Narnia: My Turkish Delight Series

My Turkish Delight pt. 3 of 5

Again this week we step into the fantasy world of Narnia. Of course, especially for some of the adults, we need to review some of what we’ve already talked about in this story. It’s important as we walk with God to remember. To review what is true because what is true will always be challenged by other pulls in our life.

While we review, we have a little treat for you. There will be some people passing out our version of “Turkish Delight” and it would really be a help to me, in making my point this morning if each of you (who can) would take a piece and unwrap it and let the taste linger in your mouth while we think about God together this morning.

USHERS PASS OUT “TURKISH DELIGHT” IN COMMUNION TRAYS

We’ve talked about understanding our life as a story that God is writing and our story only has meaning and makes any sense at all in the context of the grander story God is writing in History. We need to understand His grand story in order to know what our next step ought to be.

When we begin to think christianly, biblically, life begins to make sense…that doesn’t mean painless or comfortable but our life has purpose and that purpose is to honor the Grand Author.

Last week we shadowed Lucy as she took the first steps into the fantasy world of Narnia. Narnia is a world created by C.S. Lewis and he dreams of Narnia as “supposals”. Suppose there was a world like this, what would God be like in that world? Our hope has been that this world of Narnia, so different than our own, would cause us to look at our own world with new eyes. Part of our problem here, in what we mistakenly think is the “real world” is that our history and familiarity with this world makes us think we might know what is real.

It may challenge some to think in any way other than where we stand (or sit) now as “the real world”. 2 Corinthians 4:18 encourages us to “…fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (NIV)

We will fall into a major pit and give evidence that we haven’t yet come to understand God’s grander story, if we find ourselves fixed on this life and this place as the “real” world. If we do that we will live in a very short-sighted way.

God invites us to live in a way that gives evidence of greater things to come. This world isn’t our home.

1 Corinthians 2:9 says, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him."

This isn’t new. God’s people, in this world have always faced the challenge of living with an eye toward the reality of future grace. In Hebrews 11 as God describes some of the hero’s of the faith that have lived before us He says;

v. 13,16 All these faithful ones died without receiving what God had promised them, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed the promises of God. They agreed that they were no more than foreigners and nomads here on earth. (16) But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a heavenly city for them.

So, dreaming of another world, more real, more permanent, than this one, should fill us with hope. Know this, we find the context even for our imagining in God’s grander story and we can only know that through His inspired Word.

In Narnia we discover fascinating characters and a brewing battle. The self proclaimed Queen of Narnia, the White Witch, holds this land under her spell. Narnia is a land where it is always winter and never Christmas. At least until Aslan makes himself known.

Eventually all four of the Pevensie children make their way through the wardrobe into the light of the lamppost and the land of Narnia.

This morning I want to key in on the character Edmond. Bruce Edwards described Edmond this way. “If he were an FM radio station it would be ‘All Edmond, All the time’.

He was perfectly positioned for bitterness. An older, nobler brother, Peter. Older, kinda know-it-all sister Susan. Any boy with an older sister knows how hard that can be. He even had to give up the role of favored youngest to little sister Lucy. Sweet Lucy, yeah.

Here is a sad reality. We live in a world that isn’t built around us. If I live like I ought to be number one, or at least think that way, life seems pretty unfair pretty fast. And that is a perfect set up for the first encounter with the White Witch. At first this Evil One is ready to do away with Edmond quickly and simply until she discovers she can use him. There is a quick shift in her approach. Now she cares that he is cold and needs to sit close to her. Have something warm to drink.