(Brer Rabbit Earns a Dollar-A-Minute as retold by S. E. Schlosser)
One fine morning, Brer Fox decided to plant him a patch of goober peas. He set to with a will and before you know it, he had raked and hoed out a beautiful patch of ground and he put in a fine planting of peas. It didn't take too long before those goober vines grew tall and long and the peas ripened up good and smart.
Now Brer Rabbit, he'd watched Brer Fox planting the goobers and he told his children and Miz Rabbit where they could find the patch. Soon as those peas were ripe, the little Rabbits and Brer Rabbit would sneak on in and grab up them goobers by the handfuls. It got so bad that when Brer Fox came to the goober patch, he could hardly find a pea to call his own.
Well, Brer Fox, he was plenty mad that he'd worked so hard on those peas only to have them eaten by someone else. He suspected that Brer Rabbit was to blame for this, but the rascally rabbit had covered his tracks so well that Brer Fox couldn't catch him. So Brer Fox came up with a plan. He found a smooth spot in his fence where a cunning rabbit could sneak in, and he set a trap for Brer Rabbit at that spot. He tied a rope to a nearby hickory sapling and bent it nearly double. Then he took the other end of the rope and made a loop knot that he fastened with a trigger right around the hole in the fence. If anybody came through the crack to steal his peas, the knot would tighten around their body, the sapling would spring upright, and they would be left hanging from the tree for everyone to see.
The next morning, Brer Rabbit came a-slipping through the hole in the fence. At once, the trigger sprung, the knot tightened on his forelegs, and the hickory tree snapped upright, quick as you please. Brer Rabbit found himself swung aloft betwixt the heaven and the earth, swinging from the hickory sapling. He couldn't go up and he couldn't go down. He just went back and forth.
Brer Rabbit was in a fix, no mistake. He was trying to come up with some glib explanation for Brer Fox when he heard someone a-rumbling and a-bumbling down the road. It was Brer Bear, looking for a bee-tree so he could get him some honey. As soon as Brer Rabbit saw Brer Bear, he came up with a plan to get himself free.
"Howdy, Brer Bear," he called cheerfully. Brer Bear squinted around here and there, wondering where the voice had come from. Then he looked up and saw Brer Rabbit swinging from the sapling.
"Howdy Brer Rabbit," he rumbled. "How are you this morning?"
"Middling, Brer Bear," Rabbit replied. "Just middling."
Brer Bear was wondering why Brer Rabbit was up in the tree, so he asked him about it. Brer Rabbit grinned and said that he was earning a dollar-a-minute from Brer Fox.
"A dollar-a-minute!" Brer Bear exclaimed. "What for?"
"I'm keeping the crows away from his goober patch," Brer Rabbit explained, and went on to say that Brer Fox was paying a dollar-a-minute to whomever would act as a scarecrow for him.
Well, Brer Bear liked the sound of that. He had a big family to feed, and he could use the money. When Brer Rabbit asked him if he would like to have the job, Brer Bear agreed. Brer Rabbit showed him how to bend the sapling down and remove the knot from his forepaws. When Brer Rabbit was free, Brer Bear climbed into the knot and soon he was hanging aloft betwixt heaven and earth, swing to and from the sapling and growling at the birds to keep them away from the goober patch.
Brer Rabbit laughed and laughed at the sight of Brer Bear up in the sapling. He scampered down the road to Brer Fox's place and told him that his trap was sprung and the goober thief was hanging from the hickory tree. Brer Fox grabbed his walking stick and ran down the road after Brer Rabbit. When he saw Brer Bear hanging there, Brer Fox called him a goober thief. Brer Fox ranted and raved and threatened to hit Brer Bear with his walking stick. He yelled so loud that Brer Bear didn't have time to explain nothing!
Brer Rabbit knew that Brer Bear would be plenty mad at him when he found out he had been tricked, and so he ran down the road and hid in the mud beside the pond, so that only his eyeballs stuck out, making him look like a big old bullfrog. By and by, a very grumpy Brer Bear came lumbering down the road.
"Howdy, Brer Bullfrog," Brer Bear said when he saw Brer Rabbit's eyes sticking out of the mud. "You seen Brer Rabbit anywhere?"
"Brer Rabbit jest ran on down the road," he told the grumpy Brer Bear in a deep croaking voice that sounded just like the voice of a frog. Brer Bear thanked him and trotted down the road, growling fiercely.
When Brer Bear was out of sight, Brer Rabbit jumped out of the mud. He washed himself off in the pond and then scampered home, chuckling to himself at how he'd escaped from Brer Fox and Brer Bear, and already thinking up a new way to get into Brer Fox's goober patch to get him some peas to eat.
Stories of how the trickster was able to use wit in order to outsmart others have been a part of folklore for generations. My mother used to tell me the stories of brer rabbit when I was a child. These stories were popular in the south and in African American culture. In Africa and the carribean there are the stories of anansi the spider. In these stories, the trickster becomes the hero – you know that he is wrong and you know that you are not supposed to emulate his behavior, but he becomes popular because he gets away with the things that we can only fantasize about. These stories have been a part of the human psyche. They serve a purpose for us. How else would you explain their popularity. How else do you explain O.J. Simpson capturing our headlines for the last two weeks. Why would it be breaking news that someone who committed a crime has posted bail and is returning home? Why would a book about how someone murdered their wife be a best seller. O.J. Simpson is our modern day trickster. The man who can get away with what we can’t do. He makes headlines, because everyone is wondering if he will get away with a crime again.
There was never a time when I was embarrassed by our nation’s priorities. The media knows that to cover his story will only give him the publicity that he is so desparately seeking- yet they scurry to tell his story. Oprah talked about how she refused to read his book, knowing full well that just giving the situation air time will make the book a bestseller. And what about the common person – we know that he is wrong, we would never condone what he does, yet we listen to the story. We allow this to go on. I can relate to how Jeremiah must have felt as he looked at the actions of his day- as he says that his heart is sick over his people. When I think about the whole O.J. situation I am just sick – sick and sad at his arrogance, sick at our reaction to it, sick that the whole situations seems to make a mockery of justice. And yet you hope that somewhere, somehow there will be a sense of justice in this situation. A hope that people will somehow come to their senses and stop feeding the enormous ego that keeps all of this going on.
For jeremiah his sense of hope was that the people of Isreal would realize that they had stepped away from the values that they had been raised with. Hope that they would stop relying on what they had achieved in on their own and go back to trusting God. Hope that they would stop trying to be like others and spend more time trying to be like God. He prays that God will be present to change the situation and to create a future where his people will not have to suffer. He comes to realize that God is indeed in the picture and that God indeed does care about his people. And yet, even when God is closest to us, God cannot or will not protect us from the consequences of our own dumb actions. Even though God was indeed present and at work – that would not stop Isreal from paying from its sins. That the wheels were already set in motion, and they were set to go into exile and to be kicked out of their land. God couldn’t save them from what was set in motion, but they could realize what they had done and repent, turn around and do things differently.
I think that we listen to the O.J. story because we too hope that he will publicly announce that he has learned from his mistakes. The last headline is that this could be the end of the road for him. That if convicted, he could face life in prison. We don’t want him to go to jail for life, but We hope that this time, he will be able to say that he has made a mistake and that he will change his behavior.
Jeremiah too hopes that the people will understand the error of their ways. Will be able to publicly acknowledge that they have stepped away from God. And after they have experienced the consequences of their bad ways, they will decide to walk with God. Maybe that is what we hope about OJ.
But in the meantime, the trickster story serves a purpose in our hearts. We still cheer for the bad boy- how else do you explain Jesus story in Luke 16 – he tells the story of another trickster – a steward who has squandered away the money of his master. He has been fired from his job of supervisor of the others sharecroppers. Before he totally leaves, he goes to the others who also owe money to the landowner. When the landowner returns he is thought of as a hero – he has to commend the steward for his shrewdness in handling a bad situation. Jesus tells his disciples that they should be just as shrewd.
Many people struggle with story – why would Jesus commend a man for cheating and not taking responsibility for his actions? Because Jesus is an expert on human nature – he knows that even though it doesn’t make sense, he meets us where we are - we love to listen to the antics of tricksters – we are always listening to see what will happen next. Jesus uses this as a story to get our attention – but with a powerful message. Tricksters like brer rabbit, OJ Simpson, the irresponsible steward are motivated by self interest. They will do whatever they can to save themselves. Imagine if all of the energy that they put into saving themselves was put into saving others- what a difference they could make in the world. Imagine the difference that we who give the trickster attention could make if we channeled our energy into making a difference in the world. Jesus asks each one of us – if the children of this age can be so shrewd in their dealings, why cant the children of the light be shrewd with spreading the light of God to a world who is still in desparate need of a sense of real hope. Give people something to believe in, something else to talk about besides OJ’s freedom.
Jesus reminds us that we are indeed the irresponsible steward in this story – we are the trickster. We have been given a responsibility to take care of God’s people, and we have fallen down on the job. We have not used our resources to help others, we have helped in keeping others slaves to their lives, we have been given the opportunity to forgive those who have hurt us- we have the power to change the ending of the trickster story. We have the good news that the good guy is the hero of the story. We can make lots of money, we have makes lots of friends, we can even have a lot of influence in the world. It is not what he have – it is how we use it that distinguishes us as children of the light. It is our intention that distinguishes dishonest wealth from true riches. Jesus says if you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust you with the true riches.
Dishonest wealth serves ourself, true riches serves others. Dishonest wealth is used to get us out of a tough spot, true riches are used to empower us to make the world a better place. Dishonest wealth does not ask us to think about justice, true riches encourages us to make decisions which are beneficial to others. Most importantly, you can’t take dishonest wealth with you when you die, true riches are what get you a free ticket to eternity.
There is still hope for someone like O.J. – he is a child of God, maybe someday someone will be able to tell him that in a way that he can hear. His conversion story will make national news. It will be a big story that will make a difference for a lot of people. But Jesus reminds us that we too can make a difference, that our realization of what it means to be a good caretaker of God’s world, of God’s people, of God’s resources- makes just as much difference in the world.
Osceala McCarthy is a lady from Mississipi - She quit school in the sixth grade to take care of a sick aunt. It was just never practical for her to return to school. She spent the next 75 years washing and ironing clothes for a living. She never go married, never had children, she never even learned to drive a car. What she did do very well was save money. There were times in her life when she had to cut the toes our of her shoes in order to repair them to wear, she had only one bible, which she had to scotch tape together. In 1995 she was able to go the University of Southern Mississippi to donate $150,000 to give scholarships to well deserving African American students. While still alive, she was able to give another $100,000 to her church and relatives. She gave away over $250,000. that’s a lot of money. Was that dishonest wealth or true riches? Many of here may say that we don’t have $200,000 in money to give away to others. Money is not the only resource that God has entrusted us with. We have time, we have love, we have the ability to think through the toughest of situations, we have the ability to hear the cries of God’s people. We may not have a lot, but the little that we have will work just as well. Jesus says that whoever is faithful in a little will be faithful also in much. We always have $250,000 worth of faith that Jesus loves the world to transform it. How will you put it to good use?
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