Favorite Lewis Quote #8 – The Land of Safe

“Safe? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.” – The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe

Once upon a time…far, far away, there existed a kingdom without a King, where everyone was safe. In this Land of Safe, no one ever grew sick or ill. And no one ever died. The people were never hungry, never desperate, never thirsty, never sad. In this Land of Safe, always beautiful, never ugly; always full, never empty, the lonely people lived – Safe from the pain of war; Safe from the pain of anger; Safe from the pain of loss…Safe from the pain of love.

For in its essence, the idolatry of safety is nothing more than the desire to be free from the suffering of love. And so this land – safe, secure, happy, and comfortable – was a land without the dangers of compassion. The people all understood that hiding was the only way to be truly safe and so safety stayed in fashion. They were kind but never close. They were nice but never near. During the day they encased themselves in cubicles. At night they locked their doors and hid inside their fear. When they traveled, they sealed themselves inside moving metal boxes. They talked to one another, but only through machines. They worked safe jobs. Washed in safe bathrooms. Kept their money in safe banks. They Hid inside safe houses, that were built inside safe walls, surrounded by safe fences, and locked inside safe gates. Marriage? Far too dangerous; Babies? Much too perilous; Families? Way too hazardous…inside the Land of Safe.

So in this way the people lived – comfortable, happy, lonely, sad, unloving and afraid – until they eventually faded away into the nothing. Yes, this is how they lived, In the Land of Safe, Once upon a time, In this kingdom without a King.

One day this Land of Safe was interrupted by a Voice of Love who claimed to be a King. A Prophet King who was not safe, who sang throughout the town, dancing in the streets at night, who said he’d bring the heavens down. He told stories around the tables of dangerous rowdy friends. He claimed safety was an illusion and security was just a dream. He washed himself in rivers cold and drank deep from every stream, and walking everywhere he went, he cheered the hearts of children, romanced the hearts of women, and roused the hearts of men. He laughed at lightning, chased the thunder, and lept upon the waves – this Prophet King, this voice of Love, even called into the graves. Safety was a foolish hope, he said, that created loveless slaves. And so this King claimed this kingdom and declared it as is own, and said it was no longer safe to call His kingdom home. Yet, call it home He did, and even more; He called the Land, “Safe-No-More”, and said this land was created for…

Love and Love alone.

In that day this Prophet King declared war on every gate that kept love from getting in and gave his life as ransom then to free all hearts from safety’s grip of hatred, greed, and fear.  He made the the mute to sing with Him at the tables of dangerous friends; to cheer the hearts of children and rouse the hearts of men; to romance all women to unlock their hearts to believe in things above and to proclaim throughout the Land that nothing is safe from Love.

And so in the Land of Safe-No-More, the children would ask,”Is our King safe?” Then they heard their parents sing. “Of course He is not Safe my child. But He’s good. He is our King.”

Favorite Lewis Quote #9 – A Special Standard

“How difficult it is to avoid having a special standard for oneself.” – C.S. Lewis, Letters to an American Lady, p. 58

I tend to view myself as a ’specialme’. When I’m standing in line at the grocery store, with 20 people in front of me, somehow I feel like I am the one person who is so special, that I should be allowed to go to the front of the line. When I do something wrong – like losing my temper or gossiping or building myself up while tearing someone else down, or when I kill someone and bury them in my backyard – I feel like I’m justified because I am a ’specialme’. Now, if someone else kills a person and buries them in their back yard…well, that’s just wrong. No question about it. But me? Hey, I have my reasons, doggone it. If I want to kill people – if I want to be a cannibal – then it is my right. Me and Hannibal Lecter are in a different category. Don’t hate us just because we like to eat people.

I tend to believe that I am not the only one who suffers from the disease of ’specialme-itis’. In fact, it seems to be something that has greatly infected most of Christianity. We Christians tend to believe that we are all a ’specialme’. We believe that our identity as God’s Chosen people gives us special rights and privileges. God loves us. Therefore, nothing bad should happen to us. We are God’s children! We deserve to be first in line. We deserve to be healthy. We deserve to be rich. We have the right to kill people and bury them in the back yard. Cannibalism is just fine for those love God and are called according to His purpose.

You see, the trouble is, we take some very good, solid, theological truth and we go absolutely the wrong way with it. Let me explain. The Bible does say that we Christians are a chosen people. God does predestine us to be the elect. We are made holy by Christ. The Spirit of God is placed within us. We are Set apart. Adopted. Blessed. Loved. If you will, God, through Christ Jesus, has called us special. This is true. But this is not the end of the story. Not by a long shot. The Gospel also tells us that we are evil. Diseased. The Bible makes it clear that God makes us special because He chooses us. He does not choose us because we are special. God takes messed up people – people who are selfish and angry and poor and desperate and murderous and cannibalistic – and He calls them His own. He saves them from themselves and He puts a new heart within them and teaches them to worship God and to love people.

But we go the wrong way. In our evil, we think that God has chosen us because we are Special. We think that God loves us because we are so pretty and so sweet and so holy and so good. And everybody else? Well, all those damned other people – they are just getting in the way. We are the specialme’s. Not them. Everyone else should bow the knee to us. They should Serve us and Listen to us and Recognize our Specialness. And so we create a special standard for ourselves. This special standard tell us that it is OK for us to mistreat the infidels. We are special. It’s no big deal to hate a godless evolutionist. In fact, God wants it that way. We are the special people. An army of Specialme’s. We have been chosen to do God’s work. So come along, Christian. Join me. Let’s join together to do God’s work on the earth. Let’s curse out an atheist for Jesus. Let’s shout down a liberal in the name of the Lord. Let’s blow up an abortion clinic. Let’s kill some Muslims and bury them in the back yard. Let’s cook some homosexuals and serve them hot with a side of beans and slaw. We are allowed. We are the Specialme. We live by a special standard.

No.

No. No. No. No. No.

Again, we go the wrong way. Yes.  We are special. We are set apart. But to do what? The Gospel tells us. Read it.  Aren’t we are called to be last? To be poor in spirit?  Doesn’t Christ call us to lay our lives down? Of course He does.  The Gospel set us back straight on this.  Jesus calls us to take up our cross. To love each other. To love our enemies. To worship God. We are called to admit our own idolatry before we ever point out the idolatry of others. We, above all, should be the first to admit our sin and to deal with the plank in our eye.

Jesus does not choose us and call us special so that we might claim God’s favor as a right that gives us permission to become even more idolatrous. Jesus chooses us to become a fellowship of ‘Little Christs’ – a people chosen to serve and not to be served. A people chosen to share in the sufferings of Christ Jesus. If this is true, then we have no right to claim a special standard for ourselves. We are not a ’specialme’. But rather, we serve a Special God…a Messiah who ‘did not regard equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness; and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!’

If we are special (and we are) then it is the special-ness of Jesus that makes us so. It is Jesus who gives us the special privilege and ability to ‘do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility to consider others better than ourselves.’ If I have a special standard, this is what it should look like.

So, the next time I think about killing someone and burying them in the backyard, I’m going to try to remember these things. I’m going to try to remember that I am not a specialme. I don’t care what Hannibal Lecter says. Cannibalism is just wrong.

Scripture Ref. Philippians 2:1-8

Who is Hannibal Lecter?

C.S. Lewis Song

In keeping with my series on my favorite C.S. Lewis quotes, I would like to share with you the “C.S. Lewis Song”, in which Brook Fraser sings a beautiful strain that is based upon some of Lewis’ words and thoughts.

To Read Lyrics click the link…

Favorite Lewis Quote #10 – Teachers

“Really great moral teachers never do introduce new moralities: it is quacks and cranks who do that… The real job of every moral teacher is to keep on bringing us back, time after time, to the old simple principles which we are all so anxious not to see.”

When you think about it, teaching truth really is a thankless job. The picture is much like the mother who stands over her child with a spoonful of cough syrup, urging her to open her mouth. This is because truth usually goes down hard. Yet, if the mother is good and true and loving, she will not back down from her call to care for her little one.

Truth is not sexy or fun or new or original. Truth is old. And even when we have not heard it before, when truth first comes to us as a new thought, or when it seems novel because it is novel to us, even then, we often find that truth has the ring of something old, something that has been taught a thousand times before, something that has risen from antiquity and dusted itself off before us. When we hear truth, we get the sense that we should know this already, or that we have known it and simply allowed ourselves to forget.

Favorite Lewis Quote #11 – Friends

“In a circle of true Friends each man is simply what he is: stands for nothing but himself. No one cares twopence about any one else’s family, profession, class, income, race, or previous history…That is the kingliness of Friendship. We meet like sovereign princes of independent states, abroad, on neutral ground, freed from our contexts.” – C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

How many friends do you have? How do you know when you have a friend? Sometimes it’s hard to discern. Adam and Eve, just after they’d sinned, did a particularly odd thing. They hid. They sewed together fig leaves and hid themselves. Odd. But, not really surprising. We do the same thing don’t we? In an independent, self-actualizing, wealthy (yes, we are still wealthy!), society like ours, most people live strangely private and pretentious lives.

Favorite Lewis Quote #12 – Seekers

“‘You would not have called to me unless I had been calling to you’, said the Lion.” – The Silver Chair

The Evangelical church, especially of late, loves to use the term “seekers” when referring to those particular unbelievers who are interested in hearing about Christianity. Willow Creek and Emergent churches alike, love the terms: “Seeker Driven Worship”, “Seeker Sensitive Ministry”, “Seeker Friendly”, “Open to Seekers”. It sounds cool. I like the feel of it personally. I would love to believe that people are seeking – “We’re just seeking a church,bro…seeking the truth…just seeking in the hopes that someone will tell us what we long to hear.

C.S. Lewis said, and I quote…

In keeping with my former post on why I love C.S. Lewis, here are a few of my favorite Lewis-isms.

12. “‘You would not have called to me unless I had been calling to you’, said the Lion.”

11. “In a circle of true Friends each man is simply what he is: stands for nothing but himself. No one cares twopence about any one else’s family, profession, class, income, race, or previous history…That is the kingliness of Friendship.We meet like sovereign princes of independent states, abroad, on neutral ground, freed from our contexts.”

C.S. Lewis and a theology of Christian Hope

I love C.S. Lewis. I can’t help it. About 20 years ago I read “Mere Christianity” and “Until we have Faces” and right then and there, I was hooked. The thing that I find most appealing about Lewis is the way he approaches life and spirituality. He loved to read, loved to teach, loved to debate, loved to think, and loved to study…but he also loved to imagine, loved a good story, loved to have beer with friends, loved to laugh, and loved to enjoy life. In short, Lewis saw work and play as simultaneous expressions of worship given to God. I have read very few authors, and met even fewer people, who keep as firm a grasp on this as Lewis. I am recently reading Jonathan Edwards and as I work through the material, I can’t help but wondering, “When did this guy ever lighten up?”