The Gospel According to…
Horton Hears a Who
Luke 9:46-50
November 30, 2008
It is advent time again. This marks in the Christian year a time of preparing for the coming of Jesus. It is a time of preparing for his coming again as well as marking the original coming of Christ as a babe in a manger. So in order to prepare ourselves for the celebration of his birth and prepare ourselves for his coming again, this advent season I am doing a series of sermons entitle, “The Gospel According To…”
It works like this. We are going to take a look at some popular movies and characters. Some of these are classic Christmas stories and some of these are based on some recent movies. What I want us to do is to look at some of these stories or narratives and discover where the kingdom gospel of Jesus and these stories intersect. We find some of the basic ideas of God’s good news about His coming kingdom in these stories. And we might find a few places where they fall short. This series leads up to our celebration of the birth of Christ.
This week we are going to look at “The Gospel According to Horton Hears a Who.” This sermon and next week’s sermon are based on simple and basic idea of the movie and book. It is a common refrain that defines the plot of the movie and book.
One day, Horton the elephant hears a cry from help coming from a speck of dust. Even though he can’t see anyone on the speck, he decides to help it. As it turns out, the speck of dust is home to the Whos, who live in their city of Whoville. Horton agrees to help protect the Whos and their home, but this gives him nothing but torment from his neighbors, who refuse to believe that anything could survive on the speck. Still, Horton stands by the motto that, "After all, a person is a person, no matter how small."
There is the kernel of gospel. A person’s a person, no matter how small. Here we find crucial element is God’s scheme of things. It is a basic idea in God’s kingdom. A person’s a person, no matter how small.
Speaking of little ones… The pastor trying to make conversation with a three year old girl asked her, “And where did you get those big brown eyes?”
She thought for a second and said, “They came with my head.”
A person’s a person no matter how small. We find the connection in multiple places in the bible. One being Luke 9:46-50. Now literally Jesus is talking about children. We should connect this to other passages that Jesus talks about not hindering the children. Bottom line is: Your spirit not your size makes the difference. A person’s a person no matter how small.
Remember that Jesus was once a helpless infant. In fact, shortly after Jesus was born, the king acting in Ceaser’s place called for the execution of all the Hebrew male children under the age of two because of the prophecy about Jesus. He was afraid.
The point for us is to remember every person is a person. Every person has the potential for service in the Kingdom. The greatest are those who serve. Even the least important person has full rights as a citizen of God’s Kingdom. It doesn’t matter how small physically, mentally, emotionally (and let me tell you there are a lot of small people out there emotionally), socially, financially, and spiritually a person is. They are welcome in the kingdom.
Our culture trains us to ignore the small people. We give the recognition to those who are big. Whether they are physically big like Shaq or Kobe or Lebron or they are big names like Bill Gates or even big stars like Brad Pitt or Harrison Ford, these are the important people. They are the ones we admire. They are the ones we listen to and we watch.
But in God’s scheme of things, a person’s a person no matter how small. In fact in God’s scheme, the least are the most important. The poor and marginalized and abuse and downtrodden are given God’s favor over the important, or wealthy, or famous.
Chris Tomlin wrote a worship song that I love simply entitled, “Famous One.” He says, “You are the Lord, the Famous One, the Famous, One. Great is Your name in all the earth.” God is God and we are not. None of us are. He is the one the deserves the recognition. And at the same we are treat others as we would like to be treated no matter where they are at in life.
As we enter this Christmas season, I want to challenge to make a special effort at treating people with civility, love, and respect. Don’t look through people. Don’t look past them. But see them. See them as a person who needs Jesus. See them as someone who needs love and respect and be treated with dignity.
Whether it is the homeless walking around downtown or the shopper who walks past you in the mall. A person’s a person no matter how small. Whether it is the widow who lives across the street or the child who has one sugary snack too many. A person’s a person no matter how small. Whether it is the checkout person at Wal-mart or the teenager that has gotten pregnant. A person’s a person no matter how small. Whether it is the person trying to turn left on a busy street or the unborn and perhaps unwanted child in someone’s womb. A person is a person, no matter how small.
So what difference does this make for us? Three things. One of which I already mentioned.
A Person’s a Person, No Matter How Small
• See the people around you
Don’t make assumptions. Don’t take everything personally. See them. Don’t judged them. See them. Recognize them. Greet them. If you greet only those who you know, how are you any better than the pagans? Who are they? They are a person made in the image of God.
The disciples were struggling with the idea that they weren’t the only ones who were following Jesus. Since they spent time with Jesus and since they were the ones that Jesus had handpicked to leave everything behind, they thought that they were the chosen. They were Jesus’ peeps. Yet Jesus tells them not to be jealous of them and do not hinder people just because they aren’t in your group. Don’t ignore them. Don’t hold them back. Don’t cast them off. Don’t judge them.
But we still do this today. They don’t believe like us. They don’t dress like us. They don’t talk like us. They don’t whatever. And we think less of them. Sometimes we don’t really treat them differently but we think it. Maybe we don’t react quite the same as the disciples did but then maybe we do. How often do we judge someone by their clothes? Doesn’t what a person wears go a long way in shaping our attitude toward them? Don’t we draw conclusions on how a person looks depending on what situation they are in? See the people around you. A person’s a person no matter how small.
A man accompanied his friend home for dinner and was impressed by the way he entered his house, asked his wife how her day went, and told her she looked pretty. Then, after they embraced, she served dinner. After they ate, the husband complimented his wife on the meal and thanked her for it. When the two fellows were alone, the visitor asked, "Why do you treat your wife so well?"
"Because she deserves it, and it makes our marriage happier," replied the host.
Impressed, the visitor decided to adopt the idea. Arriving home, he embraced his wife and said, "You look wonderful!" For good measure he added, "Sweetheart, I’m the luckiest guy in the world."
His wife burst into tears. Bewildered, he asked her, "What in the world’s the matter?"
She wept, "What a day! Billy fought at school. The refrigerator quit and spoiled the groceries. And now you’ve come home drunk!"
See the people around you as people. A person’s a person, no matter how small. But perhaps even go another step and…
• Flash them a prayer
I once read this suggestion and it is a good one I think. In your travels, perhaps at the store, each person that you see, flash them. Not in that way… But flash them with a prayer. Basically, think a quick prayer for them. Bless them, Lord. Maybe you see them putting a can of green beans in their cart so you might pray, “Bless their holiday meal, Lord.” It doesn’t have to be long. Maybe even thank God for them.
It is hard to look through someone and pretend that they don’t exist when you offer a quick prayer on their behalf.
• Go out of your way
Too often we (and I count myself with all of us together) simply help someone and we talk to someone or we befriend others when it is convenient. We sometimes only help them when we know that we might gain something out of what we are doing. Go out of your way to help people this Christmas season. Go out of your way to be a neighbor. Even if they are one of the least of these. Even if they can never repay you. Maybe even especially if they cannot repay.
Let’s make it a conspiracy. We are going to join in cahoots with Jesus. We are going to be nice to people. We are going to treat people with dignity and respect even if they don’t deserve it even if they don’t return the same. We can do this intentionally. Call it a conspiracy of kindness. We can join together to go our of our way to treat people, well as people.
Do something nice for someone and don’t get caught. So often people do what is wrong as long as they know they won’t get caught. I’ve seen surveys where people were asked about doing certain things like stealing and having an affair if they were assured they would never get caught. Would they do them? Amazingly some of the surveys indicate that over half would do them if they knew they wouldn’t get caught.
I wonder about doing acts of kindness. If you wouldn’t get caught and no one would ever know except you and God and you couldn’t tell someone, would you do it? Do something nice and not get caught? Sometimes it is hard not tell someone. And this is not necessarily bad because we do need to share things because it encourages others to act the same way and maybe inspires new ways of treating people as people. I was wondering if the secret sisters never revealed who they had, would people do it? If at the end of the year, everyone just received a new name. Would we do it? It is fun to see who has shown me love and who has been praying for me, isn’t it? Recognition can be encouraging.
But this week, do something nice for someone without getting caught. Maybe try to think about this as a Christmas project. Each week during advent leading up to Christmas, I will do something for someone and not get caught. It is a lot harder than it sounds.
Just remember the gospel according to Horton hears a Who and let that remind you of the challenge: A person’s a person no matter how small. Say it with me: A person’s a person, no matter how small.
