Narnia II Dec 4, 2005 Template for worship planning
David Selleck Lakeside United Methodist, Muskegon, Michign
Felt Need: How is sin similar or different in Narnia, than what we deal with in our daily lives.
Hoped for Results: Each person would receive the awareness that, anything that separates us from God or hinders us, limits our lives in the Kingdom of God.
Message: The Joys of Turkish delight
Scripture: Genesis 3: 1-13
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, ’You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?" 2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ’You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ " 4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." 6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?" 10 He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid." 11 And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?" 12 The man said, "The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." 13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."NIV
Synopsis:
I White Witch spell: Perpetual winter. Edmund eats the magic Turkish delight. Sin is addictive, and obsessive. Do you have an obsession in your daily life? You might ask what is that?"obsession"=an abnormal or intense pre-occupation--an irrational reverence or attachment-- Is there something that compels and constrains you in daily life? Is there an irrational reverence or attachment to something in your life? That is an OBSESSION
II Sin and temptation display similar characteristics.
White witch and devil have similar techniques.
III Christ’s temptation in the wilderness
IV Our temptations and Gods Redemption
The OBSESSION of the Psalmist was to meet with and to know God in a very deep and spiritually intimate way.
Music
Video Excerpts of White Witch, Edmund and Turkish Delight
Metaphor samples of Turkish delight (Using small bits of fudge, our own adaptation)
Narnia Setup: Winter with a slight hint of: Aslan on the move.
Message: The Joys of Turkish Delight
Sulfur Caves
In Southern Mexico lies the Cueva de Villa Luz, or Cave of the Lighted House. As you make your way to the cave you walk through a veritable paradise of tropical birds and lush rain forest. Underwater the cave is fed by 20 underground springs, beautiful watercourses which teem with tiny fish. The cave itself is home to spectacular rock formations and beautiful ponds. The environment is inviting. Yet accept the invitation and you’ll soon be dead. You see, the Cueva de Villa Luz is filled with poisonous gases.
Temptation is just like this. It presents itself to us as something inviting, attractive, life-giving. Yet in reality it’s poisonous and toxic.
Source: Scott Higgins. Information on the Cave obtained from National Geographic, May 2001.
I White Witch spell: Perpetual winter. Edmund eats the magic Turkish delight. He can’t stop eating, until he has consumed over two pounds of the sweet. Then he asks for more. The White Witch has him now, Edmund is in her power and will do whatever she asks if it will get him more Turkish Delight.
Here at Lakeside we have our own Turkish Delight for you to try out. Let us take a moment and try it.
Sin is addictive, and obsessive. Do you have an obsession in your daily life? You might ask what is that?"obsession"an abnormal or intense pre-occupation--an irrational reverence or attachment-- Is there something that compels and constrains you in daily life? Is there an irrational reverence or attachment to something in your life? That is an OBSESSION
Nome, Alaska, on the edge of the Bering Sea, is like many villages of the Arctic. The ground on which the community sits is frozen, sponge-like tundra. If you visit Nome in summer you’ll see front yards full of broken washing machines, junked cars, old toilets, scrap wood, and piles of non-degradable refuse.
Tourists who visit Nome in the summer are amazed at the debris and shake their heads. How could anyone live like that, they wonder. What those visitors do not realize is that for nine months of the year Nome sits under a blanket of snow that covers the garbage. During those months, the little town is a quaint winter wonderland of pure white landscapes.
Application: appearance vs reality, Understanding People. Sometimes things can appear fine on the surface, when underneath everything is a mess.
Application: sin, pride. Most of us are like Nome Alaska. We can put on a respectable face, but all of us have hidden faults and evils.
Temptation. Sin can often seem like Nome Alaska during the winter. It appears so inviting and attractive, but once the season for sin has passed it reveals itself as ugly and toxic.
II Sin and temptation display similar characteristics.
The White witch and devil have similar techniques. The White Witch was awesome by her presence and Edmund appeared strangely attracted to this person. She beguiles him with her magic and Edmund becomes a player in her evil plan to get the other children to her. She has her own agenda, if the children come she can turn them to stone and the prophesy will be denied.
Think about the temptation scene in Genesis. The snake convinces Eve to eat of the fruit, what would it hurt, he pulls out all the stops with all the rationalizations that we use to allow us to do or not to do the right thing. That’s the way it is with temptation, it is seductive, it sneaks up on us and before we know it we are like Edmund, trapped into a series of events and consequences from which we wish release.
In the mid 1990’s the movie Devil’s Advocate was released starring Keanu Reeves and Al Pacino. Keanu plays Kevin Lomax, a happily married and very successful lawyer in America’s South. Down in the South he’s a man of integrity who’s focused on what’s important in life. Then he’s offered a job in the Big Apple, New York, with a world wide law firm. Kevin and his wife move to New York only to find Kevin being seduced by the atmosphere of greed, sex and power that surrounds the firm, and more particularly it’s owner, John Milton, played by Al Pacino.
But we soon discover that there is more to this movie than the age old theme of greed versus goodness. The plot is much more sinister. It turns out that John Milton is in fact the Devil, a devil who has learned to despise God and embrace self satisfaction.
During the movie the Devil lets us in on his plan to seduce humanity. "You sharpen the human appetite to the point where it can split atoms with its desire; you build egos the size of cathedrals; fibre-optically connect the world to every eager impulse; grease even the dullest dreams with these dollar-green, gold-plated fantasies, until every human becomes an aspiring emperor, becomes his own God… And as we’re straddling from one deal to the next, who’s got his eye on the planet, as the air thickens, the water sours, and even the bees’ honey takes on the metallic taste of radioactivity? And it just keeps coming, faster and faster. There’s no chance to think, to prepare; it’s buy futures, sell futures, when there is no future!
"Look at me" cries the Devil, "underestimated from Day One! You’d never think I was a master of the universe, now, would you? I’m a surprise, Kevin. They don’t see me coming: that’s what you’re missing."
(Applications: temptation, sin, pride, environment, consumerism, materialism, devil, Satan
Source: Scott Higgins)
The White Witch could make the same speech in Narnia.
III Christ’s temptation in the wilderness
Remember Jesus knew temptation in the Wilderness. He was familiar with the Father of Lies.
What did the devil try to do. He wanted Jesus to use his power and position in a way that would have brought Jesus down and give way to tempting use of power and position. The devil knows the Bible and used it against Jesus. Jesus survived the temptation, because He was grounded in who He was in the faith and He knew where His power came from...
Reports the DENVER POST: "Like many sheep ranchers in the West, Lexy Fowler has tried just about everything to stop crafty coyotes from killing her sheep. She has used odor sprays, electric fences, and ’scare-coyotes.’ She has slept with her lambs during the summer and has placed battery-operated radios near them. She has corralled them at night, herded them at day. But the southern Montana rancher has lost scores of lambs--fifty last year alone. "Then she discovered the llama--the aggressive, funny-looking, afraid-of-nothing llama...’Llamas don’t appear to be afraid of anything,’ she said. ’When they see something, they put their head up and walk straight toward it. That is aggressive behavior as far as the coyote is concerned, and they won’t have anything to do with that... Coyotes are opportunists, and llamas take that opportunity away.’"
1. Apparently llamas know the truth of what James writes: "Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you" (4:7). The moment we sense his attack through temptation is the moment we should face it and deal with it for what it is.
Barry McGee.
IV Our temptations and Gods Redemption
We can all bring ourselves down for our weakness, our sins, our shortcoming. This is not what we are about as Christians. We already know that we are nothing without God’s grace to set us free.
A gathering of friends at an English estate nearly turned to tragedy when one of the children strayed into deep water. The gardener heard the cries for help, plunged in, and rescued the drowning child. That youngster’s name was Winston Churchill. His grateful parents asked the gardener what they could do to reward him. He hesitated, then said, "I wish my son could go to college someday and become a doctor." "We’ll see to it," Churchill’s parents promised.
Years later, while Sir Winston was prime minister of England, he was stricken with pneumonia. The country’s best physician was summoned. His name was Dr. Alexander Fleming, the man who discovered and developed penicillin. He was also the son of that gardener who had saved young Winston from drowning. Later Churchill remarked, "Rarely has one man owed his life twice to the same person."
Ron Hutchcraft, Wake Up Calls, Moody, 1990, p. 22.
This is the Good News that while we were yet sinners Jesus died for our sins and set us free.
A story told by Paul Lee Tan illustrates the meaning of redemption. He said that when A.J. Gordon was pastor of a church in Boston, he met a young boy in front of the sanctuary carrying a rusty cage in which several birds fluttered nervously. Gordon inquired, "Son, where did you get those birds?" The boy replied, "I trapped them out in the field." "What are you going to do with them?" "I’m going to play with them, and then I guess I’ll just feed them to an old cat we have at home." When Gordon offered to buy them, the lad exclaimed, "Mister, you don’t want them, they’re just little old wild birds and can’t sing very well." Gordon replied, "I’ll give you $2 for the cage and the birds."
"Okay, it’s a deal, but you’re making a bad bargain." The exchange was made and the boy went away whistling, happy with his shiny coins. Gordon walked around to the back of the church property, opened the door of the small wire coop, and let the struggling creatures soar into the blue. The next Sunday he took the empty cage into the pulpit and used it to illustrate his sermon about Christ’s coming to seek and to save the lost -- paying for them with His own precious blood. "That boy told me the birds were not songsters," said Gordon, "but when I released them and they winged their way heavenward, it seemed to me they were singing, ’Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed!"
You and I have been held captive to sin, but Christ has purchased our pardon and set us at liberty. When a person has this life-changing experience, he will want to sing, "Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed!"
Our Daily Bread.
That is our song: We are free, we have been redeemed, brought back from that which has enslaved us to be the people that we have been called to be in Christ’s name.
Amen
