IT'S AS SIMPLISTIC AS THAT

A preacher decided that a visual demonstration would add emphasis to his Sunday sermon. At the beginning of the sermon four worms were placed into four separate jars. The first worm was put into a container of alcohol. The second worm was put into a container of cigarette smoke. The third worm was put into a container of chocolate syrup. The fourth worm was put into a container of good, clean soil.

At the conclusion of the long, long sermon, the Minister reported the following results: the first worm in alcohol: dead. The second worm in cigarette smoke: dead. The third worm in chocolate syrup: dead. The fourth worm in good, clean soil: alive. So the Minister asked the congregation, "What did you learn from this demonstration?"

Maxine was sitting in the back and quickly raised her hand and said, "As long as you drink, smoke, and eat chocolate, you won't have worms!" Well, it doesn’t get any simpler or more simplistic as that, does it?

Because we live in an age of 30-second sound bytes, we have become accustomed to wanting the answers to complicated and complex questions in simple-to-understand terms. We do not want a long discussion about the finer points, without which, of course, any response will be insufficient. What we get now are not simple answers but simplistic answers which somehow become dogma as in “Smoke, drink and eat chocolate and you will be fine.” Sure.

In this highly-politicized season we are being bombarded with simplistic answers to very, very difficult and complicated questions and issues. “A free market will solve our problems.” “Just get the government off our backs and all will be well.” “Tax the rich and the deficit will be drastically reduced.” There are no simple solutions to very large problems and you can take that to the bank, as an old TV character used to say.

We know the truth of that politically even though we too often buy into those simplistic answers. We also know it to be true from a faith perspective that simple answers, while often true, often are simplistic when put into practice. Jesus gave us, following up on the Old Testament, a simple answer to the way we should live and thus, if we all lived that way, to solving all the world’s problems: love God above all else, with all our heart and mind and strength, and love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

Simple answer, but in many ways, in actual fact, also simplistic. Jesus loved everyone equally and totally, even those who were putting him to death; but his love did not prevent his death. Just as a freer market of less government or high taxes on the rich will solve some problems, they will not solve all of them and may even create more problems.

Simple/simplistic answers always sound good. Yet most of the problems we deal with every day are always more complex than any simple or simplistic answer can resolve –  like smoking, drinking and eating chocolate to stay healthy. Be aware of the simple and beware of the simplistic. It’s as simple and simplistic as that!