Ollie, Ollie, Oxenfree

Jody Winston

May 28, 2006

Sermon

Grace and peace are gifts for you from God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.1
Even though almost every child in the world knows how to play the game of
“hide and seek,” the actual origins of this game are lost in the mists of time. The
goal of this game is simple. One person must find out where the others are hiding.
The game starts when two or more children get together. One person chosen to be
“It” closes their eyes and counts to a fixed number (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) while everyone
else runs off and hides within a predetermined area. When the counting is finished,
“It” then announces, “Ready or not, here I come!” In one popular variation of the
game, the seeker attempts to find everyone before they run back to the “base.” In
order to bring players out from hiding, “It” will often taunt the other players by
calling, “Come out, come out wherever you are!” The first person seen will be the
1
Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 1:2, Galatians 1:3, Ephesians 1:2, Philippians
1:2, 2 Thessalonians 1:2, Philemon 1:3

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“It” in the next game. The game is over when the seeker finds everyone, everyone
returns to the base without being seen, or when the seeker gives up and yells out,
“Ollie, ollie, oxenfree!”
One of the reasons that children’s games like “hide and seek” have lasted
though out all of these years is that they indoctrinate children with basic facts
about life. Society has correctly determined that we need to go into the world and
find what we need. This is exactly what “hide and seek” teaches us. The game
rewards those players who can find what has been deliberately hidden. We carry
this hard won lesson with us our entire life. We go out of our secure surroundings
so that we can “find some food.” When we have finally “found a job,” we will then
have the financial resources to “find a house.” Some of us have “found a mate” and
we cannot wait to “find out” what our children will do when they grow up.
The natural progression of this process of searching for what we need can be
also found in the church. Some of us think that the church has hidden from us some
part of Christ’s story. One example of this way of thinking can be found in the dis-
cussion surrounding the Gospel of Judas that was published just before Easter this
year. This papyrus document written about 1700 years ago, basically tells its read-
ers that some secret knowledge has been hidden from the rest of the world. Only
those that possess this information know the true story. Another wildly popular ex-
ample that illustrates this point can be found in Dan Brown’s novel “The Da Vinci
Code,” which is now a major motion picture. This book’s major premise is that the
church has consistently kept key information about Jesus from Christians. Both of
these documents and the press that surrounds them feed on our training that we

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learned while playing “hide and seek,” which is to go out and find something that
has been hidden.
If we would just take a moment to critically look at the assertion that God hides
critical information from us that we need to find, we would then see the ludicrous
nature of this idea. Where could God hide this knowledge from us? How about
in another solar system, so that only those people who have developed the ability
to rapidly travel vast distances would be able to find the required information?
What about placing the data that we need on the surface of a subatomic particle,
for those people who have constructed ways to look at these very small things?
These two examples clearly show us the futility of taking our experience of finding
people in “hide and seek” games and applying it to God’s actions in the world.
Today’s Gospel reading, which is the prayer of Jesus to His Father, directly
tells us that God has been completely made known by Jesus. Nothing has been
kept back nor has anything been hidden from us. When we see Jesus, we see the
Father. When we hear Jesus speak, we hear God talk to us. When we know Jesus,
we know the truth. These three statements by themselves are incredible. Not even
Moses could see God’s face and live.2 All that he was privileged to see was God’s
back side.3 When God spoke to the people in Isaiah and Ezekiel’s time, God’s
voice caused earthquakes.4 Those who have sought wisdom have been continually
looking for truth. But because of Jesus, we can directly know God. We see Jesus
2
Exodus 33:20.
3
Exodus 33:23.
4
Isaiah 29:6; Ezekiel 3:12-13.

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in the face of others who love Jesus.5 We hear Jesus speak to us when we listen
to those who love Him.6 We are given the truth when we experience Jesus.7 And
lest we forget, this revelation of God comes to us not throughout own efforts but
because Jesus deliberately came to earth to live and die among us.
In and of itself, the search for God is not wrong. It is all a matter of priorities
of loving both God and our neighbor; otherwise, we could not be here today. Jesus
tells us in the Gospel according to St. John that we must love each other and that
this love will be visible to everyone.8 This love includes dying for your friends.9
Our mistake occurs either when we try to hide from those around us or when we
attempt to stay out of God’s sight.
Life can be compared to a game of “hide and seek.” We are the ones who try
to hide from God, death is the player that calls out to us all too soon, “Ready or
not, here I come!”, and Jesus is the one who pursues us. However, unlike other
games of “hide and seek” that we might play, Jesus never stops looking for us.
He continues to call after each of us, “Come out, come out wherever you are!”
This summon from Jesus is not a remark that is made in anger because we killed
Him on the cross nor is this a statement meant to ridicule everyone of us due to our
shortcomings but instead this is a gentle call from God who wants all of us to have
everything that He has including living with Him forever. All that we need to do
is to stop hiding from Him. When this happens, not only will we see His love for
5
John 14:18-24.
6
John 14:24.
7
John 6:47-51, 17:17.
8
John 13:34-35, 15:17.
9
John 15:13.

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us but we will also become “It” with the responsibility of finding others who are
hiding from Christ. When death finally calls us by saying, “Ready or not, here I
come!”, Jesus responds by saying, “I am here for you. I am the living bread which
came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever.”10
Jesus comes into the world not only calling, “Come out, come out, wherever
you are!” to draw us back into the world but He also proclaims to everyone, “Ollie,
ollie, oxenfree!” which is a corruption of the Old English phrase, “All ye, all ye,
all are free!” Jesus tells us, “All of you, all of you, all are free!” This freedom is
another one of God’s gifts to us. All of you are free from the games that keep you
from being truly human. We are all free to serve, free to love, and free to live.
“The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and
minds through Christ Jesus.”11

10
John 6:51a.
11
Philippians 4:7.