kinnon.tv

We Need a King

(Mildly edited on March 31st.) I'm a political junkie. Have been since I began working for the Liberal Party of Canada in my teens. (I was even the 21 year old chauffeur to the the leader of the Ontario Liberal Party, Stuart Smith, during the summer 1977 election.)

In my late twenties, my politics began to shift more to what would be called Red Tory here in the Great White North. Had I been a Yank, in 2000 my vote would have been cast for the man with the big hat - the former governor of the Great State of Texas. Perhaps in '04, as well - though I was a lot less impressed. (The Jr. Senator from Mass. was hardly a great candidate for the Party of the Donkey - actually, on 2nd thought...)

When I haven't been working, I've been glued to CNN in HD watching the Dem Primaries. (Granted I've watched a lot less than I would like - but I must work when I have it.) Hillary "How do you know when I'm lying? When I open my mouth" Clinton makes my skin crawl. She always has.

Like many, I've found Barack Obama particularly attractive. I've been captivated by his charisma - his ability to make the teleprompted words sound like they're his own. He is a very attractive politician. But. He is a politician.

The Obama mythology, however, would have us believe he's "a new kind of politician." Not so much. I might be willing to believe that he could bring a mildly new perspective to politics - but he's still a pol. (Rather than arguing with me about this, which you are welcome to do BTW, do some research on where his political support came from when he began his political career.)

However, might I suggest that our reaction to Obama comes out of desires similar to the people of Israel in 1 Samuel. They want a king. They aren't interested in a priest/intercessor between them and YHWH. They want a king. Now. And. So do we.

Look back to the Sixties and the language around the Kennedy myth. His "court" was called Camelot - JFK, the immensely flawed King Arthur. Similar language is being used for Obama. Perhaps he's the political Messiah we've been waiting for. We pray that the audacity of all our hopes will be fulfilled in him.

They won't be. He's just a man. As flawed as the rest of us. A fatherless man who thought he'd found the wright man to be his surrogate "father." And then discovered he had to throw that "father" under the bus, along with Obama's white grandmother - to ensure the viability of his political future.

Obama may (and I emphasize "may") be the best candidate in a pool of slim pickings. (No offence to the late Slim Pickens - the nuclear bomb riding character actor.) But he's no messiah, no saviour. He's just a man. And as the Lord says to Samuel, he's just as likely to...

...take your sons and make soldiers of them—chariotry, cavalry, infantry, regimented in battalions and squadrons. He'll put some to forced labor on his farms, plowing and harvesting, and others to making either weapons of war or chariots in which he can ride in luxury. He'll put your daughters to work as beauticians and waitresses and cooks. He'll conscript your best fields, vineyards, and orchards and hand them over to his special friends. He'll tax your harvests and vintage to support his extensive bureaucracy. Your prize workers and best animals he'll take for his own use. He'll lay a tax on your flocks and you'll end up no better than slaves. The day will come when you will cry in desperation because of this king you so much want for yourselves.

 

That's what the King's we appoint do. It was ever thus.

I put the video below on YouTube yesterday. (I'm not really happy with YouTube's encoding, but oh well.) It's one of my favourite Chris Falson songs from a Maranatha! Music Live Worship video Imbi and I produced and directed in the mid-nineties. (As the hair styles would indicate.) The song is called, We Need a King. (As an aside, the song features Rob Mathes as music director and pianist. Rob has produced the new and killer album from Panic at the Disco with the great line in Behind the Sea - "we're all too smart to talk to God." The iMonk has been talking about Rob, and his pastor, Ian Cron of late.)

Chris sings of the King we both need - and already have.

 

If you've made it this far down the post and actually watched the video, I should note that this version is not the finished version. For some reason, the version I transferred to DVCam from Digital Betacam was two cuts before the finished version. You still get a sense of the song - but you also get to see the handheld camera man running around in the background. This video was cut in a digital linear suite. No Avid was involved in the production. All cameras were slaved to VTRs and the show was built in post-production. Too much information for most of you. Hope you enjoyed it. The song, that is.

Who Needs Sleep

Can someone help me? Please?

I went to bed rather early last evening. Around 9 to be somewhat precise. (Precise would be exactly 9:07:32.) I was extremely tired. And looking forward to my alarm going off at 6:20am. (Which reminds me. It's sitting beside the bed and will wake Imbi up if I don't go and retrieve it. Off I go.)

So. Here's where I need help. Why. If I was tired. And needing a good night's sleep. Why. Did my brain wake me up at 3:20am? And then not let me go back to sleep.

Is this an age thing? I'm 52. Am I turning into my father? (Let me rephrase that. Am I turning into my father when he was this age?)

I like sleep as much as the next person. How come I can't seem to get enough - even when I go to bed early? Sheesh.

Grateful Sigh

Those of you who occasionally drop by know that I've been up to my ears in a rather large project for a rather large client. The stress has been high and I've worked a minimum of 12 hours per day for the last five weeks. We are finally in the delivery phase of the project.

My client began viewing partially finished pieces today and I awaited his response with baited breath. (I hate having worms on the end of my tongue.) He is very pleased. Called me all kinds of nice things which I immediately shared with my family. They groaned and went back to what they were doing.

Now, all I need to do is finish the project. It doesn't help that one of the major international shipping outfits have lost four hours of original footage coming up from the US. Fortunately, it still exists as files - so they are being shipped to me on a drive. Let's hope it doesn't get lost... or damaged.

I will return with truly pithy commentary at some point in the future. And meanwhile I am thankful for the encouragement of those of you who do drop by still, in spite of the rather slim pickens. (Thanks, Jazz-T for the comment.)

Fitch on B Mc's EMC

This weeks conversations around the book makes it feel a little like a time warp back to last September when Brian McLaren's Everything Must Change came out. I commented then on some of the controversy around it - as well as producing a three part video interview with Brian and Al Roxburgh available here.

After TSK's post yesterday, David Fitch weighs in,

I think this book stands as a wonderful statement of some of the central strengths of the emerging church movement. The sentiments of this book are what draw me into the emerging conversation in the first place and why I try to participate. I have great hopes for the future of this movement. Yet this book also reveals to me some of the issues that remain to be addressed if (in my opinion) the emerging church movement is to have legs. These questions center on asking just how will everything be changed? Most of us resonate with the many critiques of the evangelical church emanating from the emerging church movement and its writers. But any constructive movement must have proposals for the way we embody the coming revolution ("the revolution of hope" as Brian labels it). In my next post I post two questions for Brian centering on the question - Should it be EVERYTHING MUST CHANGE or EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED (with the empty tomb and the exaltation of Jesus Christ as Lord). I'll leave it at that for now. I'll be back tomorrow with the rest of this post.

I look forward to Dave's next post.

A Little Buttering Up @ ASBO Jesus

Some days I feel like Jon Birch has gone wandering around the dark areas of my life.

Visit Jon's site for a larger version - and to comment, please.

McLaren & TSK in Conversation

Andrew Jones posts a great conversation he had with Brian McLaren on Brian's book, EMC. You might also find Al Roxburgh's three part interview with Brian interesting at the Allelon site.

Right Wright, right?

In the tattered margins of the blogosphere that I traverse, the name Wright comes up a lot. To some the name invokes howls of protest - a result of his particular perspective of theology. To others he's the patron saint of biblical understanding.

This morning as I scanned Google Reader, the name popped up many times. But it wasn't Wright. Well, okay, it was. It was just the wrong Wright. You see, I was looking for Nicholas Thomas - and Jeremiah, a distant cousin no doubt, was there instead.

Two Wrights, two perspectives, one Saviour.

Pride, Prejudice and My Friend Brad

First. This post has nothing to do with Barack Obama. Or the '08 US election in all its permutations. It does, however, have to do with leadership.

I met Brad Sargent at the Allelon Missional Order gathering this past fall. He's both very funny and very wise. Brad comments here on occasion - often with real insight. But his deepest thoughts on life and the church are to be found on his blog, FuturistGuy.

Brad has been writing on Recovery from Spiritual Abuse and in Part 2B he uses some scenes from Pride and Prejudice to illustrate his point,

“Poor Mr. Darcy,” Jane laments, then looks astonished: “Poor Mr. Wickham! There is such an expression of goodness in his countenance.”
 
  Again Elizabeth laughs, “Yes … I’m afraid one has all the goodness, and the other all the appearance of it.” She goes on to say that until that very uncomfortable moment of reading Mr. Darcy’s letter, she never knew herself.
 
  Elizabeth and Jane go on to talk about whether they should disclose the details about Mr. Wickham to others, whether that would block him from the possibility of making a fresh start, whether they would need the permission of Mr. Darcy to disclose, etc.
 
  I see many parallels to the difficult but necessary responsibility all of us have to learn to discern between good and evil - and discernment is, according to Hebrews 5:14, is a sign of spiritual maturity. I won’t go into all the possible spin-offs of this illustration with discernment and disclosure, but here are at least some “starter thoughts” on the subjects.
 
  This problem of appearance versus substance is critical in discerning the actual status of church systems and leadership.
 
  While I understand the need for leaders to keep some details about decisions and processes confidential, I also see that there are things done behind closed church doors and hidden away that need to be brought into the light. Like Mr. Wickham, toxic church leaders show consistent talent at maintaining the appearance of propriety. Their systems, strategies, and structures may look perfectly good on the surface - but underneath, there is either no biblical substance, or, even worse, there is anti-biblical substance.

Our boys have a band called Substance over Style. Too often, church leadership is all about style over substance. It's about the appearance of leadership - rather than the reality. Rather than operating in transparency, many leaders in the church are like the Wizard of Oz. Pulling the levers from behind the curtain - while projecting themselves as larger than life. Woe to those who attempt to pull back the curtain.

But this tortured metaphor reminds me of what happened at the point of Jesus death. The veil was torn. The curtain that separated us from the Holy of Holies in the temple was torn from top to bottom - rent asunder. How is it that church leadership wants desperately to sew that curtain back up so they can perform "their leadership" from behind it.

Please head over to read the rest of Brad's more cogent post.

UPDATE: Brad points to John's Third Letter -  these particular verses:

Earlier I wrote something along this line to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves being in charge, denigrates my counsel. If I come, you can be sure I'll hold him to account for spreading vicious rumors about us. (MSG - 3 John 9-10)

Any of you who know Imbi's and my story from earlier this millennium will understand why this resonates.

He is Risen!

He is Risen, Indeed!

This is a shot taken about 30 minutes outside of Nairobi on our way back from Magadi - the lowest point in the Rift Valley, in the heart of Maasi Land. (See the previous post.) This is one of my favourite of Imbi's many great shots.

And for me, it embodies the beauty of the world where He has risen!

The Maasai Creed

Milton Brasher-Cunningham got through to this hardened heart again this morning. He has a deep love of Kenya, having spent a significant portion of his adolescence there.

Milton heard this creed on Krista Tippet's NPR program this week. The program was a repeat from earlier this millennium and featured the late Dr. Jaroslav Pelikan, a noted church historian. He and Tippet were discussing the role that creeds have played in Christianity.

Tears welled up when I read the Maasai Creed a few moments ago.

"We believe in one high God, who out of love created the beautiful world. We believe that God made good His promise by sending His Son, Jesus Christ, a man in the flesh, a Jew by tribe, born poor in a little village, who left His home and was always on safari doing good, curing people by the power of God, teaching about God and [humanity], and showing that the meaning of religion is love. He was rejected by His people, tortured and nailed hands and feet to a cross, and died. He was buried in the grave, but the hyenas did not touch Him, and on the third day He rose from the grave. He ascended to the skies. He is the Lord.

We believe that all our sins are forgiven through him. All who have faith in him must be sorry for their sins, be baptized in the Holy Spirit of God, live the rules of love, and share the bread together in love, to announce the good news to others until Jesus comes again. We are waiting for him. He is alive. He lives. This we believe. Amen."

Milton responds,

When the Maasai speak of Jesus always being on safari doing good – always traveling – all I could think of was the sense of connection those nomadic people must of felt with him. He traveled all his life just as they did; he knew what it was like to be them. And when he died, the hyenas – the filthiest scavengers on the African landscape – didn’t touch him. I love the imagery.

I love it too, Milton. Thanks for sharing this.