In a small classroom at a country school, a second-grade teacher carefully removes from a cabinet her collection of insects and butterflies.
The teacher begins, “Today we are going to study about insects. You can see just how many sizes, colors, and shapes they come in. I have collected these for many years so you must be very careful with them. I had some of your parents in my class years ago and I showed them these insects just like I am showing them to you. If we are careful your children may be able to look at them too. So please don’t touch any of the insects because they are very fragile. I have pinned and dried the insects so that they can be preserved just as they were when I found them.”
A little boy raises his hand, and the teacher calls on him. “Yes, Tommy?” “Ms. Brown, how come these bugs don’t move?” “Tommy, these bugs can’t move because they are dead.” Tommy raises his hand again. “Ms. Brown, if these bugs are dead, are they still bugs?” Tommy continues, “Last year my uncle died and when my mom took us to see him in that box, my mom said that that wasn’t really him anymore, that he was with God…is that the same thing with a bug?” “Tommy your mother is right. When something dies it ceases to be what it was and that is true of bugs also. What we have here is the bodies of the insects, but they cannot behave as they once did. In a very real way, the butterfly is not a butterfly but only the shell of a butterfly and it can no longer affect it’s environment. The truth is that when you pin something down it dies, and it is no longer what it was.”
Today our world and our church are filled with conflict. And it seems that much of that conflict exists around the issue of who is right and who is wrong, who has the one perfect truth. But truth is not so easily “pinned down.” And when we do try to pin it down, it seems to die. For instance, consider Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus (Nick) in John 3:1-15. Jesus tells Nick that he must be born anew, or he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nick gets hung up on the idea of being born and asks; “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” For Nick, to be born meant only one thing. He couldn’t possibly imagine any other form of being born. He had a clear understanding and there was no room for other possibilities. Now Nick was a member of the Pharisees which meant that he was an educated person. In Nick’s case, and often with us as well, our knowledge gets in the way of our ability to see things “anew” as Jesus was suggesting. In other words, is the dead butterfly really a butterfly? Scripture and theology (Theo=God or God talk) point to the truth but are not themselves the truth. That is to say that both scripture and theology are limited by the thought and language of the human world. They both speak of God but are not themselves God. They are much less the “nailing down” than they are setting free. Just what does it mean to be “born anew”? Is there only one answer? Is everyone “born anew” exactly the same way?
Depending on what position you take on an issue you will be suddenly titled as a “liberal” or a “conservative.” I maintain that it just isn’t that easy. Some of the most conservative people I know a very liberal positions on some issues and some of the most liberal people I know have very conservative positions on other issues. For instance, when Exodus 20:13 says “You shall not kill.” Does it mean kill anything—plants, tree—or is it only referring to people. If it is speaking of people, does it mean all people, our enemies and our friends? Is this verse speaking of the unborn and those condemned to capital punishment as well? You can see that there are many different ways to answer these questions. The church is to be a safe place for the debate to take place, if not the Church, then where? Only in the Church are we called to love even those we disagree with, to love beyond the theology, beyond the scriptural interpretation, to love beyond The Left or The Right, conservative or liberal. The truth is that we need each other. We need to hear the other possibilities; we need to have the debate. That’s what Jesus was trying to say to Nicodemus…let your theology, your life, and your world be born anew. I believe that Jesus’ outstretched arms are the tension holding the ends together. “For God sent His Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” John 3:17
Tommy raises his hand one more time. “Yes, Tommy?” “If things die when we pin them down, should we still be pinning them down?”
Ms. Brown answers only with a long sigh…
That, friends, is the Easter message.
Happy Easter season.
Father Bill Myrick
