Episode 527: Chopsticks

Welcome back to Voices in My Head, friends. As always, I am your host, Rick Lee James, coming to you again from what is my podcast studio in my car. And I'm so grateful for all of you who are listening to Voices in My Head. It's always such an honor, I feel like, anytime anyone listens to this show, and today is no exception. Sorry that it's once again coming from the car. I actually am going to be, uh, I'm heading to work today. This is, this is my after-COVID week. I'm still kind of getting my strength back, having a hard time with it in some ways. Uh, seems like there's times that I'm kind of breathless. I actually went out for a run early this morning, seemed to do okay on my run, but then as I was cooling down, just walking, it was like my heart just started racing so fast, and that seems to be something that I'm getting. So, but I won't, I won't go into tons of it. Just let's say COVID finally caught me and it wasn't fun, and still trying to recuperate and recover from that. But I am going back again for another full day at the hospital here, and thankfully in just a little while this morning they're giving me some time with the hospital because I have a new song releasing this Friday, and it's called Keep Watch, Dear Lord, and I'm going on Matt Lewis's podcast this morning. So I'm excited about being able to go and share on the podcast Matt Lewis and the News, which is a podcast I really enjoy listening to. It's usually a political podcast, but we're not necessarily going there today. It's one that we're going to be talking about the ministry of presence known as chaplaincy and this new song and how it plays into that. So I'm excited about that, being able to do that this morning while at the hospital. But I got thinking, I really wanted to share this story, and because I'm driving, I'm not going to be able to read the story to you, obviously, but I'm going to kind of give you the, the, my interpretation of this story, or my, my version of it. I've been reading a lot of books because my master's classes the fall semester about to start up again, and I've just been reading a lot getting ready for those classes to start. And there is a chapter in a book I'm reading on liturgy and the sacraments. It's called Rites of Justice, and if you ever have a chance to read it, it's really good. The author's name is Meghan McKenna, and the book Rites of Justice is a book, as I said, about the sacraments, and it really is a powerful book, especially about looking at sacraments and liturgy as ethical imperatives. The story that I wanted to share with you is one that comes from Japan, and the author heard the story told and recounts it in her book. And it's called the Chopsticks Story. And if you haven't heard this story, it's remarkable, and I hope it'll be fresh and new to you like it was to me. But in essence, it's one of those once upon a time stories. It almost starts out like a joke. Once upon a time, a man died, and he hadn't been all that bad. But he also hadn't been all that good either. And when he arrived at the Pearly Gates, he asked St. Peter, he said, "Where am I going, heaven or hell?" And Peter threw up his hands and he said, "Will you people never learn? I don't decide, you do. Where do you want to go?" So the man says, "Can I see my choices first?" "Sure," Peter answered, "which one do you want to see first?" So the man says, "Uh, Hell." So off they went. They went down stairways and down into Hell. And the interesting part of this story is when they get down into the depths of where Hell is, finally they come to two huge brass doors, and they were intricately carved with panels, and they were things from the past and the present and the future all carved into this door. And Peter says, "This is it." And he says, "Are you ready?" And so he opened the doors, and the man couldn't believe his eyes. The place was just marvelous. There were huge banquet tables laden down with food and drink and There were flowers and piped-in music and chandeliers and anything a person could want. And the man says, "This is hell?" And he just gulps. He can't believe that this is hell. And Peter says, "Yes, you want to stay?" And he said, "Is it okay if I look around?" And Peter said, "Sure, I'll be back in about 15 minutes." And then the man was left alone in hell. But as the man started looking closely at hell, which seemed to have everything he could want. When he looked more closely, he realized it wasn't as beautiful as he thought at first glance. All the people there were skinny and gaunt, and they were quite nasty. They were very upset. And the banquet tables, they were 12 feet off the ground, but the people there were only 2 feet high. And each of them had a set of 10-foot-long chopsticks to get food from the tables and to get it to their mouths, but they kept dropping the food and other people stole it off of their chopsticks before they could get it. And still other people were hitting each other over the head with their chopsticks, poking each other. They were screaming at each other and yelling, and they were bruised, and they were starving. It was just kind of a nasty place. The man gulped and said to himself, "This really is hell. I have to get out of here." About then, 15 minutes had gone by and Peter shows up again and he says, "Have you seen enough? You want to check out heaven now?" And the man said, "Yes, please, sure." So gratefully, the doors of hell swing shut behind him and they go up and they climb the stairs up high into the clouds and they finally reach another set of brass doors. Again, they're, they're carved with all these intricate images, uh, with scriptures and things from the past, the present, and the future. Peter says, this is heaven. And the doors open, and again the man could not believe his eyes. The place looked exactly like hell in every way. There were huge tables laden down with food and drink, and there was piped-in music and chandeliers. And the tables here were also 12 feet off the ground, and the people were also 2 feet tall, and everybody had 10-foot-long chapstick— uh, chopsticks, not chapsticks, that's a different thing. So the man is flabbergasted at this point, and he turns to Peter and says, "Are you sure this is heaven? It looks exactly like hell." "Sure," said Peter. "Look a little closer, because it's getting time for you to make a decision." on where you're going to stay for eternity. So the man did look a little bit closer, and as he looked closer, he began to see that this was not exactly the same as hell, because in heaven everyone was fat and they were rosy-cheeked and they were healthy, they were happy, and they were at peace. And why He wonders to himself. It's the same setup. And then it hit him. These people had realized that with these 10-foot poles, the chopsticks that they had, 10-foot-long chopsticks, there was no way to get their food to their mouth on their own. So they fed each other. They helped each other. They cared for each other. And that's why the people here were content and at peace. And they were fat and they were rosy-cheeked. And the moral of the story when you get down to the end is the only difference between heaven and hell is whom you feed. And so it is to this day, the parable says. I really loved that parable. The only difference between heaven and hell is who you feed. I had never thought of things quite in that way before. But what a beautiful reflection upon the life that we are called to live as people in the Kingdom of God. It is not about living a life of scarcity. It's not about living a life of being afraid somebody's going to take something from you. It's not of being afraid of your neighbor and those outside. It's It's not being judgmental or nasty. It literally is about having what you have for the purpose of how generous you can be to others. And I just thought it was a beautiful parable for us. The only difference between heaven and hell is who you feed. Well, I hope that's something for you to reflect on today. I hope that you'll give my new song a listen on Friday, and the more of you that I can get to listen and share it this Friday, the better when it comes out. Again, it's called Keep Watch, Dear Lord, and it'll be on all the streaming platforms and everything from Spotify and Apple Music to YouTube and, and all the places that people listen to music these days when they stream it online. And the more people that, that listen, the better visibility it gets. Feel free if you use Spotify or Apple Music, share it to one of your playlist. I'd love to have you do that. But thank you so much for listening today. Thank you for sharing, and thank you for the way that you help me by listening. Mr. Rogers says, or used to say when he was still alive, he says, "By listening, you minister to me." And of those of us who make music and are artists, that's exactly true. When you listen, you minister to us. So that's all I have this week. I'm pulling up to the hospital right now, so I'm going to go ahead and play the theme music. But make sure to follow me wherever you follow on social media. I still can't quite call it X yet. My heart hasn't quite converted over. I still call it Twitter, but whatever you call it, X, Twitter, Rick Lee James is there. You can also follow my Mr. Rogers account @MrRogersSay. I also have accounts on Instagram, Threads, Facebook, all those places. So feel free and share the music this coming Friday. I would really appreciate it. That's it for now. Thanks for listening from my podcast studio here in the car. I appreciate you listening to Voices in My Head this week. God bless you on your day.