Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died

Here's the sermon I shared at St Catherine's Wickford this morning:

On Wednesday Richard and I spoke to Year 4 classes at Hilltop Junior School as part of their RE lessons, where they are currently looking at the charitable and community work that churches undertake. We spoke about the Gateway Project, our collections for the Women’s Refuge, and the funds we collect for Positive Life Kenya but, through the questions the children asked, we also spoke about the ways in which the church is there for people and with people at all the key moments in life – at birth through Christenings, when people get married through wedding, and when people die through funerals. It’s sometimes, disparagingly spoken of as ‘hatch, match and dispatch’ but actually means the church ministers to people at every stage of their lives and at all the really important moments in life.

The children specifically wanted to ask about funerals, which is interesting as parents often try to protect children from the reality of death; although, as was clear to us on Wednesday, they are aware of the reality of death and can and will speak about it. That was also the case in the church at Corinth, to which St Paul wrote first and second Corinthians, as we have them recorded in the Bible.

The reality of the resurrection was the big issue or discussion that Paul addressed in the section of his letter that we heard read this morning (1 Corinthians 15.12-20). Paul makes the resurrection central to Christianity by arguing that if it did not happen, then the rest of our faith must be false.

In this section of his letter, he doesn’t give his argument for the reality of the resurrection. He simply states that belief at the end of the passage - in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. But in the section of the letter that was read last week he does set out his argument (1 Corinthians 15.1-11). So, let’s look briefly at some of the reasons for believing in the reality of the resurrection.

First, we need to be clear that those who say there is no evidence for the existence of God seek to disallow the very evidence which has helped convince us otherwise by saying that the only acceptable evidence is scientifically measurable evidence. This is the argument that science and its methods provide the only way of knowing that gives us true knowledge of the world around us. Yet, if that were to be the case then, for example, a wedding would make no real sense. Instead of being about the mutual celebration of love and affection between the couple, on the basis of measurable scientific knowledge what occurs when a wedding happens simply becomes about the survival of the fittest through the passing on of selfish genes in procreation. Our experiences of love and faith cannot be adequately captured through the language of scientific measurement. Instead, we need the languages of belief and imagination to give voice to what we truly experience of love and faith. As Richard Chartres once said, "Faith and committed relationships offer a door into the mystery of spiritual life.”

Second, we need to understand that faith is fundamental to all true knowledge and that applies to scientific knowing as much as to any other form of knowing. Scientists like Michael Polanyi have come to understand that faith is fundamental in the whole enterprise of understanding because all knowledge of reality rests upon faith commitments which cannot be demonstrated. As a result, scientists and philosophers of science are now rediscovering the vital role that the imagination has to play in their endeavours.

When there is an acceptance that other forms of knowing and other forms of evidence have validity, then two further arguments can be made. The first of these is that belief in God makes sense of our experiences of life and love in ways that give full weight to our experience of these things without contradicting the findings of science. On this basis, Christianity offers, as Lesslie Newbigin has argued, “the widest rationality, the greatest capacity to give meaning to the whole of experience.”

Second, the arguments for the resurrection made in the New Testament and also subsequently come into play. Many historians, lawyers and sceptics have testified to the convincing nature of this evidence when objectively considered. Many would, for example, agree with E. M. Blaiklock, , who said, “the evidence for the life, the death, and the resurrection of Christ is better authenticated than most of the facts of ancient history . . .”

One of the earliest records of Christ's appearing after the resurrection is given by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15. There, he appeals to his audience's knowledge of the fact that Christ had been seen by more than 500 people at one time. Paul reminded them that the majority of those people were still alive and could be questioned. Dr. Edwin M. Yamauchi, associate professor of history at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, emphasizes: "What gives a special authority to the list (of witnesses) as historical evidence is the reference to most of the five hundred brethren being still alive. St. Paul says in effect, 'If you do not believe me, you can ask them.' Such a statement in an admittedly genuine letter written within thirty years of the event is almost as strong evidence as one could hope to get for something that happened nearly two thousand years ago." These New Testament accounts of the resurrection were being circulated within the lifetimes of men and women alive at the time of the resurrection; people who could certainly have confirmed or denied the accuracy of such accounts.

So, there is good reason for believing that Jesus rose from the dead but what difference does it make that he did? Paul addresses that at the end of today’s reading - in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. This means that what Jesus experienced is like a template for our own experience in future when we, too, are raised from death.

The risen Jesus had a resurrection body and was recognisable to his disciples, although not always. He was able to come and go and move around in ways that had not previously been possible for him and he bore on his body the scars of his crucifixion. This means that there was a continuity between his earthly body and his resurrected body, although they were not one and the same. Later, in this chapter, Paul explains this by saying the perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality.

Writers and theologians have explained this in a variety of different ways. One of those that I find most helpful is that of C.S. Lewis in the last book of The Chronicles of Narnia called 'The Last Battle'. There, he describes his characters dying and entering eternity. In eternity they find themselves back in the land of Narnia but it is a Narnia that has more depth and beauty than previously. As they explore this revitalised Narnia, their cry is one of exploration, 'Come further up and further in'. When they reach the garden at the centre of Narnia, they discover that this is a gateway to another Narnia that has yet more depth and beauty than that which they had just left. Lewis' idea that we abide in eternity in the world that we know but know it in ever increasing depth.

Lewis’ idea works with what we know of Jesus’ resurrected body in order to imagine a new heaven and new earth that is deeper and more beautiful and more real than this earth. Therefore, there is continuity between this world and the next with much that we will recognise but, because it is more real and more beautiful than this world there is much that is also new and unknown that we can discover and explore. In fact, Lewis’ idea is that, because God is inifinite, there is also more of the new heaven and new earth in which we will live our resurrected lives to be explored, discovered and enjoyed. By saying that the resurrection of Jesus is the first fruits of what we will experience, St Paul opens up that possibility to us.

So, as Paul states in 1 Corinthians 15, there are good reasons for believing in the resurrection and for having hope that that we will spend eternity living lives for which Jesus’ resurrection provides the template. Amen.

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Fiction Family - God Badge.

Fulfilling the Law

Here's the sermon I shared this morning at St Mary Magdalene Great Burstead:

In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe the Deep Magic “was a set of laws placed into Narnia by the Emperor-beyond-the-Sea at the time of its creation. It was written on the Stone Table, the firestones on the Secret Hill, and the sceptre of the Emperor-beyond-the-Sea.

This law stated that the White Witch, Jadis, was entitled to kill every traitor, and if someone denied her this right then all of Narnia would be overturned and perish in fire and water. However, unknown to Jadis, a deeper magic from before the dawn of Time existed, which said that if a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the Stone Table would crack, and Death would start working backwards.”

So in this story, there is a Law which is about actions and consequences and there is a deeper Law which is about love. C. S. Lewis, who wrote the Narnia stories, was a Christian who drew on his understanding of Christian faith in writing his stories. It may be that he had passages like today's Gospel reading (Matthew 5. 20 – 26) in mind when he wrote about the deeper magic from before the dawn of Time.

Jesus is saying in his teaching from Matthew 5 about the Law that it is not enough simply to keep the Law. He wants us to go deeper than simple obedience of the Law and the deeper place into which he wants us to go is Love.

Most of us actually keep the laws of this land most of the time. On the whole, because the laws are prohibitions – do not’s, like do not murder or do not steal – and because we live in a time of relative wealth, our laws are not that difficult to keep.

But prohibitions simply keep us from doing harm to others. They don’t enable us to love others. Simply refraining from murdering others or stealing from others is enough to keep the Law (we call it keeping the peace) but doing these things doesn’t mean that I am actively loving anyone at all.

To love means that I have to do something more that simply keep the Law. That is what Jesus is teaching and illustrating here and it is what C. S. Lewis shows us in Narnia through his imaginative story.

Let’s think briefly about the way laws and love work together. Parents teach their children the rules of the road. To begin with, when children are very young, the rules of the road are very restrictive i.e. the child must never cross a road without a parent and must always cross at a crossing with the parent and while holding the parents hand. As the child grows, they are taught new rules for crossing the road; for me, that was the Green Cross Code - stop, look and listen. Now, the aim is that the child learns to judge for him or herself when it is safe to cross the road.

Eventually, the rules with which we began – don’t cross on your own, don’t cross unless you are at a crossing – are left behind because the child has learnt how to cross the road safely using their own initiative. Elbert Hubbard has said, “Initiative is doing the right things without being told.” We are able to use initiative because we have not only learnt the rules but have learnt to apply in our lives and situations. At this point, we are no longer restricted just to crossing the road at specific crossing places but can cross wherever we judge it to be safe to do so.

So, we have gone beyond the rules by learning and applying the rules. In other words, we have found the true purpose of those rules which our parents enforced when we were young; which is that we learn to cross the road safely by ourselves wherever we are.

Jesus is saying the same thing. The Law starts by keeping us safe – do not murder, do not steal. If we all abide by the Law then we do not harm each other. That is good, but it is not enough. We also need to learn to love one another. That means doing more than the Law requires but to do that is also the fulfilling of the Law. If the Law is about maintaining good relations between us, then love is the fulfilment of the Law’s intent.

Jesus said: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them.” (Matthew 5. 17) and he commended, as being the heart or summary of the Law, these words: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’” As Paul writes, “Love is the fulfilment of the law.” (Romans 13. 10)

So, in order to fulfil the Law and these teachings we are to love as Jesus loved: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” (1 Corinthians 13. 4 – 7).

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Queen - Jesus.

Abiding in Exile

Last night I offered the following reflection for Week 4  of the Lent Course at St Martin-in-the-Fields, drawing on the chapter 'Abiding in Exile' from Ben Quash's book 'Abiding':

On the day he died, Jesus walked the Via Dolorosa through the streets of Jerusalem. Jesus' journey is traditionally commemorated by the Stations of the Cross. Following in the footsteps of Jesus through the Stations of the Cross has been part of the Christian practice of Lent and Holy Week since the time of the early Church. The Stations of the Cross were created for those who weren't physically able to go to Jerusalem and literally walk the Via Dolorosa, the Way of the Cross, in its streets. Those who began this practice, the Franciscans in particular, understood that travelling the Way of the Cross imaginatively and prayerfully was meaningful and valid spiritually, albeit different from the actual physical experience.

This is an example of our being able to move while standing still, of journeying whilst staying put. That is what this chapter is all about and it subverts our usual understanding of what is meant by abiding. The most famous passage about abiding in the Bible sees us grafted into a vine that is planted in the ground in a particular place and it is from this passage that many of our understandings of abiding in terms of rootedness derive (John 15). However, all images have their limitations when it comes to expressing and understanding the wonderful depths of God and the inadequacy of the image of the vine and the branches is that it suggests that our abiding is a static thing.

The point of the image of the vine and the branches is that we are to abide in Jesus. Jesus came to us as person and a characteristic of human beings is that we move and travel as well as settling and establishing homes to which we return. Jesus left God's side to be incarnated as a human being and returned to God at his Ascension. In his mother's womb he travelled to Bethlehem, as a child he was exiled in Egypt and his ministry was an itinerant one. Therefore, we are called to abide in someone who moves, meaning that we are called to move when God moves and stay when she stays.

Ben Quash notes that this reality for us as God's people is symbolised for the Israelites during the Exodus in terms of the pillar of light by day and pillar of fire by night that led the people through the wilderness (Exodus 13. 17 - 22). When the pillar moved, the people moved, when the pillar stopped, the people also stopped. He says that what we see here is ‘the very remarkable idea of a presence (or an abiding) that moves.’ He quotes Jurgen Moltmann, who says this is a ‘good symbol for the mobilizing presence of God in history’. ‘God dwells with the Israelites all the time, but God is also moving all the time. He is always before them, but by having God always before them, they find themselves moving. God dwells among the Israelites as a ‘Trailblazer’, says Moltmann’.

Our abiding in Christ therefore involves times of moving and times of staying still. These can be physical - actual journeys or places to be - or, as we have reflected in relation to the Stations of the Cross, they can be movement or rest in our spirits and imaginations. This then helps us to understand and make sense of the nature of Jesus' call to us as his disciples, remembering that he called some to travel with him on his itinerant ministry, but also needed other who remained in their homes in order to support those who were on the road. Jesus' call to us could, therefore, be about physical travel or movement, as for someone on pilgrimage or those called to be missionaries in another place or country, but it could also be to imaginative travel, as with the Stations of the Cross, which takes us ever deeper into our faith while we remain where we are physically and geographically.

Ben Quash calls this the ecology of vocations writing that: ‘for some the knowledge of the special sort of home God offers needs to be discovered in having no permanent resting place in the world, and for some the discovery of God’s infinitely new and transforming horizons is best achieved by staying still.’ He quotes Michael Paternoster as saying, ‘some people need to stay where God puts them, even when they feel like moving, and some people must move when God requires them to, even if they feel like staying.’

The reality of God is one of infinite depth. God created all things and therefore all things exist in him and he is more than the sum of all things, so it is impossible for us with our finite minds to ever fully know or understand God. However profound our experience of God has been, there is always more for us to discover. This means that knowing God is like diving ever deeper into a bottomless ocean where they is always more to see. We are within that ocean and, therefore, are abiding within it, but can always be moving because there is always more to see and uncover and discover.

In the last book of The Chronicles of Narnia, 'The Last Battle', C.S. Lewis describes his characters dying and entering eternity. In eternity they find themselves back in the land of Narnia but it is a Narnia that has more depth and beauty than previously. As they explore this revitalised Narnia, their cry is one of exploration, 'Come further up and further in'. When they reach the garden at the centre of Narnia, they discover that this is a gateway to another Narnia that has yet more depth and beauty than that which they had just left. Lewis' idea that we abide in eternity in the world that we know but know it in ever increasing depth reminds of T.S.Eliot's phrase that, “We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.’

This, I think, is the form of abiding that Ben Quash describes in this chapter. It is both a running while standing still and an abiding whilst travelling. The God of movement wants to keep us exploring the depths of the world and himself. The God who dwells with us wants to keep us abiding in her refreshing rest. The God of stillness and change wants keep us growing as we remain rooted in him. Quash writes that we have been called to live lives of abiding, while at the same time we have been told, puzzlingly, that we have no abiding city. We are invited to exchange changeless abiding into changeable abiding.

I want to end with a meditation on the symbols that we use in baptism; oil, light and water. As baptism is our entry to Christian faith, it is easy for us to think of these symbols as being primarily about our beginnings in faith, but they also speak powerfully to us of the journey of faith that we begin at our baptism. The faith into which we are baptised is that in which we abide but in order to do so we must move and change and grow and travel:

Oil …
bleeding
from the pressurised
crushed
and wounded
to
free us up
lubricate
our rusting
static lives
and
facilitate
our ever moving
onward
forward
Godward

Light …
revealing our past
lighting our future
shining like a lighthouse
in our storms
burning like a warning beacon
in our wars
warming like the sun
on our journeying
glowing like a fire
through gaps and cracks
in shattered, splintered lives

Water …
cleansing our grubbiness
reviving our tiredness
refreshing our thirstiness
nurturing our liveliness
babbling communication
rippling out our influences

May we -
baptised in water,
anointed by oil,
lit by the Spirit -
live and move freely
like a babbling brook
speaking life
to parched ground
leaping boulders and barriers
sparkling in the ever present
light of the Sun.

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Moby - This Wild Darkness.

Discover & explore: Love

Here is my reflection from today's Discover & explore service at St Stephen Walbrook:

When I preach at weddings I often tell the story of the Love is … cartoons. ‘Love Is...’ began as shy love notes from the artist Kim Casali to her future husband, Roberto. Each of these notes involved a little drawing and a personal sentiment that perfectly captured Kim's thoughts and feelings for the man she loved. She began these drawings when they were dating, and she would leave the cartoons where Roberto would be sure to find them. After they were married, he showed her that he'd kept them all the drawing she had made for him. The cartoons were picked up by the press, were first published in The Los Angeles Times in January 1970, and then their popularity grew globally and they were published daily in 50 countries around the world and translated into 25 languages.

I use this as a way of introducing the original ‘Love is …’ from 1 Corinthians 13: “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.”

The ‘Love is …’ cartoons and 1 Corinthians 13 both agree with another well-known ‘love is’ statement; ‘Love is a many-splendoured thing.’ Love cannot be captured or summed up in one cartoon or phrase or even in a series of cartoons or phrases. Love constantly bursts the bounds of our descriptions or definitions and this is why there is no end to songs, poems, novels, films, dances and plays about love. At the Guildhall Art Gallery we can see that the subject of romantic love preoccupied Victorian artists who addressed themes of unrequited love, social incompatibility, family disapproval, and separation at war.

Nearer our own time, C.S. Lewis is well known for looking at some of the different loves described in Greek thought - familial or affectionate love (storge); friendship (philia); romantic love (eros); and spiritual love (agape) - in the light of Christian commentary on ordinate loves. Despite his writings on The Four Loves he was himself surprised by love as his own relationship with Joy Davidman developed. The experience of love confounded his earlier more academic perceptions of it.

It is possible that the definitive Biblical statement on love is that which is found in 1 John 4. 16 where we read that, ‘God is love’. This is also where Ernesto Cardenal takes us. Our experiences of friendship, familial and romantic love all enable us to know God as love. Therefore, he writes, ‘My former loves have taught me what love is. I know how you love me because I too have loved, and I know what passionate and obsessed love is and what it is to be madly in love with someone. And God is mad about me.’

The strength of God’s love for us was revealed among us through his sending of his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. ‘In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.’ Christ searches for us like the Good Shepherd searching for the lost sheep. His journey of salvation shows how much we are loved by him as he gives up all he has in order to seek us out and rescue us.

The extremity of God’s expression of love in giving all in self-sacrifice reveals the limitless nature of love which constantly escapes the limits of our experiences, descriptions or definitions. If God is love then, just as God is infinite and cannot ever be fully grasped by our finite minds, so love also must be inexhaustible. As St Paul stated in 1 Corinthians 13, ‘Love never ends’. Love, like God, is an infinite ocean into which we dive and can always swim deeper and further.

In The Last Battle, the final volume of his Narnia stories, C.S. Lewis sums up the reality of God, heaven and love in the phrase, ‘further up and further in.’ The children in his stories discover heaven as the real Narnia which is bigger and better than the shadow Narnia in which they had lived out their finite lives. When they reach the centre of this real Narnia, they find that their journey begins again as there is always a deeper layer to this real Narnia, meaning that there is no end to their exploration of the reality of Narnia. If God is love and love is God then, as T.S. Eliot wrote in Little Gidding, ‘We shall not cease from exploration / And the end of all our exploring / Will be to arrive where we started / And know the place for the first time.’

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Healey Willan - Rise Up, My Love, My Fair One.

Love fulfils the Law

In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe the Deep Magic “was a set of laws placed into Narnia by the Emperor-beyond-the-Sea at the time of its creation. It was written on the Stone Table, the firestones on the Secret Hill, and the sceptre of the Emperor-beyond-the-Sea.

This law stated that the White Witch, Jadis, was entitled to kill every traitor, and if someone denied her this right then all of Narnia would be overturned and perish in fire and water.

However, unknown to Jadis, a deeper magic from before the dawn of Time existed, which said that if a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the Stone Table would crack, and Death would start working backwards.”

So in this story, there is a Law which is about actions and consequences and there is a deeper Law which is about love.

C. S. Lewis, who wrote the Narnia stories, was a Christian who drew on his understanding of Christian faith in writing his stories. It may be that he had passages like these in mind when he wrote about the deeper magic from before the dawn of Time.

Jesus is saying in his teaching from Matthew 5. 21 - 37 about the Law that it is not enough simply to keep the Law. He wants us to go deeper than simple obedience of the Law and the deeper place into which he wants us to go is Love.

Most of us actually keep the laws of this land most of the time. On the whole, because the laws are prohibitions – do not’s, like do not murder or do not steal – and because we live in a time of relative wealth, our laws are not that difficult to keep.

But prohibitions simply keep us from doing harm to others. They don’t enable us to love others. Simply refraining from murdering others or stealing from others is enough to keep the Law (we call it keeping the peace) but doing these things doesn’t mean that I am actively loving anyone at all.

To love means that I have to do something more that simply keep the Law. That is what Jesus is teaching and illustrating here and it is what C. S. Lewis shows us in Narnia through his imaginative story.

Let’s think briefly about the way laws and love work together. Parents teach their children the rules of the road. To begin with, when children are very young, the rules of the road are very restrictive i.e. the child must never cross a road without a parent and must always cross at a crossing with the parent and while holding the parents hand. As the child grows, they are taught new rules for crossing the road; for me, that was the Green Cross Code - stop, look and listen. Now, the aim is that the child learns to judge for him or herself when it is safe to cross the road.

Eventually, the rules with which we began – don’t cross on your own, don’t cross unless you are at a crossing – are left behind because the child has learnt how to cross the road safely using their own initiative. Elbert Hubbard has said, “Initiative is doing the right things without being told.” We are able to use initiative because we have not only learnt the rules but have learnt to apply in our lives and situations. At this point, we are no longer restricted just to crossing the road at specific crossing places but can cross wherever we judge it to be safe to do so.

So, we have gone beyond the rules by learning and applying the rules. In other words, we have found the true purpose of those rules which our parents enforced when we were young; which is that we learn to cross the road safely by ourselves wherever we are.

Jesus is saying the same thing. The Law starts by keeping us safe – do not murder, do not steal. If we all abide by the Law then we do not harm each other. That is good, but it is not enough. We also need to learn to love one another. That means doing more than the Law requires but to do that is also the fulfilling of the Law. If the Law is about maintaining good relations between us, then love is the fulfilment of the Law’s intent.

Jesus said: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them.” (Matthew 5. 17) and he commended, as being the heart or summary of the Law, these words: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’” As Paul writes, “Love is the fulfilment of the law.” (Romans 13. 10)

So, in order to fulfil the Law and these teachings we are to love as Jesus loved: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” (1 Corinthians 13. 4 – 7).

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Ben Harper - Don't Give Up On Me Now.

The Lion King: Aslan and Jesus

Aslan is the great lion in C. S. Lewis’ Narnia stories. In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Eustace says to Edmund “Do you know him – who is Aslan”?

“Well, he knows me” said Edmund.  “He is the great Lion, the son of the Emperor over sea, who saved me and saved Narnia”. 

There’s a key scene in both the book and the film of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe about the great lion Aslan. In it, Mr Beaver says, “Aslan is a lion – the Lion, the great Lion”. Mrs Beaver adds, “If there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly”.

“Then he isn’t safe”?  said Lucy.

“Safe”, said Mr Beaver, “who said anything about safe? Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you”.

He is King, he is good but he is not safe. These are three keys concepts about Aslan, the great lion. Goodness is a powerful concept and a powerful way to live but it can also be dangerous.  Not letting wrong or evil win can take you to dangerous places, in life and in relationships, at work, with friends and we’ll come onto that in a moment. But we begin with a different kind of power, the creative power of Aslan which brings the land of Narnia itself into existence.

In The Magician’s Nephew C. S. Lewis tells us how Aslan sings Narnia into existence using only his voice to create and then makes creatures and gives them a commission of stewardship telling them, “I give to you forever this land of Narnia. I give you the woods, the fruits, the rivers…The Dumb Beasts whom I have not chosen are yours also”. Aslan, therefore, has immense creative power and authority over all he has made.

Despite this great power and authority Aslan sacrifices himself for the sake of those he has created. He saves Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy plus all of Narnia by allowing himself to be captured, humiliated and killed.  Aslan agrees to let himself be sacrificed in Edmund's place, the Witch binds him to the Stone Table and kills him there. He puts himself in dangers’ way for a reason as he later explains: "[…] when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead […] Death itself would start working backwards."

This is the amazing thing about Aslan's sacrifice: by taking Edmund's place, Aslan is able to save Edmund, but also to save himself and everyone else. There's a special power he can access by being a willing and innocent victim.

Through Aslan’s sacrifice we see that goodness is a powerful concept and a powerful way to live but that it can also be dangerous because not letting wrong or evil win can take you to dangerous places. You only find out if you are courageous like a lion when life gets difficult – when a decision has to be made, and the right thing to do is the most difficult. 

Another reason why goodness may be dangerous is that to meet Aslan is "to meet someone who, because he has freely created you and wants for you nothing but your good, your flourishing, is free to see you as you are and to reflect that seeing back to you".

In other words, to see yourself as others see you might be discomforting but it will also always be skewed by the distorting lens of their self-interest. To be unmasked as God sees you is painful because purgative, but is also a path to true liberation. It is merciful because without it we are left in a citadel of self-deception, life's energies being sapped and wasted on bolstering self-regard.

We see this most clearly through one of the most vivid scenes in the whole series which comes in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Eustace – the spoiled child of non-smoking teetotal vegetarians: never a good sign in Lewis – is turned into a dragon. He tries to peel off his skin but finds only another set of scales. It takes Aslan to cut his claws in deep and rip it off – a “feeling worse than anything I’ve ever felt”, as Eustace says – for him to be reborn. Aslan can dig deep enough into Eustace’s life - to his very heart - to make him a completely new creation.

In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader Aslan tells the children that he is also in their world, but he goes by a different name and once, when a young boy could not figure out what Aslan’s name was in this world, Lewis wrote in response:

“I want you to guess. Has there never been anyone in this world who (1) Arrived at the same time as Father Christmas (2) Said he was the son of the Great Emperor (3) Gave himself up for someone else's fault to be jeered at and killed by wicked people (4) Came to life again (5) Is sometimes spoken of as a Lamb... Don't you really know His name in this world?”

Revelation 5:5 pictures Jesus as a lion king when it says: “Stop weeping, behold the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He can open the scroll…”

Like Aslan, Jesus is a creative force. In Colossians we are told that “God created the whole universe through him and for him.” Like Aslan, Jesus sacrifices himself for others. He has the courage of a lion. In Gethsemane, knowing he is soon to die, he prays, “Father let this cup pass from me” but then his courage says, “But not my will but yours be done”. Finally, like Aslan with Eustace, Jesus is the light which has come into the world to show up our evil deeds enabling us to repent and be transformed.

The things Aslan does and says in the Narnia stories are, as Lewis said, simply the things Jesus really did and said but the comparison of Jesus with Aslan brings out the sense “that something really quite fierce [or strong and powerful] has taken hold of people” when they turn to God.” As Hebrews 10. 31 says, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” As Mr Beaver said of Aslan, Jesus isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.

This sermon uses material from: http://www.shmoop.com/lion-witch-wardrobe/; http://narnia.wikia.com/wiki/Eustace_Scrubb; http://kezzie-kez.blogspot.co.uk/2007/04/eustace-dragon-meets-aslan.html; http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/9429139/Rowan-Williams-Aslan-is-on-the-knife-edge-of-the-erotic.html; http://cocopreme.hubpages.com/hub/TheIdentityofAslanSymbolismintheChroniclesofNarnia and Stroud, ‘Chronicles of Narnia’.

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Switchfoot - This Is Home.

Harry Potter and true myth

Three quarters of our family recently watched Part 2 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and we are now working our way through the films together from the beginning, noticing more of the clues planted in the early stories which point towards the series end as we do so. Like so many others, we’ve thoroughly enjoyed the shared experiences of books, films and dvds from bedtime stories through books passed around to be read one after the other and shared cinema visits followed by shared evenings in with the dvds.

For me, it has all been another demonstration of the power of story; one that has connected with my experiences as a child reading The Chronicles of Narnia, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (also The Books of Earthsea and The Chronicles of Prydain). These are stories which enable us to experience and live in other worlds; through the imagination of the author married to our own, such series enable us to inhabit the story over a sustained period of time. That that is so despite there being real weaknesses to each series - Narnia sails too close to allegory; the action in The Lord of the Rings gets bogged down in the marshy detail of Middle Earth; and J. K. Rowling has a rather flat writing style - speaks volumes about the power of story itself and the skill with which C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien and Rowling weave their plots and realise their characters.

I was wondering what happens next for those of us who have lived in the Potterverse (with the exception of Pottermore) as the books and films have overlapped, in contrast to Narnia and The Lord of the Rings where the films have enabled later in life to revisit the books. There is a real sense now in which living in that story will stop with the release of the final dvd. This brought my thinking to the contrast between living imaginatively in an fictional story and living in a story which encompasses and explains our everyday existence. The Greatest Story Ever Told is such a story and this reminded me of the distinction that Lewis and Tolkien made between myth and true myth:

"Myths, Lewis told Tolkien, were "lies and therefore worthless, even though breathed through silver."

"No," Tolkien replied. "They are not lies." Far from being lies they were the best way — sometimes the only way — of conveying truths that would otherwise remain inexpressible. We have come from God, Tolkien argued, and inevitably the myths woven by us, though they contain error, reflect a splintered fragment of the true light, the eternal truth that is with God. Myths may be misguided, but they steer however shakily toward the true harbor, whereas materialistic "progress" leads only to the abyss and the power of evil.

"In expounding this belief in the inherent truth of mythology," wrote Tolkien's biographer, Humphrey Carpenter, "Tolkien had laid bare the center of his philosophy as a writer, the creed that is at the heart of The Silmarillion." It is also the creed at the heart of all his other work. His short novel, Tree and Leaf, is essentially an allegory on the concept of true myth, and his poem, "Mythopoeia," is an exposition in verse of the same concept.

Building on this philosophy of myth, Tolkien explained to Lewis that the story of Christ was the true myth at the very heart of history and at the very root of reality. Whereas the pagan myths were manifestations of God expressing Himself through the minds of poets, using the images of their "mythopoeia" to reveal fragments of His eternal truth, the true myth of Christ was a manifestation of God expressing Himself through Himself, with Himself, and in Himself. God, in the Incarnation, had revealed Himself as the ultimate poet who was creating reality, the true poem or true myth, in His own image. Thus, in a divinely inspired paradox, myth was revealed as the ultimate realism.

Such a revelation changed Lewis' whole conception of Christianity, precipitating his conversion."

Something similar also applies, it seems to me, to the story told within the Bible; a story which is true to life itself and within which one can truly live. This, it seems to me, has been one of the major insights from the writings of Tom Wright where he describes the story of the Bible as a five act play (containing the first four acts in full i.e. 1. Creation, 2. Fall, 3. Israel, 4. Jesus) within which we can understand ourselves to be actors improvising our part on basis of what has gone before and the hints we have of how the play will end:

"The writing of the New Testament ... would then form the first scene in the fifth act, and would simultaneously give hints (Romans 8, 1 Corinthians 15, parts of the Apocalypse) of how the play is supposed to end ... The church would then live under the 'authority' of the extant story, being required to offer an improvisatory performance of the final act as it leads up to and anticipates the intended conclusion ... the task of Act 5 ... is to reflect on, draw out, and implement the significance of the first four Acts, more specifically, of Act 4 in the light of Acts 1-3 ... Faithful improvisation in the present time requires patient and careful puzzling over what has gone before, including the attempt to understand what the nature of the claims made in, and for, the fourth Act really amount to."

Wright concludes that he is proposing "a notion of "authority" which is ... vested ... in the creator god himself, and this god's story with the world, seen as focused on the story of Israel and thence on the story of Jesus, as told and retold in the Old and New Testaments, and as still requiring completion."

The story told in and through the Bible is therefore true myth because it is viable to live real (as opposed to imaginary) lives within it. As Lesslie Newbigin has written, this story is understood "as we are in engaged in the same struggle that we see in scripture"; that "is the struggle to understand and deal with the events of our time in the faith that God creates purpose, sustains all that is and will bring all to its proper end."

To accept the story of the Bible as true myth conversion is required because, to quote Newbigin again, "Western culture is outside of the believing community where the authority of the bible is accepted":

"Here a paradigm shift is required whereby the current framework of thought of the culture can be radically understood from the viewpoint of the new (in this case Christian) framework of thought but which cannot be arrived at from any process of thinking within the current framework."

Having said that, it may be that the experience of living imaginatively within the story of a fictional series can provide a parallel enabling some understanding of the way in which the story of the Bible functions as true myth.

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Regina Spektor - The Call.

Enjoyable, as long as you don't think about the book!

I've enjoyed seeing The Voyage of the Dawn Treader at the cinema today. Welcome respite after the busyness of the Christmas celebrations.

The film raises issues regarding the adaptation of books to screen as much of the original story has been lost in the transition to film, the story's sequencing has altered and new elements have been added to the story. Jeffery Overstreet has written:

"... this is the most enjoyable movie of the series, so long as you don’t think much about the book. Granted, the book was too episodic and meandering to make a great film. They needed to revise the story considerably. But this revision, entertaining as it is, muddles, mangles, and leaves behind many of the book’s most profound moments."

I agree with this assessment. This is an excellent and enjoyable film which works well on its own terms. The story is exciting, the script is well written with particularly subtle use of humour, and the special effects, while often stunning, support the narrative. The acting is particularly strong in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader with the performance of Will Poulter as Eustace being outstanding; something noted in The Telegraph's review:

"It helps that the spotlight falls this time on the two younger and more appealing Pevensie children, Edmund and Lucy – played by Skandar Keynes and Georgie Henley, who are also the more talented actors in the quartet ...

the most arresting new presence on view is that of 17-year-old British actor Will Poulter, still fondly remembered for his comic skills in Son of Rambow. He plays the Pevensies’ obnoxious cousin Eustace Scrubb, and Poulter does not hold back: Eustace dismisses his cousins’ fascination with Narnia, and complains bitterly when he unwillingly becomes involved in the Dawn Treader adventure.

In his endless complaining, Poulter adopts the disgusted tones of an ex-Army officer from 50 years ago, and does it brilliantly. He virtually steals every scene in which he appears; it’s a lucky break for Fox that Eustace takes centre stage in the fourth Narnia story."

So, as the Telegraph put it, Narnia has got its sparkle back.

One of the narrative elements which is becoming clearer across the filmed series is an emphasis on personal temptation. This is a major theme in both the book and film of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe because of Edmund's betrayal of the others through the influence of the White Witch but the theme continues in the subsequent films with the Peter/Caspian power tensions/temptations in Prince Caspain (an added element to that film) and here in Lucy's temptation to beauty, Edmund's repeat temptation by the White Witch, and Eustace's temptation to riches. Much of this theme is an addition to the stories, although one which is consistent with the Narnian world and history which C. S. Lewis created and also with his own beliefs.

It would seem that this theme has been developed by the filmakers because it offers more visually and dramatically than do the major themes of the second and third books themselves. In Prince Caspain a major theme of the book is that of doubt and belief when Lucy is not believed as she begins to glimpse Aslan leading them on their journey to Caspian. While included in the film, it is not developed in the same way presumably because it is more difficult to visualise and is not a strongly dramatic narrative development.

A related issue occurs with a key scene in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader which is also subject to significant change. The film rightly, as we have already seen, makes the transformation of Eustace a key element in the story. Yet his eventual change is differently conceived from the book. In the book Eustace attempts to tear off his dragon skin but cannot do so in a way that gets to the core of his being and restores him to himself. Only Aslan is able to do so and only with pain. Lewis is here picturing the impossibility of freeing ourselves of our sinful nature without the grace of God, and that being hard won and painful. In the film Aslan achieves this change differently and, although the scene in book is referred to obliquely, in a way which is easier and which does not convey the sense that something integral to Eustace has been torn away. It may well be that cinematic demands dictated this change too, as visuals of Aslan literally sinking his claws into the skin of Eustace's dragon may have been too gory for the PG rating that the film requires if it is to tap its core market.

Both these changes mean that each film loses some of the spiritual depth which the books contain in order that the narrative and visual impact of the films are heightened. As a result, the films are exciting and enjoyable but do not have the same spiritual depths as the books. Lewis never wanted these books filmed because he knew that the technology did not exist to genuinely realise the imaginative world which he had created. Now that that technology does exist, Narnia is able to be brought to visual life. What Lewis may not have anticipated, however, is that the different demands of storytelling in a visual medium would necessitate adaptations and additions to these narratives which alter the spiritual themes explored through those narratives.

To some extent this is the fate of all adaptations and the reason why screenwriters are necessary even for the filming of classic stories. Films are a different medium from books and use different means of telling a story in order to succeed. There is a difficult balance to be struck between the original story and the way in which it can successfully be told in a different medium. The Narnia films are fascinating illustrations of the challenges and compromises from which successful movie adaptations emerge.

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Sinead O'Connor - Only You.

Prince Caspian

Have been to see Prince Caspian and thought it an excellent meditation on the difficulties and dangers of belief.

The film sees the characters move beyond the separation into camps of the good and bad towards which the allegorical structure of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe leads its characters.

Prince Caspian sees its characters struggling with the nature of belief and destiny, making mistakes but finding strength in adversity. Those who act heroically are often those who are small and ordinary while even enemies are shown to be human and facing their own inner conflicts.

The storytelling is tight and the additions to the book add both to the action and character development. Once again, director Andrew Adamson’s evocation of Narnia is full and compelling but also laced with a mordant humour that brings a down-to-earth realism to this tale of heroism and fantasy.

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Regina Spektor - The Call.