Green Eggs and Ham Ez. 37: 1-11 2 Cor 5:14-20

“No. You can’t make me!” “No, I don’t like it.” Common phrases that we hear from small children, but phrases that don’t leave us as we become adults. Instead, the “no, you can’t make me, no, I don’t want to” response goes from one that we say outright to one that we internalize and try to find fancy words to wrap around. “That does not fit into my schedule.” “I can’t commit to that at this time.” “I’m too busy.” Same response - different presentation.

This week we are going to be looking at the gospel message presented through Green Eggs and Ham, perhaps Dr. Seuss’s most well know book and most certainly, according to Dr. Seuss, the book that preachers used for examples the most often from his library. Why? What makes Green Eggs and Ham so popular? I think its because we all understand it. We all understand wanting to say no, when other’s persistently tell us to say yes. 

The book starts out with a small character named Sam-I-Am having an encounter with an un-named character, whom Sam is trying to introduce to something new - green eggs and ham. At first the character simply replies, with his hand up in the air, as if to stop the green eggs and ham from getting any closer to his mouth, that he does not like green eggs and ham. 

But Sam doesn’t let the conversation end there. He continues asking if he would be willing to try them, here or there, in a house, or with a mouse. To which the unnamed character almost becomes irate saying that he will not try them under any circumstances, because he does not like green eggs and ham!

The prophet Ezekiel knows too many people like this unnamed character refusing green eggs and ham. In fact, Ezekiel knows a whole nation - the nation of Israel. Ezekiel was a prophet during a trying time in the nation’s history. They had been taken into captivity by the Babloyians. Their beloved Jerusalem had fallen. Defeated and destroyed they had been told by prophets past to get comfortable, because this situation is going to last a while. In fact, the prophet Jeremiah told them to go as far as to marry, make houses, and plant gardens, because they were going to be there for decades. 

In to this desperate disputation walks the prophet Ezekiel - telling them that he had a message from the Lord that he had tasted, one that was as sweet as honey. But in reality, that didn’t make the children of Israel want it any more. They didn’t want to hear yet another message from yet another prophet. No thank you. Under no circumstances. Not here or there, not in a house or with a mouse. Not anywhere. All they really wanted were words of assurance and comfort, and Ezekiel admitted that wasn’t exactly the message he had come to relay to them. In fact, up to this point his prophesy has been less than cheery, and now where we pick up with the prophesy today he is talking about unpleasant things - dry bones in the valley - symbols of the ultimate death. 

But the people of Israel were so set on not receiving what this prophet was presenting that they missed what happened next. They missed that God spoke through the prophet Ezekiel and told the dry, dead bones to come to life. And they did! God had sent Ezekiel to proclaim to this defeated people that God had the power to bring new life out of disrepute situations. Even destruction. Even death. Even their current state of exile. 

Back to Dr. Seuss. Sam-I-Am is ever persistent - asking if the character would eat green eggs and ham in a box or with a fox. In a car or in a tree. By now the tenor of the response has slightly changed from “I would not” to “I could not” - as if all power had been taken away from him, ephasizing that there is no possible way that he could eat this food being presented to him.

The people of Israel were not the only ones like this unnamed character trying to be presented with something that sounds less than apatizing - green eggs and ham. Jesus knew what it was like to try to get a stubborn people to swallow something difficult, but necessary for us - his death and resurrection. Throughout the gospels Jesus proclaimed the truth, that he was the son of God who had come to redeem us from the sin that had plagued our human nature since the time of Adam and Eve. He came and preached the radical and saving love of God. He demonstrated that love by freely dying on the cross for us, even when we rejected him. And the power of that love still resounds today because of his resurrection from the dead.

Jesus knew that we needed him to make it through life. He knew that people needed to see the love of God shining through him in order to truly find the way to God. But he was ulimately rejected by so many - the government and religious establishment, many of his disciples and friends. People who had welcomed him eagerly at the beginning of one week and would turn on him in short order by the end. Because his message was hard to swallow and they would not, could not accept him as their Lord. 

Jesus was rejected because of the message he was preaching. He was rejected because he was a man from a place that wasn’t very special, Nazareth. He was rejected because he wasn’t the type of savior that many people had envisioned - one that had come to lead a rebellion and over throw Rome, bringing freedom to Israel. He didn’t look like a Savior, until you started to spend time with him. 

Sam-I-Am kept spending time asking if he would like to try green eggs and ham. In the dark or in the rain. He would not accept that this character simply did not like green eggs and ham. He asked if he would try them with a goat or on a boat. Then Sam-I-am tries a different tactic saying “You do not like them. So you say. Try them! Try them! And you may.” Worn out and weary the one Sam had been pursuing agrees, if only Sam-I-Am agrees to let him be afterwards. And wouldn’t you know, he liked green eggs and ham and proclaimed that he would eat them anywhere with anyone. In fact, he thanks Sam-I-Am for introducing him to them! 

When was a time in your life that you initially held off from trying something that you ended up liking? When was the last time you pursued someone until they tried something they liked? Or an even tougher question - when is the last time you pursed someone with the same zeal as Sam-I-Am to come to know the saving love of Jesus Christ?

The truth is brothers and sisters, we don’t live in a world where people automatically know about Jesus. We don’t live in a world where we can assume that the majority of folks around us know the basic bible stories. We can’t assume anything. The fields are ripe with folks who can come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior - if only we would introduce them to him.

But we give up far too quickly. Some of us before we can even start telling them about what Jesus means to us. We get scared that they won’t accept what we are saying, or that we will lose a family member or friend. We get scared because we have seen people talk about their faith so poorly that it has damaged other people. 

Others of us are willing to try to share our faith one time, but give up after that attempt saying its in God’s hands. Did Sam-I-Am give up after the first no? Of course not! He kept sharing. Kept asking. 

Here’s the truth brothers and sisters, the message of Jesus Christ is just as hard to swallow today as it was back when Jesus walked this earth. And people just as passionately don’t want to receive what we have to say, as the people of Israel were with Ezekiel. But we keep sharing - because someday the people around us who we love dearly are going to realize that they need Jesus Christ in their lives. Maybe when they are going through a difficult time or maybe when everything seems right in their lives but they still sense that something is missing. 

The apostle Paul writes to the church in Corinth that we are ambassadors for Christ. An ambassador is one who acts and speaks on behalf of. We need to start representing Christ to the world, Church! Christ didn’t die so that we could continue to live for ourselves - he died so we could live for him. And he gave us a very clear mission to make disciples for him, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And yet, we aren’t bringing new people to Jesus Christ. We get more concerned with making new church members than disciples. How sad! We live in a world that is just crying out for people to passionately share their faith - at least half as passionately as Sam-I-Am shared his love for green eggs and ham -  but we are too scared to do it. We are surrounded by people who need to try a new thing - who need to come to know the love and hope of Jesus Christ in their lives. What are we willing to risk to make that happen? What are we willing to risk to share the love of God that changed our lives? Amen.