Dear Friends,
You are already being saved. A faint gleam of heaven is already inside of you.
CS Lewis took, in my opinion, a very pragmatic approach to faith. He supported his ideas with scripture, he was clear on good and evil, heaven and hell. As a literature professor at both Oxford and Cambridge, his approach does not surprise us, right? It seems in line with my images of these institutions: proof, theory, process…maybe even….stuffiness? Then he writes something like the passage above and I realize, again, the balance with which Lewis approached his faith: Learning coupled with wonder. System coupled with mystery. Heaven and hell coupled with humanity. Mere Christianity coupled with Lions, Witches and Wardrobes.
Consistently, the reading of any of Lewis’ writings taps into my intellect and my giddy wonder. Scripture does the same. At once, I am implored to recognize my brokenness while also having my holiness uplifted. I am a child of God positioned to witness the horror of the cross. I am called by God and humbled by my own denial.
This is a vital process for our faith journey. We must find balance. We must know that this gleam of heaven is inside of us while remembering that the fullness of goodness remains a goal rather than a current reality. While redemption is already ours, we are still actively being saved. While we are sure of God, our faith must be open to doubt so that we continue to grow. We must know the foundation of our faith while embracing the mystery.
This coming Sunday, we will take a look at the story of the Good Samaritan. A story about a person who was “bad” doing good things. A story about those who are holy doing unholy things. A story that addresses doubts about heaven with glimpses of where heaven may lie. A story which broadens our understanding of salvation. In short the story of the Good Samaritan invites us to find the balance. For a moment, we are the injured, then the Levite or priest, sometimes we are the Samaritan. Always, we possess a gleam of heaven. Always we are being redeemed.