Dr. Seuss Sermon Series
July 5, 2020
Ezekiel 37:1-11; 2 Corinthians 5:14-20
Green Eggs and Ham: Change
“Green Eggs and Ham” is one of Dr. Seuss’s most
well-known books and one of the top ten most popular children’s books.
Published in 1960, it was the result of a bet between Dr. Seuss and his editor
that he could write a complete book using only 50 different words. Dr. Seuss
won, as the book uses exactly 50 different words to relate the conversation
between Sam and this other guy who does not want to try green eggs and ham. In
the Netflix series, he’s actually given the name, Guy, so that’s what I’m going
to use this morning. Sam tries throughout the whole book to convince Guy to eat
the green eggs and ham in nine different environments (in a house, a box, a car,
a tree, a train, the dark, the rain, on a boat, and last, in the water) and
with three different animals (a mouse, a fox, and a goat). Guy refuses the
whole time, saying, “I would not like them here or there! I would not like them
anywhere!” At the end, the whole party falls off the train onto the boat,
capsizing the boat and ending with everyone treading water, gathered around
Guy, who finally relents and agrees to try them. On a page with no words, Dr.
Seuss drew a very expectant illustration as everyone is leaning in to watch. Lo
and behold, once Guy stopped resisting and was brave enough to try them, he
learned that he does like green eggs and ham.
Today we are also trying something brand new. This is our
first in person worship service since March. In March, we had to try something
brand new and we started worshiping online only. We had been experimenting with
it, but overnight it became a necessity, which is how and why we were able to
transition so fast when many churches took that first Sunday off. Now, with
Maryland’s numbers mostly steady, we are transitioning again. I’m sure some of
you felt a bit of apprehension, because it’s something new. This is outside our
comfort zone, we’ve never done worship both in person and online at the same
time. I’ve been concerned about camera angles and where I direct my attention
and how is this going to look, since that will affect how it is received. This
is being brave and courageous and also safe at the same time, so that we’re not
taking unnecessary risks. Y’all know I’m immune-compromised and we have many
more in our congregation who are as well. That verse on some of the ear savers,
1 John 4:11, says, “Since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
How we have spaced out, brought our own chairs, and wearing our masks are signs
of showing love to each other. We know we are safer outside than inside, so
here we are in this beautiful space, that I’ve started to think we built for
such a time as this, without knowing that five years ago.
Change
is part of life. You can’t grow without changing, and if you don’t grow, then
you stagnate and begin to die. For children, growth means physical growth. For
all of us, growth means emotional and spiritual growth. I once heard a speaker
say that if the you of today doesn’t consider the you of five years ago to be a
heretic, then you’re not growing spiritually. That idea has stayed with me,
because you should be growing and changing. On the one hand, there’s the saying
that necessity is the mother of invention that dates back to Plato. Another way
to say it is that necessity is the mother of trying to change things. This
necessity is what we have all experienced during this pandemic. It became
necessary to learn how to do church online, to do almost everything in our
lives differently, from work, school, shop, even cutting our hair as I’ve
become the barber in my house.
Our
natural response to change is to resist it, or to only put up with it and
tolerate it for as long as we have to and then it can go away. Some changes are
temporary, like dying your hair. Other changes are not going to go away, and we
have to not just tolerate but adapt and eventually accept the new normal. There
are times we don’t want to accept the message. This is what happened in
Ezekiel’s time. The message God gave him to share with the people was unpopular
and unappetizing; the people didn’t want to hear it. Sounds a little bit like
social distancing and wearing masks, doesn’t it? When Ezekiel prophesied, the
people were in exile and Israel was destroyed. The people wanted comfort and
assurance and words to make them feel better. They wanted to hear things would
get better soon, that they could go home soon, that things would “return to
normal” soon. Instead, God told Ezekiel to share a message about judgment and a
warning of more destruction! It was NOT what the people wanted to hear! Some
folks wanted to return to the “good old days,” to “get back to normal”; but
Ezekiel’s message said that those days weren’t so good after all. Isn’t that a
hard message to hear! Although, it reminds me of the Billy Joel song “Keeping
the Faith”; there’s a line that says, “The good ole days weren’t always good
and tomorrow ain’t as bad as it seems.” Talk about a message of hope with the
unknown, and an acknowledgement that we often view the past through
rose-colored glasses.
The
good news is that with God’s judgment comes God’s forgiving grace, calling us
back like sheep gone astray or like breathing new life into our dry bones. With
some changes, like exile, destruction, a total change in our way of life, all
we see are the dry bones and we want the water from the old familiar sources.
We want our familiar food. We want our familiar ways of life. We want what
we’re used to. And yet life means change and growth. It means trying green eggs
and ham. It means learning how to shop while wearing a mask or doing more of
our shopping online. It means learning new ways to live and be in the world.
Yet with the reassurance, as Acts 17:28 says, that in Jesus, we live and move
and have our being. And that never changes. Jesus is our constant as the world
about us changes, as our families change, as our very bodies change. My daughter very nicely pointed out my gray hairs
the other night and implied that the change was sad. I told her that gray hair
is normal and it’s part of life. Change is sad, because it means letting go of
what was and grieving it. It’s also exciting as the world is bright with
potential and what could be.
By
virtue of being in Christ, in whom we live and move and have our being, it also
means that we’re part of the new creation. We read in 2 Corinthians that “If
anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is
here!” (5:16). It means we’re living into God’s kingdom, as the hungry are fed
and the homeless move into new homes and the naked are clothed and all feel
included and heard and listened to, because we’re loving each other as Christ
loved us, laying down his life for us. We do not live for ourselves but for
Christ (2 Corinthians 5:15). Christ, who called Zaccheus out of a tree and into
a new way of life, who called Matthew the tax collector to come follow him, who
called James and John to turn them from fishermen of fish to fishermen of
people, who calls us to leave behind what no longer fits us, what does not show
kindness and love, what focuses on self and not on God and neighbor, who calls
us to become a new creation. It is not easy. There is always resistance to
change. But with God’s grace and God’s help and God’s life-giving Spirit, we
can do it.
One
of the new mantras in my house has been “we can do hard things.” I could change
it to “we can eat green eggs and ham,” but we’ve been dying so much food, we’re
out of green dye. Sometimes the change you resist, is the change that you need,
that will breathe fresh life into old bones. Or, to put it in a five year old’s
words, one thing my son came up with last spring was that “the bible says that if
you make up a new game, you have to try it.” Or, consider what God said to the
Israelites while they were preparing to enter the Promised Land. Three times
God says, “Be strong and courageous,” along with the reassurance, “I will be
with you” (Joshua 1:5-9). “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not
be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go” (Joshua
1:9). Thanks be to God. Amen.
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