Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC on 8/3/14
As we continue our
sermon series looking at the Chronicles of Narnia, I must admit that our book
for today Prince Caspian, is one of the least theological of all the books of
the series. Still the story is a great action adventure novel. The book starts with our friends the Pevensie
children as they await a train in London. Suddenly as the train approaches they
are whisked away and find themselves on a deserted island, back in Narnia of
course. They find the ruins of an old castle, which they realize is Cair
Paravel, the castle they lived at when they were Kings and Queens. They realize that this means that yes they
are back in Narnia, but that they are hundreds of years in the future from when
they were last there. While they are there they find a dwarf being cast into
the ocean by a couple of humans. The children rescue the dwarf, and the dwarf
begins to tell them the story of why he was captured.
The dwarf tells the children about a prince of Narnia
named Prince Caspian. His father died mysteriously, and his uncle watched over
the Kingdom until he Caspian was old enough to take his rightful place on the
throne; that is until his uncle has a son of his own. The night that this son
is born, the Uncle Miraz tries to kill Prince Caspian, however Caspian had
already been warned and so he fled into the woods. While in the woods he finds
Mr. Badger and some dwarfs, talking animals, something he had only heard about
in stories, but something he thought had been eradicated. To his surprise there
was in fact a whole army of Narnia beasts in hiding in the forest waiting for a
leader to help them take back Narnia. Caspian was that leader. Caspian and the others prepare for battle,
but when he sees the army his Uncle had sent out he realized that he was far
outnumbered and that he needed help, and so he blew a magical horn that was
supposed to bring help to him. That is why the Pevensie children were drawn
back into Narnia. The rest of the book is really just an adventure story of the
children rushing back to try and help Prince Caspian, a sword fight between
Peter and the Uncle Miraz, in which Peter wins, and of course the victory of the
Narnians over the opposing army thanks to the help of Aslan and the trees of
the forest.
As I said earlier, this book is not really the most
theological book of the series. As I prepared for this sermon I looked at
different sections that would preach. There was a thread in the story in which
only Lucy could see Aslan while the others couldn’t, there was the reviving of
the trees, each could be their own message for this morning. What struck me
from this book however is a single line that Aslan tells Prince Caspian.
Caspian had just found out that his ancestors were actually from our world and
so Aslan tells him, “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 on earth. Be content.” The words struck
me as very wise and powerful words. That
we as humans have enough honor to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and yet
enough shame to lower the shoulders of the greatest emperor, and that is
something for which we should be content.
Wow, I mean that is some powerful stuff. If you don’t believe me, or if the weight of
that statement hasn’t had time to sink in yet, then let us look at our
scripture for this morning and I think we will start to understand. Our
scripture for this morning is the genealogy of Jesus. As I read it this morning
you were probably wondering what all these names would have to do with
anything, that is if you were able to stay awake during it. Our scripture is
not the most exciting scripture in the Bible, there is no burning bush, no
transformation of water to wine, no tongues of fire or violent winds, our
scripture is just a list of the names of Jesus’s ancestors. When we start to
look at some of the names on this list and remember their stories, then this
boring list becomes a lot more meaningful.
As we peruse through this list we find the name of some
great leaders of Israel, starting of course with father Abraham with whom God
made a covenant to be the God of his descendants. As we continue down the list
we find Jacob, whose name was later changed to Israel, whose children became
the twelve tribes of Israel. We find
King David the King of Israel during its Golden Age. And we find some
extraordinary women like Ruth who left her own people to take care of her
mother-in-law, and of course we cannot forget Mary the mother of Jesus. This is an extraordinary list of
extraordinary people. This lineage is a lineage that makes one hold their head
up high. This is the lineage we would expect from our Messiah, from our savior.
And yet for as great of a lineage is contained in this
genealogy, there is also contained in this list a lineage of shame and
dishonor. For though we lift up Jacob as
the father of the tribes of Israel, we must also acknowledge how he stole his
father’s inheritance from his brother Esau for a bowl of soup. As we lift up
King David we also remember his seduction of Bathsheba how he essentially
murdered her husband to cover it up. When we look through our list again we
find names like Tamar, a widow denied her right of remarriage who dresses up as
a prostitute, seduces her widow’s father in order to become pregnant and gain
what is due to her. Or we find Solomon with his 300 wives and many more concubines.
This too is the lineage of our Lord and Savior, of our Messiah. What may be one
of the most humbling and inspirational aspects of the Incarnation is that Jesus, just like each and everyone one of us,
have an ancestry full of both pride and shame.
As humans we have reasons to hold our heads up high we see groups like
UMCOR repairing houses that were destroyed by hurricanes. We hold our heads up
high when we see a community coming together to pray for a sick little girl. We
hold our heads up high when we take part in providing food or school supplies
for members of our community. At the same time we bow our heads in shame when
we see what is going on in Israel and Gaza, or in Ukraine, or even here at our
own borders. We bow our heads in shame when we reject that who are in need. But
whether we bow our heads in shame or lift them in pride, our scripture teaches
us to be content, for our savior himself is from this same lineage of pride and
shame. “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
on earth. Be content.”
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