William Shakespeare may be the second most quoted source in the history of English literature. You know what the most quoted source still is . .. The Bible. What you may not know is that every day Shakespeare scholarship adds to the pile an average of 8.8 articles and books. I don’t know what biblical scholarship adds every day to the pile of knowledge, but I suspect it’s much, much more than that. If the French novelist Gustave Flaubert could write, “When I read Shakespeare I become greater, wiser, purer,” how much more true is it that when we read the Scriptures we become greater, wiser, purer, truer?
William Shakespeare is credited with elevating the English language to new heights, finding words to express truths and emotions in ways no English-speaking writer had ever done before. But let Shakespeare stand alone in his eloquence. There is someone else who stands alone in his ordinary command of the English language . . . . . Dr. Seuss.
I admit it. I read Dr. Seuss more than I read Shakespeare. Who can forget the rainy day antics of “The Cat in the Hat,” or the tongue-twisting torture of “Fox In Sox,” or the poetic persistence of “Green Eggs and Ham?” I dare you to read a Dr. Seuss book without a big smile plastering across your face.
One of Dr. Seuss’ classics is “On Beyond Zebra” (1955). As the narrator of the story explains the alphabet to his young friend Conrad Cornelius o’Donald o’Dell, “most people stop” with the Z . . . . “BUT NOT ME!”
In the places I go there are things that I see
That I never could spell if I stopped with the Z.
I’m telling you this ‘cause you’re one of my friends,
My alphabet starts where your alphabet ends!
Dr. Seuss’ story goes on to offer up twenty new letters, each one a beautiful, fanciful design. In fact, I’m convinced with no more evidence than a hunch, that when the musician “formerly known as Prince” changed his name to some unpronounceable moniker, he was inspired by this book and in fact picked out one of Dr. Seuss’ extra alphabet letters. Dr. Seuss’ narrator needs all these new letters to name all the wonderful, strange unknown creatures he encounters in the world because the reality he’s discovering requires a bigger vocabulary than 26.
Jesus wrote the first “On Beyond Zebra” alphabet, for that is exactly what Jesus did for his disciples in his Farewell Discourse. He gave them new words, and new meanings to old words, because he was ushering them into a new reality. Jesus gave his disciples an identity beyond student, beyond servant, beyond slave they became “friends.” And Jesus promised to be a “friend” to all those who followed and loved even as he loved them.
Do you speak this morning the on-beyond-zebra language of Christ-love? Here’s one test: How do you see yourself this morning? Are you a friend and a follower of Jesus? Or are you still a fan or a servant of Jesus? Jesus doesn’t call us into servantship, but into friendship.
One of the first groups to grasp this new language was during the rowdy Reformation years of the 17th century when a new denomination known popularly as the “Quakers” was founded. They chose for themselves, under the inspiration of George Fox, the best name for any denomination in the history of denominations: “Society of Friends.” A Quaker was officially a “Friend of Jesus.” And ever since then, these “Friends” have stood for love and peace and mercy, often laying down their lives not just for their friends, but even for their enemies. The members of these “Societies of Friends” were the first denomination to absolutely oppose slavery and actively aid slaves in escaping on the “underground railroad.” The “fruit” those followers and friends helped nurture produced was the eventual abolition of the slave trade if not of slavery, which is rearing its ugly head with a vengeance in the 21st century.
But I want to give you one more test to see whether or not you speak the on-beyond-zebra language of Christ: What’s the divine dictionary definition of “love” Jesus is presenting in this Farewell Discourse we read this morning?
Just as some of the profoundest things I’ve learned in life came from Dr. Seuss, some of the profoundest things I’ve learned about faith came from Sunday School. And maybe only second to the song “Jesus Loves Me This I Know” is importance is this shorthand presentation of the mystery of love. It came in the form of an acronym, which was written into a song I can no longer remember. But I shall never forget the acronym: JOY. JOY stood for . . . .”
Some of you went to the same Sunday School: Jesus, Others, You. The divine dictionary definition of love, which goes beyond the human alphabet, is this: God, neighbor, self. God first, then neighbor, then me. Or in the JOY rendition, Jesus, Others, You. The most important thing anyone ever taught me was taught me by my Sunday School: JOY—Jesus, Others, You.
The mystery of Christ is a life lived in that order, and for those reasons: God first, neighbor second, and yourself last.
First, God-first. We are called to love with a God love, a God love where sacrifice is not an afterthought, but a forethought. God love is a verb which fulfils its mission in us and through us and among us. This doesn’t mean that our dreams and yearnings have no play in God-first God-love. In the words of Bishop Gerard W. Hughes, “If God’s love for us bears no relationship to our own deepest longings and desires, then God cannot be a God of love, but a God of commands. If God’s will for you and for me did not bear any relationship to our own deepest longings and desires, we should be obliged to ignore the longings of our hearts and to put our trust in some authority external to ourselves.” (God in All Things [London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2003], 113.) But we find the desires of our hearts by laying down our own desires and trading them up for God’s desires, and in so doing we find that God has turned our pigsty dreams into true palace dreams.
Second, others-second. To live the mystery of Christ, to put on the “mind of Christ,” to live according to “things above” not the “things below,” is to live life for the sake of others, not ourselves. The whole language of Christ “in you” is the Bible’s way of talking about JOY: our relationships with God, with our neighbors, with ourselves. When I seek intimacy with others out of my own needs for intimacy, I become lonelier than ever. Intimacy is a gift, it is not a goal. Intimacy is a gift that comes from a relationship that puts others’ needs first, not my own. We are reminded of this every time we set out to pray the prayer Jesus taught us to pray: “Our Father . . .” Listen to Jesus pray: “Our Father.” Even Jesus doesn’t come to his Father by himself; he takes other people with him.
Third, you-third. One of my favorite Latin phrases is this one: dumitria in incognito. It means to know oneself as half of a true pair . . This is why the “you,” the “I” is third behind God and neighbor: we are incomplete in and of ourselves. It is only the whole that encompasses integrity and truth, and we don’t discover the whole in ourselves, but outside ourselves in relationship with God and others.
Are you ready to take your life on-beyond-zebra? Are you ready to live the on-beyond-zebra life Jesus is calling us to live as his final words to us?
In Dr. Seuss’ little classic, my favorite entry, my favorite “letter” is ITCH. Here is Dr. Seuss’ definition of this on-beyond-zebra letter:
And way, way past Z is a letter called ITCH.
And the ITCH is for It ch-a-pods, animals which
Race around back and forth, forth and back, through the air
On a sidewalk between HERE and THERE.
They’re afraid to stay THERE. They’re afraid to stay HERE.
They think THERE is too Far. They think HERE is too NEAR.
And since HERE is too NEAR and out THERE is too FAR
They are too scared to roost where-so-ever they are.
The choice is ours: An ITCH life that never gets off the ground. Or a JOY life, an on-beyond-zebra life which leaves the ground and soars in the Spirit.
It’s your choice. But life is choices and consequences.