Emily's Oz

March 3, 2015

Dear St. Paul’s Family,

If you watched last week’s broadcast of the Academy Awards, you may remember seeing a commercial involving 7-year old Emily Groves of Bettendorf, Iowa.  There are two immediate things to know about Emily: 1) she loves the movie Wizard of Oz, and 2) she has been blind since birth.

But to hear Emily talk, you would think she has personally been to Oz herself. In her imagination, the Tin Man is thinner than a normal human since he has no heart, and has big feet shaped like a giant toe. The scarecrow has long arms and long fingernails, teeth made out of wood, and tubes sticking out of his chest to shoot chemicals at birds. The cowardly lion? Just the size of a chihuahua.  “He’s tiny,” Emily says, “because he has no courage.”  And Dorothy? “Looks like me,” she says with a smile. 

Oz purists might balk at the liberties young Emily takes with one of the most beloved classics of all time. Until you remember that the Wizard of Oz was not originally a film, but a book, by L. Frank Baum, in 1900. Until the film in 1939, no one pictured Dorothy Gale as a young Judy Garland, or the tin man with a funnel hat, or a lion that looked part teddy bear. 

That is what happens with the written word: it is first illustrated by the mind’s eye, long before it is rendered visually. Whenever we read a story, we are “blind” in a sense, and we depend on the pictures within our own imagination to derive meaning and enjoyment. Rarely do we argue with others who have read the same story about the superiority of our mind-pictures over theirs.

It’s not until the written word becomes visually literalized that we become purists over the smallest details. (Just look at the way rabid Star Wars fans treated George Lucas after his digital changes to the original trilogy.) Once we “see” the story literally, it’s hard to see it any other way. And there ends the fruit of our own creativity, our capacity to imagine, and our ability to extract fresh meaning from the text.

“HEALING” THE BLIND MAN

I used to be quite puzzled by the story of the blind man of Bethsaida in Mark 8:22-26. Some people had brought him to Jesus in the hopes that he might be healed. Jesus then did a surprising thing. After leading him outside the village, he spit on his eyes, touched him, and told him to open his eyes.

But he was only partially healed. And in effect, he was still blind. Jesus said, “Do you see anything?” The man looked up and said, “I see people. They look like trees, only they are walking around.”  It wasn’t until Jesus touched him a second time that the man recovered the fullness of sight. 

I’ve often wondered why Jesus was playing games with the poor man. Why not heal him the first time, rather than drag his misery along? Or maybe – and this is an even more controversial idea – Jesus wasn’t able to heal him the first time. Maybe he needed a second touch to bring him full healing.

But after reading the story of Emily Groves, I am starting to wonder if what Jesus did for the blind man was neither unkind or unintentional. Maybe that first touch was not accidental, but a reminder that blindness to convention can bring creativity and new meaning.  And maybe that second touch, while it restored the man’s physical sight, effectively brought an end to his imaginative sight.  In other words, perhaps the first touch of Jesus was as much a gift as the second. 

This story might remind us never to depend solely on our physical eyes in order to discern spiritual truths. The man regained his sight, but he ought not to lose his vision: his dependence on God and others, his capacity to wonder and be in awe, and his ability to trust in a power greater than himself. 

To reinforce that idea, just look at the stories that bookend this healing of the blind man.  Right beforehand, Jesus reminded them of the feeding miracle, in which the world saw paltry loaves and fish, but he saw it as a feast to feed a crowd.  And afterwards, there is the confession of Peter.  Whereas the world saw Jesus as the reincarnation John the Baptist, Elijah, or one of the prophets, Peter saw Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the God. 

SEEING TODAY

Maybe what churches need today is a new way of seeing.  This is no disrespect to tradition, but maybe the Church has too long depended on its own physical eyes to discern spiritual truths. Maybe we are so quick to jump to the second touch of Jesus that we miss the value of the first. That first touch is the work of the Holy Spirit, prompting us to see with fresh creativity and imagination, to get a glimpse of the new work that God wants to do in the world, and to reaffirm our utter and ultimate dependence on God.

That’s why I think it’s significant that Jesus brought the man outside the village before he healed him. It is a geographic maneuver that makes an important statement to the church. Sometimes, The Spirit introduces new insights to the church through those outside the church:  The first-time visitor with the tattoos. The scientific doubter. The new Christian with the weird ideas. The gay man who feels shunned by his local church. The homeless person on the street.  Maybe the Church has gotten so used to seeing The Wizard of Oz in the same way that it takes a relatively blind person on the outside to help the Church spiritually envision the fresh work that God wants to do.

EMILY’S OZ

I don’t know what we do with all of this, but I do know what one director named Andreas Nillson did. He decided to listen to young 7-year old Emily Groves, and bring to life her vision of how she perceives the world and the characters of The Wizard of Oz. He and his crew meticulously built her vision of Oz and rendered each of the four main characters following the exact details of her mind’s eye.  And they put it all together for the commercial “Emily’s Oz” for the Comcast cable company.  And during last week’s Oscars ceremony, the world saw this fresh, new vision of L. Frank Baum’s timeless classic.

Change can be a good thing. It can challenge us to broaden our perspectives and expand our view of how broad and how wide the love of God really is. And sometimes, that change can only happen when we invite the points of view of those on the outside, who are blind to the traditional ways of seeing, but awakened to the way that God wants to do a new thing.

Grace and Peace,

Magrey

The Rev. Magrey R. deVega

St. Paul's United Methodist Church

531 W. Main St.

Cherokee, IA  51012

Ph:  712-225-3955

Email:  mdevega@sp-umc.org

OUT OF TOWN THIS WEEKEND

This weekend, I have the privilege of speaking to about 1,100 Methodist youth in Arkansas for their Conference’s annual Veritas gathering. I will be gone from Friday morning to Sunday night, preaching five sermons to them during that time. I appreciate your prayers for safe travel, and for the Spirit’s movement through me and those in attendance. I’m grateful to Dave Orthmann, who will provide the sermon for you this Sunday.