October 20, 2011

Almost [saved] Poet Ezekial Azonwu

By paperthinhymn

This is a phenomenal video by the people over at P4CM. Poert Ezekial Azonwu is simply electric and the gospel-centeredness is majestic. I would strongly recommend that everyone watches the whole thing through. And yes- I would give anything to be there. The next Poets lounge is going down October 29, 2011. See http://p4cm.com for more details. Highly Recommended!

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This entry was posted on Thursday, October 20th, 2011 at 3:35 pm and tagged with Almost saved, Ezekial Azonwu, p4cm and posted in exhortations, music, paperthin hymns, sermon, theology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

4 Responses to “Almost [saved] Poet Ezekial Azonwu”

Brian Sayers
October 20th, 2011 at 6:28 pm

I share this guy’s sentiments, and recognize there is probably a cultural gap that makes the form of communication a little hard to relate to. However, I couldn’t help but think as he was speaking how the satire was causing the crowd to laugh and jeer at hypocrisy. Hypocrisy in the church (and unsaved church members/attenders) is not really very funny. Again, while I share the sentiments, how would you view the practical result of communicating these things, in this context, in this way? Just curious, not trying to be overly critical.

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paperthinhymn
October 20th, 2011 at 8:59 pm

Hi Brian. Thanks for the response, and no worries- even if you were critical it would still be worthy of a thoughtful response which addresses the questions and concerns.

I don’t view their cheering and jeering as “haha, its so funny that people are hypocrites in this way” but rather that this poet found a clever, funny, and righteously piercing way to show the sham and deceit that is the hypocrisy- and the people were cheering him on to keep on speaking truth.

Another part which would stand out to me, and which would get me to respond the same way they are, is just the joy of seeing someone expertly tear down the walls of delusions. That makes me laugh, smile, and get exited.

There is a debate between Dan Barker, the atheist, and Doug Wilson. They were talking about the etymology of the words kill vs murder in the context of Moses using them. Barker complained about “thou shalt not kill” in the Ten Commandments. Wilson pointing out that the Hebrew word was more akin to “murder,” etc. Barker then complained that Moses didn’t know Hebrew very well or something like that, and Wilson asked him, “Do you think Moses knew Hebrew?” It stopped Barker dead in his tracks. It was a wonderful moment.

I was working with my headphones in when I heard that, and I remember laughing out loud and having people stare at me. Its not funny that this man Dan Barker is trying to destroy the faith of people, but it is wonderful to hear him put in his place. That, I think, is similar to this.

Back to this Poetry Session, I think the fact that they were jeering it supposes that they hate the hypocrisy as much as you or I. I don’t think its a joke to them, but rather there is genuine pleasure in seeing it exposed. I would view the practical results as being fresh, provocative, powerful, and yes- to some they would be challenging and could have potential drawbacks, but I think there is a place for this in context. The result then is partly found in the pleasure in seeing sin put to shame- the wiles of the death and the devil being exposed and articulated. For that reason, I see few drawbacks.

I hope I answered your questions correctly. If I have not, please let me know and I will try to elaborate and as best as I can

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Liz
October 21st, 2011 at 1:10 am

Or they were laughing uncomfortably because they knew it was true of themselves or Christians in general.

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Roger Allen Burns (@rogerallenburns)
October 27th, 2011 at 1:59 am

The more I think about Brian’s question the more I think it is a cultural issue and more related to a learned way to respond to biting criticism. I do find the poet to be using the medium well to communicate and he certainly isn’t laughing. Perhaps the video would be more effective without the audience cut-away shots.

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