Water cup dispenser-talk of the gods

There are drawbacks to being a Christian, God knows. People tend to judge the quality of a faith by its believers, and are entirely justified in doing so. It would seem then that I might do more harm than good to Jesus´ name. Publicity-wise, wouldn´t it be prudent sometimes being a bit quiet about the whole Christian tag on my person, so when I act the dirtbag, the dirt sticks on me rather than the cross? I don´t mind a bad rep, it´s well earned, but Christ should be praised and glorified, not humiliated by my thoughts, words and actions. Why should he be praised and glorified? Because he´s willing to be humiliated on mine and your´s account. Appearantly, God values us higher than publicity and and religious prestige. Maybe God has a lousy PR-manager?

I imagine the gods having a conference on some current topic, and when it´s time for the tea and biscuits, mighty JHWH gets teased by the other big names. Buddha got those monks in their orange outfit, living on ridiculous altitudes in the Himalayas, Muhammad´s Allah has devotees getting trampled underfoot every year at his shrine in Meccah, and let´s not even begin with the Hindu gurus, there we can talk of some serious religious fervor. And what does God have to show up, let´s say in a completely ordinary, fantastic little church in a little, nondescript though beautiful, Swedish town by the Baltic Sea? A church where it´s hard to tell the sinner from the saint, a church still entirely dependant of pure, unadultered, uncalled for, Charity. With little other choice than to beg and pray constantly, in fact encouraged to be annoyingly incessant in prayer. Luckily God doesn´t have a conference of other gods to impress, he´s the Man and knows it.

The greatness of Christian faith is not to be found in the believer, it´s in the in-between. The covenant, the bond between God and man, between God and me and me and you. It´s a love of a magnitude this world has never known, nor ever will know. Little need then to cast golden calves, gods of our own design, “become-god-in-ten-easy-steps” on late afternoon teve talkshows. Shut it off and tune in: God loves you.

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Ephesians 3:14-21

Could you be you in a place like this?

"Architecture of Density" by Michael Wolf

I guess if you´re not an architect your soul trembles at the prospect of living in the city of these images, the poor and hyperexploited part of Hong Kong. Even myself is somewhat ambivalent to Michael Wolf´s splendid photos, they have a definite chilling beauty to them, but also to a Western mind an absolutely grotesque denial of individuality in dwelling. I like houses that also express collective identity, such as the medieval town-house, and don´t overly pamper the Paris Hilton-extrovert egomaniacs of our modern age. Still I think if it was my individuality living in one of these houses I ´d despair pretty soon.

Because when a house becomes a home it also becomes a part of you yourself. Not very different from the clothes you´re wearing, and just as with those clothes you´re probably equally concerned about imagineering qualities, keeping you hip, as well as the purely functional aspect, keeping you warm and dry.

I put no moral aspect on any of this. The mask, dressing up, is probably as old as human civilization, and I guess life would be more fun-less without it. Besides, I would pretty much be job-less if aesthetic considerations were removed from the act of building and dwelling. Indeed the whole oppositional polarity between depth and surface is quite banale, at least in a spiritual sense. Wholly holy, as Marvin Gaye sung it, that´s the Christian ideal, not just the surface, wearing the right clothes and speaking religiously, and not just the inner sanctum of the soul, meditating on things holy but treating yourself and others like dirt.

With that said, I think most of us Westerners could probably benefit from a prolonged stay in a housing estate like one of these. I know I would, but Hong-Kong is a bit too far away. Because it´s very easy to fall in the pit of buying one´s value at other´s expense, which is what the whole “I´m uniquer than thou!”-thing is about. I imagine staying in a place like this would confront me with the question if I´m any different from any of my neighbours. I imagine if I stayed long enough I´d be confronted with the answer that they´re just as unique as I am. And we´re created in that fashion and don´t need clothes, houses or even words to prove it.

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"
He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."
And he said, "Who told you that you were naked?
Genesis 3:7-11