Somewhere over the rainbow…Many times films reflect our common values and that is certainly part of the reason The Wizard of Oz has become a classic film. The song Somewhere Over the Rainbow expresses a deep longing for a future of hope and wholeness, a dream of a teenage girl and maybe even of our nation or world.
Longing for health, life, and
wholeness is something expressed by God throughout the scriptures. God casts a vision in the book of Revelation
in which God will make God’s home among people, there will be no crying or pain. Death will be no more and God will make all
things new. Isaiah expresses God’s vision
to the people in the Hebrew Scriptures that a righteous branch will spring up
from the stump of Jesse and the wolf and the lamb will lie down together and
the earth will be filled with the knowledge of God so that no one harms anyone
else. In the reading from 2 Timothy the
writer has a vision of the crown of righteousness for all who have longed for
God’s reign. Maybe you have seen God’s
vision reflected in your own longing—healing for the earth, healing for divided
families, an end to disease, compassion for prisoners and people on the
streets. That is what the song Somewhere
over the rainbow is about—a longing for healing and wholeness.
Dorothy sings this song, a farm girl
in the dustbowl days, affected by everyone around her but not really given a
way to use her gifts. She is caught in
the power struggles of neighbors, caught in the storms of Kansas, caught in the
destruction of the earth by farms feeding a growing nation, that didn’t
practice methods of building up the soil.
She is caught between childhood and adulthood, with some tenuous
comforts, but it isn’t enough for her.
She wants to belong. She wants to
contribute. She wants community. She wants to feel part of something. She wants home.
Often in literature and in life, longing is expressed by people
pushed to the margins. Those who are
comfortable or are empowered might not tend to speak up as much or to dream of
something more or be encouraged to name their dream. In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy, as a character
on the margins, expresses her dream. She
is a teenager just before teenagers are becoming a defined group, somewhere
between childhood and adulthood. She is
female—a group who had the right to vote less than 20 years at this point, who
is just coming to see the possibilities of having rights. She has her certain work she can do, based on
her gender, but there is much of the world kept from her. She is on the margins.
In the scriptures, the dream comes from God, pushed to the
margins, not appreciated, always the spurned lover, the one wanting more for
the people but ignored. The prophets are
chosen to bring God’s message. They are
driven out of the city, ignored, killed.
In the Gospels, it is the marginalized folks who see and express a
vision. The Samaritan woman has a vision
of healing for her daughter, as does the centurion. The woman at the well has a vision for the
water of life being available even to her and her community. The lepers have a vision in which they can be
healed and part of community. These
beautiful visions are part of God’s vision of
abundant life, community and healing.
The vision for the Gospel today, comes from the marginalized
man. He has a hope, a vision that things
won’t always be the way they are—that he won’t feel so separated from God. His cry echoes that of the one criminal on
the cross next to Jesus—he admitted his sin, his need and though he didn’t
deserve it, he asked Jesus to remember him.
He had a vision of God’s Kingdom and was content to simply be a memory
there. Instead he received the promise
of abundant life. The vision for the
Pharisee is that he will climb the ladder of importance and by his own actions
be powerful and better. But that’s not a
vision. That’s just more of the same and
it’s unsustainable, because it is by his own power and we are all coming down
off our ladders and high horses. Sooner
or later we will not wield the power we do due to illness or age or a reverse
of fortunes.
The wicked witch and the Wizard occupy the place of the Pharisee
in the Wizard of Oz. Both are characters
of power who have subjects that they have scared into following them, people
they have subjugated to gain power for themselves. One is more nefarious than the other, yet
rather glad they are not like those other people but deserving of their power
and status. One is destroyed in baptism
and the other by being revealed as being like everyone else.
In the Bible, the heroes and heroines are centered because of
their lack. Because of their need, they
see something, hope for something, work for something that powerful rich people
do not. They share God’s dream that
things will be different and they are motivated to work toward that or let God
work through them. They are the
children, the widows, the foreigners, the despised, the diseased, the helpless,
and the grieving.
The heroes and heroines of the Wizard of Oz come from an
unlikely place. They are centered
because of their lack, their need.
That’s what brings them together.
That’s what helps them keep the vision of what could be. That’s what motivates them forward no matter
what obstacles appear. Dorothy needs to
get home. The Scarecrow needs a
brain. The Cowardly Lion needs his
courage. The Tin Man needs a heart. And what good things for us to pursue as
well. When we look at God’s dream and
the Kingdom God is building of abundant life, what is it going to take get
there? Home is the there, I think. To get there we need a brain—thank you! That people will use reasoning and smarts and
this amazing gift of discernment to sort out what is true and what is a lie,
what is a reliable source and what is distracting us and dividing us. We need our brains. God gave them to us for a reason to
understand our world. There are some
things we cannot understand with our brains, and that is why we need
hearts. Our hearts understand compassion
and ethics, what common ideals guide our thinking, how we use what we know, how
we use compassion to guide us forward.
And we’re going to need courage to use these two gifts to get home,
because obstacles await—evil and selfishness and distractions and arguments.
So we have this vision of God’s
dream, somewhere over the rainbow, somewhere over the promise, the
unknown. We have our eyes on the vision,
and as we stop into that vision, we begin to see colors where there were none,
verdant green and colorful plants, nature restored, beauty. We feel that emotion, like the first time we
saw The Wizard of Oz, the vibrancy of the vision coming to life before us. And we start down the Yellow Brick Road with
cheers from our friends who share a common mission and vision. We join together in our needs and lacks with
others who share the vision. And we
encounter those who don’t share it, and who see it as a threat. We meet the witch and the wizard who are
oblivious or have their own vision of controlling everything.
It isn’t just other people that fall into that trap of the
witch, the wizard, and the Pharisee. When
we start comparing ourselves to others and using each other to step on to gain
power, we take our eyes off the vision and hurt each other. We place ourselves at the center—worship our
ability to be better than others—which is idolatry and exhausting to try to
keep up.
One of these self-centered
characters in the film is finally able to admit his need when he is confronted
and chastised. Toto reveals the Wizard
as an ordinary man and Dorothy reads him the riot act and he has to admit that
he is not better than other people and it was all an illusion, a trick. He, too, is in need of a home, and now he can
join the vision of the others on the quest.
For our churches,
we want to project health and wholeness to attract new people to join our
church, but we must be honest about our needs and limits and seek God’s vision
together. We like to say we’re glad
we’re not like those other churches that aren’t welcoming to all. But in building ourselves up in comparison
with others, we lose sight of the vision.
It would be better to focus on our vision that God gives us and admit
where we are lacking or what we need to get there. Then there is room for everyone to bring
their gifts to contribute.
So today as we make our estimates of
giving I will ask you to name a blessing that God gives you through your church
and I will ask you to name a need, a place of lack. We are not here because we have arrived at
the dream of God. We are here at Trinity
because we are traveling that road toward God’s dream together and we need each
other and everyone’s gifts to get there.
May God give us God’s vivid and
beautiful dream and humble us to admit our need for each other. May God help us to be vulnerable about our
lack and to see it not as a liability, but as a way to remain open to
relationship and cooperation. May God
guide us through many forests and obstacles until we arrive at that dream
together and all are at home.
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