The Wizard of Awe
Good Morning Friends,
So what do you do when you have a Scarecrows brain, a Tin Man’s heart and lack a Lion’s courage? Well you go to the Wonderful Wizard of Oz of course. Well that is how the storyline goes but the reform symbolism used by L. Frank Baum in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, though a bit too gnostic for my taste, does have images that could be interpreted as supportive of both economic and spiritual reformation. Baum and Hollywood understood the issues involved and employed these images masterfully layering them on or plumbing them into the storyline. Millions of Americans have seen the movie the Wizard of Oz, generally several times. For some like me watching it was the first time that we saw color on our color television. Knowingly or not, it addresses both spiritual, social and economic issues we face in our time. That Dorothy’s slippers were ruby red and not silver as originally written blends the realities and the red looked cool on the screen too. The images are strong as they mirror both a spiritual future and economic one. Here we search for the power to regain bank-mortgaged homes, here we step out on a spiritual journey on the way to a Holy City. But in the end it is about the core economic and spiritual building blocks that we need to remember. Just as Dorothy did, we need to remember: “there’s no place like home'” even for the Wizard of Awe.
Scripture: but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
2 Corinthians 12:9 (NRSV)
We declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
1 John 1:3 (NRSV)
Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.
Matthew 18:18-22 (NRSV)
How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
Psalm 84: 1-3 (NIV)
Message: During this time of March Madness the allegory of the Wizard is enduring. No not the coach of Michigan State University basketball team, the Wizard in the story. Really there is too much here and so I will focus on the Wizard, who was really a very bad wizard and yet had the appearance of a very good man once he stopped playing the role that everyone expected of him. He is a great and powerful example that we are to become our true selves and not to embrace the tendency to present some idealized and false version of ourselves to the world. Still the role he played served a great purpose. It saved the city from evil even in its deception. Dwell on that for an economic moment. Few of us live with the same deception of the Wizard. Still we need to remember that though we know who we are not does not mean we have really discovered who we can be in Christ. In today’s scripture as well as illustration we see how God uses the fellowship of others to form us and mature us… to embrace the gold standard of God… to help us discover who we really are beyond the identity of a medal, a testimonial and even a diploma….But today we reach beyond the layers of expectations of others in the story of the Wizard. Today we embrace the Gospel promise of God’s holy city, God’s dream and way of bringing life to our world for it is a tale too good not to be true.
Pray we realize that it is unlikely that we will have general reformation until we have a reformation of the family. Pray that more realize that there is nothing like home. Pray we realize that God owns everything. Pray we not focus on escaping trouble. Pray we not focus on being comfortable in our emotions. Pray in each situation we face we focus on the will of God. Pray we appreciate the blending of myth and story to discover truth that helps us to discover who we really are. Pray we not embrace distortion and alienation. Pray we conform ourselves to our true self in Christ. Pray we not live alone. Pray we not project our fears and judgments on to others. Pray we realize that the real power to change things requires love.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 