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The Gospel According to . . . Dr. Seuss

May 22, 2005

Ralph DiBiasio-Snyder

Matthew 5:38-39, 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, Isaiah 11:6-9

In January Carol and I did a series of sermons each with the title that began, The Gospel According to. The purpose of that series was to see how our faith might be reflected in contemporary culture - films, books, television. And so we looked at The Simpsons, The DaVinci Code, The Matrix, and Harry Potter. We resume that series today, this week and next week considering how our faith and values are expressed in two series of children's books - the works of Theodore Geisel (we know him as Dr. Seuss) and A.A. Milne, the author of the Winnie-the-Pooh books. The point, as I say, is to see where these very popular works express what we believe, and support what we have committed ourselves to - the "gospel" put in very different images, but still true and powerful. They are works in which we see ourselves as we are, and as we could become.

Dr. Seuss wrote and illustrated forty-four books, the first one published in 1937. Perhaps his best-known story - The Cat in the Hat - came out in 1957. His stories are known for their dazzling, fanciful use of words - words we know, and words Dr. Seuss invents - and his equally wonderful characters. You've already heard of some of them in the Invitation to Worship - Sneetches and Zooks and Wooks, and North-Going Zax and South-Going Zaxs, and of course the Whos, from the microscopic town of Whoville. They are great stories that must be read aloud to be appreciated. But they do more than make us laugh, as valuable as that is. They teach us about ourselves. What I would like to do today is to look at three stories to see what they might be telling us.

Let's begin with The Sneetches.

[Image - page 181]

Now, the Star-Belly Sneetches had bellies with stars. The Plain-Belly Sneetches had none upon thars. Those stars weren't so big. They were really so small, you might think such a thing wouldn't matter at all. But, because they had stars, all the Star-Belly Sneetches would brag, "We're the best kind of Sneetch on the beaches." With their snoots in the air, they would sniff and they'd snort, "We'll have nothing to do with the Plain-Belly sort!" And whenever they met some, when they were out walking, they'd hike right on past them without even talking.

[Image: page 183]

When the Star-Belly children went out to play ball, could a Plain-Belly get in the game? Not at all. You only could play if your bellies had stars, and the Plain-Belly children had none upon thars."

Isn't the silliest of barriers between us - and so the first of our sins - our ability to separate ourselves from each other on the basis of mere outward appearance? The color of our skin, the shape of our eyes, the texture of our hair - all these purely superficial, strictly on the surface, physical traits make us fear one another, avoid one another, and soon hate one another. What does a star on one's belly have to do with who we are inside? God created all manner of human beings, of every color and shape, height and weight, and God loves them all. But we, like the Sneetches, will love only those who look like us.

The Plain-Belly Sneetches, feeling left out, and, well, "plain," are fair game for any preacher who might come to town, offering them hope - for a price.

[Image page 187]

"My friends," he announced in a voice clear and keen. "My name is Suylverst McMonkey McBean. And I've heard of your troubles. I've heard you're unhappy. But I can fix that. I'm the Fix-it-Up Chappie. I've come here to help you. I have what you need. And my prices are low. And I work at great speed. And my work is one hundred per cent guaranteed!"

McBean runs the Plain-Bellied Sneetches through his magic machine, and out they came, each with a star on their belly!

[Image 190]

"Then they yelled at the ones who had stars at the start, "we're exactly like you! You can't tell us apart. We're all just the same, now, you snooty old smarties! And now we can go to your frankfurter parties."

The original Star-Bellied Sneetches, you of course will know, we are just like them, are not pleased with this. THEY think they are still the best. But now the Plain-Bellied Sneetches look just like them! What to do? McBean is there to help - for a price. He runs them through his Star-Off Machine.

[Image, page 196]

Then, with snoots in the air, they paraded about and they opened their beaks and they let out a shout, "We know who is who! Now there isn't a doubt. The best kind of Sneetches are Sneetches without!"

[Image 197]

Then, of course, those with stars all got frightfully mad. To be wearing a star now was frightfully bad. Then, of course, old Sylvester McMonkey McBean invited them into his Star-Off Machine. Then, of course from THEN on, as you probably guess, things really got into a horrible mess.

The rest of the day each group has their stars taken off, and then on, off and on again, each time paying McBean for his services. Until both groups have spent all their money trying not to look like the other. McBean leaves town with all their money.

[Image page 200]

Then, when every last cent of their money was spent, the Fix-it-Up Chappie packed up and he went. And he laughed as he drove in his car up the beach, "They never will learn. No. You can't teach a Sneetch!"

The story is a great mirror being held up before us. Surely we see in the silly Sneetches something of ourselves as we quickly, instinctively, judge one another on color of skin, clothes, accent, tattoos, piercings . . . things on the surface that really don't matter in the end. Think of what we spend in money and time and worry, so that we look like "our group" and so we don't look like the other group.

Dr. Seuss in this story leaves us with hope for change, though.

[Image page 203]

"The day they decided that Sneetches are Sneetches and no kind of Sneetch is the best on the beaches. That day, all the Sneetches forgot about stars and whether they had one, or not, upon thars."

The all-too-human ability to judge others who are different from us even in the most superficial way - something we learn very early in life, and that God demands that we change - that horrible, hurtful - sinful - behavior has been the cause of many a war. Dr. Seuss in The Butter Battle Book shows us that.

In it we meet the Zooks and the Yooks. They are neighbors, but have built a wall between their countries because while the Yooks butter their bread on the top, the Zooks eat their bread with the butter side down! The story is about a grandfather telling his grandson about the wall and their enemies, the Zooks. It begins, On the last day of summer, ten hours before fall, my grandfather took me out to the wall . . . " Let's watch.

[Video]

The rest of the story shows how the Leaders of the Zooks and Yooks - each with a team of "Boys in the Back Room" designing larger and larger weapons against each other - instead of seeking to understand the other take their people down a path toward destruction. Until the Bright Boys in the Back Room invent "the Bitsy Big-Boy Boomeroo" - clearly a nuclear bomb. Chief Yookeroo orders all the Yooks to go underground, and they blindly obey "for their country, and Right-Side-Up Butter," while grandfather heads for the wall, planning to drop the Bitsy Big-Boy Boomeroo on the Zooks.

[Image - left page]

Grandpa leapt up that Wall with a lopulous leap, and he cleared hoarse throat with a bopulous beep. He screamed, "Here's the end of that terrible town full of Zooks who eat bread with butter side down!"

[Image - right page]

And at that very instant we heard a klupp-klupp of feet on the Wall and old VanItch klupped up! The Boys in HIS Back Room had made him one too! In his fist was another Big-Boy Boomeroo! "I'll blow you ," he yelled "into pork and wee beans! I'll butter-side-up you to small smithereens!"

[Image - last page]

"Grandpa" I shouted. "Be careful! Oh, gee! Who's going to drop it? Will you . . . ? Or will he . . . ?" "Be patient," said Grandpa. "We'll see. We will see . . . "

The children of the world who despite our efforts at indoctrinating them are not so sure that buttering up or buttering down is worth destroying the world . . . those children all say to us, "Grandpa! Be careful!"

The last story is a longer one, and I cannot do it justice in this short time. But it's important in that it has a character that seems to be a sort of God figure. That character is the lovable, long-suffering, ever-faithful and patient elephant, Horton. And the story begins this way:

[Image page 117]

On the fifteenth of May, in the Jungle of Nool, in the heat of the day, in the cool of the pool, he was splashing . . . enjoying the jungle's great joys . . . . when Horton the elephant heard a small noise.

[Image page 118]

So Horton stopped splashing. He looked toward the sound. "That's funny, " thought Horton, "There's no one around." Then he heard it again! Just a very faint yelp as if some tiny person were calling for help. "I'll help you," said Horton. "But who are you? Where?" He looked and he looked. He could see nothing there but a small speck of dust blowing past through the air..

"I say!" murmured Horton. "I've never heard tell of a small speck of dust that is able to yell. So you know what I think? . . . Why, I think that there must be someone on top of that small speck of dust! Some sort of a creature of very small size, too small to be seen by an elephant's eyes . . . Some poor little person who's shaking with fear that he'll blow in the pool! He has no way to steer! I'll just have to save him. Because, after all, a person's a person, no matter how small."

Horton discovers that on that speck of dust is a whole town - Whoville, populated by Whos. The other animals, because they can't hear what Horton hears, mock him for believing in a town he can't see. And there follows an adventure as the speck of dust that is Whoville is stolen, and Horton, like the Good Shepherd seeking the one lost sheep, goes after it.

[Image, page 147]

"I'll find it!" cried Horton. "I'll find it or bust! I SHALL find my friends on my small speck of dust!" And clover by clover, by clover with care he picked up and searched them, and called, "Are you there?"

Horton finds the speck that is Whoville, but in order to convince to other animals that Whoville exists, he tells all the Whos to make as loud a noise as they can. They do, and Horton can hear them, but the others still can't. UNTIL the Mayor of Whoville finds one of the Whos - the smallest Who of all - not making a sound.

In the Fairfax Apartments (Apartment 12-J) a very small, very small shirker named Jo-Jo was standing, just standing, and bouncing a Yo-Yo! Not making a sound! Not a yipp! Not a chirp! And the Mayor rushed inside and he grabbed the young twerp!

All the Whos try again - with Jo-Jo - to make a great noise so all the animals could hear them, and it worked:

[Image page175]

Finally, at last! From that speck on the clover their voices were heard! They rang out clear and clean. And the elephant smiled. "Do you see what I mean? . . . They've proved they ARE persons, no matter how small. And their whole world was saved by the Smallest of All!"

The Dr. Seuss stories remind us of who we are - quick to judge others not like us, even in superficial ways, stubbornly and foolishly proud, and willing to go to the very brink of disaster rather than learn to understand "the other" that we fear so much, for so little reason. And he tells us that all of us - the smallest too, those that we imagine have nothing to offer - all people are people, and so worthy of our love, and our care.

Those simple assertions played out in the books of Dr. Seuss are surely some of the most important, and most difficult to learn - lessons that we take a lifetime to learn, really. Like Jesus' admonition to love our enemy; like St. Paul's simple words, Love is patient, and love is kind; like Isaiah's vision of a world where the wolf will live with the lamb, and a little child shall lead them . . . these things are hard to live out. But we have a God who patiently, unceasingly seeks us out, and calls us to live in love because we are loved. May that grace empower us to teach our children by our example here and in our families, and in the world. Amen.