Our Last Battle (10)

 Ten – Children?

In Chapter Five of The Last Battle, Jill and Eustace appear in Narnia to help the King. They arrive as Aslan’s response to Tirian’s cry, “Let me be killed. I ask nothing for myself. But come and save all Narnia.” 

God moves when we place others before ourselves. He moves when we take the place of others, when we enter into intercessory prayer and when we live intercessory lives. This is the Way of Jesus, and there is no other Way to live than by Him and His Cross.

Our prayers are often answered through others. When Daniel prayed God sent messengers in response to his prayers. When Paul and Silas struggled over what direction to take in their mission, God gave Paul a vision of a man saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." When the Ethiopian wrestled with reading the Prophet Isaiah, God sent Philip to him. God answered Cornelius’s prayerful alms by sending Peter. Jesus sent Ananias to heal Paul’s blindness, confirm Paul’s commission, and baptize him. 

Jesus seemed to always be directing Paul to new friends and new friends to Paul, his letters are full of reference, praise, thanksgiving, and prayers for coworkers – men and women. Doesn’t this make sense? For didn’t’ Jesus surround Himself with followers who became disciples, with disciples who became apostles, and with apostles who became friends?  

The very nature of life in Christ is the nature of Divine relationship in the Body of Christ, the Bride, the Church, the Temple, the Family of God. We want others to have koinonia with us so that they may have koinonia with the Trinity (1 John 1:3). Are we living in the reality of Hebrews 12:22 – 24? Is the “communion of saints” the fabric of our lives, or is it only a phrase of the Creed that we hopefully recite? 

One challenge of praying is receiving, and I don’t think we do this very well, at least I know that I don’t. We want to define and shape and qualify the answers, and if we don’t see what we want then we think God has not answered us. (I have explored this more fully in our Upper Room series). 

Aslan sent two children in answer to Tirian’s intercessory prayer for Narnia. Were it not for the fact that Tirian had heard stories of children coming from another world, time and again, to save Narnia, would he have immediately accepted Jill and Eustace? 

Are there times we reject God’s provision and His answer because we don’t like the form they take? When Jesus says that we ought not to reject children, for of such is the Kingdom of God, maybe, embedded within His words, is the instruction that we can learn from children and from things that seem “below” us. 

As I think about my formal theological education, I naturally see areas of deficiency, areas in which there maybe should have been fewer electives and more requirements. However, I realize that one can only accomplish so much in 96 credit hours and so I think, by and large, my seminary did the best it could in most respects. 

However, I do think a 19th hole should have been added to the golf course. We should not have been given diplomas until we had served at least six months cleaning toilets as a living. Pride and reliance on methodology and humanistic epistemology and hermeneutics are dangerous things, and a reminder that we aren’t as smart as we think we are would be good for most of us, and I think quite beneficial for the people we serve. (Maybe refresher courses in toilet cleaning should also be required.)

In Narnia, children from earth grow quickly, it’s one of those strange Narnian dynamics, much like the difference between the way time is experienced in Narnia and on earth. Sometimes, if we can see God coming to us in simple things, in basic things, and if we will accept those things and seek to learn from them, those things will grow quickly from children to adolescents to adults and we will see value in them that we never considered. 

On the other hand, if we dismiss out of hand what God sends to us as being beneath us, then we will miss treasures of Christ. This is especially true of people, often the people we can learn the most from are those who are the most different from us. One of the tragedies of the American church is that we are segregated racially, economically, educationally, politically (shame on us, shame!), to name but a few barriers. We build and maintain our own prisons…and proud we are of it.

When we see anyone as beneath us, then we have risen too high. 

I once worked with a wealthy man (we’ll call him Sam) who was an executive in an international firm. He was chairman of the board of directors of a ministry I was serving. He was kind, tenderhearted, loved Jesus, and was a true friend to others. He cared about people. He was also an elder in his church. I used to meet with Sam once a week to review ministry operations and enjoy fellowship in Christ.

One week he excitedly told me about a family that had been visiting their church. After the Sunday evening service, he asked the family if he could take them to get something to eat, and they suggested McDonald’s. My goodness, what a great time my friend had, enjoying being with this family at McDonald’s, getting to know them, listening to them, sharing a Big Mac or Quarter Pounder with them. It was truly a Happy Meal (sorry, couldn’t resist). 

Most of us reading this are probably thinking, “That’s nice, but why am I reading this?” After all, most of us have been to McDonald’s more than once. 

Sam lived in a very expensive metropolitan area, and his church was in a suburb without much economic diversity. This family was of modest economic means and educational background. Yet, they had not only been welcomed by Sam’s church, Sam asked them  to dinner. When they suggested McDonald’s, Sam went right along with the idea, even though he had never been to a McDonald’s. 

Sam loved being with the family, and he was fascinated with McDonald’s. (I worked with another executive who had never been to McDonald’s.)

Let’s be honest about this, as James tells us (James Chapter 2), we do have a tendency to dismiss people who are not like us, people we think are beneath us. This is ugly but it is true. (I should note that I have seen the reverse of this, I’ve seen folks on the lower end of the spectrum dismiss folks who have more material things or education than they do, often attributing attitudes to them that are not true.)

Aslan answered Tirian’s prayer by sending children to him. 

Are we above the people that Jesus chooses to answer our prayers? 

Are we missing out on the treasures of Christ in others?