Clark Kent
I have this friend who I have known for most of my life. We grew up together. The strange thing about this friend is that he was very private. It’s not that he doesn’t share any information about himself with you, it’s that when it comes to likes and dislikes, or feelings he will usually divert the attention to the other person or change the subject. So, not too many people know who he really is. But people just like being around him.
My friend is one of those very smart people. You know the type. He is a very smart person who just didn’t act like he knows everything that he actually knows. He catches on to things really quickly. He is one of those people who doesn’t have to make a mistake to learn from it. He can watch someone else make a mistake and learn just as much from that mistake as he can if he made the mistake himself.
Even at an early age, my friend had a keen sense of judgment about a lot of people. Even when most people got fooled, he could almost predict what type of actions some person was going to take next. He didn’t really flaunt that ability, so most people didn’t even know he had that gift.
My friend was also very good at sports. He was very competitive. He didn’t mind losing, he just wanted to give it his best. Victory or defeat didn’t really make a difference as long as he continued to grow from the experience.
My friend was always a team player. If he wanted to try something he really thought he could be good at, and there was a team need someplace else, he would always do what the team requested. When he did well at things he wanted to try, it usually surprised people, and they were often in wonder as to why he never told them that he could excel at something. Truth is, he really didn’t know he could excel at it, for no one ever asked what he wanted to try.
My friend would usually stand back in the crowd. He would always excel at whatever task was in front of him. When he got comfortable with an individual or a setting, his sarcastic sense of humor would burst out. One of the comments he would hear over and over again, when he reached that confidence level, was, “Remember when we use to think he was quiet?”
One day my friend acquired a nickname. I’m not sure who the first person was who called him that, but I believe it was someone who had him figured out. His nickname was “Super,” like in Superman. Someone saw his potential and his hiding behind some mask didn’t fool him. Everyone else saw Clark Kent, but that person who gave him the nickname, realized he was actually Superman.
If you ever look at the story of Superman you realize that no one really believes that Clark Kent is Superman. Clark Kent doesn’t go around saying, “Look at me! Look at me! I’m actually Superman.” He would never try to convince doubters by ripping off his clothes to the Superman outfit he was actually wearing under them and then lift off the ground and start flying. No, Clark Kent wanted to just be Clark Kent.
Clark Kent also had x-ray vision, just like my friend could see through personalities when others couldn’t. Clark Kent knew he could do more than anyone ever thought he could, yet, he kept it to himself until he saw a need. Even when he saw a need, he went out of his way to deflect any attention on his Clark Kent self. Everyone saw Clark, but everyone loved Superman. Little did they know they were one and the same person.
So, I guess when you look at it that way, my “super” friend really did deserve that nickname.
When this future President was just a young kid, being Superman was the furthest thing from his mind. He was just worrying about surviving. His poor health caused his parents much worry for his survival.
But the future President’s dad was a no nonsense type of person. His dad carried that “just rub some dirt on it” mentality. So he would just push his sickly child. His father would even get so frustrated he would tell his frail, asthmatic child, “You have the mind, but you have not the body, and without the help of the body the mind cannot go as far as it should.” He would encourage his son to “take control over his illness.”
The future President had a younger brother who was quite the opposite of him. His brother’s name was Elliott. Elliott was quite athletic. Seems like Elliott could always run faster and jump higher than all the other boys his age. Riding, hunting, climbing and swimming all came naturally to Elliott. The father was so proud of Elliott.
All the attention showered on Elliott probably inspired the future President to try harder and work longer than his younger brother. His efforts built in him a permanent drive to never give up and to do everything possible to come out a winner. Where Elliott relied on his natural talent, the future President would rely on his spirit and his drive.
Once the future President was riding with the hounds. His desire to win was so strong that he slammed into a wall. His glasses smashed into his face and his arm was so broken that it resembled “a length of liverwurst.” He got up, mounted his horse, and finished only behind the huntsman.
Elliott’s downfall probably happened when he broke his leg in an amateur charity circus. Instead of having a desire to get better, he seemed more comfortable just staying in bed. Morphine, laudanum, and alcohol started to become his best friend. It would start the downward spiral to his life.
Elliott, being the more handsome of the lot, was quite the lady’s man, too. The future President seemed to struggle in his romantic relationships. The future President was not too fond of Elliott’s loose morals with women. He was even more upset with Elliott’s choice of a wife. The future President always felt that Anna, Elliott’s wife, was foolish and frivolous.
I completely understand that Superman is a fictional character, but there is one thing I always had trouble understanding about his story. In the old days of Superman, when he would hear cries for help, he would run to the nearest phone booth.
There are probably a lot of people out there that don’t know what a phone booth is or at least have never had the experience of using one. In the old days, we use to pay for our calls. We didn’t pay for the “data” we used, our charges were based on the number of calls and, on long distance calls, the length of time we were on those calls.
There were no cell phones in the old days either. No, if we wanted to make a call away from home, we had to go to these little booths that sat on the street corners and deposit coins into the phones that were inside them. Kids today think they have it rough when their cell phone batteries go dead. Try finding a pay phone out in the middle of the country or on a deserted road.
Back to Superman. When he heard these cries for help he would run into one of these phone booths and rip off his clothes to the Superman outfit he had underneath them. He would then fly into the air and head off to the land where danger lurked. When he finished saving the day, the next scene would show him returning to the office, straightening his tie, and returning to his regular Clark Kent duties.
His office clothes never seemed to have a wrinkle or stain on them. My question is, with all the times he discarded them, why did no one ever take them while he was on one of his missions? Someone walks into a phone booth, sees a nice set of clothes, and never, not even once, does someone take them or at the very least throw them away?
Well, our Bible story today is about someone who found Clark Kent’s clothes. The reason I know they believed they were Clark Kent’s clothes is that if they thought they were Superman’s clothes they would either have sold them on eBay or they would have kept them for themselves. Someone would have pulled rank and had those clothes in their possession.
The father of the future President and Elliot was very well off, so the boys were able to live comfortably into adulthood. The future President believed being so blessed carried an extra responsibility of being a wise leader who would look after those who might be a little less fortunate. Elliott believed that money was something to be used to live it up. Elliott’s wife seemed to share Elliott’s views. This greatly distressed the future President.
When rumors began to swirl that Elliott was having an affair with his chambermaid, the future President had just about reached his limit. It was bad enough that alcohol was playing a dominant role in his brother’s life, now his loose morals, with a chambermaid of all things, was about to take down the family name.
Despite all his faults, Elliott loved his family. He especially adored his oldest daughter. The slightly homely girl worshiped the ground her father walked on. Nothing, it seemed, would she treasure more than the time he would spend with her or the letters he would write her.
Elliott decided to get away from his brother and all the other family he grew up with. He would take his family far away. They would settle in Europe. Now his happy family would be far, far away. One thing about running away is that no matter how far you get away, you are always still right there with yourself. Elliott’s spending habits never stopped and his drinking, if anything, got worse.
Then news came to his brother that Elliott’s chambermaid had a son. She claimed the child was Elliott’s. She was asking for money to help support the child. The future President was just starting to get into politics and the last thing he needed was for a family scandal to bring him down. To top it off, when the chambermaid gave birth, Elliot’s wife was seven months pregnant.
The future President sent his sister, Bye, to Europe to get his brother to commit himself to an institution. He sent lawyers to the chambermaid to try to get her to keep quiet as to who the father really was. He also went to work to break up Elliott’s marriage and happy family.
Long and short of it was that Elliott would go in and out of mental institutions. His wife would separate from him, but she would die. The future President would take in Elliott’s children and Elliott would agree never to contact those children again.
Elliott’s oldest daughter was heartbroken. Her father was her life. His in and out of her life antics were bad enough, but now she had no idea why he was no longer there at all. She had a real hard time fitting into the future President’s family, especially since they were all pretty athletic and liked doing outdoor things. She was pretty clumsy. Her cousin was also quite beautiful and she knew her beauty could not compare to her cousin’s beauty.
Elliott’s daughter would spend some time with her aunt, Pussie as she was called. Her real name was Edith Hall. Every once in a while Elliott’s daughter would receive a letter from her father through Pussie. Elliott’s daughter would treasure each of those letters.
Elliott’s daughter would also spend time with her Grandmama Hall. Little did she know, but her father had actually moved back to New York. He was living just a few blocks away from where Grandmama lived.
The Clark Kent of the Bible was having a very bad weekend. The week started out great, but when Wednesday or Thursday hit, it was all downhill from there. Everyone wanted to see Superman but all they could see was Clark Kent.
They tried everything to bring out the Superman in Clark Kent. They used guilt. They taunted him. They abused him. But Clark Kent was determined to be just the regular guy, Clark Kent. Then they decided to do the most horrid thing. They stripped off Clark’s clothes to see for themselves if he really was Superman.
To their surprise there was no Superman suit under his clothes. “See,” they said, “we told you he wasn’t Superman. He is just a regular man that you have made out to be Superman.” They threw his clothes on the ground and they gambled to see who won them. I’m sure no one really wanted them. They were just mocking and carrying on to try to embarrass Clark even more.
Maybe I should tell you the Bible’s real name for the Clark Kent I described. His name was Jesus. What Jesus showed us by dying on the cross was that he was just a mere man. God sent him to be an example for us and the best example God could come up with is to make him a man just like us.
So, even though it was His Son, God withheld his angels. He didn’t use His fist to shake the earth or send down lightning bolts. He painfully did the unimaginable: He let Jesus just be a man, just like us.
So as they stripped off His clothes, to place Him on the cross, they found no Superman outfit. As the nails pierced His body, He probably cried in anguish just like you or I would if we were placed in the same situation. As He hung there dying, He probably heard the soldiers gambling for the clothes he had on his back. His bloodshot eyes, somewhat swollen, could probably look in the direction of the mocking and laughing all around Him. Yet there He was, just a man.
One day, Elliott happened to be taking a carriage ride and his daughter happened to be taking a walk. Their paths crossed and they restarted their relationship. It must have been kept secret from her uncle because there doesn’t seem to be much evidence he tried to stop it. The sad part about their reunion was that almost as soon as it started, it ended. Elliott died.
When Eleanor Roosevelt, Elliott Roosevelt’s daughter, was about to be married, Eleanor asked her uncle, Theodore Roosevelt to give her away. She had to think about it for a little bit before she asked him to do it. Her dad, Elliott, had passed away a few years before. Theodore, who was President at the time, suggested the White House for the wedding, since it would be so much easier for him. Eleanor would turn him down and would instead want the wedding to be at the home of her maternal cousin in New York City.
Eleanor tried to accommodate Teddy Roosevelt. After all, he was the President and a very busy man. Teddy offered up three days for the wedding that would work best for him: February 11, February 14, and March 16. Eleanor chose March 16. Teddy would change his mind again and say March 18 would work better. It was changed to March 18.
On the wedding day Eleanor surprised everyone. As she came down the staircase, everyone one was in stunned silence by the beautiful girl in the white gown. She, for once in her life, was the star of the show. Not even her beautiful cousin, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, could upstage her on this one. The attention didn’t last long.
When the Reverend Endicott Peabody asked who would be giving away the bride, Teddy bellowed, “I do!” he once again become the center of attention. Alice, Teddy’s daughter, would even comment, after the wedding, “My father lived up to his reputation of being the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral and hogged the limelight unashamedly.”
That wasn’t the end of Theodore’s antics. When the Reverend declared them husband and wife, Franklin Roosevelt leaned in to kiss his new bride. Before he had a chance to even get the kiss in, Theodore slapped him on the back and said, “Well, Franklin, there’s nothing like keeping the name in the family!”
Theodore then turned and went to the library where the reception was being held. Everyone followed him. Eleanor and Franklin were left standing alone. They just looked at each other and turned and followed the crowd into the library.
Eleanor would make quite a name for herself when she became First Lady. She would fight for the underprivileged and the underdogs. Women’s suffrage would be one of the causes she would champion. She would even become the US Representative to the United Nations. You might say there was a little bit of Clark Kent in her.
Some may say that Superman is not real. I would strongly disagree. There is a Superman inside us all. Whether it is the close friend who really just wants to help the world be a better place by placing others first, the First Lady who had a million reasons to believe she was a victim, or the Savior who God decided to let just be a man, God really wants us to display the strengths he has given us.
When we display those strengths we need to realize we are Clark Kent and it is God who makes us Superman. When we tell the world we are Superman, we take all the glory. Where does that leave God?
Prayer: Dear Mighty Father, It is so hard to just be Clark Kent. The glory and applause that follows Superman is so tempting to claim. Please help me to always let the cheers be for You. Amen.
