FOOD FOR THOUGHT
We sometimes think it would be easier to believe in Jesus if we had lived along side his apostles rather than trying to follow him now - 2000 years after the events recorded in the Gospels.   We think we would not have as many doubts as we do here and now.  This is where Prince Caspian is helpful.  "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe"   depicts the life, death, and resurrection of Aslan, while "Prince Caspian" depicts life 1300 years after those foundational events.  And the situation then is much like ours:  Aslan is nowhere to be seen and many people believe the stories about Aslan are nothing but fairy tales.  Superstitions have arisen and crucial facts about his nature have been forgotten.  C.S. Lewis himself said that Prince Caspian was a study of the corruption of religion over time.   A primary part of being a Christian is remembering what is real and what is important.  The busyness of life, the falleness of culture, and our own twisted ways all conspire to cause us to forget.  And when you forget what is real and lasting it becomes easy to be duped by the latest trickster pushing their wares.   One of the key heroes of Prince Caspian is Truffle Hunter the badger.  Once a badger sinks it's teeth into something it refuses to let go.  C.S. Lewis uses this as a metaphor to remembering.  The secret of the Truffle Hunter is that it refuses to forget.  Consider the quote from Truffle Hunter to the right.

Truffle Hunter is not trying to live in the past - he remembers the past so that he can make sense of the present and make plans for the future.  C.S. Lewis thought we desperately need the insights from those who lived in a time other than our own.  He said:

Every age has its own outlook.  It is especially good at seeing certain truths and especially liable to make certain mistakes.  We all therefore need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period.  And that means the old books... Not, of course, that there is any magic about the past.  People were no cleverer then than they are now; they made as many mistakes as we.  But not the same mistakes.  They will not flatter us in the errors we are already committing; and their own errors, being now open and palpable will not endanger us.  Two heads are better than one, not because either is infallible, but because they are unlikely to go wrong in the same direction.  To be sure, the books of the future would be just as good a corrective as the books of the past, but unfortunately we cannot get at them.

When we do study the church through the ages we discover that while our situations and cultures and issues may change, the fundamental questions do not throughout the generations:

1. Is there a God and what is he like?

2. Will I be loyal to this God?

Loyalty is one of the key themes that run through every book of the Chronicles of Narnia - loyalty to family, loyalty to friends, and most of all loyalty to God.  This loyalty to God is what causes the characters to treat their enemies with compassion and fairness.  In the end God doesn't ask that much of me - he asks me to remember the big picture and then he asks me to be loyal to him.  In stead of asking "What would Jesus do?" , I think I am called to say "Jesus, what would you have me do?" in each of the many decisions I face each day.  There is no greater freedom,  no greater comfort, no greater satisfaction than simply trying to live each day loyal to Jesus.

"I'm a beast, I am, and a Badger what's more. We don't change. We hold on... We don't forget. I believe in the High King Peter and the rest that reigned at Cair Paravel, as firmly as I believe in Aslan himself...
"I stand by Aslan. Have patience, like us beasts. The help will come. It may be even now at the door."

 

 

Loyalty
 Proverbs 3:3
“Do not let loyalty
and faithfulness forsake you;
bind them around your neck,
write them
on the tablet of your heart. “
 

 

 

Remembering
 1st Corinthians 15:1-10