George and Henry
This is a sermon I never had the courage to actually give to any of the small congregations I served in Eastern Colorado. I always wanted to ask these questions:
Have you seen “It’s a Wonderful Life” – you know, with Jimmy Stewart playing George Bailey who is stuck in his hometown? And the banker, Henry Potter – played by Lionel Barrymore. Remember?
So here is the second question:
Do you identify with George Bailey or Henry Potter?
That is an important question. I know, this is a film from the late 1940s, right after the War, directed by Frank Capra. It was one of those cute, All-American stories about a guy who wanted to see the world. But things happened. He wound up running the family Savings and Loan – helping people get money to buy their own houses.
The antagonist was the banker, Mr. Potter, a mean old man, confined to a wheelchair, who constantly plotted to put Bailey out of business. And, by chance and bad luck, George’s Uncle Billy lost a deposit, and Potter wound up with it. Worse – the bank examiner was at the Savings and Loan doing an audit.
Potter won. George Bailey was about to jump off a bridge to his own death.
Now, a little movie magic happens. An angel named Clarence is sent to save George, who says, “It would be better if I had never been born.” So, Clarence allows George to see what that would mean – and he realizes that his life had been very important to the whole community.
He goes home. His friends – the entire town, it seems – come in, pitch in, and raise the money Uncle Billy had lost. It is a grand celebration of how life can be, in a word, Wonderful.
But here is the catch. The movie ends there. We never see Mr. Potter again. We do not see the police take him to jail. In direct violation of the Motion Picture Code, the bad guy, the villain, does not get his just deserts.
For many people who wanted the traditional “Good Guy wins, Bad guy loses,” this was just wrong. We should have seen Potter wither up in poverty and die. But that was not the story.
This story has a deeper lesson, one that we can pay attention to in our difficult times.
We like Justice. We particularly like to see justice for those who attack us, hurt us, and belittle us. Justice! On the other hand, when it comes to us, when we have attacked someone, hurt someone, belittled someone, we really want Mercy.
That is just the way we are.
But that is not the way of whoever or whatever is writing this story of life (God, the universe, blind luck). It seems terribly unfair. If there is an all-powerful God and that God is all-loving and that God is all-knowing, then why is the world full of ungodly suffering? Many stumble on this problem. Many fall into an anti-theism.
But the problem is not that God or whatever has failed us. We are the ones who fail to understand what life is really about. I know – I want an infinite, infallible Being who loves us unconditionally to make everything all right. But after some 76 years, I have figured out that this is not a reasonable view of God, the universe, and life.
Suffering happens. It happens to everyone. Life is full of bad stuff. Every life. Everyone suffers. If you see anyone who has never suffered, you haven’t looked very hard. And, frankly, the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” could not be very wonderful if George Bailey had never suffered.
Trying to answer our universal suffering with some form of justice directed at the person, people, or system that is the immediate cause of the suffering ultimately fails. Punishing Mr. Potter will not answer for George’s suffering. That seems to be why Clarence opens George’s eyes and shows him the path toward mercy. In the midst of his suffering, George discovers joy.
The movie leaves Mr. Potter standing exactly where he has always stood. Whether he ever accepts mercy is another story.
I asked whether you identify with George Bailey or Mr. Potter. The honest answer is probably:
Both.
For if we are honest—truly honest, as we are called to be in confession – there is George in us: the one who suffers unfairly. And there is Mr. Potter in us: the one who clings, resents, manipulates, and always wants just a little more control.
Yet God is good. We say those words often, but the goodness of God is far larger and more mysterious than the justice demanded by the Motion Picture Code. God’s goodness is not merely the triumph of the hero or the punishment of the villain. God’s goodness is joy. And joy is always available, even in the midst of suffering.
Life is, indeed, Wonderful.
