[NARNIA – JUST CALL ME EDWARD]
Slide Graphics – picture of Lucy standing by lamppost, picture of C.S. Lewis
Slide Text – “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Natures, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals that we joke with, work with, marry, and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.” (C. S. Lewis)
When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.
~Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories,”On Three Ways of Writing for Children”
C.S. Lewis was an amazing man. Some would call him the greatest author of the 20th century. He published over 40 books while he was alive. 20 more were published after his death. Books critiquing medieval literature, books explaining the doctrines of Christianity, Books on difficult subjects such as grief – many more spanning many genres. Yet among his most beloved, enduring books were are series of seven children’s books, known collectively as the Chronicles on Narnia.
Disney is has made a movie from the first book in the series – The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. While it’s based on a children’s book. Disney believes the film will be their best seller of all times and are betting over $100,000,000 that it will become their best-selling movie of all times. Much has been said about the Christian symbolism in these books. Normally in Quest Groups, we use the Bible as our foundation for all we discuss. Today we are going to depart briefly from that practice to take a look at C. S. Lewis’s book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
[C.S. LEWIS – THE OXFORD ATHIEST]
Slide Graphic – Lewis at his desk, Lewis and the Inklings, Inklings cartoon from “C.S. Lewis for Dummies”
Slide Text – “I find in myself desires which nothing in this earth can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world” (C. S. Lewis)
Before we look at the book itself, you need to understand a little about the fascinating man who wrote it – C. S. Lewis.
Clive Staples Lewis was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1898. By the time he was 4 years old, he hated his name and insisted on being called Jack for the remainder of his life. His mother died when he was 10 years old. His distant and unemotional father sent him away to boarding school in England the next year. During his formative years, C.S. Lewis learned to read classic literature in 5 languages. When he graduated from the British equivalent of high school, he wanted to go to Oxford. WWI had begun. Since he was Irish, not English, he was not obligated to join the British army at all and could have begun his study immediately, however, he felt it his duty to join. He took the Oxford entrace exams anyway, because if he were accepted, he would be eligible to join the Officers Corps and earn a commission. His examiner stated that Lewis’ exams were “the best even seen” in the history of Oxford. He served as a lieutenant in the British Army in the trenches, and was wounded three times in battle.
His closest friend during the war, Paddy Moore, was killed in the trenches. Paddy had asked Jack to look after his mother and sister if something should happen to him. Jack kept this obligation and, after the war, he brought them into his home and supported them both for the next 31 years, even while working his way through college. He became one of the most popular professors at Oxford, and a brilliant and undefeated debater.
Throughout this time and until he was 30 years old, Lewis was an avowed atheist. Interestingly, Lewis did not believe there was a God, but he said that he resented God for not existing. But a change began to take place in Lewis while he was a professor at Oxford. Lewis became friends with 2 other professors who happened to be real Christians. One was Hugh Dyson, the other was J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of the Lord of the Rings. The three met at a local pub called the Eagle and Childe after work each Tuesday and Thursday for many years, discussing many subjects and critiquing each other’s work. As Lewis got to know these two, he became persuaded that their faith was real. In the summer of 1929, he became convinced that Jesus Christ really was an historic figure, that He really did die on the Cross as a substitute for sins of the world. So Lewis bowed his head and invited Christ into his life.
In one of his books, Lewis said he came into Christianity “kicking and screaming” . He said ’You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England” (C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy, p. 228-229)
He began reading the Bible, attending church, and helping the poor. For the rest of his life, he donated 2/3s of all his book royalties to widows whose husbands had died in WW II.
Lewis was in his 40’s when WWII broke out. Too old to enlist, he accepted an request from the British Broadcasting Company to do a month-long series of 15-minute segments on the radio on Christianity and morality. You might think an aging bachelor professor of medieval literature might talk way over the heads of the average listener, but Lewis was a natural. With Hitler’s planes dropping bombs all about them, Lewis talked about Christianity as a War against the evil in the world. The Church was the resistance, battling oppression. He explained clearly and logically what we believe and why England must fight the Nazis. His talks were so popular that they were extended several times, and the content eventually published as the book Mere Christianity. Some say that it is the most powerful explanation of Christianity outside of the Bible itself. People were so enamored with those broadcasts that Lewis became the second most famous person in all of England. Second only to Winston Churchill, who offered Lewis a special medal of recognition following WW II.
[SURPRISED BY JOY]
Slide graphics – picture of cover of movie Shadowlands. Picture of C.S Lewis looking pensive, picture of Joy Gresham – young. Picture of C.S. Lewis’s cottage – the Kilns
Slide Text – “No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.” (C. S. Lewis)
C.S. Lewis lived a solitary existence as a middle-aged bachelor isolated from the world in the halls of academia. In his late 50’s, his writings won the admiration of Joy Gresham, an American poet with two sons recovering from an abusive, broken marriage, for whom Lewis is a paragon of literary brilliance and an inspiration. Many people, including a great many children, wrote to Lewis, and he answered every letter.
Though Lewis and Gresham corresponded for years by mail, they never meet until Joy decided, on the spur of the moment, to take her sons, who were great fans of the Narnia books, on a trip to England to meet their favorite author. Then, after her divorce from her husband, she brought her sons to live in London, both so they could attend school there and so they would be far distant from their violent father.
Lewis, reserved and shy, was fascinated by the witty, intelligent, bold American woman, and they continued to correspond casually during this period. When the government refused to renew Joy’s residency permit in 1956, Lewis offered to marry her "in name only" so she could stay and her sons could remain in school. They did not live in the same house.
Early in 1957, Joy was diagnosed as having advanced cancer, and Lewis insisted that she come to live with him in his cottage where he could care for her (Paddy’s sister had by this time married and moved out). Since they were to be living in the same house, Lewis felt they should be married by the church, not just a civil ceremony, and they were married at her bedside in March.
Her health gradually improved, and gradually, Lewis realized he was head over heals in love with her. They lived and loved together for two years. But in October of 1959, her cancer returned, and she died in July of 1960. Lewis’s Christian faith was put to the test -- he couldn’t understand why God had taken their happiness, the only he had ever known, away after only two years.
Once someone attempted to comfort him with the words “She will live forever in our memory.” His bitter response was “Live? That is exactly what she won’t do.”
He wrote the book A Grief Observed during this time about his struggles understanding the love of God and his eventual arrival at a place where he could accept that this, too, was part of God’s loving plan for our lives. At one point, he wrote about Christ, weeping at the grave of Lazarus. Lewis believed Jesus wept “because death, the punishment of sin, is even more horrible in His eyes than in ours.” In spite of the pain, Lewis remained full of hope and expectations of the “morning after.”
Lewis titled his autobiography Surprised by Joy.
[ALWAYS WINTER, NEVER CHRISTMAS]
Slide graphic – from Disney movie - white witch driving sleigh drawn by polar bears.
Slide Text – “You don’t have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.” (C. S. Lewis)
Why is this story so compelling? Why have 85,000,000 people read the book, and why will so many more see the movie? Because it’s a story rooted in history. It’s a story that really happened. It’s the Christmas story.
This is not an allegory – a retelling of the Bible with animals representing biblical characters or themes. This is a fairy tale about a land of talking animals – some good, some evil. A land connected to our own by magical doorways. But since Christianity was such a basic part of C.S. Lewis’s life, he couldn’t help but wonder if God would have created this world perfect also. How would sin come to such a world, and how would the God whose character we know have chosen to redeem it? Lewis addresses all these questions and many more through the seven volumes of the series. The sixth book in the series, The Magician’s Nephew, tells how the world was created, and how evil entered it. The first book in the series, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (LWW), is the story of how Aslan broke the curse of the White Witch, destroyed her, and took Edmund’s place when he was condemned to die for his treachery. It is C.S. Lewis’s story about how the same God we know would reveal himself in this magical make-believe world and redeem it from evil.
LWW begins long after evil entered Narnia. Aslan, the creator, had not been seen in many generations and many had begun to believe he did not exist. In the absence of Aslan, the White Witch declared herself ruler. As part of her rule, she cast a spell over Narnia making it a continual winter. So far the winter had lasted over a hundred years. Anyone who opposed her was turned to stone.
Sometimes it gets cold here. Occasionally it even snows. But no matter how cold it gets, we know it is warmer further south, and that soon the warmth will return here. In Narnia, there is no warm place, and no hope of warmth returning. The winter months have the highest rates of suicide and depression. People can’t see the end of the winter in their lives. They have no hope that their lives will be warm again one day. They may have lost a loved one. Maybe they have been hurt in a relationship. Maybe they have no one to love or be loved by. They think it will always be winter.
I had to travel to Siberia on business for three months in the dead of winter. I couldn’t speak the language. I couldn’t even read the writing. Phones, at the time, were very unreliable. It was bitter cold, dark, and dirty. There was no English television or radio, no books, and nothing but cabbages, beets and prunes to eat. I was completely cut off from everyone I love and who loved me. I missed my family so much. I had always thought of hell as a fiery, burning place, but after that trip I have a new understanding of hell. I once heard a preacher say hell was nothing more than the absence of God. At the time that didn’t sound near as frightening as the images of fire and brimstone. But after Siberia, I understand that being cut off from everything that is good and loving and beautiful and warm is the worst kind of hell. I would have gladly stuck my arm in fire up to my elbows to have been back with my family.
Many of the scenes in the trailer we just saw were quite literally true. When the bombs were falling on London, families sent their children away to live with people in safer areas of the country. C.S. Lewis took several children into his home (Paddy’s mother was still living with him at that time). One young girl named Lucy became fascinated by an old wardrobe and often asked to play in it. Lewis dedicated LLW to her, and named the heroine of the book Lucy. Lucy, in the book, found a door to Narnia in the back of a wardrobe while staying with a professor in the country during the bombing of London.
The first animal Lucy meets in Narnia is a fawn named Tumnus. While Lucy and Tumnus are huddled in his cave, Tumnus explains that the reason it’s so cold and dreary is because of the White Witch.
“The White Witch? Who is she?” Asks Lucy.
“Why, it is she that has got all Narnia under her thumb. It’s she that makes it always winter. Always winter and never Christmas; think of that!”
Always winter, but never Christmas. Christmas is the whole point of winter. Kids look forward to winter just because of Christmas, the best day of the year. That is as it should be. Christmas is the best day of the year – the day Christ came to earth to live among us and redeem our world. If there had never been a Christmas, the world would be far different than it is today – in ways you may never have imagined.
For instance, when Jesus came, He taught His followers to love their neighbors as themselves (Luke 10:27).
When Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden, God presented them with two trees – the tree of life (representing God’s plan for mankind – eternal life in the presence of God) and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (representing man’s choice to decide for himself his own destiny, choosing a different path than God intends). Mankind chose to separate himself from God’s plan, to cut himself off from God.
We, mankind, brought winter to our world. Only God, represented by Aslan in this case, can end this winter – this separation from all that is good and beautiful.
In our real world, this happened when Christ was born. Christmas is the celebration of the return of God to restore us to him after we had cut ourselves off from him. Aslan’s return to Narnia to bring Spring back and end the reign of evil. Because of Christmas, we have hope again.
[TURKISH DELIGHT]
Slide Graphics – pictures of Turkish Delight, picture of Edmund, smirking, with candy smeared on face
Slide text – Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?"
The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." (Genesis 3:13)
The second child to discover Narnia is Lucy’s brother Edmund. Edmund is the sort of kid you just want to smack upside the head. He’s rude and arrogant, and enjoys teasing his younger sister to the point of tears. He has a chip on his shoulders about where he fits into the family, and he generally is disagreeable.
On Edmund’s first visit to Narnia, he stumbles into the White Witch. She knows that there is a prophecy that two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve will one day end her reign, so she wants to destroy them all. She pretends to be his friend and feeds him large doses of Turkish Delight and promises to make him a king. She convinces him to bring his brother and sisters to her, so she can make them his servants.
When all the children returned, Edmund betrayed them to the White Witch. The others escaped to Aslan’s army, for he had returned to the land, but the White Witch kept Edmund, and intended to kill him. Aslan confronted her, but she reminded him that the “Deep Magic” that Aslan’s father, the Emporer-Byond-The-Sea, had created as part of the land said that all traitors belonged to the White Witch, to do with as she pleased. She intended to kill Edward, and Aslan could not prevent her without destroying Narnia itself.
About Turkish Delight:
• It looks and tastes good. Sin is very attractive like that. Evil things often look attractive, and that makes them very hard for us to recognize as evil.
• It does not satisfy for long. It always leaves you empty and desperate for more. “At last the Turkish Delight was all finished and Edmund was looking very hard at the empty box and wishing that she would ask him whether he would like some more.”
• The desire for more leads you to do things you feel you shouldn’t.
• It is most appealing when we are weak, tired, cold, and scared. When we just want to be warm again.
• It appears as what you want. It was almost Christmas. Turkish Delight was a favorite Christmas treat, and Edmund was probably just wishing he had some when the White Witch decided to trap him.
• It clouds your judgment. While he was eating it, Edmund said things about his family that put them in great danger.
• It promises better days ahead. Edmund believed he would be King, and his brother and sisters his servants.
• It lies about your importance. The White Witch told Edmund that he was the cleverest and handsomest boy she’d ever met, but his face was red and his hands were sticky.
• It spoils good things. At the beavers house, everyone but Edmund was enjoying a wonderful dinner prepared by Mrs. Beaver. The book says: “There’s nothing that spoils the taste of good ordinary food half so much as the memory of bad magic food.”
(list adapted from “Narnia: Ten Tasty Tidbits about Turkish Delight” by Pat Cook, on www.sermoncentral.com)
[ASLAN IS ON THE MOVE]
Slide Graphics – Aslan looking majestic
Edmund is imprisoned by the White Witch. Peter, Lucy, Susan and the Beavers are on the run, hunted by the Witches wolves. But there is a glimmer of hope. A rumor is circulating around the kingdom of Narnia "Aslan is on the move!" Aslan, a lion (The king of the jungle), is the rightful king of Narnia. At the single mention of the name "Aslan," a smile is seen upon the faces of the people of Narnia. Aslan begins his journey to regain his rightful place as king. When he arrives, his very presence begins to melt the snow and ice and Spring begins to reveal herself.
Mr. Beaver says about Aslan:
“They say Aslan is on the move – perhaps has already landed.”
And now a very curious thing happened. None of the children knew who Aslan was any more than you do; but the moment the Beaver had spoken these words everyone felt quite different. Perhaps it has sometimes happened to you in a dream that someone says something you don’t understand, but in the dream it feels as if it had some enormous meaning – either a terrifying one which turns the whole dream into a nightmare or else a lovely meaning too lovely to put into words, which makes the dream so beautiful that you remember it all your life and are always wishing you could get into that dream again. It was like that now. At the name of Aslan each one of the children felt something jump in its inside. Edmund felt a sensation of mysterious horror. Peter felt suddenly brave and adventurous. Susan felt as if some delicious smell or delightful strain of music had just floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you have when you wake up in the morning and realize that it is the beginning of the holidays or the beginning of summer.
[ASLAN’S SACRIFICE]
Slide Graphics – Aslan on the stone table
Slide text – “Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:7-8)
So the children journey to meet Aslan at a famous landmark in Narnia called the Great Stone Table, all but Edmund, whom the White Witch has imprisoned.
The story climaxes with Aslan and the children and the witch and Edmund meeting at the Stone Table. The witch reminds Aslan that, according to ancient law, all traitors belong to her and she has the right to kill them.
So Aslan offers her a trade. – His life for Edmunds. It is obvious that Aslan could have escaped at any time, but he did not resist. He allowed himself to be beaten, shaved, and killed. All to save the life of Edmund by taking his place.
The children are in despair. All hope is gone. How could this happen? How could One so powerful have something to awful happen to him?
Peter and Edmund prepare Aslan’s army to face the Witches army without him.
Just before dawn, Lucy and Susan sneak back to the now-deserted Stone Table and untie the ropes around Aslan’s dead body just in time to witness his resurrection as the first rays of sunlight strike him. Aslan explains that, while ancient law dictates that all traitors belong to the Witch, an even more ancient law dictates that when a willing victim who has committed no treachery is killed in the traitor’s place, that Death will work backwards and restore the life of the innocent victim.
[JOIN THE EPIC BATTLE]
Slide graphics – pictures of the battle at the end of the movie
Slide text – “See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed.” (Revelation 5:5)
Peter and Edmund and Aslan’s small army faced the Armies of the White Witch without Aslan. They thought he was dead. In reality Aslan was breathing life back into the statues, and rejoined the battle just when all seemed lost.
This is the power of Christ – that even when you have been overcome by the evil of the world, he can breathe new life into you – make you into a new creation to serve with him in the battle against the evil that enslaved you. Without him, you are powerless to overcome evil. With Christ, victory is inevitable.
