The Yellow Brick Road Home

by Pastor Gina Johnson

In 1900, a man by the name of L. Frank Baum gave the world a new story. It was The Wizard of Oz. And, you know, on the surface, it's just a great children's book. It's just a story to read at night. But you know what? He wasn't just writing a bedtime story. He lived in a time where there was quite a bit of strain going on.

There was all sorts of political battles taking place, economic tension, and people were spiritually searching for what was going to help them find that somewhere over the rainbow. Kind of reminds me of our climate today, actually.

His wife was a suffragist, and his family was constantly surrounded by reform movements trying to pull him this way and this is what it means to be an American, and this is what it looks like to live in this time and work hard and honor our country. It's amazing how many of those things just come with us continually through time and continue to keep us in that interesting upheaval.

But, he himself, he was fascinated with spiritual teachings. Some would even say mystical teachings. And, you know, he was a believer that the truth is not out there somewhere. He was a believer that the truth was planted in our souls.

Historians will tell us that if you look at the book the Wizard of Oz and the story that was taking place there, there was a lot of meaning behind it. There was the yellow brick road, and the yellow brick road represented the gold standard of money. So, everyone wanted to follow the yellow brick road.

And then there were Dorothy's slippers, which were originally silver in the book. Ruby became a part added for the film, but they symbolized freedom and balance. Again, just a magic ticket to where you want to be.

And then there was the scarecrow, who was the farmer. There was the tin man, who was the worker. There was the lion, who was the reformer.

And, of course, where were they all headed? They were headed to Emerald City. In that time, that was Washington, D.C. It was glitter and it was glam, but it was built on illusions of whatever that particular person was seeing in their Emerald City.

And then let us not forget, because we have one in every decade, in every story, we have the wizard. The miraculous man behind the curtain, but puffed up with smoke and sound when we really take the time to look and see what's going on.

So, whether Baum meant all of that or not, I spent some time with some history, and that's one thing that came kind of clear. Do I agree with all those things? You know, in a lot of ways, look at our world today, look at the political climate of our world today, and that book has a lot more to it than just a bedtime story.

And at the same time, one thing that I think is clear is that it's more than just a fairy tale. There is a parable of the soul that's taking place in the story of the Wizard of Oz. Just like he had said, the truth is not out there, it's within the soul.

Well, Jesus said, “Nor will they say, look, here it is or there it is, for in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.” That's one of those things where we're constantly chasing that somewhere over the rainbow. We're constantly looking for that special ticket, that golden road, that one thing that's going to help us get to that place when all along, it's right inside of us.

So, let's go ahead and walk through this story and see where spirit and this story can meet us and what we can glean from it. There's act one where we have Dorothy, and this is where Dorothy doesn't choose to get swept up in a storm, but something within her was searching and looking as she was trying to figure out the noise that was going around her, but she's swept up, she's carried away, she's dropped in a strange new place.

Isn't that sometimes how our life works? What is your strange new place? Is it a new place that you're now living because you've had a recent life change? Is it a new diagnosis that you weren't expecting? Is it hearing a good report on an old condition that no longer has to pin you down? Perhaps it's your work, perhaps the winds are blowing transition in your economic status, in your family status, but isn't that how life goes? We're just kind of minding our own business, at least we're pretending to, and all of a sudden we get swept up and we're not in Kansas anymore.

And right away as Dorothy hits that landing, who does she meet? She meets the witches. First she meets the witch of the east who's been crushed, and in the storyline of the book, that's showing power's been defeated, chains are being broken, and, if we really recognize when God is moving in our life—when the winds are upon us and storms are coming, but we trust spirit to move in our life, our wicked witch of the east too can be crushed, those things that we're giving tyrannical reign over us, whether it's emotionally, whether it's economically, whether it's in relationships or workspaces, or whether it's in our own mental health. People tend to think sometimes, “Hey, I need a mental health day.” Well, what is going on in our day-to-day life and our day-to-day practices that we have to get to a breaking point of saying, “Hey, I need a mental health day.”

The wicked witch of the east is crushed, and those things have lost their grip, but then who shows up? The wicked witch of the west, and isn't it interesting? Everyone was celebrating because the wicked witch is gone, and now they can begin on their journey. New things can happen very much as we as Christians walk along our path of unfoldment, but then the wicked witch of the west, who does she symbolize? Well, you know, it seems like every time things start to go in that right direction, things start to look up, things start to feel good, then we let fear creep in.

Nothing's even happened yet, and we're already listing the things that could go wrong. We let doubt creep in. Every time you are on the path of growth, you always make room for resistance.

Why do we do that? It's just embedded so deep in us that we can't get to the land of Oz without witches and armies of monkeys and all kinds of things coming after us, and sometimes we just wish we did have some poppies to put us to sleep, because everything going on is noisy and loud and uncertain. You know, fear and doubt, distraction and temptation, they will chase us down that yellow brick road. They will follow us wherever we go, but thankfully we have our Glenda.

Glenda, when she arrives, she arrives in this light, very much like the Holy Spirit. She is filled with grace and calm, and she's not there to drag Dorothy into this new understanding. She's not there to tell Dorothy, this is how it's going to happen. Now lock arms with me and I'll take you.

Instead she tells Dorothy, what? Ps  brick road.

She's saying, you have the power all along, so now just go on. Follow the yellow brick road and you will hear that constant reminder that the Spirit gives. This is how Spirit works in our life. It doesn't force us to take steps. It doesn't push us down the path. It doesn't drag us or pull us around the path, nor does it hand us shortcuts, nor does it give us an easy way out, but it reminds us. It reminds us as time is getting heavy, as finances are feeling stretched thin, as relationships aren't shaping up like the way we thought, as our health is meeting more of the world's expectation of our age versus the truth of how whole and how extraordinary that we are.

As all of that happens, the Spirit is there with us, and maybe we can't always see it in a pretty pink dress with a crown, but we know that it's there saying, “Keep going. Follow the yellow brick road. It's going to lead you where you need to be.”

And so we come to act two.

Along this yellow brick road, Dorothy begins to meet her companions, and they're not just friends to come along the way. They actually are wonderful mirrors of what is going on inside of her, and we can each see that in our own journey.

So, it starts off with the scarecrow, right? He's saying, “If I only had a brain.”

He is feeling as if he's mindless. He's just a lifeless figure on a stick, but as the journey unfolds, it becomes clear that his mind is sharp, that his ideas are creative, and in fact, they rely on him to remind them of how important it is to use their mind, to cultivate their mind. He becomes essential in some of the problem-solving along the journey, and so it makes you wonder what puts us in that place where we stop thinking outside the box.

When something starts to come down that we're not sure if we like the way it looks or how it makes us feel, what causes us to go into panic, into reaction, into running away, into thinking, “Well, of course it went that way because I'm just dumb and I don't know this stuff anyway.” How many of us, as we see technology running ahead of us, we think, “Man, I can't keep up with this. I wish it was back this way,” but the truth of the matter is, is we all fall into that crystallization.

We all fall into that place of letting our minds just go stagnant and sometimes even dormant, so we're just going through the motions day in and day out. It looks normal to everyone because everyone's participating and going through those same motions, you know, but Paul writes in 1 Corinthians, he says, “For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ,” and that's the realization that the scarecrow has, and that's the realization that we should all have. The scarecrow shows us that you already have the capacity to think clearly, to discern truth, to hear wisdom of the Spirit, and to imagine limitless possibilities.

And then we have another friend, the tin man.

He fears that he cannot feel. He feels that he's hollow inside, but yet if you watch the movie, if you read the book, he's the one that's crying at the tiniest little moment, and he represents our emotions in such a way that he's not just emotional, but he reminds us how the heart of God is filled with compassion and mercy. He reminds us that it's okay to cry over the most beautiful thing, just as it's okay to cry over the most sorrowful thing, but the lesson is to not be controlled by the wind, to not be controlled by out-of-control emotions and things being unchecked.

The lesson is to not believe that you're heartless, that you're hollow on the inside. There's somewhere in between, because it's either I am numb, and I'm not going to get emotional over anything going on, everything looks like this, logic, here it is, it is what it is, and that's that, or it's, oh my gosh, and it's reaction, and it's tears, and it's lining up our armies of how are we going to handle this, what are we going to do about this, but what about that space in between, that space where we don't let our emotions get the best of us, but we let our emotions give us a reflection of what is true? It gives an opportunity to learn from a teacher, to say, “This is how I'm feeling right now, why is that? What is the root of this?”, because most of the time it's not even what took place.

What took place can make you scared, or mad, or afraid, but the truth of the matter is there's usually something deeper underneath that, and that's what the Tin Man reminded us of, that our emotions, when we yield them over to the Spirit, when we release those things that are negative, those things that are dragging us down, and we trust in the Spirit to be our emotional compass, our emotional guide, that's when we get to see compassion in action, that's when we too get to be like the Tin Man and recognize we've always had that heart.

Then we have the cowardly lion, and we know that he is always longing for courage. He walks around trembling, and the littlest noise scares him. He says, he is a coward, but yet he keeps going, he keeps stepping forward with them. He represents our body, our physical will in motion, and it's the ability to keep moving forward as we're doing each and every day, regardless of how afraid we are. Courage isn't about looking all brave and tough, and feeling all brave and tough. I mean, you see the lion, you would expect bravery, you would expect the king of the jungle, he can lead the way for us, and yet he's sitting there boo-hooing, and he hears a noise, and all of a sudden he's afraid of his own tail. How often do we do that? How often do we think that courage and bravery have to be everything looking this way on the outside, and everything coming together so perfectly, when really courage is about being able to step forward in faith, even when you don't feel so brave.

It's about being able to see what it is that you've been envisioning on the other side of that rainbow, but recognizing it's here right now. Courage is remembering what it looked like when these pews were filled, and trusting it's coming again. And no, it never looks the same, it looks new, it looks reborn, it looks different. What kind of courage do you have in your life?

When the lion shows up, he reminds us that our body can rise up and come into alignment with the spirit, even when we're afraid. When you feel called to step into a role, when you feel called to perhaps take a trip, or do something that you've always wanted to do, but something held you back. When you feel called to mend a relationship that's been broken for years, and you don't even remember why. Can you step up like the brave lion, and go forward even as you're shaking, even as your tail is tucked between your legs? Can you believe in what started you on the journey to begin with?

We have our mind, and we have our body, and our emotions, and when we align all of those with Spirit, that's when we are the highest, the fullest us. We can align all of those with the teachings of Jesus, with the parables, and the stories, with the other teachers that have been in and out of our life, and we see they've all been reminding us that everything we need is within us. We're not missing pieces. We don't actually have to get swept up in a tornado, and encounter strange beings in a dream, but at the same time, wasn't that dream just to remind Dorothy that everything she had was already within her. Everything that she had been waiting for, and longing for, was just waiting to be awakened, so it could be integrated into her life.

At the end of the yellow brick road, they reach the emerald city, and it's glittering, and it's dazzling, and it's full of promises and answers, but it's interesting, because when they get in there, and they meet that great and powerful Oz, with all the smoke, and all the fanfare, what happens when Toto pulls back that curtain? They recognize that it's just a man with a machine, just a man with a label, just a man with a title, and some false illusions of authority that we've all come to cower before, or to worship before. That reminds me a lot of our own ego. That reminds me of a lot of the things that we blow up in our mind, whether they're labels that put us down, or they're labels that make us grandiose.

It's all that old programming that puffs itself up and says, you're gonna be enough when you achieve this. The reason why people love you is because you do this, and you give them that, so don't you stop doing that, because then you won't matter as much. It's those voices in you that say, as someone else validates you, then you know you matter.

So, as you're getting older, and things are changing around you, and maybe some of your friends are transitioning on before you, that programming will start to convince you that your life too is nearing that destination, and hold on to what you have, because these are the end of the days. It's interesting how much programming goes into our seasons of life, and how much of it is based on the illusions of what we were being offered by the great and powerful Oz. Was that our ego? Was that the world? Was that some leaders that we put into a place of authority?

But the truth is, the wizard could not give them what they already carried, nor could any political leader, nor could any relationship, any label, any title, any amount of money, any false understanding, they cannot give you guys what you already carry. We might be handed medals, and certificates, and tokens along the way to say, you have a brilliant mind, here's a label and a salary. Oh, you have a brilliant body, let's take pictures of you, and post you all around to set the example. Oh, you have a great spirit, how do you do that? You must pay tithe, attend church regularly, and go to all the extra classes.

But no, those are just superficial tokens. It doesn't mean that we can't look at them with reflection, but the truth is, what Spirit reveals to us is the present that we had all along, and that is the beingness within us. That is the mind, body, and spirit that are already working collectively within us. And you can draw back the curtain, because those things behind it don't hold any real power. The power is with God, the power is with the I Am, the power is within us, and that's how it all comes together.

So, there's this entire journey, you know, and Dorothy's been wearing these ruby slippers all along the way, and she only needed to realize what they can do. She only needed to realize that the power had been with her all along. Glenda represents the Spirit, and she says you've had the power all along, that's what the Spirit is saying to each and every one of us. When you are longing for wisdom and compassion, when you are longing to be seen, and feel courageous, and feel that peace, it's not out there.

It doesn't matter what your home looks like, what the church looks like, it doesn't matter how many people have called you or messaged you that day, it doesn't matter what your bank account balance looks like, whether you retired with this status or that status. What matters is recognizing the kingdom of God is within you, and who dwells in that kingdom but our Lord, our Savior, our Master Teacher, Christ Jesus.

And when I call him the Savior, I don't mean he swoops in to do some magic work for you. “Hey, I died and rose again, so now I can save you by washing away your sins.” No, when I call him the Savior, it's because he came and demonstrated that death doesn't have to be a thing, hate doesn't have to be a thing, separation doesn't have to be a thing, and none of these things are a thing, but stop looking out there for that confirmation. Look within. Recognize that the rainbow, as we learned in Genesis, is God's promise, that there is a bridge between heaven and earth, and that bridge is us, and getting to that location of heaven is just about turning inward.

So, what is the example of the Wizard of Oz? What can we take away from these characters in this story? Can we recognize that storms are going to come along and carry us to places, but God is already there? Spirit is with you every step of the way, and why did you call that storm into your life at that point in time? Well, there must be something waiting to be revealed to you, and to see the perfection of it. “Witches” are going to rise and bring resistance our way, but isn't it funny how quickly we invite that resistance in? How quickly we start to name all of our fears and all of our doubts, and we start to shout our worries at the top of our lungs, when really we could have just left them dead under the house that fell on them.

And you also have to recognize that the Spirit is always with you. The Spirit is going to be present within your mind, within your body, within your emotions, and you are awakening to all that is there. I want to share with you from Ephesians 3:20. It's part of Paul's doxology, and he says, “Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine.”

The yellow brick road is really a journey of faith, and whatever slippers, shoes, boots you have on your feet, those are already carrying you forward, and your guidance is the Christ within you. It's already carrying you on that yellow brick road to home.

Please pray with me.

Our most gracious and loving God, we are so grateful for this time in which we can use gifts of creativity and talents of others who have gone before us to learn more about our relationship with you. God, let us be reminded that you have set a beautiful road before us, that you have given us everything we need to complete the journey, and that the destination is nothing to be sought out outside of us but to turn inward to see you there, to see the trueness of ourselves there. So, God, what is meant to be heard by your Spirit, may we hear it, may we apply it, and may we demonstrate it for all to see in the love and in the honor of Christ Jesus.

Amen.