It was the sort of house that you never seemed to come to the end of, and it was full of unexpected places.

I love the book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.  Honestly, there are too many things about the story that I love, to recount them all in this post.  This photo made me think about the Wardrobe.  In Lewis’ story, the four Pevensies  are evacuated from London because of the air-raids during WWII.  They are sent to the home of Professor Digory Kirke.  When in the house, the children become enamored with an old Wardrobe that, as it turns out, is a portal into another world – the world of Narnia.  In this, C.S. Lewis is brilliant.  He has found a way, through the mechanism of a children’s story, to create an experience that gives his readers a frame of reference for understanding the Gospel:  A land that has been cursed, subjects who live in fear and slavery, a Queen who rules by lying and manipulating the desires of her subjects, A  Great Lion who gives his life to break that curse, the Kingdom of that Great Lion vanquishing the curse by redeeming slaves and freeing the oppressed.  It’s just so great.

I also find it fascinating that the children enter into this “true vision” of the world, when they enter a Wardrobe that is found in the house of Professor Digory Kirke: that is Professor (a Teacher), Digory (the British word for a levee of water), and Kirke (the Scottish word for church).  I believe that in this, before Lewis ever begins his epic tale, he establishes a subtle way of telling us how people are taught this true vision of the world.  Let me explain.  As a character, I believe that Professor Digory Kirke symbolizes the Holy Spirit in much the same way that Aslan, the Great Lion, symbolizes Christ.  This view of Professor Kirke as the Holy Spirit is further founded in Lewis’ description of him in The Magician’s Nephew, which reveals that the Professor had been present with Aslan at the creation of Narnia.  I believe that Professor Digory Kirke’s name emphasizes three works of the Holy Spirit: “Professor” – Revealing the Word of God, “Digory” – Applying the Water of Sacrament, “Kirke” – Establishing the Church of Christ.  So then, Professor Kirke is the Holy Spirit who works through the Word, Sacrament, and the Church.  The Pevensie children have run away from a war they don’t understand, to seek safety in a house of refuge, and to be taught by a Professor through an epic story that is discovered by entering through a Wardrobe found inside the Professor’s enormous old house.  Isn’t that cool?

So let’s play Lewis’ thought out a little further… I think it is safe to say that when people come into the Church on Sunday Mornings, they are running away from a war that they do not understand.  They are running away from a world that makes no sense.  They run into a House of Refuge.  Yet, when inside this house, they need more than safety.  They need strength, they need nourishment, they need truth, and they need their vision to be adjusted.  In other words, they need to see and understand.  They need to peer through a “window”,  move through the back of a wardrobe where they will see the world as it really is.  They need to see the truth of the Gospel.  They need to be baptized into the waters of the Church.  They need to adore the beauty of Christ through the power of Word and Sacrament.  This is Lewis’ view, and in this vision, he is so dead on correct.

Sadly, in recent times, modern Christians seemed to have lost faith in the power of the Holy Spirit.  And, having done so, they have also lost touch with the power that comes through the Holy Spirit – the Spirit working through the Word, the Spirit working through Sacrament, and the Spirit working through the Church.  So often, Christians abandon the Spirit of Christ and run off – chasing after the idols of the age.  We abandon God’s Story – the powerful, trustworthy, unfailing narrative of the Gospel found in the Bible.  We abandon God’s Sacrament – where the Gospel in Baptism and Communion are like the front of the Wardrobe of Earth intersecting with back of the Wardrobe of Heaven.  And we abandon God’s People – the household of Christ, where the power of the Gospel is relationally affirmed, again and again and again.

Getting back to the photo above – nothing seems out of the ordinary. Does it?  It’s just a room.  A window.  A desk.  And a dresser.  Yet, look at the mirror.  Like the Wardrobe, it reveals something special.  It is a portal, leading us into another world.  O how Christians need to reaffirm a trust in the Holy Spirit, who reveals Himself to us and leads us through this portal.  With a firm grip on the Gospel found in the Word, Sacrament, and the Church, we need to follow the Spirit as he leads us through the old coats and hats of the Wardrobe until we feel our hearts adjusting to the truth that comes from another world.  For in following the Spirit in this way, Christians renew themselves in the excitement of Lewis’ description of Professor Kirke’s old house: “It was the sort of house that you never seemed to come to the end of, and it was full of unexpected places“.

Below is an article that compares the aims of Religion v. the aims of The Gospel. The article was originally constructed by Rev. Tim Keller, a PCA pastor in Manhattan. I have refurbished it a bit. Have a read. I would relish any comments or observations! (FYI – I have included a link to the Word Document if you would like to download it Click Here - religion-v-the-gospel

This year, instead of absenting ourselves from a “pagan” holiday, our church had a community festival. That’s right. On October 31st, All Hallows Eve, Surfside Presbyterian Church had blow-up games and dunking booths. We gave out candy and had a box maze and a pie eating contest and all kinds of kids and parents came and dressed up like princesses and superheroes and some even dressed up like monsters. It was a great time for all and a blessing to our community here in south Myrtle Beach. I thought it was great.

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. I don’t know why really. It just has. My childhood memories are filled with bags of candy and Charlie Brown’s “The Great Pumpkin”. I loved it…and I still do. As a matter of fact, out of all the American Holidays, I think that Halloween may be the best at exemplifying the Grace of Jesus Christ. Let’s take a look at it.

On all Hallows Eve, people disguise themselves, dress up like monsters, and go up to a door with an empty bag. They knock on the door and hold out the bag and a neighbor opens the door. The person smiles and says, “Wow, you’re scary! Who are you? Are you a Vampire?” The little kid nods. Then the neighbor laughs and gives the child encouragement, and pours candy into their empty satchel. Doesn’t that sound like the Gospel? It does to me.

The Gospel says that we are all evil monsters who have nothing to offer anyone. We are poor and empty and hiding, walking around begging for someone to fill our empty hearts. Jesus moves into our neighborhood and bids us come in to sup with Him. We knock on Christ’s door and He opens up His home and His heart. “Wow, you’re scary! Who are you supposed to be?” Jesus asks. “I’m a Vampire. I’m a Witch. I’m a Monster,” we say behind our masks. Then Jesus fills up our hearts with the Grace of God, not because we deserve it or because we’re cute, but because we really are monsters and desperately need what He has to offer.

That’s why Halloween is a great picture of the Gospel. It’s a picture of me going to Jesus. Empty, desperate, hiding, and receiving gifts that I cannot buy and love that I cannot earn. That’s why, at my house, we call Halloween by it’s appropriate name – “Grace Night: A night for monsters to come out of hiding.” For years, this is what I have taught my children. They don’t know that Halloween is a night for “pagan Satan worship”. They think it’s a night to worship Jesus. A night to remember the Grace that we have been given and a night to give Jesus thanks for welcoming Vampires and Witches and Monsters into His loving arms. And all we need to receive His grace is a beggars’ desperate posture.

So next year, when October 31st rolls around, be sure to dress your worst and go door to door begging for candy. Just remember, it’s not Halloween. It’s Grace Night. Don’t forget to bring an empty bag.

However, I do have other passions.  I love my wife, Martha Jo and my two kids, Callie and Camp.  I love literature, poetry, a wide range of music, art, movies and…of course, I love football.  That should sound a bit strange. I mean, how many guys do you know who love poetry and football?  Think about it.  How can a guy love Shakespeare and Sports Illustrated?  Flannery O’Connor and John Madden? The Bible and Budweiser?  Broadway Theatre and Broadway Brett?  John Knox and John Elway.  How can a guy love Independent Films AND love football!  I can’t answer it myself.  I’m almost at a loss to explain it.  But I’ll give it a try.

The truth is, I have been forged from the fires of two powerful, cultural impulses:  I am a southern, down-home, redneck on one side and a passionate, artsy, hippie on the other.  This is a brand of human being that could only have been bred in inner-city Atlanta, Georgia.  As a boy growing up in the racially charged atmosphere of the late sixties and early seventies, I drank deeply from a strong, frothy, eclectic cultural brew; an elixir concocted and served up by iconic heroes like Hank Aaron, Elvis Presley, James Brown, Muhammad Ali, Steve Bartkowski (look him up), Martin Luther King, Jimmy Carter, and Billy Graham.  In middle school I rooted for the Atlanta Falcons and I sang in the, black, gospel choir.  I played center on my high school football team and I starred as ‘Curly’ in the high school musical production of “Oklahoma”.  Today, my DVD collection includes Hamlet with Kenneth Brannah, a copy of the 1958 NFL Championship Game, Emma with Gwyneth Paltrow, and Gladiator with Russell Crowe.  On my I-pod you will find My Chemical Romance, the David Crowder Band, Garth Brooks, REM, and a recording of Martin Luther King’s “I have a Dream Speech.”

And so, this is who I am.  I am a man who feels himself to be a little black and a little white; a little bit conservative and a little bit liberal, a hippie with a goatee who believes the Bible is the inerrant, inspired word of God; I am a man who thinks that Bono and Mary J. Blithe make beautiful music together; a man who prays the Church would study with the rigor of a Presbyterian, sing with the abandon of a Charismatic, preach with fire of a Baptist, serve with the heart of an Anglican, paint and write with the imagination of a Catholic, care with the passion of a Mother Teresa and believe in Jesus like a little child.

I, maybe like you, am a bundle of seeming contradictions.  The Gospel is the one thing that brings harmony to my otherwise fractured soul…and this is why I so desperately need Jesus.  Without Him, nothing makes sense to me.  For I am a Sinner and a Saint, an ambiguous man, a fearful man, and a confused man.  A man who can find beautiful pictures of the Gospel in strange, shadowy places, while almost always struggling to trust in the Gospel that I so easily see in the clear light of day.  Because of this, I suppose you could say, I am an eclectic man…an eclectic human being; And in many ways, my being an eclectic man, who is redeemed by Christ and made alive by the Gospel; a man who is insecure and sinful, but greatly loved of Jesus; I suppose all of this, taken together, makes me a valid contributor to Eclectic Christian – for an Eclectic Christian is exactly what I am.

Thanks for the invitation Mike.  I look forward to seeing where the Spirit of Christ takes us.