“Alright….I’ll
just go to hell.” And with those
words, Huckleberry Finn makes a choice that he believes will doom him for
eternity. If I were to ask people what they remember about the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn, most people would say that it’s the story of a little boy traveling
down the Mississippi River on a raft, and that lots of funny things happen to
him; however, the character of Huckleberry Finn is actually the abused child of
an alcoholic father who tries to kill him one night in a drunken rage. Huck, at the age of twelve or thirteen,
realizes that if he wants to survive childhood, he needs to disappear. So Huck fakes his death and runs away. He meets a slave named Jim who is also
running for his life and together they begin a journey that will eventually
lead them both to a place of hope….hope for a better life.
But Huck
is also the product of a pre-Civil War Southern society – a society that has
ingrained in him that slaves are little more than trained animals. Slaves are not very smart; slaves have
little or no emotion; and slaves are a piece of property. Helping a slave to escape is equivalent
to stealing, breaking both man’s law and God’s law. As Huck and Jim travel down the river getting closer and
closer to the “free” states, the noise of that society buzzes louder and louder
in Huck’s conscience until he’s convinced that he is in danger of eternal
fire. So he decides to “get right”
with God and with man. He writes a
letter to Jim’s owner telling her where Jim can be found. All she has to do is to send the reward
money, and Jim will be returned to her.
But
before Huck can mail that letter, he begins to think of all the things he has
learned about Jim on this journey.
He has learned that Jim is smart – even wise. Huck has learned that Jim cares deeply for him and that Jim
loves his family. Jim’s goal in
getting to freedom is to get a job and to earn enough money to go
back and buy his wife out of slavery.
Then he and his wife can earn enough money to go back and buy their
daughter….they can be a family.
Huck looks at that letter and knows that if he mails it, he will end
Jim’s hope.
That’s
when Huck gets a “God –nudge.” He
doesn’t know what it is. All he
knows is he can’t mail that letter.
He can’t end Jim’s hope. So
Huckleberry Finn turns his back on the noise of his society, rips up that
letter, and sets out to help Jim get to freedom – regardless of the
consequences that Huck will face in this life, or that he believes he will face
in the next one.
Two
thousand years ago, Joseph faced a similar dilemma. Scripture doesn’t tell us how the conversation went when
Mary told Joseph about the angel visit but it must have been somewhat
awkward! “Now Joseph, I have a
little bit of bad news. But I also
have some amazingly wonderful news!
You just won’t believe it!
It’s all going to depend on your point of view.” We do know that Joseph’s point of view
was not positive – he didn’t believe Mary. And Joseph was the product of Jewish society – Levitical
law. Women were little more than
slaves. And the noise of that
society must have buzzed really loudly in Joseph’s psyche because scripture
does tell us that Joseph, being a “just” man, chose to divorce Mary
quietly. But then he got a
“God-nudge.” The angel appeared to
Joseph in a dream to assure him that Mary was telling him the truth…that the
child she was carrying was the Savior of the world. The angel told Joseph to marry Mary and to name the baby
Jesus. And when Joseph woke up, he
turned his back on the noise of his society and together he and Mary began a
journey that would eventually lead them to the birth place of hope – the birth
place of a savior.
Here we
are two thousand years later and our world is extremely noisy. Our society is noisy. Our politics are noisy. Even our religion can be noisy! And if all we ever focus on is the
noise, then all we ever hear is the noise. And the chaos of the noise drowns out the sound of hope.
As we enter into 2018, I challenge you
to be a Huckleberry Finn – be a Joseph!
Turn your back on all that noise and focus on Mary and Joseph because
their story has become our story.
Their journey has become our journey to the birthplace of hope – to the
birthplace of Jesus in a little town called Bethlehem. And may the spirit of that hope light
your way into the new year this year and every year.
Love,
BB
