First Sunday with C.S. Lewis

In our first meeting we simply went around the table and shared what each knew about C.S. Lewis and his writings. Experience ranged from having read him since childhood to having heard quotes in sermons but never having read him.

We then went through the range of his writings, passing around samples of his work that Brenda and I had brought with us, maybe 15-20 books in all. Everything from The Screwtape Letters to The Four Loves, with The Chronicles of Narnia and his science fiction trilogy, Perelandra, Out of the Silent Planet, and That Hideous Strength, in the middle.

I also shared some of the books that George McDonald had written: the many romance novels, highlighting (and strongly recommending) the Elizabeth Yates 'translation' of Sir Gibbie, 'translation' because they were all written in Scottish dialect for the most part, near impossible to understand for us, the 'unscotched'! And McDonald's phantastes which according to Lewis "baptized my imagination" and led him to repeatedly refer to McDonald as his literary "master" during the course of his life.

Finally I offered up a series of photos taken during my visit with Lisa, Summer 2007, to Lewis's home, The Kilns, just outside Oxford, England. Here they are if you care to look.



Our final meeting for the Summer Series takes place on Sunday, August 31. The plan right now is to practice 'lectio divina' on some selected passages from his varied work and share our thoughts with each other.

We will wrap up with a quick assessment of the series overall and whether and to what degree it has fulfilled its goal of helping us more fully live into our Vision and Mission here at St. Matthew's.

See you then!

C.S. Lewis and Liturgy

I believe—and it has been my experience—that ongoing participation in the liturgy is ongoing participation in the life of God and, as such, will lead, as C.S. Lewis envisions human transformation, to a life “dazzling, radiant . . . pulsating all through with . . . energy, joy, and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine.”

I came across the above quote from C.S. Lewis as I read the introduction to a new book that I just learned about today: Beyond Smells and Bells: The Wonder and Power of Christian Liturgy, Mark Galli, p. 12. I have made the title a live link, so that if you are interested in reading a bit more, you can go to a twenty page excerpt by clicking the link.

See you Sunday!

Two Pearls

I just discovered two lovely pearls today. Addresses by Dr. Herbert McGonigle:

John Wesley's Vision of Authentic Christianity

and

"A Heart from Sin Set Free" - Holiness in the Hymns of Charles Wesley

These addresses were given at the 2007 New Life Conference in Rora, England. You may listen to them by clicking the titles above; they are live links.

I am listening to the one on Charles Wesley right now. What a delight! It does open with some off-key hymn singing for the first few minutes, but don't let that stumble you. You can fast forward if you wish...

He mentions that three major themes run through all of the hymns Charles Wesley wrote:

Universal Grace
The Witness of the Spirit
Christian Holiness

Moving On

So we had a good meeting last Sunday: spent some more time with two Charles Wesley hymns, Come, O Thou Traveller Unknown, and And Can It Be that I Should Gain; and learned a bit about John Wesley's heart being strangely warmed and his coming to a living faith unlike anything he had experienced until then.

We are now moving on to the 20th century and C.S. Lewis. There is such a wide variety of writings by this man and his influence is both so varied and wide-ranging that I have selected one thread to follow over the next two meetings.

One thread, two short phrases:

1) Further up and further in, a phrase the man himself coined somewhere in his writings, and
2) Much more, a phrase that Paul uses again and again in his letters to the churches.

It seems to me that just about anything I read by C.S. Lewis urges me on in both those ways, to realize how great, how vast, how wide and how deep is God and the reach of his redeeming love. He seems to be able to help us escape what so easily become flat and two dimensional, religious and spiritual words and ideas and doctrines, and understand them in their fulness, three-dimensional as it were.

And finally, once again revisiting the Benedictine model and the Wesleyan revival, two more passages I came across this week:

"Hospitality is one form of worship," the rabbis wrote. Benedictine spirituality takes this tendency seriously. The welcome at the door is not only loving - a telephone operator at a jail can do that. It is total, as well. Both the community and the abbot receive the guest. The message to the stranger is clear. Come right in and disturb our perfect lives. You are the Christ for us today....Benedict wants us to let down the barriers of our souls so that the God of the unexpected can come in.

pp. 140-141, The Rule of Benedict, Insight for the Ages, Joan Chittister

Francis Asbury, born to a poor family near Birmingham, England, and eventually the first bishop of the Methodist Church in America, had this to say, at the age of thirteen, after attending his first Methodist service:

This was not the Church but it was better. The people were so devout, men and women kneeling down, saying 'Amen.' Now, behold! They were singing hymns, sweet sound! Why, strange to tell! The preacher had no prayer book, and yet he prayed wonderfully! What was yet more extraordinary, the man took his text and had no sermon book: thought I, this is wonderful indeed! It is certainly a strange way, but the best way.

p 440, The One Year Christian History, E. Michael and Sharon Rusten