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Epistle
Dear fellow pilgrims,
We had a wonderful clergy retreat last week, but I was sorry to miss our time together and am excited to be back at it tomorrow! In our last class on Chapter 5, we saw how help miraculously arrived for Tirian in the persons of Jill and Eustace. We will follow up on lessons from that chapter and jump into Chapter 6 tomorrow. Join us tomorrow for class at 7:15 as we look at some of the profound lessons this remarkable book holds for us today. Please come 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:
The class is also available on Apple podcast, Spotify, and the church website within the next few days after the “live” class. I have pasted in below links from last week’s class and a summary of what we discussed, as well as copies of the handouts.
I am so looking forward to continuing this journey with you–please come and bring a friend, or if you are in another city or country, gather some friends and share the class or podcast and discuss. Hope to see you soon!
Further up and further in,
Brian+The Rev’d Brian K. McGreevy, J.D.Assistant to the RectorSt. Philip’s Church142 Church StreetCharleston, SC 29401www.saintphilips.church
Supporting Files
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHVv79W_EpA
SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK’S TEACHING
Chapter 5: How Help Came to the KingSetting:
–Tirian, still tied to the tree, is shocked when suddenly the youngest boy and girl from his dream appear in front of him
–Jill and Eustace introduce themselves, free Tirian from captivity, and compare history with him
–They escape through the woods to a Narnian guard tower
–Before doing anything else, they put on armor and disguises so they are prepared for any eventuality
Themes:
Prayer is not always answered in the way we expect
God’s time and our time are not at all the same
Wisdom means preparing for trouble before it occurs
Fellowship with other believers with shared experiences brings joy and insight
Obedience involves both prayer and action
Diligence in being prepared results in blessingPrayer is not always answered in the way we expect
“But his misery did not last long. Almost at once there came a bump, and then a second bump, and two children were standing before him. The wood in front of him had been quite empty a second before and he knew they had not come from behind his tree, for he would have heard them. They had in fact simply appeared from nowhere. He saw at a glance that they were wearing the same queer, dingy sort of clothes as the people in his dream; and he saw, at a second glance, that they were the youngest boy and girl out of that party of seven.”
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the LORD. Isaiah 55:8 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Eph. 6:18 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! Matt. 7:11 When they came, [Samuel] looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him.” But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” I Sam. 16:6-7 But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.” And he said, “Bring them here to me.” Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And they all ate and were satisfied. Matt. 14:16-20
Prayer is not always answered in the way we expect: Deeper Dive
“‘Surprised by joy’ is how C.S. Lewis described his conversion from atheism to faith in Jesus Christ. He had never expected that there was any connection between God and joy. If anything, he had thought it would be the opposite: ‘For all I knew, the total rejection of what I called Joy might be one of the demands.’ Convinced that it was true, Lewis ‘admitted that God was God’. At that moment, he was ‘the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England’. To his great surprise he found that following Jesus was the very opposite to what he expected. He experienced great joy through his new-found faith. He discovered that ‘the heart of reality’ is to be found in a Person. He was surprised by joy.”–Nicky Gumbel
One day, in 1926, Lewis and Tolkien were both attending a teachers meeting at Merton College. Lewis wrote in his diary that evening, “[Tolkien has] no harm in him: only needs a smack or so. …Friendship with [Tolkien] marked the breakdown of two old prejudices. At my first coming into the world I had been (implicitly) warned never to trust a Papist, and at my first coming into the English Faculty (explicitly) never to trust a philologist. Tolkien was both.” Through his close friendship with Tolkien, Lewis found God and became a Christian. Tolkien and Lewis also influenced each other intellectually on the nature of language, imagination, myth, and religion. Lewis in turn provided a matchless gift that Tolkien later described: “The unpayable debt that I owe him was not ‘influence’ as it is ordinarily understood, but sheer encouragement. He was for long my only audience. Only from him did I ever get the idea that my ‘stuff’ could be more than a private hobby. But for his interest and unceasing eagerness for more I should never have brought The Lord of the Rings to a conclusion.”
God’s time and our time are not at all the same
“Hurry up and get him untied,” said the girl. “We can talk afterwards.” Then she added, turning to Tirian, “I’m sorry we’ve been so long. We came the moment we could.” While she was speaking the Boy had produced a knife from his pocket and was quickly cutting the King’s bonds: too quickly, in fact, for the King was so stiff and numb that when the last cord was cut he fell forward on his hands and knees. He couldn’t get up again till he had brought some life back into his legs by a good rubbing. “I say,” said the girl. “It was you, wasn’t it, who appeared to us that night when we were all at supper? Nearly a week ago.” “A week, fair maid?” said Tirian. “My dream led me into your world scarce ten minutes since.””It’s the usual muddle about times, Pole,” said the Boy. “I remember now,” said Tirian. “That too comes in all the old tales. The time of your strange land is different from ours.”
A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night. Ps. 90:4 With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 2 Peter 3:8 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. Lamentations 3:25-26 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
Wisdom means preparing for trouble before it occurs
“And now,” he said at the end, “I am going to a certain tower, one of three that were built in my grandsire’s time to guard Lantern Waste against certain perilous outlaws who dwelled there in his day. By Aslan’s good will I was not robbed of my keys. In that tower we shall find store of weapons and mail and some victuals also, though no better than dry biscuit. There also we can lie safe while we make our plans.”
Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Mt. 24:44 By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. Hebrews 11:7 Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. Mt. 25:1-2 The sluggard does not plow in the autumn; he will seek at harvest and have nothing. Proverbs 20:4
Fellowship with other believers with shared experiences brings joy and insight
“Well, those two got us all together: partly just for fun so that we could all have a good jaw about Narnia (for of course there’s no one else we can ever talk to about things like that) but partly because the Professor had a feeling that we were somehow wanted over here. Well then you came in like a ghost or goodness-knows-what and nearly frightened the lives out of us and vanished without saying a word. After that, we knew for certain there was something up.”
Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! It is like the precious oil on the head,
running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes! Psalm 133:1-2 We who had sweet fellowship together walked in the house of God in the throng.Psalm 55:14 Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near. Heb. 10:24-25 That I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine. Rom. 1:12 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends! Philippians 4:1
Fellowship with other believers with shared experiences brings joy and insight: Deeper Dive
“Friendship arises out of mere Companionship when two or more of the companions discover that they have in common some insight or interest or even taste which the others do not share and which, till that moment, each believed to be his own unique treasure (or burden). The typical expression of opening Friendship would be something like, “What? You too? I thought I was the only one.” … It is when two such persons discover one another, when, whether with immense difficulties and semi-articulate fumblings or with what would seem to us amazing and elliptical speed, they share their vision – it is then that Friendship is born. And instantly they stand together in an immense solitude.”–Lewis, The Four Loves
“We have a sort of informal club called the Inklings: the qualifications (as they have informally evolved) are a tendency to write and Christianity.”—C.S. Lewis letter to Charles Williams, March 1936
“On Thursday we had a meeting of the Inklings…We dined at the Eastgate. I have never seen in my life Dyson so exuberant–”a roaring cataract of nonsense.” The bill of fare afterwards consisted of a section of the new Hobbit book by Tolkein, a nativity play from Williams (unusually intelligible for him, and approved by all) and a chapter out the book on the Problem of Pain from me. It so happened that the subject matter of the three readings formed almost a logical sequence, and produced a real first rate evening’s talk of the usual wide-ranging kind–” from grave to gay, from lively to severe.”—C.S. Lewis letter to his brother Warnie, November 1939
Fellowship with other believers with shared experiences brings joy and insight: Deeper Dive
“In a perfect Friendship this Appreciative love is, I think, often so great and so firmly based that each member of the circle feels, in his secret heart, humbled before the rest. Sometimes he wonders what he is doing there among his betters. He is lucky beyond desert to be in such company, especially when the whole group is together; each bringing out all that is best, wisest, or funniest in all the others. (Continued…) Those are the golden sessions; when four or five of us after a hard day’s walk have come to our inn; when our slippers are on, our feet spread out toward the blaze and our drinks are at our elbows; when the whole world, and something beyond the world, opens itself to our minds as we talk; and no one has any claim on or any responsibility for another, but all are freemen and equals as if we had first met an hour ago, while at the same time an Affection mellowed by the years enfolds us. Life — natural life — has no better gift to give. Who could have deserved it?”—C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
“But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking, no chances. A secret Master of the Ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,” can truly say to every group of Christian friends “You have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another.” The Friendship is not a reward for our discrimination and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each the beauties of all the others. They are no greater than the beauties of a thousand other men; by Friendship God opens our eyes to them. They are, like all beauties, derived from Him through the Friendship itself, so that it is His instrument for creating as well as for revealing. At this feast it is He who has spread the board and it is He who has chosen the guests. It is He, we may dare to hope, who sometimes does, and always should, preside. Let us not reckon without our Host.”—C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
Obedience involves both prayer and action
“After that, we knew for certain there was something up. The next question was how to get here. You can’t go just by wanting to. So we talked and talked and at last the Professor said the only way would be by the Magic Rings. It was by those Rings that he and Aunt Polly got here long, long ago when they were only kids, years before we younger ones were born. But the Rings had all been buried in the garden of a house in London (that’s our big town, Sire) and the house had been sold. So then the problem was how to get at them. You’ll never guess what we did in the end! Peter and Edmund — that’s the High King Peter, the one who spoke to you — went up to London to get into the garden from the back, early in the morning before people were up.”
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. James 2:14-17 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. I Jn. 3:18 In everything that he undertook in the service of God’s temple and in obedience to the law and the commands, he sought his God and worked wholeheartedly. And so he prospered. 2 Chronicles 31:21 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. Acts 13:2-3
Diligence in being prepared results in blessing
“What about some grub? — I mean for you, Sir; we two have had our breakfast,” said the Boy. Tirian wondered very much what he meant by “grub,” but when the Boy opened a bulgy satchel which he was carrying and pulled out a rather greasy and squashy packet, he understood. He was ravenously hungry, though he hadn’t thought about it till that moment. There were two hard-boiled egg sandwiches, and two cheese sandwiches, and two with some kind of paste in them… By the time he had eaten all six sandwiches they had come to the bottom of the valley and there they found a moss cliff with a little fountain bubbling out of it.”
“He was determined that they should not be caught unarmed, and began searching the lockers, thankfully remembering that he had always been careful to have these garrison towers inspected once a year to make sure that they were stocked with all things needful. The bow strings were there in their coverings of oiled silk, the swords and spears were greased against rust, and the armour was kept bright in its wrappings.”
Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ Mt. 25:19-21 And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. Lk. 12:42-44
FOR ALL THE SAINTS
Bishop William Walsham Howe (1864)
For all the saints, who from their labours rest, Who Thee by faith before the world confessed,
Thy Name, O Jesu, be forever blessed. Alleluia, Alleluia!
Thou wast their Rock, their Fortress and their Might; Thou, Lord, their Captain in the well fought fight; Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true Light. Alleluia, Alleluia!
For the Apostles’ glorious company, Who bearing forth the Cross o’er land and sea,
Shook all the mighty world, we sing to Thee: Alleluia, Alleluia!
O may Thy soldiers, faithful, true and bold, Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old,
And win with them the victor’s crown of gold. Alleluia, Alleluia!
For the Evangelists, by whose blest word ,Like fourfold streams, the garden of the Lord,
Is fair and fruitful, be Thy Name adored. Alleluia, Alleluia!
For Martyrs, who with rapture kindled eye, Saw the bright crown descending from the sky,
And seeing, grasped it, Thee we glorify. Alleluia, Alleluia!
O blest communion, fellowship divine! We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
Yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine. Alleluia, Alleluia!
And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long, Steals on the ear the distant triumph song,
And hearts are brave, again, and arms are strong. Alleluia, Alleluia!
The golden evening brightens in the west; Soon, soon to faithful warriors comes their rest;
Sweet is the calm of paradise the blessed. Alleluia, Alleluia!
But lo! there breaks a yet more glorious day; The saints triumphant rise in bright array;
The King of glory passes on His way. Alleluia, Alleluia!From earth’s wide bounds, from ocean’s farthest coast, Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host, Singing to Father, Son and Holy Ghost: Alleluia, Alleluia!
