The Gospel In Disney:
The Fox and the Hound

The following reading is entitled “The Good Samaritan” and is probably one of the best known of Jesus’ parables. The passage opens with the “Great Commandment” to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. Then the Scribe, who is the Temple lawyer, the one who interprets scripture, tries to trap Jesus by asking the question, “Who is my neighbor?” What we hear is a teaching, not about who is my neighbor, but how to act neighborly. We see Jesus teaching the lawyer that “who” is not the question. What is important is how we act in our lives.

Read Luke 10:25-37

There is another level to this story, what author and seminary professor Parker Palmer calls the “secondary agenda.” Jesus could have had anyone be the person who helped the man whop was beaten along the road, but he had a Samaritan help. In fact there are some biblical scholars who believe the original story had a priest be the neighborly one. You see the title “Good Samaritan” is an oxymoron for a first century Jew. Samaritans were a despised people. So the fact that Jesus uses the person of a Samaritan to be the good neighbor or neighborly one actually turns the social structure of the scribe upside down. What the scribe experiences is Jesus challenging his understanding of his scriptures. What the scribe has believed about who is important to God is now called into question by Jesus. Jesus is asking the scribe and first century Judaism to relearn a new way of seeing another person and another group.

The next passage from Proverbs is part of what is called ”The Wisdom Literature” of the Bible. This wisdom often reflects the conventionally held beliefs of the society. Often, as in the next verse, this social wisdom is grounded in the lived experiences of the society and provides important direction to the people. Yet, as we just read from Luke, these conventional ideas sometimes need another look. Today’s passage has an important thought to us as parents and the church responsible for the well-being of our children.

Read Proverbs 22:6

Sermon:

We live in a society that tells us we are all uniquely created individuals, all different in who we are. The Bible seems to reinforce this, as we read in passages like I Corinthians 12 that there are a number of spiritual gifts, and that we do not all have the same ones. It is an important thought, as we need to have the encouragement to follow those unique attributes that make us who we are. To follow our own passions and vocations in our lives, and not be channeled into what someone else wants us to be. Not all are bankers. Not all are engineers. Some are artists. Some are teachers. But I wonder sometimes if we stress this thought too much, especially to our children. It is important to be able to see ourselves as a specially created person of God. To celebrate our different looks, our different talents and even our different likes and passions. But in this, I wonder if we miss the point that we are all special because we are all created in the image of God. We are all created in a sameness as well.

I believe this is in part what Jesus is trying to show the scribe in the parable. Maybe at one level of our being we are unique, but in our core, at the center of our humanness we are all alike, we are all created in the image of God. Even Samaritans are neighborly and caring people. Psychologist Carl Rogers says, “That which is most personal is that which is most general.” In other words, if you have felt it, thought it, experienced it, so has 90% of everyone else you know. Think of how important that is to all of us. One of the greatest needs we all have as people is the need to be understood. How can we fulfill this need unless we are similar, unless we can know others have had the same fears, hopes, and dreams we have also had.

Poet Adrienne Rich says, “Lucky are those who know they are the same, for they know they will be understood.” One of my concerns of continually stressing our differences is that it allows us to place others, even groups of others in a box separating ourselves from them. My concern about trying to stress our differences is that we create an understanding of relationship that causes us to feel alone and consequently isolated, for whom can we talk to? Who would understand? Let me even suggest, if we are not mostly alike, how can we come together to hear a gospel that was given to the world, to all of God’s children in every nation, in every culture, who are created in the image of God, and have it touch our lives in a universal, saving way?

So what does all of this have to say to us today as parents, grandparents, and yes, the church? I do believe we are all more alike than different, and that at the core of who we are is our spirit that connects to God’s Spirit, trying to help us understand who God created us to be. Trying to help us understand what it means to be a person created in the image of God. Trying to help us understand what it means to live in the fullness of our humanity, which is a biblical definition of salvation.

This Disney movie, “The Fox and The Hound,” is probably not one of Disney’s best known films, but it has a lot to say about who we are created to be, and how the world can cause us to lose it if we are not careful. The movie is about two characters, obviously a fox named Todd and a hunting dog named Copper. They meet as pups, and all they see in each other is another pup wanting to play and have a good time. There are no prejudices, no stereotypes, no name calling or noticing differences. They simply want to be friends and enjoy their lives together. The clip is a song entitled “The Best Of Friends.”

Play Video Clip of pups:

The pups begin to grow, and those around them begin to exert their influence upon their thoughts, beliefs, which then affects their relationship with each other. This really points out the importance and significance of our roles as people asked to shape the character of our children. The proverb of raise your children in the way they should go. What I believe is that we do not so much have to teach our children in the way as much as reinforce the rightness of who God created them to be. What we do is remain aware of what the world tries to teach, what the world tries to tell our children, tries to tell us, so we can make sure we do not lose who we really are as a child of God. Like the scribe in the parable, Jesus tries to help him see that what he had learned is contrary to who he is, and who we are as people of God. He had to try and help the scribe unlearn what he had been taught, and to embrace the deeper value that is truly a part of who God created him to be. The next clip reflects this thought.

Show Video Clip when older:

Todd asks Copper, “We’re still friends right?” You can see Copper wrestling with what the question. He remembers all the fun they had. He remembers how they played and laughed and how that bond of friendship was so strong and right. But the world, those around him, had told him those feelings and experiences were wrong. They aren’t real. Copper finally says, “I don’t think we can be. I’m a huntin’ dog now.” Copper in essence says, the world has told me my heart is wrong. The world has shown me a different way to be, a way that denies who I am in my heart. I believe the movie correctly shows that often the world causes us to unlearn who we are, not teach us about who we are. For us as parents and the church, it is up to us to reinforce that core character of being loving, caring, accepting and compassionate. That we are all created in this way, for it is the real image of God in which we are all created. It is helping those traits become what guide us in the living of our lives by shaping the character we embrace.

Here is a wonderful poem by Dorothy Law Nolte I would like us all to say together.

If children live with criticism, they learn to condemn.
If children live with hostility, they learn to fight.
If children live with ridicule, they learn to be shy.
If children live with shame, they learn to be guilty.
If children live with tolerance, they learn to be patient.
If children live with encouragement, they have confidence.
If children live with praise, they learn to appreciate.
If children live with fairness, they learn justice.
If children live with security, they learn to have faith.
If children live with approval, they learn to like themselves.
If children live with acceptance and friendship, they find love in others.

On this Rally Day, in this poem, we have learned that we have been given an incredible trust in helping to shape the next generation of the church. But I cannot help but think that it is all backwards, Scripture says, “And a little child will lead them.” Jesus tells us “Suffer not the little children but bring them to me.” Why does he say this to those who were shooing the children away? Because, Jesus continues, we must all learn to be like them if we hope to see the kingdom of God. It is they, who have not yet unlearned what it means to be created in the image of God, so it is our who can show us how to reclaim who God created us all to be.

Sermon delived by Rev. George Cushman on August 12, 2007.