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Sermon to St James’ Church, King Street, Sydney
The Reverend Andrew Sempell
Rector of St James
Remembrance Sunday
(b-os 32)
8th November, 2015.
“Here be Dragons”
Readings:
Ruth 3: 1-5, 4: 13-17;
Hebrews 9: 23-28;
Psalm 127;
Mark 12: 38-44.
Tolkien and Lewis
When I was at university I had a tutor who had the distinction of having both J R R
Tolkien and C S Lewis as lecturers when he was at university. He told a story of seeing
both of them striding across the quad at Magdalen College one day having a highly
animated conversation. Being intrigued, he made mention of this to Professor Lewis
and asked him what was the topic that held their attention so compellingly. Lewis
thought for a few seconds and then said “Now yes, it was a very important matter – we
were talking about dragons!”
Tolkien and Lewis were both dons at Oxford and they shared an interest in Norse
mythology that later came to shape their writings about imaginary worlds. They had
also both served in the First World War, an experience that left its indelible mark on
their psyches, especially concerning the idea of the fight between good and evil.
Tolkien was a devout Roman Catholic, Lewis a committed atheist from the age of 15
who converted to the Christian faith under the influence of Tolkien and a number of
other friends some 15 years later. It happened because he had come the view that here
was no longer a contradiction between his intellectualism and Christianity. Lewis
became, in his own words, a most reluctant convert; yet once he had made a
commitment, he then became a profound apologist for his new-found faith.
Part of Lewis’ dilemma was that, as an atheist, he could accept Jesus as being a model
of virtue and self-sacrifice, but he could not resolve was ‘how could the death of a man
some 2,000 years ago have any effect on a person’s salvation today?’ Ultimately it was
his interest in ancient mythology that opened his mind to how the story of the death
and resurrection of Jesus provided a window on the nature and activity of God in the
world. In parallel, as we commemorate Remembrance Day, perhaps we can also
understand how the death of soldiers 100 years ago has had an effect on how we live
and think today.
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During the First World War, Tolkien and Lewis both served as infantry officers at the
Somme in France. Here they experienced the horrors of trench warfare, Lewis was
wounded and Tolkien got trench fever. As has been the case for so many, the
experience of war shapes the course of their lives and their views on the world.
Indeed, this was the case for many creative people. Generations of poets, composers
and artists have sought to find resolution to the terrors of violence. After the Second
World War, Benjamin Britten wrote his epic War Requiem, which included a number
of the First War poems of Wilfred Owen. No doubt, the experience of war influenced
Tolkien in Lord of the Rings and Lewis in his Narnia series. The themes of heroism,
self-sacrifice, death and resurrection helped to provide some meaning and hope in the
face of the senseless destruction of conflict.
The Dragon Metaphor
Of course, not all people suffered from the experience of war. Part of the mood of
Britten’s War Requiem involved a critique of the industrialists who made great profits
from war. A disturbing aspect in this is that some businesses only exist to make money
from the misery that international conflict creates. For them the death of soldiers and
civilians is good for business.
Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, like so many epics, was principally about the final triumph
of good over evil through self-sacrifice and faithfulness. He revealed the goodness, the
evil, and the ugliness of conflict through the characters and groups encountered on the
journey to Mordor. In his earlier book The Hobbit, the war-profiteers are manifested,
indeed have an icon, in the character of the dragon Smaug.
Dragons are powerful creatures, they can move freely in the world because if their
ability to fly, and like industrial furnaces they breathe fire so hot that they can melt
metal. Their attraction lies in their wealth and power on the one hand, but they are also
dangerous because of their self-interest, greed and malice on the other.
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Smaug appears as a metaphor of greed and unbridled power. Tolkien himself sketched
this picture of Smaug, depicting him sitting atop a hoard of gold and jewels. He is
mean, self-satisfied, and his gaze has the ability to put people under his spell. Yet there
is also a degree of fear that arises from the thought that someone may take one of their
precious objects.
Dragons bring destruction, not just because of conflict, but because of the pleasure they
find in the negation of that which is good. Dragons therefore create desolation and are
the antithesis of the creative spirit. To be sure, they are an expression of the ugliness
of war and of the devastation that comes from mean-spiritedness. The message here is
beware of the enticements of wealth, power and ambition!
Sacrifice and Salvation
Jesus taught his disciples,
Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted
with respect in the marketplaces and to have the best seats in the synagogues
and places of honour at banquets! They devour widows’ houses and for the sake
of appearances say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”
(Mark 12: 38)
Jesus warns them and us about the false-gods of power, status and wealth. As can be
seen in the image of the dragon Smaug, these things are enticing yet they will lead
people astray. To be sure, an unhealthy obsession with them leads to destruction!
Of course, money, power and status are not evils in themselves, in fact on their own
they are quite benign. It is, however, the attitude we have toward them that turns them
into false-gods. That is what is meant in the text about money in the First letter to
Timothy:
“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil: which some reaching after
have been led astray from the faith, and have pierced themselves through with
many sorrows.”
(1Timothy 6:10)
False-gods need to be put in their place regularly. Indeed, this is what Jesus is doing
on the cross. He challenge the rich and powerful with the kingdom of God and in
reaction the powerful thought they could get rid of him by having him killed. Yet God
took the sacrifice of Jesus that we humans caused and turned it around to reveal to us
that the way of power is not the way to new life in abundance.
The sacrifice of Jesus became the last and only acceptable sacrifice to God and thereby
brought an end to what St Paul describes as the ‘reign of sin’. If only we would believe
it in our hearts and live it out day by day, then we would know the salvation of our
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souls; but our attitudes too often betray us and keep us far from the Kingdom. This is
the problem of Ego, which is more concerned with the well-being of the self over the
well-being of community. In many respects, it was this dragon of Ego in monarchs,
presidents and prime-ministers that began and maintained the First World War – the
end of which we are remembering today.
The widow in the Gospel gives away everything she had to God, thereby demonstrating
that money had no power over her. This compares with the rich young man in Mark 10
who sought eternal life but was not prepared to pay the price for it by giving away all
he had and follow Jesus. It also resonates with soldiers in war who gave up all that they
had for the sake of the common good.
These stories challenge our attitudes to the things of this world and question our level
of generosity toward God and one another. Conflict comes when we have an unhealthy
attitude to our possessions to the extent that our possessions can come to possess us!
To be sure, we daily witness the power of such false-gods through our treatment of the
poor, the vulnerable, the refugee and the marginalised who are thought to be a threat
to our ‘quality of life’. In this way we project on to others the fear and emptiness that
dwells in our hearts.
When we gaze at the gold and jewels, the dragon of avarice looks us in the face, smiles,
and we come under its spell.