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In C.S. Lewis’ The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Edmund and Lucy go to visit their cousin Eustace. They are not excited about this for Eustace likes to be bossy and a bully. He is very bratty to them and to Caspian and his crew when the whole set of children get thrown back into Narnia once again.
Eustace’s boorishness ends up leading to greed. On their adventures, he ends up taking a magic golden bracelet and placing it on his arm. As a result, he turns into a great dragon, scaring off all those around him and leaving him completely and utterly alone.
As he is crying by himself, Aslan, the Lion who stands-in for Jesus in the Narnia series, approaches the boy. He tells Eustace to wash himself. While some of his dragons scales fall off, Eustace cannot return to his human form. Aslan tells Eustace, “You will have to let me”. Then Eustace feels a sharp pain on his back from Aslan’s claws and he appears once again as a little boy in the midst of once was his dragon form.
Eustace returns to the ship almost unrecognizable. He tells his cousins his story, and he does something he has never done before: apologize. He doesn’t completely change in that moment, yet he starts on the journey to become better. When the children return home, people speak in wonder at Eustace’s change for the better.
There are many boorish and bratty people in the world. At times, we might even find ourselves in this category. Yet for you, or others around you, there is hope. Though our sins, as our Psalm tells us this morning, may be stronger than us, God is there to help us, just as Aslan was there to help Eustace.
In fact, we are called to rejoice in the help God will give us. We see why through the story of the Ancient People of Israel. Time and time again, the Ancient Israelites had forsaken God, as we have seen countlessly through the Prophets this year in this Season after Pentecost. These Prophets have lead us to the person we hear from today: the Prophet Joel. Hardly anything is known about this Prophet, although it is suspected that he came after Israel was exiled, first the Northern Kingdom to Assyria and later the Southern Kingdom to Babylon. It is in this time period that we hear the words of hope from Joel.
The hope is in Israel’s return to the Land of Promise. Though they abandoned God, God never forgot about them. The Lord has vindicated Israel, in spite of her wrongs. The Lord is restoring His People to their former glory. In doing so, God’s People have a sign of the Lord’s continued presence among them, now and always. Though they sinned, God has forgiven them. God has made them new.
The Lord’s desire isn’t that we will suffer. God’s desire is that we will return with penitent and obedient hearts so that we can be renewed and restored, just as Aslan restored and renewed Eustace to a better life than what he had before.
No where in our readings is this more clear than in our Gospel. There it is not the haughty Pharisee who receives God’s favor but the Tax collector who begs for forgiveness. This tax collector knows he is a sinner. He knows he can ask for nothing but mercy. He knows he needs God’s help. That is what he receives: God’s forgiveness and justification as he tries to turn away from the wrong to return back to the path of God.
It is not those who exalt themselves and who are not humble that the Lord rejoices in. God wants us to realize just how much we need Him. If we can return from our own will and wanderings back to God, then we will receive God’s love and mercy as a result. In refusing to be prideful, we will be changed by being lifted back up by the Lord.
Not all will be pleased with this change in us. We see that in Eustace’s return. Lewis tells us that everyone marveled at Eustace’s improvement, everyone but his mother that is. She says he has become “very commonplace and tiresome” and blames his cousins for making him so.
Not all will want to see us helped in our movement closer to God. Yet, as the author of 2 Timothy tells us, we still hope and pray for them. We hope that they too might turn to see that there is hope in returning to God as we allow our Lord to make us whole.
We are not called to be prideful. We are not called to see ourselves as better than others. We are not to be bossy, bullying, or bratty. We are called to recognize our need for God’s help in beating all that oppresses us, especially the sin deep inside us. Once we can do that, once we can understand how necessary God’s aid is to us, we can move forward to help others do the same, until that time when, as 2 Timothy tells us, we can say that we have fought the good fight, we have finished the race, and that we have carried the Faith.