“Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. ²⁷ But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; ²⁸ God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, ²⁹ so that no one might boast in the presence of God. ³⁰ He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, ³¹ in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 1:26-31

“God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. Question: “How can an unchanging system survive the continual increase of knowledge?” It is not Christianity which need fear the giant universe: it is those systems which place the whole meaning of existence in biological or social evolution on our own planet. It is the creative evolutionist or the communist who should tremble when he looks up at the night sky. For [they] really [are] committed to a sinking ship. I submit that we Christians have as little to fear as anyone from the knowledge actually acquired. In other words, wherever there is real progress in knowledge, there is some knowledge that is not superceded. When a…convert and a [doctor] both affirm that Christ rose from the dead, there is, no doubt, a very great difference between their thoughts. To one, the very simple picture of a dead body getting up is sufficient; the other may think of a whole series of biochemical and even physical processes beginning to work backwards. Both are faced with a miracle, and both know it.” (“Letting Go Of Fear”, “God in the Dock”, “Dogma and the Universe”, from Preparing For Easter; Fifty Devotional Readings from C.S. Lewis)

As a child I had some crippling fears. I feared that if I did not follow certain patterns of living or behaving then bad things would happen to me or my family. The fears were irrational – they were fears none the less. Over the years the fears changed – from the television blowing up because I did not turn it off, to a bus crashing because I wasn’t the last on board. Finally, after many, many years of unnecessary worrying and irrational panic, I reached an epiphany: nothing happened when I didn’t listen to the fear.

We need to discern the irrational fear from the rational – the magical from the real. The same is true as we discern our salvation. We need not fear a G-d who will ask for irrational works of faith – indiscriminate “do this” or “believe that”. G-d asks for a contrite heart and love – love for G-d and love for our neighbor – and not fear. For how can we love what we fear?

Pastor Dave

^“7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹ God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. ¹⁰ In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹ Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

¹³ By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴ And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. ¹⁵ God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. ¹⁶ So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.” 1 John 4:7-16

“Love’s as fierce as fire, Love is fire. All sorts—infernal heat

Clinkered with greed and pride, Lyric desire, sharp-sweet,

Laughing, even when denied And that empyreal flame,

Whence all loves came.”   (Poem “Love’s As Warm As Tears”, C.S. Lewis)

“What does not satisfy when we find it was not the thing we were desiring. IF water will not set a man at ease then be sure it was not thirst, or not thirst only, that tormented him: He wanted drunkenness to cure his dullness, or talk to cure his solitude, or the like. How, indeed, do we know our desires save by their satisfactions? Let us conclude then that what you desire is no state of yourself at all, but something other and outer. Knowing this you will find tolerable the truth that you cannot attain it. That the thing should be (yet acquired), is so great a good that when you remember “it is” you will forget to be sorry that you can never have it. Wanting is better than having.” (“Love’s As Fierce As Fire”, “The Pilgrim’s Regress”, “Wisdom-Exoteric”, from Preparing For Easter; Fifty Devotional Readings from C.S. Lewis)

 Wanting is better than having – desiring is better than acquiring. Can we gather together all our heart’s desire at one time? Is this not Vanity? Insanity? Profanity? If we want life – then we desire Christ – and though fully acquiring Christ will never be possible until that day Christ welcomes us into our eternal home, we can have brief encounters with Christ every day. How? Through prayer…Holy Communion…and in service to others.

Pastor Dave