastic and not dreary. I like the simple life. I am naturally local.

Det sakrale rom

Tidlig i kirkens historie ble det viktig å gi uttrykk for Gudsforholdet i den arkitektoniske utformingen av rommet. De første kristne samlet seg i Tempelet i Jerusalem, et storslagent bygg med det formål å legg til rette for oppgjør med synd, for soning og renselse.  Opprinnelig var det en telt-konstruksjon som var rammen for møtet med Den Hellige, og folket var på vandring. Senere ble det et permanent tempelbygg, og instruksjoner for bygget er angitt i Mosebøkene.  Ingenting ble overlatt til tilfeldigheter eller til menneskelig forstand eller tolkning. Det er klart foreskrevet både hvordan en skulle lage de ulike kar og redskaper, for interiør og utsmykning. Offer-ritualene er intrikate, men har noe felles trekk. Presten måtte selv være sonet for, være ren før han kunne komme med sonoffer for andre. Å komme nær det hellige med urenhet av noe slag var livsfarlig. Det eneste som gjorde disse ofringene virksomme i forholdet mellom Gud og mennesker var at de ble utført på Guds løfter. Fordi Gud selv hadde lagt premissene, kunne en prest med frimodighet forvente at syndene ble sonet og tilgitt.

Det sakrale rom i kristen tradisjon har en lang historie. Som i de aller fleste bygg, er det funksjonen som definerer utformingen, men vi ser også et samspill – at utformingen gjenspeiler Gudsforholdet. De fleste lutherske kirkene i Norge har minimalt med utsmykning, men de fleste har midtgang og blikkfanget er alteret. Det er tydelig angitt retning for bevegelse. Ofte står talestol og lekter på siden av alteret, noen ganger er talerstolen hevet. Dette bygget har en særlig funksjon: å formidle Guds nåde og Guds tilgivelse for synd. Det skal hjelpe en som kommer dit til å erkjenne sin egen synd, bekjenne det for Gud, komme til Gud i bønn, og få ta imot tilgivelse, og bli styrket i troen og håpet.

            Vi har et alter, gjerne med altertavle, men vi har ikke noe offer å bringe. Når vi kommer opp, ser vi symboler i altertavlen eller i annet synlig interiør, noe som peker på Jesus som Guds offerlam.  Vi kan våge oss nær Den Hellige fordi vi har soningen i Jesus Kristus. Enhver som er født av Gud har hans Ånd. Og denne Ånden viser oss hvem Jesus er. Vi blir renset i Kristi blod – det høres litt makabert ut, men livet er i blodet, og vi må bli renset for vi kan komme inn for Guds ansikt.

Naturligvis, siden Gud ikke rommes i noe byggverk av menneskehender, kan dette møtet skje hvor-som-helst. Det er ikke like naturlig på butikken eller hjemme i stua.  Løftene gjelder et fellesskap av troende, og fra tid til annen har folk møttes under åpen himmel. Likevel, bevisst arkitektonisk utforming av det sakrale rom legger til rette for et relasjonelt gudsliv.

Jeg vet det høres forferdelig ut, men det er forferdelig. I hele Norges land kan prester og andre få skjende disse sakrale rommene og misbruke Guds navn, hans Ord og vrake løfter om forsoning og oppreisning. Eller kan de det? Så vidt meg bekjent tilhører ingen kirkebygg Den norske folke-kirke. De tilhører kommunene de ligger i. Tradisjonelt er det et menighetsråd som pusler med en del av aktiviteten i kirken, i samarbeid med Dnk, som bidrar med prest og andre betalte funksjoner. Det er fordi tradisjonelt var det statskirkeordning. Det er ingen grunn til at de lokale kirkene ikke skal kunne benyttes av kristne som er utenfor Dnk. Om argumentet mot dette skulle være at kirkene ble reist som lutherske kirker, er det bar å minne om at Dnk at ikke lenger er luthersk.  Det burde heller ikke være noen grunn til at lokale kristne ikke skal få lov til å hegne omkring sitt lokale kirkerom og verne det fra å skjendes. Jeg vil gjerne verne om det sakrale rom i bygda her jeg bor, for det er vitalt viktig for meg.

A Sense of Belonging

the lodge

I am thinking about architecture, but more than one house. I am thinking about community and about a sense of belonging. When you have been on a long journey, it feels so comforting to come home. You notice the stairs, the walkway, and the landscape. You walk with anticipation towards the front door and it is like the hallway greets you like an old friend. Before long, the kitchen and the living room are alive again.

trees!

I was on a very long journey. I liked the new and exiting experiences. I liked trying to settle in new environments. For the most part, I think I succeeded. I was on this journey for 20 years, until the doors opened to venture back. This time it was my husband who uprooted and became the stranger. For him it was like another adventure. We settled in a village where none of us had lived before. Still, I was very familiar with the wild and wonderful landscape. I had spent much time in the summers (and some tearful winter vacations) in this region. The trees were familiar. The forest, wild berries and flora, it was like it beckoned me to come and be part of them again. Ok, so I am a rational being, not much given to irrational emotions. Still, when I knew no one saw me, I gave some sturdy old tree trunks a hug!  My skin felt soft and young against the rough bark. I was happy.

the lady of the house

The people in the village had familiar features. They looked like me. I knew I might be remotely related to perhaps one third or more of the population. After all, my dad and my maternal grandmother were from these parts. I recognized short, stout noses, bushy eyebrows, long upper lips, or bright blue eyes. I saw the round faces with high cheekbones. Although I never lived here, and I did not really know too many of these people, I felt a sense of belonging.

We came here because of a job. I teach English at a Christian boarding school, a college prep school, and the students are from elsewhere in the country. Our housing is provided by the school. For more than six years we have lived in a hamlet of likeminded people, all connected to the school. I felt at home with them. I understood them immediately, and I did not have to explain myself, nor did I have to spell my name, for it was quite ordinary to them.

We do not need to be in the exact place where we grew up to find this sense of belonging, but it is good not to be too far from one’s own roots.

us

In our world it is common to move from place to place, to seek opportunities of various kinds. We seek what is good for our children, for our living conditions, for our yearning to develop in our professions, and such things. In the middle of it we need to recreate the sense of home, the sense of belonging, and it is hard. In some cases it does not materialize. In some cases, perhaps too many, we live slightly artificial lives, hurrying from one activity to another to try to make up for missing the settling feeling of being home.

What if we could map out and create small communities, small enough to be personal and large enough to give space to each other… What if we could create such a sense of belonging, which would reflect our home culture? I see a community building complex, and in it there is room for children to play safely, for older people to interact as they please, young families to connect to the older generations. I see young, single men and women not alone, not lonely, but part of a vibrant community. I see reading houses, small stores, and gardens or grow boxes. I see my own trees, woods with all the distinct plants.  

I do not know if this sort could materialize in my generation. Still, if I had an option to make something like this happen, I would much more do so than sit alone in a large villa, where I live in only segments of the house and become lonely. As long as both my husband and I live, we have each other’s company, and our children may opt to live elsewhere. So, for us, a closer sense of community may involve other people than family, in the same region. It is like the model of an extended family with common bonds and similar culture. In such a setting we help each other and we encourage each other.

Kviteseid

Perhaps is the village an extended manifestation of this idea, but still in a village will we sit in isolation and long for closer connections. The built environment encourages such isolation, and it is this aspect I would love to challenge.  Perhaps if our doors were more open, and we were more in the habit of coming in to one another uninvited, it might work. I remember those days, actually – and in my childhood I set out to simply go to a classmate and ring the doorbell. “Hi! Do you want to play?” I never thought about being accepted; it was a given. This was home, and there was a sense of belonging.

Vegskille

Jeg hadde spørsmål i dag tidlig, spørsmål til Gud, om hvordan jeg skal forholde meg til mennesker rundt meg som ikke lenger bekjenner Jesus Kristus som Herre, til mennesker som med viten og vilje legger opp til et nytt budskap for kirken. Jeg har  ønsket å ha en viss dialog, ønsket å kunne bidra med noe, ønsket og bedt om at de individer jeg har kontakt med, vil la seg overbevise av Den Hellige Ånd om hva som er sant og rett. Jeg har ikke ønsket å se et brudd, rent menneskelig sett. Jeg har ikke villet stenge folk ute fra min sosiale setting. Lenge syntes jeg det var ukristelig å gjøre, for jeg hadde et håp om at de ville vende om.

Jeg leste i Johannes’ 2.brev, og der stå det ” Den som ikke holder seg til Kristi lære, men går ut over den, har ikke samfunn med Gud. Den som holder seg til læren, han har samfunn med Faderen og Sønnen. Om noen kommer til dere og ikke fører denne lære, så ta ikke imot ham i deres hjem, og hils ham ikke vel møtt.  For den som hilser ham, blir medskyldig i det onde han gjør.” ( 2.Joh 2,9-11)

Dette var klar tale. Johannes skriver i forbindelse med vranglære som menigheten sto overfor, en vranglære som ikke fastholder Jesus som menneske kommet i kjøtt og blod. Vi står overfor en annen vranglære: en som fornekter Jesu suverene herredømme, som fastholder mennesker i sine synder, som dreper håpet vi har for liv og fornyelse gjennom oppgjør, tilgivelse og renselse. Og hvordan skal jeg forholde meg til mennesker i mine kretser som fremmer dette? Vi har nådd en grense. Våre veier må skilles.

Truth, Views and Truth Claims

When I was young I thought all wars were over. I thought racism was a thing of the past.
The naiveté and innocence which penetrated my concepts of this world were like a buffer towards angry Marxist-Leninists in my high school class. I guess I represented most of what they hated: I was a professing Christian, politically non-socialist, pro-Israel, pro-USA. Even with all their spite and malice, they did not impress me as believable.

They did not scare me then, but as I entered into the world of academia, I noticed the compulsion this group of young radicals spread around them. I noticed, with some fear, the sharp rhetoric and the brute force of words and actions. They were like an intellectual elite, licking up liquid power, where it was seeping out of the established power structures.

For many of my co-students, they were trendy. A trend is a fad. I figured it would pass; and it did. The new trend was a rather opposite one, but perhaps not any more constructive. It was a yappie-culture, where good looks, expensive clothes were important, and striving to outscore any competitor by sacrificing anything at one's disposal. It was displaying a spirit of superiority. Capitalism as an economic idea needs to be curtailed by ethics, and biblical ethical principles are well fit for the task. Without that, it will easily result in greed, exploitation, stealing, shady deals and cover-up and more of the same kind.

In my student years in the 70ties and 80ties we heard about conflicts in the Middle East. We heard about 'Arabs' (which was a more generic term for large people groups in the the vast Middle East region) - we heard that there were inhumane slaughter, thousands of people killed,  but thought it was a domestic issue. We knew about the extreme differences between rich and poor in the oil-rich Arab states, and we thought this was part of their culture. No one really knew much about Islam. It was not a Western religion, it did not penetrate our societies.

The radical Marxist-Leninists did engage in the conflicts. Through their world view of understanding all conflicts as class struggle, and the proletariat as the under-dog fighting a superior power structure, they redefined the underdog as the particular group fighting for domain over the land strip called Israel, a group in time called the Palestinians. Why they did not identify the persecuted Jewish population of this world and their fight for survival as the struggling proletariat is in fact surprising, for Israel grew very much on the basic communist ideals in living in communes, sharing wealth. Among European Jewry, there were many who sided with the Marxist ideals, so the connection would seem natural. Established old timer politician in the Labour-movement were solid supporters of Israel as a state and of the opportunity for Jews world wide to settle there. Not so the hot-headed Marxist-Leninists: for Israel had support in the US. In their compulsive and rigid interpretation of this world, aided by the rhetoric of Edward Said and other neo-Marxist intellectuals, they identified the weak/strong struggle in the south/north, and Israel became a protrusion of the western capitalist usurper and exploiter of the poor.

A lie may become believable, if told enough times.
The goals justify the means in Marxist thinking. If it is beneficial to lie, so be it.

Postmodern confusion and despair has come as a lethargic blanket over this. There are still Marxist-Leninists, and they have all become comfortably part of the society at large, not needing to live any consequence of their philosophy. Most teaching these days - of 'great importance' is found in academia, where the faithful still refuse to believe that the Marxist theories they studied so hard and finally understood, have no relevance in the real world.
Postmodernism has many facets, some constructive, some destructive and some deconstructive. The confusion many people feel about what to think and how to express it is caused partly by the attack on language as a means of communicating truth. Any statement may be taken to be subjective, incomplete, potentially wrong, ambiguous, etc. and it leaves any proponent of any view in the quagmire of relativism: Your truth is not my truth; you have no authority in your words. There is no truth as such.
Some like to use the same strategy against the proponents of non-sence and use the same method for claiming that they are necessarily wrong. The challenge still subsists: how do we claim anything to be true?

I suppose that is all I will do: Proclaim truth I hold to be true. If they really are true, they will reveal themselves as such.

I believe  in  one God, the Father almighty,
maker  of  heaven  and  earth and of all things  visible  and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God,
begotten of the Father before all ages,
God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten not made,
being of one substance with the Father,
through Whom all things were made:
Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven,
was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man:
Who for us, too, was crucified under Pontius Pilate,
suffered, and was buried:
the third day He rose according to the Scriptures,
ascended into heaven, and is seated on the right hand of the Father:
He shall come again with glory to judge the living
and the dead, and His kingdom shall have no end.

And  in  the  Holy Spirit, the Lord  and Giver of  life,
Who  proceeds  from  the  Father  and  the  Son:
Who together with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified:
Who spoke by the prophets.
And I believe one holy, Christian, and apostolic Church.
I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins, and I look for the resurrection of the dead and life of the age to come.