Thursday in the First Week of Lent: Letter 6 Notes

 

Letter 6 

The Propers for Today can be found HERE.

The patient is now facing the possibility of military service in World War II.  England entered WWII in September 1939 and all young men between the ages of 18 and 40 were required to register for military duty. In December of 1942, the age range was extended to all men up to age 60 and all single women and childless widows between the ages of 20 and 30 years old.  The suspense and anxiety over whether or not the Patient would actually be called up for active duty and sent overseas was a sure-fire weapon for “barricading a human’s mind against the Enemy.” 

Screwtape tells Wormwood that this as AN OPPORTUNITY for “maximum uncertainty, so that his mind will be filled with contradictory pictures of the future.”  Once again, Wormwood should maximize emotions like fear and false hope to build feelings of suspense and anxiety.  With all his thoughts focused only on what could happen to him, he will have no concern for what God could do with him and through him. 

While the Enemy WHO YOU WILL REMEMBER IS HOW SCREWTAPE REFERS TO God wants the patient to think about WHAT they will do and could do to HELP OTHERS

Notice that God deals with the HEART while the devil wants inside our head and emotions. 

 

Our 1^st scripture reading for today comes from the Apocrypha in basically what is an addition to the Old Testament book of Esther.  You may remember from your Confirmation Classes, that the Apocrypha is a collection of religious writings which - while NOT scripture - are considered valuable for teaching and learning. 

Now the Old Testament book of Esther is the story of a Jewish woman who becomes the Queen of Persia.  This is during the Exile.  In our reading today, she is about to appeal to the King not to allow one of his powerful assistants to kill all the Jewish people in exile.  The thing is the king does not know that his queen is Jewish.  So, in our reading today, Esther is “seized with deadly anxiety” and I love how it says that she “fled to the Lord.”  Here she prays not for safety and security, but instead for courage and that the Lord will give her the right words to say.  The whole story is a wonderful part of scripture, and I will include a much longer summary of this Biblical story and what happens in my blog.

However, this story from Esther combined with Letter 6 today reminds us that God is always with us and ready to lead and guide us through temptation when we give ourselves and the situation over to Him.  Demons on the other hand want to keep us focused only on ourselves – wrapped up in our emotions.

 

One of the books I studied in seminary that has stuck with me through the years is The Responsible Self by H. Richard Niebuhr. 

While many will advocate for an ethic based on the end justifying the means or vice versa, Dr. Niebuhr suggests that the Christian life needs to lived in responsible relationship with our neighbor. 

Our question must always be – How do I ACT in Love, rather than reacting our of fear and anxiety.  Clearly this is not what Screwtape wants.

Screwtape then goes further into how Wormwood must guide the patient.  His focus must always be on the future and all the bad things that can happen.  This letter highlights the relationship between fear and anxiety.  We are afraid and our anxiety builds so that our fear grows making us even more anxious. 

 

A second tactic from Screwtape involves what he calls a “spiritual law.”  Much of the spiritual life is about centering our lives in God so that everything we do is impacted by our faith.  Wormwood is to take this spiritual discipline and turn it in the direction of being overly introspective and obsessed with how the Patient thinks he is doing when it comes to his spiritual life.  In other words, when it comes acting holy, how is he doing? 

 

Screwtape points out that following God is a day-to-day journey of faith.  He uses the familiar line from the Lord’s Prayer asking for DAILY bread and the invitation by Jesus to take up our cross and follow.  Remember, demons know scripture too and want to use it against us.  Satan quoted scripture when trying to tempt Jesus in the Wilderness.

Taking up our cross daily from Luke 9:23 (Luke 9 pic) is too often misunderstood by Christians usually because of bad preaching or teaching.  Our cross are the trials and temptations we face in a day and rather than trying to handle them ourselves, Christ invites us to give them to Him.

This is what taking up our cross means.  We are never required or even asked to die on our own crosses.  Jesus has already been crucified and buried for us and then conquered death on the 3^rd day in the Resurrection.  We follow him and give our cross to Him. 

Screwtape wants Wormwood to keep his patient focused on ALL of his fears that have not even happened yet.  Once again it is to be all about the patient.

The patient is also to be guided so that all he can think about is that he is afraid rather than what he is afraid of at this present time. 

 

The Germans as a whole are to be thought as evil.  It becomes all about this ISSUE rather than individuals.  Issues can be made personal and the right to hold a particular viewpoint.  Issues are faceless and much more about a personal right to think and believe this way or that.  We can hate this side or the other of an issue much easier than actually hating a person.  Hate the enemy but invite the pilot in for tea! (pic 5).

 

Screwtape concludes by describing we humans as a series of concentric circles with our innermost being at the center where our heart lies spiraling outward through the rational intellect and finally to our fantasy. 

In seminary in our ethics class, I will always remember Dr. Monti talking about the meta-ethical level.  This is where our values, virtues, and goods – all the beliefs that make us who we are – reside and ideally it is in the heart or the center of our being. 

Screwtape, however, wants to keep our ethical thoughts and feelings in the fantasy life so they remain detached and impersonal.  This way they don’t influence our decisions.  This makes our decisions more of an emotional exercise.

 

A good way to understand the what Lewis is talking about in this letter is to remember the story of Jesus and Peter walking on the water in the Gospel of Matthew. When the disciples see Jesus, they are afraid even though the scriptures make it clear they know it is Jesus.

Peter wants to follow Jesus in walking on the water.  It does not say that he is not afraid.  Instead he believes and steps out of the boat.   As long as Peter keeps his eyes on Jesus, then he is able to stand on the water without sinking.  He has taken up his cross and followed Jesus.  His cross is his fear.  He gives that to Jesus who keeps him on top of the water.

However, when Peter takes his eyes off of Jesus, stops believing, and begins to think about where he is and the idea that humans can’t walk on water, he sinks.  He would have drowned except that Jesus reaches down and takes Peter’s hand.  Peter accepts Jesus’s hand and is once more on top of the water.  It is a story of belief – fear – and belief.

 

A good spiritual exercise is to take something that makes you afraid.  Try something simple.  When you find yourself in a time or place when you are afraid, immediately look to God.  Hold your Bible or a cross or anything that brings you closer to God.  You might consider the prayer from Mark 9 and the father who brought his son to Jesus to be healed.  He prays “Lord I believe, help my unbelief.”  We never reach perfection, just holiness by the Grace of God.

 

Screwtape closes out his letter instructing Wormwood to keep the patient mired in his fantasy life and any virtues limited to the intellect and well away from the heart.  It not only assures that the patient will spend eternity in Hell, but it will also make him more amusing to watch!

 

Let us pray,

Strengthen us, O Lord, by your grace, that in your might we may overcome all spiritual enemies, and with pure hearts serve you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.