After my brief stay of a little less than one full day in Luxembourg, I got up early the next morning, on Saturday, and caught a train at 6:20 a.m. east. After a few hours, I got off the train in Koln, Germany. While I was in the train station in Koln, I exchanged some British pounds for Euros. When I was at the currency exchange office, I was next to the entrance of the train station. Looking outside, I spotted the very wide base of a cathedral. Curious to see the entire structure, I walked outside and beheld a massive cathedral, both wide and tall. It was probably the largest cathedral I had ever seen. I made a note to myself that if I ever find myself in Koln again, I might visit that cathedral.
I took a few photos of the cathedral and re-entered the train station. Since I had acquired Euros, I found someplace where I could buy something to eat. I always like to try to eat culinary offerings native to where I happen to be. Thus, although I was confronted mostly with fast food options in the train station, I bought something which I hadn't previously had occasion to purchase, some currywurst, which is sausage doused in something like barbeque sauce and sprinkled with curry. It works. Once I had eaten the currywurst, I was about to get onto the next of the trains I was catching, since the stopover in Koln was only about 30 minutes long.
I was on the next train for a few more hours until I arrived in Hamburg, Germany. In the station in Hamburg, I enjoyed a few pastries with a liter of milk. One was sprinkled with poppy seeds and covered with icing. Another was a type of jelly doughnut called a "Berliner." I considered that if you are what you eat, then I too can say that "Ich Ein Berliner."
After about an hour in the train station in Hamburg, I was onto the next and final train of my journey that day, which took me to Copenhagen, Denmark, where I've been visiting one of my friends who lives here. It has been so wonderful getting to spend time with her, partly because she has also been living abroad for a couple of years and thus can empathize regarding challenges of living in a foreign country.
In addition to enjoying visiting my friend, I've also been enjoying experiencing Danish culture and Christianity in a culture which openly allows anyone and everyone to practice as Christians. The first full day I was here, which was a Sunday, my friend and I went to a non-denominational Christian worship service at a cultural center here in Copenhagen. I appreciated when the pastor read part of Psalm 139, especially Psalm 139:12, where King David prays to God, "even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you[.]" When I re-read those words during the service, I was reminded that when we place God before all else, when we value serving Him more than anything else, we are fed by a light which darkness cannot extinguish. Earlier today, upon pondering yet again this safe space in which one can abide, and the unshakeable strength which can fortify one while living in that place, I wondered why anyone would live otherwise.
The next day, Monday, I visited the Post-Tele Museum here in Copenhagen, where one can learn about the history and major innovations in the postal service of Denmark. There one can also learn about telephones and telegraphs, with occasional commentary on the history of those forms of communication here in Denmark. At multiple points during my tour of the museum, I heard, I believe during short films about various communication innovations, quotations of persons opining that particular innovations heralded the arrival of peace in the world, since increased communication would lead to greater understanding, and thus fewer misunderstandings, and thus fewer conflicts including wars. Of course, the world did not witness the advent of enduring worldwide peace with the simplification and expansion of the postal service, nor with the invention of the telephone and the telegraph.
I considered that with more contact, people do tend to understand each other better. However, I also pondered that it's not just the amount of contact, but also the values people hold and bring to those interactions with others which determine the outcome of those interactions. If people don't seek to love others, then more contact won't help to reduce conflict, since people won't be valuing interactions as opportunities for nurturing and loving one another.
Last night, Tuesday, I tried to go back to the cultural center where my friend and I had attended the Sunday service so that I could attend a Bible study session there at 7:00 p.m. However, when it was only a few minutes before 7:00 p.m., I realized that I would not make it there for the Bible study session. Accordingly, when I heard church bells ringing nearby to where I was, I followed the sound of the church bells to the church where they were ringing. I entered the church and sat down in the back row of pews. A man and two women were singing Vespers in what I figured was probably Danish. Thus I didn't understand the vast majority of the words they were singing.
However, I found my experience in that church very powerful, and remarkably helpful, despite, or perhaps because of, my inability to understand the words being sung. Given that for the most part, I was not understanding the words, and thus was not singing, I spent more time considering the church itself than I normally would have. In that church I saw probably the simplest altar I have ever seen. It was covered by a frame which was a height of about three yards, or about three meters. In the center it had a cross, perhaps made of copper. The altar itself and its surrounding frame were composed of unfinished wood.
It was nothing fancy, unlike many altars found in many churches. It was not glamorous; nothing was glistening or sparkling on or near it. It was simple and modest. And when I considered that it was a simple, unassuming, plain altar, I thought, "This is how Jesus would like us to live. Renounce flashy pleasures, and rather live simply. Live our lives with concern for others, giving things up, not keeping them for ourselves, giving them to others, giving ourselves to others, living simply in the service of others."
Unfortunately in this world we place so much importance on appearances. We value things which look good, and often don't consider their meaning, why they are worthwhile. We visit places and structures, often not pondering their deeper significance, which provides, in the most profound and important sense, the reason why they are worth visiting at all. Oftentimes as tourists we visit churches and cathedrals, snapping photos of them. During the same visit we fail to sit quietly, to pray, to meditate, to seek communion with God in these edifices, despite their being constructed for these very purposes! I don't mean to imply that I don't have this tendency; I certainly have photographed churches and then failed to enter those same churches.
This evening, at 6:00 p.m., I heard church bells ringing as I was walking around Copenhagen. I proceeded in the direction of the sound of the bells. I entered Marmorskirch, Danish for "the Marble Church." It has a large dome for its top. Once inside, I saw that the inside of the dome was decorated with paintings of the twelve Disciples of Christ. Soon after I had entered the church, musicians and choir singers started rehearsing for their performance in the Marble Church tomorrow evening of Arvo Part's piece "Passio." They sounded beautiful, approaching the angelic, and I felt that their exquisite musical performance provided an apropos auditory counterpoint to the splendid visual art of the architecture of the church.
I found my experience this evening in the Marble Church at first in a sort of contradiction with my experience in the spartan church last night. Then I pondered that ornate, magnificent human works can certainly provide an appropriate venue for appreciating God. In creating works of art, people may offer them up as thanks to, and in praise and honor of, and in glory to, God. We run afoul when we start to glorify works of art, rather than utilizing them as vehicles for glorifying God, as they should be used to do, and, indeed, were created in the first place to do.
And if we start to focus too much on, and begin to ascribe too much value to, human creations such as works of art, we lose the simplicity through which we can find the most profound communion with God. It may not be glamorous or popular, but when we simply choose to serve others, we act out of love, and thus draw nearer to God.
I took a few photos of the cathedral and re-entered the train station. Since I had acquired Euros, I found someplace where I could buy something to eat. I always like to try to eat culinary offerings native to where I happen to be. Thus, although I was confronted mostly with fast food options in the train station, I bought something which I hadn't previously had occasion to purchase, some currywurst, which is sausage doused in something like barbeque sauce and sprinkled with curry. It works. Once I had eaten the currywurst, I was about to get onto the next of the trains I was catching, since the stopover in Koln was only about 30 minutes long.
I was on the next train for a few more hours until I arrived in Hamburg, Germany. In the station in Hamburg, I enjoyed a few pastries with a liter of milk. One was sprinkled with poppy seeds and covered with icing. Another was a type of jelly doughnut called a "Berliner." I considered that if you are what you eat, then I too can say that "Ich Ein Berliner."
After about an hour in the train station in Hamburg, I was onto the next and final train of my journey that day, which took me to Copenhagen, Denmark, where I've been visiting one of my friends who lives here. It has been so wonderful getting to spend time with her, partly because she has also been living abroad for a couple of years and thus can empathize regarding challenges of living in a foreign country.
In addition to enjoying visiting my friend, I've also been enjoying experiencing Danish culture and Christianity in a culture which openly allows anyone and everyone to practice as Christians. The first full day I was here, which was a Sunday, my friend and I went to a non-denominational Christian worship service at a cultural center here in Copenhagen. I appreciated when the pastor read part of Psalm 139, especially Psalm 139:12, where King David prays to God, "even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you[.]" When I re-read those words during the service, I was reminded that when we place God before all else, when we value serving Him more than anything else, we are fed by a light which darkness cannot extinguish. Earlier today, upon pondering yet again this safe space in which one can abide, and the unshakeable strength which can fortify one while living in that place, I wondered why anyone would live otherwise.
The next day, Monday, I visited the Post-Tele Museum here in Copenhagen, where one can learn about the history and major innovations in the postal service of Denmark. There one can also learn about telephones and telegraphs, with occasional commentary on the history of those forms of communication here in Denmark. At multiple points during my tour of the museum, I heard, I believe during short films about various communication innovations, quotations of persons opining that particular innovations heralded the arrival of peace in the world, since increased communication would lead to greater understanding, and thus fewer misunderstandings, and thus fewer conflicts including wars. Of course, the world did not witness the advent of enduring worldwide peace with the simplification and expansion of the postal service, nor with the invention of the telephone and the telegraph.
I considered that with more contact, people do tend to understand each other better. However, I also pondered that it's not just the amount of contact, but also the values people hold and bring to those interactions with others which determine the outcome of those interactions. If people don't seek to love others, then more contact won't help to reduce conflict, since people won't be valuing interactions as opportunities for nurturing and loving one another.
Last night, Tuesday, I tried to go back to the cultural center where my friend and I had attended the Sunday service so that I could attend a Bible study session there at 7:00 p.m. However, when it was only a few minutes before 7:00 p.m., I realized that I would not make it there for the Bible study session. Accordingly, when I heard church bells ringing nearby to where I was, I followed the sound of the church bells to the church where they were ringing. I entered the church and sat down in the back row of pews. A man and two women were singing Vespers in what I figured was probably Danish. Thus I didn't understand the vast majority of the words they were singing.
However, I found my experience in that church very powerful, and remarkably helpful, despite, or perhaps because of, my inability to understand the words being sung. Given that for the most part, I was not understanding the words, and thus was not singing, I spent more time considering the church itself than I normally would have. In that church I saw probably the simplest altar I have ever seen. It was covered by a frame which was a height of about three yards, or about three meters. In the center it had a cross, perhaps made of copper. The altar itself and its surrounding frame were composed of unfinished wood.
It was nothing fancy, unlike many altars found in many churches. It was not glamorous; nothing was glistening or sparkling on or near it. It was simple and modest. And when I considered that it was a simple, unassuming, plain altar, I thought, "This is how Jesus would like us to live. Renounce flashy pleasures, and rather live simply. Live our lives with concern for others, giving things up, not keeping them for ourselves, giving them to others, giving ourselves to others, living simply in the service of others."
Unfortunately in this world we place so much importance on appearances. We value things which look good, and often don't consider their meaning, why they are worthwhile. We visit places and structures, often not pondering their deeper significance, which provides, in the most profound and important sense, the reason why they are worth visiting at all. Oftentimes as tourists we visit churches and cathedrals, snapping photos of them. During the same visit we fail to sit quietly, to pray, to meditate, to seek communion with God in these edifices, despite their being constructed for these very purposes! I don't mean to imply that I don't have this tendency; I certainly have photographed churches and then failed to enter those same churches.
This evening, at 6:00 p.m., I heard church bells ringing as I was walking around Copenhagen. I proceeded in the direction of the sound of the bells. I entered Marmorskirch, Danish for "the Marble Church." It has a large dome for its top. Once inside, I saw that the inside of the dome was decorated with paintings of the twelve Disciples of Christ. Soon after I had entered the church, musicians and choir singers started rehearsing for their performance in the Marble Church tomorrow evening of Arvo Part's piece "Passio." They sounded beautiful, approaching the angelic, and I felt that their exquisite musical performance provided an apropos auditory counterpoint to the splendid visual art of the architecture of the church.
I found my experience this evening in the Marble Church at first in a sort of contradiction with my experience in the spartan church last night. Then I pondered that ornate, magnificent human works can certainly provide an appropriate venue for appreciating God. In creating works of art, people may offer them up as thanks to, and in praise and honor of, and in glory to, God. We run afoul when we start to glorify works of art, rather than utilizing them as vehicles for glorifying God, as they should be used to do, and, indeed, were created in the first place to do.
And if we start to focus too much on, and begin to ascribe too much value to, human creations such as works of art, we lose the simplicity through which we can find the most profound communion with God. It may not be glamorous or popular, but when we simply choose to serve others, we act out of love, and thus draw nearer to God.
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