SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 5 - SUBVERSIVE FABLES
Sunday November 5, 2023
Deborah Laforet
Subversive Fables
Let us pray. May the words from my lips and the meditations of my heart be guided by
your Spirit and be words of wisdom for this day. Amen.
How many of you have heard of the story, The Emperor’s New Clothes? It’s a story that I
grew up hearing but I don’t remember telling it to my own children, so I wasn’t sure how many
might still know it. For those of you who may not know it or remember it, it’s a tale made
popular by Hans Christian Andersen, although it did not originate with him, about an emperor
who spends lavishly on clothing at the expense of state matters. Two people, posing as weavers,
offer to make the emperor the most beautiful cloth in the world that also happens to be imbued
with magic: the cloth will invisible to those who are foolish or incompetent. So of course, as the
clothing is being prepared, all those who look upon it, pretend to see the cloth and praise the
clothing that being created for their emperor. In the end, the false weavers pretend to put the
garments onto the emperor, and the emperor sets off in a procession before the whole city.
Everyone has heard about this magic and pretends to see the garments worn by the emperor until,
finally, a child points out that the emperor is wearing nothing. It then dawns on people that
they’ve been tricked. The emperor though continues to process with his head held high.
Sometimes this story is told as a lesson about group think, and the dangers of not
engaging in critical thought. Sometimes it’s about vanity and how the emperor’s vanity got him
into trouble. Today, we’re going to look at it as part of a large number of stories that subvert
authority, that are critical of people in power, and are stories told by common folk as a form of
civil disobedience.
Last week I mentioned how history is often written by the winners, by those in power,
and that the stories of the bible are a powerful exemption, that the bible contains stories of a
people who were constantly conquered, oppressed, and marginalized. The story Bert read for us
today is a good example of that.
The rulers of Israel at this time are Ahab and his foreign wife, Jezebel. Ahab is
worshipping a foreign god called Baal, and begins to set up objects and altars in Israel in honour
of this God. This is when Elijah arrives on the scene. He tells Ahab that God has sent him with
a message. Because Ahab has chosen to worship other gods, there will be no rain, and for three
years, there is no rain.
Walter Brueggemann, one of my favourite professors of the Hebrew scriptures, calls
these stories in the book of Kings, ‘folk legends,’ or stories that have their roots in real events of
which we will never know that have been greatly exaggerated and expanded in very creative and
imaginative ways. He writes that ‘these narratives evidence a way of knowing and living and
experiencing reality, plus a way of witnessing to reality, that lies outside the scope and rationality
of royal control.1”
‘..outside the scope and rationality of royal control.’ Who controls the narrative in the
book of Kings, these stories about kings and the monarchy in Israel and Judah? It’s certainly not
the monarchy because they don’t come off in a great light. They come off as corrupt, foolish,
incompetent, and especially, unfaithful.
I wonder if we might see this story of the Emperor’s New Clothes in the same light, that
of a king, who is lavishly spending state money on his wardrobe, and who is fooled into
believing someone is making these magical clothes which are invisible only to those who are
Brueggemann, Walter. An Introduction to the Old Testament: The Canon and Christian 1
Imagination. Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky. 2003. pg 152-153
foolish and incompetent, unmasking the foolish and incompetent people in power. Stories that
make fools of kings are traitorous and probably punishable by imprisonment or death, but how
do you stop stories told around campfires, shared with children, and passed down from
generation to generation? The stories are subversive. The stories are sometimes satirical and
comical and are not always caught as anti-government rhetoric.
There is another, more modern story that I see in this light, one about peace on a
battlefield, peace won by soldiers, not their commanders.
On the morning of December 24, 1914, British, Belgian, and French soldiers (and
probably some Canadians) put down their rifles, stepped out of their trenches and spent
Christmas day mingling with their German enemies along the Western front. The event has been
held up as a miracle, a rare moment of peace in a war that would eventually claim over 15
million lives.
In an online article on Time.com, published on December 24, 2014, 100 hundred years
after the event, Naina Bajekal writes, “Pope Benedict XV, who took office that September, had
originally called for a Christmas truce, an idea that was officially rejected. Yet it seems the sheer
misery of daily life in the cold, wet, dull trenches was enough to motivate troops to initiate the
truce on their own — which means that it’s hard to pin down exactly what happened.”
He continues to write: “Yet for many at the time, the story of the Christmas truce was not
an example of chivalry in the depths of war, but rather a tale of subversion: when the men on the
ground decided they were not fighting the same war as their superiors. With no man’s land
sometimes spanning just 100 feet, enemy troops were so close that they could hear each other
and even smell their cooking...one British soldier, Murdoch M. Wood, speaking in 1930, said: “I
then came to the conclusion that I have held very firmly ever since, that if we had been left to
ourselves there would never have been another shot fired.”2
Something happened that day and soldiers tell tales of men on both sides of the trenches
singing Christmas carols, exchanging gifts of cigarettes, food, buttons and hats, both sides being
given an opportunity to bury their dead, and even an impromptu soccer game. Maybe someday,
this tale will grow into one of soldiers who went against the will of their commanders, put down
their weapons, sang carols, and never fired another shot. No more killing. No more suffering.
Instead making the conscious decision to see one another as one people, as one humanity,
connected in this web of life on this planet we call earth.
Ahab was an unjust king and many suffered under his rule. The vain emperor who spent
lavishly on clothes, did so at the expense of the needs of his people. Then we have a world war
based on alliances, fought by soldiers in trenches, in which too many people died. The more you
read the bible, the more of these stories you will find, stories of ‘common folk’ or those in not in
power, who find subversive ways of speaking against those in power, who only want justice and
peace for their families and communities, who will always find ways of seeking freedom and
safety for those they love.
As we continue to pray for peace, every time we gather together, and in our own hearts,
may we hold these stories up, may we continue to point out what others can’t see, may we
continue to put down our weapons, may we continue to remember that Jesus told us to love our
neighbour as ourselves and that his example of peaceful resistance in an occupied land is how we
are called to love this world. May it be so. Amen.
https://time.com/3643889/christmas-truce-1914/ 2
1 Kings 18:17-19, 20-39
(Introduce yourself.)
Today, we hear an unusual story in our bible, which Deborah has rewritten for us today. It’s from
the first book of Kings, chapter 18, verses 17 to 19 and 20 to 39.
Once upon a time, there was a king of Israel, named Ahab, who only served himself. He took
what he wanted, even if that meant lying and harming others. Elijah was a prophet, which meant
God spoke to him. Elijah was a prophet of Yahweh, the ancient God of Israel. Yahweh told
Elijah to speak against this corrupt king. Elijah did so several times and several times the king
tried to arrest Elijah and put him to death. This is the story of one of those times.
There had been no rain for three years and there was a drought in the land. The people were
hungry. God told Elijah that it was time to appear before King Ahab, so Elijah sent a message to
King Ahab, asking to meet him. When King Ahab met with Elijah, he said, “Is it you, you
troubler of Israel?” Elijah answered, “I have not troubled Israel. You have, because you have
forsaken the commandments of God and followed a false God.” Elijah then asked that the king
assemble at Mount Carmel the people of Israel, with the four hundred and fifty prophets of the
false God. The king agreed, for he saw this as an opportunity to discredit and capture Elijah.
So King Ahab gathered the Israelites and all of his prophets on Mount Carmel. Elijah then said
to the people, “How long will you hop between two gods. You need to choose one.” He then
offered the following challenge: “Bring two bulls. Let your prophets choose one, cut it in
pieces, lay it on the wood, and I will do the same. Neither of us will create a fire. We will then
both call on our god and the one who answers is indeed the one and only god.” The people
agreed to this challenge.
Elijah let the false prophets choose first. They took the bull, prepared it, and called on the name
of their god from morning until noon, crying, “Answer us!” but there was no voice and no
answer.
Elijah began to mock them. “Maybe cry louder. Surely your god is listening. Surely your god is
not meditating somewhere, or has wandered out of earshot, or on a journey. Perhaps your god is
asleep and must be awakened.” The false prophets cried louder, but as midday passed, there was
no voice, no answer, no response.
Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come closer to me,” and all the people came closer. Elijah
took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of Israel. With the stones he built an
altar. Then he made a large trench around the altar. Next he put the wood in order, cut the bull in
pieces, and laid it on the wood. He said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt
offering and on the wood.” Then he said, “Do it a second time,” and they did it a second time.
Again he said, “Do it a third time,” and they did it a third time, so that the water ran all around
the altar and filled the trench.
Elijah then came near and said, “O Yahweh, God of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca,
Jacob, Leah, and Rachel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, that I am your
servant, and that I have done all these things at your bidding. Answer me, O God, answer me, so
that this people may know that you are God and that you have turned their hearts back.” Then the
fire fell and consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stones, the dust, and even licked up the
water that was in the trench. When all the people saw it, they fell to their knees and said, “This
indeed is our God. Yahweh, the God of our ancestors is truly the one and only god.”
Elijah then began to pray to Yahweh, and soon the heavens grew black with clouds and wind, and
a heavy rain began to fall.
May God grant us understanding of our sacred stories. Amen.