Sermon taught by Bryan White,
Service hosted by Jeremey Kinser,
Worship led by James Dorward, Christina Fabbro, Chris Gwaltney, , Rachael Lynde, Kelsey Owen.
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If you take some heady British education, mix it with a heaping dose of life experience and add a long, meditative trip in a motorcycle sidecar then the only logical outcome is talking lions and bus rides from heaven to hell. Well, maybe not the only logical outcome. But it seemed to suit C.S. Lewis pretty well.
Lewis had a way of tackling the deep thing of God and life by looking at them from a different angle. Utilizing story and whimsy he could shake up preconceived notions and our stodgy ways of thinking. Like Emily Dickinson says, “Tell all the truth but tell it slant.” But he could also delve into the difficult and disorienting places that life can take us, places of pain and grief, and not shy away from the truths found there.
Bryan shared many tidbits from this author’s life and works but ended by reflecting on his book, The Great Divorce. This includes the bus ride mentioned earlier, giving some of hell’s residents an outing to heaven. Lewis called it an imaginative supposition. The book explores various themes which are embodied by the different folks visiting heaven. One of heavens residents questions the visitors from hell saying, “Could you, only for a moment, fix your mind on something that is not yourself?” And from there, Bryan called us back to The Examen practice that we spent some time with last week. Taking some time each day to reflect back on it, learning how to recognize the echo of God is even the common, everyday things. To take our eyes off ourselves for a moment and look up to see what surprises we might find.