Out of the Corner of My Eye

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 Source: Brian Zahnd

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Jeremy Jernigan

Speaker | Author | Founder of Communion Wine Co. https://linktr.ee/JeremyJernigan