Meditation on Spamalot

Skip this meditation if you cannot use your imagination today.

In a scene from the spoof Spamalot, King Arthur is looking for a Jew, to help him succeed in a musical production on Broadway. This musical, which will be produced a thousand years in the future, will break the curse made in the Very Expensive Forest and allow the King passage. Normally, we’d think the King of England could walk where he pleases. But this is not an ordinary situation. You see, no one really cares that King Arthur is King of England. He has no power other than the power of persuasion and his own dream.

The King is despondent, depressed and discouraged. He shoulders the world’s problems on his shoulders and can hardly walk. Patsy, the faithful servant of King Arthur, walked hesitantly down stage toward the towering and handsome Lord, and tentatively offered,
Patsy: “Sir, I’m Jewish on my mother’s side.”
King: “Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?”
Patsy: “Sir, in the middle ages, it would seem a bit dangerous to tell this to a heavily armed Christian King.”

And the audience bellowed its approval with laughter as the musical once again poked fun at how religion, Christianity in this particular case, has a tradition of creating conflict, scapegoats, and seeking power so everyone gets in a straight line behind the banner of right belief. While this scene is improbable, the notion it delivers is real.

This is a comedy musical analysis of “Us vs. Them.” “Us vs. Them” is a close relative of “Haves and Have Nots”, “Over 21 and Under”, “My Race and Yours” “My Current Majority Status and Your Minority Status” and so on.

Our response to these issues of division and separation needs serious as well as comic attention. To be faithful to Jesus, our response-ability might need to include creative ways of engaging the enemy, which of course, is us and our sense of self-importance and self-righteousness. In fact, it’s our sense of self (aka narcissism) that can be the culprit.

If you’d like to drop some of your narcissism join us at Caffeine Dreams tomorrow morning at 8:30 AM. We’ll then carpool to a Habitat for Humanity site and a morning of work for “we don’t know who but that doesn’t matter because it’s not about us anyway.” Dress for the weather and with luck, we’ll have lunch together--in some place other than the Very Expensive Forest”.

Messengers from John the Baptist
18The disciples of John reported all these things to him. So John summoned two of his disciples 19and sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” 20When the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?’” 21Jesus had just then cured many people of diseases, plagues, and evil spirits, and had given sight to many who were blind. 22And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them. 23And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”