Wednesday, October 05, 2011
Palm Sunday - Out of Sync
NT Wright:
Christ was not a king in the usual an expected way. Our president is not a head of state in the usual and expected way. Christ rules, but chose to serve. Our president does not rule, but serves.
More than issues, what we need look for in a presidential candidate is an attitude of service. More than affiliation character.
Yet so often we, like the people in the streets on Palm Sunday, seek to coronate king.
Maybe this is where we ought to think about applying our faith to our politics?
The crowd went wild as they got nearer. This was the moment they'd been waiting for. All the old songs came flooding back, and they were singing, chanting, cheering and laughing. At last, their dreams were going to come true. But in the middle of it all their leader wasn't singing. He was in tears. Yes, their dreams were indeed coming true. But not in the way they had imagined.I write this on the morning after I have attended a major political event in the race for presidency 2012 and these thoughts strike me in an unusual way.
He was not the king they expected. Not like the monarchs of old, who sat on their jewelled and ivory thrones, dispensing their justice and wisdom. Nor was he the great warrior-king some had wanted. He didn't raise an army and ride to battle at its head. He was riding on a donkey. And he was weeping, weeping for the dream that had to die, weeping for the sword that would pierce his supporters to the soul. Weeping for the kingdom that wasn't coming as well as the kingdom that was.
What was it all about? What did Jesus think he was doing?
Christ was not a king in the usual an expected way. Our president is not a head of state in the usual and expected way. Christ rules, but chose to serve. Our president does not rule, but serves.
More than issues, what we need look for in a presidential candidate is an attitude of service. More than affiliation character.
Yet so often we, like the people in the streets on Palm Sunday, seek to coronate king.
Maybe this is where we ought to think about applying our faith to our politics?
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