sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC on 8/24/14
This week we conclude
our sermon series on “The Chronicles of Narnia” by fittingly looking at the
last book of the series; The Last Battle. This book may just be Lewis’s greatest book
of the series, it certainly is my favorite. It has received many awards as well
including the Carnegie Medal, an award
for the best children’s book of the year.
For as lauded and recognized as this book is for its writing, it is
probably also Lewis’s most controversial and most criticized book because of
some of the implications found in the book.
As we have seen throughout this sermon series, Lewis has tied his faith and
theology into these children stories, and I am certainly not the first to use
them to help teach about our faith. While in books like The Lion the Witch and the
Wardrobe, Lewis uses common understanding of theology like Christ’s
sacrifice on the cross; here in The Last Battle Lewis ventures into some
uncharted, unorthodox discussions. But
if we are being honest, any talk of the end of times is venturing into
uncharted waters. For this reason, this morning we will not use this book as
necessarily for a description of how things will be, but rather to as a means
to actually force us to think about the end of times.
Our story begins some
200 years after Jill and Eustace had rescued Prince Rillian in our story from
last week. Since then things in Narnia had been rather peaceful, for that
reason no one had seen Aslan since our story from last week. Even then, it was
only Jill who saw him. While Narnia
still believed in Aslan, there was a growing sense that these stories about him
were more like urban legends. The people desperately wanted an encounter with
Aslan for themselves. In a way, that is
what they received.
Our story begins looking at the lives of an Ape and a
donkey. The Ape was very shrewd and manipulated the donkey to do whatever it is
that he pleased. One day while near a
pond, the two found the skin of a lion floating in the water. After retrieving
it, the Ape came up with a brilliant and devious idea. He made the skin to fit
as a coat over the donkey, and
convinced the donkey to pretend to be Aslan. Because the donkey wasn’t
very clever the Ape kept him in a barn and would go in and come out and
“speak on behalf of Aslan.” When the people began to doubt that Aslan was
in there, the donkey would come out at night by the light of a fire so the
people and animals could get a glimpse of him. This trick continued to work,
until most of the animals and people of Narnia followed what the Ape had to
say. When what the Ape said contradicted with what they had learned about
Aslan, the Ape used the Narnian’s own phrase, “Aslan is not a tame lion” to
trick them. The people follow this false
Aslan so much, that even when the King of Narnia comes to set the record
straight, they tie he and his unicorn up, at the instruction of the Ape.
During this time the King of Narnia prays for help, he shouts
for the help of the former daughters of eve and sons of Adam. With this Eustace
and Jill are brought back to Narnia and rescue. They return to find that the
Ape claiming that Tash the God of the Calormenes and Aslan are one in the same.
They are open the doors any person wishing to see what is inside, with the
intent of a guard inside killing whoever enters. Unknown to them however, Tash,
who is a bird like demon really is inside. One brave boy named Emeth, ventures
to go in. He is a soldier of the Calormen and grew up his whole life believing
in Tash, but his was not very happy with the unethical ways in which things
have been happening lately; that was not the Tash he knew. If Tash was in the
barn he wanted to see him, and so he entered, and later a body falls out of the barn.
As the King and others
prepare to enter battle with the Ape, there begins to be three different
divides amongst the people. Some of the people and creatures of Narnia have
joined the King in the rebellion efforts. Some of the creatures continued to
follow the Ape who is now in cahoots with the Telamarines and their army. While
many of the dwarves think that the who thing is silly and refuse to take sides
saying, “the dwarves are for the dwarves” and instead hinder the side of whoever
appears to have the advantage. The Battle rages on, the Narnians have almost
lost the battle, the remaining venture into the barn, pulling the leader of the
Calormene with them. When the enter the barn they find the demon Tash who grabs
the Calormene leader under his arm. To everyone’s amazement Peter, Lucy,
Edmund, as well as Digory and Polly from our first story are in the barn with
them. Peter demands Tash to leave and he flees out of the barn.
As the children look
around to their amazement they aren’t in a barn at all, but in a beautiful
field. Aslan appears to them and goes and stands at the door of the barn. Then
every creature of Narnia stands in line in front of him. As some come before
him there is joy on their faces as the turn to his right and entered. Others
however looked in horror before him, and in a moment they lost their ability to
speak and think and went away to his left. Just as we learned of at the
beginning of our sermon series how Aslan sang and the world was created, how he
gave voice to the animals, now at the end of times, some lost this sacred
voice. After this was over, unbelievable things began to happen, almost like
the opposite of the song we heard in The Magician’s Nephew, and slowly all
began to turn black. Aslan commands Peter to close the door, and with it Narnia
was no more.
The children find that they have made it into Alsan’s
land, but there are still many shocks in store for them. First they notice a group of dwarves huddled
together. As the children invite them to come with them, the realize the
dwarves still think they are in a barn. The children offer them a feast, but it
tastes like poison to the dwarves. The realize as much as they offer, the
dwarves are for the dwarves, and they will never see the beautiful opportunity
right in front of them. As the venture further they find another surprise.
Emeth the brave Calormene boy who entered the barn is still there. Aslan
explains to him that without knowing it, by following love and mercy throughout
his life, his heart had truly worshipped
Aslan the whole time. Finally as the children continue into the never ending
land, they get their biggest shock. The begin to see people from their past,
Reepicheep the mouse, King Caspian, and Tumnus the faun, but to their surprise
they also see their parents. Aslan explains to them that this time they were
not wisked away to Narnia, but that the train they were riding with their
parents had crashed, they were in paradise for good. While the book ends with
joy, one aspect of it breaks the heart of the readers. Susan the older sister,
had stopped believing in Narnia, she did not come back to Narnia with them, she
was not on the train with the family, and so we are only left to wonder whether
or not Susan will ever join them.
In looking at Lewis’s depiction of the end of Narnia, we
can first look at that which is the most Biblically based event in the
book. Narnia is ending, and the animals
are coming before Aslan, some are directed into his country, others lose their
ability to talk and are directed away.
This event is almost a carbon copy of our scripture for this morning.
Our scripture tells about when the Son of Man comes in glory how he will
separate the sheep from the goats. Now in our scripture we know that we are not
talking about actually sheep and goats, but rather humankind, but how amazing
is it to have here in our story Aslan separating between different animals,
some which are sure to be sheep and goats. In both our story for today and in
our scripture from this morning we find there is a reason for the separation.
In our scripture Jesus tells those who depart from him, “I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and
you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did
not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in
prison and you did not look after me.” When asked when they failed to do
these things Jesus replies, “Truly I tell you, whatever
you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”
Now, this scripture can make us think that we can work our way into heaven,
what is often referred to as “works righteousness.” If we follow these
commands, feeding the hungry, visiting the sick and the imprisoned, welcoming
the stranger and so on then we will guarantee our place in heaven. But our
salvation is not based on our works, but is a gift given to us by the grace of
God. We must however respond to the
grace offered to us, we must decide to follow Jesus.
This is what I think our story from Lewis illustrates
very well. As the world is ending the
animals have a choice to make, follow Aslan, follow the false God, or do
nothing at all. Those who follow Aslan like the sheep in our parable enter into
paradise, but those who follow the false God, like the goats depart from the
maker. Lewis shows us in this story how the decision is not based upon what we
have done, but rather who we have followed. It is not that we saved ourselves,
but that we have heard the Lord calling to us and we have followed.
Some may say however that this this isn’t fair, the
animals that followed the false God were punished even though they thought they
were following Aslan. Shouldn’t it matter that they thought they we following
the right thing? A simple reaction would be to simply say life’s not fair, but
this not an appropriate response. Life may not be fair, but God is just. If God
is Just then we should take this question seriously. Once again Lewis’s book
provides us insight into this question. Near the beginning of the book we noted
that many of the animals of Narnia had a growing suspicion of the stories of
Aslan. Many believed that they were
great urban legends, others believed they were great stories to teach a lesson.
Since Aslan had not appeared for many years, many questioned whether or not
Aslan still cares about them, or if he ever existed at all. Aslan became an
afterthought, something that they may have hoped for, but that was not
important in their day to day living. Do you see where I’m going? Before this
Last Battle even took place there were already many who by the way the lived
their lives had decided not to follow Aslan. They had no relationship with him,
they did not know him, and so when the time came to choose these animals as the
knight in Indiana Jones would say, “have chosen poorly.”
This is why for us salvation is an ongoing journey. We were saved from the guilt of sin on the
cross and yet we must continue to respond to the grace given to us by until our
hearts and souls are fully aligned with God, until we have become perfected in
love. It is for this reason we are
called to feed the hungry and visit the sick, to shelter the homeless and
welcome the stranger. It is not because these works save us, but because if we
truly are following Christ, then we will love as Christ loves. Likewise this is
why we come to worship every week, it is why we study our Bibles, and have
times of prayer and devotion; not because these works save us, but because this is how we respond to God
grace, this is how we find out how to follow where God is leading us, it is how
we grow closer to God.
Our lives as Christians should be striving each day to
follow where God is leading us, and yet too many Christians take a “name it and
claim it approach.” They get baptized
and figure that they are good to go. They don’t show up for worship other than
maybe Christmas and Easter, they don’t read their Bibles, they don’t spend time
in prayer. They believe in Jesus Christ, but allow no room for the Holy Spirit
to truly enter into their lives and transform them, and yet the claim to be
followers of Jesus. Will they be part
sheep or part of the goats? That is not a question for me to answer, but it is
questions like this that our book helps us to raise. Who will be part of the
multitude around the throne that we read about in revelation 7? Do we like the
dwarves who deny themselves from seeing Alsan’s country all around them become
to inward focus and miss the invitation to come in? Will we like Susan deny what we used to
believe and miss our chance at paradise, and can she still possibly make it
there? Maybe most controversial, do those who do not know Christ from lack of
experience or from being lied to about Christ, like the Emeth still have the
chance of salvation? As I said before these are not questions for me to answer,
but they are questions for us to raise, to think about, to ponder. It is
because we do not have all the answers, it is because we can not save ourselves
that we must commit our lives to follow God. I pray that none of us will hear
that when Jesus was hungry we did not feed him, or when he was sick that we did
not visit. I pray that none of us may be sent away voiceless like the creatures
of Narnia. We have more questions than we do answers about the end of times and
about salvation. We do not know for sure what waits ahead, but I have decided
to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning.
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