Conversation concerning the appropriateness of universal healthcare most certainly includes the description of a variety of insurance policy options. Numerous groups using verbal maneuvering steeped in passionate political assurances have been debating rival ideas for some time. In the end, however, concerned citizens are currently left none-the-better. “What policy,” we ask, “truly provides the best protection . . . private, single-payer, collective or the public umbrella of government sponsorship?”
By Rev. Dr. Frank Marangos
Founded in 1864 in Hartford, CT, Travelers is the largest insurance company by market-share in America. In its thought-provoking TV advertisement, a distinguished senior executive is shown carrying a gigantic red umbrella – the company’s recognizable logo. The meticulously dressed gentleman demonstrates his company’s resolution to the contemporary insurance quandary by providing solutions to three groups of individuals.
The first group of individuals the executive encounters consists of children surrounding a broken bicycle. The representative invites the youths to sit on the handle of his umbrella. Once aboard, the parasol gentle lifts and transports the children safely home. The second difficulty encountered is a guild of actors trying to cross a wide river that separates them from their theater. Once again, the distinguished “traveler” provides his large umbrella. Having encouraged the thespians to stand in the down-turned cradle of the red canopy they sail smoothly to their venue on the opposite shore.
The imaginative commercial concludes with the executive atop a high-rise building scanning the horizon of a metropolitan city while numerous red umbrellas hover overhead. The message is clear – Travelers Insurance is preeminent when it comes to offering universal care – vigilant to provide its red umbrella of protection to all who fall under its guardianship.
Overall insurance coverage is often referred to as an “umbrella policy.”A similar symbol is used by Christians to convey God’s ubiquitous alternative – His own universal “polity” of provision and protection. Orthodox Churches, for example, focus special attention on God’s desire to provide loving care and protection to His entire creation by placing an icon referred to as the “Pantocrator” (One Who Rules or has Dominion) in the domes of their sanctuaries. The “Pantocrator” is the Church’s inspired theological option for universal care. This “Canopy of Christ” powerfully announces the preeminent spiritual umbrella of God – supported by divine polity rather than political policy.
The message of the 91st Psalm of David supports the theological polity (sovereignty) conveyed through the ecclesiastical architecture of the Pantocrator. “He who dwells under the shelter of the Most High,” insists the Psalmist, “will rest in the secret place (shadow) of the Almighty (Psalm 91:1). David continues by asserting that those who acknowledge God’s sovereignty will find the ultimate “refuge,” “rampart,” and “shield.” If we “acknowledge God’s Name,” he promises, we will be “guarded by angels and lifted up in their hands” (Psalm 91:11-14).
The Church Fathers chose to insert the chanting of the 91st Psalm in its worship services long before the Travelers Insurance Company accepted the symbol of a red umbrella as its logo. The Church selected pertinent biblical passages, designed architecture, formulated liturgical rubrics, and painted icons to remind us that God is humanity’s first and primary divine awning. He Alone is the protective parasol of the entire cosmos beneath whose shade all other canopies invariably find their effectiveness and strength of utility.
Originally, the use of umbrellas was restricted to royalty and those with power. Ancient paintings and sculptures depict the heads of kings, queens, sultans, and conquering generals protected from nature’s elements by umbrellas held by slaves. Umbrellas are multi-purpose. When deployed, they can be used to protect against precipitation. Inverted, they provide floatation. They can be used as decorative parasols in refreshments. Closed and buttoned, umbrellas become walking canes for the dignified. When confronted with the mischievous, they can finally be wielded as a weapon.
Significantly, it was during the Byzantine Empire that the umbrella of the royal court was first introduced into Church usage. Its influence might still be detected in canopy-covered altar tables and thrones, sanctuary domes, acolyte fans, and Eucharistic chalice coverings. While its explicit use in Orthodox Christianity slowly waned, the Vatican continues to employ multi-colored ceremonial umbrellas in its Roman Catholic liturgical processions. The role and utility of the umbrella, however, was always reversed in its ecclesiastical manifestation where care, love, and concern for the well being of others was never an issue of public policy but divine polity.
Providentially, God has changed places with us. He willingly becomes our servant and caretaker, the One who protects, provides and humbly presides over the hazardous moments of life. He is our ultimate “Proestamenos,” whose rule is not characterized by abusive power, coercion and deception! On the contrary, He is the One who perpetually scans the horizon for those in need, distressed, or discouraged! He is the One who employs the umbrella of the Gospel to broom barking terriers of falsehood. He opens wide the canopy of the Holy Sacraments, His very Body and Blood, as Arks that sail humbled passengers to the safety of heavenly shores. Finally, holding His umbrella as the Scepter of a Shepherd, He presides with the merciful distinction of Servant over the entire assembly of life itself!
For care to be truly universal, each and every one of us should also be willing to help extend God’s umbrella over the heads of others. We would do well to accept this stewardship of love freely and without compulsion. As citizens living under His sovereignty, we should strive to become like our King – attendants who are willing to distinguish ourselves by providing umbrellas of care, service, and truth to all in need. This then is the added element missing in the Travelers Insurance commercial. Care is not a one-way street, but a partnership – a privilege that must be fully opened and extended to all.
Unlike its political or private counterparts, the umbrella polity of God’s is truly universal. The Church encourages us to freely sit on the handle of God’s love whenever our physical, emotional, financial and spiritual bicycles are shattered. He will provide guidance and strength when unforeseen problems create obstacles that separate us like mighty rivers from our task, aspirations, and each other. He will, finally, always be there, sitting upon the very rooftop of the Church – atop the cosmos itself – a Distinguished Deity – scanning, reviewing, concerned! In short His polity supplies the ultimate universal care, protecting, providing, and presiding over the needs of each and every one of us.
Rev. Dr. Frank Marangos is the Dean of the Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in New York City. He is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Saint John’s University (NY). Please visit http://www.thecathedral.goarch.org to view the on-line sermon that inspired this article.
