The Sneetches are such silly creatures, aren’t they? Two groups of yellow bird-like creatures lived on a beautiful beach. Some have little green stars on their bellies. Some don’t. That’s when the trouble begins. The star-bellied Sneetches believe that the star upon their belly makes them “the best Sneetches on the beaches.” They enjoy much fun and frivolity, but don’t let their plain-bellied-brethren join in their reindeer games. Enter Sylvester McMonkey McBean. He has just the contraption that will solve all the problems of the plain-bellied Sneetches. The plain-bellied Sneetches pay just three dollars to enter the machine, and come out the other end with stars upon thars.
This is only a momentary victory, as natural-starred-Sneetches maintain that they are still the better Sneetches. Sylvester comes in again and offers some help. For only ten dollars per Sneetch, they can enter the machine and have that pesky star removed. Chaos ensues. The Sneetches get so caught up in adding or removing their stars to keep up with the trends that eventually even they cannot keep up. Eventually, Sylvester leaves, his pockets properly lined. In the end, “all the Sneetches forgot about stars, and whether they had one, or not, upon thars.”
It would be easier to dismiss the Sneetches as silly, superficial creatures if we didn’t see ourselves so clearly in them. Once again, Dr. Seuss presents us with a fun-house mirror. Bent to stretch out the image to absurd proportions, but mirror-enough to recognize ourselves. The Sneetches remind us of the absurdity of our divisions. They remind us of the stars for which we long. They remind us of the anxieties with which we wake every day. The anxieties that sit in the pit of our stomachs. The anxieties that keep us awake, that diminish our appetites, that affect our relationships, and cripple us with fear for of what we don’t have.
The Sneetches worried about whether or not they had stars upon thars. And we can look out those silly Sneetches and laugh, until we start noticing the stars upon others that we wish we had. I see the Corvette parked in our neighbor’s garage. I see the parents whose children are always so well-behaved. I see the blogger who is selling advertising and the podcasts in the top 100. I see the churches with the talented praise bands and the powerful music, and the preachers biggering their churches. I look down at my own belly, and there is no star. And to boot, it’s a little too big. Look at those guys at the gym who have six-packs, not stars, upon thars.
And then I hear Jesus.
“Therefore I say to you, don’t worry about your life,” and the needle on the record player amplifying my anxieties gets lifted off with a terrible screech.
Before he can finish the sentence, I want to scream. Don’t worry about your life? What is that supposed to mean? My worries are valid. My worries are righteous. Shouldn’t I be in better shape? Shouldn’t I want a bigger church? Shouldn’t I want more readers, more listeners? Don’t I deserve to do some biggering of my own? And then I hear myself. And I pause long enough to let Jesus finish.
“Don’t worry about what you’ll eat or what you’ll drink, or about your body, what you’ll wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothes?” (Isn’t there more to you than the whether or not you have a star upon yars?) “Look at the birds in the sky. They don’t sow seed or harvest grain or gather crops into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth much more than they are?” (Matthew 6:25-27)
“I guess”, I think. But still, that seems absurd. God is the one who gave us the ability to think about the future. And with the ability to think about the future comes the ability to worry about it. So am I supposed to stop saving money? Should I spend my pension? Should I get rid of my refrigerator? How far am I supposed to take this?
“Who among you by worrying can add a single moment to your life?” (Matthew 6:28) Maybe there is a difference between preparing for the future and worrying about the future. Being a good steward of what has been entrusted to me is different than wrangling out every last penny so as to hoard my blessings. It seems possible to have a pension without being a slave to it. There is still room for generosity, kindness, and contentment even in the midst of preparing for a rainy day. If I can let Jesus’ words seep into my crippling anxiety, I can realize that biggering is not what life is all about.
The Sermon on the Mount is Jesus’ long explanation of the Kingdom of Heaven. This Kingdom that Jesus describes defies simple explanation. Yet at the same time it seems to come back to one thing: love. “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be loyal to the one have have contempt for the other. You cannot serve God and wealth” (Matthew 6:24) What do you love? Do you love God, and seek first God’s kingdom? Or do you love status, or money, or power? When we operate out of anxiety, we let our fears rule, so we serve whatever quick fix might offer us an illusion of security. But when we operate out of love, and truly let Jesus be our Lord, we learn that security lies not in the fragile, decaying, dying things of this world. When we operate out of love, we can stop worrying about the stars we don’t have. Perhaps more importantly, we can stop guarding the places where we have stars. We can loosen our grip on the stars upon ours. When security rests only in the eternal, life-giving, resurrected Christ, generosity, justice, and peace start to seep in.
The Sneetches were convinced that having a star upon thars was all that mattered. They knew that if they could only have what the others didn’t then they’d be okay. So they gave everything they had to the one who offered them security. He offered them a quick fix, a walk through a machine, and a star upon thars. Eventually though, they learned. They learned that the security they sought in the mark on their belly was empty.
The question remains, will we? Can we learn to stop searching for easy answers? Can we learn to let go of our anxiety over what is or isn’t on our bellies, in our garages, in our pews, or in our bank accounts? Can we learn to stop putting our trust in a false sense of security?
Can I?
Can I learn to love God first, and let all else come later? Can I learn to seek first the Kingdom of God, and then my pension? Can I learn to let go, loosen my grip, and let God’s grace fill in the gaps?
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