Wizard of Oz

Now what? – An Easter sermon on Mark 16:1-8 in a Wizard of Oz Easter

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Read more about the FVPC Lent and Easter Wizard of Oz theme here.
A worship video cued to the start of the sermon is available here.

Mark 16:1-8

Last winter as they were preparing for ordination as officers, one of our new elders included in their Statement of Faith, “I believe the Easter sermon should be just three words, ‘He is risen.’”

Well, Leigh, I appreciate the notes, but I hope you can forgive me for the other 1,434.

I read a little pop culture opinion piece recently that was talking about how television has changed with the rise of streaming services. For the most part, gone are the days of sit-coms or dramas with 20-25 new episodes each season.  What has replaced them are 8-10 episode mini-series where, the write bemoaned, everything mattered. Every minute has to move the plot forward or tell us something crucial about a character, because there isn’t time for filler that’s just for fun. And sometimes, when a series ends it’s often incomplete, a cliffhanger, but instead of a short 3 month wait until the next season starts, fans could be waiting a year or more to find out what happens next.

And that’s if it gets renewed. Some stories just leave you hanging there on the cliff, wondering what happened to the characters you were invested in. I sort of wish sometimes, they’d at least come back and wrap things up for me, give me the Cliff’s Notes version of what happened after the story ended – – like the do for movies that are based on real events. “After saving the litter of puppies from the raging river, John Doe went on to live his life as an insurance salesman in the suburbs, walking dogs at the Humane Society in his spare time.” Or something like that.

Mark’s gospel, and his account of the resurrection, ends on a cliffhanger. “So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”

<Fade to black>

Did Mark get interrupted by a pandemic or a writers’ strike? Or this really how he meant to leave things???

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Thin Place – A Maundy Thursday meditation on Mark 12 and John 15 from a Wizard of Oz Lent

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Mark 14:12-16, 22-25
John 15:12-15

Celtic spirituality, both pre-Christian and Christian, has given us the language of thin places to describe places where it feels like the realms of the human and divine mingle.  “Heaven and earth,” the Celtic saying goes, “are only three feet apart, but in thin places that distance is even shorter. Journalist and author, Eric Weiner, writes of thin places, “[They] relax us, yes, but they also transform us – or, more accurately, unmask us.”

Ruins from Iona Abbey by Iain Marshall is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.0

People often talk about temples and cathedrals as thin places, or particular geographies – mountaintops or beaches – but in a New York Times travel article, Weiner argues that thin places can be more unconventional as well – a city park, a bookstore, or even a bar. Thin places give us a glimpse or a feeling of a reality different from what we typically experience – a reality more closely aligned with God’s spirit and intentions than we typically see.

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Are you a good witch or a bad witch? A sermon for The Wizard of Oz Lent on Gen. 2-3 and Psalm 32

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This worship video for this service is also available on the Fox Valley Presbyterian Church YouTube channel.

Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7

Psalm 32:1-7

One of the defining features of The Wizard of Oz, the movie from which we’re drawing illustrations of the spiritual journey this Lent, is the switch from sepia toned story-telling to the brightly colored scenes that takes place as Dorothy walks out of her farmhouse, displaced from Kansas, into the magical garden of the Munchkinland town square. Gone are the monochromatic brown tones, and our movie and TV screens are flooded with all kinds of color – from the yellow road, to the green leaves, to blue skies and multi-colored flowers.

(One thing a few folks have pointed out to me is that if your viewing of The Wizard of Oz started with the TV screenings anytime between the 1950s and maybe mid-1980s, you may have never known about this switch.  I grew up with mostly color TVs, but those who only had black and white sets missed this transition that the earliest audiences saw in the theater and later audiences could see at home. That had not occurred to me before!)

After she walks through the garden a bit, wondering if she’s in Kansas still or maybe over the rainbow, an iridescent pink bubble begins to float onto the scene. Appearing larger as it descends to the ground, eventually it dissipates and reveals Glinda, the Witch of the North, standing before Dorothy. Wearing a puffy pink ball gown, covered in tulle studded with crystals and sequins, poofy sleeves, and long satin gloves, atop her head a sparkly crown, about a foot tall and in her hand is a glittery star-topped scepter, she offers the first words spoken to Dorothy in Oz.

“Are you a good witch or a bad witch?” 

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Companions on the Journey: A sermon for The Wizard of Lent based on Mark 2:1-12 and Ruth 1

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A video of this sermon is available on the Fox Valley Presbyterian Church YouTube channel.

Mark 2:1-12

Ruth 1:8-9, 16-18

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been calling these stories where Dorothy runs into new friends and brings them along on her journey the “pick-up stories.” A bit different from pick-up lines, except that they are the origin stories of these friendships that build over the course of the movie. Origin stories like those of a couple that is married or the birth of a child are often told and retold over a lifetime, but I’d venture to guess that many of us also have origin stories for our friendships, especially those deep friendships that carry us through thick and thin.

I can remember the pick-up story of my first best friend, Alexis Kerschner, from when we were about 4 years old.  My family had recently moved into a brand new town house on High Beam Court in Columbia, Maryland. While we were eating dinner one night, my sister’s eyes got huge and she pointed out the window she was facing, causing us to turn and look through it.  There was a growing fire in the dumpster in the middle of the neighborhood parking lot. After calling 911 to report it our family went outside to watch the action along with a number of other families. And that’s where we met the Kerschners. Most of my early childhood memories are involve our two families together.

Stephanie and Alexis, not too long after meeting at the (literal) dumpster fire
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Follow the way of the cross – A sermon for a Wizard of Oz Lent on Mark 8:27-38

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Part of the Wizard of Oz in Lent series. A worship video of this sermon appears at the bottom of the post.

Mark 8:27-38

Peter is not on board with this new revelation from Jesus. For the first time in his ministry Jesus is telling his disciples what he knows is the inevitable end he will meet. The miracles he has performed, the people he has touched, and even more importantly the good news he has proclaimed and the authority with which he has proclaimed it, is disturbing the usual order of things and that is only going to intensify.  Those who are comfortable with their position in the community are finding their comfort and power challenged.  Those who are used to setting the rules are finding their rules critiqued. Those who are used to interpreting the law of God are hearing new interpretations. And they don’t really like it.

Photo by Akshay Nanavati on Unsplash

Jesus is preaching a good news about a new kingdom and those who are doing just fine in the current kingdom aren’t too enamored with this idea. Jesus knows it, and he knows how far they will go to get him to stop – all the way to death on a cross. 

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Somewhere Over the Rainbow – A sermon on Psalm 22:1-11 and Matthew 23:37-39

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This is the first week of our Lent series with The Wizard of Oz. Rather than considering the story allegorically, where each character or scene or motif corresponds directly to a biblical figure or place or concept, we’ll be focusing in on different themes in the story that overlap with the traditional Lenten themes of spiritual growth and discipleship.

We start our walk to Easter with scripture and song, “Over the Rainbow” of course, to get us thinking about the role longing plays in our spiritual journey. Traditional Lenten practices include creating a sense of longing through fasting, but the experience of longing for God’s love and presence, longing for a new reality that feels as far as the other side of the rainbow, isn’t something most of us have to try to create. 

A worship video of this sermon, starting with the scripture readings, is available below, and the manuscript follows.

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