Wicked: Defying Gravity when the Gospel is Vilified

Preface: read Luke 6:27-38

The word “good” is in that small selection of scripture from the Gospel of Luke appears four times. So let me ask you… Do you think you are good? Do you do good things? What makes someone good? Who really decides? And how do we know? You may not know the answer to these questions without unpacking them further, but I can guess that the answers matter to you. We all want to be good people, and to know that the ways that we operate in the world are good.  

This question of goodness is the fundamental question embedded in the broadway musical turned blockbuster movie Wicked. The juxtaposition of “good” and “wicked” is central to the story. In fact, the word “good” appears 76 times in the screenplay. While “good” is never defined or explained, it’s clearly the goal – to be labeled as good, to make good, to do good. We, as Christians, have our own understanding of this concept of “good.” The Greek word for “gospel” – “euangelion” – literally translates to mean “good news.” Ironically, the term “good news” is said six times in the opening minutes of Wicked. 

So how do Christians know if we are good? Because the concept of being good Christians really matters a lot to most of us. Well, arguably, since the life, teachings, death and resurrection of Jesus are central to our faith tradition, we measure our goodness in relation to those things. Our goodness is inextricable from the good news of Jesus Christ. So if we just figure out how to tap into that connection then, boom. Easy peasy. Riddle solved. We are all good. Is it that simple?…

Let’s talk a little more about the story of Wicked and this concept of good, because I think there may be some parallels in this story to the state of Christendom right now. So, the central character in Wicked is Elphaba. A young woman who was born green, as a result of her mother’s “not so good” love affair with a man who was not her husband. She is demonized by others at first look – an outcast. Weird. Inexplicably different. And even more alarming about this green girl is that she seems to have special abilities – powers, which doesn’t result in people liking her more. Elphaba is studious, obedient, quiet and desperately wants to be good. She wants to be liked, and so she commits herself to her studies with the hopes that one day she will meet and impress the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and that he will not only take away her greenness, but that by working at his side, all the people who had scorned her will cheer for her instead.

So lots of stuff happens, she goes to school and she meets this blonde named Glinda who decides she is going to help make her popular, there’s a whole song with lots of pink and hair flipping…

At a certain point in the story, Elphaba learns that something bad is happening in Oz. This represents the first time we hear the word “bad” used in between all of those “goods.”  The animals, who can talk in this story, are being mistreated. They are being stripped of their leadership positions, forbidden from talking and placed in cages. The goal of whatever is happening is to degrade them – make them animals who simply make animal noises and do animal things. As one of Elphaba’s favorite professors at her school is an animal (a goat), she takes an interest and develops a deep concern for what is happening. She is one of the only students in the school is alarmed at this mistreatment, and suspicious of why the leadership of her school is remaining silent and ignoring what is happening.

Eventually the Wizard does learn about Elphaba’s talents and requests a meeting with her. She brings along her friend Glinda and travels to the Emerald City. While there, she learns that the wizard is a fraud with no special abilities other than a keen ability to fool people into believing he is something that he is not. She learns that he is most concerned with keeping his real identity and motives a secret to maintain his power and control. She also learns that it is the wizard himself and his allies that are behind the plot to degrade and silence all of the animals.

Ultimately, at the end of the film, which is the first half of a two-film story, Elphaba has to make a choice – accept the wizard’s invitation to sit by his side while he uses her powers to help him rule Oz and carry out his agenda, or decline without knowing what will happen to her now that she knows the truth. Accepting this invitation would be the safe option. It would bring her fame and acceptance. People would see her as “good” standing at the side of the wizard.

But she declines. She runs, for fear of what will happen now that she knows the truth – that the wizard is not wonderful or “good.” She is pursued, and she uses her abilities to escape, flying away on a broom that she has made levitate. As she departs, Glinda tries to call her back, saying she can still change her mind and be adored by everyone. But Elphaba resists, singing the iconic song “Defying Gravity” as she flies away. As she leaves, a voice comes over the loudspeaker, announcing to all of Oz to beware of this “wicked witch.” And thus ends part one of the movie version of Wicked.

Elphaba had a choice to make. Would she negate her own knowledge of what is good and what is wicked in order to align with the powers that have named themselves and their actions as “good?” Or would she trust her own knowledge of what is “good” and follow her own path – being labeled “wicked” by the powers at large in the process? She chose to trust her own knowledge of goodness.

So, who is good in this story? Who is wicked? And who decides? What about beyond this make-believe world? What about in our real world right now? Who is good? Who is wicked? And who decides?

Friends, I don’t think you will be surprised when I say to you that I believe that there are a lot of bad things happening in this country right now.

• Despite living in a representative democracy, we have a new (repeat) president who has named himself our king.

• Our country, the richest country in the world has ceased all funding and support for providing food and medicine to the poorest nations in the world, including to children in active war zones and in areas where starvation and preventable diseases loom large.

• We have deregulated protections for our environment and our food, a decision that history tells us will hit the poor and children first.

• We are rounding up, detaining and deporting masses of immigrants, including children and asylum seekers, and canceling temporary legal status for immigrants who have come here from nations plagued with violence and genocide.

• We have eliminated programs and policies that seek to overcome the harmful past in this nation by creating more fair and equitable opportunities for education and employment for women, for people of color, for veterans, for the elderly, for those with disabilities, for those who are not straight and cisgender, and for those who are not Christian.

• We have slashed the funding for medical research, threatening the continuation of countless clinical trials that seek to cure and manage diseases that affect all of us.

• Announced just recently, the Office of Community Planning and Development, within the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which is the agency that seeks to address the record high homelessness epidemic in this nation, is slated to lose 84% of its staff. I know that is something our two congregations care about deeply.

• And just this week, here in Tennessee, our Governor has decided we will turn down over $75 million dollars in federal funds to feed children and that instead, Tennessee will spend $3 million to implement a limited version of the Summer EBT program, providing food assistance to children in just 15 of our 95 counties. If you are wondering what this means, it means that at least 675,000 children across 80 counties who received support for food over the summer last year will get nothing, and those who do will get $120 dollars to help feed kids for the entire summer. Less than $12 per week. All as food prices continue to rise. Since we all talk in “price of eggs” terms these days, that’s about 2 dozen eggs for a 10 week summer.

All of these changes are being done under the banner of what it means to a responsible and “good” American….AND, more importantly for all of us, these changes are being painted as the model for what it means to be a responsible and “good” Christian. Does anyone else feel a little bit like Elphaba upon meeting the Wizard? Hasn’t our Christianity taught us something different than this?

Did I not grow up singing the song, “Jesus loves the little children, all the little children of the world?”

Was I not taught from a young age that Jesus told his disciples, “If you love me, feed my sheep?” 

Do I not follow a faith where Jesus answered the question of what is the greatest commandment by saying to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind AND love your neighbor as yourself? And when asked, “Who is my neighbor?” – Jesus immediately launched into a story about someone’s life being saved by the person he would have least considered to be his neighbor?

Is that the same faith as the Christianity being used to back all of these recent decisions? Are we talking about the same Jesus who said that what you do for the least of these, you do for me?

Those with the power in our nation right now are deciding what will be labeled “good.” But is this what you, as followers of Jesus, know to be “good?”

Much like Elphaba in the Emerald City, we have a choice to make. Will we negate our own knowledge of what is good in order to align with the powers that have named themselves and their actions as “good?” Or will we trust our own knowledge of what is “good” and call out when wicked things are being done in the name of Jesus Christ? 

The Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ, is not a pliable and malleable thing that can be twisted and contorted to be used to back actions that share nothing with the essence of who Jesus was and the news he brought to the world.

But here’s the scary and unnerving part – whenever you articulate your true faith, what you know deep down to be “good,” and point out what the Gospel says and does to those who are attempting to twist and misappropriate it, be ready for someone aligned with the powers to call you “wicked,” because it will happen.

I sent Pastor Tom an article this week that I came across written by a seminary faculty member called “Should I Stay or Should I Go: Post-Election Clergy Soul-Searching.” The article talked about the rise in clergy wondering whether they can continue to pastor in churches where a significant number of members have bought into the concept of Christian Nationalism and the misappropriation of our faith to prop up the decisions being made. The author noted that a higher number of clergy have entered the search and call process in their denominations in recent months. Some are weighing early retirement and others and planning an exit strategy from the field of ministry. I found myself particularly interested in the section of the article where she highlighted the findings of a longitudinal study that she has been conducting since 2017 looking at clergy, congregations, sermons and social issues. She noted that there are factors that make some pastors more susceptible to congregational criticism and antagonism than others.

For example, “Being a female preacher is a threat multiplier. Female pastors face added complications when preaching prophetically. Not only are they afforded less respect, these pastors also face intimidation and even physical threats more often than their male colleagues. Additionally, female clergy are often placed in smaller churches that can ill-afford the loss of parishioners angry about a justice-oriented sermon.”

Translation – I am likely the first in this room who will be called “wicked” for proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And I don’t even have to get loud about it, because Bishop Marianne Budde was demonized for pleading for mercy in once of the most gentle voices I have ever heard in the pulpit. Was that article hard to read? Sure. Was it surprising? No. I’ve lived in this body for a while now. I’ve worn this collar for 15 years.

So, what?  What is my response in a moment like this?

What do I do in a moment like this? Where I am surely to be vilified first simply for standing up here and daring to quote the “woke” words of Jesus in the face of what is happening around us?

I say, “Let’s go. Together, let’s go.”

Let’s defy the gravity of those who proclaim a false Gospel. Let’s defy the gravity of seeking the label of “good” from those who happen to sit in powerful places, and remain true to the goodness within us as children of God and followers of Jesus, who have been transformed through our knowledge and encounters with him.

Remember who you are and whose you are, and hear these words:

Something has changed within me.
Something is not the same.
I’m through with playing by the rules of someone else’s game.
Too late for second guessing.
Too late to go back to sleep.
It's time to trust my instincts, close my eyes, and leap.

The life of discipleship is forever and always a leap. A defiance of the wicked, no matter what it looks like. A revelation and pursuit of the Good News.

In the words of Jesus, “Love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.”

And all of God’s children who could said, Amen.