Tuesday in the 2nd Week of Lent: Letter 10 Notes

We begin Letter 10 with several introductions.  First there is TRIPTWEEZE who is apparently the demon assigned to a middle-aged married couple who have recently visited Wormwood’s patient at his office.  We do not know why they have visited any more than we know the Patient’s profession or where he works.  He is a young British man and basically a supporting character in The Screwtape Letters.

The Patient has made friends with this couple who are described as “rich, smart, superficially intellectual, and brightly sceptical about everything in the world.”   You will remember that in Letter 1, Screwtape warns Wormwood never to allow the Patient to think deeply.  That can only lead to questions that will encourage the Patient to think beyond himself and to the Creator of everyone and everything.  Better to keep him focused on issues – particularly the popular and fashionable issues of the day.

Throughout The Screwtape Letters, Lewis often contrasts issues with people.  Issues are easy.  They are big and allow us to take philosophical stands one way or another.   Notice that the married couple in Letter 10 are vaguely pacifists because they are above the problems of most people and instead embrace a “purely fashionable and literary communism.”  In other words, they are ready to intellectually discuss whatever is the current issue of the day.

Issues are easy but loving and caring for people and actually helping are much harder.  Phyllis recently shared with me the story of an author who was scheduled to speak at a Church in Arkansas.  But then a tornado hit that area and everything changed.  The speaking engagement was cancelled.  The Church went from listening and learning to feeding the many who had lost their homes.  The speaker would be rescheduled and that could have been it.  But it wasn’t.  She went to the Arkansas Church and helped make sandwiches, feed people, and care for her neighbors in a new place.

I think that one of the most powerful images in the Bible is the Community of Faith.  This is the Church and we are the community bound together in faith.  People will ask me why we say “WE BELIEVE” in the Nicene Creed and “I BELIEVE” in the Apostles Creed.  The Apostles Creed is our baptismal statement.  The Nicene Creed is our statement as a community that together WE worship God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We do not believe in issues – we believe in God.  We are not called to love issues – we are to love God and our neighbors.  We will see this again and again throughout The Screwtape Letters and remember – Demons love ISSUES!

This new relationship also presents Wormwood with the wonderful opportunity to divide the Patient in half.  There is the Patient who proclaims his faith in God and attends church on Sunday.  There is also the Patient who lives in the real world and has new friends who are not Christian.  The Patient can feel superior to his fellow Churchman who do not run in the same intellectual and fashionable social circles and at the same time he can feel superior to his new friends who are not Christian.  This is an excellent opportunity for Wormwood to tempt the Patient with the self-knowledge that he is at once superior to his contemporaries in both society and the church.

What is most damaging for our young Patient is trying to live parallel lives.  While feeling superior to his new friends, he is also feeling superior to his fellow Christians who are not fortunate enough to socialize in such elite and intellectual circles.  The question we must ask ourselves quite often is if our Monday through Saturday are lived according to the same beliefs  as our Sundays.  One of my favorite Screwtape lines is when he says in this letter, “All mortals tend to turn into the thing they are pretending to be.”

Screwtape promotes once again the use of JARGON.  No better way to distract us from God’s leading that appealing to our fear of judgement.  Not God’s judgement but social judgement.  And now it is Puritanism.  Oh how our world loves to redefine words. 

For instance, did you know that the word “Nice” originally meant that you were a silly, foolish, or simple person.

The word “Awful” meant WORTH OF AWE and would often be used in phrases like “the awful majesty of God.” 

In the same way, any reference to Puritanism typically means you are being overly strict in your religious practice and that is just how Screwtape wants Wormwood to encourage his Patient to think when it comes to being TOO RELIGIOUS.  However, if you look at the beliefs of the early Puritans, most of us would find we have a lot in common. 

But even more, Wormwood should appeal to his Patient’s vanity.  Which of course leads to the question, “Why do we worry about what others think?”  Vanity is directly based on what we think others think about us.  If we are all alone with no one else to compare ourselves to – what would be the point of being Vain?  Wormwood is to tempt his Patient to think less of his fellow Church members because they are not part of the same sophisticated social circles.  On the other side, the Patient should feel superior to his new friends because they are not Christian.  This should result in “a continual undercurrent of self-satisfaction.” 

In our Gospel reading for today from the 23^rd chapter of Matthew, Jesus makes an example out of the Pharisees.  In verse 5, He says,

“They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long.  They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi.”

Phylacteries are leather boxes tied to the arm and to the head by Orthodox Jews during morning prayers on weekdays.  Inside the boxes are scrolls with 4 OT passages that remind the faithful man to observe the commandments of God.  There is an excellent YouTube video that explains Phylacteries  and I will post the link on my blog at Innerdriving.blogspot.com.  (https://youtu.be/5GByxdHnlHY?si=WQ10wtu6KACfooLl)

Fringes are reminders that God is with us, and we are to observe the Law of God.  Numbers 15:38-39 commands that the fringes are worn on the corners of the prayer shawl.  We can think of fringes in the same way we think of a rosary.

If you would like to know more about the clothing often worn born Jewish men including Phylacteries and Fringes, I recommend another Youtube video, “Fifty Shades of Black” and I will post that link on my blog as well.  This is a very interesting video from a young Hasadic rabbi and well worth watching.

Back to Matthew, Jesus is not criticizing the scribes and Pharisees for wearing phylacteries and fringes, but because they wear them broad and long just to be noticed by others.  Both of these are much like our sacraments – outward and visible signs of God’s inward and spiritual grace.  They are not holy in and of themselves but rather they point us to God who makes us whole and holy and calls us to serve our neighbors.  The most holy people I have met never try to be holy – they just are. 

So, you see, our Gospel lesson illustrates a common theme in The Screwtape Letters.   Demons want us to serve ourselves – God wants us to love and serve others. 

In closing, I hope you will take a few minutes and read our other 2 scripture lessons for today.  First, we read from the first chapter of the Old Testament book of Isaiah and remember that following God is a journey of faith.  If all we do is remember verse 17 which says “cease to do evil, learn to do good” then we will know how to follow God.  Remember, if it feels like temptation then it probably is and so it is evil and probably just our demon trying to tempt us.  Instead, ask for Christ’s help to learn to do good.

Psalm 50:7-15, 22-24 reminds us that all of creation belongs to God as the Creator.  Verse 24 is one of my favorites, “Whoever offers me the sacrifice of thanksgiving honors me:”  Give thanks to God regularly in Lent.

Let us pray together to Collect for Tuesday in the Second Week of Lent.

O God, you willed to redeem us from all iniquity by your Son: Deliver us when we are tempted to regard sin without abhorrence, and let the virtue of his passion come between us and our mortal enemy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.