Sermonette: Eucatastrophe
Catastrophe That Results in Good
#1012s
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Given 18-Sep-10; 17 minutes
description: The works of philologist and author, J.R.R. Tolkien, teach that fantasy is a good way of looking at reality in a new perspective from the vantage point of eucatastrophe, an unraveling that ends up good. The Bible contains a number of eucatastrophes, including the Flood, the wilderness wanderings, the return of the exiles from Babylon, the conversion of the apostle Paul, and the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, a tragedy that turns into good. Jesus was despised, afflicted, bruised, and grieved, but still willing to suffer death for all of mankind. His death enabled our atonement and reconciliation with God.
transcript:
Many of you know that my favorite author in literature is JRR Tolkien. He's best known for writing The Lord of the Rings. And The Hobbit But he was also an Oxford don. I do not know if you all know that. He was a professor of Anglo-Saxon at uh one of the college there, colleges there at Oxford. And he was also a well known philologist. We do not call them philologists in this country. We call them linguists, but they are basically the same thing, um. He was such a well known philologist and so highly regarded that he was asked very early on in his life to contribute to the Oxford English Dictionary, and he actually did many of the definitions in the letter W in the Oxford English Dictionary. One of his favorites, he said, was the word walrus. He was also very learned in the classical languages. Enough to be asked to contribute to the Catholic Jerusalem Bible. Many of you have probably seen one of those. And his portion was the book of Jonah. So obviously he not only knew Anglo-Saxon and some of the other languages, but he also knew Hebrew well enough to be able to To be able to to translate it. So we can see that he was obviously more than just a fantasy author. He was not just some some guy up in a garret somewhere scribbling away. Being an Oxford don, he was an intellectual and so wrote essays and papers on subjects near and dear to his chosen field of study, and in this case, he wrote papers on Anglo-Saxon literature, myth, stories, and criticism, especially. Tolkien was very keen on explaining to his peers, especially why the fantasy story has merit as literature, because most of them thought that it was not a classic story form, it was not a classic form at all, and he had to set them straight. He did not think of the fantasy story as escapist in the least, but as he explained it, it was a tried and true method of conveying the great truths of the universe. So in 1939 Tolkien presented a lecture called On Fairy Stories, and this was later published as an essay in 1947. And he argued in this lecture that fantasy is indeed a valid literary form that allows a reader to reflect on the real world. From a new perspective. That it took us outside the real world and let us look at things from another point of view. And maybe understand things a little bit better. In the course of his lecture, he explains that fantasy is an excellent vehicle for presenting what he called you catastrophe. This is a word that he coined. And he put it together from the Greek word eu. And also the other Greek word catastrophe. which we know to be A monumental tragic event. So you put these two together, you catastrophe, it starts to make you think, how can a catastrophe, a monumental tragic event, be good. In classical literature, just to give you a little background, in classical literature and drama, the catastrophe was the unraveling of things at the end of the plot. Like when Oedipus finds out that this woman that he's married is his mother and things start going from bad to worse and things end very badly. Well, that's the same thing as Tolkien was talking about, except he sticks you on there at the front of it to say that this is an unraveling of a catastrophe that ends not badly, but good. Well, So to Tolkien, a catastrophe is a story that ends well, although often at great cost. A great and distressing cost to the characters. But in the very end things are good. Now being a devout Catholic, Tolkien was especially intent on using his creative powers to communicate the gospel message in his stories. But he did not want to be overly evangelical in how he did it. Thus he employed the fantasy form to convey the essence of Christian virtues and concepts without resorting to religious language. And so if any of you have read Lord of the Rings, you have been evangelized by JRR Tolkien in essentially Catholic Christianity, but he never once presents it in a religious way. So the readers of his stories, especially Lord of the Rings, are unaware that they are absorbing not necessarily the gospel but Christian ideals. They think they are just reading an engaging story that leaves them in the end contemplative, a little sad, but edified and uplifted and wanting more. Now this may be a strange subject for an operatory sermon out on the Day of Atonement, but it's actually quite appropriate. The Bible contains a number of you catastrophes, and it starts right near the beginning. The first one is the flood. As a matter of fact, you could also say that the sin of Adam and Eve is a catastrophe. That ultimately ends in good. But we will start with the flood. Because that's one where there is a hugely tragic event in which almost all but all humanity. is killed all but 8 of them. Yet it turns out to the good. Humanity can survive and it doesn't crash like it was going to if it had continued on. There are others. Israel's wandering, and then their entrance into the Promised Land is a catastrophe. I gave how many sermons on the life of life and death of Samson. That was a catastrophe. The captivity and the return of the exiles from Babylon. That was a catastrophe. Even the conversion of the apostle Paul can be put into this category of you catastrophe. That it was a catastrophe that he was struck down and that God had to go through so much to bring him to the point where he was ready to be converted, but having been brought down to that point, it resulted in good. He became God's apostle. But the greatest catastrophe of them all is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Savior. It is the ultimate tragedy that brings ultimate good. Most of us probably never thought of what Christ went through as you catastrophe specifically. You probably hadn't heard the word until I said it today. But we have certainly considered. It is a fearful, grievous way to bring about the great good of redemption and salvation. It was not just that Jesus had to die a horrible death. But also that he had to live a life of total sacrifice and consistently suffer the hatred and the rejection of his own people. It was, you could even say it was partially a catastrophe that he even had to divest himself of his glory and come down and be here with us as a human being. That's a big come down. But doing that, it resulted in ultimate good. We normally read the following passage in Isaiah 53 prior to Passover, but it's equally apropos to atonement, since atonement and Passover have overlapping themes. Let's go there to Isaiah 53. We'll read verses 3 through 9, and we will see what a catastrophe the life of Jesus Christ was. Putting it in these terms, that is. Starting in verse 3. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised and we did not esteem him. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him. And by his stripes we are healed. All we like street she have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He became the sin offering for us. Which is one of those things that you'll find there in. In Leviticus 16. He's the one goat that was slain as a sin offering. Now normally we would call such a life as described here. Life of suffering and a bloody violent death as our sacrifice to be a catastrophe in that it was a monumental and tragic series of events. None of the descriptures that are found here in these verses. are good I mean, look at them. Despised, rejected, sorrow, grief. Then again, despised did not esteem grief, sorrow. Stricken, smitten, afflicted wounded, bruised, chastisement. Stripes And iniquity Right there at the end, none of these are nice words. None of these bring good to mind. A carnal person would regard such a life to be an unmitigated disaster. Because life should be full of joy, right, and not full of good things. Yet his life was basically one of grief and suffering and pain. Let's go to Romans 5, please. Romans 5. Starting in verse 6. We'll see this begin to turn around. Romans 5:6. For when we were still without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly, for scarcely for a righteous man will one die. Yet perhaps for a good man some would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, much more than having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. It's that reconciliation that's all throughout this holy day. Atonement is reconciliation when we are made one with God, and that only happened through the death, the life and death, and the life again of Jesus Christ. Verse 11, and not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we now have received the reconciliation. So even though he had this horrible life as we would think of it, Yet when all of this had been heaped upon him and he bore it without sin and without complaint, the Father accepted his son's sacrifice and raised him from the dead after 3 days and 3 nights. All of this grief, all of the rejection, all the suffering and pain, and finally death rather than ending in unparalleled and incomparable, inconsolable sorrow turns out to be. A cause of great rejoicing in life. That is you catastrophe. God had determined before the foundation of the world that the only way to expiate human sin was the voluntary death of man's Creator God. Only his shed blood would cover our myriad sins. And our Savior, out of supreme love for us, volunteered for this grisly duty for the awesome good that it would produce. That is the salvation and the entrance of many billions ultimately. Into his family. He was willing to go through the catastrophe to get to the good. Let's finish then in Colossians 1. Colossians 1, starting in verse 12. This is where it turns into an offeratory sermonette. Because operators or offerings as we give them are thank offerings in many ways, thanking God for the blessings that He has given us, not the physical blessings only, but much more the spiritual blessings that He has provided for us, starting with. Our calling and our redemption. Verse 12. Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness that Satan, who is also part of this Day of Atonement. And translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, so we've gone from total darkness into absolute light. In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the first born over all creation, and by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through him and for him, and he is before all things and in him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the first born from the dead, that in all things he may have the preeminence, for it pleased the Father that in him all the fulness should dwell, and by him to reconcile all things to himself, by Him whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross and you. Who were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death. To present you holy and blameless and irreproachable in his sight if you continue in the faith grounded and steadfast and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard which was preached to every creature under heaven. The primary result of Christ's redemptive redemptive sacrifice is reconciliation. Because of our many sins, mankind has been cut off from God since the Garden of Eden. But once we are covered by the blood of Christ, we are brought near. Able to have a relationship with both the Father and the Son and in time to be presented holy and righteous as a spiritual child of God in it's our fullness. We could be thankful for no greater thing. than what has been done for us. So please consider this. More than just showing appreciation, we have a wonderful and eternal part to play in this ultimate catastrophe.
RTR/aws+/