Virtue: Creativity
Resolution: I choose to reveal the beauty of God according to my strengths and gifts.

Human Story: Fred Rogers (1928 – 2003)

In February 1999, Fred Rogers was accepted into the Television Hall of Fame. As he stood on stage before a crowd of actors, writers, and directors, he said:

I feel that those of us in television are chosen to be servants. It doesn’t matter what our particular job, we are chosen to help meet the deeper needs of those who watch and listen – day and night...(Life) is the greatest mystery of any millennium, and television needs to do all it can to broadcast that, to show and tell what the good in life is all about…We all have only one life to live on Earth. And through television, we have the choice of encouraging others to demean this life or to cherish it in creative, and imaginative ways.

If a person asked you to write down some of the most creative people in the world, who would they be? Leonardo da Vinci, Wolfgang Mozart, or Isaac Newton would probably find their way to the top of the list. But someone who might not initially come to mind certainly deserves a spot, Fred Rogers. While on a visit home from college, Fred took note of the television sitting in the living room of his parents’ house. Fred realized the great potential that television had for broadcasting positive messages to old and young alike. Initially he had planned to continue on to seminary after college, but instead he got a job at NBC working on music programs. He realized that commercial television was not for him and moved to Pittsburgh to begin the first community-supported educational television programming in the country. Still feeling very strongly about becoming an ordained minister, Fred took classes at seminary on his lunch breaks and eventually was ordained with a special charge to serve families through television. To combat what he saw as destructive and demeaning children’s programs, in 1968 “Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood” first appeared on air and thus began Fred’s life work to use television to broadcast a message of hope, peace, and love.

In the gospel of Mark, Jesus said that the greatest commandments were to love the Lord your God with all your heart and to love your neighbor as yourself. Who is your neighbor? Through 31 seasons and 895 episodes, Mr. Rogers used his immense creativity to teach us that our neighbors were those who share our home, our community, our country, and our world. For him, each person was made in the image of God and deserved a chance to discover that Truth about themselves. He taught us how to help others and ourselves to do just that. Fred composed all the music and storylines and was the voice of all the puppets in the “Neighborhood of Make-Believe.” With songs like “What Do You Do?,” “The Truth Will Make Me Free,” and “It’s You I like,” he helped us navigate our feelings of anger, sadness, and embarrassment. Through his characters on the show, he discussed very difficult issues like death, war, divorce, and disability. He let children and adults see how beautiful life is despite all the darkness. He taught that each person has value, even if they don’t feel like it. 

Resources: https://www.misterrogers.org/about-fred-rogers/
Rogers, Fred. The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember

Lesson: Mark 12:30-31

‘And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.

You’ve likely heard it said before that the Christian mission can be summed up in this phrase: “Love God; love others.” To some people, this may sound oversimplified, while to others, it hits the nail on the head. According to Jesus, these are the two greatest things we can attempt to do while on this earth – these are the ways that we will bring change for the Kingdom of God. And yet, in order to truly accomplish what Jesus is commanding here, we must redefine what the term “neighbor” means to us. Our friends are our neighbors, the people who live near us on a street or in a subdivision are our neighbors, our family members are our neighbors, and yes, even those that we label as outcast, unattractive, displeasing, or enemy are our neighbors. What Jesus is asking here is pretty extreme if you think about it. It’s not easy to love anyone as much as we tend to love and serve ourselves. It’s not easy to give up our own sense of comfort, safety, and pleasure to meet the needs of others, and yet that’s exactly what we are called to do for the sake of Christ with all of our neighbors.

Scripture is pretty clear on the topic of love and what it takes to show love to others. For an extensive definition of love, you can read 1 Corinthians 13. On top of all the descriptors for love found there, scripture also tells us that love is sacrificial (Romans 5:8), love seeks good for others (Romans 13:10), and love stems from a deep place of being loved (1 John 4:19). Love, Jesus says, is how the world will know that we are His disciples (John 13:35).

We love God, and yet we cannot physically see Him. We love others, our neighbors, because they are the physical representations of God in this world that we encounter every single day. May we choose to notice them, name them, and love them well.

Remembrance

Look and Listen by Fred Rogers

If you will look carefully,
Listen carefully,
You will find a lot of things carefully.
Look...and listen.

It's good to
Look carefully.
Listen carefully.
That's the way you learn a lot of things carefully.
Look...look and listen.

Some things you see are confusing.
Some things you hear are strange.
But if you ask someone to explain one or two,
You'll begin to notice a change in you.

If you will
Look carefully.
Listen carefully.
That's a way to keep on growing carefully.
Look, look, look, and listen.

Challenge

Make a list of people or groups of people who are your neighbors that you have neglected to reach out to before. Then, choose 2-3 names from that list and provide some sort of kind gesture (i.e. send a kind note, bake a treat, give a phone call, make a donation, physically meet a need, etc.). Notice how widening your scope of who your neighbor is impacts your worldview.

Reflection

Think about Fred Rogers’ quote: The more I think about it, the more I wonder if God and neighbor are somehow One. Loving God, loving neighbor – the same thing? For me, coming to recognize that God loves every neighbor is the ultimate appreciation. Is loving God and loving your neighbor the same thing?

Further Growth

2021: Book of Common Prayer, Proper 22

Old Testament: Habakkuk 1:1-13, 2:1-4
Psalm: Psalm 37:1-17
New Testament: 2 Timothy 1:1-14
Gospel: Luke 17:5-10

2020: Book of Common Prayer, Proper 22

Old Testament: Isaiah 5:1-7
Psalm: Psalm 80
New Testament: Philippians 3:14-21
Gospel: Matthew 21:33-44