Proper 22A 10.05.14 — Bilbo Baggins (The Hobbit): Leaving Your Comfort Zone
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"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." With this line, J.R.R. Tolkien begins
his 1937 classic, The Hobbit.
We're in the 8th week of a 9 week sermon series looking at the intersections between
the Gospel and some of the heroes of pop-culture. In the previous 7 weeks we've talked about
everything from Superman to Spiderman, Star Wars to Star Trek, and Disney princesses to
James Bond. Hopefully I've teased out connections between all these stories and God's great
story of redemption.
But during these last 2 weeks of the series, my task has been made much easier. I
don't have to hunt for Christian themes. That's because J.R.R. Tolkien is very much a Christian
who includes Christian themes in a conscious and explicit way. So this week we'll look at the
Christian themes in Tolkien's 1937 children's book, The Hobbit.1 And next week we'll look at
the themes in his magnum opus, the 1954 more adult sequel to The Hobbit--The Lord of the
Rings. Both have much to say about what it means to live the Christian life.
One of the major themes of The Hobbit is revealed in the first 2 sentences of the
novel:
"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with
the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit
down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort."
Comfort. Hobbits are into comfort. They want to live a comfortable life in
comfortable homes. They try to enjoy 6 meals a day, and are fond of smoking their pipes and
drinking their ale. They love to socialize and love a good party. Above all, they want to live
quiet peaceful lives.
This is certainly the desired lifestyle of the chief protagonist of the book, THE hobbit
if you will, by the name of Bilbo Baggins. Bilbo is quite content with his quiet life. When the
wizard Gandalf comes to recruit him to take part in an adventure, Bilbo replies:
"We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing
uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner!"
And yet, Bilbo gives in, and goes on the adventure. The full title of the book is The
Hobbit, or There and Back Again. Bilbo will travel across the breadth of the known world from
one side to the other. He is going to accompany a group of 13 dwarves who are seeking to
regain their rightful kingdom and treasure. He will face various perils and dangers on the way.
He will eventually come face to face with the vicious dragon, Smaug. He will find himself
surprisingly fulfilling several ancient prophecies. And after all of this adventure, after going
"there" he will go "back again," he will return home, but he will be forever changed.
This adventure, this journey is one of the two great overarching themes of the Hobbit.
Bilbo has an initial desire to play it safe and not accompany the dwarves on their quest. But he
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many of these themes are wonderfully developed by Devin Brown in his book, The Christian
World of the Hobbit, which certainly influenced this sermon
Proper 22A 10.05.14 — Bilbo Baggins (The Hobbit): Leaving Your Comfort Zone
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reconsiders. Is playing it safe, it remaining comfortable all there is to life? He decides
otherwise. And so he goes on the journey. And on the journey he discovers new things about
himself and his world. He matures tremendously, even though he is already an adult.
Bilbo finds that he has a purpose and a role to play in the world. He is a small
creature, and it is a large world. But he has a part to play. He is an important thread in the
tapestry of life. The big picture of the tapestry is far greater than he is. But without his thread,
the tapestry would be diminished.
This is an important message in The Hobbit. Remember--Tolkien was an intellectual
contemporary of people like the philosopher Jean Paul Sartre. In Sartre's world, there is no
creator, therefore life has no meaning, life has no purpose. There is no right or wrong. There is
no God. We are alone in a meaningless universe.
But the Christian proclamation is that God has created us with work to do. Each of us
is valuable. Each of us has something to contribute. Each of us has a part to play in God's story.
And this is also true of The Hobbit. Bilbo has an important part to play. And he finds
that there are a number of coincidental things that happen as he plays out that part. In fact, there
are so many coincidences, that it seems like there is some invisible hand of Providence helping
things along. This is something the wise wizard Gandalf tells Bilbo in the end:
"You don't really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were
managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit?"
J.R.R. Tolkien wants us to see that life is not meaningless. Not only do we have a
part to play. God has a part to play as well. We are threads in his great tapestry.
But, we may have to leave our comfort zones to follow God. We may have to take
risks. This is tough for folks that dwell in an affluent culture like we do. Comfort and security
can easily become idols.
We can all too easily go from soft padded cradles, to soft padded beds and soft
padded chairs in our comfortable houses, and eventually they can put us in soft padded coffins.
But is this what life is all about?
No. Living life is risky. Truly living life is risky. Loving someone else--that's risky
business. You might get hurt. Getting married--risky business. Raising children--risky
business. Serving others--risky business. And yes, following the Living God--risky business.
If all we want is comfort and security we will miss out on our true purposes, we will
miss out on living life fully. We can stay in our little hobbit holes until we are planted
permanently in a hole in the ground. Or we can follow God.
Following God is a journey, it is an adventure, it is a risk. There's a wonderful book
with the creative title, The Faith of Leap. Not leap of faith but faith of leap. In it the authors say
this:
Proper 22A 10.05.14 — Bilbo Baggins (The Hobbit): Leaving Your Comfort Zone
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"Coming into deeper knowledge and experience of God is a profound adventure into
the infinite unknown. Given that we will always be finite creatures, and God always infinite, this
adventure is one that is unlikely to ever end. So we might as well get used to the idea of journey,
pilgrimage, risk, and exploration."2
In other words, if we find God distant, or boring, or absent in our lives, maybe we're
hiding out in our comfortable hobbit holes and we need to get closer to the action. Put our lives
where our faith is. Take the leap.
And we don't have to go to the other side of the world and back. There's plenty of
need outside these walls--there are many things we can engage in that will stretch us and push
our envelopes and pull us out of our comfort zones, if we can trust God enough to do it. As
Jesus says,
"Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my
sake will find it."3
Bilbo Baggins steps out and leaves his hobbit hole behind, at least for a while. And
he finds himself living life more fully than he could have ever imagined. And he finds himself in
deeper contact with others, he feels more connected to his world, and he finds meaning and
purpose in his life.
Engaging in the journey, the adventure of life is the first great overarching theme of
The Hobbit.
The second is the great danger of greed and selfishness. Many characters in The
Hobbit exhibit greed and selfishness. And while Bilbo grows and develops, these other
characters are stunted, they have arrested development.
We meet the very sad character of Gollum. His need for the ring is so great that he
can't live without it, without his "Precious." We'll say more about him next week.
The dwarves also exhibit great selfishness. Reclaiming their kingdom is a part of
their motive. Regaining their gold is another. And when they do regain it they refuse to help
those who helped them along the way, and are even ready to go to war to keep all of their
treasure.
And the dragon, Smaug, is the epitome of selfishness. Gold is not legal tender for
dragons--there's no way he can spend any of it or benefit from it. It's just a mound that he can
sleep atop. Nevertheless he hoards this gold, and he is willing to kill for it.
By contrast, Bilbo is initially motivated by monetary gain. But later, in order to
prevent a war he will give the other side the gem that the dwarves prize most, so that they have
leverage with the dwarves in negotiation.
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Michael Frost & Alan Hirsch, The Faith of Leap
Matthew 16:25
Proper 22A 10.05.14 — Bilbo Baggins (The Hobbit): Leaving Your Comfort Zone
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And after the battle, as the dwarf king is dying, he repents of his greed and tells Bilbo,
"There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West... If more of us valued
food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world."
And even though Bilbo is entitled to 1/14th of an enormous mound of treasure, he
only takes two small treasure chests with him. And even when he returns home, he gives most of
it away. And he still has more than enough to allow him to live comfortably the rest of his life.
Bilbo forsakes his greed. And he finds that Jesus' statement is true: "It is more
blessed to give than to receive."4
Unfortunately for Bilbo, he still possesses the ring he took from Gollum, and that will
cause future problems, but we'll talk about that next week.
For now, the two great spiritual lessons of The Hobbit are being careful not to get too
attached to possessions, and not to get too attached to comfort. Both can become idols. Both
can leave us in a spiritual state of arrested development.
It is a serendipitous coincidence that today's Epistle reading is from the 3rd chapter of
Philippians.
Paul has been talking about letting go of what was precious to him. He was greedy,
not for money, but for status and position.
But he says,
"Whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ...
because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord."5
It's a matter of priorities, Paul is saying. It's a matter of following what's of real value
in life, and giving up that which is not valuable. And he speaks in strong terms of everything he
used to regard as the most important:
"I regard them as rubbish (I regard them as garbage), in order that I may gain Christ
and be found in him."6
For Paul, nothing is more important in life, nothing is more valuable than his
relationship with God, with Jesus Christ.
And then he speaks powerfully of continuing the journey, forsaking what's
comfortable, stepping out in faith.
"This one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies
ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus."7
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Acts 20:35
Philippians 3:7-8
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Philippians 3:8-9
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Philippians 3:13-14
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Proper 22A 10.05.14 — Bilbo Baggins (The Hobbit): Leaving Your Comfort Zone
Forgetting what lies behind.
Straining forward to what lies ahead.
Pressing on toward the goal.
The pursuit of possessions can leave you spiritually impoverished. The pursuit of
comfort can make you miss out on what life has to offer.
Forget what lies behind. Have the faith to take the leap.
Seek God's plan and purpose. Strain forward. Press on.
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