N.T. Wright on The Colbert Report

I’ve been meaning to post this video here since I first saw it last week.  I love The Colbert Report, under the satirical nature of the character there are often some dang good interviews – this is a case in point.  I have to admit that one of the reasons I love this interview with Bishop Wright so much is because he is pushing a point that I’ve been harping on for years (though, he says it better – he is a bishop after all).

The most interesting thing about this video is that I actually referred a family to it by way of explaining what my role would be in a funeral I was doing for the family the next day.  I don’t do “eulogies,” that’s the job of the family (particularly for a person I never personally met), when I lead a funeral my job is to facilitate grief, entrust the deceased into the hands of God, and hold death up to the reality of the resurrection.  I don’t know if the family watched the video – but there were kinda impressed that a pastor would refer them to a video from The Colbert Report.  Watch, and enjoy.

Note: I can’t get comedy central videos to embed here – when I figure out the problem I’ll attach the video to this post.

Milk out of my nose funny…

I think perhaps it’s because I’ve met many people who think this way for reai, but this line from Stephen Colbert’s recent speech at Princeton (done in character) made me want to spew milk out of my nose. Alas, I had no milk to spew.

Colbert, inspiration for Ben & Jerry’s AmeriCone Dream, continued dousing dreams. “You know that song, ‘We are the world. We are the children?’ ” he said. “That is a lie. We are the world, we adults. On behalf of adults, I am begging you to leave the world alone. We have worked long and hard to make things comfortable for ourselves. And we don’t appreciate it when some new generation comes along and starts touching all our stuff.”

Oh how often I’ve had people try to pull that in every congregation I’ve ever been part of! It’s so nice to see someone creatively (not to mention intelligently) lampooning it! The last comment quoted in the article is actually profound challenge to believers everywhere, one that might have to make an appearance in my sermon on Sunday, given that the title is, “Following Jesus, Literally.”

Jesus, who “only took the job to please his Dad,” said that to be a savior “you had to take up your cross and follow him,” Colbert said. “Well, to me, it’s easier to take up your remote control and follow me.”