Pictures of Home and Thoughts on Cathedrals

Hello.

Last night some friends from church came over for pizza. It was the first time I’ve hosted anyone in at my flat, which motivated me to finish setting up shop. I took some pictures because I know mom is anxious to see.

The first couple pictures are from my kitchen/living room/study. The second batch of pictures is from my bedroom. And before anyone criticizes my well-known lack of an artistic eye for things like clothing, home decorating, etc, let me just say that I did get a “not bad for a bachelor” comment from Nora, one of my British guests last night.

My Kitchen (note: the curtains were already hanging. Don't fault me.)

Moving around the room clockwise, my living room. (note: I also had no say in the furniture.)

Another turn to the right, my study/ multi-media home entertainment center (laptop) with two 1 inch speakers for vibrant surround sound.

Another turn to the right, my Revolutionary War flag. I thought it added a nice touch to my little English flat.

Moving on to my bedroom (apparently). Are the duvets supposed to be the outermost pillows or the inner pillows? If they are supposed to be the outermost, that would put plaid on plaid and I was told that was bad.

Again, turning clockwise, my bookshelf, arranged top to bottom: leisure reading, religious, Air Force/warfare, and flight/engineering textbooks.

Lastly, my wardrobe and dresser.

I am heading to London this afternoon for a reception/party with Google. It should be fun, but don’t worry, I'll tell you all about it in due time.

Cheers,

Will

P.S. Below are some thoughts I’ve been entertaining recently about cathedrals. I wrote it a week or two ago. It’s not polished, or even complete for that matter, but I figured I would share it anyway.

You may have noticed that I’ve visited more cathedrals than castles thus far in my adventures. The other day I was musing about just that, trying to nail down what it is that intrigues me so much about cathedrals. Certainly they are grand and majestic, and I’d say that’s part of it, but not the whole story. For some reason, different places of worship in general really fascinate me; I have steeple chasing plans for all over England. And although they don’t all go on the website, I’ve taken a lot of pictures of the various parish churches that I’ve stumbled across along the way.

It’s almost bewildering to sit and think about all the places mankind has chosen to worship God over the ages, from the smallest hermit’s cave in Egypt to the largest medieval Cathedral – bewildering but proper; after all, “God is great and greatly to be praised.”

I’m convinced that a world with cathedrals but no caves, and vice-versa, is incomplete – at least a fallen world like ours would be incomplete. I don’t mean that in the ‘ying-yang‘ postmodern way, but in the sense that we serve a worthy God and – to borrow from Isaac Watts – “Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small; love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.” Neither the magnificence of Notre Dame nor the simple devotion of the hermit cave is worthy enough. Now, I do not propose that we all go live in caves or that we all offer our gold for gilded halls, but I am really glad that someone has.

I know I’m not saying this as well as it could be said, but I think you get my point.

Taking a step back, another thing that I find intriguing, beyond simply the church building, is the way we worship as the Church. I’ve been to several churches so far in Sheffield trying to find the right one, and although I still feel a little uprooted, it’s a real comfort to me to know that here in Sheffield, England, there are committed believers following hard after Christ. It’s like G.K. Chesterton’s analogy about landing on the coast of a foreign shore, ready to plant the Queen’s flag, only to realize he was on the beach of his native England. I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect in Sheffield, but I found more than a remnant of believers!

It was the same way in the Philippines, Rwanda, and New York City. It is the same way even in Communist China, according to the biography I’m reading about one of their house church pastors. These four places have different languages, histories, customs, challenges – practically completely different human experiences – but the same God; destitute poverty in Manila, genocide in Rwanda, persecution in China, and everything in New York City, yet the same faith, part of the same Body.

And now stretch that thought back through history. For centuries, men and women have worshiped God from vaulted cathedrals, and before then from the stone confines of the village churches, and before that from the earliest house churches in the Roman Empire, the “early church.” And before that, the people of Israel worshiped God in the Temple and elsewhere.

And then consider that even before there was an ‘Israel’, before God’s covenant with Abraham, there were people like Melchizedek, “a priest of God Most High.” I wonder how King Melchizedek worshiped God; like in Sheffield, New York, the Philippines, Rwanda, or China? After all, there were no seminaries, there was no Torah, God hadn’t even declared His name yet, and there he was – a priest. All we really know about him is in Genesis 14 when he brought out bread and wine and blessed Abram, “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; And blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your hands.” Hebrews 7 explains a little more about this King of Peace, but it does little to satiate my curiosity. What must it have been like to serve and worship God back then, in the Kings Valley? Was it based on ‘general revelation’ and ‘common grace’ or did he hear the old stories about how the first man and woman walked with God in Eden.

I suppose I’ll have plenty of time to ask him myself someday, but for now I’ll have to be content pondering these things over some hearty pub food on a cold day. I’ve got other things to do anyway, like figure out where I can get a haircut in this strange land.

Bye for now.

Gen 4:26b. “Then men began to call on the name of the Lord.”