From the Rector…
When I was in fourth grade, one of my friends’ parents picked us up from school and took us to the bookstore in the Selma Mall. He led us to the children’s section and encouraged us to choose one of the Chronicles of Narnia. I had never heard of the series and asked which one I should read first. He suggested The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and in doing so sparked a lifelong love of all things C. S. Lewis.
Lewis wrote the Chronicles of Narnia as an imaginative expression of what he believed God looks like in the world. The books are not Christian allegory in the strict sense, as some might suggest. Instead, Narnia is what Lewis called a “supposed” place. Suppose there was a world like Narnia. Suppose that world needed saving. Suppose the Son of God entered that world—what might that look like?
I love this way of thinking about God. Rather than searching for simple analogies or proofs of what the Kingdom of God might be, Lewis gives us permission to imagine. And not just about Narnia, but about our own world as well.
Suppose there was a kingdom of heaven on earth. Suppose that kingdom needed saving. Suppose God entered that kingdom and invited us to join in God’s work of reconciliation. What might that look like?
Of course, Christians believe this has already happened. Two thousand years ago, Jesus entered the world and proclaimed that the Kingdom of God was already here. He came at a time when salvation was desperately needed—not only so that we might someday go to heaven, but so that we might experience salvation as liberation even amid the darkness and despair of this world.
In Jesus’ day, life was shaped by the power of the Roman Empire. Caesar was proclaimed a god, infallible and supreme. Rome ruled through might and intimidation, stationing soldiers throughout conquered lands, including Judea, Galilee, and Jerusalem. These soldiers enforced order through their presence and, when necessary, through violence.
Jesus’ ministry, however, was not about defeating Rome—just ask Judas. Instead, Jesus’s ministry was about bringing the kingdom of God to us. He did so by gathering a community of those who shared his concern for the world. He taught them what good news really meant and sent them out to proclaim it. Rather than responding to violence with violence, Jesus absorbed it, even to the point of death on a cross—the ultimate symbol of Roman power and brutality.
When I imagine our world as the kingdom of heaven, I wonder what Jesus’ life and witness reveal to us now. In the kingdom of heaven that I suppose, there is no room for oppression or condemnation—only space for love, mercy, and transformation. And in this kingdom, just like in Narnia, Aslan is on the move.
Light and Life,
Candice+