CCC Gainesville | Blog
As you begi your journey into Narnia through reading C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe we will be providing complementary essays that will deepen your experience. Some of these readings will be helpful for adults, or books club discussions, while other readings will be more helpful for parents when answering questions children might ask.
Jerram Barrs wrote Echoes of Eden in C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
Jerram Barrs:
In his Narnia books, Lewis very intentionally set out to tell the Christian story but not in such a way that those who were ignorant of or resistant to it would find it thrust in their faces. He wanted to capture the imaginations of children and touch their hearts just as he had been captured by the fantastic tales he had read when he was young. As an avid student of the Gospels, Lewis also knew that Jesus himself told wonderful stories which he used to communicate truth indirectly to people who, for all sorts of reasons, would no longer listen to straightforward presentations of it. Lewis wanted his stories, like the myths and fairy stories he loved, to reflect the underlying truths of reality but to do so even more deliberately. In fact, his goal was to ensure that his stories were full of “echoes of Eden.”
Continue reading Echoes of Eden at this link
The Opus Project’s Reading Group has embarked on a series with select works by C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien that started in April and will go through August. In April we read Tolkien’s essay “On Fairy Stories”; next we turn to essays by Lewis in the collection The Weight of Glory, before joining in the church-wide “one read” of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (to accentuate the summer Narnia-themed VBS program). Finally, we will discuss Lewis’ adult novel called Till We Have Faces.
Lewis is one of those names that anyone who gets anywhere near thoughtful streams of Christianity will hear quoted with much frequency. And yet, I would be willing to wager that most of us rarely read Lewis beyond his most famous works (Mere Christianity, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Screwtape Letters). For some he can be seen as overplayed and outdated. But we suspect there’s much more to Lewis than we’re accustomed to hearing.
I hope you will consider joining us as we look deeper into Lewis as a resource for recovering the Christian imagination . We will meet on Sunday, June 2 at 9am during the education hour to discuss The Weight of Glory (get your copy now). We will primarily discuss the title essay “The Weight of Glory”, though we hope to get to others as well.
While you are at it, why don’t you bundle together an order for our next couple of months? We will discuss in various forums The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe on June 30. Then for July 28 and August 25, we’ll read Till We Have Faces.
Hope you’ll plan on joining in on the conversation.
He began the good work that is our salvation. (Cf Phil 1:6)
“The Prodigal Son at least walked home on his own feet. But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape?
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The words compelle intrare, compel them to come in, have been so abused by wicked men that we shudder at them;
but, properly understood,
they plumb the depth of the Divine mercy.
The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation.” –Lewis
One Read has begun. If you missed the announcement last week in the service, we introduced the VBS theme, Journey To The Lamppost, A Narnia Adventure. This VBS theme will be focused on the classic and beloved book written by C.S. Lewis, The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe. Because people of all ages love this book we are doing an all church reading of this book. It does not matter if you don’t want or cannot be involved in VBS, this is not only a VBS event. A One Read is an event where a collective community reads a single book together. Many towns and cities across the US do this as a community. The concept of a One Read (also called, Big Read, One Book) was started by Nancy Pearl, a Seattle librarian. When asked about the birth of her idea she said, “It’s based on the idea of community. My idea was that people would come together who would never come together any other way. Literature brings them together because a book touches them.”
This is also our desire for an All Church One Read. That as a community we would be brought together, across ages and have conversations that build deeper community and relationships.
If you have never read the Chronicles of Narnia they are quick delightful books (7 all together) written by C.S. Lewis. Lewis created an imaginary world just around any corner one might stumble across. You never know when you might fall into a painting or wardrobe and find yourself having tea with talking beavers or sailing with a prince or fighting the worst beasts imaginable.
The Opus group will be reading not only The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe but also a few other delightful books written by Lewis between now and mid-July. Also this will be the topic of discussion for one of the evening womens bible study meetings this Summer. There are various groups gathering to discuss this book together, if you are interested in inviting some friends over to discuss this book or having a book club of sorts meet for a time to talk about the themes you might find please take this opportunity to do so.
Starting this Sunday there will be articles about Lewis, Narnia, Fairy-Tales, and the need for imagination at the VBS/Narnia table. We also have books at the table for sale for $5 if you would like to grab an extra copy for your self or a friend. These articles are designed to be helpful for group discussions, family dinner table discussions and gaining an understanding of Lewis and his writing of these books.
I am currently reading, C.S. Lewis’ Letters to Children. This is a delightful short book full of his letters to children about various topics. Many of which include answering their questions about the Narnia books. This is a great book to read along with the Narnia books because it allows you to answer, from the authors perspective, questions children might have about the stories. You will also find many of those letters posted weekly here on the blog, so be checking in for the different One Read resources we will post here.
Enjoy your Summer and we hope you stop by and pick up a book!
Today especially we celebrate the ascension of Jesus, a date marked out 40 days after his resurrection, when he departed from earth and returned bodily to heaven (Luke 24:50–53, Acts 1:9–11). Three helps in learning/relearning/delighting in the this wondrous part of Christ’s redemptive work.
1.) On first glance, Jesus rising up in the clouds may seem like something out of a Monty Python skit. It’s perhaps a little difficult to understand, maybe even a little bizarre to grasp, and even more difficult to apply. And yet the ascension of Jesus carries with it a full range of implications for our lives, something we discover in today’s episode of the Authors on the Line podcast.
2.) Jim Packer (dude was en fuego when he wrote Concise Theology)
While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. LUKE 24:51
Jesus’ ascension was his Father’s act of withdrawing him from his disciples’ gaze upward (a sign of exaltation) into a cloud (a sign of God’s presence). This was not a form of space travel, but part two (the Resurrection being part one) of Jesus’ return from the depths of death to the height of glory. Jesus foretold the Ascension (John 6:62; 14:2, 12; 16:5, 10, 17, 28; 17:5; 20:17), and Luke described it (Luke 24:50-53; Acts 1:6-11). Paul celebrated it and affirmed Christ’s consequent lordship (Eph. 1:20; 4:8-10; Phil. 2:9-11; 1 Tim. 3:16), and the writer of Hebrews applied this truth for encouragement of the fainthearted (Heb. 1:3; 4:14; 9:24). The fact that Jesus Christ is enthroned as master of the universe should be of enormous encouragement to all believers.
The Ascension was from one standpoint the restoration of the glory that the Son had before the Incarnation, from another the glorifying of human nature in a way that had never happened before, and from a third the start of a reign that had not previously been exercised in this form. The Ascension establishes three facts:
1. Christ’s personal ascendancy. 2. Christ’s spiritual omnipresence. 3. Christ’s heavenly ministry. (Ascension article by Packer)
3.) A prayer
Prayer of Allegiance
We let go of our hope in
our country,
our finances,
our work,
our abilities,
ourselves.
our country,
our finances,
our work,
our abilities,
ourselves.
We put our hope in you.
You are our
strength,
hope,
joy,
future,
and King.
You are our
strength,
hope,
joy,
future,
and King.
