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Thursday, November 29, 2007
A Severe Mercy
Jeremiah 23:1-6; Luke 1:68-79
What joker would put the words "severe" and "mercy" together?
That great stand-up comic C. S. Lewis is who.
Well, actually, Lewis was a highly regarded scholar in medieval literature, first at Oxford University and later at Cambridge. He was also well known for his mid-20th century ministry of Christian apologetics. Sort of an apostle to intellectuals, he combined sharp wit and pointed wisdom, disarming skeptics and persuading thousands of serious seekers to devote their lives to Christ.
The term "severe mercy" showed up in a letter from C. S. Lewis to an American professor of literature named Sheldon Van Auken. Lewis had been Van's mentor at Oxford for a season. The two men and Van's wife Davy became fast friends there, and in time Lewis was instrumental in the couple's conversion to Christian faith. After that, until Lewis's death (on the same day John F. Kennedy was assasinated), the two men exchanged numerous letters across the Atlantic Ocean.
So, what about that "severe mercy"?
Van and Davy's life together was a classical fairy tale romance. Their love affair seemed charmed from the beginning, and their marriage became a sort of fortified sanctuary from every kind of distraction and danger. And then came a sudden, mysterious, deadly disease. And Davy died -- all too young and all too innocent.
Van wrote to Lewis in his grief. Repeatedly, he wrote. He poured out his heart, laying bare all his conflicted thoughts and feelings. And Lewis responded with understanding, occasional advice, and always great affection.
And then he finally nailed Van's besetting problem. "One way or another," he wrote, "the thing [romantic love] had to die. Perpetual springtime is not allowed. You were not cutting the wood of life according to the grain. There are various possible ways in which it could have died though both the parties went on living. You have been treated with a severe mercy. You have been brought to see... that you were jealous of God."
And from there, he continued, Van needed still to let God reorganize his affections if Davy's death was to serve any purpose at all in his lonely life.
"So from US you have been led back to US AND GOD; it remains to go on to GOD AND US. She was further on than you, and she can help you more where she now is than she could have done on earth. You must go on."
Okay. What does any of that have to do with Jeremiah's prophetic warnings or Luke' story about John the Baptist's aged daddy predicting great things yet to come?
There's just one good way to find out...
Listen to the GODcast!
posted by Jack Buckley at
2:20 PM
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