What leads Polly to forgive Digory doesn't have to do with him or even that her feelings are still hurt. It has to do with the concern for another. All it takes is hearing that someone else might need help and Polly is willing to refocus her priorities.
The care for another person is what helps lead Polly to forgiveness. It doesn't get much more Christian than that. Would that we could all be a little more like Polly and put aside our own concerns and feelings for others.
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Jadis, by all accounts, seems to be evil, at least as evil as they can come in her world. Her predicament raises an interesting question for us: should we take mercy on evil? In Genesis, we have the story of Joseph being thrown in a ditch by his brothers and sold into slavery. While Joseph was a brat, we can still say this was an over-reaction on his brothers' part. Later, Joseph is in a position of power where he could have easily gotten revenge on his brothers, and he almost decides to do so. Joseph, however, reveals himself, and brings his whole family to live in peace and tranquility in Egypt. When his brothers beg his forgiveness, Joseph says: Even though you intended to do me harm, God intended it for good. We also have the Parable of the Wheat and Chaff in Matthew. In this parable, the enemy comes and sows weeds among the wheat to be harvested. While these weeds are allowed to survive until the harvest in order to not pull out the roots for the wheat, we are told they will be bound and burned in fire. This parable is often used to discuss the problem of evil in the world: 1) evil does not come from God and 2) while evil is allowed to exist for a while, it will ultimately be destroyed. These stories both show us that the key in facing evil is to stop, ask God for guidance, and hear what it is that God has to say to us in the moment. Our hope whenever approaching evil is that when we do have to look into the face of our enemy that we won't see our own face peering back at us. Please note, Sky: Children of the Light is rated 9+. If you haven't read the previous Sky post, and if you don't want any SPOILERS, please wait before reading any further. Still here? Great! I assume you have finished the last realm of Sky: Children of the Light at least once, if not twice, thrice, etc. Because here's the thing: in order to get all the items in the game and reach 100% completion for each spirit in each realm of the game, you have to keep going back to the Eye of Eden and returning the Winged Light to the trapped Children of the Light, over and over again. Acting as Jesus would in this video game world never ends. It's actually a perfect analogy for our world because the quest to do God's work here never ends either. We are constantly called to love others and spread the Good News to those we meet. That work does not end. It never will, at least not until the world does. As Jesus points out, none of us know when that will be.
So we keep doing the good we can by serving others. We continue to try to grant others a little bit of freedom by showing them love and by revealing why it is we show that love (hint: the answer is Jesus). Just like in Sky, we don't know when we'll have to stop helping others, even the Children of Light. But we will keep doing so, as long as it takes. According to Jadis, she and her sister were in a war for the throne. Her sister refused to give it up, leading Jadis to use the hard-fought for magic of the "Deplorable Word" to destroy everything there but herself.
Jadis, in many ways, is a warning to us of what not to be. She is prideful, one of the "seven deadly sins". She is elitist in much the same way, as Digory notes briefly to himself, as Uncle Andrew. She claims a higher morality because of her magic and nobility, which she uses to put herself in the place of God. The most telling of her faults is that she calls her ancestors and predecessors "weak and soft-hearted" because they had the honor and dignity not to seek out "the Deplorable Word". This should remind us of what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 9:12, that the power of God is "made perfect in weakness." God often works through what in our eyes appears to be weakness. Jesus wasn't born in the palace, but in the village. God didn't use the most powerful nations to be His chosen people, but instead used a tiny nation in the desert. God didn't back Goliath, but a little shepherd boy too small to fit into armor. We should also not forget that the opposite of "soft-hearted" is "hard hearted". That is the word used to describe Pharaoh in Exodus, and we know what happened to him when he refused to hear Moses' cry: "Let my people go!" Finally, Jadis tells Digory that his world, when compared to her world, is a young one. That should be a warning cry to us. It's not too late for us to avoid the pride and stiff-neckedness of Queen Jadis when moving forward together in our world today.
Polly wants to leave the world then and there, but Digory forcibly prevents her from doing so and then rings the bell himself. What happens afterwards will be the discussion for the next chapter. For the meantime, there are two things to notice.
The first is Polly's observation that Digory looks "exactly like [his] Uncle" when suggesting they should ring the bell. This is akin to the "sins of the father" mentioned in Exodus 34:7. Just as Uncle Andrew's curiosity has led him down a dark path, so too will Digory's curiosity, the same curiosity, led him down that same path unless he can break the cycle we have seen in his family. It will take a self-realization his uncle does not possess to do so, as well as the help of those around him, like his friend Polly. One thing that will help Digory overcome his temptations is that he does feel remorse for forcing Polly to stay while he rings the bell, at least he will later on. Repentance is the first step to Redemption, and to our becoming close to God once again.
But there are bad things that could happen as a result too. For one, there is the possibility of being stranded away from the home world, which does, admittedly, almost happen to Digory and Polly.
How do we tell the difference between curiosity and temptation? The first thing we must do is think. We must explore what the possible outcome of our actions would be, or at the very least think before we act. This is the very same lesson Peter learns in Scripture when he tries to walk on water, is told "Get behind me Satan" by Jesus, witnesses the Transfiguration, and tells Jesus he will follow Him to death only to be told he will deny Jesus three times. It also helps to have a friend like Polly who can help us stay careful and smart while curious. She is the one who makes sure they have a way to get back and who makes sure they mark the pool back to their own world. Curiosity is a good thing. It is how we learn more about the world and how we move closer to God. Sometimes, though, it can tempt us down paths that lead to no good at all. The way to make sure we are following the right path is to think things through and rely, as always, on the help and advice of friends we know and trust. Please note Star Wars: A New Hope is rated PG. In Star Wars: A New Hope, Luke Skywalker is a bright-eyed youth hoping for a better life than working as a moisture farmer on the desert planet of Tatooine. He’s living a normal life until his uncle has him purchase two new droids for the farm. One of these droids, R2-D2, has a mysterious message for Ben, also known as Obi-Wan, Kenobi, a strange hermit who lives out in the desert. Well, it turns out that Obi-Wan is a Jedi, a peacekeeper sworn to use the mysterious power of the Force for good in the Galaxy. The message R2 has for Obi-Wan is a call to arms from Princess Leia to help deliver plans for the evil Empire’s new weapon to the Rebel Alliance on Alderaan in hopes of restoring balance to the Galaxy. After hearing the message, Obi-Wan says to Luke, “You must learn the ways of the Force, if you’re to come with me to Alderaan.” We might expect Luke to jump at this opportunity. He’s wanted to leave his home for a while, plus he’s just learned that his father was once a Jedi with Obi-Wan. Instead he responds by saying: “I can’t get involved. I’ve got work to do. It’s not that I like the Empire, I hate it, but there’s nothing I can do about it right now.” Obi-Wan responds “That’s your uncle talking.” He correctly perceives that these are not Luke’s true desires, but those of the world pulling him away from his proper path. Luke agrees to take Obi-Wan part of the way before returning home. Obi-Wan says “You must do what you feel is right, of course.” On the way, Luke and Obi-Wan find the ruins of a Sandcrawler, the same Sandcrawler that Luke got the droids in the first place. Obi-Wan points out that this is the work of the Empire’s Stormtroopers, leading Luke to realize they could have found their place to his aunt and uncle’s moisture farm. Luke speeds away, but arrives too late.
When he returns to Obi-Wan, Luke has changed his tune. He tells Obi-Wan, “I want to come with you to Alderaan. There’s nothing for me here now. I want to learn the ways of the Force and become a Jedi like my father.” Doing so puts Luke on a much greater path where he will learn more about the Force and try to set things right within the Galaxy. Luke starts off like many of those we see in our readings this morning: Saul, also known as Paul, as he watches and approves the stoning of Stephen, Thomas as he fails to see that Jesus is the way he is looking for, Philip as he fails to recognize the Father within Jesus, and those who have continued to reject the cornerstone that is Jesus. Luke should know better, just as all these men should. He should know that the right path laid before him is the one which means studying the Force, but he doesn’t see that right away. It takes Luke time to come to terms with what is true, just as it took Paul, Thomas, and Philip time to see the truth. That truth is the same truth that we are called to see. It is the words which Jesus says to us this morning, that Jesus “is the way, the truth, and the life,” and that “no one comes to the Father except through” Him. Our path is to learn the ways of God and to share those ways with others just as 1 Peter lays out for us and just as Stephen, one of the first deacons of the church, once did. Our path is to use what we learn from our Lord and present it to the world in order to try to bring back what is Good to it. Our hope is to help show the Father in our Lord Jesus Christ to others, to reveal God as our refuge and strong rock, as we hear in the Psalm, and to give the hope of salvation to all. To do that, we must take that first step into seeing the truth, just as Luke had to, that there is no other way. We have to see that Jesus is the truth that we seek and that we need. Like Luke, we have to accept our destiny in doing God’s work in the world. Like Luke, Paul, Thomas, Phillip, and countless others, we might not see the path that has been laid out before us, at least not at first. But if we can accept the truth that there is no other way, then it will be a freeing path for us, no matter what we may encounter on the way. If we can accept Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life, then we can fulfill our path, our destiny, in service to Him, and doing that will allow us to do Good in this world.
A trick that practitioners of Centering Prayer teach is to imagine you are in a river and your stray thoughts are floating past you. This allows you to allow those thoughts to be present in your mind without causing you to lose focus so that you can better empty your mind to allow God in.
The water Digory goes through in his journey to the World Between Worlds reminds me of this practice in Centering Prayer. The goal in Centering Prayer is to not allow stray thoughts to distract us from letting God in. During Chapter 3 of The Magician's Nephew, the water is a sign of the removal of all things from Digory's world as he moves to a higher plane of existence. I don't think this was what C.S. Lewis had in mind when he wrote this chapter, but it can help us to think about and understand this Christian practice in a deeper and fuller way.
Towards the end of the chapter, Digory says, That's why it is so quiet and sleepy here. Nothing ever happens here. There is a familiarity here and yet something different. This is a world beyond their world, much like Heaven is beyond ours. Nothing happens in the World Between the Worlds because it is really beyond time and space, just as Heaven is. Yet, the trees can be felt to be growing. There is life here, just not in the way we might expect it. The dream-like quality of existence here also raises questions. Is the World Between the Worlds like a dream, or are the worlds within it more like dreams themselves? While the World Between the Worlds isn't Heaven, it can help us think about it. There is very little we know about Heaven, but we do know that while it is beyond life as we know it now, we and all other things there will be very much alive in Heaven, just differently than we are now. |
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The Rev. Trey KennedyHere is my take on how Superheroes and other characters can help us know God better. Categories
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