The Irish C.S. Lewis

 

"The longest way round is the shortest way home."

The Open Championship (or British Open) is one of the four major tournaments in golf and is one of the largest sporting events in the world. It has been held this week at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland, near the old stomping grounds of C. S. Lewis, who was born and raised in and around Belfast. He and his family would often take family vacations to Portrush and the surrounding area, just over an hour away. There were beaches, an amusement park, natural attractions, and yes, even a castle. Just the place for a little boy with a fertile imagination.

One of the main natural attractions in the area is the Giants Causeway - a series of hexagonal rock formations which are the result of ancient volcanic activity. Of course, the Irish have a different story. They say that the causeway was formed by a scuffle between two giants who once lived there. Perhaps this was the place Lewis was thinking of when he wrote about the giant’s territory of Harfang in the Silver Chair.

Dunluce Castle is not far away, sitting high atop a cliff overlooking the Irish Sea. Although now just a skeleton of its former self, it is still a majestic sight on the rugged coast. It must have made quite an impression on little Jack when he saw it for the first time as a child. Many believe that this castle was the inspiration for his royal city of Cair Paravel in the Chronicles of Narnia books.

In Narnia, the castle also happens to be right on the edge of the sea. After ruling there during the Golden Age of Narnia, the four Pevensie children return when called back by Prince Caspian. Upon their return the castle is overgrown and in ruins, a mere semblance of what it once had been, but still standing and still prominent.

The Open Championship was first played in Ireland in 1951. What else happened that year? Prince Caspian was published as the second book of the Chronicles of Narnia series, which tells about the ruins of Cair Paravel, inspired by Dunluce Castle.

We often think of CS Lewis as an Englishman since he lived and taught in Cambridge and Oxford. But he always remained an Irishman at heart, returning to his home country nearly every summer for a holiday by the sea. 

These brief times of joy for Lewis would anticipate and finally culminate in that final journey home to Aslan's country, which for him was only the beginning of the real story. All his life in this world and all his adventures had only been the cover and title page. Now at last he was beginning chapter one of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read, which goes on forever, in which every chapter is better than the one before.

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an idle tale

 

Tell me a story. “Once upon a time, there was a great King.” Why do we all love stories? I think deep down we all want the story to be true. There is nothing like a true story. Truth is better and often stranger than fiction.

All of us are basing our lives on a story. It may be true, and it may be false, but we all are basing our lives on a story. Some people call this a worldview. How we look at ourselves, how we look at others, how we look at the world, how we look at God.

There are so many different stories and beliefs out there in the world today. The more stories you hear, the more you realize there are almost as many stories as there are people who believe them.

Many people today see the story of Jesus as just another story. An old wives tale. A superstition - an illusion - an unverified claim - unfounded belief. A nice story but - it doesn’t really change anything. It may help you feel better, but it can’t help you with your problems, it can’t stop death. The philosopher Jack Sparrow - dead men tell no tales.

All too often people treat the Christian story as if it were an idle tale, and treat Jesus like an old relic, someone from a long time ago that we honor and respect, but not someone we follow and speak with and listen to each day. We tuck him away into an old bible on a dusty shelf in a back room, bring him out a couple times a year, christmas and maybe easter, and maybe election day if we need some extra help to get our favorite politician elected. But then it’s back on the shelf - where he’s safe and out of the way - a nice folksy figure that ranks somewhere between Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. 

For the disciples, it went far deeper, it was way more personal. This was their rabbi, teacher, master, and friend. They had been through everything with him the last 3 years, teaching, healing, parables, miracles. And in the past week, they had gone from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows, from the excitement of the palm parade on Sunday to the agony of his arrest and death and burial on Friday. They had been through the ringer - the worst two days of their lives. And now to hear that Jesus had risen - it was just too much - the pain was too bitter, the loss was too great. It seemed too good to be true - to them it was an idle tale. 

But thanks be to God, they were dead wrong, because Jesus wasn’t dead, he was alive! He was risen and living, loving and forgiving. He had indeed risen from the dead - just as he had said. They were about to go from fear to faith - from False Evidence Appearing Real - to Forsaking All I Trust Him.

They would indeed see and trust and believe, but it took a little while, because in a very real sense, a whole new world was opening up to them, a new creation was taking place right before their very eyes. Nothing would ever be the same again - as the old car commercial put it - this changes everything.    

Dead men tell no tales - that is - unless Jesus is around. And if he is, then dead men are raised up and they tell stories and write letters and author books and plant churches and preach the gospel and plant churches and love their neighbors and on and on and on it goes - as its been going for the last 2000 years.

Jesus is alive and well - living and active in his word, in the means of grace, in the Sacraments, in the waters of Baptism, in the elements of the Lord’s Supper, and with his people the church. He is Yahweh - the great I Am. He is Immanuel - God with us and God for us.

The story of Jesus - the story of Easter is not an idle tale - because it’s not an idol tale! It’s the story of the one true God who loved his fallen creatures so much that he would do anything to get them back - even go so far as to give up his one and only son.  

Because of Christ’s death and resurrection, Paul writes in Romans that nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.

1 Cor. 15, 1 John 1, 2 Peter 1

"If Christianity is false it is of no importance, but if it is true it is of infinite importance. The only thing it can't be is moderately important." - CS Lewis

There are so many stories and beliefs out there in the world today. The more stories you hear, the more you realize that there are almost as many stories as there are people who believe them.

But there is another story - a greater story - a great and grand Story that forms and informs all the rest. The story of a God who loved the world he created so much that he came down himself to redeem it. A God who promises to someday set things straight and make things right, to make everything sad come untrue. To bring about what he originally intended for his creation - something good and true and beautiful and eternal.   

In the meantime, God gives his church a story that helps to make sense of this life. It gives meaning, purpose, and significance to all. It builds faith, grants forgiveness, and spreads peace, hope, and joy. It takes place every Sunday throughout the church year as we hear his word, as we speak to him in prayer and sing his praises in song, as we follow the liturgy and the lectionary, and in so doing follow our Lord from here at Bethany to the New Jerusalem someday.  

This Divine Drama is ancient and historical and traditional, but it’s not just something that you read about in a book or follow along in a bulletin. The Journey with Jesus is a present reality - an adventure that you get to be part of. Not just another event you view as a spectator, but one you are able to participate in and experience for yourself. There’s nothing fake or phony about it. It’s true and genuine and authentic - it’s the real thing. Just like our Risen Savior, Redeemer, and Lord - the One who takes our once upon a time and turns it into a happily ever after.  Christ Is Risen!

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Cornerstone

 

“Behold, I lay a stone in Zion, a precious cornerstone, a firm foundation.”  (Isaiah 28)

In 1924, one hundred years ago, the cornerstone was laid at the site of what would be the new campus of Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. A time capsule was placed inside which included a German Bible, an English Bible, a Hebrew Old Testament, and a Greek New Testament. There were other items such as a map, a coin, medal, and photographs. But the most important were the Sacred Scriptures, the firm foundation, the sole rule and norm for faith and life.

My grandfather was a student at the seminary at the time, and was there two years later when the new campus was dedicated in 1926. It was a grand affair, with around 80,000 people in attendance. President Franz Pieper gave the address that day (in Latin), and as he spoke an interesting thing began to happen. A bi-plane came around and flew over the campus. It was a big deal at the time as flying and airplanes were still quite new and exciting, so everyone stopped what they were doing and looked up. It seemed that just as America was entering into a new era, so was the Church.

That day was the beginning of a new era for my family as well. My Grandpa Lange was about ready to graduate from the seminary, and he had a lot of people praying for him. He went on to become a pastor and marry one Selma Lohoefner, my Grandma Lange. She said that when she was a young woman, she prayed that God would allow her to marry a pastor, and that she would have seven sons who would all become pastors. 

She got the seven sons all right, along with one daughter, but only four out of the seven became pastors. God likes to answer prayer in his own time and in his own way, so even though only four of the seven sons became pastors, seven of the grandchildren would go on to become pastors or missionaries as well. 

My father went on to attend Concordia Seminary, as did I. As you walk from the parking lot toward the campus, you pass by the old log cabin that served as the first seminary, the first building built by the Saxon settlers in Perry County. A few steps later, as you stand in front of Luther Tower and look up, you see certain words chiseled into stone. Grace, Faith, Scripture. And as you look down, you see the stone with the year 1924 carved into it. That’s the stone that was laid one hundred years ago, but that’s not the real cornerstone. The real cornerstone is Jesus Christ.

When my father and I were in Jerusalem a few years ago, we stood before the Western Wall, admiring the large stones. The smaller stones at the top of the wall are from the time of the Crusades, the next level (slightly larger) are from the time of Herod, and the huge stone slabs at the bottom are from the time of Solomon and the original temple. As impressive as those stones are, they pale in comparison to the lithos, the real and true Rock of our Salvation, the Living Stone, Jesus Christ. From Jerusalem to Rome to Wittenberg to St. Louis to every little church on the prairie, the gospel continues to go out, as Christ crucified is preached, and forgiveness is delivered. The crucified and risen Christ comes to renew, restore, and build up. So who does Jesus come for? In the Gospels Jesus comes for Jews, Greeks, Romans, Pagans, Canaanites, Samaritans, Pharisees, Sadducees, widows, orphans, lepers, the disabled, the weak, the strong, the young, the old, the poor, the rich, the sick, the dying, and even the dead! Jesus comes for everyone. Jesus comes for you. “As you come to him, the living Stone, rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him, you also like living stones, are being built up into a spiritual house. ‘Behold, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” (1 Peter 2)

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Music of the Spheres

In the beginning of Middle Earth, Iluvatar created the world of Arda by the music of the Ainur, angelic beings who sang creation into existence. In the beginning of Narnia, Aslan wandered to and fro across the land, singing a new song and bringing the world into being. In the beginning of our world, the angels rejoiced and the morning stars sang together when Elohim created the heavens and the earth. 

The connection between music and the created order is a long lasting one. Over the years some have called it the Mystery of the Cosmos, the Harmonies of the World, the Musica Universalis, or the Music of the Spheres. The Music of the Spheres was an ancient Greek theory by Pythagorus later developed by astronomer Johannes Kepler. It was the belief that the stars and planets made a cosmic melody as they circled the earth and made their way through space. 

Though this theory is of course poetic and imaginative, the disciplines of astronomy and mathematics have in part backed it up. There is a real harmony and proportionality to geometry, and the heavenly bodies do indeed vibrate with a dynamic energy captured by radio telescopes. 

C.S. Lewis wrote extensively about this concept in his last book, The Discarded Image, and put it into practice in his series, The Chronicles of Narnia. Michael Ward delves into this in his doctoral thesis which became the book, Planet Narnia. He discovered a hidden code in the Narnia books and found that each book represents one of the planets, or seven heavens, of the medieval world. 

(The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is Jupiter, Prince Caspian is Mars, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is the Sun, The Silver Chair is the Moon, The Horse and his Boy is Mercury, The Magician’s Nephew is Venus, and The Last Battle is Saturn.) 

J.R.R. Tolkien used the imagery of the secret music to begin his creation account in The Silmarillion.

“Then Ilúvatar said to them: 'Of the theme that I have declared to you, I will now that ye make in harmony together a Great Music. And since I have kindled you with the Flame Imperishable, ye shall show forth your powers in adorning this theme, each with his own thoughts and devices, if he will. But I will sit and hearken and be glad that through you great beauty has been wakened into song.' Then the voices of the Ainur, like unto harps and lutes, and pipes and trumpets, and viols and organs, and like unto countless choirs singing with words, began to fashion the theme of Ilúvatar to a great music; and a sound arose of endless interchanging melodies woven in harmony that passed beyond hearing into the depths and into the heights, and the places of the dwelling of Ilúvatar were filled to overflowing, and the music and the echo of the music went out into the Void, and it was not void. Never since have the Ainur made any music like this music, though it has been said that a greater still shall be made before Ilúvatar by the choirs of the Ainur and the Children of Ilúvatar after the end of days. Then the themes of Ilúvatar shall be played aright, and all shall understand fully his intent in their part, and each shall know the comprehension of each, and Ilúvatar shall give to their thoughts the secret fire, being well pleased.”

As great as Lewis and Tolkien were, perhaps no one wrote more profoundly of the music of the spheres than King David in Psalm 19, a favorite of Lewis. Lewis wrote that it was the greatest poem in the Psalter and one of the greatest lyrics in the world.  

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun. It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is deprived of its warmth.”  

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Sheep and Shepherd

 

On our trip to Israel a few years ago, we were surprised to see a number of Bedouin shepherds still out in the fields doing their thing. They still live in tents and practice their nomadic lifestyle, with permission from the authorities to graze their flocks in rural areas around Bethlehem and Jerusalem. These rugged shepherds know perhaps better than anyone the meaning of the phrase, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”

They know what it’s like to leave the village and go out into the open country, where you're all alone and on your own. No police protection, no cell phones, no one to come help in case of thieves, robbers, or an attack by wild animals. Most of us don't live in that kind of world. Even those of us who live out in the country still have neighbors not too far away.   

One of the great experts in the ancient Near East, Dr. Ken Bailey, lived in that kind of world when he was living in Lebanon in the 1970s at the time of the civil war there. There was no electricity, no water, and no telephones. The police had disappeared, the army had fallen apart, and the national guard didn't even exist. The only protection they had were little groups of people that huddled together and tried to protect themselves. The only real protection in a situation like that is, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.” When you get right down to it, that's the only real protection we have in this life as well, especially from our enemies of sin, death, and the devil.

One of the great fears we all have is the fear of what the future will bring. Will we be safe? Will we have enough? Will our needs be met? Will we be able to provide for our family? As Christians we believe that God will provide for us. We trust in Him and believe that He will keep His promise to never leave us nor forsake us, to be with us always, to the very end of the age.

Jesus the Good Shepherd says, “Follow me.” If we're going to follow Jesus, we are going to need to hear his voice, and in order to hear his voice, we need to listen to his word.

Bad shepherds in the Middle East use rocks and sticks on their sheep. Good shepherds don’t do that. Good shepherds are out in front of the flock, using a little call or whistle to round up the sheep. Dr. Bailey tells of a Palestinian shepherd he knew of who had 500 sheep with no dog and no assistant. He would just slowly walk in front of the flock, and every minute or so he would give his little call that his sheep knew so well. The good shepherd knows his flock, and the sheep know his voice. 

But sheep do go astray from time to time, and when a sheep is lost, the shepherd goes after the lost sheep. Shepherds will tell you that when a sheep is lost, it becomes afraid and finds a bush to hide under and starts bleating loudly hoping that it will be found. The shepherd knows this, and knows that he has to get there quickly, because wild animals will also hear the bleating sheep, and it's only a matter of time until something bad happens.

 Once the shepherd finds it, it will probably be too scared to move, so he has to pick it up and put it over his shoulders and carry it back to the village. You've probably seen a picture of Jesus carrying a sheep over his shoulder. It’s one of the oldest and most beloved icons from the early church … the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. 

He leads us and feeds us, guides us and leads us. Why does He do it all? For his own namesake. It's who he is. It's what he does. Not because of any inherent goodness in sheep like us, but simply because he is the Good Shepherd, and we are the sheep of his pasture. 

In Israel today, it's still possible to witness a scene that the disciples probably saw 2000 years ago. That is of Bedouin shepherds bringing their flocks home from the various pastures they have grazed during the day. Often those flocks end up at the same watering hole at the end of the day around dusk. When they all gather together, several small flocks suddenly turn into one big one. But the shepherds don't worry about the sheep getting mixed up. When it's time to go home, each one has his own special little call, and when they hear it, the sheep withdraw from the crowd to follow their shepherd home. They know who they belong to. They know their shepherd's voice, and he is the one they will follow.

"I am the Good Shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep know me. I lay down my life for the sheep." - John 10 

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Keep A Song In Your Heart

 

The popular bandleader Lawrence Welk used to end his television show each week with a reminder to “keep a song in your heart.”     

Regularly reading and hearing God’s Word helps us to keep a song in our heart. But it seems like it is harder and harder to do in our culture and world today, with the chaos and clamor of dystopian dissonance ringing in our ears. The Psalms, and especially Psalm 137, can be of great help to us.

The context of Psalm 137 is the Babylonian Exile. After many years of idolatry and rebellion, God sent the prophets to call Israel back to the word and ways of the Lord. But Israel still strayed and disobeyed, and so Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed, Zion was left in ruin and rubble, and the people were taken into exile to Babylon. 

“By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept as we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps. Then our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded from us songs of joy. ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’ But how can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land?”

They were far from home, living in a foreign country, strangers in a strange land. Everything had changed. The future was dim for them. They had all but given up hope. The last thing on their mind was singing a song of joy.

There they were in Mesopotamia, the land between the rivers, longing for home, remembering Zion, hanging their harps on the poplar trees, without a song in their heart.

Or so it would seem. For though Psalm 137 is indeed about not having a song to sing, it still remains a song nonetheless. It is a song without a song - a vivid reminder of how important it is to ‘keep a song in your heart’. The psalm goes on ...

“If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill. May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy.”

The promise and presence of the Lord God himself is what brought joy to his people at the temple in Jerusalem. And now, though all of that seems so far away, the psalmist still remembers and will not forget the Lord, even in the midst of pain and suffering and loss.

When Jesus came to his temple in Jerusalem, he was rejected by his own. On the cross, he was forsaken, abandoned, and alone. He was as far away from home as you can get. He was exiled from his Father for a time so we would never have to be. Even in the midst of our sin and separation. Even in the midst of our failure and our fear. Even when we don’t have a song to sing, Jesus comes to put a song in our heart. 

God may at times seem distant and appear remote and far off. But we know that, while weeping may endure for a night, joy comes in the morning. We can have the comfort and assurance in knowing that he is still here, in his Word, in the Sacraments, and with his people, the church. The God of the Bible still keeps his promises. He is the One who gives us a song to sing.

Keep a song in your heart!

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The Real World

 

In 1992, MTV came out with The Real World, the first reality show of the modern era. The tagline was “the true story of seven strangers picked to live in a house, and what happens when they stop being polite, and start getting real.”  I remember watching it once and thinking - this can’t be real. It’s all fake - it’s all made up.

Well, it was a success nonetheless, and we have been drowning in a deluge of reality shows ever since. From Survivor to the Amazing Race to the Bachelor to Love Island, these shows have essentially taken over the television and entertainment industry. And it’s not just Hollywood that has been dealing in the fake and phony in recent years. Fake news, fraudulent claims, and conspiracy theories abound today in all types of media, with social media and artificial intelligence leading the way.

People are left wondering, “What is true? What is real? Is there anything truly genuine and authentic?” It’s why we find ourselves in a meaning crisis in the West, defined and described by the likes of Jordan Peterson, John Vervaeke, Douglas Murray, and Tom Holland. People are left wondering where to turn when cultural and societal structures break down around them.  

Our country used to have a common story. It was basically Superman’s motto - Truth, Justice, and the American Way. But our culture doesn’t believe in absolute truth anymore. There’s no overarching narrative. That’s the result of postmodernism, where you have your truth, I have my truth, they have their truth, and somehow everything will work out in the end. But as the old “contradict” bumper sticker pointed out so well, all religions may be false, but they can’t all be true. In the end of this scenario, you're left with nothing. Nothing to believe in, no absolute truth, no sure and certain hope. 

The good news is that there is another story. The story of a God who loved this world he created so much that he came down himself to redeem it. A God who promises to someday set things straight and make things right, to make everything sad come untrue. To bring about what he originally intended for his creation - something good, true, and beautiful.   

In the meantime God gives his church a story that helps make sense of life. It gives meaning, purpose, and significance to all. It builds faith, grants forgiveness, & spreads peace, hope, and joy.

For God’s people, the ultimate reality is knowing Christ and making Him known. It is reading and hearing God’s Word. It is prayer and meditation. It is confession and absolution. It is the reception of God’s good gifts through the Means of Grace, the Word and Sacraments. It is eating and drinking Christ’s body and blood in and with the bread and wine in Holy Communion. It is gathering in worship and fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ. It is the conversation and consolation of fellow believers. It is, in the words of the Apostles Creed, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. 

Welcome to the real world. 

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