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December 24, 2007
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Christmas
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Pastor Brian Shimer
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Christmas Eve
"The Gift of Christmas"
Psalm 89: 10-5, 13-16; Luke 2: 1-20
I was called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and almost deserved it. My parents called me Eustace Clarence and my teachers called me Scrubb. My friends did not call me anything at all for until this event in my life I had none! I did not call my Father and Mother, "Father and Mother" but Harold and Alberta. We were very up to date and advanced people.
My parents were vegetarians, non smokers and teetotalers and wore a special kind of under clothes. Our home had very little furniture and the windows were always open. I liked animals especially beetles if they were dead and pinned on a card. I liked books especially if they were books of information and pictures of grain elevators or fat foreign children doing exercises in their schools.
I disliked my four cousins Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy, but was quite glad when one summer Edmund and Lucy were to come and stay at our home while their parents went to America. Why was I glad? Well, deep down inside I liked bossing and bullying, and although I was a puny little person who couldn't have stood up to even Lucy let alone Edmund in a fight I knew that there were dozens of ways to give people a bad time if you are in your own home and they are only visitors!
After they had come I found them one day talking in the bedroom about their fantasy world of Narnia and began to make fun of them. However, the picture on the bedroom wall suddenly came to life, wind blew from it and, I know this sounds hard to believe, but it happened: when I ran to snatch the blasted thing off the wall we were all swept from the room and into the picture and another world. We were suddenly in a great sea near the ship from the picture and thus began a voyage on board a ship, really no more than a boat, called the Dawn Treader with a man Lucy and Edmond claimed to have previously met named King Caspian and many others as well.
For much of the first part of the voyage I was a little beast - swinging Reepicheep the 2 foot tall talking mouse around by his tail, and taking several jabs by his sword in consequence; seeking to steal water when we were nearly out of our supply when I believed I was the worse off; demanding they take me to the nearest British Consulate (which of course in this land of Narnia did not exist) in order to send me home. Actually had there been a means to do so, they would have gladly sent me home!
Then we came to a mountainous island, landed and were to be working to fell a tree for a new mast on the ship and do other repairs, when I decided to just sneak away from the group for a while.
I walked among the trees aimlessly so that anyone who saw me would think I was merely stretching my legs. Soon I left the wood and the ground began to rise steeply. Slowly and with rests I reached the ridge. The clouds had come lower and nearer. A sea of fog was rolling to meet me. The bay looked small beneath me. The fog closed in all around so I lay down and fell asleep and awoke what felt like hours later. I began to feel lonely.
This feeling grew gradually, and then I began to worry about the time for it suddenly occurred to me that I might have been lying there for hours. Then I wondered if the others had let me wander away and had left without me, leaving me behind! "That would be just like them!" I said to myself.
I got up and began to make my decent quickly. At first I slipped and thought I had gone too far to the left, so I scrambled up and began again this time bearing to my right. The ground was slippery. I tried to go carefully although a voice inside me said "hurry! Hurry! They may leave without you!"
The terrible idea of being left behind grew stronger. At last I made it to the bottom and as the fog lifted I realized I was in an utterly unknown valley and the sea was no where in sight. When I looked back at the cliff I had come down I was surprised I had made it without falling. I was going to head back up the hill but decided to get a drink from the pool in the center of the valley. As I took a step I suddenly heard a sound from behind me.
Just behind me to the left was a dark hole in the side of the mountain out of which two thin wisps of smoke were coming. And the loose stones just beneath the dark hallow were moving just as if something were crawling in the dark behind them. Something was crawling out of the cave. I plastered myself against a tree and watched and shivered as the thing that came out of the cave was something I had never imagined -- A long lead colored snout, deep, dull red eyes, a long, lithe body, that trailed along the ground, legs whose elbows went up higher than its back like a spider's, cruel claws, bats wings that made a rasping noise on the stones, yards of tail, and the wisps of smoke were coming from its snout.
I never thought the name dragon, for I had never even heard of dragons. But had I, I might of known this dragon was very ill, old and sad. It dragged itself past me and made its way to the pool for a drink, but before it reached the water it let out a loud cry and turned on its side. No more smoke came from its snout.
For a long time I thought this must be the brute's trick, to lure travelers to their doom. I took a step nearer. Then two steps. The fire was gone from its eyes. I knew when I reached it, that it was dead and touched it. Nothing happened. "You're dead! Ah!" I went to get a drink and then a thunder clap came and I went to hide in the old dragon's cave to escape the storm. I knew he wouldn't need it now.
In there I found piles and piles of gold, rings, cups, bracelets, and crowns. I found a treasure. I had never thought much about treasure. "Hmm they don't have any tax here. I won't have to give anything to the government. I put much into my pockets and slid a bracelet onto my arm up above my elbow." After that, in the warmth of the cave with the rain falling outside, I lay down on the gold coins and fell asleep.
I slept and slept. What woke me was a pain in my arm. The moon was shining in the cave and the bed of treasures which had felt so uncomfortable when I lay down on them felt much more comfortable now. I could hardly feel them at all. I was puzzled by the pain and suddenly it occurred to me that I had put that bracelet on above my elbow. I moved my right arm to feel the bracelet and suddenly before I had moved an inch I stopped and bit my lip in terror.
For just in front of me and a little to the right where the moonlight entered the cave was a hideous shape. It was a dragon's claw. It moved when I had moved my hand and became still when I stopped moving my hand. For several minutes I did not move a muscle. I thought the dead dragon must have had a mate that had returned to the cave while I slept. I was convinced of it. For two black columns of smoke went up before my eyes. This was so alarming that I held my breath.
The two columns of smoke vanished. I let it out stealthily. Instantly the two columns of smoke appeared again. I decided my only chance of escape was to edge my way out of the cave and make a run for it.
But before I ran I looked, and to my horror there was a dragon's leg there as well. You won't blame me if at this point I shed tears. They splashed on the treasure before me and seemed strangely large and hot. So hot that the steam went up from them.
It was no good crying.
I must try to crawl out from between the dragons. I moved my right side but the dragon on that side moved. I moved my left and the dragon on that side moved as well. I rushed from the cave and I thought that they were following me. My idea was to reach the pool and get into the water.
Before I reached the pool two things happened. One, it hit me like a thunderclap. I had been running on all fours. Why on earth had I been doing that? And, two, as I looked in the pool I saw there not my own boy face but a dragon's face. I thought at first this must be a third dragon, but this head moved when I moved my head, its mouth opened when I opened my mouth. Then I knew, while I slept with greedy, dragonish thoughts in my head, I had become a dragon! That explained everything! There had not been two dragons in the cave, the claws belonged to me, the wisps of smoke belonged to me, the pain in my arm was from the bracelet I had put there when I was a boy. Now it was much too small for the stumpy foreleg of a dragon. I tore at it with my teeth but couldn't get it off.
My first feeling was one of relief of triumph! "I'm a terror now" I thought, "Nothing would dare attack me. Nothing! I'm invincible" With a moment of glee I realized I could get even with Edmund and Lucy and King Caspian now, but now that I could, I did not want to.
Suddenly all I wanted was nothing more than to be back among humans. I wanted to laugh and talk and share things. I realized I was a monster cut off from the whole human race. An appalling loneliness came over me. I began to see that the others had not been not fiends at all. I longed for their voices. And began to wonder if I was as nice a person as I had always supposed. When I realized all this, I lifted up my voice and cried.
That very day at dawn I flew to the beach near the camp and landed not knowing what I would do. They all came out with swords to challenge me. I backed up from them, which was an odd behavior for a dragon. Reepicheep the mouse called out to me, "Dragon, do you understand human speech?" I nodded. "Can you speak?" I shook my head. "Dragon, do you swear friendship to us?" I nodded.
Caspian said, "I have never dreamed of such a thing-a dragon that understands speech!"
Lucy noticed my forearm with the bracelet. "Look, he's injured. I will go and see if the cordial I have will bring healing!" She came and put drops of the healing balm on my arm. At once it felt better.
"Are you a person under some kind of enchantment?" Lucy asked. I nodded. "Are you Eustace by any chance?" Again I Nodded and great tears rolled down my face. They all sought to encourage me, promised their allegiance and said they would do all to help me.
As it turned out in the next days I was able to help them. I flew around the island, brought back a tree I had uprooted for a new mast, brought goats and sheep from the island I had killed for their meals. At night, all the crew would gather around my warm sides and my most constant companion was Reepicheep, the mouse, whom I had treated the worst of all when I was a boy. He would sit with me for hours, telling me stories of great battles from the history of his country. It endeared him to me.
They were ready to sail and I knew there was no way for me to travel with them. I was a burden. I could not be towed nor could I keep up by flying. I could not be placed along the deck of the ship - if I sneezed that would be the end! So I had decided to slip away during the night.
But that very night a lion appeared to me. I don't know how but he spoke and I knew I must obey. He said, "Follow me." "To where?" I thought. "Follow me!" the Lion repeated. So, I followed to a garden with fruit trees and a pool with water that looked so soothing. This was a pool that I had never seen before. I knew that if I could just get into the water it would heal my arm. I began to step toward the water when the lion said, "you must undress first." How can I undress when I have no clothes on? "Still you must undress!"
I realized that I could shed my skin like a snake. I began at once to scratch at it and was able in a few minutes to step out of that skin and began to move toward the pool but noticed that still I was hard, and rough and scaly. So, I did it again, and again, this time digging deeper and did it a fourth time to no avail. "You'll have to let me" said the Lion, "lie down on your back."
I did so. The first tear of the lion's claw was so deep that I thought it had gone right to into my heart. He peeled the skin from me. This skin was different than the others. It was thicker and darker. When free of the skin I felt as soft as a peeled switch. Then the lion caught hold of me and threw me into the water. It smarted at first but then felt wonderful as I was washed and cleansed and suddenly looked and I was a boy again. After a while the lion said, "Come out, you must dress now in the clothes I have for you." He dressed me (again I cannot tell you how) and next thing I knew, I was back at the camp again. Everyone was still asleep, so I awoke Edmond and he and I talked about my experience, which I was convinced was some kind of dream.
"It wasn't a dream, Eustace, I am certain of that"
"How do you know it wasn't a dream?" I asked.
Edmond said, "Well, there are your clothes, for one thing. And another, you have been, well, undragoned."
"What do you think it was then?"
"I think you have seen Aslan."
"Aslan. I have heard that name several times since we joined the Dawn Treader. And I felt, I don't know what. I hated it. But I hated everything then. And by the way I'd like to apologize, I am afraid I have been pretty beastly."
"No apology necessary," Edmond says, "you were only a beast, but when I first came to this country, I was a traitor."
"But who is Aslan, Do you know him??"
"Well, he knows me. He is the great lion the son of the emperor across the sea, who saved me and saved all of Narnia."
We came into the breakfast circle that morning and everyone heard my story how I had become a dragon and how the Lion had restored me to my true self. At that point I began to be a different boy. I had relapses when I could become very tiresome. But the cure had begun.
I don't have time to tell you all my stories.
But we did reach the world's end on that voyage; we reached the country of the Lion himself. There was a plain of level grass. And ahead of us we saw something white in that grass. It was a lamb who said "Come and have breakfast."
We ate fish and bread with the lamb. It was the most delicious food we had ever tasted.
As the lamb spoke he suddenly changed from a lamb to the great Lion, Aslan himself.
After he had sent us back into this world with a kiss to our foreheads and the sweet fragrance of his mane surrounding us, I realized that what had happened to me there had changed me here. Indeed, I had been more beast than boy previously - but the great lion had changed me. The lion who is known here as well - who came as a lamb into this world, who is the gift of Christmas.
(this monologue is based upon a portion of CS Lewis' story the Voyage of the Dawn Treader)
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