On August 9, 2008 by

Out Of The Corner Of My Eye


The Two Crowns
by Sir Frank Dicksee

Out Of The Corner Of My Eye
by Blind Man At The Gate

I think I caught a glimpse of truth out of the corner of my eye
A ghost, a whisper, a suspicion, a subtle and subversive rumor
So dangerous that every army would be commanded to march against it
So beautiful that it would drive those who see it to madness
Or sanity
Does the whole of my kind suffer from mental and moral vertigo?
As Melville said of cabin boy Pip
He saw the foot of God upon the treadle of the loom
And dared to speak it
Henceforth his shipmates called him mad
As Vladimir said when they came to bury Fyodor
The spiritual leader must feel the falsehood prevailing in society
The prophet must struggle against it, never tolerate it, never submit to it
I think I caught a glimpse of truth out of the corner of my eye
Have we been so blinded by the bright lights of advertisers lies
That the only true vision is peripheral vision?
In the age of constant commercialization and overblown hype
Does truth shout with a whisper and stand out with subtlety?
I think I caught a glimpse of truth out of the corner of my eye
It terrified me as I fell in love with it
I said,
This explains everything
This changes everything
This challenges everything
This threatens everything
This transforms everything
Dare I speak it?
The truth I caught out of the corner of my eye?
EVERY EMPIRE OF MEN IS BUILT UPON A LIE
They come to kill, steal and destroy
EVERY EMPIRE OF MEN IS BUILT UPON A LIE
All virtue is subject to sacrifice upon the altar of imperial expediency
EVERY EMPIRE OF MEN IS BUILT UPON A LIE
God or gods exist only to serve its cause
EVERY EMPIRE OF MEN IS BUILT UPON A LIE
Religion takes off its mask when it says—
“We have no king but Caesar”
The ultimate betrayal
The final apostasy
EVERY EMPIRE OF MEN IS BUILT UPON A LIE
Marx was more than half right when he said—
Religion is the opiate of the masses
EVERY EMPIRE OF MEN IS BUILT UPON A LIE
Self-promotion and Self-preservation
Greed and Lust
Industry and War
The industry of war
Long live the Empire!
Keep the Empire alive
And to keep the Empire alive
Many will be made to die
Because the Empire lives by the sword
And dies by the same
EVERY EMPIRE OF MEN IS BUILT UPON A LIE
From Aztec to Zulu
Egyptian and Ottoman
Persia and Babylon
Greece and Rome
England and—
Now I’m too close to home
A kinder, gentler Babylon to be sure
But a Babylon for sure
EVERY EMPIRE OF MEN IS BUILT UPON A LIE
So when Christ came
He did not bring
Another empire of men
Built upon a lie
As the liar in the desert tempted
Instead he brought
THE EMPIRE OF GOD
GOOD NEWS!
The government of justice and mercy, grace and truth
And the truth is
EVERY EMPIRE OF MEN IS BUILT UPON A LIE
Though every empire says
“We have God on our side”
So you will have to decide
How patriotic a Byzantine believer can be?
May we be salt and light
A prophetic voice
A Christian conscience
May we preserve and illuminate
Cry aloud and convict
But never forget
EVERY EMPIRE OF MEN IS BUILT UPON A LIE
And to stand for truth
And to stand for God
Is to stand against the lie the empire is built upon
And in the midst of imperial self-justification pray—
Thy Empire come
There, I’ve said it
The truth I glimpsed out of the corner of my eye
And when push comes to shove
As it always does
The Empire of Men will oppose the Empire of God
To know this is dangerous
To say it can be deadly
Do you think I’m kidding?
What crucified Jesus?
Self-righteous religion?
No, not religion alone
Religion as the whore of Empire
This is what killed Jesus
And Paul
And Peter
And Polycarp
And Huss
And Bonhoeffer
Because this is what empires do
Silence the prophets who will not prostitute the truth
Religion is tolerated
Imperial religion is promoted
But the prophetic hope of ANOTHER WAY
Must be censored
Even by the sword
This is the way of empire
Because
EVERY EMPIRE OF MEN IS BUILT UPON A LIE
Constantine can become a Christian
But Constantine cannot Christianize the Empire
The Empire of God converts the hearts of men one at a time
Christ the King must himself sponsor each one into his Kingdom
But when the Empire sanctions religion for its own purposes
The whore of Babylon rides the back of the beast
Giddy-up and God bless the Empire!
EVERY EMPIRE OF MEN IS BUILT UPON A LIE
I glimpsed this truth out of the corner of my eye
To believe it will set you free
And you thought it was just Sunday School banality
Or empty religious sentimentality
To pray
Thy Empire come
Thy Policy be done
You had no idea it was dissident and subversive
Because every empire of men is built upon a lie
The lie that the empire has God on its side
I glimpsed this truth out of the corner of my eye
And if you ask me my politics I will say
JESUS IS LORD!
JESUS IS LORD!
JESUS IS LORD!
This is more political than it is religious
I glimpsed this truth out of the corner of my eye

–Blind Man at the Gate
Across Nebraska
08.08.08

  • http://rsmstudent.blogspot.com Kurt

    “The spiritual leader must feel the falsehood prevailing in society
    The prophet must struggle against it, never tolerate it, never submit to it” …reminds me of Heschel…

    good poem.

  • http://xanga.com/bradfowler Brad

    Was a long and dark December
    When the banks became cathedrals
    And the fog
    Became God

    Priests clutched onto bibles
    And went out to fit their rifles
    And the cross was held aloft

    Bury me in honor
    When i’m dead and hit the ground
    A love back home unfolds

    –Coldplay, Violet Hills

  • http://www.angiewashington.com Angie Washington

    I said to myself, “Why is it called Two Crowns? I see only one.” Then I followed the shaken gaze of the adored man on the horse and I finally saw the second crown.

    Maranatha!

  • Gerald Lewis

    It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, “Peace! Peace!” — but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!

    Patrick Henry – March 23, 1775

  • Brian Zahnd

    “The first precondition of being called a spiritual leader is to perceive and feel the falsehood that is prevailing in society, and then to dedicate one’s life to a struggle against that falsehood. If one tolerates the falsehood and resigns oneself to it, one can never become a prophet. If one cannot rise above the material life, one cannot even become a citizen in the kingdom of the Spirit, far less a leader of others.”

    –Vladimir Solovyov, Eulogy of Fyodor Dostoevsky

    “Let me tell you why you’re here. You’re here because you know something. What you know you can’t explain, but you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life, that there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me.”

    –Morpheus, The Matrix

  • Brian Zahnd

    Apropos lyric, Brad. It’s jumped out at me every time I’ve heard it.

    I think the correct lyric is…

    Priests clutched onto bibles
    Hollowed out to fit their rifles
    And the cross was held aloft

    …at least that’s how I hear it.

  • http://xanga.com/bradfowler Brad

    I believe you are hearing correctly. Bad cut-and-paste on my part.

    The Empire of Men will oppose the Empire of God
    To know this is dangerous
    To say it can be deadly

    Which makes the answer, “I want to be a part of what You are doing,” all the more sobering.

  • Brian Zahnd

    Well, the only reason I bother to correct the lyric is that it had a powerful effect on me when I first heard it. A hollowed out Bible that is nothing more than a means of concealing imperial agenda. A hollow Bible. Whoa.

  • http://clarionjournal.typepad.com/ Brad Jersak

    Could we please post this poem on the Clarion Journal (of spirituality and justice) website?

  • Brian Zahnd

    Certainly.

  • http://xanga.com/bradfowler Brad

    Yeah, and to wrap our bible around some sort of religious agenda, we need to completely hollow Jesus right out of it. Jesus and our agenda simply won’t co-exist.

    “He has plans of his own.”

    I’m equally struck by the imagery of crosses held aloft. I’m afraid that too often the crosses we hold aloft are eerily devoid of Jesus.

    Instead, we lift up empty crosses that represent little more than sterile, religious symbols. They are far less offensive, but of little or no consequence.

    Empty crosses do not heed the words of Jesus,

    “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.”

    Empty crosses are carried in order to co-opt Jesus into our programs wherein we win and they get theirs! “God be with us, because we are right!”

    Empty crosses are the crosses of religious crusades seeking to establish earthly empires of man incubated within hollowed out gospels.

    And they are, indeed, built upon lies.

  • Brian Zahnd

    “I think the first thing that made me dislike imperialism was the statement that the sun never sets on the British Empire. What good is a country with no sunset?”

    G.K. Chesterton

  • Nathan

    Loved this poem…just very…prophetic…and empire language…cool!

    Like when Babel becomes Babylon, and God uses a homeless and weak couple like Abram And Sarai. These refugess like Rahab, Elijah, and Miriam were to be the blessing. And out of the empire of Egypt he uses an orphan. Liberators and prophets like Deborah and Samuel.

    But they had to set up their own kings…and empire…and blew it. “Where is your king, that he may save you?”…lol.

    This pattern of people needing kings, trusting horse and chariot, and the “logic” of empire versus the thorn in the side prophets. David had Nathan, Nebuchadnezzar had Daniel, Josiah has Jeremiah, Jeroboam had Hosea and Amos, and Herod and John. And typically the good prophets got killed, and you can check out the pay stubs of the false prophets…lol. Odd how the false ones seemed to be saying everything is cool…i.e. Hananiah.

    We read about history and it’s told via presidents, kings, and wars, and God did it with prophets.

    Some were hitting rocks and getting fire, rolling around naked, eating locusts or scrolls, cooking w/ poop…and smany we rarely hear about…i.e. Rizpah.

    Many people…many Christians…put their trust in the logic of empire. Prophets and empire…so we start to change. And like with Egypt..it may take a short period of time to get out of the empire…but it will take a lifetime to get the empire out of us.

    “To us a single act of injustice – cheating in business, exploitation of the poor – is slight; to the prophets a disaster. To us injustice is injurious to the welfare of the people; to the prophets it is a deathblow to existence; to us an episode; to them, a catastrophe, a threat to the world.”

    Heschel

    Cheers.

  • Brian Zahnd

    I love the Heschel quote. Where’s it from?

  • Nathan

    The Prophets. Challenging book, but I need to finish it because other books got in the way!

    Our elections get pretty ugly, with my never ending love for our corptocracy and plutocracy…but aren’t we glad someone like Abimelek isn’t running for office! Ha.

    Cheers.

    PS – Phenomenal sermon this morning.

  • http://www.missionalexplorer.typepad.com Jim Sawyer

    Awesome poem and sentiment behind it, Brian. Pastor Joe from Denver put me onto it. With your permission, I want to link to it from my own blog as I struggle with the same things in less creative ways. But, as you suggested in comment above, it is a “blue pill, red pill” choice.

  • Brian Zahnd

    Sure, Jim.

  • http://www.morewholebody.blogspot.com Bill Rose-Heim

    Powerful, prophetic poem. Keep them coming! You cannot imagine how encouraging it is to know that God is challenging our comfortable, complicit worldviews in every member of the Body of Christ. Those of us in the so-called “mainline” Protestant denominations are asking similar questions. Where this will lead, only God knows, still, Amen!

  • Renee Jensen

    Excellent poem so good to see that you get it about what happens when church & state unite. Our wonderful God who is the author of true liberty truly only seeks one heart at a time and never ever uses force or coercion “love cannot be commanded; it cannot be won by force or authority. Only by love is love awakened.” (E.White)

  • janitor

    Jesus is the Word of God (the full revelation of God). But his words and actions were always surprising and unpredictable. Thus showing how deeply the people of Israel misunderstood the nature and intentions of the God they worshiped. Is it all that different today? My own experience is that the more deeply I come know Christ, the more surprising I find him to be, and the more starkly I recognize that I must change.

    so very much appreciate what you have expressed in both of these places! each points to the other.

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    Great blog post, I have been waiting for that..

    Roy