6th
Sunday after Epiphany
February 17,
2019
Jeremiah
29:4-14; 1 Corinthians 12:12-19
Drawn In: Week 5
I would be remiss in a series about
creativity to not mention one of the greatest dreamers and creators of the 20th
century, Walt Disney. It began with a dream as a boy to become an artist. Yet,
his art teacher severely criticized his work, when, for example, “instead of
drawing a bowl of flowers as instructed, he drew a bouquet with human faces and
arms for leaves.”[1]
Yet Walt stayed interested in cartooning, and then in animated cartoons. He
took risks, some that were stepping stones some that were more stumbling
blocks, in seeking to become an animator. He first created the Laugh-O-Gram
Studio in Kansas City and when that venture ended, rather than head to New York
where the animators of his day lived, he went to Hollywood and opened The
Disney Brothers Studio with his brother and a friend. In 1926 “they decided one
name was more appealing to audiences, and The Walt Disney Studio was born.”[2]
Disney created Oswald the Hare, Mortimer the Mouse, and Mickey Mouse, working
on short features. Then he took a huge risk and planned the first ever
full-length animated movie. Some in Hollywood called it “Disney’s Folly.” Even
his own wife didn’t believe it could succeed. We know it as Snow White and the
Seven Dwarfs and it was a huge hit in 1937. The next four movies, Pinocchio,
Fantasia, Bambi, and Dumbo, are now considered classics, yet none of them did
well when released. Walt had to circle back and figure things out again, one of
which was an animators’ strike in 1941 that was caused by salary cuts after
Pinocchio bombed in the theaters. In the 1950s the studio came back with Alice
in Wonderland, Cinderella, Peter Pan, and Lady and the Tramp. And on the story
goes, ups and downs, yet the ups keep getting higher, as Disney is now a multi
billion dollar enterprise because they’ve been there on the cutting edge of
every major breakthrough in animation. It’s really quite remarkable. Walt
Disney fits all the categories we’re going through in this Drawn In series
except for the last one, which is next week when we talk about rest. Walt Disney
didn’t rest and died in 1966 at 65 years old.
It’s interesting to read his biography
and see how different parts of his life shaped him so dramatically. Marcelina,
Missouri is not where he was born or where he lived the longest growing up, but
it was the place he lived that had the biggest developmental impact on him. It
was a farming community, and there are quite the variety of animals in movies.
70 trains passed through each day on their way between Chicago and Kansas City,
and Walt had a bit of an infatuation with trains as you may see, for example,
at Disneyland. Everything that he created, he shared. Such is the life of an
artist, if they have any hope of earning a living as an artist. What they make,
they share.
And this is the thing for all created
things: they’re all meant to be shared.
Creation originated as God sharing it with the creatures, including us humans. Creation
is meant to be shared. You may charge a price for it because you’re a business,
or trying to make ends meet. Take, for example, the sunflower field next door
to us last fall. Even if you didn’t pay the entry fee to go walk through it,
even just driving by it was a joy. It was planted, it was created, in order to
be shared. Jesus says to “let your light shine before others, so that they may
see your good deeds, [the good things you have created,] and praise God.”[3]
We are not to hide it, under a bushel or anything else. We’re to share what we
have, including what we make.
While cleaning out at the end of last
year, I was flipping back through my planner and sometime last spring I’d come
up with this whole idea of an hour of creation. My original idea was for it to
be the hour before church, kinda to replace adult Sunday school, yet make it
open to all ages, and it had two requirements: to make something, and to give
it away. I talked with a couple people about it, but it never gained much
traction, and, obviously, we never started it. Perhaps I had the time wrong,
and we need to offer it on a Thursday night or something. But simply offering a
time to make something to give away, whether writing a note or making a picture
or sewing a prayer shawl. I still think it’s a good idea. If you think it’s a
good idea, too, and want to help set it up, let me know.
Something else that many of y’all have
created, nurtured, and shared are your farms and love of farming. I shared on
Facebook last week that one night both my children said they wanted to be
farmers when they grow up! Not long after I started, Mr. Patrick drove me on a
tour around here, showing me his farms. Since then, many of the rest of you
have shared your farms with me as well. I love coming to see what you love. I
love it when something well-loved is shared. It’s like a little kid offering
their favorite blanket or bear when someone else is sad. It’s a very warm
feeling when something loved, which most of our creations are, are shared.
However, more than creation, we’re also
called to share God’s love. Jesus gives us the great commission to “go and make
disciples of all nations.”[4]
At the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles Jesus says we “will receive power
when the Holy Spirit comes on [us]; and [we] will be [his] witnesses in
Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”[5]
The Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, is to be shared as well. It’s not
just for a select few but for the whole world. God gave his son because he
loves the whole world. God’s dreams do not belong behind closed doors, not even
the doors of the church. God’s dream of love and the fullness of creation are
meant for all of creation.
In order to do that, we need all the
parts of the church. The body needs the foot and the nose and the hand and the
eye, and not just needs them, but needs them getting along. Otherwise the hand
is going to poke the eye out and a smelly foot is disgusting to a nose. Or, for
a different analogy, how about that of a choir. The sopranos can’t sing louder
than the tenors and the bass have to keep to the same tempo as everyone else.
Yet soprano, alto, tenor, and bass each have their part to play, and something
is missing when you don’t have one of them. That’s why Nora asked me to join
the choir when we were down to one soprano. Each singer creates their own note,
and then shares it, in harmony with the rest. And they know whether it’s in
harmony because they practice, not just all together but separately as well.
Each part practices their part together so that they don’t get lost when they
join the whole choir and they know their note to sing. Harmony means the notes
all sound well together.
I was asked recently an idle wondering
about why we have so many small churches around here. Perhaps it’s so that each
of us learn and know our own part. However, it does mean we have to come
together from time to time to join parts to form the body together. We seem to
do all right joining with Jennings Chapel and Poplar Springs, perhaps it’s time
to draw the circle wider, to include the parts of other churches in our
community. It’s good to know your part, and the sopranos could probably hold a
concert on their own. But it’s so much richer when you have all the parts
working together, creating together, and sharing together.
In the passage we read from Jeremiah,
God gives instructions to the exiles in Babylon. “The God of Israel, says to
all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and
settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and
daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so
that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not
decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have
carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you
too will prosper.”[6]
Wherever you may find yourself, in exile or at home, put down roots. Settle
down. Plant yourself where you are and seek the peace and prosperity of the
place where God put you. To do that, you have to share yourself. You have to
share the produce from your garden, you have to share your children, you have
to share your prayers and your creations for that place to prosper.
While the analogy of the kingdom of
heaven being like a choir with all the parts is my favorite one, another
analogy that I’m growing to appreciate and understand more is Jesus’ comparison
of how the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed.[7]
A mustard seed is itty bitty, one of the smallest seeds there is. A mustard
plant does not look or feel very big, yet mustard bushes can grow up to 20 feet
tall with a 20 foot spread.[8]
And when it is that big, birds can come and make their homes in it. There is
shade underneath it. A mustard bush has a lot to share. It starts as one itty
bitty seed, and look at what it can become. So, too, is the kingdom of heaven.
One tiny idea, a dream, thought about, planned out, tried, evaluated, and then
shared with the world. That’s how sermons progress. That’s how projects
progress. That’s the kingdom of God, created to be shared with the world.
One of my favorite “trick” questions I
was once asked was about the good news that Jesus preached. As in, what was it?
It wasn’t his death and resurrection, because that hadn’t happened yet. The
good news that Jesus shared was that the kingdom of God is here. It’s that tiny
seed, waiting to be planted and nurtured and raised into a big, magnificent
tree to be shared with the world.
Walt Disney was the fourth of five sons.
His family moved around from Chicago to Marceline to Kansas City. His art
teacher criticized him. He was so broke that at his first studio, he hired high
school boys interested in animation and offered them free training in exchange
for their help, because what he wanted to make he couldn’t do by himself. He
never quite got the financial footing he needed until he got the help of his
brother, Roy. The two of them, along with a friend named Ub Iwerks, were the
ones to get Mickey from a drawing to being recognizable practically the whole
world over. It took a lot of collaboration, a lot of risking, a lot of
dreaming, and a lot of sharing, which is also a kind of risk. Sharing is being
vulnerable because you don’t know how your creation will be received. Disney’s
had ups and downs over the past century. The Church has had ups and downs over
the past two millennia. Yet we are still called to share our creations, not to
hoard them and keep them only to ourselves or a select few. We are still called
to share God’s love, the good news of Jesus Christ, crucifixion and
resurrection, and the kingdom of God being here. It starts as a tiny seed and
grows. And grows. And grows. It’s pretty cool.
[1] The Wonder of Disney magazine, Updated
2019 Special Edition, p. 13
[2]
Ibid., p. 14, 16
[3]
Matthew 5:16
[4]
Matthew 28:19
[5]
Acts 1:8
[6]
Jeremiah 29:4-8
[7] Thanks
to the new children’s book, “The Marvelous Mustard Seed” by Amy-Jill Levine and
Sandy Eisenberg Sasso
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