Dr. Seuss Sermon Series
July 19, 2020
Psalm 139
Gertrude McFuzz: Accept yourself as God made you: Perfect and Whole and
Holy
We continue today with our Dr. Seuss series. Last week we
looked at the deadly sin of pride; today we’re going to talk about envy.
Gertrude McFuzz had only one feather; “just right for your kind of bird,” her
Uncle Doctor tells her. But Lolla-Lee-Lou has two feathers and Gertrude is quite jealous. Her jealousy turns into
anger. And anger, as it sometimes does, is used in Gertrude’s case to mask
another, more vulnerable, emotion. Sometimes, when we’re feeling insecure or
afraid or helpless or anxious, the outward emotion that we show is anger. We’re
often more comfortable showing anger than an emotion that shows us as “weaker.”
Gertrude, for example, feels that her one tail feather is not enough. She is
not enough. She is not good enough. She is not beautiful with only one tail
feather. She believes that she is flawed; her creator messed up when he gave
her only one feather. This is where Gertrude’s envy has led her, only rather
than be vulnerable by admitting that, rather than being brave by saying it out
loud, she turns to anger instead and demands her Uncle Doctor tell her where
the pill-berry vine is located.
Psalm 25 begins and ends by saying, “In you, O God, I put
my trust; do not let me be put to shame. Guard my life and rescue me; do not
let me be put to shame.” That’s the literal translation from the Hebrew. I read
a paraphrase this past week (in “Psalms for Praying: An Invitation to
Wholeness” by Nan Merrill) where instead of “Do not let me be put to shame,” it
said “Let me not feel unworthy,” and “Let me not live as unworthy.” Gertrude
started to feel unworthy, when she realized Lolla-Lee-Lou had more feathers
than she did. Then Gertrude started to live
as unworthy, when she demanded her way and ate all the berries off the
pill-berry vine. How often do we do this, too? We believe and live as if we’re
not enough, as if we’re unworthy. In our brokenness, we think, and are made to
believe, that we’re not enough, that we cannot be beautiful because of our
flaws. Churches and other organizations can have this mentality, too. We’re not
like them. They have more, therefore, we’re inferior. And it doesn’t matter
what that more is, it’s an unhelpful, unhealthy comparison. Because you are
enough. Because you are worthy. Because God made you the way you are, warts and
all, and you are beautiful.
Too
often we do not feel enough: good enough, whole enough, healthy enough,
beautiful enough. We got caught in this deficit thinking. And, let’s be honest,
we hear it from the world around us. We hear it in commercials and advertising.
We hear it from other people, who may or may not be well-meaning, pointing out
our flaws, or suggesting ways we can fix or hide them. Sometimes we put on a
tough exterior like anger. Sometimes we find some method to elevate us to where
we think we should be, like plastic surgery, which is comparable to what
Gertrude did. Sometimes the suggestions and interventions are helpful. I went
to speech therapy as a kid. I sounded like Elmer Fudd saying, “Wascally
wabbit.” It feels ironic that I’m a preacher now. Speech therapy to enunciate
my R’s was good and needed. Yet I’ve also been told as a preacher that my voice
is too high-pitched to be understood. I’ve been told I’m too quiet. Yes, I’m
female and I have a quiet personality. Those are beautiful things about me and
the solution isn’t to make myself more male or louder but to have a better
sound system set for a soprano voice.
This
past week I listened to the latest podcast from “Everything Happens with Kate
Bowler.” She interviewed an author named Heather Lanier who had recently
written a memoir on raising her daughter called “Raising a Rare Girl.” Her
daughter, Fiona, has an extremely rare syndrome called Wolf-Hirschhorn, which
means she’s missing noticeable amount of genetic material on the 4th
chromosome. It turns out we all are missing various amount of genetic material;
it’s just that for most of us it’s not noticeable. Many medical professionals
at the hospital where Fiona was born said this baby is wrong and her body is
bad. Heather had to figure out how to love and mother a child who others
considered to be bad, and it took a while and it took finding the right help. Many
therapists came and checked off everything that Fiona wasn’t doing, all the milestones she wasn’t reaching and it wasn’t helpful. It was hurtful and harmful. It’s
that deficit thinking of not enough. You know, we all want our children to be
in the middle or high end of any bell curve, but Fiona wasn’t going to fit any
bell curve or developmental chart, and
that was okay. It was when a therapist came and asked what is Fiona doing, that they finally
started to make some progress, at Fiona’s pace, based on what she was already
doing. This is actually the same thing I was taught in my training to become an
English as a Second Language teacher. It’s not the deficit that the student
doesn’t know English or American culture. They already know a lot, so start
there and build on that. I had one student who loved math and was great at it.
So I had him do complex math problems, which he could solve, and then I had him
explain it to me in English. There’s a lot more to this podcast, if it
interests you, I encourage you to listen to all of it[1],
but the one more thing I want to mention is how often Heather repeated that her
daughter is good, whole, and holy, just how she is. Fiona is not bad, her body
is not broken or cursed. She’s not normal, she’s not going to match other kids’
growth charts, and she is still good, whole, and holy.
This
is what we hear in Psalm 139 as well. We are fearfully and wonderfully,
marvelously, amazingly and miraculously made, created by God, who knows the
number of hairs on our head, every bone and every muscle of our body, our
limits, yes, but also our potential. And
sometimes, as the cells reproduce to keep our body going, they misfire, and you
get cancer. Sometimes we abuse our body, and we get a limp. Our bodies are so
intricately and amazingly made, lovingly fashioned by our loving God, who knows
us and loves us completely and is with us wherever we may go, even doctor’s
offices and hospitals when our body malfunctions. We were each perfectly and
lovingly made. The world may not always see that. You may not always see that
about yourself. You were made good and whole and holy.
Gertrude
McFuzz had to learn that the hard and painful way. She was so focused on her
goal of becoming beautiful that she didn’t stop to think about the
consequences. Once she had all those feathers, she couldn’t fly. She couldn’t even
walk. She had lots of pretty feathers, but she couldn’t move. She was stuck,
just like the Zax last week. However, unlike the Zax, there were birds willing
to help Gertrude get unstuck. Her Uncle Doctor came to her rescue and brought
other birds who were willing to help. Gertrude needed help to get back on right
path. This is similar to recovery groups like AA or NA and to the community of
faith. That’s why we’re here. So that no matter what happens during the week,
no matter what you hear the world tell you, no matter what lie you’ve started
believing about yourself, we can come re-orient ourselves back to God and
remember who we are and whose we are. We are enough. We are beautiful and good
and whole and holy. You don’t need more feathers, or whatever it is for you, to
be complete. We are here to build each other up, and any suggestion that you’re
not enough is not from God. Brush it off right now. Who you are is good. Same goes for your neighbor. And your family.
And the person across the aisle from you. Take a moment and tell someone near
you, “You are good. You are beautiful. You are enough.” If you’re watching this
or reading this and no one’s around, look in the camera or in the mirror and
say it. “You are whole and you are holy. You are perfect, just as God made
you.” Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, including yourself.
A
couple years ago a new movie version of “A Wrinkle in Time” by Madeline L’Engle
came out. The main character, Meg, has trouble learning to tesser, the word
used for traveling through the universe and she tells Mrs. Which (spelled
w-h-i-c-h and played by Oprah Winfrey), “I don’t see or feel anything when we
tesser.” Mrs. Which replies, “And you won’t, until you become one with the
universe and yourself. As it is, it seems like you don’t even want to return as
yourself.” Meg asks, “Well, is there any way I could return as somebody else,
that I might like?” And Mrs. Which gently answers with another question, “Do
you realize how many events and choices that had to occur, since the birth of
the universe, leading to the making of you, just exactly the way you are?” Meg
says, “I guess I never really thought about it.” “Maybe now’s the time to start
thinking about it,” responds Mrs. Which. You are by design. You are not an
accident or a mistake, no matter what your parents thought or may have told
you. In the children’s book, “When God Made You” by Matthew Paul Turner,
there’s a line that says, “When you dance alone, spinning like a cyclone, being
whoever, whatever, in a world all your own, God smiles and here’s why – in the
spark of your eye, a familiar reflection shines bright from inside.” That
familiar reflection is the image of God, which is the image each of us is made
in, lovingly and painstakingly created to be just who you are. There are times
we try to put conditions on it, like I’m beautiful as long as I’m wearing my
make-up or as long as I’m within a certain weight range. Unh-unh. You are
inherently beautiful and good and whole and holy. And Gertrude learns that
lessons, too. At the end, she is content to be just who she is, as God (or Dr.
Seuss) made her. “Now she is smarter” and knows that she is enough. And so are
you. Thanks be to God for God’s wonderful works!
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