How family worship saves us from overreactions to pop culture.
Remember the scene in The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe where Santa shows up? Mr. and Mrs. Beaver are guiding the Pevensie children through Narnia to rendezvous with Aslan. Sleigh bells are heard outside the cave where the Beavers and Pevensies holed up the first night, and Mr. Beaver slips out for a peak at which direction the White Witch might be traveling past. After some time, Mr. Beaver calls everyone out of the cave. They had heard sleigh bells all right, but not from the Witch's sledge – they had heard the bells on the sleigh of Father Christmas! The old grace-distributor had brought presents! – a new sewing machine and a repaired dam for Mr. and Mrs. Beaver for their service, and battle tools for the children: a sword and shield for Peter, a bow with a quiver of arrows and an ivory horn for Susan, and a glass vial of healing elixir and dagger for Lucy. Santa wished them all Merry Christmas even though it was sometime in midsummer when the children pushed through the wardrobe (it’s always Christmas when Santa turns up with gifts), and he shouted “Long live the true King!’ and drove off.
It was a brilliant cameo, but a risky one. How could C.S. Lewis be sure that writing Santa into the novel wouldn’t de-rail the whole plot? How did Lewis know that Santa wouldn’t steal the show? Hijack the entire story? That's what Christian parents are afraid of at Christmas time - if we acknowledge Santa, Santa becomes the focus, the figure of adoration. Won’t we be committing some kind of idolatry? Won’t we be stealing glory from our savior and misattributing it to a myth? And yet Lewis didn’t share ANY of these anxieties. He doesn’t even blush at writing Santa into the story! How did Lewis do it?
Lewis, the Cambridge literature professor, knew that smaller stories can’t swallow larger stories. He knew that supporting characters can’t eclipse primary characters. In Narnia, just like in our world, Santa (or Father Christmas, if you like) comes and goes. He brings gifts and graces, and then leaves! The drama occurs between other characters as they use or misuse the gifts Santa delivers (see also in the same chapter where the White Witch discovers the ‘Merry Party’ and turns them all to stone). Santa brings the celebration, but he is not the CAUSE or the OCCASION. Not in Narnia, not here. Santa didn’t steal the show, because it was never his to steal. His myth is extremely limited and it’s always the same, whisking in and whisking off again. The BIGGER story of redemption and the savior who brought it, is much more complex and compelling, and it is also much more captivating. THAT’s what Lewis knew. Santa is a fan-favorite, but he doesn’t measure up to Aslan. He knows his place, and so Lewis writes a Santa who is more than happy to serve Aslan’s larger and better purposes.
Family worship helps us keep our primary characters and supporting characters straight. It helps us sort minor plots from epic ones. Family worship is where we learn the stories that shape our consciousness and hope, the same way Mr. Beaver sang the rhyme of Aslan’s return to the children before setting off through Narnia to look for him! Family worship is where we keep the BIG stories alive, and vice versa! We tell over and over again of the King of UN-Ruin who comes into our world to restore it out of its fallenness. Family worship is where we tell over and over again the stories of the King who UN-Ruins us from our sinful impulses and leanings that we should be our own little gods (like Edmund in LLW). Family worship is where we tell, and believe, and try on for size the stories of the King who is remaking us day after day to look more like himself; how he is putting to death our old, worn-out ways with his cross, and bringing to life something entirely new in us with his resurrection. Family worship is where we sing of the King’s return (we often forget this bit!), that winter is melting, and that he is not far off now. He will bring his final act of UN-Ruin soon. Because we swim in our LARGER story in family worship, we don’t have to be afraid of the smaller stories pop culture throws at us. OUR story is redemption. That BIG story allows us to stand firmly and serenely, embracing the myths of our culture without being swept up in them. In the end, it’s the White Witch who kept Father Christmas locked out of Narnia, not Aslan.
If you’d like to re-read the scene where Father Christmas turns up in LLW, you can find it in the chapter, ‘The Spell Begins to Break’; the scene where Mr. Beaver leads family worship and sings the rhyme of Aslan’s return can be found in the chapter, ‘What Happened After Dinner’.
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