a citizen of rome

like paul i have found myself to be a citizen of rome. and like paul, i didn't ask for this citizenship. or do anything to deserve it. i showed up, and presto - citizen of rome. so weird.

anyway, turns out i have certain rights and privileges that most of the world & history doesn't have: i have a certain degree of affluence that most of the world / history doesn't have; i have a certain degree of education that most of the world / history couldn’t conceive; and i have an incredible degree of opportunity that most of the world / history couldn't comprehend. take me out for a hundred dollars of sushi and i will tear up and pontificate on this all night.

what i dig about paul's perspective on his citizenship - is that he wasn't afraid to actually suffer a little bit. that is, he didn't seriously consider this birthright to be part of his intrinsic worth. but at the same time he wasn't afraid to casually mention his citizenship when it would highlight an injustice or upset the status quo. i fuckin dig that about paul.

it may not be apparent but i was a centurion in caesars army at one point - in command of a hundred. i basically looked like this:

i would tell this man to go and he would go. and i would tell this man to bring me a latte and he would look at me funny. but mostly i was smart enough to know i didn't know what i didn't know - and i listened to what my old school non-commissioned officers told me... and taught me. about human nature. and about how to trust my gut and make decisions quickly about people. i owe two of these guys in particular a debt i will never be able to repay.

i also had a few real smart soldiers who followed me not because of my rank, but because i didn't actually wear my rank. they would salute me with the wrong hand on purpose just so i would make them do pushups. this deconstruction of rank vs humanity was threatening to the old timers there - but the games encouraged me.

this last weekend i saw a commissioning of future centurions at one of caesars most prestigious schools (make sure you make 'prestigious' sound cool when you say it). i'd always appreciated the numbers of senior officers that were christians - i believe christians desperately need to be in the military, if we have one - and this weekend indicated those numbers haven't changed much, unless they've increased. yet the discomfort i have with the relationship between church and state and the state and church has never been more present to me. i'm not sure its easy to quickly separate these threads - i couldn't think of a way to express it succinctly last weekend - but i'm pretty sure the direction of the relationship is where i think things are so very wrong.

so - with that as background, as a citizen of rome and a former centurion, i've introduced a new piece of who i am, and things i want to talk about.

besides the aforementioned church and state issues - i also want to share what i believe are common misconceptions about the relationship of the military to our foreign policy and the role of the citizen. even more complex, is how a christian thinks in the midst of all this.

from the mouth of heathens:

iTunes
From underneath the trees, we watch the sky
Confusing stars for satellites
I never dreamed that you'd be mine
But here we are, we're here tonight

Singing Amen, I'm alive
Singing Amen, I'm alive

If everyone cared and nobody cried
If everyone loved and nobody lied
If everyone shared and swallowed their pride
Then we'd see the day...
when nobody died. And I'm singing

Amen I, I'm alive
Amen I, I'm alive

And in the air the fireflies
Our only light in paradise
We'll show the world they were wrong
And teach them all to sing along

Singing Amen I'm alive
Singing Amen I'm alive

And as we lie beneath the stars
We realize how small we are
If they could love like you and me
Imagine what the world could be

If everyone cared and nobody cried
If everyone loved and nobody lied
If everyone shared and swallowed their pride
We'd see the day when nobody died

We'd see the day, we'd see the day
When nobody died

I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly ~ Jesus

i sent this to my buddy israel a day or two ago - because it made me think of him. this is what he's about - he's all heart. and i think he's my nemesis. i always wanted one - and i think he's it. i probably have more to learn from him than anyone else in my community.

as i've continued marinating on this song - it's occured to me that somebody has some splainin' to do. someone needs to explain this song - how it can be... and how it sells. how does the christian community explain ... the kingdom of heaven - the very gospel - proceeding from the lips of ... the secular heathen? love, life - glorious life, compassion and hope celebrated.

and what of the events documented in this video? are these from christians? i don't remember anyone announcing Live Aid or Bob Geldof in my church. I don't remember anyone mentioning Betty Williams, or Peter Benenson and Amnesty International(!), or praying for or celebrating Nelson Mandella and what seems like largest movement of forgiveness in human history.

what are the biggest bestest things the christian community, or in particular its "leaders", have *ever* done in comparison?

seriously, what am i missing here???

narrow path indeed.