Heart, Soul, Mind
A Story for All Ages
John Wilkinson
Third Presbyterian Church June 15, 2003
Based on Matthew 22:34-40
INTRODUCTION
At least three important things are happening today. It is Father’s
Day, and so we offer our good wishes and words of gratitude
to fathers and for fathers, for grandfathers and all who
served as fathers for us, here in this place, far away in other
places, and deeply cherished in our memories.
It is also a day when we celebrate and give thanks for the
growing youth and children’s ministry of this congregation.
We say a special thank you to all of the teachers and advisors
who have given so much of their energy and intelligence and
imagination and love this past year. We love you. And we especially
say a word of thank you to all of the young people who are helping
lead us in worshiping God this morning with such joy. I’d also
like to thank the fourth grade church school class for making
this stole, which is very special indeed.
Today is also a day called TRINITY SUNDAY. The most important
thing to remember about Trinity Sunday, and about the Trinity,
it that it helps us to imagine all the ways that God loves us
– the God who created the world and made it good, the God who
came to love us in Jesus, and the God who continues to give
us strength and power in the Holy Spirit. One God – three ways
of knowing God. Three ways that God loves us.
As we just heard, one time very long ago, someone asked Jesus
the most important thing to do if someone really wanted to love
God. “Jesus, what is the greatest commandment?” the person asked.
And Jesus answered with words borrowed from the book of Deuteronomy:
“you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with
all your soul and with all your mind.” And then Jesus added
something: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” One commandment:
LOVE. Three directions to love, at least: God, yourself and
everybody else. And three ways to love, at least: heart, soul
and mind.
Which reminded me of a story…
Once upon a time there was a zoo. It was a very nice zoo, filled
with all kinds of animals, big and small, flying and walking
and swimming. It was a zoo that people liked very much, grown-ups
and children. It had good paths for walking, good shade for
resting, good ice cream for eating. But most of all, it was
a good place for visiting nearly every spectacular animal that
anyone could ever imagine.
But there was one thing more about this zoo that made it very
special. Now I don’t know about every zoo. My guess is that
they are all this way, but I know it about this one because
someone told me, that the animals in this zoo cared for each
other very, very much. Mostly it was difficult for the people
who visited the zoo and who worked at the zoo to know this,
because, mostly, of course, people can’t understand what animals
are saying or really tell what animals are doing, unless it’s
quite obvious. But this zoo had the reputation of being a place
where the animals cared for each other very much, though you
had to be an animal to know that, or a very sensitive human
who hung out at the zoo after it closed.
Anyway, this particular story is the story of three animals,
really, and then a fourth. The first animal was an iguana, named
Ivan. Now people seem to think that iguanas, like all lizards,
are very tough and not very tenderhearted. That may be true
in general, but Ivan the iguana was warm-hearted (if not cold-blooded!).
He cared for the other animals a great deal. In fact, he was
very sensitive and cried very easily if anything bad ever happened
at all, which was a most interesting sight to see.
The second animal in our story was a very elegant and beautiful
giraffe named Genevieve. Genevieve had what all giraffes have
– a short neck (just kidding) – a long neck and a big black
tongue. Sometimes, at feeding time when children were able to
feed the giraffes, it almost seemed as if Genevieve could lick
a small child up in her tongue, but of course she would never
do so. But what Genevieve also had that only the animals knew
about was a very caring soul. When things were going badly anywhere,
it troubled her deeply.
The third animal in our trio of zoo friends was an aardvark,
whose name, of all things, was Atticus. Atticus was a very noble
aardvark. He enjoyed only the finest termites. But there was
something else about him. He had a good, strong, caring mind,
and he used his mind to solve problems and to help others. He
was also very organized, even as aardvarks go.
Now you may be surprised that all of these animals had names
that began with the same letter that their animal names did;
perhaps that’s just the way that animals name themselves. I
don’t know. But I do know that there is one more very important
animal in our story. She was a leopard, a very old, very special
leopard. None of the other animals really knew her name. They
simply called her Queen, for she had lived at the zoo longer
than anyone could remember, and besides, she acted very royally,
but not as if she were more important than the other animals.
But Queen was sad. In fact, she was very sad. Part of her sadness
was that as she was getting older she couldn’t run and jump
and roll around like she used to. She missed that. But she missed
other things as well. She missed her friends, some of whom were
no longer at the zoo, and some who had gone off to live at other
zoos. She missed her own children who had also gone off to live
at other zoos. She heard from them every once in awhile, mostly
through birds, believe it or not, who could carry messages very
long ways. And once or twice an animal came to visit our zoo
from another with a report. But it was not the same.
She even missed some humans at the zoo. There was a special
old man who, for a very long time, day after day, year after
year, had come to clean where she lived and brought her food.
As far as any animal could tell about people, this was a nice
and friendly one. He seemed to be smiling, and he liked to sing.
And then he stopped coming. Queen missed him.
After a while, all the animals could tell that she was sad.
It was hard for her to remember what it was like to be happy.
She didn’t really enjoy talking to any of the other animals.
She stopped roaming and prowling. She didn’t even really care
to eat.
The people at the zoo were very worried. They could tell that
something was wrong. They tried everything. Different food.
New toys. They sent in veterinarian after veterinarian. Nothing
helped.
And if you think that the people were worried, you should have
seen the animals. They cared for Queen so much. They were so
worried. They had never seen her like this. And they wanted
to do something. They worried and they thought. They thought
and they worried. They even had meetings. Zoos are like churches
in that way – they love to have meetings.
And so the zoo animals, long after the people had gone home
for the day, had meetings. Finally, after putting their best
imaginations together, they came up with a plan. Actually, they
came up with lots of plans. Here’s what they did.
Ivan the iguana, the one who cried so easily with the warm
and caring heart, put that tender heart to good use. He organized
the animals so that they, too, could care for Queen. He organized
the songbirds to serenade her with lovely songs. He shared some
of his favorite food with her, and convinced the other animals
to do the same. How did this work, you might ask? I don’t really
know. It just did.
And the giraffe named Genevieve, the one whose soul was so
loving, made it her job to be the best friend she could possibly
be to Queen. The places where they lived were not so far from
each other, and so Genevieve made it a point every day to stick
her long neck out as far as she possibly could to check on Queen.
“How you doin’, Queen?” she would ask every morning. And “Good
night, Queen,” she would whisper every evening. After a while,
even when the sad leopard didn’t feel much like talking, she
responded. “Good night,” she would whisper.
And what could an aardvark possibly do, you may rightly ask?
Well, Atticus the noble aardvark, he with the caring mind, used
every ounce of brainpower he had to get things organized. He
organized the chipmunks who scurried around the cages to bring
leaves to the Queen to provide her shade. That was quite a sight.
He organized a joke contest for Queen’s amusement. The monkeys,
working together, which monkeys don’t always do, came up with
a good one. “What does a banana do when it sees a ghost? The
banana splits!” (The monkeys were very pleased with themselves!)
All these things happened, and they happened, and they happened.
The humans knew that something was up, but they couldn’t quite
figure it out. Every so often, they would discover something
where it shouldn’t have been. “I swear I left it over there,”
one could here from time to time.
Yes, it took a while, and Ivan and Genevieve and Atticus and
all the other animals were not always sure that what they were
doing was making any difference at all. Queen still seemed sad.
But after a while, things started to seem different. Queen realized
that she had some good reasons to feel sad. And she also realized
that she had many, many animal friends that loved her very much
and that cared for her a great deal.
The singing, the jokes, the visits, the food, the caring, all
made a difference. Slowly, slowly, Queen’s growl came back again,
not a mean growl mind you, but a friendly growl of deep contentment.
And she ate, and she ran, and she was her old self. And all
the animals were glad, and the zoo, once again, was a very,
very happy place indeed.
The end.
