Beyond the Wardrobe
A sermon by Pastor Christian Breuninger (delivered December 4, 2005)
I confess to being a sucker for fantasy, and I am especially fond of Chronicles of Narnia. When I saw the trailers for this upcoming film, I thought: why not explore spiritual wonders woven into timless tale during Christmas?
Let’s face it: life can get dull, and the daily routine and mundane activities that mark our lives can act like a layer of grime on the windshield of life.
But Narnia (like all good fantasy) draws us into a land that is richer and brighter than our everyday world. And it’s in that place of mystery and adventure that our wonder is rekindled & our spirits are stirred. This is, of course, the great benefit fantasy---good fantasy helps us reenter routines of life with a renewed sense of wonder.
And we need that because even faith can become mundane. If you’ve been going to church for a while, you’ve heard the Christmas stories year after year, and maybe they’ve become so familiar that the miracle of incarnation looses its wonder. A journey into Narnia might be just what we need to rekindle the wonder of Christmas.
So can I ask you to take another route to Christmas this year? Can I ask you to open eyes of your heart on as we go journey beyond the wardrobe?
When Lucy stumbled though ordinary piece of furniture, she entered enchanted world. Beyond the fur coats that hung in standing wardrob, lay a place more wonderful anything she could have imagined. Upon entering, she hears the crunching of snow underfoot, she feels snow fall on cheek, she sees light far off, and in that place she meets a faun and her adventure begin.
When Lucy returns, Peter and Susan think she has lost her mind. Lucy tries to convince them of the land beyond the wardrobe, but they remain unconvinced. The next day they meet the oner of home where staying, the wise and joyful professor. Lucy tells the professor of her adventures beyond the wardrobe. Peter says that it can’t be possible—that she’s just making it all up. The professor listens carefully to Lucy’s adventures, then to the objections of Peter, and then says:
"Logic—why don’t they teach logic at schools anymore! There are only 3 possibilities. Either your sister is telling lies, or she is mad or he is telling the truth. You have told me that she does not tell lies, and it’s obvious that she is not mad, so we must assume for now that she is telling the truth" (The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe)
What is the truth that Narnia alludes to? That there are portals to the supernatural all around us for those who have eyes to see.
In a sermon called Weight of Glory, C.S. Lewis said:
“Do you think I am trying to weave a spell? Perhaps I am, but remember your fairy tales. Spells are used for breaking enchantments as well as educing them. And you and I have need of the strongest spell that can be found to wake us up from the evil enchantment of worldliness which has been laid upon us for nearly 100 years”
CS Lewis knew that worldliness was a spell has enchanted us. He understood that we have been duped by a dogma of materialistic naturalism that says: "What you see, measure, test, dice and slice is all there is—supernatural is wishful thinking." Knowing this, Lewis wove a spell called Narnia, creating a rich imaginaary alter-world beautifully made with fabric shot full of glory; a world where animals speak and exhibit some bit of the shape of that glory. A world, sadly, where evil turns out to be a counterfeit parody of that glory.
Lewis wove this spell to stir our hearts toward a forgotten country that lies in back of everyone’s imagination; a homeland we can’t seem shake off. But the bible takes us further, revealing the source of this longing for home.
In book of ecclesiastics we read these words:
“God has planted eternity in the human heart.” Eccl 3:11 (NLT)
This is why we long for a forgotten land. This is why…we can’t shake off desire to transcend this world and contact the supernatural. This is why shows like Lost, Medium, Invasion, and Supernatural are all the rage today.
No civilization has ever been entirely able to delete rumors of land beyond. These rumors of a lost Eden come to us in stories, poetry, flashes of joy, aching desire which are, as CSL recognized: “the sent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard” (Weight of Glory)
Lewis speaks about this aching desire in Mere Christianity, when he writes:
“If I find in myself a desire for which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world… Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it. If that is so, then I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise or be unthankful for these earthy blessings, but on the other hand never to mistake them for something else of which they are only a copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive my desire from my true county which I shall never find until after death.” (Mere Christianity)
There are beauties alive that would burst your heart is you saw them now. On this side, we catch hints and echoes of that glory, such as a stirring piece of music, the breathtaking beauty of mountains, or the smell of French roast coffee in the mourning. These pleasures arouse within us aching desire that cannot be satisfied in this world, and this fleeting desire is a sign that we were made for another world.
When the Beatles sang “Once there was a way, to get back homeward” they gave voice to this universal desire that God planted into our hearts. It’s a desire and a longing for our true home—our home with God.
But like Baby Bird, in the children’s story called "Are You my Mother?" we feel like we’ve dropped from our next and we searching for our way back home. And we are disappointed when expectations for home not met. Ask yourself: does the famous Thanksgiving dinner painting by Normal Rockwell depict your experience of home?
You’ve see the picture in which everyone gathered, with smiles all around and the kids are polite and the parents are polished. That’s a home we might prefer, but that family not exist, and it never has.
Rockwell not painting our family table but our aspirations of them. Had he wanted to give us a realistic glimpse of contemporary family there would be a chair vacant because of death of loved one, at least one person would not be smiling because of some hidden sadness. No family on earth spared from any these hash realities, and that’s why a more accurate portrait of family table is the famous painting called the Last Supper. In that painting we see images of grief, confusion, pending separation and betrayal, and there in middle of it all is Jesus—Savior who bears all those burdens.
Home is not where you grew up or even where you currently hang your hat. Home is the place we created to live from eternity and for eternity. Home is being in communion with God—that’s our home where we belong.
But we are not yet home--we are nomads who traveling home, Like Abraham, Moses, and Noah, who, we read about in Hebrews:
“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. And obviously people who talk like that are looking forward to a country they can call their own. If they had meant the country they came from, they would have found a way to go back. 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.” Heb 11:13-16 (NLT)
Karl Marx accused Christians of being so heavenly minded, don’t do any earthly good, but the opposite is true: heavenly minded people really do most earthly good. That’s the deal, said Lewis: Aim at heaven, get earth thrown in, aim at earth, get neither (Essay, On Heaven)
If God placed eternity in hearts, and if all desires point to our home with God in heaven, then it only makes sense that best way to get there must come from heaven to earth. That way is God’s son, Jesus, who invites all to find God though himself. Listen to how Jesus speaks about himself as the porthole to God:
"I assure you, I am the door for the sheep... Those who come in through me will be saved. Wherever they go, they will find green pastures.” John 10:7-9 (NLT)
When Thomas later asked Jesus how he would find him and follow him where going, Jesus responded by saying: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me.” In other words: I am your porthole to the land you forgotten--your home with God in heaven
Contrary to popular opinion, heaven is not a boring place with angels and harps. Think of heaven as the Bible does: as creation restored, as family reunited, and as the best joy you’ve ever experienced magnified more than you can imagine.
And by all means, don’t think of heaven as place up and out there. Heaven is the realm of God all around us. Heaven is a relationship with God. And Jesus came to earth so that you might enjoy this relationship here and now
Now, I need to say a word to our guests: I want you to understand that we just as confused about home as you. We are just a bunch of spiritual nomads who are honest enough to admit, in words of Bono, that “we still haven’t found what we’re looking for”
Our lives marked by sin and grace and in end only thing have in common is that we have taken Jesus up on his invitation to come back home our true home with God, and his invitation is extended to you, also.
To every spiritual nomad, Jesus says: I am your way back home. It does not matter how far wandered, how far removed you feel from God; God sent me to open way for you have relationship w/God begins now, extends forever.
So how about it? The future of your journey begins here and now. Won’t you come back to the place you belong… won’t you come back home?
