FOOD FOR THOUGHT
The bible is ripe with battle metaphors.  The entire Prince Caspian story (indeed the entire Narnia series) is about battles against the powers of darkness.  In the first book of the Narnia series, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, the children received gifts which were actually tools of war - a shield, a sword, arrows, bow, knife, etc.  Consider the opening verses of our scripture for this week:

"Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places..."

 Both the bible and the Narnia series present us with what, for some, is a startling, uncomfortable claim:

You are in the middle of a spiritual battle

Do you believe this is actually true?  Once you start looking for this imagery you start seeing it everywhere in the scriptures.  Many of us are interested in the idea of growing spiritually but the idea of being involved in some sort of cosmic battle sounds a bit extreme.  After all, aren't "Holy Wars" one of the great scourges of the earth?  (For a reflection on the terrible things that have been done in the name of religion, click here).  And yet the ancient church,  a minority group with no political power whose primary message was love and forgiveness - the very ones who were being persecuted at the point of a sword, chose to use battle imagery to describe spiritual reality.  The first Christians said that ordinary people like you and me are in a battle with

•  The world - Our culture is a mixed bag of goodness, evil, beauty and corruption.   We are often exposed to  false and unhealthy messages.  We sometimes experience oppression, cruelty and lack of justice in a culture that has lost it's way
   
•   The flesh - We are tempted by internal forces as well.  Sometimes our own desires and fears war against the person we feel we are called to be.  See the quote to the right.
   
•   The devil - We are oppressed and influenced by real spiritual forces that we cannot see.

Some might be quick to write it off as ancient superstition.  In fact, it is a helpful corrective.   Last week we read the C.S. Lewis quote that talked about how we need to study old books because each culture has it's own blind spots.  Perhaps the biggest blindspot of our current culture is our inability to see not only the spiritual dimension of life, but the spiritual warfare that is woven into life.  The movie poster for Prince Caspian to the right shows him holding both the horn of Queen Susan (which represents prayer) and a sword which represents the ability of humans to choose and to act.  To win against the forces that assail him, Prince Caspian must both trust God and take action.  The action he must take is found in our scripture below.

Aslan said: “'You come of the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve. And that is both honor enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor in earth. Be content.“    Caspian Bowed.