Becoming Unchurched #8: All The King's Men

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Becoming Unchurched Intro

Humpty Dumpty was a fat egg sitting precariously, yet pompously on a wall that separated one place from another. His arrogance was not supported by anything but his position in the kingdom. Though he was valuable and important in the kingdaom as all subjects are, he was fragile. He liked his view from above everyone else and found great delight in secretly being better than everyone else because he thought he could see more than they could.

As people worked in their day to day lives at home, at work and here and there, Humpty Dumpty watched and made decisions about these people. He figured he knew just how they should be. He had long explanations about how people should be, but in the end, it could be summed up like this. "People should be like me."

He would never say that out loud, but boil it all down and that is what it was.

One day, the winds changed and knocked Humpty Dumpty off balance. He fell and fell hard. He cracked, as an egg would do falling from a high place. All the king's horses and all the king's men came to help in the tragedy.

"Please," cried Humpty Dumpty, "put me back together!"

The king's men grabbed pieces of shell and scooped up pieces of broken yolk. The running whites were everywhere. The king's men were in a frenzy, deeply troubled by the tragedy.

Meanwhile, the women, artists, blue collar workers, peasants and all of the non-official people of the kingdom heard about the tragedy that happened to the egg who had made decisions about their lives without ever getting to know them. They felt terrible for him. So, they ran out to the wall to see what they would do.

When they got there, they saw what seemed to be a frenzy of futility. Instinctively they knew that Humpty Dumpty was broken beyond repair. Restoration was impossible. However, they had some really different ideas as to what to do in response. Although they could not restore him to his past self, they could renew him into something else, but at the core still the same thing.

One peasant spoke of making an omlet. One artist loved the idea and spoke about how she could really spice up that omlet and make it into something for everyone. Another woman just dreamed of how the wall could be torn down. It didn't, afterall, serve any real purpose. What was once thought to be a threat to the kingdom was really just a massive misunderstanding. And if that wall were torn down, these kinds of accidents would not have to happen.

The king's men got wind of these ideas from the peasant, artists, and women and became troubled, a few of them became angry. So they had a counsel meeting and decided to reaffirm the ways of the kingdom and what the original intent of Humpty Dumpty's eggness was and that it should always remain that way.

So they iussued a letter that affirmed Humpty Dumpty's eggness and tried to share the pain of the people by saying that the work of restoration is hard, but it must be pursued.

The people did not like this and wondered what would be made of their ideas about omlets and walls coming down. But they were not invited to make these kinds of decisions because the people in charge of the kingdom needed to make these decisions. In fact, when they tried to become part of the conversatrion, they were told that it is in the kingdom's best interest that only their leaders be involved inthis conversation.

The people were kind and did not revolt. However, they simply went on with their lives and saved Humpty Dumpty's life by turning him into and omlet and shared with him the wisdom of not sitting on walls. They also shared a dream with him about one day there being a kingdom without walls.

"Thanks," Humpty Dumpty said, "for making me into something new. You saved my life."