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March 18, 2018 Spoiler Alert: The Wizard of Oz Rev. Rustin Comer (With guest stars Dorothy Gale, The Wizard, Tin Man, Scarecrow and Cowardly Lion) Scripture: Romans 5:1-2.
(Please note. This sermon contains one of the final scenes from The Wizard of Oz, recently performed at WCC. It is a production of Good Works Theater Company under the direction of Autumn Toussaint. For brevity, only the dialogue directly germane to Rustin’s sermon are reproduced here.)
Today, we are wrapping up a five week series that we called “No Place Like Home,” recognizing that in the musical Oz that our community has been putting together over the last few months and, in relationship to Oz and the scriptures, how we can learn and engage our minds and hearts in new ways in looking at this musical.
So, I’m going to take us back to the very beginning. One day, Dorothy and Toto found themselves in a wondrous world. They’re not in Kansas anymore. That’s for sure. You might say they arrive there by grace alone. In the midst of their tranquil and mostly unsatisfying life, a life that has prompted Dorothy to dream a dream of a better world, a place over the rainbow. They found that land through a power that was much greater than themselves – a twister. A twister blows through the plains of Kansas, and picks them up, and sets them down in a new realm, and the sepia tones of life turn into Technicolor, and the drab becomes dynamic, and everything is made new.
For the first time in her life, Dorothy feels alive. However, for the first time in her life, Dorothy is awakened to her ultimate dream, the dream to find home. Dorothy receives a very simple answer. Follow the yellow brick road, and looking up, she sees this clear path of golden bricks, winding around and leading her up into the distance. This road, she was promised, would take her to the city of Oz where she would meet a wonderful wizard, and this wonderful wizard would be able to give her the answers that she’d been searching for, that he would show her the way to go home. The first thing Dorothy does is take on this yellow road, and sure enough, it’s right there at her feet in all of its glory, and like most advice that we all receive, following the yellow brick road proves inadequate. It proves inadequate in helping her achieve her dreams of finding home, and, while leading to Oz, this simple road doesn’t lead her back home. It doesn’t lead her to what she really wants.
Now over the last five weeks and along the yellow brick road and the roads of fulfilling their desires, Dorothy discovers some of the greatest gifts of any journey. The first gift that Dorothy receives is community. The friends that Dorothy meets as she journeys down this yellow brick road turn this journey into a pilgrimage, a pilgrimage of self-discovery and new life, and together they discover the hidden resources that are within themselves, and they find what they had always been looking for, a brain, a heart, courage and home. So, with that, let’s start the scene:
Cut to scene in The Wizard of Oz where Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion bring the witches broom to the wizard as instructed and ask him to keep his promise of granting their wishes. When he refuses and tells them to leave, he is unmasked and revealed to be simply the professor.
Dorothy says, “You’re a very bad man, to which the professor replies, “Oh, oh, no, my dear, I’m a very good man. I’m a very bad wizard.”
Rustin enters and addresses the Wizard: Wait, wait. Stop for a second. Wizard, you’re the king of walls. You built these walls up around you to keep people from knowing the real man behind the curtain. You have all the smoke and mirrors necessary to fool even the smartest of people. So, Wizard, for 4o scenes you sit in this box, and at this point the curtain is pulled back and you’re revealed to be truly who you are. What’s that feel like?
Wizard (David Rice): Well, it’s scary at first and a little bit disorienting, but after the initial shock wears off, I find that it is a relief, and for the first time in a long time, I can be my true self and not have to hide anything anymore.
Rustin: This is the power of vulnerability when we can drop the walls and be honest about who we really are. We don’t have to hide anymore. There’s no shame that keeps us back. We can truly drop the curtain and the smoke and the mirrors and be found out. Let’s continue.
Rustin exits and the scene continues.
The Wizard presents Scarecrow with a diploma as proof that he has a brain. Scarecrow: Oh, I have a brain. How can I ever repay you? He hugs the wizard.
Rustin enters : Ok, wait, wait, wait, wait. So, Scarecrow, for years before this play, you’ve been hung up, believing you didn’t have a brain, believing that somehow your intellect wasn’t enough. So, Kai (who is playing the Scarecrow), I’m going to ask you to break character. Everybody, this is Kai if you didn’t know. Kai, you’re one of the most creative thinkers I’ve ever met – right? You and I have had hours of conversations about theology and about how God is impacting your life, and how your brain works is fascinating to me. Yet, as a kid and growing up, the way your brain worked often acted as an isolation for you. It kept you from doing some of things you may have wanted to do or experiences that you might want to experience. So, talk to me about how this character and how in your own life that you’ve come to know your intellect in a different way and accept who you really are.
Scarecrow (Kai Brewster): Sure. The point at which I actively started rethinking the way I thought about myself was – I dropped out of college after two years, and I had to actively start thinking about how my gifts and my impedances interact with each other in the world and the fact that they’re all part of who I am. So, like the wizard said, letting the walls come down is a relief even though it’s scary, and I think especially in this Easter time and this Lenten time, a word, a Hebrew word that Moses said is really important to me, and it’s hineni, and that’s when God says, “Moses, where are you,” and Moses says, “Here I am – hineni.” He’s not just playing hide and seek. Hineni is “here I am, all of me,” a baring of the soul type thing, and that’s Moses’ way of saying, “My stutter, my lack of confidence – anything you need
- is here for you to be transformed for your will and your leadership.” And he becomes the leader of the Jews and leads them to freedom, and what we do, if we’re willing to go through that initial pain or those deaths and experience resurrection for ourselves in powerful, and I think the scarecrow really
Rustin exits, and the scene continues with the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion and the Scarecrow asking, “What about Dorothy?”
Rustin enters again : Okay, hold on, hold on because this scene takes way more people than are out here. So, we’re going to stop at this point. So, Dorothy, I’m going to ask you to break character. You’re
- You’re an amazing artist and musician. As you look forward to the road ahead of you that you’re going to walk, what’s one lesson that you’re going to take away from this musical?
Dorothy (Sydney Baumgartner): Well, I think that you don’t have to be afraid to be yourself because everyone on this cast has been really supportive, and I think I really stepped out of my comfort zone in this, and it’s been the experience of a life time, and I’ll never forget it. So, there really is no place like home because this feels like my home, and I love it. So,... Yeah.
The cast leaves the stage and Rustin continues sermon.
As they leave, we can just celebrate for a moment the countless hours put in to creating this beautiful production, and, again, thank you, Autumn, thank you to the musical team, and thank you for the beautiful stage design. There’s so much beauty that went into this. Just give another round of applause for them.
When it was all over and Dorothy had reached the end of the road, she stands with Toto in her arms and tears streaming down her face. She still hasn’t found home. The yellow brick road, as simple and as well marked as it was, had led her nowhere. The great green city had proved no better than the farm yard at satisfying her heart, and Dorothy stands crying, and Glinda, the good witch, appears, and Dorothy say, “Oh, will you help me? Can you help me?” Glinda says, “You don’t need my help any longer. You know, you have always had the power to go back to Kansas.” Dorothy says, “I have?” The Scarecrow says, then why didn’t you tell her before?” And Glinda says, “She wouldn’t have believed me if I’d told her. She had to learn it for herself.”
“You always had the power to go back to Kansas.” From the moment that grace had set her down in a new land, she had the power to find home. She had the ability to make the journey. She had all the resources she needed to make it all the way. She didn’t know it then, but it had already been given to her. She didn’t need a yellow brick road. She didn’t need a city. She didn’t need a wizard. She and her friends who, by the same token, learned the same lesson, didn’t even need what they thought they needed. All the paths laid out before them proved worthless. All the experts proved incapable of granting their deepest needs and wants. They only needed to make the journey. In walking, they found the way. In community, they found what really mattered.
Paul says to the church in Rome in Chapter 5 of the Book of Romans: By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of Jesus. And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God at the same moment we discover that God has already thrown open his door to us, and we find ourselves standing
where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise. (Romans 5:1-2)
Throw open your doors to God and discover that God’s doors have already been thrown open to you. Are you in storms? Are you like Dorothy, swept up in the tornados of life, and you can’t seem to figure out where you’re coming or where you’re going? God’s doors are open to you.
Are you feeling hung up like the Scarecrow, trapped? Then throw open your doors and run into God’s wide open spaces of grace and love.
Is your heart rusted up due to past heartbreak? Open the door of your heart. Try it one more time and find that the heart of God is wide open, pouring out for you.
Does fear have you trapped in the closet? Then open that door with courage and come running out.
Or, are you like our Wizard where you have built up these beautiful walls of smoke and mirrors to keep yourself from truly being vulnerable, letting people see who you really are, and in the process of that you even lose your own self? Open your hearts. Let the walls come down. Trust the people around you because if you come near to God, God has already come near to you.
Let’s pray. God, we have built up walls. We’ve lost sight of who we are and who you created us to be, of who you’ve placed within us. We’re wrapped up in fear and anxiety, and yet your word tells us that your door is already open to us. Give us the courage, the wisdom, the heart to walk deeply and passionately into the home that you’ve laid out for us. May we not take this journey alone, but may we trust the community that you put before us to meet us along the way, and may we journey together, knowing that we are not alone, that we belong because you say we belong. And, like Dorothy, may we realize that there really is no place like home in your wide open spaces. We pray this in your name. Amen.
