Why Bob Dylan came to the church

                                                                                                                                                Norway has been a Christian kingdom since 1030, when king Olav, later to be called "The Holy", won a siege at the battle of Stiklestad near the city of Trondheim. The king fell in the battle between the Christ-Men, King's Men and the Farmer Army. 
Through his death he turned hatred and hostility to peace. 
The entire kingdom decided on a Thing, (democratic assembly from back to year 700), the Christianity should replace Odin, Thor and the rest of the old pagan belief. Now wonders kept to occur near the belated king, and a church was built in his memory. The first of many Saint Olav churches. The building started only four years after King Olav's death. King Olav was buried behind the high altar, later placed in a sacred shrine, and pilgrims from all over Europe came to taste the holy water of Saint Olav's spring water. Royal coronations were performed in the church till our days. Our king and queen were officially blessed for their duty in a ceremoniously  in the Nidaros Cathedral.

The Catholic church named the cathedral "Cor Norvegia" , heart of Norway, since the relics of Saint Olav were placed there.
Also after the reformation in 1578 the church held its position of the foremost church in Norway.


To maintain  and even extend and add ornaments on this old stone church, an entire workshop with crafted stonemasons, plasters, sculptures, archaeologists and conservators work all around the year to keep the church from deteriorating.
In the 1960-ies it so happened the sculpture of Archangel Michel lost its head.

                                        Archangel Michael on the spire to the left of the front facade.
The sculptor followed an ancient tradition, to let a living person be a model for the replacement head. 
This happened the early sixties with scaring murders of American presidents, Asian wars, social uprising in the ghettos, the cold war and above all the terror of a nuclear war, threatening to destroy the entire globe.   The sculptor let the face of the spokesman for all our fear and despair be depicted in the face of the mightiest angel of all, Michael.
Such were the times, that it took 50 more years who was the model of archangel Michael.
Now even more pilgrims visit the dome to admire this mighty testimony.

Gunnar was there yesterday, and I said the only thing I really wanted as a souvenir was a postcard of archangel Michael/Bob Dylan.

"When He Returns"

The iron hand it ain't no match for the iron rod
The strongest wall will crumble and fall to a mighty God
For all those who have eyes and all those who have ears
It is only He who can reduce me to tears
Don't you cry and don't you die and don't you burn
Like a thief in the night, he'll replace wrong with right
When he returns.

Truth is an arrow and the gate is narrow that is passes through
He unreleased His power at an unknown hour that no one knew
How long can I listen to the lies of prejudice ?
How long can I stay drunk on fear out in the wilderness ?
Can I cast it aside, all this loyalty and this pride ?
Will I ever learn that there'll be no peace, that the war won't cease
Until He returns ?

Surrender your crown on this blood-stained ground, take off your mask
He sees your deeds, He knows your needs even before you ask
How long can you falsily and deny what is real ?
How long can you hate yourself for the weakness you conceal ?
Of every earthly plan that be known to man, He is unconcerned
He's got plans of his own to set up His throne
When He return.

KNOWN; LOVED, COUNTED

Picture, My Mom on Sola beach, taken by Gunnar Jac.

Today I'm writing my blog post # 500. I'd like it to be special, a gift from me to you. I remember a sermon telling we should live and die in Romans eight. I tried to find an out-take that could summon it all up, but I found no verse to exclude.

Romans 8

¹There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

²For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

³For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

⁴That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

⁵For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

⁶For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

⁷Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

⁸So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

⁹But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

¹⁰And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

¹¹But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

¹²Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.

¹³For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

¹⁴For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

¹⁵For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

¹⁶The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

¹⁷And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

¹⁸For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

¹⁹For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

²⁰For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,

²¹Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

²²For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

²³And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

²⁴For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?

²⁵But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

²⁶Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

²⁷And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

²⁸And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

²⁹For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

³⁰Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

³¹What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

³²He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

³³Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.

³⁴Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

³⁵Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

³⁶As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

³⁷Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

³⁸For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

³⁹Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Every Grain of Sand

Bob Dylan

In the time of my confession,
in the hour of my deepest need
When the pool of tears beneath my feet
flood every newborn seed
There's a dyin' voice within me
reaching out somewhere,
Toiling in the danger and in
the morals of despair.

Don't have the inclination to
look back on any mistake,
Like Cain,
I now behold this chain of events
that I must break.
In the fury of the moment
I can see the Master's hand
In every leaf that trembles,
in every grain of sand.

Oh, the flowers of indulgence
and the weeds of yesteryear,
Like criminals,
they have choked the breath
of conscience and good cheer.
The sun beat down upon the steps
of time to light the way
To ease the pain of idleness
and the memory of decay.

I gaze into the doorway of
temptation's angry flame
And every time I pass that way
I always hear my name.
Then onward in my journey
I come to understand
That every hair is numbered
like every grain of sand.

I have gone from rags to riches
in the sorrow of the night
In the violence of a summer's dream,
in the chill of a wintry light,
In the bitter dance of loneliness
fading into space,
In the broken mirror of innocence
on each forgotten face.

I hear the ancient footsteps like
the motion of the sea
Sometimes I turn, there's someone there,
other times it's only me.
I am hanging in the balance
of the reality of man
Like every sparrow falling,
like every grain of sand.

Bob Dylan in Bergen

Bob Dylan, 70, rocked 14 000 Bergeners, one sweet girl from Finland and yours truly from here to eterity.


I've never heard him better, rocking and rolling, twisting and turning the best from his 50 year long production.
He connected with the band, like they were one soul.

And he smiled, smiled all the time. He connected with the audience like I never have experienced it before.

My only problem was my old, outdated Nokia.
Photographing was prohibited, but I sweet talked one of the guard crew, saying this old cell phone is good for nothing.


So sad it turned out to be true.
Gunnar, Serina and I have attended Dylan concerts since Serina was 2 years old. We hope to continue this tradition for at least ten, if not twenty more years. wouldn't that be wonderful; Dylan 90 and us 80?

The rest was perfect in spite of 51, 8 Fahrenheit degrees and splashing rain.


Maybe the old heart got soft when he entered the stage after 2 hours (waiting & Susan Vega). anyway he opened with Rainy day Women # 12 & 35, and from there it only got better.
I, I had gold circle place, nothing but a low fence and the stage between me and the Master.



I am praying that Dylan must find his way home again.

Bob Dylan 70 years

Never has one single man's life meant so much to so many in my time.
In our little family we often argue which of his songs are best or most important. Even the four of us (Serina, Gunnar, Kel and I) do not agree.

We do, however, acknowledge that in the world of folk, pop, rock and contemporary Christian music there's only Bob Dylan, the eternal Jew, and then there are all the others.

I made these watercolors in a long forgotten youth, finding my way back home, while listening to Blood On The Tracks.

Palm Sunday

Today is Palm Sunday in Norway, and the first day of the Silent Week.
In most towns the stores are closed, only gas stations and some restaurants are open. The churches have services today, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and First and Second Easter Day.
Do all Norwegians go to church? No, they don't. They use this Silent Week to travel up in the mountains, skiing or they shine up their boats for the summer season.
Ever since I was a girl there have been Easter camps, with skiing and services combined. The churches divide different ski resorts beween them, and take the gospel out where the people are.

This is a part of our bedrock culture, it's who and what we are.
Or it used to be. The times they are a-changing in old Norway too.
The changes in educating systems are slowly turning us into a secularized nation. It hasn't happened over the night. If so, I guess some of us would have stood up and protested.
Little by little, year by year our country is being uprooted with no new fertile soil left.
We are defined as consumers, soldiers, - or "burdens to society" the day we spend less than we receive.

Still the Silent Week exists. The law says no noisy outdoor work is allowed. The machines are parked along the road shoulders or in barns.
Lawn mowers and nail guns rest, we can hear the birds singing all day without lorries scaring them to silence.
Welcome, silence.

Jesus was a Jew. He celebrated Passover with the disciples. The scripture says he died for Jews first and then for Greeks. He wasn't killed by Jews. He was tortured and killed by Romans, Italians.
Neither did Jesus die for the white Europe. He carried the sins of all the world with him on the cross, that we all may have eternal life.



P. S. In wikipedia I see it is called the the holy week . Silent is because they didn't even chime with the church bells.
I like that silence. We have so many words, and so little time for contemplation.

ESCAPISM?

Escapism or fingers into the earth?
There are days world events are sucking the breath out of me.
Life is almost too hard to digest.
When the news headlines are carpet bombing my brain and mind 24/7.
Do you know what's really making me go mad?
The inevitable sport section following the world news.Earnest journalists keep talking about football and ice hockey with equal engagement and high voice as the reporters from Japan and Libya.
As if sport matters at all these days. It's all about money and drugs anyway.
It's then I put on my wellingtons to wade through snow and dirt in my garden.
Hidden, close to the wall, a few snowdrops are blooming.
I bend down carefully picking some to decorate our kitchen table, a TV free zone.
Serving chilled water from old wine bottles, lightening a candle and sucking in the sane smell of spring, I finally regain breath and a slight touch with my immediate reality.
Fingers into the dirt and Tiger Balm thereafter are my best therapy.