(Dis/Re) Enchantment

Do you think I am trying to weave a spell? Perhaps I am; but remember your fairy tales. Spells are used for breaking enchantments as well as for inducing them. And you and I have need of the strongest spell that can be found to wake us from the evil enchantment of worldliness which has been laid upon us for nearly a hundred years. 
- C.S. Lewis

Lord, help me live under the spell of imaginative grace.

We are in the world, but not of the world. We have to stand inside the moments of each day and all the distractions, deeply rooted in God. That is not an easy thing to do, and it requires faith. This Sunday was holy communion, and I was reminded of how it shows faith being played out in life. It is not hidden. It is in plain sight, and to sit there and see all the early morning risers go forward, and actively participate in acts of faith. Trusting in what God tells us and what Christ did for us. It is a beautiful thing. Our everyday lives can become entombed in the enchantment of the worldliness Lewis writes about.

Seeing community come together to act in something that is tangible (bread, wine), implemented by Jesus two thousand years ago further deepens my faith that God's Word and deeds have been the same all the while. It does not matter that two thousand years have passed. It might as well be one hundred years, but God is all the same. The enchantment of the world begins to fall away, and a new spell sweeps over me - one that focuses my mind's attention on the Creator.

I think about the beauty of God that I can see and feel in a cathedral or sanctuary. A sacred space with reminders of God's glory, be it stained glass or lofty arched ceilings indicating the height of God's reach, far beyond what we can imagine. Raising our eyes up to the glory of His creation.

Words and hymns that have stood the test of time as spoken and sung as they have been for centuries. They are deep truths in words - meditated upon and shared out loud for the people of today, same as they were hundreds of years ago. These words have been heard in the cathedrals I have visited in England. Their ancient echoes rebounding off the stone walls and reflecting off the intricate stained glass. The truth that shines forth, throughout history.

(St. Paul's Cathedral, London, 2011)