Friday in the First Week of Lent: Letter 7 Notes
Screwtape
Letter #7
The Propers for Today are found HERE.
We open
Letter number 7 with Screwtape advising Wormwood on how best to use PHILOSOPHIES
and FACTIONS to his advantage with the Patient. Particularly how these 2 processes can sow
the SEEDS of DOUBT.
This is not
to say that DOUBT - in and of itself in the Christian life - is NEGATIVE. In fact, doubt that leads to QUESTIONING and
a greater UNDERSTANDING of God is a very good thing in the Christian life.
Remember, we
are FINITE human beings trying to understand and believe in an INFINITE
God. As we GROW in the knowledge and
love of our Lord, we will begin to experience God’s presence in
our lives in new ways.
This will
lead us to QUESTION, previous beliefs that may no longer hold true for us.
Phyllis some
years ago raised a question about prayer that I had never considered. The more we talked, the more I began to doubt
my old beliefs. From that came NEW understanding
of both prayer and our Lord to whom the prayers were directed. As we pray, our faith increases.
Wormwood, HOWEVER,
should USE DOUBT as the END rather than the catalyst for new understanding.
LETTER #7
begins with the question of whether or not a demon can reveal his existence TO
the PATIENT.
Certainly,
we have heard the stories of Jesus CASTING OUT demons in the Gospels who were
obviously well known to the person they were terrorizing and to Jesus.
As it turns
out, By order of the High Command of Hell, Wormwood must remain unknown to the
Patient for now. And there are
advantages to both approaches.
While being KNOWN
allows the demon to directly terrorize their assigned Patient, if the demon is UNKNOWN
then the Patient can be made into a Materialist and Skeptic.
Both of
these philosophies are central to understanding Lewis in many of his writings.
You may
remember from our Introduction to The Screwtape Letters that Materialism PREACHES
that only physical matter exists therefore there can be NO demons and that also
means there can be no God or anything else that you cannot see or touch. In Materialism, we only know what is revealed
in the scientific disciplines. There is
no room for beauty, imagination, or creativity.
Lewis’s book on Heaven, “The Great Divorce” basically describes Hell as
a place of perfect Materialism.
Skepticism
is based on the notion that nothing is certain. There are no constants in the universe. Therefore, there can be no God and the only
thing we know for certain is that we know nothing. A rather depressing school of thought, but
one which would be most valuable to the astute demon.
So a
materialist can deny the existence of demons because only that which you can
experience physically can actually exist.
The skeptic can say that we cannot know our demons any more than we can
know that there is a God.
Screwtape
wants Wormwood to sow the seeds of DOUBT in his Patient’s mind WHEN IT COMES
the existence of a demon. If he thinks
of a demon as a creature in RED TIGHTS that he could not possibly believe in,
then he can also dismiss any real idea of God.
Next
Screwtape launches into the value of extremes and factions. Remember a war is going on and Wormwood wants
to know if he should push extreme Patriotism or extreme Pacifism.
We certainly
see examples of this in contemporary society.
Turn on the news and we hear about the extreme left or right. Let’s face it, the silent majority is largely
silent and not nearly as interesting to a demon.
Factions
typically form as a small group of extremists intolerant of not just opposing
views, but any views not in complete alignment with their own. Factions highlight differences.
Screwtape USES
the Anglican Church and the differences between the High Church and Low Church
parties within the Church of England AS A GOOD EXAMPLE.
High
Church Anglicanism
came about during a time of opposition to Puritanism. Stressing the sacraments, liturgy, and the
primacy of bishops, the High Church or Oxford Movement had no tolerance for
opposing views. Later when Low Church
Evangelical Anglicanism came to prominence,
the conflict shifted to High Church VERSES Low Church.
The thing
is, most of the time we have far more in common with other Christians than what
separates us.
I am often
asked why we have different denominations.
The simple answer is that we are finite humans worshipping an infinite
God. Some will experience God in
liturgy, others in scripture and preaching, still others in silence and
prayer.
It is easy
to focus on the differences while missing the fact that we all believe in God
as revealed in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. I like to believe that we are all Christians
and some of choose to worship God in the Episcopal church.
Screwtape
concludes the letter with a discussion around the opportunity for using
religion as a means to justify pacificism or patriotism. We have seen different variations of this in
U. S. History. Manifest Destiny
justified in many ways, westward expansion as ordained by God. Today, Christian Nationalism perpetuates
that same philosophy preaching that the U. S. is favored by God over all other
nations and people. It is, of course
neither correct nor Christian.
None of this
is to say that there is anything unchristian or sinful about Patriotism or
Pacificism. Rather it is like anything
taken to the extreme. It becomes all
about us.
Each of our
scripture lessons for today illustrates this point. The prophet Ezekiel contrasts the righteous
and the wicked. We are given the key to
following God – keep the commandments and live right and you will live in the
Grace of God. Turn away from God and
live only for yourself and you will not live in the life of God. Remember, one of the MAIN themes throughout
The Screwtape Letters is that God gives us the choice – to follow and have life
or to not follow and not share in the life of God. You don’t get it both ways.
In our
Gospel lesson from Matthew, the Pharisees and scribes are the perfect example
of religious extremes. They were so
concerned about keeping all the commandments of God that they missed the very
reason why. The commandments are given
so we can discover how to live life following God. And when we follow God, we cannot help but
love our neighbors.
A Prayer
attributed to St. Francis found on page 833 in the Book of Common Prayer
describes the Christian life which confronted with the extremes.
A Prayer
Attributed to St. Francis
Lord, make
us instruments of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let us
sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is discord, union;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
Grant that we may not so much
seek to be consoled as to
console;
to be understood as to
understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we
receive;
it is in pardoning that we are
pardoned;
and it is in dying that
we are born to eternal life. AMEN.