the rhythm of the kingdom.

My hope is to now get back to the weekly music posts, since this summer's workload won't be as intense as the end of the spring term. I figured for the first post back I'd change it up a bit and go with a music video as a bonus to the song format, which I assume will be back next week, although I haven't given it any thought.

This week's song/video is "Glósóli", by that wonderful band from Iceland, Sigur Rós.



This is one of my favorite music videos of all time. It's just stunningly beautiful. I think I could simply post the video all by itself and that would still keep in line with the spirit of this blog. It has more than enough beauty to speak for itself. The cinematography of the gorgeous Icelandic landscape makes for a video that I would call 'sacred' or 'holy' even if it weren't for the way the Kingdom whispers through the story told.

For me, this video actually feels like a parable of sorts. Like somebody asked Jesus, "What is the Kingdom of God?" and Jesus then answered, "The Kingdom of God is like a drumbeat that reverberates throughout all Creation, and the children who hear it might choose to journey together wherever that rhythm takes them. The rhythm will draw the scattered and isolated together, giving purpose to those who had none, allowing my children to show their faces. Those who hear the rhythm and choose to live in that rhythm will begin to dream together of a day when they will take flight toward a future in which love is finally king, and where the wrongs that make this world upside down are healed and redeemed."

Okay, so if Jesus actually told the parable it probably would have been far more cryptic than that, and there would have been some sort of scandal involved that made everyone scratch their heads that this teacher would compare the Kingdom of God to something corrupt and depraved (for more on that, see The Kingdom of God is Like... by Thomas Keating). Still, I think the beauty of this 'parable' remains. It's impossible for me to adequately describe the beauty I feel (and it does seem to me that true beauty is something felt, not just seen or heard) when I watch this video, but I'll do my best to share some of my thoughts with you.

In the beginning, it starts with a lone boy with nothing but a drum, tapping his foot in time with the Kingdom rhythm. Eventually, the rhythm he hears seems to inspire even more than toe-tapping as he gets to his feet and simply goes. The rhythm thus far is constant, unchanging, and acts as the driving force of the video's beauty.

Our lonely drummer boy comes across children afraid to show themselves. The world is a dangerous place for children with no one to protect them, and don't we all often feel like children in a dangerous place with no one to care for us? The first girl he encounters disguises herself as a wolf, perhaps as protection from the real predators of the wilderness. Our drummer simply beats his drum in time with the rhythm that began his journey in the first place, and smiles as two children come out of hiding, and the 'wolf girl' shows her true face. Now, one lonely child has become a community of those journeying toward whatever place the cadence takes them.

They come across more children, all scattered and isolated, either alone or in small groups. Their troupe of travelers continues to grow as they march farther across this desolate yet beautiful landscape. Some of these children already hear this Kingdom cadence, tapping their feet in time, but when they see this journeying community, that is when they finally get up and walk. We see children without purpose, some resorting to pointless destruction, some resorting to equally pointless construction. Interesting how without purpose, we try to either burn things to the ground, or build our silly pile of rocks as high as we can. Yet, as the drummer and his friends pass by, these children leave behind their building and destroying alike and follow.

Our journeyers next come upon a sleeper, a dreamer perhaps, and instead of waking him from his dream, they instead all join him in sharing it. The screen fades to black, and as my friend Brian pointed out when we recently talked about the video, our story continues in sepia, so it would seem that the rest of the journey as we see it is their shared dream of where this rhythm will eventually take all of them.

This heartbeat they've been following thus far quickens in the dream. Finally, they reach the end of land, they can walk no further, and they stand as one and stare off at the horizon. It is now that our drummer beats his drum, the music begins to swell as he keeps time. Then, as one, and with a rebel yell, the children end their stillness and charge toward the horizon. They sprint up the hill as fast as their legs will take them. As they run they leave behind the unnecessary, they don't need masks where they're going, they won't even need drums when they reach the source of all music. And, as they come to the end of land, they take a mad leap off the cliffs like the infamous lemmings before them, but instead of falling to their death, these children take flight. And the initial dreamer is the most hesitant, but even our little doubter, inspired by the flight of others, makes the leap, and he too flies off after his fellow journeyers.

As our story ends, with children flying off like Pan and Wendy toward Neverland, we get a glimpse of their destination taking shape on the horizon. Their new home, the source of this song that began their journey in the first place, waits in the distance.

"What is the Kingdom of God?"

"The Kingdom of God is like a drumbeat that reverberates throughout all Creation, and the children who hear it might choose to journey together wherever that rhythm takes them. The rhythm will draw the scattered and isolated together, giving purpose to those who had none, allowing my children to show their faces. Those who hear the rhythm and choose to live in that rhythm will begin to dream together of a day when they will take flight toward a future in which love is finally king, and where the wrongs that make this world upside down are healed and redeemed."

Remember, home is on the horizon.