Narnia Christmas Series
“Begin the Journey”
Oakbrook Church 12/4/05
Intro.- The scenes and music start slowly; children standing by a train station, later playing a game of hide and seek at an old country mansion. A little girl climbs into a giant wardrobe and is magically transported to a winter wonderland. The orchestra swells louder and louder, as rapid fire images of knights, swords, a battle with mythical creatures, a larger than life roaring lion and regal kings and queens fill the screen. Between the images, words flash: “In this house...there are many rooms...there are many doors...but only one...leads to another world.”
Such is the opening of the epic film The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, taken from The Chronicles of Narnia, the C.S. Lewis classic. The film opens in Green Bay next Friday (Thursday at midnight for the adventuresome). We begin our Narnia journey today and during this Christmas season will we uncover the rich spiritual themes woven within this children’s fantasy.
The Author- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was written by one of the 20th century’s greatest and most well known Christian thinkers, Clive Staples Lewis (now you know why he’s known as C.S. Lewis). Actually, as a child he renamed himself “Jacksie” and later “Jack”. He was one of the most influential writers of the previous century. Translated into at least thirty languages, his works have sold more than two hundred million copies worldwide—100 million copies of the Narnia stories. Nearly all of Lewis’s thirty-eight books are still in print, and for decades they have sold more than a million copies a year around the globe.
Born in 1898 in Belfast to a middle-class, Protestant (Church of Ireland) family, his mother died when he was 7 and his father sent him to boarding school the next year. He learned to read classic literature in 5 languages. At 19, when he took the entrance exams for Oxford, his examiner stated that Lewis’ exams were “the best ever seen” in the history of Oxford. He fought briefly in World War I, graduated with a brilliant record from Oxford, and then taught English Literature there for nearly thirty years.
Although raised as a Christian, Lewis had, by his teens, become a "convinced atheist," considering Christianity on the same level as Norse mythology—and preferring the latter.
In a letter to a friend in Oct. 1916 he said, “I believe in no religion. There is absolutely no proof for any of them, and from a philosophical standpoint Christianity isn’t even the best. All religions, that is, all mythologies to give them their proper name, are merely man’s own invention.”
Through reading G. K. Chesterton and discussions with believers, Lewis became a Theist in his late twenties. He writes of his spiritual journey, "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." This from the one who later would became one of the twentieth-century’s leading Christian apologists, who in his words, came to Christianity “kicking and screaming”.
It took an amazing late-night conversation with J. R. R. Tolkien, to convince Lewis of the divinity of Christ. On September 19, 1931, Lewis finally accepted Christ when Tolkien convinced him that Christianity was not —as he had thought—only a myth, but a story that had actually happened. From then on, Lewis believed that the "myth" had indeed become fact, and as the Gospel of John so beautifully puts it, "the Word was made Flesh."
A couple of years later, Lewis, Tolkien, and some other friends formed the Inklings, a group that met several times a week—at Lewis’s and at a local pub, "The Eagle and Child"—they met to read their unpublished work aloud and to discuss matters of the moment. Many of Lewis’s books and much of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings were first read to and discussed by this highly literate group.
During WW 2, the British Broadcasting Company asked this quiet professor from Oxford to do a series of lectures on the radio. People were so enamored by those broadcasts that Lewis became the second most famous person in all of England, second only to Winston Churchill. His lectures were later published in a book entitled “Mere Christianity.” Which some would say is the most powerful explanation of Christianity outside the Bible itself.
The Story- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, is one of a 7 book series entitled The Chronicles of Narnia. When Lewis wrote The Lion... he had no thought of writing the others. And when he did write them, it was not in the chronological order of Narnian history. The Lion... was the first book written but is chronologically 2nd; The Magicians Nephew is chronologically first but was written 6th. (I sure wish someone had told me that back in 1974 when I first read them.) In terms of enjoying the books it really doesn’t matter, each book stands alone as its own complete story.
If you want a list of the order they were written or their chronology see me afterwards.
The newest release of the Chronicles has all 7 books in one volume and it has been #1 on the New York Times Children’s paperback list for the last 24 weeks.
The Lion... was written in 1950 and has sold more than 86 million copies, with more than a million being sold every year since then. In The Lion... 4 children from the Pevensie (Peven sea) family (Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy) have been sent to stay in a professor’s rambling historic mansion to get them safely away from the urban bombings of WW 2. This paralleled Lewis’ actual life experience; he had 4 children come to stay with him after being evacuated from London during the war.
In the book, while the children are exploring the house they find an empty room, empty of everything but an ordinary old wardrobe, or so they think. But one day while playing hide & seek, Lucy, the youngest, hides in the wardrobe and when she presses her way behind the hanging coats, she discovers crunchy snow under her feet and prickly branches in her face. She has stumbled into Narnia. Although her siblings don’t believe her, they eventually enter the magical wardrobe and discover Lucy was telling the truth.
They discover the fantasy world of Narnia, a charming peaceful land inhabited by talking animals, beasts, fauns, dwarfs, centaurs and giants. A land that has been cursed by the evil white witch Jadis, whose evil magic keeps Narnia always winter, but never Christmas. The children find themselves in a cause greater than themselves as they eventually join forces with Aslan, a talking lion who is the “True King of Narnia”, to fight the White Witch and her evil forces.
You see, there’s a prophecy that says that when two Sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve sit on the thrones of Cair Paravel the witch’s reign will end and so will her life. Under the guidance of a noble, powerful, mystical ruler, Aslan, the lion, the children will fight to overcome the White Witch’s stranglehold over Narnia.
The Characters- The witch’s evil deception tempts Edmund (click) to betray his family and this raises the stakes for Edmund and ultimately for Aslan. Edmund is an independent self reliant, but troubled boy, he projects his own tendency toward selfishness and lying on others, (his siblings, the Beavers, Aslan) Lucy is the youngest; she’s well mannered, kind, always truthful and quite adventuresome.
Susan is older, brave, resourceful, very caring and sensitive, the mother of the four. Peter, the eldest, is the natural leader, he’s always fair, very respectful of other’s feelings and courageous.
Each child faces their fears and faults, each child encounters Aslan in a special way on the way to reaching their destiny.
Themes- powerful spiritual themes flow throughout the story. There’s the obvious battle between good and evil; the personal struggle with temptation,; (like pride, selfishness and greed); the power of choices, ; cowardly and courageous choices, right and wrong choices and the consequences that flow from them; there’s a message of hope and faith for each of us; and a powerful redemptive story; in the frozen wonderland of Narnia.
As you read the book and/or see the film it will be helpful to understand what Lewis was trying to do with his Chronicles. The Chronicles are not written as an allegory so don’t be looking for hidden symbolic meaning, don’t try to make direct parallels to the Christian message. Lewis did not write an allegory of the Christian faith- he wrote a fictional re-telling. He saw the story as “supposal” rather than allegorical. Narnia is a world imagined by Lewis and one in which he asks us to “just suppose” is there.
He’s saying to the reader, suppose that the same God who created our world created another world of Narnia; and suppose that world needs to be redeemed, set free. What do you suppose would happen?
In explaining his character Aslan, the great lion, Lewis wrote, “he is an invention giving an imaginary answer to the question, “What might Christ become like, if there really were a world like Narnia and he chose to be incarnate and die and rise again in that world as He actually has done in ours?” This is not an allegory at all.”
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe answers that question by telling us the tale of 4 children who accidentally enter a land called Narnia through the door of a magical wardrobe.
Consider and respond- In the advertisements for the movie we hear- “In this house...there are many rooms...there are many doors...but only one...leads to another world.” As you begin this journey, consider which door you need to walk through and be mindful that it just might lead to another world; a world different from the world you find yourself in day after day.
Lucy had to step into the wardrobe to discover the wonder of Narnia.
What step do you need to take to discover the wonder you’re looking for?
Step of faith like C.S. Lewis...
Step of adventure like Lucy- is there a door you need to walk through...
Step of courage like Peter- to say yes to Aslan’s request...
Step of returning like Edmund...
Step of concern like Susan- concern for friends and family;
invite to the film, engage them in an open dialog about the different spiritual themes; let them explore the movie, have a meaningful conversation about what you saw and let the deeper Bible truth emerge organically as you engage in conversation.
During this journey into Narnia we each will be asked to walk through a door, take a step outside our comfort zone and if we do, maybe we’ll encounter Aslan and get set free to discover our true destiny.
Let’s pray-
