By David Ryser & Ken
Hornsby
The whole thing began innocently
enough. (Those who know us can attest to
our wide-eyed innocence. We are the
poster children for innocence.) We are
former professional pastors whose unquenchable thirst for God’s presence and
passion has taken us on a journey that ultimately lead us out of the
conventional church. Our love for God’s
Church has increased, but we abhor the religious system and its dead
traditions. We connect often by phone to
encourage one another and talk about what God is doing in us and showing to us.
During one such phone conversation,
we began to consider how the movie, The Wizard of Oz, reminded us of the
Christian faith journey and the modern American church. (For those of you who are concerned that you
will “get a demon” from reading something that connects Oz with church, we have
good news. If you get a demon, at least
you will have more at the end of this article than you probably have now.)
Consider the Munchkins, for
example.
When Dorothy arrives in the Land of
Oz, she finds herself in Munchkin
Land. (The movie has now shifted from
black-and-white to Technicolor. This
makes Munchkin Land appear non-traditional, but it is
an illusion. Beware of churches that
advertise themselves as “a different kind of church.”)
Munchkins are cute and cuddly…and
clueless. (They remind us of the
churches and Christians depicted on a Norman Rockwell calendar.)
So shy are the Munchkins that they
do not come out of hiding to meet Dorothy until after the arrival of Glenda
(who reminds us of the Holy Spirit).
Yes, we know, Glenda is a
witch. Relax. In the movie, witches represent the spiritual
forces of good and evil. In the spirit
realm there are beings that are good (God and His holy angels) and beings that
are evil (the devil, along with the unholy angels and the demons--the flying
monkeys).
It sounds basic, doesn’t it? But just try and explain to the typical
Pentecostal or charismatic Christian that not everything that is spiritual is
God. And then try to explain to the
typical traditional Christian that not everything that has spiritual power is
the devil. (Throw religion and tradition
into the mix, and the delineation between good and evil becomes even less
clear.)
The whole thing can give you a
headache. (A brain-bursting,
stress-induced headache caused by religious over-analyzing)
Anyhow, the Munchkins remind us of
the traditional church that does not experience the very real power and
presence of God. Not only do they not
experience God’s power (or Him), they have no desire to do so. At best it is nothing more than an abstract
doctrine only experienced by the early church.
They have gone beyond the “primitive” church (easy enough to do since
the original apostles are dead, and thus cannot defend their idea of church).
For one thing, they are very
organized. They have a mayor (pastor), a
town council (elders), an army (church staff and workers), the Lullaby League
(women’s’ group), and the Lollipop Guild (men’s fellowship). And it is quite obvious from their civic pride
parade that they feel they have it all together.
They even have a coroner (just
about any seminarian will do). Every
dead church should have a coroner, don’t you think?
The Munchkins are comfortable
around Glenda. And she is obviously very
fond of them. They hear her words and
rejoice when she proclaims that “the wicked old witch is dead!” (speaking of
the Wicked Witch of the East who perished in a home accident). But being
comfortable around Glenda and rejoicing at her words also exposes an
inconvenient and very apparent truth.
The Munchkins are familiar with
Glenda, but they don’t really know Glenda.
Because when the Wicked Witch of
the West (the devil) shows up, the Munchkins fall to the ground… paralyzed with
terror. And Glenda is standing right
there among them! They remain in this
state of hiding in fear until Glenda shoos the bad witch away. Then they get back up on their feet, but they
are still badly shaken.
When are some people going to learn
that God is a lot bigger than the devil?
Having heard Dorothy’s story,
Glenda concludes that Dorothy should go to the Emerald City of Oz and consult
the wizard who lives there. (Yes, Glenda
knows that the wizard is a fraud. She
has her own agenda for sending Dorothy, as we will see later.) She describes the wizard as great and
wonderful (although she never describes him as all-powerful, as he later claims
to be), and as mysterious but good (sort of like how God speaks so highly of us
even though we know we are pond scum).
The Munchkins’ reaction to the name
of the Wizard of Oz is instructive and revealing. At the mention of the wizard, the Munchkins
bow their heads in respect. They
obviously have heard of him. (Perhaps
they have read his books or seem him on TV.)
They don’t really know him. They
know where he lives. They even know how
to get to the city of Oz.
“Follow the yellow brick road!”
(The Romans Road?). So why has no Munchkin ever been to Oz?
Perhaps Munchkins don’t go to Oz
for the same reason that many Christians don’t experience the things of God the
way that the people in the Bible did.
They’ve heard of God’s power.
They’ve even read His book. They
respect His power, but don’t experience it.
They do experience God’s Spirit at some level, but are fearful and
oppressed whenever the devil shows up.
Except when he shows up at church
business meetings.
They seem content to live their
spiritual lives within an organized religious structure and accompanying
programs. And as long as the Holy Spirit
comforts them and “shoos away” the devil, life is good.
“Tra-la-la-la-la,
La-la-la-la-la-la, Tra-la-la-la-la-la-laaaaaaa…” (Munchkin song service…first,
second, and last verses only. Please
refer to the bulletin for important information and announcements).
Or perhaps a Munchkin has had the
misfortune of having met someone who lives in Oz. And has decided that the people in Oz are
loony-toons. Whatever else Munchkins may
be, they are not crazy. Perhaps one
reason why some Christians are uncomfortable with the power of God is that the
person who is telling them about it does not appear to be quite sane. (In
fairness, a passionate lover of Jesus sometimes appears to be deranged to the
typical religious person. Whatever the
reason, a Munchkin rarely encounters the person, or power, of God.)
If you appear deranged, people not
only do not want what you are selling, they also hope that what you have is not
contagious.
Munchkin Land
is safe. It is a nice place, filled with
nice people. They spend their time
operating their town and creating more Munchkins. (They call the latter “evangelism,” a Greek
term that roughly translates into the Munchkin language as “hunting spiritual
scalps.”) Except for the occasional
visit from a wicked witch, it’s not a bad life.
And, after all, they always have Glenda to chase the bad witch away.
But Dorothy’s adventure does not
end in Munchkin Land.
It begins there. She must leave
this place to start on her journey.
“We’re off to see the wizard, the
Wonderful Wizard of Oz!”
Responses to this article are
welcomed. You may contact the author at drdave1545@yahoo.com
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