The Gospel According to Dr. Seuss: Horton Hatches the Egg

Psalm 103:1-14

July 19, 2015

Mark S. Bollwinkel

 

Two different men who did not know each other came to the church I was serving with almost the same situation.   They were not members of the church.   They wanted to meet God.  In fact, they were both desperate to meet God as they both suffered from rare and terminal cancers.  Their days were short.

Both men were in their sixties.  Both men were highly accomplished professionals, with excellent educations and brilliant minds.  Both men started successful companies, made significant wealth and contributed to the advancement of science.   They had loving families and lots of supportive friends.   Somewhere along their journeys they lost their connection to God.   Facing death they were desperate to find it again.

Both men grew up in Protestant Christian homes.   Both attended church and youth groups as teens.  Diving head long into heavy-duty academics in college and graduate school, they adopted the cynical agnosticism so prevalent among the scientists and engineers.    It wasn't that they rejected their religious upbringing so much as they just didn't have time for such things as they were starting families.  They didn't have time to engage the mysteries of spirituality while building careers in a culture that rarely honored belief in anything one couldn't measure or weigh.   

Then came the cancers, two different deadly types.  They mustered all available resources with the best doctors and the best hospitals.  On their own they researched their diseases and could speak intelligently about them with the medical professionals.     They made the best informed choices in treatment.  They followed every protocol.  And the cancers got worse and worse.

It wasn't until the medical options had run out that they both came to my office asking to find God again, to learn how to pray, to find a miracle.     They remembered the childhood religious practice they had rejected long ago.  They needed to find something new in which to have hope.

I am not the kind of preacher that's comfortable handing out quick and easy platitudes in such a situation.   I don't have any simple answers to such questions as "...I've led a good life; why is this happening to me?!"   I met a number of times with both men.  We talked and prayed together.   We prayed together for a miracle, without apology or embarrassment.   And the cancer kept coming.

I loved those two men for their honestly, sincerity, for the good lives they had led and for the scientific contributions they made for our common good.   I grieved that they were suffering so.   I wish I had the answers they were looking for to make the pain of fear and doubt go away.   All I could do was share with them the answers I'd found along the way knowing that the only answers that mattered were the ones they would find for themselves.   So I listened, and cried with them and prayed with them to the God that had always been there for them that they only now want to find.

In our Hebrew Scripture lesson this morning we hear the wonderful words of Psalm 103, a song of praise for the God whose "steadfast love endures forever..."   It is written by someone who has experienced healing from a physical illness and forgiveness for sins committed.  The Psalmist describes the God who renews our spirits, works for justice and does not deal with us as we deserve but just the opposite - lavishes love, mercy and grace upon those who don't deserve it:

"But the steadfast love of The Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him...to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments..."

Today we translate the words "fear The Lord" to mean "to be in awe of God"; the literal translation from the original can mean those times when in awe of something your knees get weak and finding yourself trembling in the presence of something beyond all expectations.

"To fear The Lord" means to cultivate the awareness of...the awe of...the steadfast love of God, always present, always near.  As the bumper sticker put it, "If you are not in awe, you are not paying attention!"   "To fear The Lord" means to pay attention, to wake up to the miracle of every day, to make God's love and grace the foundation of one's life and to live like it...in other words, to "do God's commandments", as Jesus summarized them, to love God, neighbor and yourself. (Matthew 22:37-40)

In the never ending challenge to keep the congregation’s attention and hold it, we’ve launched into this wonderful “Dr. Seuss series”.    And one has to admit that the elephant in Dr. Seuss' Horton Hatches the Egg is a great metaphor for God.

Horton Hatches the Egg (Random House) was first published in 1940 before the beginning of World War II. In 2007 the National Education Association named Horton Hatches the Egg one of its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children."

The book centers on Horton, an African elephant, who is convinced by Mayzie, a lazy, irresponsible bird, to sit on her egg while she takes a short "break", which in actuality ends up being Mayzie's permanent relocation to Palm Beach.

Naturally, the absurd sight of an elephant sitting atop a tree makes quite a scene – Horton is exposed to the elements, laughed at by his jungle friends, captured by hunters, forced to endure a terrible sea voyage, and finally placed in a traveling circus. However, despite his hardships and Mayzie's clear intent not to return, Horton refuses to leave the nest through all of these challenges, because he insists on keeping his word; "I meant what I said and I said what I meant, and an elephant's faithful, one hundred per cent!" (paraphrased from Wikipedia)

And you know, God is like that.

Watch what happens when the egg hatches and Mayzie returns as First Lady Michelle Obama reads to the children at a recent White House Easter Egg hunt.  [YouTube]

The egg that hatches is an elephant bird!  Horton's DNA of steadfast, sacrificial love has permeated the shell of the egg.   What comes out is a new creation that doesn't look anything like its mother Mayzie.  In fact it looks just like Horton with wings.  They go off to live happily ever after.

Of course the egg didn't have a choice in the matter.  Mayzie certainly does and we see her priorities quite clearly as we do Horton's.  One clear moral of this story is the belief that steadfast and persistent love has impact on all involved.  When we get our priorities straight it can change things beyond all expectations.  Isn't seeing an elephant-bird hatch out of that egg awe inspiring?

If we want faith, to find God as a reality in our lives, it has got to become a priority.   Like Horton on the egg, we've got to invest ourselves to the relationship, nurturing it with time and attention. 

In the Sermon on the Mount, while preaching about material wealth and the anxiety it brings, Jesus concludes "But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well." (Matthew 6:33)

What do we put first in our lives?   That which gets first priority in our lives is that which we will become.  Well, what is that which gets first priority?

My two brilliant friends struggling with cancers spent their adult lives studying their fields of science and engineering.   They practiced their crafts to such a high degree that they discovered new technologies and applications.   They invested thousands of hours in the pursuit of professional excellence and achieved great things as a result.  That's fantastic!

And. 

Why would anyone of us think that a living and vital faith in God would take any less investment?   Why would any of us think that we could "find God" in an hour appointment with a preacher, or by fitting in a Sunday worship service every now and then as if Christianity can be reduced to an occasional concert and lecture? 

I am not suggesting for a minute that if my two friends had nurtured their faith that they would never have contracted cancer or that if they had been religious, God would have miraculously cured them.   That's not how it works.  But if they had, as they faced the end of their lives, they would know deep in their hearts that this God of extravagant love had been with them all along, even in the devastation of terminal cancer.

A lifetime commitment to seek God and live like it will have a formative effect on anyone. Like Horton, faith can penetrate our shells with the DNA of the “steadfast love of the Lord.”   It makes a difference what time and attention we invest in this relationship.    As I have said many times before, if we are not feeling close to God right now, guess who moved.

Horton says, "I meant what I said and I said what I meant, and an elephant's faithful, one hundred per cent!"  And God...however we understand divinity...God's steadfast love endures forever and never gives up on us.   If we will embrace that and be embraced by that, it can change the nature of whom and what we will be.                        

Amen.

The Gospel According to Dr. Seuss: The Lorax

Psalm 8

July 12, 2015

Mark S. Bollwinkel

 

The first Earth Day was held April 22, 1970 as a national environmental "teach-in".  It was sponsored by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson.  For many Americans it presented new concepts for recycling metals, glass and plastic. Today we have organized recycling as a civic duty.  It introduced "ecology" to the American consciousness, the notion that the natural and biological systems of the earth are all connected.   What effects one aspect of the natural order has consequences for all.  Today, Earth Day is celebrated each year in more than 192 countries and is coordinated by the Earth Day Network.

One year after the original Earth Day, Ted Geisel, under his pen name Dr. Seuss, published The Lorax (Random House, 1971) a polemic fable illustrating the danger that corporate greed poses to nature.

In the story, a young boy living in a town visits a strange isolated man called the “Once-ler” who never appears fully in illustrations; only his arms are shown. The boy pays the Once-ler fifteen cents, a nail, and the shell of a great-great-great grandfather snail to explain why the area is in such a run-down state. The Once-ler explains to the boy how he once arrived in a beautiful, pristine valley containing happy, playful fauna that spent their days romping around blissfully among "Truffula trees". The Once-ler proceeded to cut down the Truffula trees to gather raw material to knit "Thneeds," a ridiculously versatile invention of his, "which everyone needs". Thneeds could be used as a shirt, a sock, a glove, a hat, a carpet, a pillow, a sheet, a curtain, a seat cover, and countless other things.

By cutting down the tree, however, he summoned the Lorax who "speaks for the trees, for the trees have no tongues" and warned the Once-ler of the consequences of cutting down the Truffula trees.   The Once-ler ignored him, instead calling his relatives to come and work in his factory.   Soon as the Thneed industry kept expanding, the once beautiful area became choked with pollution. Frustrated by the Lorax, the Once-ler declared his intention to keep "biggering" his operations, but at that very moment, they heard the very last Truffula tree get cut down. Without raw materials, his factory shut down; without the factory, his relatives left. Then the Lorax, silently, with one "very sad, sad backward glance", lifted himself by his posterior and flew away through the clouds.

The Once-ler lingered on in his crumbling residence where he dwelt in great distress, and he pondered over a message the Lorax left behind: a stone slab etched with the word "Unless". He realized that the Lorax meant that unless someone cares, the situation will not improve. The Once-ler then gives the boy the last Truffula seed and tells him to plant it, saying that if the boy grows a whole forest of the trees, "the Lorax, and all of his friends may come back." (paraphrased from wikipedia)

Despite protests by the logging industry, The Lorax became a huge best seller, was named one of the "Teacher's Top 100 Books for Children" by the National Education Association (2007) and was adapted for TV (1972) and made into a feature film in 2012.

Whether one agrees with its conclusions or not, this children's book vividly describes the challenge between self-interest and the common good. 

Few can deny the power and potential of self-interest in a society.   Individual creativity, initiative and determination, when harnessed by a great idea, are the engine of economic and technological development.  That's true of the farmer in India trying to increase the yield of a rice crop.  That's true of a garage full of young High School geeks who back in 1976 thought that there might be a market for personal computers.  Such individual initiative can make huge contributions to the common good.

Or not.

In his book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (2005) UCLA Professor Jared Diamond studies a number of historical examples of social collapse, the rapid decline or extinction of human communities.  He looks at the Iron Age Norse/Viking settlements in Greenland, the Polynesia society of Easter Island, the Mayan collapse in Central America and the East African Rwandan genocide in 1994 among other examples.  In each case he can point to environmental factors leading to civil collapse such as deforestation or slash and burn agriculture, the introduction of unsustainable livestock or climate change.  But more than that in each case the leaders of these societies put personal wealth, status or power above the common good.  The line between self-interest and the common good is crossed when greed enters the picture.  It can ruin a civilization, or so Dr. Diamond argues.  

On the positive side, the professor suggests that we can determine our future much more than external influences.   Haiti and the Dominican Republic are the perfect example; same island, same environment but a far, far different history of human choices along the journey of their development; the Dominican Republic an example of huge success, Haiti an abysmal failure suffering a series of collapses.  The choice is always ours.

In a scene from the movie version of The Lorax, the Once-ler and the Lorax confront each other over the plan to chop down all of the trees:

The Lorax: “Which way does a tree fall?”

The Once-ler: “Uh, down?”

The Lorax: “A tree falls the way it leans. Be careful which way you lean.”

“Be careful which way you lean”.  Self-interest and the common good or self-interest verses the common good, the choice is always ours.

In the first creation poem in Hebrew Scriptures “on the sixth day” it is written:

God blessed humanity, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’ God said, ‘See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food.....God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. (Genesis 1:28-31)

Today we interpret the word "dominion over" to mean the stewardship of the earth not its “domination”.   Humanity's rule over the environment is meant to be as care taker, to mirror God's intentions in the creation itself.

That is one point from Psalm 8, our lesson for this morning:

Yet you have made [humanity] a little lower than God,

      and crowned them with glory and honor.
     You have given them dominion over the works of your hands...

When we steward the environment rather than merely exploit it we are the hands and feet of God who intended creation as an abundant and beautiful blessing for all.

In the inauguration of a new King in Israel, the priests and people sang the following words reminding the King that the environment's ability to provide abundant prosperity to the people was directly tied to his duty to insure justice for all:

Give the king your justice, O God,

         and your righteousness to a king’s son.
      May he judge your people with righteousness,
         and your poor with justice.
      May the mountains yield prosperity for the people,
         and the hills, in righteousness.
      May he defend the cause of the poor of the people,
         give deliverance to the needy,
         and crush the oppressor.  (Psalm 72:1-4)

The writers of Hebrew Scripture understood that the ethic of the common good included the earth.  In fact they knew that what was good for all people and what was good for the environment were intimately connected.  I would say spiritually connected.  Professor Diamond documents what happens when greed disconnects a society from that ethnic.  And Dr. Seuss reminds us of that in The Lorax.

Before you go out to hug a tree and spit on a logger, did you know that California among other states requires that for every tree cut down for commercial lumbering an equal number of trees must be planted? (Paul Frisman, OLR Research Report, "Reforestation Law in Oregon and Selected Other States", 10/16/2002).  Although greed can corrupt any industry, forestry is a completely renewable resource with proper stewardship. 

Our planet's addiction to non-renewable energy resources will eventually end just as the Thneed industry ended when that last Truffula tree fell.  How we get to that transition and how much damage will be done to the earth along the way is really up to us the consumers and our leaders.

The Lorax ends with the Once-ler entrusting the last and only Truffula tree seed to the boy who plants it and nurtures it into a thriving forests.  The animals return and the city rejoices...and in the movie version the boy gets the girl...this is Hollywood after all!

Dr. Seuss' point can be found in the dialogue between the boy and the Once-ler:

“But now," says the Once-ler, "now that you're here, the word of the Lorax seems perfectly clear. UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.”

Our religious tradition would suggest that's a spiritual matter as well.

 

Amen.

 

The Gospel According to Dr. Seuss: Green Eggs and Ham

I Kings 17: 8-16

July 5, 2015

Mark S. Bollwinkel

Theodor Seuss Geisel (March 2, 1904 – September 24, 1991) was an award winning American writer, poet, and cartoonist, author of 46 children's picture books written and illustrated under his pen name ”Dr. Seuss”.   He studied for a PhD in English Literature at Lincoln College, Oxford. He did not complete the degree program and was never officially a “doctor”.  So significant have his books been in the movement to encourage literacy among children that the National Education Association set his birthday, as the annual date for “National Read across America Day”, an initiative on reading.  He was the recipient of two Academy awards, two Emmy awards, a Peabody and a Pulitzer Prize and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 

In the never ending attempt to gain a congregation's attention and hold it, this July we will explore the writings of Dr. Seuss to discover if they can assist us in understanding and applying the lessons of Christianity to our lives.

Dr. Seuss' book Green Eggs and Ham (Random House, 1960) has sold over 500,000 copies (2009).  In it the cartoon character “Sam-I-Am” tries to convince an unnamed character to eat green eggs and ham, the color of which is unusual to say the least.  The unnamed character refuses, insisting over and over again that he does not like green eggs and ham.  But Sam-I-Am will not be deterred and with persistence offers multiple options of location and dining partner to coax the unnamed character to eat them; “in a house, a box, a car, a tree, a train, in the dark, in the rain on a boat with a goat, with a mouse or a fox.”

In honor of the Fourth of July, let's ask our President to read the conclusion of Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham (YouTube.com: The President Reads "Green Eggs and Ham", White House Easter Egg Roll, April 2010)…

The President and Mrs. Obama are well known for their passion for healthy eating and exercise.  They used the occasion of the White House Easter Egg Roll in 2010 and the book Green Eggs and Ham to make an important point.  "At least you've got to try it..."  

 

This is also Dr. Seuss' point as well.  Appearances can be deceiving.  An undiscovered treasure can be right in front of us if only we will give it a try.   That's true of food.  That's true of people.  That's true of God.

In our Hebrew Scripture lesson this morning, Elijah’s miracle with the last flour and oil of a desperate mother is testament to God’s all inclusive love.  The widow of Zarephath is a Gentile Phoenician.  Widows had no social claim or rights after the death of their husbands.  She is not a member of the Hebrew people, the Chosen People of God.  On top of that she is a foreigner, a citizen of another nation often an enemy of Israel.  Yet following God’s instructions, the prophet extends grace beyond measure even to her and her son; much to her surprise!  

This story not only describes God’s hand in the life and ministry of Elijah.  The future promise of God's salvation will be offered to all, even those not entitled to it by birth, class, religion or gender (Luke 2:25-35).  Such an expansive and inclusive grace was outrageous to those convinced their nationality and religion entitled them exclusively to God's favor.  In his first sermon when Jesus announces the Kingdom of God is available even to the likes of the widow of Zarephath, the good and pious people of his home town Nazareth want to throw Jesus off a cliff (Luke 4:26-30).

You can't judge a book by its cover, their nationality, race, religion or gender.  You can't judge a person's character by their appearance.  You can't judge another's faith by their outward piety but only by the way they live their lives.  

Green Eggs and Ham reminds us that what is unfamiliar to us may at first glance seem unappetizing but in the end is delicious indeed.  Sam-I-Am will not give up on the opportunity to discover something new and wonderful even when out of the ordinary set of expectations.  And God is like that too! 

After all we've said and done, after all we've not said and done, God hasn't given up on us yet.  That is what that little morsel of bread and swallow of grape juice in Holy Communion really mean.   It is offered to us not because we are entitled to God's blessing.  It is offered because God's love is so complete that God will offer it even to the likes of us; so often like the unnamed character stuck in the expectations of the status quo.    In the sacramental symbols of death and resurrection...in the broken body and shed blood of God's son Jesus of Holy Communion…we are given the opportunity to open our eyes and heart to something new.

God’s love can come in a variety of surprising and unexpected ways.  That love may be extended to the least likely of people.   The “gospel of Dr. Seuss” might suggest that we can be like Sam-I-Am, never giving up the opportunity to offer such love to others.  The example of the unnamed character may remind us to discover God's love even when it arrives in unexpected packages. 

Say!

I like green eggs and ham!

I do!! I like them, Sam-I-am!

And I would eat them in a boat!

And I would eat them with a goat...

And I will eat them in the rain.

And in the dark. And on a train.

And in a car. And in a tree.

They are so good so good you see!

 

So I will eat them in a box.

And I will eat them with a fox.

And I will eat them in a house.

And I will eat them with a mouse.

And I will eat them here and there.

Say! I will eat them ANYWHERE!

 I do so like

green eggs and ham!

Thank you!

Thank you,

Sam-I-am

 Amen.