"You Are God's Beloved Child" (sermon)

Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
Sunday August 30, 2026
Scripture:  Psalm 33:13-22 and Matthew10:26-31
Dr. Seuss Connection:  Horton Hears a Who

This year, we are having a Seussian Summer - each week during the Story for All Ages, we will be reading a different Dr. Seuss book, then pairing it with scripture to see what wisdom we might find within its pages.

When I was a student at the Atlantic School of Theology, one of my favourite classes I took was called “Jesus in Text and Image.”  It was a course on Christology – a course that examined the life and work of Jesus Christ – but we approached it through art and literature.  We read novels, we watched movies, we looked at paintings, we read poetry, and each time we would ask the question, “what can we learn about the person and work of Jesus? What is this artist or creator trying to tell us?”

As we watched movies, they could be divided into two different categories – on one hand, there were the “Jesus films,” which were movies depicting either all or part of the life of Jesus; and the second category were films that included a Christ figure.  These would be films that weren’t explicitly about Jesus, but instead they were films where a character took on some of the characteristics of Christ.  (And then there was one remarkable movie that managed to be both – it is both a Jesus film and a film with a Christ figure.)

When I was first planning out this summer, my original plan for the week in which we would read Horton Hears a Who was that we could compare ourselves to Horton, who is on a mission to save the world.  Or save a world.  I was going to talk about how we, who have a fair bit of privilege on a global scale, are called to care for the more vulnerable, the more disadvantaged.  For a person’s a person, no matter how small.

Or maybe we could look at young Jo-Jo, the slacker.  His was the smallest voice, but it took his voice to make a difference in the outcome.

But then as I was charting out the summer, I realized that Horton and his Whos were going to be making an appearance just two weeks after we read the story about Yertle, the Turtle King, and the ordinary turtle Mack who overthrew the emperor with a burp.  And I worried that the two sermons would be too similar and you might get bored with the same message twice!

But when I thought more about Horton, I started to wonder if, perhaps, we aren’t the elephant, and hopefully we aren’t the kangaroo or the monkeys causing chaos and destruction for the sake of chaos and destruction.  But what if we are the Whos instead?

What if we are the Whos, living our ordinary lives on this speck of dust that we call home, a planet that is both beautiful and terrible, a world where we know both love and suffering?  And what if Horton, the elephant, is the deity in the story, the divine figure who does everything that he can to protect and care for the Whos.  Someone who endures and suffers for their sake.  A Christ Figure, if I think back to those movies that we watched in class – not a literal re-enactment of the life of Jesus in the form of an elephant; but rather someone who takes on some of the characteristics of Christ, giving of themself for the sake of others and for the sake of the world.

I think of the perspective of those Whos.  From my ordinary human perspective, when I’m close to an elephant they seem huge.  To a creature whose entire world is the size of a speck of dust balanced on the edge of a clover, something the size of an elephant would be unfathomably huge.  I don’t know how a Who would ever be able to wrap their mind around an elephant.  But the elephant hears the cry of the Who; and the Whos trust in this being that they can’t comprehend.  The Whos couldn’t see Horton searching for the clover, but the Whos trust that Horton is caring for them and searching them out.

Our ordinary human brains can’t comprehend God, but God hears our cries, and God is with us even when it feels like we are being tossed in a storm.  God will seek us out, even if it requires searching through millions of clovers, for God will never abandon nor forsake you.  God knows and loves every last part of you, right down to every hair on your head.

I don’t think that we have to do an either/or interpretation – either we are called to be like Horton saving the world, or we are the Whos, fully dependent on a God we can’t comprehend.  I think that we can do a both/and reading.  In some ways, we are called to be like Horton.  Together, we are the Body of Christ, called to be the hands and feet of Christ in the world, protecting the vulnerable and creating a space where the voiceless can be heard.  But we are also the Whos; we are also God’s beloved children.  You are God’s beloved child.

For God sees us, and knows us, and loves us.
As the psalm writer said:

Our souls wait for the Lord,
    who is our strength and our shield.
Our hearts are glad in God
    because we trust in the holy name.
God’s steadfast love is upon us,
    as we hope in the Lord.

Thanks be to God.
Amen.