Endings and new beginnings

I find myself returning again and again to the vision of writers such as C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. The scene above has drawn me ever since I was a young lad and first read this novel. It reminds me of a glorious Protestant hymn:

For all the saints who from their labors rest,
Who Thee by faith before the world confess,
Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest,
Alleluia! Alleluia!

Thou wast their Rock, their Fortress, and their Might;
Thou, Lord, their Captain in the well-fought fight;
Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true Light.
Alleluia! Alleluia! …

And when the fight is fierce, the warfare long,
Steals on the ear the distant triumph song,
And hearts are brave again, and arms are strong.
Alleluia! Alleluia! …

The golden evening brightens in the west;
Soon, soon, to faithful warriors cometh rest.
Sweet is the calm of Paradise the blest.
Alleluia! Alleluia! …

Sometimes we preach much too much on what awaits us in heaven. Sometimes I feel as though we need to preach more on the warfare that we face here and less on what awaits us. What we do need to say clearly is that what awaits us is rest, is peace.

The warrior who comes home from the battlefield is not interested in how much he or she will have when he or she gets home. They are weary; they are wounded; they simply want to return to a place where there is rest and peace. The issue is not how much one has when one returns, but on peace and rest. I am more and more wondering whether it is not that we need to preach that what awaits us is rest and peace without worrying about the details.

It is the rest of God that awaits us on that fine day. The rest after years of warfare against the world, the flesh, and the devil. It is rest that we wish, a rest that we will not find until we see that “far western shore” as the clip above puts it. Let that be our sermon, “rest and peace, and life forevermore.”