Loving sinners and the Norwich Cathederal

In my endless persuit of picking faults in the most pointless of places with modern Christians and the 21st century church, the great dollop of genius that is Carl bought ponderation to the table about the idiom of Christian idioms that is: ``love the sinner, hate the sin``. This makes for interesting reading, also, take note of La's comment.

Further to my growing unease with the modern church, my daily trips to the Catheral are growing steadily more holyful. I'm working late shifts this week which means 11-8 with an hour lunch at 430 at which time I leave to the cloisters with the sandwiches made for me by that La I know. Staring up at the building in it's ostentatious grandeour, I'm reminded of the reservations I once had about such frivolities and the waste of time and money that supposed Christians could have put to better use elsewhere. However, I now find myself endeared to the place. Aside from the obvious fact that it's growing on me, looking down the cloisters and imagining monks praying for the city for their provision and just praying for the sake of God's holiness kind of makes the building a little more real. Also, walking down the nave with the amazing ceiling and three tiers of balcony, I realised today that when Thorpey (another lump of intellect) once said it was built as an act of worship, it wasn't to reflect God's glory, but to show people that God is worthy of the most amazing thing we can make.

I'm sure to have built even the simpler parts of the building would have been a feat and half in them days, but to still impose the wow factor now (to a society who has to spend £500 quid on an xbox 360 to get its kicks); to still inspire the mind of God a thousand years after it was first built; to build a living thriving morseleum that literally encapsulates a millunium of God's people and works is an amazing thing to have down the road.

It's cool to spend an hour or less with this in mind in the midst of my day at work. It's cool to find the still sanctuary in the cloisters with La's sandwiches and God's peace, and then wonder inside and see how many people have loved God so far to martyr themselves and/or become benefactors. Many people take exception to the amount of people who have bought their legacy into the stonework, but on the whole, it pleases me to see how many men and women of God on whose shoulders I stand must have thought the same thougts as me.

I couldn't find a google picture that reflects the mood of the cathederal, but here are two pictures I took about a year ago which I think captures what I'm talking about.