The Monkeys Not Seen
a sermon based on John 8:31-36
by Rev. Carol Kress

 

Here we are God, and we know you’ve gathered us here for many reasons. May the words of my lips and the meditations of all our hearts be useful in moving us into a deeper relationship with you and with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Amen

“You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.”

A friend gave me a book ,it’s called, “Mama makes up her mind” and other dangers of southern living, by Bailey White. It’s a collection of short stories written by a middle aged woman who is a school teacher, lives with her highly opinionated mother. Thank heavens most of the stories are funny.

I wanted to tell one, in brief today. It’s called, “The Monkeys Not Seen.” It’s a story about her grandfather who had a real, live monkey. Which he kept in a cage under a magnolia tree.

Kids from all over northern Florida came to see the monkey. There was in particular a boy who lived about 80 miles away who had never seen a monkey, but he wanted to. The boy’s longing and letter writing to grandpa became so earnest, you might say it was his life’s wish to see a monkey.

So, Grandpa drove down to Carrabelle on muddy roads in a Model A Ford roadster to fetch the boy and bring him to see his monkey.

The boy sat in the rumble seat, and the roads were very rough. They got as far as Tallahassee, and the boy got car sick. He was really, really sick. Finally, he was such a mess, and so dehydrated and exhausted, that Grandpa had no choice. He turned around and took the boy home. He never did see the monkey.

But, White writes, “For the rest of his life, he haunted the docks and the bait shops of Carrabelle, a pale, wraithlike creature with fluttering hands and a radiant look in his eyes, telling any one who would listen to him about the time he almost saw a monkey.

The truth was that the monkey was NOT friendly. In fact, he was mean, and scruffy, and had a pinched little face that would hiss and spit whenever a stranger got near him.

But, what a glorious creature the boy imagined the monkey to be, with flashing eyes, shimmering fur and a tail that could do almost anything. Perhaps he even imagined that the monkey would have reached through the wire of his cage with a hand that would stretch across the gap and touch the boy gently on the cheek.

Bailey White concludes, “The very best and finest monkeys, the monkeys that bring you the purest joy - those are the monkeys you must never see.”

The story made me think that although Jesus says the truth will set you free, there is some value in illusion. We need to deal with the real world, but we need the image of a perfect monkey as well. I don’t know how long I’d last if all I had was this real world where it seems we are constantly struggling with limits and road blocks and uncooperative people, perhaps even evil or corruption. We need to hold in our hearts the image a perfect world where everything is reasonable, meaningful, peaceful, trustworthy and in order. That’s what inspires us. If you’re like me, it seems that every so often I get a taste of it. There are moments when God feels very near and all is well.

I feel like Peter and John did when they were on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus. Do you remember how in that magical, mystical moment Jesus was transformed. Peter and John actually SAW him talking with two figures who they perceived to be Ezekiel and Moses. Wow, it was such a high and powerful moment for them that Peter says, “Let’s just stake our tents up here on the mountain, Jesus and never go back!”

Yah, I like it up there too. But, think back to my little story about the boy who never saw the monkey – don’t you feel a little sad for him? We are meant to face our own personal dirty, scruffy, mean old monkeys. Who knows, maybe he can be cleaned up and tamed down.

Let me take this to a personal level for me. I’ve made a few mistakes in my life. Here’s one which I’m willing to talk about in front of all of you. It’s not the biggest, but it isn’t the smallest either. When I was at Iowa State, I was in the college of home economics, (you all don’t know me well enough yet to realize how ironic that fact is) there were some basic required classes I had to take to receive a major. One of the classes I was required to take was in Nutritional Sciences. This was basically a chemistry class. But, I had never had a chemistry class in my life. So, the teacher would be at the board explaining how sugar is chemically turned into glucose and something else in the digestive system, and she’d be writing all these x’s and o’s across the board, and I felt like a total idiot. I remember asking a question or two, and I STILL felt like a total idiot. It got to the place where the instructor told me to ask my questions AFTER the class session. So, you know this wasn’t a good situation. Any way, test time. C-, D, C, D (I can’t believe I’m confessing), but I was in a state of denial, and allowed the time to drop a class to slip by, CERTAIN I’ld pull a monkey out of the hat. But, by the end of the quarter, I was desperately figuring out what I needed to do to keep from failing.

So, grades come. I open up the envelope with fear and trembling. What grade do you think I had? I had a B as in Bumble Bee Oh Boy! Whooooooo hooooooooo!! But, my joy was shallow.

I knew exactly what had happened. (No, the instructor hadn’t passed me just to keep from having to deal with my questions again) That grade was a mistake. Maybe she was reading grades to her Teaching Assistant, and the assistant thought she said B instead of D as in Dreadful Dear Me. I knew my real grade. Did I go to the Instructor’s office to talk with her? No, I didn’t.

I told this story to a small group of church people a few years ago. One of the guys said to me. “You didn’t do the right thing, and you’re still carrying the burden of that around.” He was right.

If I had gone to the Instructor and faced the truth. I would have left it behind a long, long time ago. But look, I’m still telling the story and I am not proud of it. Perhaps there’s something I can still do to set things right.

Well, that’s one story. We all have a story. We are all carrying some such similar burden, or burdens of wrong doing.

I’m here to tell you that Jesus knows. Jesus knows the truth about each and every one of us. And, the amazing thing - he doesn’t turn away. He understands the situation, and he knows what we need to do now. Isn’t that amazing? He doesn’t give up on us. And there is a plan that will get us from where we are to where we need to go. Jesus says, “If you obey my teaching, obey my teaching, obey my teaching, he says. Then you are really my disciples; And then you will know the truth, and then the truth will set you free.”

Obey my teachings. Do what’s right. Make amends. Do it now. Believe that Jesus loves you enough that he’ll hang in there with you.

C S Lewis says, “Every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part that chooses, into something a little different than what it was before. And, taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long, you are slowly turning this central thing either into a heavenly creature or into a hellish creature; either into a creater that is in harmony with God and other creatures, and with itself, or into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow-creatures, and with itself. To be the one kind of creature is heaven, that is joy and peace and knowledge and power. To be the other means madness, horror, idiocy, rage, and eternal loneliness. Each of us at each moment are progressing to the one state or the other.

And, I want you to know that although I’m talking to you about this scripture in a very personal way. The truth is the truth is the truth. Standing up for truth, attempting to live the truth is the very stuff that has rocked foundations and changed society. People have given their lives to the quest for it. I pray that working under the power of the truth of God, Christians will create lasting changes in people’s lives all over the world.

That old monkey under the magnolia tree needs to come out of his cage.

Please pray with me

Amen