7 - EVERY BUILDER AS ADAM and CHRIST AS NEW ADAM
Each person in Building can be looked upon as an adam
in
whose life there are links with special projects such as Windsor, social
issues such as housing, systems such as Latham and with professional
practice and education. Christ, the new Adam, is the fulfillment of the
ideas of temple, prophecy, law and Wisdom. Connections are exemplified
in buildings and in the sacraments.
7.1 Building Materials: Every Builder as adam
Sections 3, 4, 5 and 6 have been concerned with four
aspects of the practice of Building - significant projects, the social
dimension and concomitant responsibility. the procurement and
contractual system, and individual professional growth and learning.
From the perspective of Scripture, each person in Building is an adam,
a human being. It seems reasonable to suppose that in the course of a
career each will experience these four facets of Building in some way
and thus be able to identify with them. The writer will use his own
experience as illustration.
Significant projects
Windsor was a significant and special building
project. Those who participated in it experienced 'the Windsor factor' -
the sense of being identified with a project of the highest quality and
having a high profile. Experience of the special can come in many ways,
of which the following are examples. In the centre of Norwich there was
a large, classical style bank building. It was awesome to enter. It
symbolized wealth and power. The project was to insert a mezzanine floor
in a small part of the entrance area. It was the awesomeness that
impressed. A market town in central Norfolk was proud of its grammar
school and enthusiastic about the education of its children. New
commemorative gates had been bought; piers were required to be built and
the gates hung. Perfection was needed. The young bricklayer chosen to do
the work had his local experience of the Windsor-type factor. The parish
church in Brentwood was located away from the High Street but the ruins
of the Chapel of Thomas of Canterbury were in the High Street. A
notice-board with oak posts, gold lettering and a symbol of the martyr
was wanted. The carpenter was nearly of an age to retire. Most of his
work had been in London and impersonal. For him, this job was different;
it was something he could take his grandchildren to see; it had meaning,
as well as usefulness.
Social
issues
University teachers are able to obtain insights into
situations through the work of their students. A particular Building
Management student was undertaking a placement in East London. Three
high-rise blocks of flats were being refurbished. The logistics were
complex, some tenants moving permanently to other flats and some
temporarily. This was not excessively bad housing but it was bad enough
to make its mark on the -visitor and on the student working there
ever<day. On another occasion, a group of part-time Housing
Management students were discussing in a management seminar some of the
problems they encountered in their work. One was the Homelessness
Officer for her local authority. Her problem was that she had to relate
to people in great difficulty whom she was powerless to help.
Writing
the script: constructing the system
The Latham Report and the legislation and guidance
deriving from it constitute part of the script by which Building can be
expected to order its life for a considerable number of years to come.
The process of negotiating what is to be said and drafting it so that it
is readily comprehensible is a responsible and in some ways frightening
task. In the 1970's there were some 20000 house-builders building in the
private sector and achieving some 150000 house completions a year.
Almost all were subject to the warranted design and constructional
standards of the National House-Building Council. The standards were the
outcome of collaborative deliberations by government, consumer, builder,
architectural, insurance and legal interests. The negotiations were
about risks, costs, fairness and feasibility. Decisions were finely
balanced. One was acutely aware that in one's work as Secretary to the
Standards Committee and editor of the Standards documents one was
writing the script, and so to some extent constructing the system, which
would regulate the whole private housebuilding industry for some years.
Personal
doubt and uncertainty
Professional lives can include times of great doubt,
difficulty and uncertainty, from the first week at university or in
training until late in one's career. Banks, gates and noticeboards were
one side of an abyss and national house-building standards on the other.
Between them was the crisis of realizing one was not a business person,
being told by the church that one could not run away and become a
theologian, and finding through working for a professional institution
that there was much more intellectually and spiritually to Building than
most practitioners needed to realise. At that time professional
institution Council members were a mix of people from families with very
deep roots in Building and others coming in as professional managers.
Both groups included people having great insights into business, design,
construction, and education. Here were people who not only took great
responsibilities in their organisations but worked for the good of their
profession and industry, and for the public good. These were lives that
made sense to a young onlooker. A profession is a community and
continuity of people in whose company meaning and wisdom can be found.
7.2
Scriptural Materials: The New Adam
Each of the Old Testament scriptural themes considered in
Sections 3-6 is continued in the New Testament and relates to the person
and work of Christ, the new Adam (eg 1 Cor 15:22). These continuities
are now outlined.
Temple
and city
Jesus' life is closely bound up with the temple and
the city of Jerusalem. He is presented there (Lk 2:22-4) and later comes
to his Father's house (Lk 2:49). He relates to it as the house of God
(Mt 12:4) and as a house of prayer for all the nations (Mk 11:17). He is
angry at its being turned into a den of robbers (Mk 11:17) and a
market-place (Jn 2:16). He announces the coming destruction of the
temple (Mk 13:2) and of the city (Mt 23:37-39). Jesus is greater than
the temple (Mt 12:6) and will supersede its sacrificial work. He claims
authority over it (Mk 11:27-33). His death destroys it and it will be
replaced by a temple not made with hands. (Mk 14:58). Paul views the
people of Christ as the new temple, Christ himself being its
cornerstone. (Eph 2:19-22). The temple will be tested by fire, in which
the quality of the work of each builder will be revealed. (1 Cor
3:10-7). Ultimately there will be no need for a temple in the heavenly
city, for the Lord God and the Lamb will be its temple (Rev 21:22-3).
The celebration of creation and the sacrifice as atonement for sin have
moved away from the particular location of Mount Zion to wherever Christ
is. From the Christian perspective, to rebuild the temple after its
destruction in 70 CE would have been a reversal and contradiction. In
Heb 12:22-3 Mount Zion becomes a heavenly city but, as Caird (1994)
says,:
`Although it is a heavenly and eternal
city, it is also a place which is related in a very intimate and special
way to the world of earth and time. The citv is but another name for
the new order which has already broken in upon the old, not by way of
negation or contradiction, but by gathering up the past with all its
shadowy anticipations into the final perfect consummation'.
(Caird 1994 p277)
Through
many vicissitudes and two major rebuildings, Solomon's vision lasted in
stones and
mortar for 1000 years. Finally, it becomes a metaphor
for the worship-full life that Christ makes possible for every adam,
in the community of every place.
Kingdom
of God
Jesus inaugurates a new kingdom: 'The time is
fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near'. (Mk 1:1>). The
arrival of the kingdom is immediately preceded by the return of prophecy
which had been dormant since the time of Ezra: `.... the word of God
came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the
region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the
forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the
prophet Isaiah.........'. (Lk 3:3-4). People must judge for themselves
the veracity of what Jesus says about himself, his prophetic standing
and his kingdom: 'And why do you not judge for yourselves what is
right?' (Lk 12a7). This is a kingdom marked by its moral quality : '...
the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness, peace and
joy in the Holy Spirit.' (Rom 14:17).
New law and new body
The fact that the kingdom of God has
arrived, means that the Mosaic law can now be seen in clear perspective.
Far from being abolished,
it is fulfilled (Mt 5:17). It requires a righteousness exceeding
that of the scribes and Pharisees (Mt 5:20) and it frees people to do
good on the sabbath (Mt 12:12). The law, particularly as set out in
Deuteronomy, is not uniformly important; some matters are major and some
minor. We need to penetrate behind the letter of the law to
discover its true, divine intention. Similarly, one needs to penetrate
behind what people actually do to discover what their character is. To
love is in itself to fulfil the law. (Caird 1994 p390). Whether the law
in question is about parapets or contracts, we need to establish its
relative importance, the reasons for it, and the intentions of people
who made it, or comply with it, or neglect it, or decide not to comply
with it. Such a rigorous interpretation and application constitutes
commitment to Jesus:
'Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on
them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock......... And
everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be
like a foolish man who built his house on sand ..... (Mt 7:24-7).
In contexts such as the implementation of Latham, obedience
to the law, or compliance with the
spirit
of the system, necessitates cooperative working and mutual respect. Such
working is a
mark
of the community that is governed by the law as endorsed by Jesus:
'Indeed, the body does not consist of
one member but of many... the members of the body that seem to be weaker
are indispensable and the members of the body we think less honourable
we clothe with greater honour, and our less respectable members are
treated with greater respect......... But God has so arranged the body,
giving the greater honour to the inferior member, that there may be no
dissension within the body. If one member suffers. a11 suffer together
with it; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it.'
(1Cor 12:14,22-6).
Not to be open to the life that is in the law, is to
be bound by `the ministry of death chiselled in
letters on stone tablets' (2 Cor 3:7) and to be blind
to the built-in obsolescence of the ministry of Moses. (Hooker 1990
p149).
Wisdom
Wisdom is the counterpart of the torah; each is a code of human conduct, a design for living
which had the merit of being identical with the design
of the whole universe. `Israel, by obeying
the torah was
fulfilling not only God's purpose for the human race but for the whole
creation. It
was God's good pleasure that in human beings His
wisdom should find a dwelling.' (Caird
1994 p337). It is the purpose of the body that is the
church `to make everyone see what is the
plan of the mystery hidden forages in God who created
all things...' (Eph 3:9-10). With Christ,
wisdom no longer lies merely and only in obedience to
sets of rules but in the gift of an attitude
of mind, which is the mind of Christ, the new Adam,
the new image of God. Caird explains this
with great clarity:
`What Paul's argument requires is that Christ should
be accepted as the true image, and therefore the true revelation of the
unseen God, precisely because he is "adam
" as God always intended "adam
" to be (Gen 1:26). He is the human race, in whom the divine
wisdom has taken up permanent residence........ Christ is himself God's
whole secret plan; for "in him lie hidden all God's treasures of
wisdom and knowledge".' (Col 2:2) (Caird 1994 p335).
Job's searching in the mines for the key to the
mvstery of the universe is over, as is Ecclesiastes' wrestling with
doubt! The answer is in Christ.
7.3
Comparison of Materials
Both sets of materials work with the concept of
`Adam'.
Everyone
in Building is an adam, a
human being, with a unique experience of projects, social issues,
industry systems and professional life. The course of that life may be
viewed as the working out of destiny, chance or prudent response to
opportunities. Each such adam is a
being, composed of the dust of the earth and the breath of spirit (Gen
2:7), who has encountered desire for the wrong sort of wisdom, or wisdom
not yet attainable (Gen 3:6), has experienced the conflicts that can
arise between brothers or colleagues or associates when one is a roving,
free-spirited shepherd and the other a settled farmer and builder (Gen
4:1-16). Each has known situations where there has been the unanimity of
one language and the same words (Gen 11: l ) and how large, ambitious
enterprises, whether building a building or a company, or an
organisation, can lead to tragedy, confusion, diversity of language and
breakdown of communication and community (Gen 11:2-9).
To such each adam
comes the new Adam saying that a new time has come, a time to repent
for there is good news to be heard (Mk 1:14-5). Caird has him tell a
`parable of the Apprenticed Son'.
`A son can do nothing by himself; he
does only what he sees his father doing: what the father does, the son
does. For the father loves the son and shows him all that he is doing (Jn
5:19-20). Here is a picture of a human father instructing his son in his
own trade and sharing with him all his professional secrets, and through
the lens of this picture from daily life may be seen the relation
between Jesus and God. So complete is the mutual understanding of this
partnership that everything Jesus says or does is at the same time the
word and deed of God. It is a partnership of mutual love (Jn 15:9-10)
and mutual indwelling (Jn 10:38. 14:11)
(Caird 1994 p297)
The
human apprenticeship was in carpentry: the divine apprenticeship was in
uniting in himself temple and city, prophecy and kingdom, law and
wisdom, all of which are facets of the Word of God We customarily
connect `Word' with the logos (Greek 'word') of Jn l: l. Caird (1994
p332) suggests we think of it as 'purpose' and so say 'In the beginning
was the purpose, the purpose in the mind of God the purpose which was
God's own being'. The son completed the work the father gave him to do (Jn
17:4) so gathering the whole human race into the same purpose.
Thus,
on the one hand. we have our individual Building-oriented adamic experiences
and, on the other, we have the purpose of God for humanity in the new
Adam.
7.4 Historical Continuities
Church building
The
most direct and obvious link between the New Testament and contemporary
Building is the history of church building. The church building is the
place where Scripture is publicly read and preached. It is in the
process of building, adapting and maintaining church buildings that the
building industry enters most directly into relationships with the
Christian community. The point of origin was Jerusalem and the upper
room in which Jesus commended his finished work to the Father. `A room
in a house large enough for the assembly of the faithful: a table as a
place of offering and distribution: a designated seat for the president
- these were the essentials and remained such until the fourth century
AD and the beginning of the Church's great expansion'. (Dillistone 1973
p100).
In the case of Essex, that great expansion is
symbolized by the Saxon chapel of St Cedd on the sea edge at Bradwell,
built in the eighth century. There is a geographical unity between this
ancient building and the newly-built Othona retreat centre a few minutes
walk away, and with the engineering of the sea wall and of the power
station across the estuary. In Chelmsford 'There was a church on the
bishop's manor [the bishop of London] by the early 13th century. It
stood at the top of the hill leading down to the bridges and the
ford.......' In the early fifteenth century work began on what since
1914 has been Chelmsford cathedral. (Grieve 1988 pp5-6). In 1993,
Building Management undergraduates at Anglia Polytechnic University
participated in a conference and exhibition at the cathedral on
'Building and Society'. One of the student papers
considered, topically at the time, whether Windsor
Castle should have been insured against fire and an exhibit of
photographs and diaries revealed how two students felt after they had
spent 24 hours 'homeless' in London. Others were on various subjects;
the whole linked together current concerns of young professionals within
the ethos of the place of Christian worship.
The
architectural expression of the centrality of Scripture and 'word' is
most pronounced in the buildings of the nonconformist traditions.
Binfield (1992) discusses the work of the architect James Cubitt -
originating from Norfolk - in the design of Union Chapel Islington
during the period 1874-9. Cubitt, Binfield says, met the prime
architectural test, a building that worked. His design achieved a direct
contact between the preacher, and therefore Scripture, and every
individual:
'This very Protestant place for
listeners to Word (or music) is no place for those who prefer the
sidelines. The moment you are seated in it you are on the preacher's sight-line. Wherever you sit there is
nothing between you and the preacher, you alone and the preacher
alone........ Even at the back of the tower you are your own centre,
with the pulpit still the focal point, you and the preacher in
it.......... from the tower the whole church space has become a chancel,
the priests' part wherein all are priests, people's Gothic for a
Protestant people.' (Binfield 1992 p444)
The building holds together preacher, hearers and
music, their bodies, souls and voices, making them one. 'This
individualizing, Protestant, space is thus also a very gathering,
Catholic space. It is truly Congregational.' (Binfield 1992 p444).
This
kind of connection is universal. Writing for the Christian Conference of
Asia, Takenaka
(1995)
says:
'Architectural work demands the joint activity of many
disciplines. Building the church requires joint consolidation and
cooperation of many trades and professional specialists such as artists,
musicians, social workers, builders, painters, engineers, lawyers,
nursery school teachers, designers, managers and, of course, the
architect and minister. The task of building the body of Christ requires
teamwork by gifted people who work together and bring their varied gifts
in a spirit of unity.'
(Takenaka 1995 p26)
Evolving technologies of 'Building
It is too restricting to think of continuities only
through church buildings. Others must also be considered.
St Paul's Cathedral, the seat of the bishops of
London, and Union Chapel Islington are located in an area where today
Building Technology is of an advanced nature. The structures and
services of office and hospital buildings are complex engineering
entities designed to create controlled internal environments which are
healthy, secure. comfortable and economic to operate. Building
Technology today is a far more complex subject than it was, for example,
in
1945. Groak (1994 p15) argues that the buildings of
today need to be viewed as `unstable systems in dynamic environments'.
They are inevitably subject to degradation by the elements, and by wear
and tear including fluctuations caused by use of energy. They are
subject to flows such as rain, air, energy, chemicals, water, light,
radiation, human activity, information and industry. These flows are
regulated by complex and sensitive control systems. Alongside the
increasing complexity of the flows is advancement in materials
development and engineering skill. All is movement. change and fluidity.
The ways in which technologies develop is profoundly
important. Monsma et al (1986) look, as
prophets might look, for a network of concerned people
whose dialogue is capable of developing insights into technological
responsibility, who can counter-balance misdirected professional
outlooks when they occur and ensure a full consideration of goals:
'Goal-setting left in the hands of
government decision makers and corporate officers often gets reduced to
short-term objectives. Christians guided by a biblical vision of ideals
and normative principles have a natural basis on which to develop
worthwhile goals in a world dominated by means, averages and consensus.
By God's grace, generating goals worthy of biblical teaching can have a
cathartic and uplifting impact on the technological enterprise.'
(Monsma et al 1986 p231)
7.5 Ethical Discussion/ the Sacrament of Baptism
Technology and the significance of baptism
Church
buildings are marked by various forms of baptistery. The baptistery is a
potent, built link with New Testament times. It is moving to stand today
on the Kentish coast at Richborough and see the extensive remains of the
Roman fort. There is evidence on the site of a Christian church of the
fifth century. The baptistery was a separate building; the hexagonal
masonry cistern is still substantially complete, although the wooden
superstructure has disappeared. The whole building was some 7ft 6in x
6ft 6in and the cistern 3ft 2in x 2ft. An octagonal baptistery exists at
Witham Essex. The hexagon recalls the crucifixion on Friday, the sixth
day of the week, and the octagon, the resurrection on the eighth day.
Thus the baptistery design is a concrete enactment of the sacrament.
(Thomas 1981 pp216-219).
At least in urban environments. Building technology is
likely to be evolving all around the church building. There is a
relationship. In Christian Worship and Technological Change, White (1994) explores this
relationship. Her conclusion is that in the technological age, in spite
of the 'flow' of Christian hope, worship is in danger of becoming
irrelevant, of succumbing to the destructive values of technology, of
being locked into a religious or cultural ghetto, and even of
disappearing altogether. The whole idea of the sanctification of the
whole world, not least of technology, is at risk. What is in danger of
being lost is the fact that 'Technology can become sacramental, it can
become a bearer of the self-giving love of God to a broken
world.......'.
(White 1994 p129). Buildings, whether for worship or
other purposes, exemplify technology. White's point is that all
technology, if it is not to be the cause of disaster, must become
life-bearing. That is to say it must be brought within the scope and
influence of baptism.
John the Baptist proclaimed baptism and repentance (Mk
1:4). The full significance is apparent when, at Jerusalem, on the day
of Pentecost, 'Peter said to them "Repent, and be baptized everyone
of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be
forgiven..."... So those who welcomed his message were baptized,
and that day about three thousand persons were added.' (Acts 2: 38-41).
This is not only individuals taking a personal step; it is the creation
of a new humanity. 'Do you not know that all of us who have been
baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we
have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ
was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might
walk in newness of life' (Rom 6:3-4). What is put to death includes
'greed (which is idolatry)......, anger, wrath, malice, slander and
abusive language...... [Moreover] do not lie to one another' and 'In
that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and
uncircumcised, barbarian. Scythian slave and free..' (Col 3:5,8-9,11).
This
new company of the baptized lived in a world in which much travel was
undertaken.- in fact, the community itself came into
existence in its extended form, from Jerusalem to Rome, because people
travelled as part of their business: `Paul was able to achieve the near
self-sufficiency of which he was so proud because it was not unusual for
artisans to move from place to place, carrying their tools with them and
seeking out, say, the leatherworkers' street or quarters of whatever
town they came to.' (Meeks 1983 p17). Their travel was facilitated by the
civil engineering of the Roman road system. The Christian communities
thus brought into being were households of faith in which post-baptismal
morality could be carefully nurtured and, at the same time, new cultural
movements in society, the whole of which was potentially within the
scope of renewed life, because `through him God was pleased to reconcile
to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace
through the blood of the cross' (Col 1:20). The communities that
struggled to articulate the meaning and significance of these concepts,
which were either ridiculous or momentous, were growing and baptizing
communities. As Meeks (1993 p95) puts it 'Every new baptism reenacted
for all believers who were present their own original experience,
re-presenting to them the passage from death to new life and reminding
them of the obligations undertaken under those solemn circumstances'.
When we baptize and reenact our own baptism, we join the earliest
communities in their search for a morality that is relevant to the
present but aware of the past
While the administration of baptism is to the
individual, its implications are for the household, the city and the
cosmos. What is taken into the death and resurrection of Christ, is the
person and the whole of his/her life, relationships, roles, profession
and responsibilities. In the case of
those
in building this
includes that which is built. together with the social and systems
aspects of the work. There has to be a re-uniting of baptismal profession of
faith with the professing of Building , thereby recovering the early
position adduced by Grimball (1992 p19).
Liturgies
Baptismal liturgies need to make the wide implications of
the sacrament clear. The following prayer from the Church of Scotland
makes the biblical connections well in societal terms but veers off to
much too personalized a conclusion:
`In the beginning, you moved over the waters
and brought light and life to formless waste. By the
waters of the flood,
you
cleansed the world,
and
made with Noah and his family
a
new beginning for all people.
In
the time of Moses, you led your people,
out
of slavery through the waters of the sea, making covenant with them in a
new land.
At
the appointed time,
in
the waters of the Jordan
when
Jesus was baptized by John
you
sent your Spirit upon him.
And
now, by the baptism
of
his death and resurrection,
Christ
sets us free from sin and death and opens the way to eternal life.'
(Common
Order 1994 p100-1)
'Eternal
life' with its connotation of life after death has, arguably, been used
in place of the 'newness of life' of Rom 6:4. The consequence of that is
that the full extent of the practical import of baptism is lost. Such
personalizing of the sacrament that inaugurates the moral order means
that we fail to enact fully the work and meaning of Christ who is the
new temple, the new city, the new prophet, the giver of the new law. and
who is the new wisdom. The implication of that is the connection between
Scripture and, in our case. Building is not fully enacted and
demonstrated.
Timing
of baptism
This discussion has been in terms of the adult
baptized. When people are baptized as infants. the adult nuances, such
as those considered here, are carried forward to a service of
Confirmation (or admittance to Church Membership). That is an ideal time
to draw out the wide implications of baptism/confirmation for not only
all aspects of the life of the candidates but for the life of the world,
or society, as a whole.
Traditionally. baptism and confirmation precede
participation in the Lord's Supper/ Eucharist. Gorringe (1997 p24) sees
the matter the other way round. People, he suggests. are first drawn in
to the open Supper table and then commit themselves in baptism/
confirmation. This dissertation has followed the traditional order
because its structure requires it to deal with ethics before metaphor
but Gorringe's approach is viewed as entirely valid.
7.6
Metaphorical Interplay - the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper/Eucharist
The Lord's Supper/Eucharist can be viewed as an
unfolding drama. Building also can be viewed as drama. The two dramas
are parallel to, and metaphors for, each other.
The
drama of the Lord's Supper
l
Eucharist
The drama of the Lord's Supper/Eucharist can be viewed
as scenes depicting welcome,
offering, word, action, remembrance and sign.
The
first scene is that of the prepared table to which the people are welcomed. `From east and west. from north and south, people will
come and take their places in the kingdom of God'. (Common Order 1994
p128 and Lk 13:29).
They bring with them offerings
of bread and wine, the products of nature and of human work:
'Blessed
are you Lord God of all creation,
Through
your goodness we have this bread to offer,
which
earth has given and human hands have made.
...........................................
Through
your goodness we have this wine to offer, fruit of the vine and work of
human hands.
....................................................
(Common
Order 1994 p191)
It
is possible to associate the work involved in creating the worship
building (and all buildings) with this offering.
The
central words in the sacrament
are those of the Thanksgiving /Eucharistic prayer in which
the
scriptural story is recalled. The following example resonates with
professional work and
responsibilities
in Building:
'You
brought forth the human race and blessed us with memory, reason and skill. You made us the stewards of
creation, but
we turned against you. and betrayed your trust.
Yet
your mercy is like the spring that never fails. You, yourself in Christ your
Son
come
to deliver us:
you
redeem us in your love and pity: you create new heavens and a new earth
where the cry of distress is heard no more.'
(Common
Order 1994 p136)
Memory, reason, skill, breakdown in trust, the
creation of new things and the alleviation of suffering are readily
identifiable with Building as it has been comprehensively considered in
this dissertation.
The
central action is the breaking
of the bread. Stacey in Hooker (1997) is concerned with things Jesus
did. which he views as prophetic. Up to the moment of the Last Supper,
the body of Christ was the fleshly body of Jesus. That was too limited
to achieve its purposes. Therefore the symbol, the bread, was broken and
shared among the disciples so that they became the organ through which
the purposes of God would be exercised. Today, when the bread is broken
and shared, those who receive it become prophetic actors. `This'
continues Stacey_ `is the simple and self-evident meaning of the
dramatic action........... It was a brilliant symbol of corporate being'
(Stacey in Hooker 1997 p93). Both church and Building can be regarded as
corporate beings metaphorically related in this dramatic action.
The
action of breaking the bread recalls, is a remembrance
of, the sacrifice of Christ who embodies new temple, new kingdom of
justice, new law and new wisdom. For Bradley (1995) the Eucharist, the
thanksgiving, is for what God has himself sacrificed, the sacrificial
action that he has taken. Bradley identifies himself with the 1982 Lima
liturgy of the World Council of Churches which explains that the
Eucharist is the great sacrifice of praise by which the Church speaks on
behalf of the whole creation. Coupled with the offering of the praise of
the whole world is the offering of its suffering. As we do that, we
remember that `what he asks of us who come to his holy table, is not
that we simply recall his sacrifice but that we engage in the infinitely
costly and painful task of remembering his shattered, broken body. That
body incorporates our fragile and troubled world.......' (Bradley 1995
p280) and includes the world of Building.
The
whole sequence of welcome, offering, listening to words and engaging in
action, is a sign. Gorringe (1997) suggests that it is firstly a .sign of welcome. It was characteristic of Jesus that he ate and
drank with people of many kinds and in many situations. He continued
this practice of welcome and hospitality at the last supper. (Gorringe
1997 pp16-19).
Second, this sacrament, particularly the offering and
the recalling words, can properly be interpreted as a sign of the link between the economic aspects of life and worship:
'...... to produce the bread of the Eucharist at least eight
operations are necessary, from ploughing, to marketing, to baking. Each
of these operations has a global economic, social, and political
dimension. Somebody pays somebody else to do the work. The work is done
in competition or in cooperation. In the global economy the production
of grain is part of the balance of payments and the relation between
nations. The bread of the eucharist is the bread of the economy. The
liturgy is inescapably enmeshed in the "real world' of the world
economy.' (Gorringe
1997 p36).
The combined effect of welcome at table and the
eucharistic bread being 'the bread of the
economy' is to make this 'the sacrament of the beauty,
depth and mystery of the trivial and ordinary'. (Gorringe 1997 p87).
Nothing can be more ordinary than Building.
Building as drama
Building can be viewed as drama, as action which tells
a story and, by means of images, carries a meaning.
The
first scene or image is one of wonder. The Windsor restoration, the
successive temples at Jerusalem and the technologically inventive
projects of Peter Rice evoke wonder that the human race has evolved the
aesthetic and mathematical skills to achieve this kind of work. It is
equally to be wondered at that so much of our housebuilding is excellent
in landscape and estate layout and in the careful and appropriate design
of dwellings for families or for the elderly or the disabled. A lovingly
crafted Asian church is totally different from a medieval European
cathedral, yet each in its own way is excellent. This sense of wonder
has to be developed. As Day (1990a) puts it, we have to hear and join
the singing:
'Yet architecture, although built of
matter, need not be dead: it can be
life-filled. Its constituent elements and relationships can sing - and
the human heart can resonate with them.'
(Day, 1990a p10)
Not
only the finished building but the process by which it comes about can
be a matter for
wonder.
This gives a second scene or dramatic image. Day (1990b) tells a story
which is the reverse
of Babel (Gen 11:1-9). In 1981, he had led an international group of
architectural students
in the design and building of a structure on a playground for
handicapped children in
Liverpool.
They were a team of ten from seven nations and they had a week in which
to
complete
the task. Reflecting on the experience. he wrote:
'Looking back over the week, it became clear that through
working with our hands, we had overridden any difficulties in
communication due to our different languages. and without even thinking
of it, had built a strong, mutually supportive group. We had created a
"real building " . ....... We had engaged thought and
aesthetic sensitivity. together with the skill of our hands. And we had
given something to the children.'
(Day 1990b p67)).
For
every good experience in building there is a bad one. Appleyard (1994)
presents major.
Babel-like
failure dramatically. This is a third scene or image:
`Then there was nothing, a pause of
beautiful, fragile intensity; then there was a series of echoing cracks:
then nothing; then there was a terrible, slow, rolling detonation; then
a shudder ran through the ground and the people on the platform clutched
at each other in shock. I looked up to the topmost stage and spire of
the central tower, rising above the gable of the facade. Miraculously it
appeared to be stable, yet I knew that all strength had now gone from
its supporting structure. I felt it was held there by a kind of
disbelief, a refusal to accept the horror, the sudden engineering void
below. Lionel had risen to his feet and was now shading his eyes, gazing
like me at the central tower. Still the robot was screaming and moving
down the nave, but now the crowd were shouting and pointing instead of
jeering at his cries of anguish. Some had begun to clamber down the
front of the platform in terror, and a few children were crying.
"It was too much". I heard one man shout. "We tried to do
too much, too big...... too much...'.
(Appleyard 1994 p264).
Fourthly,
wonder and failure can overlay one another with joy and tears.
Sometimes, as with Day. Building work succeeds in bringing joy to some
children. Sometimes, as in Appleyard's apocalyptic scene, Building makes
some children cry. The story of all individual adam 's is that of sometimes bringing joy and sometimes causing
tears. Weaving their way in and out of all the personal stories are
stories such as Latham of how institutions design collective systems and
formulate approaches to professional practice, which at heart are about
maximising joy and minimising the tears.
For
the final image in the drama, the scene reverts to the poignant
simplicity of Day (1990b):
`To build a house the pre-industrial peasant took of
the earth, stones. trees and straw around him. With these materials,
together with his brothers, cousins, uncles and friends, he constructed
a building, the design of which was imprinted over many generations with
but slow evolution into their image of "house". In the
process, the products of his daily work and surroundings - his complete
experienced world - were combined and raised to make a home. The
surroundings, social community and archetypal idea were combined into
one whole....' (Day 1990b p90)
Here
is the strength that comes from focusing on the most basic building
artifact, the house; here is the sense that the best things evolve very
slowly; here is the sense that life's whole experience can be given body
and effect through what one does with earth, stone, trees and straw.
The two dramas
These two dramas have resonance with each other. We
have viewed a eucharistic sequence of welcome, offertory, words of
recall and thanksgiving, the action of breaking bread and remembrance of
suffering, all of which constitute a sign All of that is to be wondered
at. Our Building drama has begun with wonder at creativity and at the
creative process. It has moved on to view failure and the complete
breaking and collapse of a building. It has overlain that failure with
the joys of simple tasks completed at great cost to patience by ordinary
people and children. It would have been possible, but unnatural in
relation to the materials from which they are made, to have structured
these two dramatic sequences as direct parallels of each other. That
would have been too mechanistic. What we in fact have is two different
dramatic sequences which, notwithstanding, strike the same notes and
resonate with each other, uniting Building with enacted Scripture.
7. 7 Emergent Axiology
Inclusive care
This
Section has suggested that people engaged in Building may experience
significant projects. encounter either directly or indirectly some of
the social issues associated with housing, be affected by the
legislation and collective practices that create the ethos of the
industry, and wrestle with some of the questions found in Wisdom. It has
shown that the Old Testament concepts of temple, prophecy, law and
Wisdom are fulfilled in Christ. It has traced a connecting path through
church and other buildings, noted the significance of baptism as the
sacrament of ethical re-structuring relating to all
life, and drawn parallel and mutually metaphorical dramatic
images out of Building and the sacrament of the Lord's Supper/Eucharist.
This
makes it manifestly clear that Building is not an aspect of life that is
merely economic or merely technological. Equally, it is clear that the New
Testament, as both Word and sacrament.
is not a remote or privatized religious manual. Both have deep
meaning and both matter, not
only for what each itself is, but because of the high value that each
gives to the other. Oppenheimer (1995 p61), in a discussion of
`mattering', says `What we are called upon to do is enter into one
another's mattering. That is what `'love" means.'
It is inappropriate to talk of 'love' in the context of
professional Building but it is appropriate to substitute `care'.
Scripture and Building enter into one another's mattering by means of
care for and about each other's significance and contribution. CHRISM
(1995) suggests that ministry in the context of work is about care for
the work. The value statement is that `I, or we, care' for the work that
is being done. The discussion in this Section has suggested that
Building matters and is therefore to be cared about. Reciprocally, the
understanding, interpretation and relating of
New Testament Scripture is something that matters and
which is to be cared about.
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