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In C.S. Lewis’ Prince Caspian, the Pevensie children, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, find themselves back in Narnia once again. Time passes differently in Narnia than on Earth, so while only a year has passed for them, over a 1000 years have gone by in Narnia. They have been summoned there by Prince Caspian to help him reclaim the land for all Narnians. As the Pevensies hear the story of what has happened in their absence from Trumpkin the dwarf, they make their way to meet Prince Caspian.
Since so much time has passed, the Pevensies no longer recognize the landscape of Narnia. Even though they know where they are supposed to meet Caspian, they do not know how to get there. As they are debating the direction to take, whether up or down, Lucy catches a glimpse of Aslan the Lion, the stand-in for God and Jesus in the Narnia series, in the road above. No one else can see Him though, so they hold a vote for where to go next. Only Edmund votes with Lucy, so they take the path down. Unfortunately this means they waste an entire day of travel.
As they all turn in for the night, Lucy feels a pull in her heart that brings her directly to Aslan. Aslan is quick to tell her that they need to hurry because they have lost much time. Lucy immediately starts to blame Peter and Susan for not believing her. Aslan is silent. Lucy realizes she shouldn’t blame them, but also says it’s not her fault because she couldn’t leave them. Aslan again is silent.
Then Lucy realizes the truth. She realizes she could have come alone because “it wouldn’t have been alone” not if she was with Aslan. With Aslan too, all would have been alright. Now Lucy knows what she must do. She must tell her siblings about this encounter, and if they choose to come with her, all well and good. If they do not, then she must make the journey without them.
Even when we know what is right, it can be hard to step away from what everyone else is doing or what we think is expected of us. It is all the more difficult when we don’t fully realize the best way forward.
In 1 Samuel today, we see the Prophet now much older then the last time we saw him. As a child, Samuel delivered God’s word to Eli that his sons had misbehaved to the point that God could ignore it any longer. While Samuel himself does great deeds and acts as a Judge for Israel incredibly well, he unfortunately ends up with sons very similar to Eli’s. When he turns over judging Israel to them, they use it as a chance to fill their pockets. This time it is the Israelites who can take no more.
Yet instead of turning to God to appoint a new Judge, as had been done before, the Israelites decide they want something else. They want to be like other nations around them. They want a king.
God tells Samuel not to worry though, for it is God the Israelites have rejected, not him. God also tells Samuel to warn the Israelites. Their new kings will take and take and take from the Israelites, and when it all comes crashing down, God won’t be there to help them. Yet the Israelites say they still want a king. They want a king to help them the way for them in battle, something only God has done for them at this point.
All this is foreshadowing though. Not even the greatest of their kings, David himself, will always lead them into battle. In fact, David’s choice one day to finally not lead his troops personally will tempt him to take that which is not his, his greatest sin. This one act will snowball, leading to the division of Israel into two kingdoms and the introduction of foreign gods that take the Israelites away from the Lord. Slowly this will lead the Israelites to be taken over by other nations and to be driven out of their land in exile, all because they wanted to be like everybody else.
In our Gospel today, Jesus’ family takes a similar reaction to His ministry. They become alarmed when they hear of Him teaching and all the crowds that are gathered around Him. There’s the sense that He is not acting in a way that is “proper”, and that this could come back to impact how others view the rest of His family. Others might say something like, “oh, aren’t you related to that crazy street-preacher guy?” They freak out, and they try and stop Him.
Yet Jesus doesn’t let them. Some believe this was to prevent them from possibly doing something that would blaspheme the Holy Spirit, the one unforgivable sin as Jesus tells us. Whatever the case, what Jesus does is to point out what is truly important. It’s not how others perceive us that matters, but instead that we are doing the work of God in this world, no matter how others receive that work.
It is easy to want to be like everyone else. It is easy to follow what others are doing, even if we know that is not the right path. It is easy to care how others perceive us. It is harder to do what is right, especially if everyone around us will hate us for it.
Things like other’s perceptions and our reputation, these are not the things that ultimately matter. These are the things that Paul reminds us are “wasting away”. What matters is what is of God, the things eternal, as Paul also reminds us. This is the core of our Faith. They are the hope we have in the Resurrection, and in fact part of our reading from 2 Corinthians today is included in one of the reading options for the Burial Service.
Our lesson today is a continuation of the big question posed to us last week: ‘who do we proclaim?’ Are we willing to continue to proclaim Jesus, even when it puts us at odds with what everyone else is doing, or do we try to be like everybody else even though it will lead to our fall in the end?