Growing With My Garden

Lewis tackles a very difficult problem in this essay: What really is the relationship between the spiritual world, which we cannot see, and the physical world, in which we receive with all our senses?  How is spiritual reality present in material reality?  The presence of the spiritual within the physical he terms sacramental.  But in some instances the spiritual flows through the material and at other times it does not. The process whereby the spiritual communicates itself through the physical he terms transposition.   Transposition occurs only for the spiritually minded.  The natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God; they are spiritually discerned.  People see according to their natures (Cf. Psa, 18:25, 26).  Even so, try as we may, we do not find any of the descriptions of heaven, or our imaginations of it, very desirable.   But our imaginations are confined to using images of the world we know.  Hence, the importance of hope: the reliance by faith upon the pro

  Lewis’s approach to this subject is interesting. The issue of whether or not a Christian should fight in a war is indeed a difficult one.  Lewis first considers if there be in human intuition, conscience, or reason a valid argument for refusing to participate in a war, and concludes there is none.    Lewis then turns to consider authority.  Human authority has universally opposed pacifism and sanctions going to war; and history shows it to be a necessity.  If peoples had not fought to maintain their identity, they would have lost their freedom and become enslaved.  Lastly, he turns to consider divine authority but, instead of first closely considering Biblical statements, he refers to statements in the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Anglican Church and leading Theologians that sanction what they regard as righteous wars.  Finally, looking at Christ’s statements against any retaliation, he concludes they are simply meant to stifle any urge towards “egotistical retaliation for hitting

  At first sight the title of this sermon may be “off-putting” as the British say.  What relevance has this subject for me today?  As one begins reading, however, the relevance to our individual lives becomes very clear.  Lewis was addressing Oxford students in 1939, at the beginning of World War II, but his thought is perennially pertinent.  Lewis asks, given the awesome fact that each of us, and all people, will eventually be in either heaven or hell, how can we possibly be concerned about the everyday affairs of our humdrum lives? : “How can you be so frivolous and selfish as to think about anything but the salvation of human souls?”  But we live in an incredibly rich world and we are creatures of varied talents and great potentials. What should be our attitude towards all the possibilities of life, towards its cultural demands, towards our varied and compelling desires for knowledge and beauty? There are obligations that life puts upon us, and it is for us to respond to them

  In his opening discussion of the difference between unselfishness and charity, Lewis begins with his characteristic emphasis upon what is to be affirmed in our experiences, not what is to be denied.  He would have little sympathy with what Williams called the Way of Negation. Lewis takes a positive view of our experiences in the here and now, but his emphasis is upon our hope for that which is beyond this life for the faithful Christian.  The title for his sermon is taken from I Cor. 4:16, 17: “Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.  For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.”  That which is beyond the grave for faithful Christians has nothing in this life with which to compare. All people are possessed with a deep desire, and their lives are spent in quests to satisfy it.  Nothing in this life does, but they keep trying; hence, human restlessness which drives people