Ruse

Hans Christian Andersen wrote a clever story that ends with a little boy saying,

“But the emperor has nothing at all on!” It is a ruse.

There are two uses of the word ruse. The first is to identify a city in northern Bulgaria and the second is to illustrate a "fraud" or "deception."

You know the story, it is the story of the emperor parading in front of his subjects in his "birthday suit." The emperor lived under such deception from those around him that he was convinced that the clothing that he could not see was the finest in the land. At the insistence of royal seamstreses, he was urged to parade the newest fashion in front of his loyal subjects..

The parade is on...the emperor's couture is on display.

A little boy standing along the parade route does not "get it." He strains to look and sees nothing but the emperors bare skin. Then he blurts it out, "but the emperor has nothing at all on!"

The cat is out of the bag...the deception is exposed.

The father of the child says, “Listen to the voice of the innocence!”

That was not enough to quell the murmuring. People began to whisper among themselves, “But he has nothing on!” The whispers spread like wildfire. A ruse.

I love the next part of the story. Hans Christian Andersen says, "The Emperor was vexed, for the knew that the people were right, but he thought, “The procession must go on now!” Vexed...think of it.

But what happens next is even more bizarre. The story tells us that even though everybody knew that the emperor was standing there in the nude, the "lords of the bedchamber took greater pains than ever to appear holding up a train, although, in reality, there was no train to hold.”

A lot of times I feel like the little boy standing on the parade route watching the church and her doctrine unfold. I feel like the little boy standing on the parade route watching people's lives unfold. I feel like the little boy standing on the parade route when I see people who are deceiving themselves on a daily basis. I have felt like saying, "the emperor has nothing on at all."

Sometimes I feel like the emperor. I have been convinced that the way I see things is the right way, only to discover that there are those around me who see through the ruse.

Sometimes I feel like a lord of the bedchamber who is called upon to carry out the deception of an emperor.

Ruse.

It is difficult to be authentic in a world that prizes ruses. In a culture of facades, someone has to look carefully and announce gracefully, "the emperor has no clothes on at all."

This is a message that our culture needs to hear...it is a message that the church needs to explore...it is a thought that we need to entertain as individuals.

Are you real? No I mean, really real?

Just a thought....