Dr. Seuss and the Gospel: Jesus… the Cat
The Community Church of Sebastopol
Rev. Eugene Nelson, Jr.
August 10, 2008
Acts 17:1- 9: Matthew 5:1-12:38- 45
My former pastor, Rev. Culver Nelson, shares this story: "A friend of mine marched through the jungles of New Guinea during the Second World War. He encountered native tribesmen whom he found to be living a peaceful but curiously superstitious form of Christianity. Through an interpreter he visited with them about some of their peculiar customs and showed obvious distaste for some of them. But then one of the tribal leaders got straight to the point when he observed, 'Before we followed Jesus as Lord, we would have cooked and eaten you!'" When Jesus shows up, things begin to change.
Noted preacher and professor Tom Long tells a story about a public health nurse in Asbury Park, New Jersey. There was an old hotel, filled with elderly residents who lived in squalid conditions. The owner refused to allow public health inspections, but this nurse knew how bad things were in there. And so, she went and applied for a job as a chamber maid. She took on this second job so that, as she changed linens and cleaned toilets, she could also take blood pressures, check medications and in some small way monitor the health of the residents. Why did she do this? Why spend her free time? Why take the risk? Because, she said, "One night, as I walked by, a sick old man was standing in the window. But in that moment, I didn't see a sick old man. I saw Jesus." In that hotel, in those people, she heard Jesus' request of the woman at the well, "I'm thirsty. Give me a drink." She could not turn away. When Jesus shows up, things begin to change.
One more illustration: Many years ago, perhaps you saw it, there was a popular poster making the rounds. It had a picture of Jesus and said in bold print...’WANTED; JESUS OF NAZARETH.’ The smaller print read, "Relevant information is requested that might lead to the arrest and conviction of Jesus Christ, accused of sedition, anarchistic tendencies and conspiring against the state. Alleged profession: carpenter. Nationality: Jewish. Aliases: Son of Man, Prince of Peace, Light of the World. No known address. The wanted man preaches the equality and freedom of all people, represents utopian ideas and must be described as a dangerous agitator. Members of the public are asked to report any relevant information to their nearest police station."
"Blessed are the meek, blessed are the peacemakers, blessed are the poor and the poor in spirit, blessed are the merciful....Turn the other cheek, go the second mile, love your enemies..." Pretty radical stuff in a world like ours. Just who does he think he is coming in here, agitating, trying to turn the world and us upside down with all those crazy ideas? Better turn him in.
"So all we could do was to sit, sit, sit, sit! And we did not like it, not one little bit. And then...something went bump! And that bump made us jump! We looked! Then we saw him step in on the mat! We looked! And we saw him! The Cat in the Hat! And he said to us, 'Why do you sit there like that? I know it is wet and the sun is not sunny. But we can have lots of good fun that is funny! I know some good games we could play,' said the cat. 'I know some new tricks,' said the Cat in the Hat."
Okay, so maybe you never thought of The Cat in the Hat as a Christ figure. Maybe you have never used Jesus and The Cat in the Hat in the same sentence. And yet, look what they do. They come into the world as it is and dare it - dare us - to see another way. They listen to the dictates, the do's and the don'ts of conventional wisdom, represented in the story by the fish, and propose an alternative, a crazy, subversive wisdom that stands conventional wisdom on its head. They shake things up, they turn things upside down and invite us to join in.
Think for a moment about the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, 6, and 7. Go home and read it today. Talk about new tricks! For me, it is as crazy and challenging and unsettling as anything the Cat in the Hat does or says. I read Jesus' words, I look at his life, I look at mine and, sounding much like the fish, I say, "Do I like this? Oh no I do not. No, I do not like it not one little bit!"
William Willimon shares this story from the days as a chaplain at Duke University. "During the Muslim Awareness Week at Duke, I was on a panel - representing all Christians everywhere - with our campus rabbi and an imam from Chicago. The imam said, 'Islam is a religion of tolerance and peace. For instance, if my brother the rabbi is assaulted by an unbeliever, the prophet Muhammad teaches that I have an obligation to punish the unbeliever.' The rabbi seemed somewhat reassured by this."
But, says Willimon, "I muttered to myself, 'I wish Jesus had said that to us. I've got people I'd love to punish. Alas, when we tried to take up the sword and to practice self-defense when the soldiers came to arrest him, Jesus cursed us with, 'No more of this!'" Willimon concludes, "My brother the imam had taught me something about my own faith. We Christians might find interfaith conversation more fruitful if we acknowledged, up front, that Jesus renders us weird." A public health nurse taking a second job as a chamber maid in a rundown hotel...weird. Teenagers and adults taking vacation time to work on mission projects in Chicago and New Orleans...weird. As one colleague says, "Most of the people in my church are fairly content and happy - until Jesus shows up!" Let's face it, often it's easier, even in the church, just to sit, sit, sit. "Too wet to go out and too cold to play ball. So we sat in the house. We did nothing at all." But then, when we least expect it, the door opens and something goes bump! And be very careful, for it just might be a big, foundation-shaking bump.
Yes, The Cat in the Hat is totally crazy. I wouldn't want him and this Thing One and Thing Two running through my house, turning everything upside down. I have enough trouble remembering to pick up my socks! And yet, I think Jesus might have liked him. The Sermon on the Mount is totally crazy, but what if it is a summons - a challenge to practice his way of life, to give up our agendas and trust his, a summons to an alternative path which might be spoken of as the eye of the needle, the narrow way, the road less traveled. What if it is an invitation to set aside the world as we know it that we then might enter into that realm described by Jesus as the Kingdom of God? Says Marcus Borg, "People center their lives in conventional wisdom. This is the natural result of socialization. We pursue the goals and seek the security offered by conventional wisdom. But the teaching of Jesus invites a radical de-centering and re-centering, which leads from a life centered in convention to a life centered in that which is beyond convention: the sacred."
Phillips Brooks, New England Congregational minister and author of the carol, "O Little Town of Bethlehem", told of a missionary in Africa who, while on furlough home, bought a sundial that it might help his folk in the African village tell the time of day. On his return to Africa, he set it up in the heart of the village. The people were filled with such admiration and appreciation for the gift that they immediately proceeded to build a roof over the sundial to protect it from the sun and rain.
I suppose you might say that Jesus came into the world to tell us the time of day, to reveal the character of God, to show us a new way not limited by the boundaries of our imaginations. But too often we have roofed him over with our creeds and rules and conventions, our fear of the new and our unwillingness to venture beyond the way we have always done it. I once heard it said that too often, the church is our last hiding place from God.
And so, with Mom almost home, the fish on the edge of a nervous breakdown, and the two children rather dazed and confused, the Cat in the Hat comes back in with his wonderful machine and in the blink of an eye restores everything the way it was. Not so with Jesus. He would go into a town, turn everything upside down and then move on, always with the invitation, not to go back to the comfortable way things were, but to follow him. I'm not sure he ever restored anything back to the way it was. For "the way we have always done things around here" really didn't interest him. He wanted people to see the new thing God was up to right now.
The story concludes with these words: "Then our mother came in and she said to us two, 'Did you have any fun? Tell me, what did you do? And Sally and I did not know what to say. Should we tell her the things that went on here today? Should we tell her about it? Now what should we do? Well...what would you do if your mother asked you?" Well...? Jesus has come in, uninvited, and turned everything upside down. He has called into question all the barriers we have built, all the safe little conventions we have lived by. He has pointed to a totally crazy new path and invited us to follow him. He seems to think that his way is the way to true life - to God. As quickly as he came, he has gone, leaving us with the questions: who should we tell, and what should we do? What would you do if your mother - if your world - asked you?