The names “Hogwarts, Narnia, Middle Earth and the Land of Oz” bring back a lot of happy memories. Of the four authors involved in helping children enter another world, two were Christian believers—C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien.
Christmas is all about entering another world. Heaven, God’s sphere of existence, is not a million miles away. God’s world intersects with ours. And at Christmas he breaks through in a new way.
He enters our world so that we will be able to enter his. That is the theme behind our first two sermons. Enter Another World this afternoon and Platform 9 & 3/4 next Sunday morning. They help us to see what happens when people discover that world. The Bible tells us that there is a door in heaven and we can go through it. It is, as John says, “there…..right in front of us.” (Revelation 4:1)
Can a computer make you cry? I don’t mean tears of frustration, but really cry or at least feel sad or melancholy or wistful. You will find out at Carols by Candlelight next Sunday. In addition to PC poetry we will have a terrific song never before heard at our Carol Service.
The Carol of the Bells is wonderfully harmonious. We will hear a breath-taking version at our 10am service on Christmas Day. Boxing Day is also Sunday but we will have only one service at 10am. It will be geared towards adults. We will think about a piece of music that is not harmonious but discordant, The Leningrad Symphony. Its harsh sounds fit with the readings for the day.
Could God have come as a dolphin and not a child? You are probably thinking that Raymond must really be getting desperate for sermon themes this year. In fact, it was a question discussed by monks in the middle ages. They gave an illuminating answer—despite never having seen a real dolphin.
Finally we’re back where we started, in another world, with The Wizard of Oz on 2nd January. “Who or what is behind that curtain?” asks Toto. Pompey the Great asked the same question when he invaded Jerusalem and trespassed onto the most sacred part of God’s temple. What did he discover?