Lord of the Rings: January 2005 Archives
On January 6th I posted a quotation that I was planning on using in my January 12th sermon. BBC's president, Jim Jeffrey, gave me the opportunity to introduce a 3-part series (each message by a different Bible faculty member) on personal holiness this first week of school. The title of my January 6th post was "a mere outline of a human being." The title of my sermon was "Personal Holiness: More than a Mere Outline of a Human Being." If you are interested, you can listen to it by downloading the link below (right-c lick and then c lick on "save as" to download).
I found this insightful quotation in preparation for a sermon I am preaching in chapel on January 12th. It is a powerful reminder of my profound need of the gospel.
"All idolatry is not only treacherous but also futile. Human desire, deep and restless and seemingly unfulfillable, keeps stuffing itself with finite goods, but these cannot satisfy. If we try to fill our hearts with anything besides the God of the universe, we find that we are overfed but undernourished, and we find that day by day, week by week, year after year, we are thinning down to a mere outline of a human being" (Cornelius Plantinga, Not the Way It's Suposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin, pp. 122-123).
It reminds me of the words of Bilbo: "I feel thin--sort of stretched like butter scraped over too much bread. I need a holiday, a very long holiday, and I don't expect I shall return. In fact, I mean not to!" I would just change one thing in Bilbo's statement of need: "I need the Gospel, all of it, and I don't mean to stop feeding upon it!"
I am 25 pages away from completing The Fellowship of the Ring again. Since I am a Bible teacher I am always on the lookout for illustrative material for use in my lectures. I finished my reading of LOTR last night with a section that is just begging for spiritual application. So I want to give all my fellow Gospel-loving Lord of the Rings fans (especially Rick!) the opportunity to share how you would make spiritual application from the following LOTR selection.
Context: The members of the fellowship have just received their parting gifts from Galadriel. Gimili talks with Legolas about his experience as they depart Lothlorien on the Great River.
“Suddenly the River swept round a bend, and the banks rose upon either side, and the light of Lorien was hidden…The travelers now turned their faces to the journey; the sun was before them, and their eyes were dazzled, for all were filled with tears. Gimli wept openly.
“‘I have looked the last upon that which was fairest,’ he said to Legolas his companion. ‘Henceforward I will call nothing fair, unless it be her gift.’ He put his hand to his breast.
“‘Tell me, Legolas, why did I come on this Quest? Little did I know where the chief peril lay! Truly Elrond spoke, saying that we could not foresee what we might meet upon our road. Torment in the dark was the danger that I feared, and it did not hold me back. But I would not have come, had I known the danger of light and joy. Now I have taken my worst wound in this parting, even if I were to go this night straight to the Dark Lord. Alas for Gimli son of Gloin!’
“‘Nay!’ said Legolas. ‘Alas for us all! And for all that walk the world in these after-days. For such is the way of it: to find and lose, as it seems to those whose boat is on the running stream. But I count you blessed, Gimli son of Gloin: for your loss you suffer of your own free will, and you might have chosen otherwise. But you have not forsaken your companions, and the least reward that you shall have is that the memory of Lothlorien shall remain ever clear and unstained in your heart, and shall neither fade nor grow stale.’
“‘Maybe,’ said Gimli; ‘and I thank you for your words. True words doubtless, yet all such comfort is cold. Memory is not what the heart desires. That is only a mirror, be it c lear as Kheled-zaram’” (pp. 394-395).
