Divine Spark

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:25
For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God.  God is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

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There is trouble in Corinth, and Paul, like any founding pastor, is writing to the church and urging them to make a little course correction; it’s the first ‘Come to Jesus meeting.’ We might imagine it like a Bishop sending an email to a local church pastor… not that I would know anything about that.  Paul is railing against the status quo and inviting people to explore a different kind of power. Power the world sees as weak, nobility that is not by birth. Though it may sound like he is anti-wisdom, Paul is not, but he is anti-using wisdom to make other people feel small in your church community. The Gospel’s power is different. God chooses what is weak, God chooses what is lowly, God… so inconveniently does not care about our power systems… like noble birth or our certificates that make us wise. God’s power is different. God does not conform to our boxes or measure with our tools. 

This was one of Fred Rogers’ favorite passages. And I like to imagine myself in his shoes reading it. He was a man who reads about a different kind of strength and a different kind of power. I wonder if this is why he is so empowered to break down boundaries created by the world. One of his puppets, Lady Elaine, whose features bear no resemblance to Barbie, was tired of being a Lady. Fred was sure to make space for children to get beyond the boxes and boundaries of the world. He modeled men doing domestic work and he showed women doing work that the world around him would have deemed masculine. He made space for everyone to nurture and love, everyone to be strong and courageous, and he sang, “It’s You I Like” to bring the point home. Rogers himself embodied this push on boundaries or at least the ways we struggle with his identity. There was not much about the man that seemed very “manly.” His face was soft, his body was not imposing or intimidating, he spoke slowly, he listened deeply, and he cared about children with every pulse of his being. We are so uncomfortable with Mr. Rogers being himself, that the internet is full of “fake news.” Like by day he was a kind neighbor and by night the Navy Seals were dropping him into rivers, knife clenched in his teeth, for some special operation. It is like we cannot accept that a heterosexual, cisgender, white male is kind and gentle and loves children. If you saw the documentary, you saw this question play out even further in the question of if Fred Rogers was gay. He was so nice, he must be gay. But the truth is, he was just himself. He was kind, he was loving, and the norms of the day couldn’t stop him from being who he was, and he wanted us to know it should not stop us either.  

He believed we were extraordinary and ordinary at the same time, that we were lit with the Divine Spark of God, and it all boiled down to longing to be loved and longing to show love. This is where his Presbyterian roots showed the influences of Henri Nouwen and the Quakers. Rogers wrote, “Deep within each of us is a spark of the divine just waiting to be used to light up a dark place.” (Fred Rogers, Life’s Journeys According to Mister Rogers: Things to Remember Along the Way, p 58).

We give expression to the divine spark by reflecting and enacting God’s desire to accept all people just as they are (Michael Long, Peaceful Neighbor, p34). Rogers wrote, when we love a person we accept a person exactly as s/he is, lovely and unlovely, strong along with the fearful. He experienced teasing as a child, being called, “Fat Freddy,” chased home and broken hearted at the taunting. But at the same time there were adults who told him of his worth and value, adults like his Grandfather, Fred McFeely (remember Mr. McFeely?) who ended every visit with Fred by saying, “You made this day special by just your being you.” This became the phrase that rang out at the close of every episode and his dream of teaching that gave hope children feeling un-special by the world’s standards. 

Employing the divine spark means helping others grow and be accepted just as they are (Long, p 34). Fred’s grandfather told him he was special and also told him he was capable of growth, encouraged him to climb past boundaries and over obstacles to reach his dreams. Rogers wanted that for all of us, to be grateful for new learnings, to know we can grow from love. 

Using the Divine Spark means seeking to identify with and understand those who hurt us (Long, p 35). This may be more of a challenge to do than to read. Identifying with people who hurt us draws us closer to them and to ourselves, not truly good or totally evil but a life of complicated choses. His church was vandalized once and he spoke these words, “Once we see ourselves as hoodlums, we can have compassion for our brother-hoodlums and be amazed over and over that God would take us all in” (Long p 35).

Reflecting the Divine Spark means forgiving those who do not accept us as we are or make wrongful choices (Long, 35). Rogers stayed connected to a beloved professor, Robert Orr. One day, visiting his professor in the nursing home, they were looking at an old hymn that suggested there was one word that could fall the prince of darkness or forces of evil. Rogers asked his professor what he thought that word was… and he said Forgiveness (Amy Wollingsworth, The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers, p 98). Forgiveness, he held, was liberating and holy. Perhaps you remember the story of Esau and Jacob, the brothers always in conflict? After years of betrayal and time apart, Jacob returns home to face the brother he wronged and rather than vengeance, Esau embraced his brother and forgave him. Jacob’s response: “I have seen the face of God.” This moment of forgiveness was liberating for both brothers and it stopped a cycle of violence (Genesis 32-33). 

We reveal the divine spark by ensuring that our love is constant across the ages. Rogers saw his father care for people over the long course of their relationships and even after their business partnerships were no longer active. He believed we saw something powerful when people are in a relationship for the long term and beyond personal needs. He often told the story of a Seattle Special Olympics. Nine athletes were about to run the 100 yard dash. When the official started the race, one child stumbled and the other’s hearing the cries of the one boy, ran back to him, helped him up, linked arms, and ran the race together. They won the cheers of the crowd and Rogers said, “What really matters is helping others win, too, even if it means showing down and changing our course now and then” (Long, pg. 37).

Using the divine spark means seeing all under the care of God (Long, p37). The boundaries of the day did not stand in the way of God’s love and Fred felt called to help us all see one another as sacred. The big boundary of his day was the Cold War, and he did special work to help American families see how much they had in common with families around the globe. He even exchanged time with a Russian children’s program host.

Finally, and most challenging, is that the divine spark requires us to offer all six of these elements to ourselves; to see ourselves as holy, to extend understanding and forgiveness to ourselves, to care for ourselves and our growth, just like God does. Perhaps this is why this theology is so challenging. We get really good at singing songs about our unworthiness in the face of God; we love amazing grace that saved a wretch like me. But there are so few moments in song or prayer where we claim our worth, beauty and value. We sing praise to God but struggle to imagine God singing, “It’s You I Like” right back. Perhaps this is why Fox news railed against Mr. Rogers for making folks feel special, claiming it made people entitled rather than empowered. We are comfortable with systems that make us feel like we have to earn grace, that we have to prove our worth, be the right size or have the right GPA. We understand needing to prove we are special before we can be deemed special, that’s the way of the world. But this is not God’s way and it’s not even what we see in creation. We don’t plant a garden saying, “Grow, and I will water you.” We do not welcome a child into the world and say, “Do something lovable, and I will hold you in my arms”… most of us would deem that as abuse if we witnessed it. It is radical to be loved so much that we can love others. It is radical to liberate ourselves from the measures of the world and the power structures of the world and to look right in the mirror and say, “It’s You I Like.” Rogers was determined that loving ourselves, seeing the divine spark in ourselves, was the way to the sacred work of really loving others. May we have the courage. Amen.

Questions for discussion:
• Look at the Lyrics of “It’s You I Like” and imagine them as a message from God? How does that feel? What does that mean?
• What does the theology of the Divine Spark invite you to consider? How does it make you feel to imagine yourself and others alive with the spark of God’s love?
• What is the most challenging element of honoring the Divine Spark?