Day 03 - Oxford: Christian Heritage Oxford Tour

Today we are in Oxford - so we began with a question related to C S Lewis: 

There are many losses in life which we don’t grieve well leaving long-term scars and hurts, even through Christians have robust resources to grieve well.

Paul tells us in 1Thess. 4 we “grieve with hope” - not a “silver lining eraser” meaning that redemptive truths eliminate struggle, but rather we hold both.

We recognize and embrace losses as real and meaningful. At the same time we recognize and embrace that redemption runs deeper. 

Lewis experienced much loss, and literally wrote the books on grief, so the question is:

What is our grief that we should bring to God? And how can we move from denial to health?

Reflections below…

We started at the home of C S Lewis - The Kilns. Lewis had 9 acres including mostly woods and a pond - it was like ducking into Narnia! We were able to walk his trails, see his swimming pond and sit in his back garden. The “simple” life of woods and water, reading and gardening made it seem like his friend Tolkien was describing him as a hobbit: “Hobbits are an unobtrusive but very ancient people, more numerous formerly than they are today; for they love peace and quiet and good tilled earth, a well-ordered and well-farmed countryside was their favorite haunt…They are inclined to be fat in the stomach…have good-natured faces, and laugh deep fruity laughs (especially after dinner which they have twice a day when they can get it.)” This describes both Lewis and Tolkien!

We then visited Holy Trinity Church of Oxford where Lewis attended for over 30 years, and where he is buried in the churchyard. Lewis died on 22 November, 1963 - the same day as JFK, so the world barely noticed. He and his brother Warren are buried in the same plot, with the single line below: “Men must endure their going hence.” We moved into the center of Oxford and saw the Martyrs’ Memorial, and then just beyond the actual site of the burning of three reformers - Latimer, Ridley and Cranmer. As the flames were being lit, the older Hugh Latimer spoke to the younger Nichloas Ridley saying - “Be of good comfort Master Ridley and play the man; we shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace in England, as I trust shall never be put out.”

As we moved through the alleys of the university, we walked down a path with a large lantern, as well as carvings of fawns on a nearby door and a lion face carved into the door. Lewis always said the Narnia stories began in his mind with a “faun and a lantern” - which was right there in a path he took daily… We then visited Great St. Mary’s Church behind the Bodleian Library where Lewis preached his famous “Weight of Glory” sermon in 1942.

We walked through the main campus area and down to Lewis’ college Magdalen College (founded 1458) and walked through the quad, cloisters and gardens. We made our way to the “backs” of the college, featuring Addison’s Walk, a walking trail around an ancient green and deer park connecting Holywell Ford and the Fellow’s Garden. On September 19, 1931 Lewis was walking here with Tolkien and (Hugo) Dyson. He had believed in a God (i.e. “theism”) but not sure which. On that night - on that path - Lewis moved from theism to Christianity, as Tolkien and Dyson explained to Lewis, in his own words: “We began on Christianity: and I said that the story of Christ is simply a true myth - a myth working on us in the same way as the others, but with this tremendous difference that it really happened.” Beauty. Strength. Sacrifice. Glory. Joy. And all of it true. 

Concluding the reflections on grief and hope, we shared these thoughts as a group:

- God doesn’t give up on people - but pursues them relentlessly. People don’t “accept” God; He accepts them. They don’t love God - they love Him back. 

- To see the places where Lewis lived, walked, swam, wrote - gave us more insight into his Narnia Chronicles and his love of natural things and simple joys.

- “God whispers to us in our pleasure, but shouts to us in our pain - pain is God’s megaphone” (Lewis). God doesn’t abandon us in our pain, He walks with us through it (Psalm 23).

- Our comfort or as Paul says, “hope” is not in the silver lining, a better result, things will turn around, etc - but rather - in GOD, that He will make all things new in His time, in His way, by His power and to His glory.

Tomorrow on to Woolsthorpe Manor (the homestead of Sir Isaac Newton) and then York Minster Cathedral...