Tim Keel's Blog

A Couple Random, Fun Items

Monday, on my way to pick up my son from his first day of high school, I stopped at QuikTrip to get a drink. As I was paying I looked up and saw a couple of guys walk in that I immediately recognized as actors/comedians. Once I realized who they were I also noticed they were definitely keeping a low profile. Nobody else seemed to notice them so I mentioned it to the man behind the counter ringing me up. His eyes went wide and he gave me a small nod and a smile.

Now before I get too carried away (and your imagination makes more of this than this merits), let me say that the two guys were the comedians from the SONIC commercials...which me and my kids love. I think these two guys, Pete Grosz and T.J. Jagodowski, are hilarious. Turns out that a local advertising agency is behind the radically successful campaign and the two were in town to film a commercial. Recently The Pitch ran an article about the ad campaign, the two creative minds behind it, and how the whole phenomenon unfolded: How A Throwaway Idea at the Barkley Ad Agency Became the "Sonic Guys."

Being a complete nerd, I was trying to figure out how to capture a pic with my phone incognito. You know, to show my kids...Anyway, at some point I realized, "You're a dork. And almost 40 years old. You can go up to these men and ask them to take a picture with you." Which is what I did, and they couldn't have been any nicer. So, here we are: T.J., Peter, and Tim. Think there is room in the car for a third Sonic guy? Better, do you have favorite commercial?

Also, I have blogged in the past about my friend Scott Camilleri, a breast cancer survivor, and his adventure getting a tattoo memorializing the experience on the TLC show Miami Ink. Read the original post, "Body Art Goes Mainstream." Well, the episode featuring Scott airs tonight on TLC at 9:00 p.m. CST. Tune in to see Scott's cool story.

A Favorite Poem, Revisited

I was reading through an old journal this morning and stumbled across a poem that a good friend had once shared with me. The poem is titled, "The Art of Disappearing." It is by Naomi Shihab Nye.

This is the second time I have posted this poem. The first was shortly after I have read it in 2004. You can see the original post here, though the image that was originally attached to it is gone (the blog having migrated twice).

A couple of years ago I had the honor of meeting Naomi Shihab Nye when Pete and Debbie from the local bookstore The Reading Reptile brought her in as a part of an author event. I bought a couple of her collections, then stood in line to have her inscribe them (one for me, one for the friend who shared her with me). The best part was the wonderful conversation with her that followed upon her signing the books. That was a gift.

I hope you get some pleasure and perspective from her poetry today.

The Art of Disappearing

When they say Don't I know you? say no.

When they invite you to the party
remember what parties are like
before answering.

Someone telling you in a loud voice
they once wrote a poem.

Greasy sausage balls on a paper plate.

Then reply.


If they say we should get together.
say why? It's not that you don't love them any more.

You're trying to remember something
too important to forget.

Trees.

The monastery bell at twilight.

Tell them you have a new project.

It will never be finished. When someone recognizes you in a grocery store
nod briefly and become a cabbage.

When someone you haven't seen in ten years
appears at the door,
don't start singing him all your new songs.

You will never catch up.

Walk around feeling like a leaf. Know you could tumble any second.

Then decide what to do with your time.

A Starfish Called Enoch

I met Simon Guillebaud at the Amahoro gathering in Rwanda this last May. We didn't get to connect deeply, but I enjoyed interacting with Simon and hearing just a little about the work he does in Burundi. Simon founded Great Lakes Outreach in 2003. You can read about GLO here.

Simon sent out an email a couple of weeks ago with a link to a short video that is challenging. The video was made by Seth Chase. Simon is the person talking in the video.

It takes a minute to load, but it is worth it. It is called, "A Starfish Called Enoch."

LeRon Shults Blogs

This is nothing new, but somehow I have just discovered that theologian LeRon Shults is blogging.

I met LeRon a couple of years ago at the Emergent/Youth Specialties Conferences in San Diego and Nashville. It was 2005 and this was the year where we attempted to do a more interactive and creative format. There were four topics (Bible, Church, Truth, and Humanity) and each were addressed by a team of two speakers. LeRon spoke with Kara Powell on the topic of "Humanity." Carla Barnhill and I led one of four large groups through each of the four topics presented, acting as "tour guides/interpreters/facilitators."

I thought it was a great gathering and the discussion and content was fantastic. This was also the year that Stan Grenz died in the time between the two gatherings. Stan had originally been paired with Brian on the topic of the Bible. Losing Stan still feels like a tragedy and having one event with him and one without was a tough for everyone. One bright spot that emerged out of that was meeting Brian Walsh, co-author of Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire, who stepped into the space left by Stan's passing.

Meeting LeRon was a big highlight for me - an engaging, humble, funny, and blindingly brilliant person. He told a family reunion story so funny that I still smile thinking about it. At the time, LeRon was teaching at Bethel Seminary in Minnesota. He has subsequently moved to Norway where he is Professor of Theology in the Institute for Religion, Philosophy, and History at Agder University. I have not yet read LeRon's work, I have just had the opportunity to hear him speak, and that at a very popular (though profound) level. I plan to remedy this. His blog lists his writings and also describes some of the projects he is currently working on. Just perusing titles of the topics he is engaging makes me giddy. I don't think most people see theology as a creative discipline yet I think that is the part of LeRon that I sensed and so intrigued me when I met him in 2005. It is evident in the description of the ideas he is exploring. Take some time and read a few of LeRon's posts. See if you don't get a sense of what I am talking about.

"Cheap Copies" Follow-Up

Steven Knight took my last blog-entry and re-posted it on the Emergent Village blog, which is not where the post was intended to land - but I also gave him my permission. It has definitely engendered some response. Let me make some clarifications.

For me the Third Day album cover was not the main point. It was the presenting issue. What I observed on Gary's blog and the reposted and commented on is what has become to me a culture of cheap copies within this American brand of Christianity.

I can hardly go into Christian book stores any longer because of the phenomenon (in fact, I have been percolating a post chronicling my most recent foray into such a place). On many occasions I have walked through the Christian "alternative" section (among others) of many bookstores and seen some kind of blatant music key that states, "If you like Coldplay, then you'll like (fill-in-the-blank)." Surely some of you have seen that? That is what I am talking about: a bifurcation of the world into "us and them" categories where we are different/better/not stained by the world, except...man, do we love their music. If only "our" artists could do something like that, but about Jesus.

I don't think this is a problem with the artists, by the way. I have some friends connected to the CCM thing and we have processed this for years. One person in particular has shared with me the number of good friends who feel neck-deep in the struggle with this whole deal and it is killing them...or should I say, their artistic integrity. There is a machine and it is real. After reading yesterday's post, he wrote me: "It's funny to be in the middle of all that in Nashville and realize the degree to which that stuff is...happening." He goes on to tell a story about being with another writer in a writing session for a third, young artist. He began to be uncomfortable with the direction of the theology of the song, how it reinforced some of the things that many of us are trying to move beyond related to the church and the world. He told me that when he expressed that and tried to take the song in a different direction the other writer looked at him and said, "Wow. You've really got a conscience, don't you." He was stunned.

Jason, a commenter on the last post, and wrote, "Here's the thing - what if they didn't rip it off? What if the artist sat down, listened to the album, perhaps just after visiting salvation mountain or whatever, and responded with this piece of art for the cover idea?" It's a fair question. That is possible and if so then in this instance I am wrong to use the Third Day record as an example. It is hard for me to imagine that that could be the case given the high profiles of both artists within their respective genres, but I don't know. And that is not to say that artists, visual and otherwise, don't use references all the time. No one creates ex nihilo. But having a reference and making something so starkly similar (my opinion) - well, in the classic words of Derek Smalls of Spinal Tap, "There is a fine line between clever and stupid."

And let me say again, the Third Day cover was an example illustrating a larger issue about creativity and Christians, not some kind of referendum on them as a band. I am sure they are really thoughtful and creative guys...who are making their art in a system.

Cheap Copies, Art, and Some Mike Crawford Goodness

I am totally ripping off this blog post from Gary Aronhalt. Thanks for noticing this, Gary.

I saw this post on his blog yesterday. In it he places the album art for Radiohead's Hail to the Thief alongside the album art for Third Day's new record Revelation. For comparison I have done the same thing below. And what do you think? It's not even close, right? It is a total rip-off.

Here's the thing for me. I guess if you want to rip off another band's album art in order to somehow ride their coattails that is your business. But as an artist, the bummer for me is the original artwork that didn't get created, the visual artist that didn't get a chance to listen to the music and talk to the musicians and interpret both of those realities visually. There is also the not-so-subtle implication that Christians can't develop or create anything original on their own - the only thing available to Christians are cheap cultural knock-offs that make a pathetic attempt at relevance at the cost of authenticity, voice, and engagement.

This is, of course, going to come off as patently self-serving so please forgive me in advance.

Mike Crawford, worship pastor at Jacob's Well, has just returned from sabbatical. Many know that we have spent the last six years building a recording studio at the church. This winter Mike and an amazing team of artists/musicians from our community gave their heart and soul to record the music that has developed in our community over the last 3-4 years - in fact, there is so much that the record is going to be a double-album/CD/whatever. But back to the art thing. I was visiting with Mike in his office yesterday when he showed me the mock-up for the album art that he conceptualized and that Jacob's Well and Hallmark artist Sam Lewis (formerly Grasso) have developed. AND. IT. IS. STUNNING. It is also quirky and many might not get it but that is also my point. When this deal comes out, it will be art. It has a voice. When I see that and then look at what has been done above, the contrast is stark.

I know this comes dangerously close to sounding arrogant and judgmental. That is not what I am trying to be or do. But it matters, and in my (perhaps not so humble) opinion Christianity and its creative culture (or lack thereof) is hemorrhaging from sentimentality, inauthenticity, and a fixation with manipulating people to a predetermined destination without reckoning the importance of the journey or the cost of what is lost when we know what will happen before the creative process even begins.

That is not art. It is propaganda. It is killing us.

Beat Boston

Back at Kauffmann Stadium tonight. Royals versus Red Sox. Sox fans everywhere. Red Sox Nation has become insufferable since they won the World Series. Before that they were rabidly loyal, persevering, a little pathetic (at times) and cute. Okay, that last one is a taunt. Sorry.

I have friends that are Massachusetts natives and long-time, die hard sufferers of years of baseball heartbreak. They are the real deal because they are always convinced the bottom is about to drop out. I don't mind them. But these people sitting around me? Ugh.

GO ROYALS!

[Update @ 10:56 p.m. - We lost. 8-2. Too much offense. Congrats. You know who you are. Go Royals. Beat the Twins.]

Jacob & the Prodigal -or- Some Final Luke 15 Reflections

We just finished our series of messages exploring Jesus' teaching in Luke 15. Responding to a group of religious leaders Jesus shares three stories about a good shepherd and a lost sheep, a good woman and a lost coin, and finally (famously) a good father and a lost son. These stories come in response to these religious leader's anger/consternation at the company Jesus keeps.

The main text I used as a reference throughout the series was Kenneth E. Bailey's Jacob & the Prodigal: How Jesus Retold Israel's Story. What an amazing book. I have had it sitting on my desk since December, 2007, when based on my love of narrative, Mike Kruse gave it to me with some of the following comments:

I mentioned Kenneth E. Bailey to you yesterday...He is retired now but spent forty years of his life living in Egypt, Lebanon, Israel, and Cyprus. He knows several ancient languages and has published as much in Arabic as English...His gift since at least the 1970s has been to take a cultural-literary approach to studying the Bible and opening up metaphorical theology to the world. If you look closely at the footnotes in some of N.T. Wright's stuff you will see Bailey referenced..."Jacob and the Prodigal" is the culmination of his life long love affair with Luke 15 and it is absolutely profound. He has a new book coming out in February called "Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes." I can't wait.

I finally started reading the book in June and this is what initially prompted me into the series. Here's the irony though: the teaching I did was simply the set-up for the main point Bailey is making is this book. The main point of the book is that in addition to all the other things he is doing in these stories (i.e., doing a theological midrash on Psalm 23, Jeremiah 23, and Ezekiel 34 when he tells the story of the good shepherd and the lost sheep), Jesus is reframing the story of Israel. He does this by re-narrating the famous saga of Jacob (whose named is changed to Israel), Esau, and Isaac, through the story of the prodigal son. It's mind-blowing. The back of the book describes it this way:

Israel, the community to which Jesus belonged, took its name from their patriarch Jacob. His story of exile and return was their story as well. In the well-known tale of the prodigal son, Jesus reshaped this story in his own way and for his own purposes. In this comparative study of the Old Testament saga and the New Testament parable, Kenneth Bailey unpacks similarities freighted with theological significance and differences that often reveal Jesus' purposes equally. Here Bailey offers a fresh view of how Jesus interpreted Israel's past, his present, and their future.

Obviously there is loads here to unpack, way more than the 32 verses of Luke 15 would lead you to believe. I thought I would be able to get to it all in a four week series, but we ended up at five weeks and didn't touch Jacob with a ten-foot pole. The thing that is cool though is that the Jacob story has always been one of my favorite stories in the Old Testament, especially since I read Frederick Buechner's fictional account of his life in the novel The Son of Laughter. It probably goes without saying that the name of our church is Jacob's Well. I have been wanting to preach a long narrative series out of the Old Testament. So I am thinking in the future we may engage the Genesis account of Jacob and when we get to the end of it, reconnect it to Luke 15 and how Jesus engages the story in order to re-narrate the imagination of Israel. Just a thought.

If you haven't ever interact with the Jacob narrative, you can find it in the book of Genesis, from chapter 25:19 to 50:14. Of course, the story veers into the life and times of Jacob's son Joseph - but what an amazing detour it proves to be.

CBS Follow-Up

So I didn't see the story when it ran. I was watching the Royals beat the White Sox. Instead I watched it online Sunday night - and thought, "Meh, it was okay."

Seems like they had a story and went looking for illustrations. I understand what the story is and what they are doing with that. At the same time...well, I guess it is what it is. I just always want to see something a little more sophisticated. That is how much, not all, of my interaction with the media has been though. It is the rare occasion when you talk to someone who listens to what you have to say, frames it in context, then presents it in a larger context. I am not saying that media should become mouthpieces for individuals or institutions. But neither do I think that individuals or institutions should become mouthpieces for media.

You can always tell right away how it is going to go in one of these deals. When the reporter comes up and talks to you and asks you a question, the eyes betray what is going to happen from there. If you tell them what they want/expect to hear, then they lean forward and stay engaged. If you say something off their radar, however, the eyes glaze over and from then on, it is a crap-shoot.

Also, I don't think the video makes it clear, but the story hits three or four churches. The larger group that speaks is from Heartland Community Church I think. In fact, of all the people who speak in the video, I only recognized Katie Kendall from JW. I love what she has to say. By the way, Leadership Journal has a great interview about the faith, politics, and the involvement of Christians. They transcribe a conversation between Chuck Colson, Greg Boyd, and Shane Claiborne. At the end of the article it gives a link to follow to hear the entire exchange, but the link is dead. I'll investigate and update if it turns up.

Thomas Merton Quote

Several folks have asked me to share with them the quote I used on Sunday from Thomas Merton. Gladly.

"If we have no real interest in praising God, it shows that we have never realized who he is. For when one becomes conscious of who God really is, and when one realizes that the one who is almighty, and infinitely holy, has “done great things to us,” the only possible reaction is the cry of half-articulate exultation that bursts from the depths of our being in amazement at the tremendous and inexplicable goodness of God to men."