Monday in the 5th Week of Lent: Letter 27
The Scripture Lesson for Today are HERE!
We start this week with a Letter once again on prayer – a subject Screwtape finds rather painful when the prayers are sincere and offered in faith. On the other hand, and you will remember from Letter # that prayers offered in a rote and perfunctory manner that we memorized in childhood and now pray in order to say that we have prayed are a most useful temptation tool for an alert demon.
The problem is that the Patient is actually praying to God
about his struggles with prayer – the distractions that are challenging his
desire to follow Christ. Such prayers
offered means that Wormwood has “largely failed.”
There are any number of prayers that I can offer from
memory, but the real question is – do I know what it is that I am praying
for. Screwtape extols the value of
purely petitionary prayer. I can repeat
the Lord’s Prayer without a second thought, but if I really look at what I am
saying, this prayer can become a guide for my daily devotions. It includes everything I need for that day –
which is exactly what God wants – according to Screwtape – but not our Father
Below. Screwtape tells Wormwood:
Now is the time for raising
intellectual difficulties about prayer of that sort. False spirituality is always to be
encouraged.
Lewis goes into the false spirituality that thinks only pure
adoration is the proper way to pray. Again
the Lord’s Prayer reminds us that petitionary prayer or prayers for our daily
needs and the needs of others are both necessary and important to proper
spirituality. However, it is essential
to recognize that when we pray we are acknowledging our complete dependence on
God. God acts in God’s time and God’s
way as opposed to ours. Screwtape points
out the importance of the “heads I win, tails you lose” argument that dismisses
prayer both as merely coincidence and/or a predetermined result as something
God would have done anyway.
From here Screwtape goes into “the terrible habit of
obedience.” Throughout the
scriptures we are called to “obey” God.
And it is important for us to understand what we mean when we talk about
obedience to God. C. S. Lewis wrote
extensively on obedience to God, emphasizing it as a necessary aspect for
faith, surrender, and transformation.
Obedience is not just following rules but is aligning our will with
God’s.
In his book, Mere Christianity, Lewis suggests that
obedience to God does not enslave us but rather frees us to become what we are
truly meant to be. He frequently
contrasts pride and obedience warning that pride is the desire to be our own
master – the great sin that leads us away from God – whereas humble obedience
allows us to be reshaped in his image.
In one of my favorite books, The Great Divorce, Lewis
illustrates the choice between obedience to God and clinging to doing it
ourselves:
There are only two kinds of
people in the end: those who say to God,
‘Thy will be done,’ and whose to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be
done.’ All that are in Hell, choose
it. Without that self-choice, there
could no Hell.
Our first scripture lesson for today is a perfect example of
obedience. Susanna is an addition to the
Old Testament book of Daniel. It is
found in the Greek translation called the Septuagint but omitted from the Hebrew
bible. It is a part of the Apocrypha which
we have talked about before and tells the story of a faithful woman. The story is set in Babylon during the Jewish
exile around the 6th century B.C. though it was probably written
much later in the 2nd or 1st centuries B.C.
Susanna is a beautiful and virtuous Jewish woman who is
falsely accused of infidelity by two corrupt elders. They bring her to the Temple authorities,
and she is condemned to death. However,
the prophet Daniel intervenes and reveals their treachery. Susanna is vindicated, while the elders are
punished.
The reading is a wonderful example of obedience to God even
when faced with death. Susanna
repeatedly professes her faith in God know that righteousness always prevails.
Screwtape spends quite a bit of time in this Letter on the
difference between how we humans and God experience time. As we saw in a previous letter, we go through
time in a linear fashion – moment by moment.
God acts in time but is not limited by it. For God, we cannot think in terms of cause
and effect. Instead, God hears all of
our prayers offered in all of creation and God’s actions are GOOD – which means
they are for our GOOD. Remember, God
acts in God’s time and in God’s way which is the Way of Love.
I thoroughly enjoyed the last part of this Letter on the
Historical Point of View. The school of Historicism
is a philosophical, literary, and cultural approach emphasizing the importance
of the historical context in shaping ideas, events, and the way things are set
up like government. It suggests that
human thought, practices, and values are products of their specific historical
circumstances rather than universal or absolute truths.
In Letter 27, Screwtape points out that followers of this
Historical Point of View ask every question about what may be considered a
traditional interpretation except, “Is it true?” This leads to the belief that new ideas are
always better than old ones which distorts the certainty of an absolute
truth. And we have talked about several
times, demons do not like absolute truth.
Remember, the more confused we are the easier we are to tempt.
I must point out that our Psalm for today is Psalm 23 –
probably the best know of all 150 psalms.
While we typically here it read during funerals, it is a Psalm we can
read everyday as a reminder of God’s constant love and care for us. A couple of images you may not have ever
noticed in this Psalm may help give us a new understanding of the scripture.
“I shall not want” expresses confidence that God
provides all that is needed – spiritually, emotionally and physically. We should never limit the power of God
working in our lives.
“Green Pastures” and “Still Waters” symbolize
peace, rest, and God’s power to always bring calm to the storms in our lives.
Verse 3 reminds us that God’s power restores a weary spirit.
Verse 4 testifies to God’s presence and guidance in our
lives even in the darkest moments.
Verse 5 assures us of God’s abundance and blessings in both
the good times and the difficult moments of our lives.
God’s goodness and mercy in verse 6 reassures us that God
always guides, protects, and blesses us even when we don’t even know it.
Psalm 23 assures us that God loves us and cares for us at
all times. The question is if we are
paying attention.
And in closing I would have to say that our Prayer for today
fits perfectly with the lessons of Letter 27.
It reminds us of the importance of living day to day, loving God more
and more, and claiming the promises of eternal life. Let us pray.
Be gracious to your people, we entreat you, O Lord, that
they, repenting day by day of the things that displease you, may be more and
more filled with love of you and of your commandments; and, being supported by
your grace in this life, may come to the full enjoyment of eternal life in your
everlasting kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with
you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.