Carthage College - Driftwood / Crimson Rambler Yearbook (Kenosha, WI)

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Then Hashmu became the king, and sat on a great horses with soldiers to the right and to the left, And Hashmu said, tll am the king, and no one in the world is stronger than I. But soon Hashmu felt the hot sun on his head and on his back. The soldiers grew tired. and the horses could not run. Then Hashmu be- came angry cried, ltls there something in' the world stronger than a king? And he began to chant: The sun, the sun. The sun I would be? The voice said, Hashrnu be the sun. Thus Hashmu became the great sun in the sky, and shone down on the fields. But soon there came little clouds between Hashmu and the earth, so that he could no longer shine down Then he said, Is there something in the world stronger than the sun? And he began to chant: The cloud, the cloud, The cloud I would be! A voice said, Hashmu, be the cloud! So Hashmu became the cloud and sent rain upon the earth, and the rain became a brook. and the brook became a river, and the river carried away hills and trees and homes. Only one great rock the river could not carry away. Then Hashmu said. Is there something in the world stronger than the cloud? And he began to chant: The rock. the rock The rock I would be! The voice said. Hashmu. be the rock! Thus Hashmu became the great rock. Then he saw coming to meet him a man. The man had in his hand a hammer, and he began to hack at the rock. The chips Hew this way and that. Hashmu cried. Is there something stronger than the rock? And he chanted: ttThe man. the man. The man I would be! The voice said, ttHashmu. be yourself! Be yourself! That statement is at once both good advice and bad. ltls at once naive and profound. l'Be yourself! If that statement meanst ltNever try to ehangelletlDonlt worry about your shortcomingsl'lellNever try to im- prevell'wttDo what you feel like doingliaif it means thaL then it deserves the Pulitzer prize for stupidity. And if thatls what the popular song, ttl Gotta Be Me,n meansa then, forget it! It's lousy advice. 29 But if be yourselfv and if the song, I Gotta Be Me means, llBe a human being e Be a person'lethen its very right and very good advice. And, of course. that's the meaning of that phrase in the story Notice that Hashmu always wanted to be something other than a human being. Even his desire to be the king was a desire to be some- thing more than a human. For in his oriental culture the king was thought to be something more than a man ehe was thought to be divine. Note. tool that Hashmu was never really satisfted with being something other than human. 80 the word came to himetlHashmu. be yourself. ltBe yourselFl- be a human being. Thatls not merely good advieeethatls precisely what the Judaeo-Christian tradition says to us. Its good theology. Itis what God is saying to us! Be human! Stay Human!

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sermon Given in the May 22, 1969 Chapel Service by Pastor Dudley Riggle. 23 The hours spent waiting to see a doctor are often very long hoursaespecially it youlre a child. Perhaps thatls why. as a childt I had time to memorize a little poem which was engraved on a plaque that hung on the wall of Our family doctorls waiting room. I can see it now. It read: t There's so much good in the worst of us. And so much bad in the best of us. That is hardly behooves any of us To talk about the rest of us. That may not be the worldls greatest poetry. but itls cer- tainly a great truth about members of the family of man. Therels so much good in the worst of ust And so much had in the best ofus. Thatls true about people. It is also true about ideasa about theories-about statements. That is--it strikes me that statements that seem pooraor wrongaor bada often say something quite right-something quite correct agemething quite good. And statements that seem good and right and correct often also say something quite wrong, something quite incorrect. quite bad. To put it another way: isnlt it strange that some things are at the same moment both very right and very wronga both very good and very badaboth very true and very false. Such is the case with a statement which comes at the very end of a well-known children's storyu-the Japa- nese parable of Hashmu, the Stonecutter. Maybe as a yeung child you heard that story. If you havenlt grown too sophisticated. listen to it again. And especially listen for that strange concluding sentence which seems to have one foot 0n the side of truth and the other on the side of false- hood. Hashmu was a very poor stone cutter. All day long he hacked and hacked at the stone. Some- times he grew very tired of his work and he would say to himself, Why must I go on cutting and cutting and cutting at the stone? Why eanlt I be something else--something greater. One day. while he was working away at the stone, he heard footsteps coming. He looked up immediately. and there stood before him the king on a great horse, with his soldiers to the right and to the left. They looked at some ofhis work and then passed on. But Hashmu thought: HOW hne to be a king! If only I could be a king on a great horse, with my soldiers to the left and to the right. Then he began to chant: uThe King, the king, The king I would be! A voice said. uHashmu, be the king!

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II IN vvmuma .1. 1;: '.. That. I suppose. comes as a surprise or maybe even a shock to some people. Some people some Christians some religious people seem to think theres something wrong with being human. Maybe that's why they often end up seeming so unreal-so unnaturai and inhuman. But it's a twisting of the Judaeo-Christian tradition and teaching to say that there is something wrong with being human. And we need to be reminded of that. We need to be re- minded that the opposite of the divine is not the humane the opposite of the divine is the demonic. And if youlre drawing a list of opposites and you see the word. divine-w the opposite is not human: the opposite is demonic. We need to remember, too. that God became man. He took our nature upon himself in Christ. And among other things, that was God's way of saying there is nothing wrong in being human. In a sense it was his stamp of appromt on humanity. And the purpose of God in Christ was not and is not to make us something more than hu- man. It was to save us from our attempts to be more than man and to save us from being content with being less than man. It was the late Robert Spike who reminded us that to he a Christian in any age is to be fully at human being ea creature of Godenot isolated and insulated and ster- ilized and dehumanized, but to be fully humanwresponding to the times and the people amortg whom one is set. You see. Godis desire is to free us so we can be fully hu- man --free to take a Chance. to fall on our face, to experi- ment, to laugh at fate, to cry with compassion, to work, to playwin short, to be a new creature. And if we cringe at the use of the word, creature. we ought to remember that the writers of scripture did not hesitate to use that word about man. And if we cringe at the word Ilcreatureil that may only show how uncomfortable we are with our humanness-with our ereatureliness. And there is much which suggests that we are ill at ease with and uncomfortable withiand embarassed about our humanity. It's seen in the fact that many people feel guilty 30 about enjoying the Simple pleasures of life. Indeed some people feel guilty when they enjoy anything! The inability of many married people to enjoy sex is an example of the fact that we are often ill at ease with our humanity. Beyond that our reluctance to be human to laugh to cry to open up--to riskwto darewto carewall shows our discom- fort with our humanity, And what about our obsession with bathroorn humor. The preponderance of bathroom jokes and the fact that some peOple think that they're naughty or risqueethat shows that welve not really accepted our hu- manity. tLike those jokes that the freshmen tell and show each year! Every'year I say to my wife, wI wish they would get away from bathrOOm humor. lid rather have them tell real dirty stories. Bathroom humor is sixth-grade stqui Not only is there much to suggest that we're uncomfort- able with our humanity. There is also that which suggests that we are more accepting of the demonic than the hu- man. I think the new movie code prevides us with an illus- tration with that, As someone observed, the new movie code refers almost entirely to sex and not to violence. And that seems to be saying that itis all right for kids to see people getting stabbed and socked and shot and blown apart. But on film they must not see a husband touch his wifels breasts And I suggest to you that is illustration enough that we are more often eamfortable in the presence of the demonic than the humane Whatls more, many par- ents make violent verbal attacks on other people in the pres- ence oftheir children, but they never allow their children see them embrace And I suggest to you that thatts illustration that we are more often comfortable in the presence ofthe demonic than the human. Our faith is saying to us that when we fail to be humane when we are less than man- or when we try to be more than manewe get into trouble. When we are less than hu- man we become inhuman; we become insensitive to other humans; and the result is manis inhumanity to man When we try to be more than humanewhen we try to play God we also get into trouble with ourselves and with others. And you see this is what the story of Adam and Eve says -what it's all about. According to that primitive parable God created man and woman and gave them everything they needed and said, uNow look, remember who you are. Don't try to be God. And they promptly decided to be the God of their own lives. And they found that they were out of harmony with themselves and with one another and with the world. There are two things we must avoid in hearing that account. First we must avoid thinking that this was the particular problem of a primitive pair called t'Adam and Eve'l For this is the story of every man and every woman -of you and of me. The meaning of the story is that we are created by Godithat we are told to remember who we arewthat we are not to try to play the part of God. We are to let God be God.