Dear fellow pilgrims,
Last week we watched through the Door as we experienced “Night Falls on Narnia,” a bittersweet yet beautiful chapter towards the end of The Last Battle. We will continue that journey this week as we delve deeper into Aslan’s country. Please come to St. Philip’s early if you like and join us for our informal Eucharist at 5:30 in the church and a delicious dinner in the Parish Hall starting around 6:30 p.m. If you cannot join us in person, we will be livestreaming the class at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/@StPhilipsChurch/streams
I have pasted in below the links from last week’s class. Hope to see you tomorrow–come and bring a friend!
Further up and further in,
Brian+
The Rev’d Brian K. McGreevy, J.D.
Assistant to the Rector
St. Philip’s Church
142 Church Street
Charleston, SC 29401
www.saintphilips.church
Video link for last class: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOeyKWMyfCg
Podcast link for last class: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-18-night-falls-on-narnia/id1707060670?i=1000648600940Music link from last week:
SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK’S TEACHINGChapter 14: Night Falls on Narnia
–Father Time sounds his trumpet and the stars fall from the sky, being called home by Aslan
–Dragons and giant lizards cover the land and rout out all the living creatures–men and beasts and Talking Beasts—driving them all towards the Door where Aslan awaits
–Each creature looks Aslan in the eye and either turns away into shadow or enters with joy into Aslan’s presence, and many friends whom the children thought were dead rejoin them with joy
–The dragons and lizards root out all the living vegetation and Narnia is laid bare, with the dragons eventually dying as well, and then the sea rises and covers everything
–The sun and moon turn to red and falls towards each other, combining into one ball which is wrested from the sky by Father Time and snuffed out so that there is total darkness
–Aslan commands Peter to close the Door on the dark icy world, and as Peter turns back to the beautiful sunny land Aslan races off, calling them to come “Further up and further in!”
–Peter and company mourn for Narnia and its demise, talking to one another about old wars and old peace and ancient Kings and all the glories of Narnia
–They encounter Emeth the Calormene and seek to learn his story
Themes in Chapter 14
–One day this world will end, in God’s time and by His will
–All will be judged by Aslan/Christ and enter into his joy or depart forever from him
–Aslan beckons them into his country, which is full of adventure and worthy of exploration
–The beauty of the world and the joy of loved ones and memories in that world are blessings to be received with gratitude
–Only God can look on the heart and know who will enter into heaven
One day this world will end, in God’s time and by His will
“The bonfire had gone out. On the earth all was blackness: in fact you could not have told that you were looking into a wood, if you had not seen where the dark shapes of the trees ended and the stars began. But when Aslan had roared yet again, out on their left they saw another black shape. That is, they saw another patch where there were no stars: and the patch rose up higher and higher and became the shape of a man, the hugest of all giants…Then Jill and Eustace remembered how once long ago, in the deep caves beneath those moors, they had seen a great giant asleep and been told that his name was Father Time, and that he would wake on the day the world ended. “Yes,” said Aslan, though they had not spoken. “While he lay dreaming his name was Time. Now that he is awake he will have a new one.” Then the great giant raised a horn to his mouth. They could see this by the change of the black shape he made against the stars. After that — quite a bit later, because sound travels so slowly — they heard the sound of the horn: high and terrible, yet of a strange, deadly beauty. Immediately the sky became full of shooting stars…With a thrill of wonder (and there was some terror in it too) they all suddenly realized what was happening. The spreading blackness was not a cloud at all: it was simply emptiness. The black part of the sky was the part in which there were no stars left. All the stars were falling: Aslan had called them home.”
But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. Mt. 24:36 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. 2 Peter 3:10 Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Mt. 24:29
All will be judged by Aslan/Christ and enter into his joy or depart forever from him
“And then one could see thousands of pairs of eyes gleaming. And at last, out of the shadow of the trees, racing up the hill for dear life, by thousands and by millions, came all kinds of creatures — Talking Beasts, Dwarfs, Satyrs, Fauns, Giants, Calormenes, men from Archenland, Monopods, and strange unearthly things from the remote islands or the unknown Western lands. And all these ran up to the doorway where Aslan stood. The creatures came rushing on, their eyes brighter and brighter as they drew nearer and nearer to the standing Stars. But as they came right up to Aslan one or other of two things happened to each of them. They all looked straight in his face; I don’t think they had any choice about that. And when some looked, the expression of their faces changed terribly — it was fear and hatred: except that, on the faces of Talking Beasts, the fear and hatred lasted only for a fraction of a second. You could see that they suddenly ceased to be Talking Beasts. They were just ordinary animals. And all the creatures who looked at Aslan in that way swerved to their right, his left, and disappeared into his huge black shadow, which (as you have heard) streamed away to the left of the doorway. The children never saw them again. I don’t know what became of them. But the others looked in the face of Aslan and loved him, though some of them were very frightened at the same time. And all these came in at the Door, in on Aslan’s right. There were some queer specimens among them. Eustace even recognised one of those very Dwarfs who had helped to shoot the Horses. But he had no time to wonder about that sort of thing (and anyway it was no business of his) for a great joy put everything else out of his head. Among the happy creatures who now came crowding round Tirian and his friends were all those whom they had thought dead. There was Roonwit the Centaur and Jewel the Unicorn, and the good Boar and the good Bear and Farsight the Eagle, and the dear Dogs and the Horses, and Poggin the Dwarf.”
Because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. Acts 17:31 When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’ Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Mt. 25: 31-34, 41, 46 So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. Hebrews 9:28 Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen. Rev. 1:7
Deeper Dive:All will be judged by Aslan/Christ and enter into his joy or depart forever from him
From “The World’s Last Night” by C.S. Lewis, First published in Religion in Life, Volume 21, Winter 1951-2, under the title “Christian Hope: Its Meaning for Today”; later published under its new title in The World’s Last Night and Other Essays, U.S. 1960.
“Some day… an absolute correct verdict—if you like, a perfect critique—will be passed on what each of us is. We have all encountered judgments or verdicts on ourselves in this life. Every now and then we discover what our fellow creatures really think of us. I don’t of course mean what they tell us to our faces: that we usually have to discount. I am thinking of what we sometimes overhear by accident or of the opinions about us which our neighbors and employees or subordinates unknowingly reveal in their actions; and of the terrible, or lovely, judgments artlessly betrayed by children or even animals. Such discoveries can be the bitterest or sweetest experiences we have. But of course both the bitter and the sweet are limited by our doubt as to the wisdom of those who judge. We always hope that those who so clearly think us cowards or bullies are ignorant and malicious; we always fear that those who trust us or admire us are misled by partiality. I suppose the experience of the final judgment (which may break in upon us at any moment) will be like these little experiences, but magnified to the Nth.“For it will be infallible judgment. If it is favorable we shall have no fear, if unfavorable, no hope that it is wrong. We shall not only believe, we shall know, beyond doubt in every fiber of our appalled or delighted being, that as the Judge has said, so we are: neither more nor less nor other. We shall perhaps even realize that in some dim fashion we could have known it all along. We shall know and all creation will know too: our ancestors, our parents, our wives or husbands, our children. The unanswerable and (by then) self-evident truth about each will be known to all.
“I do not find that pictures of physical catastrophe—the sign in the clouds, those heavens rolled up like a scroll—help one so much as the naked idea of judgment. We cannot always be excited. We can, perhaps, train ourselves to ask more and more often how the thing which we are saying or doing (or failing to do) at each moment will look when the irresistible light streams in upon it; that light which is so different from the light of this world—and yet, even now, we know just enough of it to take it into account. Women sometimes have the problem of trying to judge by artificial light how a dress will look by daylight. That is very like the problem of all us: to dress our souls not for the electric lights of the present world but for the daylight of the next. The good dress is the one that will face that light. For that light will last longer.”
Aslan beckons them into his country, which is full of adventure and worthy of exploration
“Further in and higher up!” cried Roonwit and thundered away in a gallop to the West. And though they did not understand him, the words somehow set them tingling all over…They had seen strange things enough through that Doorway. But it was stranger than any of them to look round and find themselves in warm daylight, the blue sky above them, flowers at their feet, and laughter in Aslan’s eyes. He turned swiftly round, crouched lower, lashed himself with his tail and shot away like a golden arrow. “Come further in! Come further up!” he shouted over his shoulder. But who could keep up with him at that pace? They set out walking westward to follow him.”
In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? John 14:2 But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” I Cor. 2:9 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. Hebrews 11:16 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. Rev. 22:1-5 How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty!
My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Psalm 84:1-2
The beauty of the world and the joy of loved ones and memories in that world are blessings to be received with gratitude
“So,” said Peter, “Night falls on Narnia. What, Lucy! You’re not crying? With Aslan ahead, and all of us here?” “Don’t try to stop me, Peter,” said Lucy, “I am sure Aslan would not. I am sure it is not wrong to mourn for Narnia. Think of all that lies dead and frozen behind that door.” “Yes and I did hope,” said Jill, “that it might go on for ever. I knew our world couldn’t. I did think Narnia might.” “I saw it begin,” said the Lord Digory. “I did not think I would live to see it die.” “Sirs,” said Tirian. “The ladies do well to weep. See I do so myself. I have seen my mother’s death. What world but Narnia have I ever known? It were no virtue, but great discourtesy, if we did not mourn.” They walked away from the Door and away from the Dwarfs who still sat crowded together in their imaginary Stable. And as they went they talked to one another about old wars and old peace and ancient Kings and all the glories of Narnia.”
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalm 139:14 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. Ecclesiastes 3:11 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. James 1:17 For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God. I Thess. 3:9 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer. I Timothy 4:4-5
Only God can look on the heart and know who will enter into heaven
“But the others looked in the face of Aslan and loved him, though some of them were very frightened at the same time. And all these came in at the Door, in on Aslan’s right. There were some queer specimens among them. Eustace even recognised one of those very Dwarfs who had helped to shoot the Horses. But he had no time to wonder about that sort of thing (and anyway it was no business of his)…”What is it, cousins?” said Peter. “A Calormene, Sire,” said several Dogs at once. “Lead on to him, then,” said Peter. “Whether he meets us in peace or war, he shall be welcome…” The others followed where the Dogs led them and found a young Calormene sitting under a chestnut tree beside a clear stream of water. It was Emeth. He rose at once and bowed gravely. “Sir,” he said to Peter, “I know not whether you are my friend or my foe, but I should count it my honour to have you for either. Has not one of the poets said that a noble friend is the best gift and a noble enemy the next best?” “Sir,” said Peter, “I do not know that there need be any war between you and us.” “Do tell us who you are and what’s happened to you,” said Jill.”
Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God. I Cor. 1:26-29 For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. I Samuel 16:7 For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. Galatians 1:13-14 But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. Acts 8:3
ONE TREE HILLWe turn away to face the cold, enduring chillAs the day begs the night for mercy, love.A sun so bright it leaves no shadowsOnly scars carved into stone on the face of earth.The moon is up and over One Tree HillWe see the sun go down in your eyes.I’ll see you again when the stars fall from the sky
And the moon has turned red over One Tree Hill.
–from U2 The Joshua Tree, 1987
