Spring 2004

Dear Friends of Rochester L’Abri,

I don’t know if JRR Tolkien ever read any of Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s novels or historical works, but if he had I believe that they would have been kindred spirits. In 1964 when Solzhenitsyn was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, he gave a remarkable address that I have read to our students many times. In his acceptance speech he speaks of how a biblical understanding is crucial for the literary artist. There are two kinds of artists, he writes, the one “imagines himself the creator of an independent spiritual world…” but he is doomed to failure because man by his very nature cannot be autonomous, in art or any other realm. True art, Sozhenitsyn reminds us is crafted on two fundamental concepts: that truth is absolute and that reality is objective. In short, there is something that is God given. The other kind of artist “acknowledges a higher power above him and joyfully works as a common apprentice under God’s heaven….”

Why do I begin with this quote from Solzhenitsyn? Because I believe it helps us understand in part the unexpected popularity of two recent films, The Return of the King and The Passion of the Christ. The genre of the first film is fantasy, but a fantasy that comes out of the mind of a deeply committed Christian. The Passion depicts the last days of Jesus, and as Dr Schaeffer would often say, an account that is rooted in time and space, real history, the same reality in which you and I live every day. Standing at the foot of the cross, if you rubbed your hand against the grain of the crossbeam you would get splinters! Both films, one based on fantasy the other on historical fact, speak against the ‘secular squeeze’ that undercuts all human responsibility and asks us to play our part without a script. Both films offer an alternative to the popular understanding that science has all the answers. In different ways both films speak of ‘epic battles and moral victories’ and address the problem of good and evil. Both films point beyond a mere physical reality and open our eyes to see a transcendent authority to which all are accountable. In fact what the first film intimates finds its true fulfillment in the second film, though The Passion of the Christ focuses only on a part of God’s good news. Both films tell us something true about the world and about ourselves that we desperately need to hear.

Because Tolkien’s understanding is deeply rooted in biblical truth, the story line of The Lord of the Rings resonates with the deepest needs of the human heart and mind. The secular story, however, as John Alexander has so aptly stated, leaves out all that is really important. One consequence of leaving out all that is truly important has been a loss of identity and moral confusion. Even if many have no inkling of why our culture has drifted so, all the social indictors show a great confusion about ideas of truth and morality. On a more personal level people feel a loss of what it means to be human. In contrast, The Return of the King and the good news of the ‘man born to be king’ captures the moral imagination. For in spite of our sin and weakness and sense of lostness there is real hope, forgiveness and reconciliation, and the looking forward to a glorious ending.

Matthew Dickerson, who teaches at Middlebury College, has written a very insightful book on Tolkien’s masterpiece entitled Following Gandalf: Epic Battles and Moral Victories in the Lord of the Rings. I would highly recommend it. Dickerson makes an important observation that when Tolkien was writing The Lord of the Rings determinism was in the air. One reason the books and films resonate with all people is that some of the main themes woven throughout the book have to do with the affirmation of our moral responsibility, the reality of both a physical and spiritual realm, and even that little people are important.

True, there are epic battles in The Lord of the Rings, as there have been throughout the course of history, but the criticism that Tolkien glorifies war misses the mark. For Tolkien, of greater significance are the moral victories because there is a higher authority before whom all are accountable. In the darkest hour in the Return of the King Gandalf’s demeanor tells us that he obviously knows something about who is ultimately in charge of all things. Pippin saw a strange sight on Gandalf’s face in that dark hour for “under all there was a great joy: a fountain of mirth enough to set a kingdom laughing, were it to gush forth.” How is this possible? That one line stirs one’s heart for it points to the possibility that someone, somehow will make things right. What does Gandalf know that can give him joy and peace and hope at such a time? Jerram Barrs in a recent article Rings and Wizards: The Spell of Middle Earth reminds us that “the stories give foretastes of redemption. There are hints of a divine providence in the midst of it all, the providence of God. It is the existence of genuine goodness and the hidden hand of God behind these stories that is the most vivid presence.”

The task for ‘the common apprentice under God’s heaven’ is “to sense more keenly than others the harmony of the world, the beauty and outrage of what man has done to it, and poignantly to let people know.” To a lesser or greater degree, though, this is a task which all of us must shoulder, living in the presence of God and before our fellowmen, speaking the truth in love and sharing one another’s burdens. It is a high calling. We cannot do it in our own strength. But we can shoulder on for we know that on our life’s journey, even in our ‘last battle,’ there is “the beginning of Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has ever read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.” The best of all possible endings with which CS Lewis closes his Narnia Chronicles is possible because of Him who freely chose to journey to Jerusalem to die a gruesome death at Passover on a Roman cross outside the city walls. Paul writes later to the Corinthian church that
…what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures…And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
And then the resounding cry that has echoed down through history, “He is risen indeed!” Until He comes again, let us run the race set before us with gratitude and thanksgiving.

Larry and for all of us in Rochester

 

Prayer and Thanksgiving

Soon we will be leaving for our annual member’s meeting in Greatham, England. The Snyders will also be taking some vacation days with Matt and Sarah and grandchildren in Germany. The McGregors will also be taking a short vacation with Jock’s side of the family in England.

Edith will be visiting Rochester again this spring and will be flying with Nancy and Larry on May 5th and staying with Jock and Alison until June 1st. Mrs. Schaeffer recently celebrated her 89th birthday! She is always glad to be able to return to Rochester, her home for almost 20 years.Next year L’Abri will be celebrating 50 years since the Schaeffers opened their Swiss chalet in 1955, so we are planning a Jubilee conference in Saint Louis on March 11-13 at the Americas Center. Check the L’Abri website at www.labri.org for further information. The Rochester branch is the organizing committee and Jock has taken on a great responsibility to bring this conference together.There will be a L’Abri conference in Vancouver at the University of British Columbia August 5-8.We are thankful for a large designated gift that we recently received to put a new roof on the L’Abri house. The valleys on the older part of the house are in terrible condition, the roof has weathered badly in places, and the portion of the roof over the main entrance that I patched two years ago after a major leak due to an ice dam needs to be re-shingled.

We are glad to have helpers again for our longer term this summer! We continue to pray that God will bring students to study in Rochester, and are thankful for those who have already booked in for May.