Thursday in the 5th Week of Lent: Letter 30

The Scripture Readings for Today are HERE!

We open Letter 30 with the good news that the Patient has proven himself in the bombings of his village and has not given in to the temptations of Wormwood.  In fact, Screwtape is now quite disappointed in his nephew and tells him so.  He says about the Patient that:

He has been very frightened and thinks himself a great coward and therefore feels no pride; but he has done everything his duty demanded and perhaps a bit more. 

We can assume given what we learned in letter 29, that while the Patient thinks he is a coward, he has not given into the vice of hatred for the enemy.  However, he also has not given into pride which can come as the result of feeling overly courageous.

We hear the word courage thrown around way too much these days.  A football player is said to have courage when he pulls off a good play.  He may be a good athlete, but I don’t believe we can compare running a football to serving in a war zone. 

Webster’s Dictionary defines COURAGE as the mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty.  I think what Screwtape is saying to Wormwood is that while the Patient thinks he is coward, he actually showed courage and did not allow himself to be proud of it.  Courage and fear are certainly not mutually exclusive. 

Now hand in hand with this, our Prayer for today begins with the reminder that God promises that those who suffer with Christ will be heirs to God’s glory.  So, what does it mean to suffer with Christ?

Certainly, none of us will be crucified; nor do we have to be.  Christ died for us once and for all.   There is no worse sin that to kill the Son of God.  Yet in the resurrection, life defeated death for all of us and it only had to be done once for everyone for all time to saved. 

Rather, to suffer with Christ means to trust in our Savior even when we are suffering.  As Rich has said in several of his sermons, God never promised there would be no suffering.  God promised to be with us.  So, to suffer with Christ means that we will follow and trust in Him for strength and courage.

Certainly there are any number of stories of courage and faith in the scriptures.  Noah and the ark, Daniel and the lion’s den, and St. Stephen – the first deacon and martyr of the early Church are some of my personal favorites.  You can read all about them in the Bible. 

We have an excellent example from right here in Alabama.  Jonathan Myrick Daniels was an Episcopal seminarian from New Hampshire who came to Alabama in 1965 to work in the Civil Rights Movement.  On August 14, 1965, Daniels was one of 29 civil right workers who were arrested in Fort Deposit, Alabama while picketing its whites-only stores.  They were held in the Hayneville jail for 6 days before they were released. 

While others called for transportation, Daniels and 3 others – a white Catholic priest and 2 black female civil rights workers – walked to buy a soft drink at Varner’s Cash Store, one of the few local places to serve non-whites.  Barring the door was Tom Coleman, an unpaid sheriffs deputy.  He threatened the group with a shotgun.  Daniels pushed Ruby Sales out of the way and caught the full blast from the shotgun.  He was killed instantly.  Coleman then shot the Catholic priest, severely wounding him.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called Daniel’s act, “one of the most heroic Christian deeds of which I have heard in my entire ministry.”  Jonathan Myrick Daniels is recognized as a martyr and Saint by the Episcopal Church and we celebrate his feast day on August 14.

Now if we have learned anything about demons in these Letters, it is that they are persistent in the face of failure.  If temptation fails the first time, then demons are more that ready to try, try again.  And so Screwtape turns now to the Patient’s fatigue and the opportunities for temptation from his weakened physical condition.  And it certainly makes sense.  Resisting temptation normally is hard but when you are worn out and tired it is extra hard.

Screwtape tells his nephew:

The paradoxical thing is that moderate fatigue is a better soil for peevishness than absolute exhaustion….  It is not fatigue simply as such that produces anger, but unexpected demands on a man already tired.

Now you will remember that the word “Peevishness” is another way of describing us when we are grumpy and bad tempered.  And if you were wondering about “Irremediable” it refers to something that is impossible to cure or fix.

So basically what Screwtape is advising Wormwood to do is to feed him with false hopes.  We’ve already in a previous letter heard that false unselfishness counters Christian charity and now it is basically Irremediable Peevishness that will build false hope and counter courage and humility in war time.

Finally, Screwtape suggests abandoning any intellectual attack on the Patient’s faith and going for the emotions.  You will remember that demons love to play with our emotions so that we begin to feel sorry for ourselves and ignore God and the needs of others. 

 

He tells Wormwood to return to the confusion from earlier letters over what is the REAL world.  If demons can create an illusion of what is real verses what is spiritual, then everything about Faith and God can be questioned.  Screwtape says:

But there is a sort of attack on the emotions which can still be tried.  It turns on making him feel, when first he sees human remains plastered on a wall, that is “what the world is really like” and that all his religion has been a fantasy.

The point C. S. Lewis is trying to make is that What is REAL in the Christian life is accepted on faith.  We know God is with us because we believe.  Screwtape and Wormwood use emotion and confusion so that we may be tempted to dismiss hope as nothing more than a good feeling.

 

Our scripture lessons today all talk about our covenant relationship with God that promises that if God says He will be with us and protect us, then He will.

Our first lesson from Genesis tells the story of Abraham and the covenant God established with him making him the Father of the Jewish People. 

Psalm 105 repeats the promises made to Abraham and we are called in verse 4 to Search for the Lord and his strength; continually seek his face.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus repeats the promise to Abraham and tells the people that whoever believes in Him will received eternal life.

Turning again to our prayer for today, we are given the promise that through trust in God our fears will be calmed with the peace that passes all understanding found in Christ’s presence even when we are in danger and afraid.  Let us pray.

O God, you have called us to be your children, and have promised that those who suffer with Christ will be heirs with him of your glory: Arm us with such trust in him that we may ask no rest from his demands and have no fear in his service; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.