We want a King!

Where have all the good men gone
And where are all the gods?

Where’s the streetwise Hercules to fight the rising odds?
Isn’t there a white knight upon a fiery steed?
Late at night I toss and I turn
And I dream of what I need

I need a hero!

In life some times it feels like all is lost, or worse life is numb and without meaning. personally the idea of a hero that faces injustice and saves the day is very appealing. The dimension we cross into when we enter the Marvel universe through comic book, movie or novel allows us to explore this  idea through heroes with superpowers who swoop in at the last moment to save the day.

In the past weeks since his death at age 95, I have found myself thinking about the Co-Creator of the Marvel universe, Stan Lee and all he has given to me over the years with not only the writing of such stories by the  ethos behind them. Lee’s Heroes had great powers but also a real human side to them, in may ways the Marvel stories are parables about the human condition holding keys to the ways we can seek and  manage our own powers within our human condition.

The most famous of Stan Lee’s creations is Spider man who was far more than a hero with strength, agility, webs and spider senses but also a shy teen boy who struggles to ask a girl out on a date. Peter Parker, like us all, learns that with great power comes great responsibility.

So as I sit here on the day before Christ the King Sunday after having voted in a state election and run a memorial service for Stan Lee. I can not help but see a convergence of themes with Bonnie Tyler pulsing in the back of my brain. Is leadership really about the acquisition of power and position? Can becoming  powerful really be what its all about?

There have been so many  Kings and Heroes through the ages, the stories seem consistent and familiar, they rise against a threat or foe which they gain enough power to vanquish only to fall prey to the power  acquired. But the truly great heroes are human despite their god like power and contain a frailty that keeps them humble.

When I think of  Christ the hero(king) I see one who sits in a similar paradox to Stan Lee’s creations. Christ does not see equality with God something to be grasped but instead seeks to shed power and instead empower those around him. Like the Marvel heroes shows the greatest strength in laying down his power and even life so that others may live. Even if you have no wish to believe in the the history or the church what bears Christ’s name there is something noteworthy in in the stories of a human who behaves in this way, something that calls us all to be more than we are.